THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

Manly P. Hall

[1928, copyright not renewed]

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 THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

AN ENCYCLOPEDIC OUTLINE OF MASONIC,

HERMETIC, QABBALISTIC AND ROSICRUCIAN
SYMBOLICAL PHILOSOPHY

Being an Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed

within the Rituals, Allegories, and Mysteries of all Ages

By Manly P. Hall

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SAN FRANCISCO
PRINTED FOR MANLY P. HALL
BY H.S. CROCKER COMPANY, INCORPORATED
MCMXXVIII
[1928, no renewal]

Scanned at sacred-texts.com, November, 2001. J. B. Hare, Redactor. This text

is in the public domain because it was not renewed at the US Copyright Office
in a timely fashion. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose,
provided this notice of attribution is left intact.
Note: all page numbers in the original were given as Roman numerals; these
have been converted to Arabic numerals in this etext.

This Book is dedicated to the Rational Soul of the World

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 PREFACE
NUMEROUS volumes have been written as commentaries upon the secret
systems of philosophy existing in the ancient world, but the ageless truths of
life, like many of the earth's greatest thinkers, have usually been clothed in
shabby garments. The present work is an attempt to supply a tome worthy of
those seers and sages whose thoughts are the substance of its pages. To bring
about this coalescence of Beauty and Truth has proved most costly, but I be-
lieve that the result will produce an effect upon the mind of the reader which
will more than justify the expenditure.
Work upon the text of this volume was begun the first day of January, 1926,
and has continued almost uninterruptedly for over two years. The greater part
of the research work, however, was carried on prior to the writing of the manu-
script. The collection of reference material was begun in 1921, and three years
later the plans for the book took definite form. For the sake of clarity, all foot-
notes were eliminated, the various quotations and references to other authors
being embodied in the text in their logical order. The bibliography is appended
primarily to assist those interested in selecting for future study the most author-
itative and important items dealing with philosophy and symbolism. To make
readily accessible the abstruse information contained in the book, an elaborate
topical cross index is included.
I make no claim for either the infallibility or the originality of any statement
herein contained. I have studied the fragmentary writings of the ancients suffi-
ciently to realize that dogmatic utterances concerning their tenets are worse
than foolhardy. Traditionalism is the curse of modern philosophy, particularly
that of the European schools. While many of the statements contained in this
treatise may appear at first wildly fantastic, I have sincerely endeavored to re-
frain from haphazard metaphysical speculation, presenting the material as far
as possible in the spirit rather than the letter of the original authors. By assum-
ing responsibility only for the mistakes which may' appear herein, I hope to
escape the accusation of plagiarism which has been directed against nearly
every writer on the subject of mystical philosophy.
Having no particular ism of my own to promulgate, I have not attempted to
twist the original writings to substantiate preconceived notions, nor have I dis-
torted doctrines in any effort to reconcile the irreconcilable differences present
in the various systems of religio-philosophic thought.
The entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern me-
thod of thinking, for it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the soph-
ists of the twentieth century. Its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the
reader to a hypothesis of living wholly beyond the pale of materialistic theolo-
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gy, philosophy, or science. The mass of abstruse material between its covers is
not susceptible to perfect organization, but so far as possible related topics
have been grouped together.
Rich as the English language is in media of expression, it is curiously lacking
in terms suitable to the conveyance of abstract philosophical premises. A cer-
tain intuitive grasp of the subtler meanings concealed within groups of inade-
quate words is necessary therefore to an understanding of the ancient Mystery
Teachings.
Although the majority of the items in the bibliography are in my own library,
I wish to acknowledge gratefully the assistance rendered by the Public Libraries
of San Francisco and Los Angeles, the libraries of the Scottish Rite in San
Francisco and Los Angeles, the libraries of the University of California in
Berkeley and Los Angeles, the Mechanics' Library in San Francisco, and the
Krotona Theosophical Library at Ojai, California. Special recognition for their
help is also due to the following persons: Mrs. Max Heindel, Mrs. Alice Pal-
mer Henderson, Mr. Ernest Dawson and staff, Mr. John Howell, Mr. Paul
Elder, Mr. Phillip Watson Hackett, and Mr. John R. Ruckstell. Single books
were lent by other persons and organizations, to whom thanks are also given.
The matter of translation was the greatest single task in the research work
incident to the preparation of this volume. The necessary German translations,
which required nearly three years, were generously undertaken by Mr. Alfred
Beri, who declined all remuneration for his labor. The Latin, Italian, French,
and Spanish translations were made by Prof. Homer P. Earle. The Hebrew
text was edited by Rabbi Jacob M. Alkow. Miscellaneous short translations and
checking also were done by various individuals.
The editorial work was under the supervision of Dr. C. B. Rowlingson,
through whose able efforts literary order was often brought out of literary
chaos. Special recognition is also due the services rendered by Mr. Robert B.
Tummonds, of the staff of H. S. Crocker Company, Inc., to whom were as-
signed the technical difficulties of fitting the text matter into its allotted space.
For much of the literary charm of the work I am also indebted to Mr. M. M.
Saxton, to whom the entire manuscript was first dictated and to whom was also
entrusted the preparation of the index. The splendid efforts of Mr. J. Augustus
Knapp, the illustrator, have resulted in a series of color plates which add mate-
rially to the beauty and completeness of the work. Q The printing of the book
was in the hands of Mr. Frederick E. Keast, of H. S. Crocker Company, Inc.,
whose great personal interest in the volume has been manifested by an untiring
effort to improve the quality thereof Through the gracious cooperation of Dr.
John Henry Nash, the foremost designer of printing on the American Conti-
nent, the book appears in a unique and appropriate form, embodying the finest
elements of the printer's craft. An increase in the number of plates and also a

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finer quality of workmanship than was first contemplated have been made
possible by Mr. C. E. Benson, of the Los Angeles Engraving Company, who
entered heart and soul into the production of this volume.
The pre-publication sale of this book has been without known precedent in
book history. The subscription list for the first edition of 550 copies was entire-
ly closed a year before the manuscript was placed in the printer's hands. The
second, or King Solomon, edition, consisting of 550 copies, and the third, or
Theosophical, edition, consisting of 200 copies, were sold before the finished
volume was received from the printer. For so ambitious a production, this con-
stitutes a unique achievement. The credit for this extraordinary sales program
belongs to Mrs. Maud F. Galigher, who had as her ideal not to sell the book in
the commercial sense of the word but to place it in the hands of those particu-
larly interested in the subject matter it contains. Valuable assistance in this re-
spect was also rendered by numerous friends who had attended my lectures
and who without compensation undertook and successfully accomplished the
distribution of the book.
In conclusion, the author wishes to acknowledge gratefully his indebtedness
to each one of the hundreds of subscribers through whose advance payments
the publication of this folio was made possible. To undertake the enormous
expense involved was entirely beyond his individual means and those who in-
vested in the volume had no assurance of its production and no security other
than their faith in the integrity of the writer.
I sincerely hope that each reader will profit from the perusal of this book,
even as I have profited from the writing of it. The years of labor and thought
expended upon it have meant much to me. The research work discovered to
me many great truths; the writing of it discovered to me the laws of order and
patience; the printing of it discovered to me new wonders of the arts and crafts;
and the whole enterprise has discovered to me a multitude of friends whom
otherwise I might never have known. And so, in the words of John Bunyan:
I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.

MANLY P. HALL.
Los Angeles, California
May 28,1928

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Table of Contents

PREFACE 5
Introduction 11
The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Part II 54
The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Part III 68
Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity 81
The Life and Teachings of 95
Thoth Hermes Trismegistus 95
The Initiation of the Pyramid 110
Isis, the Virgin of the World 124
The Sun, A Universal Deity 139
The Zodiac and Its Signs 154
The Bembine Table of Isis 170
Wonders of Antiquity 185
The Life and Philosophy of Pythagoras 200
Pythagorean Mathematics 215
The Human Body in Symbolism 231
The Hiramic Legend 245
The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color 259
Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and Birds - Part I 273
Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and Birds Part II 289
Flowers, Plants, Fruits, and Trees 304
Stones, Metals and Gems 318
The Elements and Their Inhabitants 347
Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Therapeutics 362
The Qabbalah, the Secret Doctrine of Israel 377
Fundamentals of Qabbalistic Cosmogony 391
The Tree of the Sephiroth 405

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Qabbalistic Keys to the Creation of Man 415
An Analysis of Tarot Cards 429
The Tabernacle in the Wilderness 447
The Fraternity of the Rose Cross 462
Rosicrucian Doctrines and Tenets 477
Fifteen Rosicrucian and Qabbalistic Diagrams 491
Alchemy and Its Exponents 504
The Theory and Practice of Alchemy Part I 519
The Theory and Practice of Alchemy Part II 535
The Chemical Marriage 570
Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians 584
The Cryptogram as a factor in Symbolic Philosophy 597
Freemasonic Symbolism 612
Mystic Christianity 626
The Cross and the Crucifixion 640
The Mystery of the Apocalypse 656
The Faith of Islam 669
American Indian Symbolism 682
The Mysteries and Their Emissaries 697
Conclusion 711

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 Introduction
PHILOSOPHY is the science of estimating values. The superiority of any state
or substance over another is determined by philosophy. By assigning a position
of primary importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been
removed, philosophy thus becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in
the realm of speculative thought. The mission of philosophy a priori is to es-
tablish the relation of manifested things to their invisible ultimate cause or na-
ture.
"Philosophy," writes Sir William Hamilton, "has been defined [as]: The
science of things divine and human, and of the causes in which they are con-
tained [Cicero]; The science of effects by their causes [Hobbes]; The science
of sufficient reasons [Leibnitz]; The science of things possible, inasmuch as
they are possible [Wolf]; The science of things evidently deduced from first
principles [Descartes]; The science of truths, sensible and abstract [de Condil-
lac]; The application of reason to its legitimate objects [Tennemann]; The
science of the relations of all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason
[Kant];The science of the original form of the ego or mental self [Krug]; The
science of sciences [Fichte]; The science of the absolute [von Schelling]; The
science of the absolute indifference of the ideal and real [von Schelling]--or,
The identity of identity and non-identity [Hegel]." (See Lectures on Metaphys-
ics and Logic.)
The six headings under which the disciplines of philosophy are commonly
classified are: metaphysics, which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmolo-
gy, theology, and the nature of being; logic, which deals with the laws governing
rational thinking, or, as it has been called, "the doctrine of fallacies"; ethics,
which is the science of morality, individual responsibility, and character--
concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of good; psychology,
which is devoted to investigation and classification of those forms of phenome-
na referable to a mental origin; epistemology, which is the science concerned
primarily with the nature of knowledge itself and the question of whether it
may exist in an absolute form; and sthetics, which is the science of the nature
of and the reactions awakened by the beautiful, the harmonious, the elegant,
and the noble.
Plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by Divinity to
man. In the twentieth century, however, it has become a ponderous and com-
plicated structure of arbitrary and irreconcilable notions--yet each substantiated
by almost incontestible logic. The lofty theorems of the old Academy which
Iamblichus likened to the nectar and ambrosia of the gods have been so adul-
terated by opinion--which Heraclitus declared to be a falling sickness of the

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mind--that the heavenly mead would now be quite unrecognizable to this great
Neo-Platonist. Convincing evidence of the increasing superficiality of modern
scientific and philosophic thought is its persistent drift towards materialism.
When the great astronomer Laplace was asked by Napoleon why he had not
mentioned God in his Trait de la Mcanique Cleste, the mathematician
naively replied: "Sire, I had no need for that hypothesis!"
In his treatise on Atheism, Sir Francis Bacon tersely summarizes the situa-
tion thus: "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in
philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." The Metaphysics of Aris-
totle opens with these words: "All men naturally desire to know." To satisfy this
common urge the unfolding human intellect has explored the extremities of
imaginable space without and the extremities of imaginable self within, seeking
to estimate the relationship between the one and the all; the effect and the
cause; Nature and the groundwork of Nature; the mind and the source of the
mind; the spirit and the substance of the spirit; the illusion and the reality.
An ancient philosopher once said: "He who has not even a knowledge of
common things is a brute among men. He who has an accurate knowledge of
human concerns alone is a man among brutes. But he who knows all that can
be known by intellectual energy, is a God among men." Man's status in the
natural world is determined, therefore, by the quality of his thinking. He whose
mind is enslaved to his bestial instincts is philosophically not superior to the
brute-, he whose rational faculties ponder human affairs is a man; and he
whose intellect is elevated to the consideration of divine realities is already a
demigod, for his being partakes of the luminosity with which his reason has
brought him into proximity. In his encomium of "the science of sciences" Cice-
ro is led to exclaim: "O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher--out of virtue and
expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without
thee? Thou hast produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the
social enjoyment of life."
In this age the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by
some other qualifying term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into
numerous isms more or less antagonistic, which have become so concerned
with the effort to disprove each other's fallacies that the sublimer issues of di-
vine order and human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect. The ideal
function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought.
By virtue of its intrinsic nature it should prevent man from ever establishing
unreasonable codes of life. Philosophers themselves, however, have frustrated
the ends of philosophy by exceeding in their woolgathering those untrained
minds whom they are supposed to lead in the straight and narrow path of ra-
tional thinking. To list and classify any but the more important of the now rec-
ognized schools of philosophy is beyond the space limitations of this volume.

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The vast area of speculation covered by philosophy will be appreciated best
after a brief consideration of a few of the outstanding systems of philosophic
discipline which have swayed the world of thought during the last twenty-six
centuries. The Greek school of philosophy had its inception with the seven
immortalized thinkers upon whom was first conferred the appellation of So-
phos, "the wise." According to Diogenes Laertius, these were Thales, Solon,
Chilon, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, and Periander. Water was conceived by
Thales to be the primal principle or element, upon which the earth floated like
a ship, and earthquakes were the result of disturbances in this universal sea.
Since Thales was an Ionian, the school perpetuating his tenets became known
as the Ionic. He died in 546 B.C., and was succeeded by Anaximander, who in
turn was followed by Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus, with whom the
Ionic school ended. Anaximander, differing from his master Thales, declared
measureless and indefinable infinity to be the principle from which all things
were generated. Anaximenes asserted air to be the first element of the universe;
that souls and even the Deity itself were composed of it.

Click to enlarge
BABBITT'S ATOM.
From Babbitt's Principles of Light and Color.
Since the postulation of the atomic theory by Democritus, many efforts have been
made to determine the structure of atoms and the method by which they unite to form
various elements, Even science has not refrained from entering this field of speculation
and presents for consideration most detailed and elaborate representations of these
minute bodies. By far the most remarkable conception of the atom evolved during the
last century is that produced by the genius of Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt and which is re-
produced herewith. The diagram is self-explanatory. It must be borne in mind that this
apparently massive structure is actually s minute as to defy analysis. Not only did Dr.
Babbitt create this form of the atom but he also contrived a method whereby these
particles could be grouped together in an orderly manner and thus result in the forma-
tion of molecular bodies.

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Anaxagoras (whose doctrine savors of atomism) held God to be an infinite self-
moving mind; that this divine infinite Mind, not inclosed in any body, is the
efficient cause of all things; out of the infinite matter consisting of similar parts,
everything being made according to its species by the divine mind, who when
all things were at first confusedly mingled together, came and reduced them to
order." Archelaus declared the principle of all things to be twofold: mind
(which was incorporeal) and air (which was corporeal), the rarefaction and
condensation of the latter resulting in fire and water respectively. The stars
were conceived by Archelaus to be burning iron places. Heraclitus (who lived
536-470 B.C. and is sometimes included in the Ionic school) in his doctrine of
change and eternal flux asserted fire to be the first element and also the state
into which the world would ultimately be reabsorbed. The soul of the world he
regarded as an exhalation from its humid parts, and he declared the ebb and
flow of the sea to be caused by the sun.
After Pythagoras of Samos, its founder, the Italic or Pythagorean school
numbers among its most distinguished representatives Empedocles, Epichar-
mus, Archytas, Alcmon, Hippasus, Philolaus, and Eudoxus. Pythagoras (580-
500? B.C.) conceived mathematics to be the most sacred and exact of all the
sciences, and demanded of all who came to him for study a familiarity with
arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry. He laid special emphasis upon
the philosophic life as a prerequisite to wisdom. Pythagoras was one of the first
teachers to establish a community wherein all the members were of mutual
assistance to one another in the common attainment of the higher sciences. He
also introduced the discipline of retrospection as essential to the development
of the spiritual mind. Pythagoreanism may be summarized as a system of me-
taphysical speculation concerning the relationships between numbers and the
causal agencies of existence. This school also first expounded the theory of
celestial harmonics or "the music of the spheres." John Reuchlin said of Pytha-
goras that he taught nothing to his disciples before the discipline of silence,
silence being the first rudiment of contemplation. In his Sophist, Aristotle cre-
dits Empedocles with the discovery of rhetoric. Both Pythagoras and Empe-
docles accepted the theory of transmigration, the latter saying: "A boy I was,
then did a maid become; a plant, bird, fish, and in the vast sea swum." Archytas
is credited with invention of the screw and the crane. Pleasure he declared to
be a pestilence because it was opposed to the temperance of the mind; he con-
sidered a man without deceit to be as rare as a fish without bones.
The Eleatic sect was founded by Xenophanes (570-480 B.C.), who was con-
spicuous for his attacks upon the cosmologic and theogonic fables of Homer
and Hesiod. Xenophanes declared that God was "one and incorporeal, in sub-
stance and figure round, in no way resembling man; that He is all sight and all
hearing, but breathes not; that He is all things, the mind and wisdom, not gen-

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erate but eternal, impassible, immutable, and rational." Xenophanes believed
that all existing things were eternal, that the world was without beginning or
end, and that everything which was generated was subject to corruption. He
lived to great age and is said to have buried his sons with his own hands. Par-
menides studied under Xenophanes, but never entirely subscribed to his doc-
trines. Parmenides declared the senses to be uncertain and reason the only
criterion of truth. He first asserted the earth to be round and also divided its
surface into zones of hear and cold.
Melissus, who is included in the Eleatic school, held many opinions in
common with Parmenides. He declared the universe to be immovable be-
cause, occupying all space, there was no place to which it could be moved. He
further rejected the theory of a vacuum in space. Zeno of Elea also maintained
that a vacuum could not exist. Rejecting the theory of motion, he asserted that
there was but one God, who was an eternal, ungenerated Being. Like Xeno-
phanes, he conceived Deity to be spherical in shape. Leucippus held the Un-
iverse to consist of two parts: one full and the other a vacuum. From the Infi-
nite a host of minute fragmentary bodies descended into the vacuum, where,
through continual agitation, they organized themselves into spheres of sub-
stance.
The great Democritus to a certain degree enlarged upon the atomic theory
of Leucippus. Democritus declared the principles of all things to be twofold:
atoms and vacuum. Both, he asserted, are infinite--atoms in number, vacuum
in magnitude. Thus all bodies must be composed of atoms or vacuum. Atoms
possessed two properties, form and size, both characterized by infinite variety.
The soul Democritus also conceived to be atomic in structure and subject to
dissolution with the body. The mind he believed to be composed of spiritual
atoms. Aristotle intimates that Democritus obtained his atomic theory from the
Pythagorean doctrine of the Monad. Among the Eleatics are also included
Protagoras and Anaxarchus.
Socrates (469-399 B.C.), the founder of the Socratic sect, being fundamen-
tally a Skeptic, did not force his opinions upon others, but through the me-
dium of questionings caused each man to give expression to his own philoso-
phy. According to Plutarch, Socrates conceived every place as appropriate for
reaching in that the whole world was a school of virtue. He held that the soul
existed before the body and, prior to immersion therein, was endowed with all
knowledge; that when the soul entered into the material form it became stupe-
fied, but that by discourses upon sensible objects it was caused to reawaken and
to recover its original knowledge. On these premises was based his attempt to
stimulate the soul-power through irony and inductive reasoning. It has been
said of Socrates that the sole subject of his philosophy was man. He himself
declared philosophy to be the way of true happiness and its purpose twofold:

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(1) to contemplate God, and (2) to abstract the soul from corporeal sense.
The principles of all things he conceived to be three in number: God, mat-
ter, and ideas. Of God he said: "What He is I know not; what He is not I
know." Matter he defined as the subject of generation and corruption; idea, as
an incorruptible substance--the intellect of God. Wisdom he considered the
sum of the virtues. Among the prominent members of the Socratic sect were
Xenophon, schines, Crito, Simon, Glauco, Simmias, and Cebes. Professor
Zeller, the great authority on ancient philosophies, has recently declared the
writings of Xenophon relating to Socrates to be forgeries. When The Clouds
of Aristophanes, a comedy written to ridicule the theories of Socrates, was first
presented, the great Skeptic himself attended the play. During the perfor-
mance, which caricatured him seated in a basket high in the air studying the
sun, Socrates rose calmly in his seat, the better to enable the Athenian specta-
tors to compare his own unprepossessing features with the grotesque mask
worn by the actor impersonating him.
The Elean sect was founded by Phdo of Elis, a youth of noble family, who
was bought from slavery at the instigation of Socrates and who became his de-
voted disciple. Plato so highly admired Phdo's mentality that he named one
of the most famous of his discourses The Phdo. Phdo was succeeded in his
school by Plisthenes, who in turn was followed by Menedemus. Of the doc-
trines of the Elean sect little is known. Menedemus is presumed to have been
inclined toward the teachings of Stilpo and the Megarian sect. When Mene-
demus' opinions were demanded, he answered that he was free, thus intimating
that most men were enslaved to their opinions. Menedemus was apparently of
a somewhat belligerent temperament and often returned from his lectures in a
badly bruised condition. The most famous of his propositions is stated thus:
That which is not the same is different from that with which it is not the same.
This point being admitted, Menedemus continued: To benefit is not the same
as good, therefore good does not benefit. After the time of Menedemus the
Elean sect became known as the Eretrian. Its exponents denounced all negative
propositions and all complex and abstruse theories, declaring that only affirma-
tive and simple doctrines could be true.
The Megarian sect was founded by Euclid of Megara (not the celebrated
mathematician), a great admirer of Socrates. The Athenians passed a law de-
creeing death to any citizen of Megara found in the city of Athens. Nothing
daunted, Euclid donned woman's clothing and went at night to study with So-
crates. After the cruel death of their teacher, the disciples of Socrates, fearing a
similar fate, fled to Megara, where they were entertained with great honor by
Euclid. The Megarian school accepted the Socratic doctrine that virtue is wis-
dom, adding to it the Eleatic concept that goodness is absolute unity and all
change an illusion of the senses. Euclid maintained that good has no opposite

16
and therefore evil does not exist. Being asked about the nature of the gods, he
declared himself ignorant of their disposition save that they hated curious per-
sons.
The Megarians are occasionally included among the dialectic philosophers.
Euclid (who died 374? B.C.) was succeeded in his school by Eubulides, among
whose disciples were Alexinus and Apollonius Cronus. Euphantus, who lived
to great age and wrote many tragedies, was among the foremost followers of
Eubulides. Diodorus is usually included in the Megarian school, having heard
Eubulides lecture. According to legend, Diodorus died of grief because he
could not answer instantly certain questions asked him by Stilpo, at one time
master of the Megarian school. Diodorus held that nothing can be moved,
since to be moved it must be taken out of the place in which it is and put into
the place where it is not, which is impossible because all things must always be
in the places where they are.

Click to enlarge
PLATO.
From Thomasin's Recuil des Figures, Groupes, Thermes, Fontaines, Vases et autres
Ornaments.
Plato's real name was Aristocles. When his father brought him to study with Socrates,
the great Skeptic declared that on the previous night he had dreamed of a white swan,
which was an omen that his new disciple was to become one of the world's illumined.
There is a tradition that the immortal Plato was sold as a slave by the King of Sicily.

17
The Cynics were a sect founded by Antisthenes of Athens (444-365? B.C.), a
disciple of Socrates. Their doctrine may be described as an extreme individual-
ism which considers man as existing for himself alone and advocates surround-
ing him by inharmony, suffering, and direst need that be may thereby be driven
to retire more completely into his own nature. The Cynics renounced all
worldly possessions, living in the rudest shelters and subsisting upon the coars-
est and simplest food. On the assumption that the gods wanted nothing, the
Cynics affirmed that those whose needs were fewest consequently approached
closest to the divinities. Being asked what he gained by a life of philosophy,
Antisthenes replied that he had learned how to converse with himself.
Diogenes of Sinopis is remembered chiefly for the tub in the Metroum
which for many years served him as a home. The people of Athens loved the
beggar-philosopher, and when a youth in jest bored holes in the tub, the city
presented Diogenes with a new one and punished the youth. Diogenes be-
lieved that nothing in life can be rightly accomplished without exercitation. He
maintained that everything in the world belongs to the wise, a declaration which
he proved by the following logic: "All things belong to the gods; the gods are
friends to wise persons; all things are common amongst friends; therefore all
things belong to the wise." Among the Cynics are Monimus, Onesicritus,
Crates, Metrocles, Hipparchia (who married Crates), Menippus, and Mene-
demus.
The Cyrenaic sect, founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (435-356? B.C.),
promulgated the doctrine of hedonism. Learning of the fame of Socrates, Aris-
tippus journeyed to Athens and applied himself to the teachings of the great
Skeptic. Socrates, pained by the voluptuous and mercenary tendencies of Aris-
tippus, vainly labored to reform the young man. Aristippus has the distinction
of being consistent in principle and practice, for he lived in perfect harmony
with his philosophy that the quest of pleasure was the chief purpose of life.
The doctrines of the Cyrenaics may be summarized thus: All that is actually
known concerning any object or condition is the feeling which it awakens in
man's own nature. In the sphere of ethics that which awakens the most pleasant
feeling is consequently to be esteemed as the greatest good. Emotional reac-
tions are classified as pleasant or gentle, harsh, and mean. The end of pleasant
emotion is pleasure; the end of harsh emotion, grief; the end of mean emotion,
nothing.
Through mental perversity some men do not desire pleasure. In reality,
however, pleasure (especially of a physical nature) is the true end of existence
and exceeds in every way mental and spiritual enjoyments. Pleasure, further-
more, is limited wholly to the moment; now is the only time. The past cannot
be regarded without regret and the future cannot be faced without misgiving;
therefore neither is conducive to pleasure. No man should grieve, for grief is

18
the most serious of all diseases. Nature permits man to do anything he desires;
he is limited only by his own laws and customs. A philosopher is one free from
envy, love, and superstition, and whose days are one long round of pleasure.
Indulgence was thus elevated by Aristippus to the chief position among the
virtues. He further declared philosophers to differ markedly from other men
in that they alone would not change the order of their lives if all the laws of
men were abolished. Among prominent philosophers influenced by the Cyre-
naic doctrines were Hegesias, Anniceris, Theodorus, and Bion.
The sect of the Academic philosophers instituted by Plato (427-347 B.C.)
was divided into three major parts--the old, the middle, and the new Academy.
Among the old Academics were Speusippus, Zenocrates, Poleman, Crates, and
Crantor. Arcesilaus instituted the middle Academy and Carneades founded the
new. Chief among the masters of Plato was Socrates. Plato traveled widely and
was initiated by the Egyptians into the profundities of Hermetic philosophy.
He also derived much from the doctrines of the Pythagoreans. Cicero de-
scribes the threefold constitution of Platonic philosophy as comprising ethics,
physics, and dialectics. Plato defined good as threefold in character: good in
the soul, expressed through the virtues; good in the body, expressed through
the symmetry and endurance of the parts; and good in the external world, ex-
pressed through social position and companionship. In The Book of Speusip-
pus on Platonic Definitions, that great Platonist thus defines God: "A being that
lives immortally by means of Himself alone, sufficing for His own blessedness,
the eternal Essence, cause of His own goodness. According to Plato, the One is
the term most suitable for defining the Absolute, since the whole precedes the
parts and diversity is dependent on unity, but unity not on diversity. The One,
moreover, is before being, for to be is an attribute or condition of the One.
Platonic philosophy is based upon the postulation of three orders of being:
that which moves unmoved, that which is self-moved, and that which is moved.
That which is immovable but moves is anterior to that which is self-moved,
which likewise is anterior to that which it moves. That in which motion is inhe-
rent cannot be separated from its motive power; it is therefore incapable of
dissolution. Of such nature are the immortals. That which has motion im-
parted to it from another can be separated from the source of its an animating
principle; it is therefore subject to dissolution. Of such nature are mortal be-
ings. Superior to both the mortals and the immortals is that condition which
continually moves yet itself is unmoved. To this constitution the power of ab-
idance is inherent; it is therefore the Divine Permanence upon which all things
are established. Being nobler even than self-motion, the unmoved Mover is the
first of all dignities. The Platonic discipline was founded upon the theory that
learning is really reminiscence, or the bringing into objectivity of knowledge
formerly acquired by the soul in a previous state of existence. At the entrance

19
of the Platonic school in the Academy were written the words: "Let none igno-
rant of geometry enter here."
After the death of Plato, his disciples separated into two groups. One, the
Academics, continued to meet in the Academy where once he had presided;
the other, the Peripatetics, removed to the Lyceum under the leadership of
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). Plato recognized Aristotle as his greatest disciple and,
according to Philoponus, referred to him as "the mind of the school." If Aris-
totle were absent from the lectures, Plato would say: "The intellect is not here."
Of the prodigious genius of Aristotle, Thomas Taylor writes in his introduction
to The Metaphysics:
"When we consider that he was not only well acquainted with every science,
as his works abundantly evince, but that he wrote on almost every subject
which is comprehended in the circle of human knowledge, and this with
matchless accuracy and skill, we know not which to admire most, the penetra-
tion or extent of his mind."

Click to enlarge
THE PROBLEM OF DIVERSITY.
From Kircher's Ars Magna Sciendi.
In the above diagram Kircher arranges eighteen objects in two vertical columns and
then determines he number of arrangements in which they can be combined. By the
same method Kircher further estimates that fifty objects may be arranged in
1,273,726,838,815,420,339,851,343,083,767,005,515,293,749,454,795,408,000,000,00
0,000 combinations. From this it will be evident that infinite diversity is possible, for
the countless parts of the universe may be related to each other in an incalculable
number of ways; and through the various combinations of these limitless subdivisions
of being, infinite individuality and infinite variety must inevitably result. Thus it is fur-
ther evident that life can never become monotonous or exhaust the possibilities of
variety.

Of the philosophy of Aristotle, the same author says: "The end of Aristotle's
moral philosophy is perfection through the virtues, and the end of his contem-
20
plative philosophy an union with the one principle of all things."
Aristotle conceived philosophy to be twofold: practical and theoretical. Prac-
tical philosophy embraced ethics and politics; theoretical philosophy, physics
and logic. Metaphysics he considered to be the science concerning that sub-
stance which has the principle of motion and rest inherent to itself. To Aris-
totle the soul is that by which man first lives, feels, and understands. Hence to
the soul he assigned three faculties: nutritive, sensitive, and intellective. He
further considered the soul to be twofold--rational and irrational--and in some
particulars elevated the sense perceptions above the mind. Aristotle defined
wisdom as the science of first Causes. The four major divisions of his philoso-
phy are dialectics, physics, ethics, and metaphysics. God is defined as the First
Mover, the Best of beings, an immovable Substance, separate from sensible
things, void of corporeal quantity, without parts and indivisible. Platonism is
based upon a priori reasoning; Aristotelianism upon a posteriori reasoning.
Aristotle taught his pupil, Alexander the Great, to feel that if he had not done a
good deed he had not reigned that day. Among his followers were Theophras-
tus, Strato, Lyco, Aristo, Critolaus, and Diodorus.
Of Skepticism as propounded by Pyrrho of Elis (365-275 B.C.) and by Ti-
mon, Sextus Empiricus said that those who seek must find or deny they have
found or can find, or persevere in the inquiry. Those who suppose they have
found truth are called Dogmatists; those who think it incomprehensible are the
Academics; those who still seek are the Skeptics. The attitude of Skepticism
towards the knowable is summed up by Sextus Empiricus in the following
words: "But the chief ground of Skepticism is that to every reason there is an
opposite reason equivalent, which makes us forbear to dogmatize." The Skep-
tics were strongly opposed to the Dogmatists and were agnostic in that they
held the accepted theories regarding Deity to be self-contradictory and unde-
monstrable. "How," asked the Skeptic, "can we have indubitate knowledge of
God, knowing not His substance, form or place; for, while philosophers disag-
ree irreconcilably on these points, their conclusions cannot be considered as
undoubtedly true?" Since absolute knowledge was considered unattainable, the
Skeptics declared the end of their discipline to be: "In opinionatives, indistur-
bance; in impulsives, moderation; and in disquietives, suspension."
The sect of the Stoics was founded by Zeno (340-265 B.C.), the Cittiean,
who studied under Crates the Cynic, from which sect the Stoics had their ori-
gin. Zeno was succeeded by Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Zeno of Tarsis, Diogenes,
Antipater, Pantius, and Posidonius. Most famous of the Roman Stoics are
Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. The Stoics were essentially pantheists, since
they maintained that as there is nothing better than the world, the world is
God. Zeno declared that the reason of the world is diffused throughout it as
seed. Stoicism is a materialistic philosophy, enjoining voluntary resignation to

21
natural law. Chrysippus maintained that good and evil being contrary, both are
necessary since each sustains the other. The soul was regarded as a body distri-
buted throughout the physical form and subject to dissolution with it. Though
some of the Stoics held that wisdom prolonged the existence of the soul, actual
immortality is not included in their tenets. The soul was said to be composed
of eight parts: the five senses, the generative power, the vocal power, and an
eighth, or hegemonic, part. Nature was defined as God mixed throughout the
substance of the world. All things were looked upon as bodies either corporeal
or incorporeal.
Meekness marked the attitude of the Stoic philosopher. While Diogenes
was delivering a discourse against anger, one of his listeners spat contemp-
tuously in his face. Receiving the insult with humility, the great Stoic was
moved to retort: "I am not angry, but am in doubt whether I ought to be so or
not!"
Epicurus of Samos (341-270 B.C.) was the founder of the Epicurean sect,
which in many respects resembles the Cyrenaic but is higher in its ethical stan-
dards. The Epicureans also posited pleasure as the most desirable state, but
conceived it to be a grave and dignified state achieved through renunciation of
those mental and emotional inconstancies which are productive of pain and
sorrow. Epicurus held that as the pains of the mind and soul are more grievous
than those of the body, so the joys of the mind and soul exceed those of the
body. The Cyrenaics asserted pleasure to be dependent upon action or mo-
tion; the Epicureans claimed rest or lack of action to be equally productive of
pleasure. Epicurus accepted the philosophy of Democritus concerning the
nature of atoms and based his physics upon this theory. The Epicurean philos-
ophy may be summed up in four canons:
"(1) Sense is never deceived; and therefore every sensation and every percep-
tion of an appearance is true. (2) Opinion follows upon sense and is superad-
ded to sensation, and capable of truth or falsehood, (3) All opinion attested, or
not contradicted by the evidence of sense, is true. (4) An opinion contradicted,
or not attested by the evidence of sense, is false." Among the Epicureans of
note were Metrodorus of Lampsacus, Zeno of Sidon, and Phdrus.
Eclecticism may be defined as the practice of choosing apparently irrecon-
cilable doctrines from antagonistic schools and constructing therefrom a com-
posite philosophic system in harmony with the convictions of the eclectic him-
self. Eclecticism can scarcely be considered philosophically or logically sound,
for as individual schools arrive at their conclusions by different methods of
reasoning, so the philosophic product of fragments from these schools must
necessarily be built upon the foundation of conflicting premises. Eclecticism,
accordingly, has been designated the layman's cult. In the Roman Empire little
thought was devoted to philosophic theory; consequently most of its thinkers

22
were of the eclectic type. Cicero is the outstanding example of early Eclectic-
ism, for his writings are a veritable potpourri of invaluable fragments from ear-
lier schools of thought. Eclecticism appears to have had its inception at the
moment when men first doubted the possibility of discovering ultimate truth.
Observing all so-called knowledge to be mere opinion at best, the less studious
furthermore concluded that the wiser course to pursue was to accept that which
appeared to be the most reasonable of the teachings of any school or individu-
al. From this practice, however, arose a pseudo-broadmindedness devoid of
the element of preciseness found in true logic and philosophy.
The Neo-Pythagorean school flourished in Alexandria during the first cen-
tury of the Christian Era. Only two names stand out in connection with it--
Apollonius of Tyana and Moderatus of Gades. Neo-Pythagoreanism is a link
between the older pagan philosophies and Neo-Platonism. Like the former, it
contained many exact elements of thought derived from Pythagoras and Plato;
like the latter, it emphasized metaphysical speculation and ascetic habits. A
striking similarity has been observed by several authors between Neo-
Pythagoreanism and the doctrines of the Essenes. Special emphasis was laid
upon the mystery of numbers, and it is possible that the Neo-Pythagoreans had
a far wider knowledge of the true teachings of Pythagoras than is available to-
day. Even in the first century Pythagoras was regarded more as a god than a
man, and the revival of his philosophy was resorted to apparently in the hope
that his name would stimulate interest in the deeper systems of learning. But
Greek philosophy had passed the zenith of its splendor; the mass of humanity
was awakening to the importance of physical life and physical phenomena. The
emphasis upon earthly affairs which began to assert itself later reached maturity
of expression in twentieth century materialism and commercialism, even
though Neo-Platonism was to intervene and many centuries pass before this
emphasis took definite form.

Click to enlarge
NEAS AT THE GATE OF HELL.
From Virgil's neid. (Dryden's translation.)

23
Virgil describes part of the ritual of a Greek Mystery--possibly the Eleusinian--in his
account of the descent of neas, to the gate of hell under the guidance of the Sibyl.
Of that part of the ritual portrayed above the immortal poet writes:

"Full in the midst of this infernal Road,

An Elm displays her dusky Arms abroad;
The God of Sleep there hides his heavy Head
And empty Dreams on ev'ry Leaf are spread.
Of various Forms, unnumber'd Specters more;
Centaurs, and double Shapes, besiege the Door:
Before the Passage horrid Hydra stands,
And Briareus with all his hundred Hands:
Gorgons, Geryon with his triple Frame;
And vain Chimra vomits empty Flame.
The Chief unsheath'd his shining Steel, prepar'd,
Tho seiz'd with sudden Fear, to force the Guard.
Off'ring his brandish'd Weapon at their Face,
Had not the Sibyl stop'd his eager Pace,
And told him what those empty Phantoms were;
Forms without Bodies, and impassive Air."

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

Platonism, the school had its true beginning in Plotinus (A.D. 204-269?).
Prominent among the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria, Syria, Rome, and Athens
were Porphyry, Iamblichus, Sallustius, the Emperor Julian, Plutarch, and Proc-
lus. Neo-Platonism was the supreme effort of decadent pagandom to publish
and thus preserve for posterity its secret (or unwritten) doctrine. In its teachings
ancient idealism found its most perfect expression. Neo-Platonism was con-
cerned almost exclusively with the problems of higher metaphysics. It recog-
nized the existence of a secret and all-important doctrine which from the time
of the earliest civilizations had been concealed within the rituals, symbols, and
allegories of religions and philosophies. To the mind unacquainted with its
fundamental tenets, Neo-Platonism may appear to be a mass of speculations
interspersed with extravagant flights of fancy. Such a viewpoint, however, ig-
nores the institutions of the Mysteries--those secret schools into whose profun-
dities of idealism nearly all of the first philosophers of antiquity were initiated.
When the physical body of pagan thought collapsed, an attempt was made to
resurrect the form by instilling new life into it by the unveiling of its mystical
truths. This effort apparently was barren of results. Despite the antagonism,
however, between pristine Christianity and Neo-Platonism many basic tenets of
the latter were accepted by the former and woven into the fabric of Patristic
24
philosophy. Briefly described, Neo-Platonism is a philosophic code which
conceives every physical or concrete body of doctrine to be merely the shell of
a spiritual verity which may be discovered through meditation and certain exer-
cises of a mystic nature. In comparison to the esoteric spiritual truths which
they contain, the corporeal bodies of religion and philosophy were considered
relatively of little value. Likewise, no emphasis was placed upon the material
sciences.
The term Patristic is employed to designate the philosophy of the Fathers of
the early Christian Church. Patristic philosophy is divided into two general
epochs: ante-Nicene and post-Nicene. The ante-Nicene period in the main was
devoted to attacks upon paganism and to apologies and defenses of Christiani-
ty. The entire structure of pagan philosophy was assailed and the dictates of
faith elevated above those of reason. In some instances efforts were made to
reconcile the evident truths of paganism with Christian revelation. Eminent
among the ante-Nicene Fathers were St. Irenus, Clement of Alexandria, and
Justin Martyr. In the post-Nicene period more emphasis was placed upon the
unfoldment of Christian philosophy along Platonic and Neo-Platonic lines,
resulting in the appearance of many strange documents of a lengthy, rambling,
and ambiguous nature, nearly all of which were philosophically unsound. The
post-Nicene philosophers included Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Cyril of
Alexandria. The Patristic school is notable for its emphasis upon the suprema-
cy of man throughout the universe. Man was conceived to be a separate and
divine creation--the crowning achievement of Deity and an exception to the
suzerainty of natural law. To the Patristics it was inconceivable that there
should ever exist another creature so noble, so fortunate, or so able as man, for
whose sole benefit and edification all the kingdoms of Nature were primarily
created.
Patristic philosophy culminated in Augustinianism, which may best be de-
fined as Christian Platonism. Opposing the Pelasgian doctrine that man is the
author of his own salvation, Augustinianism elevated the church and its dogmas
to a position of absolute infallibility--a position which it successfully maintained
until the Reformation. Gnosticism, a system of emanationism, interpreting
Christianity in terms of Greek, Egyptian, and Persian metaphysics, appeared in
the latter part of the first century of the Christian Era. Practically all the infor-
mation extant regarding the Gnostics and their doctrines, stigmatized as heresy
by the ante-Nicene Church Fathers, is derived from the accusations made
against them, particularly from the writings of St. Irenus. In the third century
appeared Manichism, a dualistic system of Persian origin, which taught that
Good and Evil were forever contending for universal supremacy. In Manich-
ism, Christ is conceived to be the Principle of redeeming Good in contradis-
tinction to the man Jesus, who was viewed as an evil personality.

25
 The death of Boethius in the sixth century marked the close of the ancient
Greek school of philosophy. The ninth century saw the rise of the new school
of Scholasticism, which sought to reconcile philosophy with theology. Repre-
sentative of the main divisions of the Scholastic school were the Eclecticism of
John of Salisbury, the Mysticism of Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Bonaventura,
the Rationalism of Peter Abelard, and the pantheistic Mysticism of Meister
Eckhart. Among the Arabian Aristotelians were Avicenna and Averroes. The
zenith of Scholasticism was reached with the advent of Albertus Magnus and
his illustrious disciple, St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomism (the philosophy of St.
Thomas Aquinas, sometimes referred to as the Christian Aristotle) sought to
reconcile the various factions of the Scholastic school. Thomism was basically
Aristotelian with the added concept that faith is a projection of reason.
Scotism, or the doctrine of Voluntarism promulgated by Joannes Duns Sco-
tus, a Franciscan Scholastic, emphasized the power and efficacy of the individ-
ual will, as opposed to Thomism. The outstanding characteristic of Scholastic-
ism was its frantic effort to cast all European thought in an Aristotelian mold.
Eventually the Schoolmen descended to the level of mere wordmongers who
picked the words of Aristotle so clean that nothing but the bones remained. It
was this decadent school of meaningless verbiage against which Sir Francis
Bacon directed his bitter shafts of irony and which he relegated to the potter's
field of discarded notions.
The Baconian, or inductive, system of reasoning (whereby facts are arrived
at by a process of observation and verified by experimentation) cleared the way
for the schools of modern science. Bacon was followed by Thomas Hobbes
(for some time his secretary), who held mathematics to be the only exact
science and thought to be essentially a mathematical process. Hobbes declared
matter to be the only reality, and scientific investigation to be limited to the
study of bodies, the phenomena relative to their probable causes, and the con-
sequences which flow from them under every variety of circumstance. Hobbes
laid special stress upon the significance of words, declaring understanding to be
the faculty of perceiving the relationship between words and the objects for
which they stand.
Having broken away from the scholastic and theological schools, Post-
Reformation, or modern, philosophy experienced a most prolific growth along
many diverse lines. According to Humanism, man is the measure of all things;
Rationalism makes the reasoning faculties the basis of all knowledge; Political
Philosophy holds that man must comprehend his natural, social, and national
privileges; Empiricism declares that alone to be true which is demonstrable by
experiment or experience; Moralism emphasizes the necessity of right conduct
as a fundamental philosophic tenet; Idealism asserts the realities of the un-
iverse to be superphysical--either mental or psychical; Realism, the reverse; and

26
Phenomenalism restricts knowledge to facts or events which can be scientifical-
ly described or explained. The most recent developments in the field of philo-
sophic thought are Behaviorism and Neo-Realism. The former estimates the
intrinsic characteristics through an analysis of behavior; the latter may be
summed up as the total extinction of idealism.
Baruch de Spinoza, the eminent Dutch philosopher, conceived God to be a
substance absolutely self-existent and needing no other conception besides
itself to render it complete and intelligible. The nature of this Being was held
by Spinoza to be comprehensible only through its attributes, which are exten-
sion and thought: these combine to form an endless variety of aspects or mod-
es. The mind of man is one of the modes of infinite thought; the body of man
one of the modes of infinite extension. Through reason man is enabled to
elevate himself above the illusionary world of the senses and find eternal re-
pose in perfect union with the Divine Essence. Spinoza, it has been said, de-
prived God of all personality, making Deity synonymous with the universe.

Click to enlarge
THE PTOLEMAIC SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE.
From an old print, courtesy of Carl Oscar Borg.
In ridiculing the geocentric system of astronomy expounded by Claudius Ptolemy,
modem astronomers have overlooked the philosophic key to the Ptolemaic system.
The universe of Ptolemy is a diagrammatic representation of the relationships existing
between the various divine and elemental parts of every creature, and is not concerned
with astronomy as that science is now comprehended. In the above figure, special
attention is called to the three circles of zodiacs surrounding the orbits of the planets.
These zodiacs represent the threefold spiritual constitution of the universe. The orbits
of the planets are the Governors of the World and the four elemental spheres in the
center represent the physical constitution of both man and the universe, Ptolemy's
scheme of the universe is simply a cross section of the universal aura, the planets and
elements to which he refers having no relation to those recognized by modern astro-
nomers.

German philosophy had its inception with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz,
whose theories are permeated with the qualities of optimism and idealism.
27
Leibnitz's criteria of sufficient reason revealed to him the insufficiency of Des-
cartes' theory of extension, and he therefore concluded that substance itself
contained an inherent power in the form of an incalculable number of separate
and all-sufficient units. Matter reduced to its ultimate particles ceases to exist as
a substantial body, being resolved into a mass of immaterial ideas or metaphys-
ical units of power, to which Leibnitz applied the term monad. Thus the un-
iverse is composed of an infinite number of separate monadic entities unfold-
ing spontaneously through the objectification of innate active qualities. All
things are conceived as consisting of single monads of varying magnitudes or of
aggregations of these bodies, which may exist as physical, emotional, mental, or
spiritual substances. God is the first and greatest Monad; the spirit of man is an
awakened monad in contradistinction to the lower kingdoms whose governing
monadic powers are in a semi-dormant state.
Though a product of the Leibnitzian-Wolfian school, Immanuel Kant, like
Locke, dedicated himself to investigation of the powers and limits of human
understanding. The result was his critical philosophy, embracing the critique of
pure reason, the critique of practical reason, and the critique of judgment. Dr.
W. J. Durant sums up Kant's philosophy in the concise statement that he res-
cued mind from matter. The mind Kant conceived to be the selector and
coordinator of all perceptions, which in turn are the result of sensations group-
ing themselves about some external object. In the classification of sensations
and ideas the mind employs certain categories: of sense, time and space; of
understanding, quality, relation, modality, and causation; and the unity of ap-
perception. Being subject to mathematical laws, time and space are considered
absolute and sufficient bases for exact thinking. Kant's practical reason de-
clared that while the nature of noumenon could never be comprehended by
the reason, the fact of morality proves the existence of three necessary post-
ulates: free will, immortality, and God. In the critique of judgment Kant de-
monstrates the union of the noumenon and the phenomenon in art and biolog-
ical evolution. German superintellectualism is the outgrowth of an overempha-
sis of Kant's theory of the autocratic supremacy of the mind over sensation and
thought. The philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a projection of Kant's
philosophy, wherein he attempted to unite Kant's practical reason with his pure
reason. Fichte held that the known is merely the contents of the consciousness
of the knower, and that nothing can exist to the knower until it becomes part of
those contents. Nothing is actually real, therefore, except the facts of one's own
mental experience.
Recognizing the necessity of certain objective realities, Friedrich Wilhelm
Joseph von Schelling, who succeeded Fichte in the chair of philosophy at Jena,
first employed the doctrine of identity as the groundwork for a complete sys-
tem of philosophy. Whereas Fichte regarded self as the Absolute, von Schel-

28
ling conceived infinite and eternal Mind to be the all-pervading Cause. Realiza-
tion of the Absolute is made possible by intellectual intuition which, being a
superior or spiritual sense, is able to dissociate itself from both subject and
object. Kant's categories of space and time von Schelling conceived to be posi-
tive and negative respectively, and material existence the result of the reciprocal
action of these two expressions. Von Schelling also held that the Absolute in its
process of self-development proceeds according to a law or rhythm consisting
of three movements. The first, a reflective movement, is the attempt of the
Infinite to embody itself in the finite. The second, that of subsumption, is the
attempt of the Absolute to return to the Infinite after involvement in the finite.
The third, that of reason, is the neutral point wherein the two former move-
ments are blended.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel considered the intellectual intuition of von
Schelling to be philosophically unsound and hence turned his attention to the
establishment of a system of philosophy based upon pure logic. Of Hegel it has
been said that he began with nothing and showed with logical precision how
everything had proceeded from it in logical order. Hegel elevated logic to a
position of supreme importance, in fact as a quality of the Absolute itself. God
he conceived to be a process of unfolding which never attains to the condition
of unfoldment. In like manner, thought is without either beginning or end.
Hegel further believed that all things owe their existence to their opposites and
that all opposites are actually identical. Thus the only existence is the relation-
ship of opposites to each other, through whose combinations new elements are
produced. As the Divine Mind is an eternal process of thought never accom-
plished, Hegel assails the very foundation of theism and his philosophy limits
immortality to the everflowing Deity alone. Evolution is consequently the nev-
er-ending flow of Divine Consciousness out of itself; all creation, though conti-
nually moving, never arrives at any state other than that of ceaseless flow.
Johann Friedrich Herbart's philosophy was a realistic reaction from the
idealism of Fichte and von Schelling. To Herbart the true basis of philosophy
was the great mass of phenomena continually moving through the human
mind. Examination of phenomena, however, demonstrates that a great part of
it is unreal, at least incapable of supplying the mind with actual truth. To cor-
rect the false impressions caused by phenomena and discover reality, Herbart
believed it necessary to resolve phenomena into separate elements, for reality
exists in the elements and not in the whole. He stated that objects can be classi-
fied by three general terms: thing, matter, and mind; the first a unit of several
properties, the second an existing object, the third a self-conscious being. All
three notions give rise, however, to certain contradictions, with whose solution
Herbart is primarily concerned. For example, consider matter. Though capa-
ble of filling space, if reduced to its ultimate state it consists of incomprehensi-

29
bly minute units of divine energy occupying no physical space whatsoever.
The true subject of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy is the will; the object
of his philosophy is the elevation of the mind to the point where it is capable of
controlling the will. Schopenhauer likens the will to a strong blind man who
carries on his shoulders the intellect, which is a weak lame man possessing the
power of sight. The will is the tireless cause of manifestation and every part of
Nature the product of will. The brain is the product of the will to know; the
hand the product of the will to grasp. The entire intellectual and emotional
constitutions of man are subservient to the will and are largely concerned with
the effort to justify the dictates of the will. Thus the mind creates elaborate
systems of thought simply to prove the necessity of the thing willed. Genius,
however, represents the state wherein the intellect has gained supremacy over
the will and the life is ruled by reason and not by impulse. The strength of
Christianity, said Schopenhauer, lay in its pessimism and conquest of individu-
al will. His own religious viewpoints resembled closely the Buddhistic. To him
Nirvana represented the subjugation of will. Life--the manifestation of the blind
will to live--he viewed as a misfortune, claiming that the true philosopher was
one who, recognizing the wisdom of death, resisted the inherent urge to repro-
duce his kind.

Click to enlarge
THE TREE OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY.
From Hort's The New Pantheon.
Before a proper appreciation of the deeper scientific aspects of Greek mythology is
possible, it is necessary to organize the Greek pantheon and arrange its gods, god-
desses, and various superhuman hierarchies in concatenated order. Proclus, the great
Neo-Platonist, in his commentaries on the theology of Plato, gives an invaluable key to
the sequence of the various deities in relation to the First Cause and the inferior pow-
ers emanating from themselves. When thus arranged, the divine hierarchies may be
likened to the branches of a great tree. The roots of this tree are firmly imbedded in
Unknowable Being. The trunk and larger branches of the tree symbolize the superior
30
gods; the twigs and leaves, the innumerable existences dependent upon the first and
unchanging Power.

Of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche it has been said that his peculiar contribution
to the cause of human hope was the glad tidings that God had died of pity! The
outstanding features of Nietzsche's philosophy are his doctrine of eternal recur-
rence and the extreme emphasis placed by him upon the will to power--a pro-
jection of Schopenhauer's will to live. Nietzsche believed the purpose of exis-
tence to be the production of a type of all-powerful individual, designated by
him the superman. This superman was the product of careful culturing, for if
not separated forcibly from the mass and consecrated to the production of
power, the individual would sink back to the level of the deadly mediocre.
Love, Nietzsche said, should be sacrificed to the production of the superman
and those only should marry who are best fitted to produce this outstanding
type. Nietzsche also believed in the rule of the aristocracy, both blood and
breeding being essential to the establishment of this superior type. Nietzsche's
doctrine did not liberate the masses; it rather placed over them supermen for
whom their inferior brothers and sisters should be perfectly reconciled to die.
Ethically and politically, the superman was a law unto himself. To those who
understand the true meaning of power to be virtue, self-control, and truth, the
ideality behind Nietzsche's theory is apparent. To the superficial, however, it is
a philosophy heartless and calculating, concerned solely with the survival of the
fittest.
Of the other German schools of philosophic thought, limitations of space
preclude detailed mention. The more recent developments of the German
school are Freudianism and Relativism (often called the Einstein theory). The
former is a system of psychoanalysis through psychopathic and neurological
phenomena; the latter attacks the accuracy of mechanical principles dependent
upon the present theory of velocity.
Ren Descartes stands at the head of the French school of philosophy and
shares with Sir Francis Bacon the honor of founding the systems of modern
science and philosophy. As Bacon based his conclusions upon observation of
external things, so Descartes founded his metaphysical philosophy upon obser-
vation of internal things. Cartesianism (the philosophy of Descartes) first elimi-
nates all things and then replaces as fundamental those premises without which
existence is impossible. Descartes defined an idea as that which fills the mind
when we conceive a thing. The truth of an idea must be determined by the
criteria of clarity and distinctness. Hence Descartes, held that a clear and dis-
tinct idea must be true. Descartes has the distinction also of evolving his own
philosophy without recourse to authority. Consequently his conclusions are

31
built up from the simplest of premises and grow in complexity as the structure
of his philosophy takes form.
The Positive philosophy of Auguste Comte is based upon the theory that the
human intellect develops through three stages of thought. The first and lowest
stage is theological; the second, metaphysical; and the third and highest, posi-
tive. Thus theology and metaphysics are the feeble intellectual efforts of hu-
manity's child-mind and positivism is the mental expression of the adult intel-
lect. In his Cours de Philosophie positive, Comte writes:
"In the final, the positive state, the mind has given over the vain search after
Absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of
phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their laws,--that is, their invariable
relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly
combined, are the means of this knowledge." Comte's theory is described as an
"enormous system of materialism." According to Comte, it was formerly said
that the heavens declare the glory of God, but now they only recount the glory
of Newton and Laplace.
Among the French schools of philosophy are Traditionalism (often applied
to Christianity), which esteems tradition as the proper foundation for philoso-
phy; the Sociological school, which regards humanity as one vast social organ-
ism; the Encyclopedists, whose efforts to classify knowledge according to the
Baconian system revolutionized European thought; Voltairism, which assailed
the divine origin of the Christian faith and adopted an attitude of extreme skep-
ticism toward all matters pertaining to theology; and Neo-Criticism, a French
revision of the doctrines of Immanuel Kant.
Henri Bergson, the intuitionalist, undoubtedly the greatest living French
philosopher, presents a theory of mystic anti-intellectualism founded upon the
premise of creative evolution, His rapid rise to popularity is due to his appeal
to the finer sentiments in human nature, which rebel against the hopelessness
and helplessness of materialistic science and realistic philosophy. Bergson sees
God as life continually struggling against the limitations of matter. He even
conceives the possible victory of life over matter, and in time the annihilation
of death.
Applying the Baconian method to the mind, John Locke, the great English
philosopher, declared that everything which passes through the mind is a legi-
timate object of mental philosophy, and that these mental phenomena are as
real and valid as the objects of any other science. In his investigations of the
origin of phenomena Locke departed from the Baconian requirement that it
was first necessary to make a natural history of facts. The mind was regarded by
Locke to be blank until experience is inscribed upon it. Thus the mind is built
up of received impressions plus reflection. The soul Locke believed to be in-
capable of apprehension of Deity, and man's realization or cognition of God to

32
be merely an inference of the reasoning faculty. David Hume was the most
enthusiastic and also the most powerful of the disciples of Locke.
Attacking Locke's sensationalism, Bishop George Berkeley substituted for it
a philosophy founded on Locke's fundamental premises but which he devel-
oped as a system of idealism. Berkeley held that ideas are the real objects of
knowledge. He declared it impossible to adduce proof that sensations are oc-
casioned by material objects; he also attempted to prove that matter has no
existence. Berkeleianism holds that the universe is permeated and governed by
mind. Thus the belief in the existence of material objects is merely a mental
condition, and the objects themselves may well be fabrications of the mind. At
the same time Berkeley considered it worse than insanity to question the accu-
racy of the perceptions; for if the power of the perceptive faculties be ques-
tioned man is reduced to a creature incapable of knowing, estimating, or realiz-
ing anything whatsoever.
In the Associationalism of Hartley and Hume was advanced the theory that
the association of ideas is the fundamental principle of psychology and the
explanation for all mental phenomena. Hartley held that if a sensation be re-
peated several times there is a tendency towards its spontaneous repetition,
which may be awakened by association with some other idea even though the
object causing the original reaction be absent. The Utilitarianism of Jeremy
Bentham, Archdeacon Paley, and James and John Stuart Mill declares that to
be the greatest good which is the most useful to the greatest number. John
Stuart Mill believed that if it is possible through sensation to secure knowledge
of the properties of things, it is also possible through a higher state of the mind-
-that is, intuition or reason--to gain a knowledge of the true substance of things.
Darwinism is the doctrine of natural selection and physical evolution. It has
been said of Charles Robert Darwin that he determined to banish spirit alto-
gether from the universe and make the infinite and omnipresent Mind itself
synonymous with the all-pervading powers of an impersonal Nature. Agnostic-
ism and Neo-Hegelianism are also noteworthy products of this period of philo-
sophic thought. The former is the belief that the nature of ultimates is un-
knowable; the latter an English and American revival of Hegel's idealism.
Dr. W. J. Durant declares that Herbert Spencer's Great Work, First Prin-
ciples, made him almost at once the most famous philosopher of his time.
Spencerianism is a philosophic positivism which describes evolution as an ever-
increasing complexity with equilibrium as its highest possible state. According
to Spencer, life is a continuous process from homogeneity to heterogeneity and
back from heterogeneity to homogeneity. Life also involves the continual ad-
justment of internal relations to external relations. Most famous of all Spencer's
aphorisms is his definition of Deity: "God is infinite intelligence, infinitely di-
versified through infinite time and infinite space, manifesting through an infini-

33
tude of ever-evolving individualities." The universality of the law of evolution
was emphasized by Spencer, who applied it not only to the form but also to the
intelligence behind the form. In every manifestation of being he recognized the
fundamental tendency of unfoldment from simplicity to complexity, observing
that when the point of equilibrium is reached it is always followed by the
process of dissolution. According to Spencer, however, disintegration took
place only that reintegration might follow upon a higher level of being.

Click to enlarge
A CHRISTIAN TRINITY.
From Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described.
In an effort to set forth in an appropriate figure the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it
was necessary to devise an image in which the three persons--Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost--were separate and yet one. In different parts of Europe may be seen figures
similar to the above, wherein three faces are united in one head. This is a legitimate
method of for to those able to realize the sacred significance of the threefold head a
great mystery is revealed. However, in the presence of such applications of symbology
in Christian art, it is scarcely proper to consider the philosophers of other faiths as
benighted if, like the Hindus, they have a three-faced Brahma, or, like the Romans, a
two-faced Janus.

The chief position in the Italian school of philosophy should be awarded to

Giordano Bruno, who, after enthusiastically accepting Copernicus' theory that
the sun is the center of the solar system, declared the sun to be a star and all
the stars to be suns. In Bruno's time the earth was regarded as the center of all
creation. Consequently when he thus relegated the world and man to an ob-
scure corner in space the effect was cataclysmic. For the heresy of affirming a
multiplicity of universes and conceiving Cosmos to be so vast that no single
creed could fill it, Bruno paid the forfeit of his life.
Vicoism is a philosophy based upon the conclusions of Giovanni Battista
34
Vico, who held that God controls His world not miraculously but through nat-
ural law. The laws by which men rule themselves, Vico declared, issue from a
spiritual source within mankind which is en rapport with the law of the Deity.
Hence material law is of divine origin and reflects the dictates of the Spiritual
Father. The philosophy of Ontologism developed by Vincenzo Gioberti (gen-
erally considered more as a theologian than a philosopher) posits God as the
only being and the origin of all knowledge, knowledge being identical with Dei-
ty itself. God is consequently called Being; all other manifestations are exis-
tences. Truth is to be discovered through reflection upon this mystery.
The most important of modern Italian philosophers is Benedetto Croce, a
Hegelian idealist. Croce conceives ideas to be the only reality. He is anti-
theological in his viewpoints, does not believe in the immortality of the soul,
and seeks to substitute ethics and aesthetics for religion. Among other
branches of Italian philosophy should be mentioned Sensism (Sensationalism),
which posits the sense perceptions as the sole channels for the reception of
knowledge; Criticism, or the philosophy of accurate judgment; and Neo-
Scholasticism, which is a revival of Thomism encouraged by the Roman Catho-
lic Church.
The two outstanding schools of American philosophy are Transcendental-
ism and Pragmatism. Transcendentalism, exemplified in the writings of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, emphasizes the power of the transcendental over the physi-
cal. Many of Emerson's writings show pronounced Oriental influence, particu-
larly his essays on the Oversoul and the Law of Compensation. The theory of
Pragmatism, while not original with Professor William James, owes its wide-
spread popularity as a philosophic tenet to his efforts. Pragmatism may be de-
fined as the doctrine that the meaning and nature of things are to be discovered
from consideration of their consequences. The true, according to James, "is
only an expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only an expe-
dient in the way of our behaving." (See his Pragmatism.) John Dewey, the In-
strumentalist, who applies the experimental attitude to all the aims of life,
should be considered a commentator of James. To Dewey, growth and change
are limitless and no ultimates are postulated. The long residence in America of
George Santayana warrants the listing of this great Spaniard among the ranks of
American philosophers. Defending himself with the shield of skepticism alike
from the illusions of the senses and the cumulative errors of the ages, Santaya-
na seeks to lead mankind into a more apprehending state denominated by him
the life of reason.
(In addition to the authorities already quoted, in the preparation of the fore-
going abstract of the main branches of philosophic thought the present writer
has had recourse to Stanley's History of Philosophy; Morell's An Historical and
Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Cen-
35
tury; Singer's Modern Thinkers and Present Problems; Rand's Modern Clas-
sical Philosophers; Windelband's History of Philosophy; Perry's Present Philo-
sophical Tendencies; Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic; and Du-
rant's The Story of Philosophy.)
Having thus traced the more or less sequential development of philosophic
speculation from Thales to James and Bergson, it is now in order to direct the
reader's attention to the elements leading to and the circumstances attendant
upon the genesis of philosophic thinking. Although the Hellenes proved them-
selves peculiarly responsive to the disciplines of philosophy, this science of
sciences should not be considered indigenous to them. "Although some of the
Grecians," writes Thomas Stanley, "have challenged to their nation the original
of philosophy, yet the more learned of them have acknowledged it [to be] de-
rived from the East." The magnificent institutions of Hindu, Chaldean, and
Egyptian learning must be recognized as the actual source of Greek wisdom.
The last was patterned after the shadow cast by the sanctuaries of Ellora, Ur,
and Memphis upon the thought substance of a primitive people. Thales, Py-
thagoras, and Plato in their philosophic wanderings contacted many distant
cults and brought back the lore of Egypt and the inscrutable Orient.
From indisputable facts such as these it is evident that philosophy emerged
from the religious Mysteries of antiquity, not being separated from religion
until after the decay of the Mysteries. Hence he who would fathom the depths
of philosophic thought must familiarize himself with the teachings of those
initiated priests designated as the first custodians of divine revelation. The Mys-
teries claimed to be the guardians of a transcendental knowledge so profound
as to be incomprehensible save to the most exalted intellect and so potent as to
be revealed with safety only to those in whom personal ambition was dead and
who had consecrated their lives to the unselfish service of humanity. Both the
dignity of these sacred institutions and the validity of their claim to possession
of Universal Wisdom are attested by the most illustrious philosophers of an-
tiquity, who were themselves initiated into the profundities of the secret doc-
trine and who bore witness to its efficacy.
The question may legitimately be propounded: If these ancient mystical
institutions were of such "great pith and moment," why is so little information
now available concerning them and the arcana they claimed to possess? The
answer is simple enough: The Mysteries were secret societies, binding their
initiates to inviolable secrecy, and avenging with death the betrayal of their
sacred trusts. Although these schools were the true inspiration of the various
doctrines promulgated by the ancient philosophers, the fountainhead of those
doctrines was never revealed to the profane. Furthermore, in the lapse of time
the teachings became so inextricably linked with the names of their dissemina-
tors that the actual but recondite source--the Mysteries--came to be wholly ig-

36
nored.
Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only
of mysticism and philosophy but of all Nature, for every law and power active
in universal procedure is manifested to the limited sense perceptions of man
through the medium of symbol. Every form existing in the diversified sphere of
being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is produced. By symbols
men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which
transcend the limitations of language. Rejecting man-conceived dialects as in-
adequate and unworthy to perpetuate divine ideas, the Mysteries thus chose
symbolism as a far more ingenious and ideal method of preserving their tran-
scendental knowledge. In a single figure a symbol may both reveal and conceal,
for to the wise the subject of the symbol is obvious, while to the ignorant the
figure remains inscrutable. Hence, he who seeks to unveil the secret doctrine
of antiquity must search for that doctrine not upon the open pages of books
which might fall into the hands of the unworthy but in the place where it was
originally concealed.
Far-sighted were the initiates of antiquity. They realized that nations come
and go, that empires rise and fall, and that the golden ages of art, science, and
idealism are succeeded by the dark ages of superstition. With the needs of
posterity foremost in mind, the sages of old went to inconceivable extremes to
make certain that their knowledge should be preserved. They engraved it upon
the face of mountains and concealed it within the measurements of colossal
images, each of which was a geometric marvel. Their knowledge of chemistry
and mathematics they hid within mythologies which the ignorant would perpe-
tuate, or in the spans and arches of their temples which time has not entirely
obliterated. They wrote in characters that neither the vandalism of men nor the
ruthlessness of the elements could completely efface, Today men gaze with
awe and reverence upon the mighty Memnons standing alone on the sands of
Egypt, or upon the strange terraced pyramids of Palanque. Mute testimonies
these are of the lost arts and sciences of antiquity; and concealed this wisdom
must remain until this race has learned to read the universal language--
SYMBOLISM.
The book to which this is the introduction is dedicated to the proposition
that concealed within the emblematic figures, allegories, and rituals of the an-
cients is a secret doctrine concerning the inner mysteries of life, which doctrine
has been preserved in toto among a small band of initiated minds since the
beginning of the world. Departing, these illumined philosophers left their for-
mul that others, too, might attain to understanding. But, lest these secret
processes fall into uncultured hands and be perverted, the Great Arcanum was
always concealed in symbol or allegory; and those who can today discover its
lost keys may open with them a treasure house of philosophic, scientific, and

37
religious truths.

Click to enlarge
THE ORPHIC EGG.
From Bryant's An Analysis of Ancient Mythology.
The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signi-
fied Cosmos as encircled by the fiery Creative Spirit. The egg also represents the soul
of the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell is
broke. and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he
had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration.
The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern
Masonic Symbolism

WHEN confronted with a problem involving the use of the reasoning faculties,
individuals of strong intellect keep their poise, and seek to reach a solution by
obtaining facts bearing upon the question. Those of immature mentality, on
the other hand, when similarly confronted, are overwhelmed. While the for-
mer may be qualified to solve the riddle of their own destiny, the latter must be
led like a flock of sheep and taught in simple language. They depend almost
entirely upon the ministrations of the shepherd. The Apostle Paul said that
these little ones must be fed with milk, but that meat is the food of strong men.
Thoughtlessness is almost synonymous with childishness, while thoughtfulness
is symbolic of maturity.
There are, however, but few mature minds in the world; and thus it was that
the philosophic-religious doctrines of the pagans were divided to meet the
needs of these two fundamental groups of human intellect--one philosophic,
the other incapable of appreciating the deeper mysteries of life. To the discern-
ing few were revealed the esoteric, or spiritual, teachings, while the unqualified
many received only the literal, or exoteric, interpretations. In order to make
simple the great truths of Nature and the abstract principles of natural law, the

38
vital forces of the universe were personified, becoming the gods and goddesses
of the ancient mythologies. While the ignorant multitudes brought their offer-
ings to the altars of Priapus and Pan (deities representing the procreative ener-
gies), the wise recognized in these marble statues only symbolic concretions of
great abstract truths.
In all cities of the ancient world were temples for public worship and offer-
ing. In every community also were philosophers and mystics, deeply versed in
Nature's lore. These individuals were usually banded together, forming seclu-
sive philosophic and religious schools. The more important of these groups
were known as the Mysteries. Many of the great minds of antiquity were in-
itiated into these secret fraternities by strange and mysterious rites, some of
which were extremely cruel. Alexander Wilder defines the Mysteries as "Sacred
dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were those of Isis,
Sabazius, Cybele, and Eleusis." After being admitted, the initiates were in-
structed in the secret wisdom which had been preserved for ages. Plato, an
initiate of one of these sacred orders, was severely criticized because in his
writings he revealed to the public many of the secret philosophic principles of
the Mysteries.
Every pagan nation had (and has) not only its state religion, but another into
which the philosophic elect alone have gained entrance. Many of these ancient
cults vanished from the earth without revealing their secrets, but a few have
survived the test of ages and their mysterious symbols are still preserved. Much
of the ritualism of Freemasonry is based on the trials to which candidates were
subjected by the ancient hierophants before the keys of wisdom were entrusted
to them.
Few realize the extent to which the ancient secret schools influenced con-
temporary intellects and, through those minds, posterity. Robert Macoy, 33, in
his General History of Freemasonry, pays a magnificent tribute to the part
played by the ancient Mysteries in the rearing of the edifice of human culture.
He says, in part: "It appears that all the perfection of civilization, and all the
advancement made in philosophy, science, and art among the ancients are due
to those institutions which, under the veil of mystery, sought to illustrate the
sublimest truths of religion, morality, and virtue, and impress them on the
hearts of their disciples.* * * Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of
one God, the resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul,
and to lead the people to see the shadow of the deity, in the beauty, magnifi-
cence, and splendor of the universe."
With the decline of virtue, which has preceded the destruction of every na-
tion of history, the Mysteries became perverted. Sorcery took the place of the
divine magic. Indescribable practices (such as the Bacchanalia) were intro-
duced, and perversion ruled supreme; for no institution can be any better than

39
the members of which it is composed. In despair, the few who were true sought
to preserve the secret doctrines from oblivion. In some cases they succeeded,
but more often the arcanum was lost and only the empty shell of the Mysteries
remained.
Thomas Taylor has written, "Man is naturally a religious animal." From the
earliest dawning of his consciousness, man has worshiped and revered things as
symbolic of the invisible, omnipresent, indescribable Thing, concerning which
he could discover practically nothing. The pagan Mysteries opposed the Chris-
tians during the early centuries of their church, declaring that the new faith
(Christianity) did not demand virtue and integrity as requisites for salvation.
Celsus expressed himself on the subject in the following caustic terms:
"That I do not, however, accuse the Christians more bitterly than truth com-
pels, may be conjectured from hence, that the cryers who call men to other
mysteries proclaim as follows: 'Let him approach whose hands are pure, and
whose words are wise.' And again, others proclaim: 'Let him approach who is
pure from all wickedness, whose soul is not conscious of any evil, and who
leads a just and upright life.' And these things are proclaimed by those who
promise a purification from error. Let us now hear who those are that are
called to the Christian mysteries: Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise,
whoever is a fool, and whoever, in short, is miserable, him the kingdom of God
will receive. Do you not, therefore, call a sinner, an unjust man, a thief, a
housebreaker, a wizard, one who is sacrilegious, and a robber of sepulchres?
What other persons would the cryer nominate, who should call robbers to-
gether?"
It was not the true faith of the early Christian mystics that Celsus attacked,
but the false forms that were creeping in even during his day. The ideals of
early Christianity were based upon the high moral standards of the pagan Mys-
teries, and the first Christians who met under the city of Rome used as their
places of worship the subterranean temples of Mithras, from whose cult has
been borrowed much of the sacerdotalism of the modem church.
The ancient philosophers believed that no man could live intelligently who
did not have a fundamental knowledge of Nature and her laws. Before man
can obey, he must understand, and the Mysteries were devoted to instructing
man concerning the operation of divine law in the terrestrial sphere. Few of the
early cults actually worshiped anthropomorphic deities, although their symbol-
ism might lead one to believe they did. They were moralistic rather than reli-
gionistic; philosophic rather than theologic. They taught man to use his facul-
ties more intelligently, to be patient in the face of adversity, to be courageous
when confronted by danger, to be true in the midst of temptation, and, most of
all, to view a worthy life as the most acceptable sacrifice to God, and his body
as an altar sacred to the Deity.

40
 Sun worship played an important part in nearly all the early pagan Mysteries.
This indicates the probability of their Atlantean origin, for the people of Atlan-
tis were sun worshipers. The Solar Deity was usually personified as a beautiful
youth, with long golden hair to symbolize the rays of the sun. This golden Sun
God was slain by wicked ruffians, who personified the evil principle of the un-
iverse. By means of certain rituals and ceremonies, symbolic of purification
and regeneration, this wonderful God of Good was brought back to life and
became the Savior of His people. The secret processes whereby He was resur-
rected symbolized those cultures by means of which man is able to overcome
his lower nature, master his appetites, and give expression to the higher side of
himself. The Mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the strug-
gling human creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which, surrounded by
the flaming ring of lust and degeneracy, lay asleep within his soul. In other
words, man was offered a way by which he could regain his lost estate. (See
Wagner's Siegfried.)

Click to enlarge
A FEMALE HIEROPHANT OF THE MYSTERIES.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
This illustration shows Cybele, here called the Syrian Goddess, in the robes of a hie-
rophant. Montfaucon describes the figure as follows: "Upon her head is an episcopal
mitre, adorned on the lower part with towers and pinnacles; over the gate of the city is
a crescent, and beneath the circuit of the walls a crown of rays. The Goddess wears a
sort of surplice, exactly like the surplice of a priest or bishop; and upon the surplice a
tunic, which falls down to the legs; and over all an episcopal cope, with the twelve signs
of the Zodiac wrought on the borders. The figure hath a lion on each side, and holds
in its left hand a Tympanum, a Sistrum, a Distaff, a Caduceus, and another instrument.
In her right hand she holds with her middle finger a thunderbolt, and upon the same
am animals, insects, and, as far as we may guess, flowers, fruit, a bow, a quiver, a torch,
and a scythe." The whereabouts of the statue is unknown, the copy reproduced by
Montfaucon being from drawings by Pirro Ligorio.

41
In the ancient world, nearly all the secret societies were philosophic and reli-
gious. During the medival centuries, they were chiefly religious and political,
although a few philosophic schools remained. In modern times, secret socie-
ties, in the Occidental countries, are largely political or fraternal, although in a
few of them, as in Masonry, the ancient religious and philosophic principles
still survive.
Space prohibits a detailed discussion of the secret schools. There were literally
scores of these ancient cults, with branches in all parts of the Eastern and
Western worlds. Some, such as those of Pythagoras and the Hermetists, show a
decided Oriental influence, while the Rosicrucians, according to their own
proclamations, gained much of their wisdom from Arabian mystics. Although
the Mystery schools are usually associated with civilization, there is evidence
that the most uncivilized peoples of prehistoric times had a knowledge of
them. Natives of distant islands, many in the lowest forms of savagery, have
mystic rituals and secret practices which, although primitive, are of a decided
Masonic tinge.

THE DRUIDIC MYSTERIES OF BRITAIN AND GAUL

"The original and primitive inhabitants of Britain, at some remote period, re-
vived and reformed their national institutes. Their priest, or instructor, had
hitherto been simply named Gwydd, but it was considered to have become
necessary to divide this office between the national, or superior, priest and
another whose influence [would] be more limited. From henceforth the former
became Der-Wydd (Druid), or superior instructor, and [the latter] Go-Wydd,
or O-Vydd (Ovate), subordinate instructor; and both went by the general name
of Beirdd (Bards), or teachers of wisdom. As the system matured and aug-
mented, the Bardic Order consisted of three classes, the Druids, Beirdd
Braint, or privileged Bards, and Ovates." (See Samuel Meyrick and Charles
Smith, The Costume of The Original Inhabitants of The British Islands.)
The origin of the word Druid is under dispute. Max Mller believes that,
like the Irish word Drui, it means "the men of the oak trees." He further draws
attention to the fact that the forest gods and tree deities of the Greeks were
called dryades. Some believe the word to be of Teutonic origin; others ascribe
it to the Welsh. A few trace it to the Gaelic druidh, which means "a wise man"
or "a sorcerer." In Sanskrit the word dru means "timber."
At the time of the Roman conquest, the Druids were thoroughly ensconced

42
in Britain and Gaul. Their power over the people was unquestioned, and there
were instances in which armies, about to attack each other, sheathed their
swords when ordered to do so by the white-robed Druids. No undertaking of
great importance was scatted without the assistance of these patriarchs, who
stood as mediators between the gods and men. The Druidic Order is deserved-
ly credited with having had a deep understanding of Nature and her laws. The
Encyclopdia Britannica states that geography, physical science, natural theol-
ogy, and astrology were their favorite studies. The Druids had a fundamental
knowledge of medicine, especially the use of herbs and simples. Crude surgical
instruments also have been found in England and Ireland. An odd treatise on
early British medicine states that every practitioner was expected to have a gar-
den or back yard for the growing of certain herbs necessary to his profession.
Eliphas Levi, the celebrated transcendentalist, makes the following significant
statement:
"The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and charging
amylets with their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies were mistletoe
and serpents' eggs, because these substances attract the astral light in a special
manner. The solemnity with which mistletoe was cut down drew upon this
plant the popular confidence and rendered it powerfully magnetic. * * * The
progress of magnetism will some day reveal to us the absorbing properties of
mistletoe. We shall then understand the secret of those spongy growths which
drew the unused virtues of plants and become surcharged with tinctures and
savors. Mushrooms, truffles, gall on trees, and the different kinds of mistletoe
will be employed with understanding by a medical science, which will be new
because it is old * * * but one must not move quicker than science, which re-
cedes that it may advance the further. " (See The History of Magic.)
Not only was the mistletoe sacred as symbolic of the universal medicine, or
panacea, but also because of the fact that it grew upon the oak tree. Through
the symbol of the oak, the Druids worshiped the Supreme Deity; therefore,
anything growing upon that tree was sacred to Him. At certain seasons, accord-
ing to the positions of the sun, moon, and stars, the Arch-Druid climbed the
oak tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle consecrated for that service.
The parasitic growth was caught in white cloths provided for the purpose, lest it
touch the earth and be polluted by terrestrial vibrations. Usually a sacrifice of a
white bull was made under the tree.
The Druids were initiates of a secret school that existed in their midst. This
school, which closely resembled the Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries of
Greece or the Egyptian rites of Isis and Osiris, is justly designated the Druidic
Mysteries. There has been much speculation concerning the secret wisdom
that the Druids claimed to possess. Their secret teachings were never written,
but were communicated orally to specially prepared candidates. Robert Brown,

43
32, is of the opinion that the British priests secured their information from
Tyrian and Phnician navigators who, thousands of years before the Christian
Era, established colonies in Britain and Gaul while searching for tin. Thomas
Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, discourses at length on Phnician, Cartha-
ginian, and Greek expeditions to the British Isles for the purpose of procuring
tin. Others are of the opinion that the Mysteries as celebrated by the Druids
were of Oriental origin, possibly Buddhistic.
The proximity of the British Isles to the lost Atlantis may account for the
sun worship which plays an important part in the rituals of Druidism. Accord-
ing to Artemidorus, Ceres and Persephone were worshiped on an island close
to Britain with rites and ceremonies similar to those of Samothrace. There is
no doubt that the Druidic Pantheon includes a large number of Greek and
Roman deities. This greatly amazed Csar during his conquest of Britain and
Gaul, and caused him to affirm that these tribes adored Mercury, Apollo,
Mars, and Jupiter, in a manner similar to that of the Latin countries. It is al-
most certain that the Druidic Mysteries were not indigenous to Britain or Gaul,
but migrated from one of the more ancient civilizations.
The school of the Druids was divided into three distinct parts, and the secret
teachings embodied therein are practically the same as the mysteries concealed
under the allegories of Blue Lodge Masonry. The lowest of the three divisions
was that of Ovate (Ovydd). This was an honorary degree, requiring no special
purification or preparation. The Ovates dressed in green, the Druidic color of
learning, and were expected to know something about medicine, astronomy,
poetry if possible, and sometimes music. An Ovate was an individual admitted
to the Druidic Order because of his general excellence and superior know-
ledge concerning the problems of life.
The second division was that of Bard (Beirdd). Its members were robed in
sky-blue, to represent harmony and truth, and to them was assigned the labor
of memorizing, at least in part, the twenty thousand verses of Druidic sacred
poetry. They were often pictured with the primitive British or Irish harp--an
instrument strung with human hair, and having as many strings as there were
ribs on one side of the human body. These Bards were often chosen as teach-
ers of candidates seeking entrance into the Druidic Mysteries. Neophytes wore
striped robes of blue, green, and white, these being the three sacred colors of
the Druidic Order.
The third division was that of Druid (Derwyddon). Its particular labor was to
minister to the religious needs of the people. To reach this dignity, the candi-
date must first become a Bard Braint. The Druids always dressed in white--
symbolic of their purity, and the color used by them to symbolize the sun.
In order to reach the exalted position of Arch-Druid, or spiritual head of the
organization, it was necessary for a priest to pass through the six successive

44
degrees of the Druidic Order. (The members of the different degrees were
differentiated by the colors of their sashes, for all of them wore robes of white.)
Some writers are of the opinion that the title of Arch-Druid was hereditary,
descending from father to son, but it is more probable that the honor was con-
ferred by ballot election. Its recipient was chosen for his virtues and integrity
from the most learned members of the higher Druidic degrees.

Click to enlarge
THE ARCH-DRUID IN HIS CEREMONIAL ROBES.
From Wellcome's Ancient Cymric Medicine.
The most striking adornment of the Arch-Druid was the iodhan moran, or breastplate
of judgment, which possessed the mysterious Power of strangling any who made an
untrue statement while wearing it. Godfrey Higgins states that this breastplate was put
on the necks of witnesses to test the veracity of their evidence. The Druidic tiara, or
anguinum, its front embossed with a number of points to represent the sun's rays,
indicated that the priest was a personification of the rising sun. On the front of his belt
the Arch-Druid wore the liath meisicith--a magic brooch, or buckle in the center of
which was a large white stone. To this was attributed the power of drawing the fire of
the gods down from heaven at the priest's command This specially cut stone was a
burning glass, by which the sun's rays were concentrated to light the altar fires. The
Druids also had other symbolic implements, such as the peculiarly shaped golden
sickle with which they cut the mistletoe from the oak, and the cornan, or scepter, in
the form of a crescent, symbolic of the sixth day of the increasing moon and also of the
Ark of Noah. An early initiate of the Druidic Mysteries related that admission to their
midnight ceremony was gained by means of a glass boat, called Cwrwg Gwydrin. This
boat symbolized the moon, which, floating upon the waters of eternity, preserved the
seeds of living creatures within its boatlike crescent.

According to James Gardner, there were usually two Arch-Druids in Britain,

one residing on the Isle of Anglesea and the other on the Isle of Man. Presum-
ably there were others in Gaul. These dignitaries generally carried golden scep-
ters and were crowned with wreaths of oak leaves, symbolic of their authority.
The younger members of the Druidic Order were clean-shaven and modestly
45
dressed, but the more aged had long gray beards and wore magnificent golden
ornaments. The educational system of the Druids in Britain was superior to
that of their colleagues on the Continent, and consequently many of the Gallic
youths were sent to the Druidic colleges in Britain for their philosophical in-
struction and training.
Eliphas Levi states that the Druids lived in strict abstinence, studied the nat-
ural sciences, preserved the deepest secrecy, and admitted new members only
after long probationary periods. Many of the priests of the order lived in build-
ings not unlike the monasteries of the modern world. They were associated in
groups like ascetics of the Far East. Although celibacy was not demanded of
them, few married. Many of the Druids retired from the world and lived as
recluses in caves, in rough-stone houses, or in little shacks built in the depths of
a forest. Here they prayed and medicated, emerging only to perform their reli-
gious duties.
James Freeman Clarke, in his Ten Great Religions, describes the beliefs of
the Druids as follows: "The Druids believed in three worlds and in transmigra-
tion from one to the other: In a world above this, in which happiness predo-
minated; a world below, of misery; and this present state. This transmigration
was to punish and reward and also to purify the soul. In the present world, said
they, Good and Evil are so exactly balanced that man has the utmost freedom
and is able to choose or reject either. The Welsh Triads tell us there are three
objects of metempsychosis: to collect into the soul the properties of all being,
to acquire a knowledge of all things, and to get power to conquer evil. There
are also, they say, three kinds of knowledge: knowledge of the nature of each
thing, of its cause, and its influence. There are three things which continually
grow less: darkness, falsehood, and death. There are three which constantly
increase: light, life, and truth."
Like nearly all schools of the Mysteries, the teachings of the Druids were
divided into two distinct sections. The simpler, a moral code, was taught to all
the people, while the deeper, esoteric doctrine was given only to initiated
priests. To be admitted to the order, a candidate was required to be of good
family and of high moral character. No important secrets were intrusted to him
until he had been tempted in many ways and his strength of character severely
tried. The Druids taught the people of Britain and Gaul concerning the im-
mortality of the soul. They believed in transmigration and apparently in rein-
carnation. They borrowed in one life, promising to pay back in the next. They
believed in a purgatorial type of hell where they would be purged of their sins,
afterward passing on to the happiness of unity with the gods. The Druids taught
that all men would be saved, but that some must return to earth many times to
learn the lessons of human life and to overcome the inherent evil of their own
natures.

46
 Before a candidate was intrusted with the secret doctrines of the Druids, he
was bound with a vow of secrecy. These doctrines were imparted only in the
depths of forests and in the darkness of caves. In these places, far from the
haunts of men, the neophyte was instructed concerning the creation of the
universe, the personalities of the gods, the laws of Nature, the secrets of occult
medicine, the mysteries of the celestial bodies, and the rudiments of magic and
sorcery. The Druids had a great number of feast days. The new and full moon
and the sixth day of the moon were sacred periods. It is believed that initiations
took place only at the two solstices and the two equinoxes. At dawn of the 25th
day of December, the birth of the Sun God was celebrated.
The secret teachings of the Druids are said by some to be tinctured with
Pythagorean philosophy. The Druids had a Madonna, or Virgin Mother, with a
Child in her arms, who was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was
resurrected at the time of the year corresponding to that at which modern
Christians celebrate Easter.
Both the cross and the serpent were sacred to the Druids, who made the
former by cutting off all the branches of an oak tree and fastening one of them
to the main trunk in the form of the letter T. This oaken cross became symbol-
ic of their superior Deity. They also worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. The
moon received their special veneration. Caesar stated that Mercury was one of
the chief deities of the Gauls. The Druids are believed to have worshiped Mer-
cury under the similitude of a stone cube. They also had great veneration for
the Nature spirits (fairies, gnomes, and undines), little creatures of the forests
and rivers to whom many offerings were made. Describing the temples of the
Druids, Charles Heckethorn, in The Secret Societies of All Ages & Countries,
says:
"Their temples wherein the sacred fire was preserved were generally situate
on eminences and in dense groves of oak, and assumed various forms--circular,
because a circle was the emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mun-
dane egg, from which issued, according to the traditions of many nations, the
universe, or, according to others, our first parents; serpentine, because a ser-
pent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris; cruciform, because a cross is an
emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent the motion of the Divine Spi-
rit. * * * Their chief deities were reducible to two--a male and a female, the
great father and mother--Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same charac-
teristics as belong to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme
god and goddess representing the two principles of all Being."
Godfrey Higgins states that Hu, the Mighty, regarded as the first settler of
Britain, came from a place which the Welsh Triads call the Summer Country,
the present site of Constantinople. Albert Pike says that the Lost Word of Ma-
sonry is concealed in the name of the Druid god Hu. The meager information

47
extant concerning the secret initiations of the Druids indicates a decided simi-
larity between their Mystery school and the schools of Greece and Egypt. Hu,
the Sun God, was murdered and, after a number of strange ordeals and mystic
rituals, was restored to life.
There were three degrees of the Druidic Mysteries, but few successfully
passed them all. The candidate was buried in a coffin, as symbolic of the death
of the Sun God. The supreme test, however, was being sent out to sea in an
open boat. While undergoing this ordeal, many lost their lives. Taliesin, an
ancient scholar, who passed through the Mysteries, describes the initiation of
the open boat in Faber's Pagan Idolatry. The few who passed this third degree
were said to have been "born again," and were instructed in the secret and hid-
den truths which the Druid priests had preserved from antiquity. From these
initiates were chosen many of the dignitaries of the British religious and politi-
cal world. (For further details, see Faber's Pagan Idolatry, Albert Pike's Morals
and Dogma, and Godfrey Higgins' Celtic Druids.)

THE RITES OF MITHRAS

When the Persian Mysteries immigrated into Southern Europe, they were
quickly assimilated by the Latin mind. The cult grew rapidly, especially among
the Roman soldiery, and during the Roman wars of conquest the teachings
were carried by the legionaries to nearly all parts of Europe. So powerful did
the cult of Mithras become that at least one Roman Emperor was initiated into
the order, which met in caverns under the city of Rome. Concerning the
spread of this Mystery school through different parts of Europe, C. W. King, in
his Gnostics and Their Remains, says:
"Mithraic bas-reliefs cut on the faces of rocks or on stone tablets still abound
in the countries formerly the western provinces of the Roman Empire; many
exist in Germany, still more in France, and in this island (Britain) they have
often been discovered on the line of the Picts' Wall and the noted one at Bath."
Alexander Wilder, in his Philosophy and Ethics of the Zoroasters, states that
Mithras is the Zend title for the sun, and he is supposed to dwell within that
shining orb. Mithras has a male and a female aspect, though not himself an-
drogynous. As Mithras, he is the ford of the sun, powerful and radiant, and
most magnificent of the Yazatas (Izads, or Genii, of the sun). As Mithra, this
deity represents the feminine principle; the mundane universe is recognized as
her symbol. She represents Nature as receptive and terrestrial, and as fruitful
only when bathed in the glory of the solar orb. The Mithraic cult is a simplifi-
cation of the more elaborate teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), the Persian

48
fire magician.

Click to enlarge
THE GROUND PLAN OF STONEHENGE.
From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
The Druid temples of places of religious worship were not patterned after those of
other nations. Most of their ceremonies were performed at night, either in thick groves
of oak trees or around open-air altars built of great uncut stones. How these masses of
rock were moved ahs not been satisfactorily explained. The most famous of their al-
tars, a great stone ring of rocks, is Stonehenge, in Southwestern England. This struc-
ture, laid out on an astronomical basis, still stands, a wonder of antiquity.

According to the Persians, there coexisted in eternity two principles. The first
of these, Ahura-Mazda, or Ormuzd, was the Spirit of Good. From Ormuzd
came forth a number of hierarchies of good and beautiful spirits (angels and
archangels). The second of these eternally existing principles was called Ahri-
man. He was also a pure and beautiful spirit, but he later rebelled against Or-
muzd, being jealous of his power. This did not occur, however, until after Or-
muzd had created light, for previously Ahriman had not been conscious of the
existence of Ormuzd. Because of his jealousy and rebellion, Ahriman became
the Spirit of Evil. From himself he individualized a host of destructive creatures
to injure Ormuzd.
When Ormuzd created the earth, Ahriman entered into its grosser ele-
ments. Whenever Ormuzd did a good deed, Ahriman placed the principle of
evil within it. At last when Ormuzd created the human race, Ahriman became
incarnate in the lower nature of man so that in each personality the Spirit of
Good and the Spirit of Evil struggle for control. For 3,000 years Ormuzd ruled
the celestial worlds with light and goodness. Then he created man. For another
3,000 years he ruled man with wisdom, and integrity. Then the power of
Ahriman began, and the struggle for the soul of man continues through the
next period of 3,000 years. During the fourth period of 3,000 years, the power
of Ahriman will be destroyed. Good will return to the world again, evil and
death will be vanquished, and at last the Spirit of Evil will bow humbly before

49
the throne of Ormuzd. While Ormuzd and Ahriman are struggling for control
of the human soul and for supremacy in Nature, Mithras, God of Intelligence,
stands as mediator between the two. Many authors have noted the similarity
between mercury and Mithras. As the chemical mercury acts as a solvent (ac-
cording to alchemists), so Mithras seeks to harmonize the two celestial oppo-
sites.
There are many points of resemblance between Christianity and the cult of
Mithras. One of the reasons for this probably is that the Persian mystics in-
vaded Italy during the first century after Christ and the early history of both
cults was closely interwoven. The Encyclopdia Britannica makes the follow-
ing statement concerning the Mithraic and Christian Mysteries:
"The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their
humble origin; the identification of the object of adoration with light and the
sun; the legends of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and
the ark; the representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from
the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy water and the communion; the sancti-
fication of Sunday and of the 25th of December; the insistence on moral con-
duct, the emphasis placed on abstinence and self-control; the doctrine of hea-
ven 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 un-
iverse--[these] are some of the resemblances which, whether real or only ap-
parent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its resistance to Christianity,"
The rites of Mithras were performed in caves. Porphyry, in his Cave of the
Nymphs, states that Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the first to consecrate a cave to
the worship of God, because a cavern was symbolic of the earth, or the lower
world of darkness. John P. Lundy, in his Monumental Christianity, describes
the cave of Mithras as follows:
"But this cave was adorned with the signs of the zodiac, Cancer and Capri-
corn. The summer and winter solstices were chiefly conspicuous, as the gates
of souls descending into this life, or passing out of it in their ascent to the
Gods; Cancer being the gate of descent, and Capricorn of ascent. These are
the two avenues of the immortals passing up and down from earth to heaven,
and from heaven to earth."
The so-called chair of St. Peter, in Rome, was believed to have been used in
one of the pagan Mysteries, possibly that of Mithras, in whose subterranean
grottoes the votaries of the Christian Mysteries met in the early days of their
faith. In Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins writes that in 1662, while cleaning this
sacred chair of Bar-Jonas, the Twelve Labors of Hercules were discovered
upon it, and that later the French discovered upon the same chair the Mo-

50
hammedan confession of faith, written in Arabic.
Initiation into the rites of Mithras, like initiation into many other ancient
schools of philosophy, apparently consisted of three important degrees. Prepa-
ration for these degrees consisted of self-purification, the building up of the
intellectual powers, and the control of the animal nature. In the first degree the
candidate was given a crown upon the point of a sword and instructed in the
mysteries of Mithras' hidden power. Probably he was taught that the golden
crown represented his own spiritual nature, which must be objectified and un-
folded before he could truly glorify Mithras; for Mithras was his own soul,
standing as mediator between Ormuzd, his spirit, and Ahriman, his animal
nature. In the second degree he was given the armor of intelligence and purity
and sent into the darkness of subterranean pits to fight the beasts of lust, pas-
sion, and degeneracy. In the third degree he was given a cape, upon which
were drawn or woven the signs of the zodiac and other astronomical symbols.
After his initiations were over, he was hailed as one who had risen from the
dead, was instructed in the secret teachings of the Persian mystics, and became
a full-fledged member of the order. Candidates who successfully passed the
Mithraic initiations were called Lions and were marked upon their foreheads
with the Egyptian cross. Mithras himself is often pictured with the head of a
lion and two pairs of wings. Throughout the entire ritual were repeated refer-
ences to the birth of Mithras as the Sun God, his sacrifice for man, his death
that men might have eternal life, and lastly, his resurrection and the saving of
all humanity by his intercession before the throne of Ormuzd. (See Hecke-
thorn.)
While the cult of Mithras did not reach the philosophic heights attained by
Zarathustra, its effect upon the civilization of the Western world was far-
reaching, for at one time nearly all Europe was converted to its doctrines.
Rome, in her intercourse with other nations, inoculated them with her religious
principles; and many later institutions have exhibited Mithraic culture. The
reference to the "Lion" and the "Grip of the Lion's Paw" in the Master Mason's
degree have a strong Mithraic tinge and may easily have originated from this
cult. A ladder of seven rungs appears in the Mithraic initiation. Faber is of the
opinion that this ladder was originally a pyramid of seven steps. It is possible
that the Masonic ladder with seven rungs had its origin in this Mithraic symbol.
Women were never permitted to enter the Mithraic Order, but children of the
male sex were initiates long before they reached maturity. The refusal to per-
mit women to join the Masonic Order may be based on the esoteric reason
given in the secret instructions of the Mithraics. This cult is another excellent
example of those secret societies whose legends are largely symbolic represen-
tations of the sun and his journey through the houses of the heavens. Mithras,
rising from a stone, is merely the sun rising over the horizon, or, as the an-

51
cients supposed, out of the horizon, at the vernal equinox.
John O'Neill disputes the theory that Mithras was intended as a solar deity.
In The Night of the Gods he writes: "The Avestan Mithra, the yazata of light,
has '10,000 eyes, high, with full knowledge (perethuvaedayana), strong, sleep-
less and ever awake (jaghaurvaunghem).'The supreme god Ahura Mazda also
has one Eye, or else it is said that 'with his eyes, the sun, moon and stars, he
sees everything.' The theory that Mithra was originally a title of the supreme
heavens-god--putting the sun out of court--is the only one that answers all re-
quirements. It will be evident that here we have origins in abundance for the
Freemason's Eye and 'its nunquam dormio.'" The reader must nor confuse the
Persian Mithra with the Vedic Mitra. According to Alexander Wilder, "The
Mithraic rites superseded the Mysteries of Bacchus, and became the founda-
tion of the Gnostic system, which for many centuries prevailed in Asia, Egypt,
and even the remote West."

Click to enlarge
MITHRAS SLAYING THE BULL.
From Lundy's Monumental Christianity.
The most famous sculpturings and reliefs of this prototokos show Mithras kneeling
upon the recumbent form of a great bull, into whose throat he is driving a sword. The
slaying of the bull signifies that the rays of the sun, symbolized by the sword, release at
the vernal equinox the vital essences of the earth--the blood of the bull--which, pouring
from the wound made by the Sun God, fertilize the seeds of living things. Dogs were
held sacred to the cult of Mithras, being symbolic of sincerity and trustworthiness. The
Mithraics used the serpent a an emblem of Ahriman, the Spirit of Evil, and water rats
were held sacred to him. The bull is esoterically the Constellation of Taurus; the ser-
pent, its opposite in the zodiac, Scorpio; the sun, Mithras, entering into the side of the
bull, slays the celestial creature and nourishes the universe with its blood.

52
Click to enlarge
THE BIRTH OF MITHRAS.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities
Mithras was born out of a rock, which, breaking open, permitted him to emerge. This
occurred in the darkness of a subterranean chamber. The Church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem confirms the theory that Jesus was born in a grotto, or cave. According to
Dupuis, Mithras was put to death by crucifixion and rose again on the third day.

53
 The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies
Part II
THE entire history of Christian and pagan Gnosticism is shrouded in the
deepest mystery and obscurity; for, while the Gnostics were undoubtedly prolif-
ic writers, little of their literature has survived. They brought down upon them-
selves the animosity of the early Christian Church, and when this institution
reached its position of world power it destroyed all available records of the
Gnostic cultus. The name Gnostic means wisdom, or knowledge, and is de-
rived from the Greek Gnosis. The members of the order claimed to be famili-
ar with the secret doctrines of early Christianity. They interpreted the Christian
Mysteries according to pagan symbolism. Their secret information and philo-
sophic tenets they concealed from the profane and taught to a small group only
of especially initiated persons.
Simon Magus, the magician of New Testament fame, is often supposed to
have been the founder of Gnosticism. If this be true, the sect was formed dur-
ing the century after Christ and is probably the first of the many branches
which have sprung from the main trunk of Christianity. Everything with which
the enthusiasts of the early Christian Church might not agree they declared to
be inspired by the Devil. That Simon Magus had mysterious and supernatural
powers is conceded even by his enemies, but they maintained that these pow-
ers were lent to him by the infernal spirits and furies which they asserted were
his ever present companions. Undoubtedly the most interesting legend con-
cerning Simon is that which tells of his theosophic contests with the Apostle
Peter while the two were promulgating their differing doctrines in Rome. Ac-
cording to the story that the Church Fathers have preserved, Simon was to
prove his spiritual superiority by ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire. He
was actually picked up and carried many feet into the air by invisible powers.
When St. Peter saw this, he cried out in a loud voice, ordering the demons
(spirits of the air) to release their hold upon the magician. The evil spirits,
when so ordered by the great saint, were forced to obey. Simon fell a great
distance and was killed, which decisively proved the superiority of the Christian
powers. This story is undoubtedly manufactured out of whole cloth, as it is
only one out of many accounts concerning his death, few of which agree. As
more and more evidence is being amassed to the effect that St, Peter was never
in Rome, its last possible vestige of authenticity is rapidly being dissipated.
That Simon was a philosopher there is no doubt, for wherever his exact
words are preserved his synthetic and transcending thoughts are beautifully
expressed. The principles of Gnosticism are well described in the following

54
verbatim statement by him, supposed to have been preserved by Hippolytus:
"To you, therefore, I say what I say, and write what I write. And the writing is
this. Of the universal ons [periods, planes, or cycles of creative and created
life in substance and space, celestial creatures] there are two shoots, without
beginning or end, springing from one Root, which is the power invisible, inap-
prehensible silence [Bythos]. Of these shoots one is manifested from above,
which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male, and the
other, [is manifested] from below, the Great Thought, female, producing all
things. Hence pairing with each other, they unite and manifest the Middle Dis-
tance, incomprehensible Air, without beginning or end. In this is the Father
Who sustains all things, and nourishes those things which have a beginning and
end." (See Simon Magus, by G. R. S. Mead.) By this we are to understand that
manifestation is the result of a positive and a negative principle, one acting
upon the other, and it takes place in the middle plane, or point of equilibrium,
called the pleroma. This pleroma is a peculiar substance produced out of the
blending of the spiritual and material ons. Out of the pleroma was individua-
lized the Demiurgus, the immortal mortal, to whom we are responsible for our
physical existence and the suffering we must go through in connection with it.
In the Gnostic system, three pairs of opposites, called Syzygies, emanated from
the Eternal One. These, with Himself, make the total of seven. The six (three
pairs) ons (living, divine principles) were described by Simon in the Philoso-
phumena in the following manner: The first two were Mind (Nous) and
Thought (Epinoia). Then came Voice (Phone) and its opposite, Name (Ono-
ma), and lastly, Reason (Logismos) and Reflection (Enthumesis). From these
primordial six, united with the Eternal Flame, came forth the ons (Angels)
who formed the lower worlds through the direction of the Demiurgus. (See the
works of H. P. Blavatsky.) How this first Gnosticism of Simon Magus and Me-
nander, his disciple, was amplified, and frequently distorted, by later adherents
to the cult must now be considered.
The School of Gnosticism was divided into two major parts, commonly
called the Syrian Cult and the Alexandrian Cult. These schools agreed in es-
sentials, but the latter division was more inclined to be pantheistic, while the
former was dualistic. While the Syrian cult was largely Simonian, the Alexan-
drian School was the outgrowth of the philosophical deductions of a clever
Egyptian Christian, Basilides by name, who claimed to have received his in-
structions from the Apostle Matthew. Like Simon Magus, he was an emana-
tionist, with Neo-Platonic inclinations. In fact, the entire Gnostic Mystery is
based upon the hypothesis of emanations as being the logical connection be-
tween the irreconcilable opposites Absolute Spirit and Absolute Substance,
which the Gnostics believed to have been coexistent in Eternity. Some assert
that Basilides was the true founder of Gnosticism, but there is much evidence

55
to the effect that Simon Magus laid down its fundamental principles in the
preceding century.
The Alexandrian Basilides inculcated Egyptian Hermeticism, Oriental oc-
cultism, Chaldean astrology, and Persian philosophy in his followers, and in his
doctrines sought to unite the schools of early Christianity with the ancient pa-
gan Mysteries. To him is attributed the formulation of that peculiar concept of
the Deity which carries the name of Abraxas. In discussing the original mean-
ing of this word, Godfrey Higgins, in his Celtic Druids, has demonstrated that
the numerological powers of the letters forming the word Abraxas when added
together result in the sum of 365. The same author also notes that the name
Mithras when treated in a similar manner has the same numerical value. Basi-
lides caught that the powers of the universe were divided into 365 ons, or
spiritual cycles, and that the sum of all these together was the Supreme Father,
and to Him he gave the Qabbalistical appellation Abraxas, as being symbolical,
numerologically, of His divine powers, attributes, and emanations. Abraxas is
usually symbolized as a composite creature, with the body of a human being
and the head of a rooster, and with each of his legs ending in a serpent. C. W.
King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, gives the following concise descrip-
tion of the Gnostic philosophy of Basilides, quoting from the writings of the
early Christian bishop and martyr, St. Irenus: "He asserted that God, the
uncreated, eternal Father, had first brought forth Nous, or Mind; this the Lo-
gos, Word; this again Phronesis, Intelligence; from Phronesis sprung Sophia,
Wisdom, and Dynamis, Strength."

Click to enlarge
THE DEATH OF SIMON THE MAGICIAN.
From the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Simon Magus, having called upon the Spirits of the Air, is here shown being picked up
by the demons. St. Peter demands that the evil genii release their hold upon the magi-
cian. The demons are forced to comply and Simon Magus is killed by the fall.

56
In describing Abraxas, C. W. King says: "Bellermann considers the composite
image, inscribed with the actual name Abraxas, to be a Gnostic Pantheos,
representing the Supreme Being, with the Five Emanations marked out by
appropriate symbols. From the human body, the usual form assigned to the
Deity, spring the two supporters, Nous and Logos, expressed in the serpents,
symbols of the inner senses, and the quickening understanding; on which ac-
count the Greeks had made the serpent the attribute of Pallas. His head--that
of a cock--represents Phronesis, that bird being the emblem of foresight and of
vigilance. His two arms hold the symbols of Sophia and Dynamis: the shield of
Wisdom and the whip of Power."
The Gnostics were divided in their opinions concerning the Demiurgus, or
creator of the lower worlds. He established the terrestrial universe with the aid
of six sons, or emanations (possibly the planetary Angels) which He formed
out of, and yet within, Himself. As stated before, the Demiurgus was individua-
lized as the lowest creation out of the substance called pleroma. One group of
the Gnostics was of the opinion that the Demiurgus was the cause of all misery
and was an evil creature, who by building this lower world had separated the
souls of men from truth by encasing them in mortal vehicles. The other sect
viewed the Demiurgus as being divinely inspired and merely fulfilling the dic-
tates of the invisible Lord. Some Gnostics were of the opinion that the Jewish
God, Jehovah, was the Demiurgus. This concept, under a slightly different
name, apparently influenced medival Rosicrucianism, which viewed Jehovah
as the Lord of the material universe rather than as the Supreme Deity. Mythol-
ogy abounds with the stories of gods who partook of both celestial and terre-
strial natures. Odin, of Scandinavia, is a good example of a deity subject to
mortality, bowing before the laws of Nature and yet being, in certain senses at
least, a Supreme Deity.
The Gnostic viewpoint concerning the Christ is well worthy of consideration.
This order claimed to be the only sect to have actual pictures of the Divine
Syrian. While these were, in all probability, idealistic conceptions of the Savior
based upon existing sculpturings and paintings of the pagan sun gods, they were
all Christianity had. To the Gnostics, the Christ was the personification of
Nous, the Divine Mind, and emanated from the higher spiritual ons. He
descended into the body of Jesus at the baptism and left it again before the
crucifixion. The Gnostics declared that the Christ was not crucified, as this
Divine Nous could not suffer death, but that Simon, the Cyrenian, offered his
life instead and that the Nous, by means of its power, caused Simon to resem-
ble Jesus. Irenus makes the following statement concerning the cosmic sacri-
fice of the Christ:
"When the uncreated, unnamed Father saw the corruption of mankind, He
sent His firstborn, Nous, into the world, in the form of Christ, for the redemp-

57
tion of all who believe in Him, out of the power of those that have fabricated
the world (the Demiurgus, and his six sons, the planetary genii). He appeared
amongst men as the Man Jesus, and wrought miracles." (See King's Gnostics
and Their Remains.)
The Gnostics divided humanity into three parts: those who, as savages, wor-
shiped only the visible Nature; those who, like the Jews, worshiped the De-
miurgus; and lastly, themselves, or others of a similar cult, including certain
sects of Christians, who worshiped Nous (Christ) and the true spiritual light of
the higher ons.
After the death of Basilides, Valentinus became the leading inspiration of
the Gnostic movement. He still further complicated the system of Gnostic
philosophy by adding infinitely to the details. He increased the number of
emanations from the Great One (the Abyss) to fifteen pairs and also laid much
emphasis on the Virgin Sophia, or Wisdom. In the Books of the Savior, parts
of which are commonly known as the Pistis Sophia, may be found much ma-
terial concerning this strange doctrine of ons and their strange inhabitants.
James Freeman Clarke, in speaking of the doctrines of the Gnostics, says:
"These doctrines, strange as they seem to us, had a wide influence in the Chris-
tian Church." Many of the theories of the ancient Gnostics, especially those
concerning scientific subjects, have been substantiated by modern research.
Several sects branched off from the main stem of Gnosticism, such as the Va-
lentinians, the Ophites (serpent worshipers), and the Adamites. After the third
century their power waned, and the Gnostics practically vanished from the
philosophic world. An effort was made during the Middle Ages to resurrect the
principles of Gnosticism, but owing to the destruction of their records the ma-
terial necessary was not available. Even today there are evidences of Gnostic
philosophy in the modern world, but they bear other names and their true
origin is not suspected. Many of the Gnostic concepts have actually been in-
corporated into the dogmas of the Christian Church, and our newer interpreta-
tions of Christianity are often along the lines of Gnostic emanationism.

58
THE MYSTERIES OF, ASAR-HAPI

The identity of the Greco-Egyptian Serapis (known to the Greeks as Serapis

and the Egyptians as Asar-Hapi) is shrouded by an impenetrable veil of mys-
tery. While this deity was a familiar figure among the symbols of the secret
Egyptian initiatory rites, his arcane nature was revealed only to those who had
fulfilled the requirements of the Serapic cultus. Therefore, in all probability,
excepting the initiated priests, the Egyptians themselves were ignorant of his
true character. So far as known, there exists no authentic account of the rites of
Serapis, but an analysis of the deity and his accompanying symbols reveals their
salient points. In an oracle delivered to the King of Cyprus, Serapis described
himself thus:
''A god I am such as I show to thee,
The Starry Heavens are my head, my trunk the sea,
Earth forms my feet, mine ears the air supplies,
The Sun's far-darting, brilliant rays, mine eyes."

Several unsatisfactory attempts have been made to etymologize the word Sera-
pis. Godfrey Higgins notes that Soros was the name given by the Egyptians to a
stone coffin, and Apis was Osiris incarnate in the sacred bull. These two words
combined result in Soros-Apis or Sor-Apis, "the tomb of the bull." But it is
improbable that the Egyptians would worship a coffin in the form of a man.
Several ancient authors, including Macrobius, have affirmed that Serapis was
a name for the Sun, because his image so often had a halo of light about its
head. In his Oration Upon the Sovereign Sun, Julian speaks of the deity in
these words: "One Jove, one Pluto, one Sun is Serapis." In Hebrew, Serapis is
Saraph, meaning "to blaze out" or "to blaze up." For this reason the Jews desig-
nated one of their hierarchies of spiritual beings, Seraphim.
The most common theory, however, regarding the origin of the name Sera-
pis is that which traces its derivation from the compound Osiris-Apis. At one
time the Egyptians believed that the dead were absorbed into the nature of
Osiris, the god of the dead. While marked similarity exists between Osiris-Apis
and Serapis, the theory advanced by Egyptologists that Serapis is merely a
name given to the dead Apis, or sacred bull of Egypt, is untenable in view of
the transcendent wisdom possessed by the Egyptian priestcraft, who, in all
probability, used the god to symbolize the soul of the world (anima mundi).
The material body of Nature was called Apis; the soul which escaped from the
body at death but was enmeshed with the form during physical life was desig-
nated Serapis.
C. W. King believes Serapis to be a deity of Brahmanic extraction, his name
being the Grecianized form of Ser-adah or Sri-pa, two titles ascribed to Yama,

59
the Hindu god of death. This appears reasonable, especially since there is a
legend to the effect that Serapis, in the form of a bull, was driven by Bacchus
from India to Egypt. The priority of the Hindu Mysteries would further subs-
tantiate such a theory.
Among other meanings suggested for the word Serapis are: "The Sacred
Bull," "The Sun in Taurus," "The Soul of Osiris," "The Sacred Serpent," and
"The Retiring of the Bull." The last appellation has reference to the ceremony
of drowning the sacred Apis in the waters of the Nile every twenty-five years.

Click to enlarge
THE LION-FACED LIGHT-POWER.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
This Gnostic gem represents by its serpentine body the pathway of the Sun and by its
lion head the exaltation of the solar in the constellation of Leo.

Click to enlarge
A SYMBOLIC LABYRINTH.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
Labyrinths and mazes were favored places of initiation among many ancient cults.
Remains of these mystic mazes have been found among the American Indians, Hin-
dus, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Some of these mazes are merely involved path-
ways lined with stones; others are literally miles of gloomy caverns under temples or
hollowed from the sides of mountains. The famous labyrinth of Crete, in which
roamed the bull-headed Minotaur, was unquestionably a place of initiation into the
Cretan Mysteries.

60
There is considerable evidence that the famous statue of Serapis in the Sera-
peum at Alexandria was originally worshiped under another name at Sinope,
from which it was brought to Alexandria. There is also a legend which tells that
Serapis was a very early king of the Egyptians, to whom they owed the founda-
tion of their philosophical and scientific power. After his death this king was
elevated to the estate of a god. Phylarchus declared that the word Serapis
means "the power that disposed the universe into its present beautiful order."
In his Isis and Osiris, Plutarch gives the following account of the origin of
the magnificent statue of Serapis which stood in the Serapeum at Alexandria:
While he was Pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy Soter had a strange dream in
which he beheld a tremendous statue, which came to life and ordered the Pha-
raoh to bring it to Alexandria with all possible speed. Ptolemy Soter, not know-
ing the whereabouts of the statue, was sorely perplexed as to how he could
discover it. While the Pharaoh was relating his dream, a great traveler by the
name of Sosibius, coming forward, declared that he had seen such an image at
Sinope. The Pharaoh immediately dispatched Soteles and Dionysius to nego-
tiate for the removal of the figure to Alexandria. Three years elapsed before
the image was finally obtained, the representatives of the Pharaoh finally steal-
ing it and concealing the theft by spreading a story that the statue had come to
life and, walking down the street leading from its temple, had boarded the ship
prepared for its transportation to Alexandria. Upon its arrival in Egypt, the
figure was brought into the presence of two Egyptian Initiates--the Eumolpid
Timotheus and Manetho the Sebennite--who, immediately pronounced it to be
Serapis. The priests then declared that it was equipollent to Pluto. This was a
masterly stroke, for in Serapis the Greeks and Egyptians found a deity in
common and thus religious unity was consummated between the two nations.
Several figures of Serapis that stood in his various temples in Egypt and
Rome have been described by early authors. Nearly all these showed Grecian
rather than Egyptian influence. In some the body of the god was encircled by
the coils of a great serpent. Others showed him as a composite of Osiris and
Apis.
A description of the god that in all probability is reasonably accurate is that
which represents him as a tall, powerful figure, conveying the twofold impres-
sion of manly strength and womanly grace. His face portrayed a deeply pensive
mood, the expression inclining toward sadness. His hair was long and arranged
in a somewhat feminine manner, resting in curls upon his breast and shoul-
ders. The face, save for its heavy beard, was also decidedly feminine. The fig-
ure of Serapis was usually robed from head to foot in heavy draperies, believed
by initiates to conceal the fact that his body was androgynous.
Various substances were used in making the statues of Serapis. Some un-
doubtedly were carved from stone or marble by skilled craftsmen; others may

61
have been cast from base or precious metals. One colossus of Serapis was
composed of plates of various metals fitted together. In a labyrinth sacred to
Serapis stood a thirteen-foot statue of him reputed to have been made from a
single emerald. Modern writers, discussing this image, state that it was made of
green glass poured into a mold. According to the Egyptians, however, it with-
stood all the tests of an actual emerald.
Clement of Alexandria describes a figure of Serapis compounded from the
following elements: First, filings of gold, silver, lead, and tin; second, all man-
ner of Egyptian stones, including sapphires, hematites, emeralds, and topazes;
all these being ground down and mixed together with the coloring matter left
over from the funeral of Osiris and Apis. The result was a rare and curious
figure, indigo in color. Some of the statues of Serapis must have been formed
of extremely hard substances, for when a Christian soldier, carrying out the
edict of Theodosius, struck the Alexandrian Serapis with his ax, that instru-
ment was shattered into fragments and sparks flew from it. It is also quite prob-
able that Serapis was worshiped in the form of a serpent, in common with
many of the higher deities of the Egyptian and Greek pantheons.
Serapis was called Theon Heptagrammaton, or the god with the name of
seven letters. The name Serapis (like Abraxas and Mithras) contains seven
letters. In their hymns to Serapis the priests chanted the seven vowels. Occa-
sionally Serapis is depicted with horns or a coronet of seven rays. These evi-
dently represented the seven divine intelligences manifesting through the solar
light. The Encyclopdia Britannica notes that the earliest authentic mention of
Serapis is in connection with the death of Alexander. Such was the prestige of
Serapis that he alone of the gods was consulted in behalf of the dying king.
The Egyptian secret school of philosophy was divided into the Lesser and
the Greater Mysteries, the former being sacred to Isis and the latter to Serapis
and Osiris. Wilkinson is of the opinion that only the priests were permitted to
enter the Greater Mysteries. Even the heir to the throne was not eligible until
he had been crowned Pharaoh, when, by virtue of his kingly office, he automat-
ically became a priest and the temporal head of the state religion. (See Wilkin-
son's Manners and Customs of the Egyptians.) A limited number were admit-
ted into the Greater Mysteries: these preserved their secrets inviolate.
Much of the information concerning the rituals of the higher degrees of the
Egyptian Mysteries has been gleaned from an examination of the chambers
and passageways in which the initiations were given. Under the temple of Sera-
pis destroyed by Theodosius were found strange mechanical contrivances con-
structed by the priests in the subterranean crypts and caverns where the noc-
turnal initiatory rites were celebrated. These machines indicate the severe tests
of moral and physical courage undergone by the candidates. After passing
through these tortuous ways, the neophytes who Survived the ordeals were

62
ushered into the presence of Serapis, a noble and awe-inspiring figure illu-
mined by unseen lights.
Labyrinths were also a striking feature in connection with the Rice of Sera-
pis, and E. A. Wallis Budge, in his Gods of the Egyptians, depicts Sera-
pis(Minotaur-like) with the body of a man and the head of a bull. Labyrinths
were symbolic of the involvements and illusions of the lower world through
which wanders the soul of man in its search for truth. In the labyrinth dwells
the lower animal man with the head of the bull, who seeks to destroy the soul
entangled in the maze of worldly ignorance. In this relation Serapis becomes
the Tryer or Adversary who tests the souls of those seeking union with the
Immortals. The maze was also doubtless used to represent the solar system,
the Bull-Man representing the sun dwelling in the mystic maze of its planets,
moons, and asteroids.
The Gnostic Mysteries were acquainted with the arcane meaning of Serapis,
and through the medium of Gnosticism this god became inextricably asso-
ciated with early Christianity. In fact, the Emperor Hadrian, while traveling in
Egypt in A.D. 24, declared in a letter to Servianus that the worshipers of Sera-
pis were Christians and that the Bishops of the church also worshiped at his
shrine. He even declared that the Patriarch himself, when in Egypt, was forced
to adore Serapis as well as Christ. (See Parsons' New Light on the Great Pyra-
mid.)
The little-suspected importance of Serapis as a prototype of Christ can be
best appreciated after a consideration of the following extract from C. W.
King's Gnostics and Their Remains: "There can be no doubt that the head of
Serapis, marked as the face is by a grave and pensive majesty, supplied the first
idea for the conventional portraits of the Saviour. The Jewish prejudices of the
first converts were so powerful that we may be sure no attempt was made to
depict His countenance until some generations after all that had beheld it on
earth had passed away."
Serapis gradually usurped the positions previously occupied by the other
Egyptian and Greek gods, and became the supreme deity of both religions. His
power continued until the fourth century of the Christian Era. In A.D. 385,
Theodosius, that would-be exterminator of pagan philosophy, issued his me-
morable edict De Idolo Serapidis Diruendo. When the Christian soldiers, in
obedience to this order, entered the Serapeum at Alexandria to destroy the
image of Serapis which had stood there for centuries, so great was their venera-
tion for the god that they dared not touch the image lest the ground should
open at their feet and engulf them. At length, overcoming their fear, they de-
molished the statue, sacked the building, and finally as a fitting climax to their
offense burned the magnificent library which was housed within the lofty
apartments of the Serapeum. Several writers have recorded the remarkable fact

63
that Christian symbols were found in the ruined foundations of this pagan
temple. Socrates, a church historian of the fifth century, declared that after the
pious Christians had razed the Serapeum at Alexandria and scattered the de-
mons who dwelt there under the guise of gods, beneath the foundations was
found the monogram of Christ!

Click to enlarge
THE ALEXANDRIAN SERAPIS.
From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.
Serapis is often shown standing on the back of the sacred crocodile, carrying in his left
hand a rule with which to measure the inundations of the Nile, and balancing with his
right hand a curious emblem consisting of an animal with the heads. The first head--
that of a lion--signified the present; the second head--that of a wolf--the past; and the
third head--that of a dog--the future. The body with its three heads was enveloped by
the twisted coils of a serpent. Figures of Serapis are occasionally accompanied by Cer-
berus, the three-headed dog of Pluto, and--like Jupiter--carry baskets of grain upon
their heads.

Two quotations will further establish the relationship existing between the Mys-
teries of Serapis and those of other ancient peoples. The first is from Richard
Payne Knight's Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology: "Hence
Varro [in De Lingua Latina] says that Clum and Terra, that is universal mind
and productive body, were the Great Gods of the Samothracian Mysteries; and
the same as the Serapis and Isis of the later gyptians: the Taautos and As-
tarte of the Phnicians, and the Saturn and Ops of the Latins." The second
quotation is from Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: "'Thee,' says Martianus
Capella, in his hymn to the Sun, 'dwellers on the Nile adore as Serapis, and
Memphis worships as Osiris: in the sacred rites of Persia thou art Mithras, in
Phrygia, Atys, and Libya bows down to thee as Ammon, and Phnician Byb-
64
los as Adonis; thus the whole world adores thee under different names.'"

THE ODINIC MYSTERIES

The date of the founding of the Odinic Mysteries is uncertain, some writers
declaring that they were established in the first century before Christ; others,
the first century after Christ. Robert Macoy, 33, gives the following description
of their origin: "It appears from the northern chronicles that in the first century
of the Christian Era, Sigge, the chief of the Aser, an Asiatic tribe, emigrated
from the Caspian sea and the Caucasus into northern Europe. He directed his
course northwesterly from the Black sea to Russia, over which, according to
tradition, he placed one of his sons as a ruler, as he is said to have done over
the Saxons and the Franks. He then advanced through Cimbria to Denmark,
which acknowledged his fifth son Skiold as its sovereign, and passed over to
Sweden, where Gylf, who did homage to the wonderful stranger, and was in-
itiated into his mysteries, then ruled. He soon made himself master here, built
Sigtuna as the capital of his empire, and promulgated a new code of laws, and
established the sacred mysteries. He, himself, assumed the name of Odin,
founded the priesthood of the twelve Drottars (Druids?) who conducted the
secret worship, and the administration of justice, and, as prophets, revealed the
future. The secret rites of these mysteries celebrated the death of Balder, the
beautiful and lovely, and represented the grief of Gods and men at his death,
and his restoration to life." (General History of Freemasonry.)
After his death, the historical Odin was apotheosized, his identity being
merged into that of the mythological Odin, god of wisdom, whose cult he had
promulgated. Odinism then supplanted the worship of Thor, the thunderer,
the supreme deity of the ancient Scandinavian pantheon. The mound where,
according to legend, King Odin was buried is still to be seen near the site of his
great temple at Upsala.
The twelve Drottars who presided over the Odinic Mysteries evidently per-
sonified the twelve holy and ineffable names of Odin. The rituals of the Odinic
Mysteries were very similar to those of the Greeks, Persians, and Brahmins,
after which they were patterned. The Drottars, who symbolized the signs of the
zodiac, were the custodians of the arts and sciences, which they revealed to
those who passed successfully the ordeals of initiation. Like many other pagan
cults, the Odinic Mysteries, as an institution, were destroyed by Christianity,
but the underlying cause of their fall was the corruption of the priesthood.
Mythology is nearly always the ritual and the symbolism of a Mystery school.
Briefly stated, the sacred drama which formed the basis of the Odinic Myste-

65
ries was as follows:
The Supreme, invisible Creator of all things was called All-Father. His re-
gent in Nature was Odin, the one-eyed god. Like Quetzalcoatl, Odin was ele-
vated to the dignity of the Supreme Deity. According to the Drottars, the un-
iverse was fashioned from the body of Ymir, the hoarfrost giant. Ymir was
formed from the clouds of mist that rose from Ginnungagap, the great cleft in
chaos into which the primordial frost giants and flame giants had hurled snow
and fire. The three gods--Odin, Vili, and Ve--slew Ymir and from him formed
the world. From Ymir's various members the different parts of Nature were
fashioned.
After Odin had established order, he caused a wonderful palace, called As-
gard, to be built on the top of a mountain, and here the twelve sir (gods)
dwelt together, far above the limitations of mortal men. On this mountain also
was Valhalla, the palace of the slain, where those who had heroically died
fought and feasted day after day. Each night their wounds were healed and the
boar whose flesh they ate renewed itself as rapidly as it was consumed.
Balder the Beautiful--the Scandinavian Christ--was the beloved son of Odin.
Balder was not warlike; his kindly and beautiful spirit brought peace and joy to
the hearts of the gods, and they all loved him save one. As Jesus had a Judas
among His twelve disciples, so one of the twelve gods was false--Loki, the per-
sonification of evil. Loki caused Hthr, the blind god of fate, to shoot Balder
with a mistletoe arrow. With the death of Balder, light and joy vanished from
the lives of the other deities. Heartbroken, the gods gathered to find a method
whereby they could resurrect this spirit of eternal life and youth. The result was
the establishment of the Mysteries.
The Odinic Mysteries were given in underground crypts or caves, the cham-
bers, nine in number, representing the Nine Worlds of the Mysteries. The
candidate seeking admission was assigned the task of raising Balder from the
dead. Although he did not realize it, he himself played the part of Balder. He
called himself a wanderer; the caverns through which he passed were symbolic
of the worlds and spheres of Nature. The priests who initiated him were em-
blematic of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The three supreme initiators--the
Sublime, the Equal to the Sublime, and the Highest--were analogous to the
Worshipful Master and the junior and Senior Wardens of a Masonic lodge.
After wandering for hours through the intricate passageways, the candidate
was ushered into the presence of a statue of Balder the Beautiful, the prototype
of all initiates into the Mysteries. This figure stood in the center of a great
apartment roofed with shields. In the midst of the chamber stood a plant with
seven blossoms, emblematic of the planers. In this room, which symbolized
the house of the sir, or Wisdom, the neophyte took his oath of secrecy and
piety upon the naked blade of a sword. He drank the sanctified mead from a

66
bowl made of a human skull and, having passed successfully through all the
tortures and trials designed to divert him from the course of wisdom, he was
finally permitted to unveil the mystery of Odin--the personification of wisdom.
He was presented, in the name of Balder, with the sacred ring of the order; he
was hailed as a man reborn; and it was said of him that he had died and had
been raised again without passing through the gates of death.
Richard Wagner's immortal composition, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is
based upon the Mystery rituals of the Odinic cult. While the great composer
took many liberties with the original story, the Ring Operas, declared to be the
grandest tetralogy of music dramas the world possesses, have caught and pre-
served in a remarkable manner the majesty and power of the original sagas.
Beginning with Das Rheingold, the action proceeds through Die Walkre and
Siegfried to an awe-inspiring climax in Gtterdmmerung, "The Twilight of the
Gods."

Click to enlarge
THE NINE WORLDS OF THE ODINIC MYSTERIES.
The Nordic Mysteries were given in nine chambers, or caverns, the candidate advanc-
ing through them in sequential order. These chambers of initiation represented the
nine spheres into which the Drottars divided the universe: (1) Asgard, the Heaven
World of the Gods; (2) Alf-heim, the World of the light and beautiful Elves, or Spirits;
(3) Nifl-heim, the World of Cold and Darkness, which is located in the North; (4)
Jotun-heim, the World of the Giants, which is located in the East; (5) Midgard, the
Earth World of human beings, which is located in the midst, or middle place; (6) Va-
na-heim, the World of the Vanes, which is located in the West; (7) Muspells-heim, the
World of Fire, which is located in the South; 8) Svart-alfa-heim, the World of the dark
and treacherous Elves, which is under the earth; and (9) Hel-heim, the World of cold
and the abode of the dead, which is located at the very lowest point of the universe. It
is to be understood that all of these worlds are invisible to the senses, except Midgard,
the home of human creatures, but during the process of initiation the soul of the can-
didate--liberated from its earthly sheath by the secret power of the priests--wanders
amidst the inhabitants of these various spheres. There is undoubtedly a relationship
between the nine worlds of the Scandinavians and the nine spheres, or planes, through
which initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries passed in their ritual of regeneration.
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 The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies
Part III

THE most famous of the ancient religious Mysteries were the Eleusinian,
whose rites were celebrated every five years in the city of Eleusis to honor
Ceres (Demeter, Rhea, or Isis) and her daughter, Persephone. The initiates of
the Eleusinian School were famous throughout Greece for the beauty of their
philosophic concepts and the high standards of morality which they demon-
strated in their daily lives. Because of their excellence, these Mysteries spread
to Rome and Britain, and later the initiations were given in both these coun-
tries. The Eleusinian Mysteries, named for the community in Attica where the
sacred dramas were first presented, are generally believed to have been
founded by Eumolpos about fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ,
and through the Platonic system of philosophy their principles have been pre-
served to modern times.
The rites of Eleusis, with their Mystic interpretations of Nature's most pre-
cious secrets, overshadowed the civilizations of their time and gradually ab-
sorbed many smaller schools, incorporating into their own system whatever
valuable information these lesser institutions possessed. Heckethorn sees in the
Mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus a metamorphosis of the rites of Isis and Osi-
ris, and there is every reason to believe that all so-called secret schools of the
ancient world were branches from one philosophic tree which, with its root in
heaven and its branches on the earth, is--like the spirit of man--an invisible but
ever-present cause of the objectified vehicles that give it expression. The Mys-
teries were the channels through which this one philosophic light was dissemi-
nated, and their initiates, resplendent with intellectual and spiritual understand-
ing, were the perfect fruitage of the divine tree, bearing witness before the ma-
terial world of the recondite source of all Light and Truth.
The rites of Eleusis were divided into what were called the Lesser and the
Greater Mysteries. According to James Gardner, the Lesser Mysteries were
celebrated in the spring (probably at the time of the vernal equinox) in the
town of Agr, and the Greater, in the fall (the time of the autumnal equinox) at
Eleusis or Athens. It is supposed that the former were given annually and the
latter every five years. The rituals of the Eleusinians were highly involved, and
to understand them required a deep study of Greek mythology, which they
interpreted in its esoteric light with the aid of their secret keys.
The Lesser Mysteries were dedicated to Persephone. In his Eleusinian and
Bacchic Mysteries, Thomas Taylor sums up their purpose as follows: "The

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Lesser Mysteries were designed by the ancient theologists, their founders, to
signify occultly the condition of the unpurified soul invested with an earthy
body, and enveloped in a material and physical nature."
The legend used in the Lesser rites is that of the abduction of the goddess
Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, by Pluto, the lord of the underworld, or
Hades. While Persephone is picking flowers in a beautiful meadow, the earth
suddenly opens and the gloomy lord of death, riding in a magnificent chariot,
emerges from its somber depths and, grasping her in his arms, carries the
screaming and struggling goddess to his subterranean palace, where he forces
her to become his queen.
It is doubtful whether many of the initiates themselves understood the mys-
tic meaning of this allegory, for most of them apparently believed that it re-
ferred solely to the succession of the seasons. It is difficult to obtain satisfactory
information concerning the Mysteries, for the candidates were bound by in-
violable oaths never to reveal their inner secrets to the profane. At the begin-
ning of the ceremony of initiation, the candidate stood upon the skins of ani-
mals sacrificed for the purpose, and vowed that death should seal his lips be-
fore he would divulge the sacred truths which were about to be communicated
to him. Through indirect channels, however, some of their secrets have been
preserved. The teachings given to the neophytes were substantially as follows:
The soul of man--often called Psyche, and in the Eleusinian Mysteries sym-
bolized by Persephone--is essentially a spiritual thing. Its true home is in the
higher worlds, where, free from the bondage of material form and material
concepts, it is said to be truly alive and self-expressive. The human, or physical,
nature of man, according to this doctrine, is a tomb, a quagmire, a false and
impermanent thing, the source of all sorrow and suffering. Plato describes the
body as the sepulcher of the soul; and by this he means not only the human
form but also the human nature.
The gloom and depression of the Lesser Mysteries represented the agony of
the spiritual soul unable to express itself because it has accepted the limitations
and illusions of the human environment. The crux of the Eleusinian argument
was that man is neither better nor wiser after death than during life. If he does
not rise above ignorance during his sojourn here, man goes at death into eterni-
ty to wander about forever, making the same mistakes which he made here. If
he does not outgrow the desire for material possessions here, he will carry it
with him into the invisible world, where, because he can never gratify the de-
sire, he will continue in endless agony. Dante's Inferno is symbolically descrip-
tive of the sufferings of those who never freed their spiritual natures from the
cravings, habits, viewpoints, and limitations of their Plutonic personalities.
Those who made no endeavor to improve themselves (whose souls have slept)
during their physical lives, passed at death into Hades, where, lying in rows,

69
they slept through all eternity as they had slept through life.
To the Eleusinian philosophers, birch into the physical world was death in
the fullest sense of the word, and the only true birth was that of the spiritual
soul of man rising out of the womb of his own fleshly nature. "The soul is dead
that slumbers," says Longfellow, and in this he strikes the keynote of the Eleu-
sinian Mysteries. Just as Narcissus, gazing at himself in the water (the ancients
used this mobile element to symbolize the transitory, illusionary, material un-
iverse) lost his life trying to embrace a reflection, so man, gazing into the mirror
of Nature and accepting as his real self the senseless clay that he sees reflected,
loses the opportunity afforded by physical life to unfold his immortal, invisible
Self.
An ancient initiate once said that the living are ruled by the dead. Only those
conversant with the Eleusinian concept of life could understand that statement.
It means that the majority of people are not ruled by their living spirits but by
their senseless (hence dead) animal personalities. Transmigration and reincar-
nation were taught in these Mysteries, but in a somewhat unusual manner. It
was believed that at midnight the invisible worlds were closest to the Terrestrial
sphere and that souls coming into material existence slipped in during the
midnight hour. For this reason many of the Eleusinian ceremonies were per-
formed at midnight. Some of those sleeping spirits who had failed to awaken
their higher natures during the earth life and who now floated around in the
invisible worlds, surrounded by a darkness of their own making, occasionally
slipped through at this hour and assumed the forms of various creatures.

Click to enlarge
THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE.
From Thomassin's Recucil des Figures, Groupes, Themes, Fontaines, Vases et autres
Ornements.
Pluto, the lord of the underworld, represents the body intelligence of man; and the
70
rape of Persephone is symbolic of the divine nature assaulted and defiled by the ani-
mal soul and dragged downward into the somber darkness of Hades, which is here
used as a synonym for the material, or objective, sphere of consciousness.
In his Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases, James Christie presents Meur-
sius' version of the occurrences taking place during the nine days required for the
enactment of the Greater Eleusinian Rites. The first day was that of general meeting,
during which those to be initiated were questioned concerning their several qualifica-
tions. The second day was spent in a procession to the sea, possibly for the submerging
of a image of the presiding goddess. The third day was opened by the sacrifice of a
mullet. On the fourth day the mystic basket containing certain sacred symbols was
brought to Eleusis, accompanied by a number of female devotees carrying smaller
baskets. On the evening of the fifth day there was a torch race, on the sixth a proces-
sion led by a statue of Iacchus, and on the seventh an athletic contest. The eighth day
was devoted to a repetition of the ceremonial for the benefit of any who might have
been prevented from coming sooner. The ninth and last day was devoted to the deep-
est philosophical issues of the Eleusinia, during which an urn or jar--the symbol of
Bacchus--was exhibited as an emblem of supreme importance.

The mystics of Eleusis also laid stress upon the evil of suicide, explaining that
there was a profound mystery concerning this crime of which they could not
speak, but warning their disciples that a great sorrow comes to all who take
their own lives. This, in substance, constitutes the esoteric doctrine given to the
initiates of the Lesser Mysteries. As the degree dealt largely with the miseries of
those who failed to make the best use of their philosophic opportunities, the
chambers of initiation were subterranean and the horrors of Hades were vividly
depicted in a complicated ritualistic drama. After passing successfully through
the tortuous passageways, with their trials and dangers, the candidate received
the honorary title of Mystes. This meant one who saw through a veil or had a
clouded vision. It also signified that the candidate had been brought up to the
veil, which would be torn away in the higher degree. The modern word mystic,
as referring to a seeker after truth according to the dictates of the heart along
the path of faith, is probably derived from this ancient word, for faith is belief
in the reality of things unseen or veiled.
The Greater Mysteries (into which the candidate was admitted only after he
had successfully passed through the ordeals of the Lesser, and not always then)
were sacred to Ceres, the mother of Persephone, and represent her as wander-
ing through the world in quest of her abducted daughter. Ceres carried two
torches, intuition and reason, to aid her in the search for her lost child (the
soul). At last she found Persephone not far from Eleusis, and out of gratitude
taught the people there to cultivate corn, which is sacred to her. She also
founded the Mysteries. Ceres appeared before Pluto, god of the souls of the
71
dead, and pleaded with him to allow Persephone to return to her home. This
the god at first refused to do, because Persephone had eaten of the pomegra-
nate, the fruit of mortality. At last, however, he compromised and agreed to
permit Persephone to live in the upper world half of the year if she would stay
with him in the darkness of Hades for the remaining half.
The Greeks believed that Persephone was a manifestation of the solar ener-
gy, which in the winter months lived under the earth with Pluto, but in the
summer returned again with the goddess of productiveness. There is a legend
that the flowers loved Persephone and that every year when she left for the
dark realms of Pluto, the plants and shrubs would die of grief. While the pro-
fane and uninitiated had their own opinions on these subjects, the truths of the
Greek allegories remained safely concealed by the priests, who alone recog-
nized the sublimity of these great philosophic and religious parables.
Thomas Taylor epitomizes the doctrines of the Greater Mysteries in the
following statement: "The Greater (Mysteries) obscurely intimated, by mystic
and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter when puri-
fied from the defilement of a material nature, and constantly elevated to the
realities of intellectual (spiritual) vision."
Just as the Lesser Mysteries discussed the prenatal epoch of man when the
consciousness in its nine days (embryologically, months) was descending into
the realm of illusion and assuming the veil of unreality, so the Greater Myste-
ries discussed the principles of spiritual regeneration and revealed to initiates
not only the simplest but also the most direct and complete method of liberat-
ing their higher natures from the bondage of material ignorance. Like Prome-
theus chained to the top of Mount Caucasus, man's higher nature is chained to
his inadequate personality. The nine days of initiation were also symbolic of
the nine spheres through which the human soul descends during the process of
assuming a terrestrial form. The secret exercises for spiritual unfoldment given
to disciples of the higher degrees are unknown, but there is every reason to
believe that they were similar to the Brahmanic Mysteries, since it is known
that the Eleusinian ceremonies were closed with the Sanskrit words "Konx Om
Pax."
That part of the allegory referring to the two six-month periods during one
of which Persephone must remain with Pluto, while during the other she may
revisit the upper world, offers material for deep consideration. It is probable
that the Eleusinians realized that the soul left the body during steep, or at least
was made capable of leaving by the special training which undoubtedly they
were in a position to give. Thus Persephone would remain as the queen of
Pluto's realm during the waking hours, but would ascend to the spiritual worlds
during the periods of sleep. The initiate was taught how to intercede with Pluto
to permit Persephone (the initiate's soul) to ascend from the darkness of his

72
material nature into the light of understanding. When thus freed from the
shackles of clay and crystallized concepts, the initiate was liberated not only for
the period of his life but for all eternity, for never thereafter was he divested of
those soul qualities which after death were his vehicles for manifestation and
expression in the so-called heaven world.
In contrast to the idea of Hades as a state of darkness below, the gods were
said to inhabit the tops of mountains, a well-known example being Mount
Olympus, where the twelve deities of the Greek pantheon were said to dwell
together. In his initiatory wanderings the neophyte therefore entered chambers
of ever-increasing brilliancy to portray the ascent of the spirit from the lower
worlds into the realms of bliss. As the climax to such wanderings he entered a
great vaulted room, in the center of which stood a brilliantly illumined statue of
the goddess Ceres. Here, in the presence of the hierophant and surrounded by
priests in magnificent robes, he was instructed in the highest of the secret mys-
teries of the Eleusis. At the conclusion of this ceremony he was hailed as an
Epoptes, which means one who has beheld or seen directly. For this reason
also initiation was termed autopsy. The Epoptes was then given certain sacred
books, probably written in cipher, together with tablets of stone on which se-
cret instructions were engraved.
In The Obelisk in Freemasonry, John A. Weisse describes the officiating
personages of the Eleusinian Mysteries as consisting of a male and a female
hierophant who directed the initiations; a male and a female torchbearer; a
male herald; and a male and a female altar attendant. There were also numer-
ous minor officials. He states that, according to Porphyry, the hierophant
represents Plato's Demiurgus, or Creator of the world; the torch bearer, the
Sun; the altar man, the Moon; the herald, Hermes, or Mercury; and the other
officials, minor stars.
From the records available, a number of strange and apparently supernatural
phenomena accompanied the rituals. Many initiates claim to have actually seen
the living gods themselves. Whether this was the result of religious ecstasy or
the actual cooperation of invisible powers with the visible priests must remain a
mystery. In The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, Apuleius thus describes what
in all probability is his initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries:
"I approached to the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of
Proserpine I, returned from it, being carried through all the elements. At mid-
night I saw the sun shining with a splendid light; and I manifestly drew near to,
the gods beneath, and the gods above, and proximately adored them."
Women and children were admitted to the Eleusinian Mysteries, and at one
time there were literally thousands of initiates. Because this vast host was not
prepared for the highest spiritual and mystical doctrines, a division necessarily
took place within the society itself. The higher teachings were given to only a

73
limited number of initiates who, because of superior mentality, showed a com-
prehensive grasp of their underlying philosophical concepts. Socrates refused
to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, for knowing its principles without
being a member of the order he realized that membership would seal his ton-
gue. That the Mysteries of Eleusis were based upon great and eternal truths is
attested by the veneration in which they were held by the great minds of the
ancient world. M. Ouvaroff asks, "Would Pindar, Plato, Cicero, Epictetus, have
spoken of them with such admiration, if the hierophant had satisfied himself
with loudly proclaiming his own opinions, or those of his order?"
The garments in which candidates were initiated were preserved for many
years and were believed to possess almost sacred properties. Just as the soul
can have no covering save wisdom and virtue, so the candidates--being as yet
without true knowledge--were presented to the Mysteries unclothed, being first:
given the skin of an animal and later a consecrated robe to symbolize the phi-
losophical teachings received by the initiate. During the course of initiation the
candidate passed through two gates. The first led downward into the lower
worlds and symbolized his birth into ignorance. The second led upward into a
room brilliantly lighted by unseen lamps, in which was the statue of Ceres and
which symbolized the upper world, or the abode of Light and Truth. Strabo
states that the great temple of Eleusis would hold between twenty and thirty
thousand people. The caves dedicated by Zarathustra also had these two doors,
symbolizing the avenues of birth and death.

Click to enlarge
CERES, THE PATRON OF THE MYSTERIES.
From a mural painting in Pompeii.
Ceres, or Demeter, was the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and by Zeus the mother of
Persephone. Some believe her to be the goddess of the earth, but more correctly she is
the deity protecting agriculture in general and corn in particular. The Poppy is sacred

74
to Ceres and she is often shown carrying or ornamented by a garland of these flowers.
In the Mysteries, Ceres represented riding in a chariot drawn by winged serpents.

Click to enlarge
THE PROCESSIONAL OF THE BACCHIC RITES.
From Ovid's Metamorphosis.
In the initiation, of the Bacchic Mysteries, the rle of Bacchus is played by the candi-
date who, set upon by priests in the guise of the Titans, is slain and finally restored to
life amidst great rejoicing. The Bacchic Mysteries were given every three years, and
like the Eleusinian Mysteries, were divided into two degrees. The initiates were
crowned with myrtle and ivy, plants which were sacred to Bacchus.
In the Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins conclusively establishes Bacchus (Dionysos) as
one of the early pagan forms of the Christos myth, "The birthplace of Bacchus, called
Sabazius or Sabaoth, was claimed by several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmisus,
in Thrace, his worship seems to have been chiefly celebrated. He was born of a virgin
on the 25th of December; he performed great miracles for the good of mankind; par-
ticularly one in which he changed water into wine; he rode in a triumphal procession
on an ass; he was put to death by the Titans, and rose again from the dead on the 25th
of March: he was always called the Saviour. In his mysteries, he was shown to the
people, as an infant is by the Christians at this day, on Christmas Day morning in
Rome."
While Apollo most generally represents the sun, Bacchus is also a form of solar
energy, for his resurrection was accomplished with the assistance of Apollo. The resur-
rection of Bacchus signifies merely the extraction or disentanglement of the various
Parts of the Bacchic constitution from the Titanic constitution of the world. This is
symbolized by the smoke or soot rising from the burned bodies of the Titans. The
soul is symbolized by smoke because it is extracted by the fire of the Mysteries. Smoke
signifies the ascension of the soul, far evolution is the process of the soul rising, like
smoke, from the divinely consumed material mass. At me time the Bacchic Rites were
of a high order, but later they became much degraded . The Bacchanalia, or orgies of
Bacchus, are famous in literature.

75
The following paragraph from Porphyry gives a fairly adequate conception of
Eleusinian symbolism: "God being a luminous principle, residing in the midst
of the most subtile fire, he remains for ever invisible to the eyes of those who
do not elevate themselves above material life: on this account, the sight of
transparent bodies, such as crystal, Parian marble, and even ivory, recalls the
idea of divine light; as the sight of gold excites an idea of its purity, for gold
cannot he sullied. Some have thought by a black stone was signified the invisi-
bility of the divine essence. To express supreme reason, the Divinity was
represented under the human form--and beautiful, for God is the source of
beauty; of different ages, and in various attitudes, sitting or upright; of one or
the other sex, as a virgin or a young man, a husband or a bride, that all the
shades and gradations might be marked. Every thing luminous was subsequent-
ly attributed to the gods; the sphere, and all that is spherical, to the universe, to
the sun and the moon--sometimes to Fortune and to Hope. The circle, and all
circular figures, to eternity--to the celestial movements; to the circles and zones
of the heavens. The section of circles, to the phases of the moon; and pyramids
and obelisks, to the igneous principle, and through that to the gods of Heaven.
A cone expresses the sun, a cylinder the earth; the phallus and triangle (a sym-
bol of the matrix) designate generation." (From Essay on the Mysteries of Eleu-
sis by M. Ouvaroff.)
The Eleusinian Mysteries, according to Heckethorn, survived all others and
did not cease to exist as an institution until nearly four hundred years after
Christ, when they were finally suppressed by Theodosius (styled the Great),
who cruelly destroyed all who did not accept the Christian faith. Of this great-
est of all philosophical institutions Cicero said that it taught men not only how
to live but also how to die.

THE ORPHIC MYSTERIES

Orpheus, the Thracian bard, the great initiator of the Greeks, ceased to be
known as a man and was celebrated as a divinity several centuries before the
Christian Era. "As to Orpheus himself * * *, " writes Thomas Taylor, "scarcely
a vestige of his life is to be found amongst the immense ruins of time. For who
has ever been able to affirm any thing with certainty of his origin, his age, his
country, and condition? This alone may be depended on, from general assent,
that there formerly lived a person named Orpheus, who was the founder of
theology among the Greeks; the institutor of their lives and morals; the first of
prophets, and the prince of poets; himself the offspring of a Muse; who taught
the Greeks their sacred rites and mysteries, and from whose wisdom, as from a

76
perennial and abundant fountain, the divine muse of Homer and the sublime
theology of Pythagoras and Plato flowed." (See The Mystical Hymns of Or-
pheus.)
Orpheus was founder of the Grecian mythological system which he used as
the medium for the promulgation of his philosophical doctrines. The origin of
his philosophy is uncertain. He may have got it from the Brahmins, there being
legends to the effect that he got it was a Hindu, his name possibly being de-
rived from , meaning "dark." Orpheus was initiated into the Egyptian
Mysteries, from which he secured extensive knowledge of magic, astrology,
sorcery, and medicine. The Mysteries of the Cabiri at Samothrace were also
conferred upon him, and these undoubtedly contributed to his knowledge of
medicine and music.
The romance of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the tragic episodes of
Greek mythology and apparently constitutes the outstanding feature of the
Orphic Rite. Eurydice, in her attempt to escape from a villain seeking to se-
duce her, died from the venom of a poisonous serpent which stung her in the
heel. Orpheus, penetrating to the very heart of the underworld, so charmed
Pluto and Persephone with the beauty of his music that they agreed to permit
Eurydice to return to life if Orpheus could lead her back to the sphere of the
living without once looking round to see if she were following. So great was his
fear, however, that she would stray from him that he turned his head, and Eu-
rydice with a heartbroken cry was swept back into the land of death.
Orpheus wandered the earth for a while disconsolate, and there are several
conflicting accounts of the manner of his death. Some declare that he was slain
by a bolt of lightning; others, that failing to save his beloved Eurydice, he
committed suicide. The generally accepted version of his death, however, is
that he was torn to pieces by Ciconian women whose advances he had spurned.
In the tenth book of Plato's Republic it is declared that, because of his sad fate
at the hands of women, the soul that had once been Orpheus, upon being des-
tined to live again in the physical world, chose rather to return in the body of a
swan than be born of woman. The head of Orpheus, after being torn from his
body, was cast with his lyre into the river Hebrus, down which it floated to the
sea, where, wedging in a cleft in a rock, it gave oracles for many years. The lyre,
after being stolen from its shrine and working the destruction of the thief, was
picked up by the gods and fashioned into a constellation.
Orpheus has long been sung as the patron of music. On his seven-stringed
lyre he played such perfect harmonies that the gods themselves were moved to
acclaim his power. When he touched the strings of his instrument the birds
and beasts gathered about him, and as he wandered through the forests his
enchanting melodies caused even the ancient trees with mighty effort to draw
their gnarled roots from out the earth and follow him. Orpheus is one of the

77
many Immortals who have sacrificed themselves that mankind might have the
wisdom of the gods. By the symbolism of his music he communicated the di-
vine secrets to humanity, and several authors have declared that the gods,
though loving him, feared that he would overthrow their kingdom and there-
fore reluctantly encompassed his destruction.
As time passed on the historical Orpheus became hopelessly confounded
with the doctrine he represented and eventually became the symbol of the
Greek school of the ancient wisdom. Thus Orpheus was declared to be the son
of Apollo, the divine and perfect truth, and Calliope, the Muse of harmony
and rhythm. In other words, Orpheus is the secret doctrine (Apollo) revealed
through music (Calliope). Eurydice is humanity dead from the sting of the ser-
pent of false knowledge and imprisoned in the underworld of ignorance. In
this allegory Orpheus signifies theology, which wins her from the king of the
dead but fails to accomplish her resurrection because it falsely estimates and
mistrusts the innate understanding within the human soul. The Ciconian wom-
en who tore Orpheus limb from limb symbolize the various contending theo-
logical factions which destroy the body of Truth. They cannot accomplish this,
however, until their discordant cries drown out the harmony drawn by Or-
pheus from his magic lyre. The head of Orpheus signifies the esoteric doc-
trines of his cult. These doctrines continue to live and speak even after his
body (the cult) has been destroyed. The lyre is the secret teaching of Orpheus;
the seven strings are the seven divine truths which are the keys to universal
knowledge. The differing accounts of his death represent the various means
used to destroy the secret teachings: wisdom can die in many ways at the same
time. The allegory of Orpheus incarnating in the white swan merely signifies
that the spiritual truths he promulgated will continue and will be taught by the
illumined initiates of all future ages. The swan is the symbol of the initiates of
the Mysteries; it is a symbol also of the divine power which is the progenitor of
the world.

THE BACCHIC AND DIONYSIAC RITES

The Bacchic Rite centers around the allegory of the youthful Bacchus (Diony-
sos or Zagreus) being torn to pieces by the Titans. These giants accomplished
the destruction of Bacchus by causing him to become fascinated by his own
image in a mirror. After dismembering him, the Titans first boiled the pieces
in water and afterwards roasted them. Pallas rescued the heart of the murdered
god, and by this precaution Bacchus (Dionysos) was enabled to spring forth
again in all his former glory. Jupiter, the Demiurgus, beholding the crime of

78
the Titans, hurled his thunderbolts and slew them, burning their bodies to
ashes with heavenly fire. Our of the ashes of the Titans--which also contained a
portion of the flesh of Bacchus, whose body they had partly devoured--the
human race was created. Thus the mundane life of every man was said to con-
tain a portion of the Bacchic life.
For this reason the Greek Mysteries warned against suicide. He who at-
tempts to destroy himself raises his hand against the nature of Bacchus within
him, since man's body is indirectly the tomb of this god and consequently must
be preserved with the greatest care.
Bacchus (Dionysos) represents the rational soul of the inferior world. He is the
chief of the Titans--the artificers of the mundane spheres. The Pythagoreans
called him the Titanic monad. Thus Bacchus is the all-inclusive idea of the
Titanic sphere and the Titans--or gods of the fragments--the active agencies by
means of which universal substance is fashioned into the pattern of this idea.
The Bacchic state signifies the unity of the rational soul in a state of self-
knowledge, and the Titanic state the diversity of the rational soul which, being
scattered throughout creation, loses the consciousness of its own essential one-
ness. The mirror into which Bacchus gazes and which is the cause of his fall is
the great sea of illusion--the lower world fashioned by the Titans. Bacchus (the
mundane rational soul), seeing his image before him, accepts the image as a
likeness of himself and ensouls the likeness; that is, the rational idea ensouls its
reflection--the irrational universe. By ensouling the irrational image it implants
in it the urge to become like its source, the rational image. Therefore the an-
cients said that man does not know the gods by logic or by reason but rather by
realizing the presence of the gods within himself.
After Bacchus gazed into the mirror and followed his own reflection into
matter, the rational soul of the world was broken up and distributed by the
Titans throughout the mundane sphere of which it is the essential nature, but
the heart, or source, of it they could not: scatter. The Titans took the dismem-
bered body of Bacchus and boiled it in water--symbol of immersion in the
material universe--which represents the incorporation of the Bacchic principle
in form. The pieces were afterwards roasted to signify the subsequent ascen-
sion of the spiritual nature out of form.
When Jupiter, the father of Bacchus and the Demiurgus of the universe, saw
that the Titans were hopelessly involving the rational or divine idea by scatter-
ing its members through the constituent parts of the lower world, he slew the
Titans in order that the divine idea might not be entirely lost. From the ashes
of the Titans he formed mankind, whose purpose of existence was to preserve
and eventually to release the Bacchic idea, or rational soul, from the Titanic
fabrication. Jupiter, being the Demiurgus and fabricator of the material un-
iverse, is the third person of the Creative Triad, consequently the Lord of

79
Death, for death exists only in the lower sphere of being over which he pre-
sides. Disintegration takes place so that reintegration may follow upon a higher
level of form or intelligence. The thunderbolts of Jupiter are emblematic of his
disintegrative power; they reveal the purpose of death, which is to rescue the
rational soul from the devouring power of the irrational nature.
Man is a composite creature, his lower nature consisting of the fragments of
the Titans and his higher nature the sacred, immortal flesh (life) of Bacchus.
Therefore man is capable of either a Titanic (irrational) or a Bacchic (rational)
existence. The Titans of Hesiod, who were twelve in number, are probably
analogous to the celestial zodiac, whereas the Titans who murdered and dis-
membered Bacchus represent the zodiacal powers distorted by their involve-
ment in the material world. Thus Bacchus represents the sun who is dismem-
bered by the signs of the zodiac and from whose body the universe is formed.
When the terrestrial forms were created from the various parts of his body the
sense of wholeness was lost and the sense of separateness established. The
heart of Bacchus, which was saved by Pallas, or Minerva, was lifted out of the
four elements symbolized by his dismembered body and placed in the ether.
The heart of Bacchus is the immortal center of the rational soul.
After the rational soul had been distributed throughout creation and the
nature of man, the Bacchic Mysteries were instituted for the purpose of disen-
tangling it from the irrational Titanic nature. This disentanglement was the
process of lifting the soul out of the state of separateness into that of unity. The
various parts and members of Bacchus were collected from the different cor-
ners of the earth. When all the rational parts are gathered Bacchus is resur-
rected.
The Rites of Dionysos were very similar to those of Bacchus, and by many
these two gods are considered as one. Statues of Dionysos were carried in the
Eleusinian Mysteries, especially the lesser degrees. Bacchus, representing the
soul of the mundane sphere, was capable of an infinite multiplicity of form and
designations. Dionysos apparently was his solar aspect.
The Dionysiac Architects constituted an ancient secret society, in principles
and doctrines much like the modern Freemasonic Order. They were an organ-
ization of builders bound together by their secret knowledge of the relationship
between the earthly and the divine sciences of architectonics. They were sup-
posedly employed by King Solomon in the building of his Temple, although
they were not Jews, nor did they worship the God of the Jews, being followers
of Bacchus and Dionysos. The Dionysiac Architects erected many of the great
monuments of antiquity. They possessed a secret language and a system of
marking their stones. They had annual convocations and sacred feasts. The
exact nature of their doctrines is unknown. It is believed that CHiram Abiff
was an initiate of this society.

80
 Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity

ATLANTIS is the subject of a short but important article appearing in the

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution for the
year ending June 30th, 1915. The author, M. Pierre Termier, a member of the
Academy of Sciences and Director of Service of the Geologic Chart of France,
in 1912 delivered a lecture on the Atlantean hypothesis before the Institut
Ocanographique; it is the translated notes of this remarkable lecture that are
published in the Smithsonian report.
"After a long period of disdainful indifference," writes M. Termier, "observe
how in the last few years science is returning to the study of Atlantis. How
many naturalists, geologists, zoologists, or botanists are asking one another
today whether Plato has not transmitted to us, with slight amplification, a page
from the actual history of mankind. No affirmation is yet permissible; but it
seems more and more evident that a vast region, continental or made up of
great islands, has collapsed west of the Pillars of Hercules, otherwise called the
Strait of Gibraltar, and that its collapse occurred in the not far distant past. In
any event, the question of Atlantis is placed anew before men of science; and
since I do not believe that it can ever be solved without the aid of oceanogra-
phy, I have thought it natural to discuss it here, in this temple of maritime
science, and to call to such a problem, long scorned but now being revived, the
attention of oceanographers, as well as the attention of those who, though im-
mersed in the tumult of cities, lend an ear to the distant murmur of the sea."
In his lecture M. Termier presents geologic, geographic, and zoologic data
in substantiation of the Atlantis theory. Figuratively draining the entire bed of
the Atlantic Ocean, he considers the inequalities of its basin and cites locations
on a line from the Azores to Iceland where dredging has brought lava to the
surface from a depth of 3,000 meters. The volcanic nature of the islands now
existing in the Atlantic Ocean corroborates Plato's statement that the Atlantean
continent was destroyed by volcanic cataclysms. M. Termier also advances the
conclusions of a young French zoologist, M. Louis Germain, who admitted the
existence of an Atlantic continent connected with the Iberian Peninsula and
with Mauritania and prolonged toward the south so as to include some regions
of desert climate. M. Termier concludes his lecture with a graphic picture of
the engulfment of that continent.
The description of the Atlantean civilization given by Plato in the Critias
may be summarized as follows. In the first ages the gods divided the earth
among themselves, proportioning it according to their respective dignities.
Each became the peculiar deity of his own allotment and established therein

81
temples to himself, ordained a priestcraft, and instituted a system of sacrifice.
To Poseidon was given the sea and the island continent of Atlantis. In the
midst of the island was a mountain which was the dwelling place of three earth-
born primitive human beings--Evenor; his wife, Leucipe; and their only daugh-
ter, Cleito. The maiden was very beautiful, and after the sudden death of her
parents she was wooed by Poseidon, who begat by her five pairs of male child-
ren. Poseidon apportioned his continent among these ten, and Atlas, the eld-
est, he made overlord of the other nine. Poseidon further called the country
Atlantis and the surrounding sea the Atlantic in honor of Atlas. Before the
birth of his ten sons, Poseidon divided the continent and the coastwise sea into
concentric zones of land and water, which were as perfect as though turned
upon a lathe. Two zones of land and three of water surrounded the central
island, which Poseidon caused to be irrigated with two springs of water--one
warm and the other cold.
The descendants of Atlas continued as rulers of Atlantis, and with wise gov-
ernment and industry elevated the country to a position of surpassing dignity.
The natural resources of Atlantis were apparently limitless. Precious metals
were mined, wild animals domesticated, and perfumes distilled from its fra-
grant flowers. While enjoying the abundance natural to their semitropic loca-
tion, the Atlanteans employed themselves also in the erection of palaces, tem-
ples, and docks. They bridged the zones of sea and later dug a deep canal to
connect the outer ocean with the central island, where stood the palaces And
temple of Poseidon, which excelled all other structures in magnificence. A
network of bridges and canals was created by the Atlanteans to unite the vari-
ous parts of their kingdom.
Plato then describes the white, black, and red stones which they quarried
from beneath their continent and used in the construction of public buildings
and docks. They circumscribed each of the land zones with a wall, the outer
wall being covered with brass, the middle with tin, and the inner, which en-
compassed the citadel, with orichalch. The citadel, on the central island, con-
tained the pal aces, temples, and other public buildings. In its center, sur-
rounded by a wall of gold, was a sanctuary dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon.
Here the first ten princes of the island were born and here each year their des-
cendants brought offerings. Poseidon's own temple, its exterior entirely cov-
ered with silver and its pinnacles with gold, also stood within the citadel. The
interior of the temple was of ivory, gold, silver, and orichalch, even to the pil-
lars and floor. The temple contained a colossal statue of Poseidon standing in a
chariot drawn by six winged horses, about him a hundred Nereids riding on
dolphins. Arranged outside the building were golden statues of the first ten
kings and their wives.
In the groves and gardens were hot and cold springs. There were numerous

82
temples to various deities, places of exercise for men and for beasts, public
baths, and a great race course for horses. At various vantage points on the
zones were fortifications, and to the great harbor came vessels from every mari-
time nation. The zones were so thickly populated that the sound of human
voices was ever in the air.
That part of Atlantis facing the sea was described as lofty and precipitous,
but about the central city was a plain sheltered by mountains renowned for
their size, number, and beauty. The plain yielded two crops each year,, in the
winter being watered by rains and in the summer by immense irrigation canals,
which were also used for transportation. The plain was divided into sections,
and in time of war each section supplied its quota of fighting men and chariots.
The ten governments differed from each other in details concerning military
requirements. Each of the kings of Atlantis had complete control over his own
kingdom, but their mutual relationships were governed by a code engraved by
the first ten kings on a column' of orichalch standing in the temple of Pose-
idon. At alternate intervals of five and six years a pilgrimage was made to this
temple that equal honor might be conferred upon both the odd and the even
numbers. Here, with appropriate sacrifice, each king renewed his oath of loyal-
ty upon the sacred inscription. Here also the kings donned azure robes and sat
in judgment. At daybreak they wrote their sentences upon a golden tablet: and
deposited them with their robes as memorials. The chief laws of the Atlantean
kings were that they should not take up arms against each other and that they
should come to the assistance of any of their number who was attacked. In
matters of war and great moment the final decision was in the hands of the
direct descendants of the family of Atlas. No king had the power of life and
death over his kinsmen without the assent of a majority of the ten.

Click to enlarge
THE SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING TO THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
From Cartari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.

83
By ascending successively through the fiery sphere of Hades, the spheres of water,
Earth, and air, and the heavens of the moon, the plane of Mercury is reached. Above
Mercury are the planes of Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the latter contain-
ing the symbols of the Zodiacal constellations. Above the arch of the heavens (Saturn)
is the dwelling Place of the different powers controlling the universe. The supreme
council of the gods is composed of twelve deities--six male and six female--which cor-
respond to the positive and negative signs of the zodiac. The six gods are Jupiter, Vul-
can, Apollo, Mars, Neptune, and Mercury; the six goddesses are Juno, Ceres, Vesta,
Minerva, Venus, and Diana. Jupiter rides his eagle as the symbol of his sovereignty
over the world, and Juno is seated upon a peacock, the proper symbol of her haughti-
ness and glory.

Plato concludes his description by declaring that it was this great empire which
attacked the Hellenic states. This did not occur, however, until their power and
glory had lured the Atlantean kings from the pathway of wisdom and virtue.
Filled with false ambition, the rulers of Atlantis determined to conquer the
entire world. Zeus, perceiving the wickedness of the Atlanteans, gathered the
gods into his holy habitation and addressed them. Here Plato's narrative comes
to an abrupt end, for the Critias was never finished. In the Timus is a further
description of Atlantis, supposedly given to Solon by an Egyptian priest and
which concludes as follows:
"But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a sin-
gle day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth,
and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath
the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and
impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and
this was caused by the subsidence of the island."
In the introduction to his translation of the Timus, Thomas Taylor quotes
from a History of Ethiopia written by Marcellus, which contains the following
reference to Atlantis: "For they relate that in their time there were seven islands
in the Atlantic sea, sacred to Proserpine; and besides these, three others of an
immense magnitude; one of which was sacred to Pluto, another to Ammon,
and another, which is the middle of these, and is of a thousand stadia, to Nep-
tune." Crantor, commenting upon Plato, asserted that the Egyptian priests de-
clared the story of Atlantis to be written upon pillars which were still preserved
circa 300 B.C. (See Beginnings or Glimpses of Vanished Civilizations.) Ignatius
Donnelly, who gave the subject of Atlantis profound study, believed that horses
were first domesticated by the Atlanteans, for which reason they have always
been considered peculiarly sacred to Poseidon. (See Atlantis.)
From a careful consideration of Plato's description of Atlantis it is evident
that the story should not be regarded as wholly historical but rather as both
84
allegorical and historical. Origen, Porphyry, Proclus, Iamblichus, and Syrianus
realized that the story concealed a profound philosophical mystery, but they
disagreed as to the actual interpretation. Plato's Atlantis symbolizes the three-
fold nature of both the universe and the human body. The ten kings of Atlantis
are the tetractys, or numbers, which are born as five pairs of opposites. (Con-
sult Theon of Smyrna for the Pythagorean doctrine of opposites.) The num-
bers 1 to 10 rule every creature, and the numbers, in turn, are under the con-
trol of the Monad, or 1--the Eldest among them.
With the trident scepter of Poseidon these kings held sway over the inhabi-
tants of the seven small and three great islands comprising Atlantis. Philosophi-
cally, the ten islands symbolize the triune powers of the Superior Deity and the
seven regents who bow before His eternal throne. If Atlantis be considered as
the archetypal sphere, then its immersion signifies the descent of rational, or-
ganized consciousness into the illusionary, impermanent realm of irrational,
mortal ignorance. Both the sinking of Atlantis and the Biblical story of the "fall
of man" signify spiritual involution--a prerequisite to conscious evolution.
Either the initiated Plato used the Atlantis allegory to achieve two widely
different ends or else the accounts preserved by the Egyptian priests were tam-
pered with to perpetuate the secret doctrine. This does not mean to imply that
Atlantis is purely mythological, but it overcomes the most serious obstacle to
acceptance of the Atlantis theory, namely, the fantastic accounts of its origin,
size, appearance, and date of destruction--9600 B.C. In the midst of the central
island of Atlantis was a lofty mountain which cast a shadow five thousand stadia
in extent and whose summit touched the sphere of ther. This is the axle
mountain of the world, sacred among many races and symbolic of the human
head, which rises out of the four elements of the body. This sacred mountain,
upon whose summit stood the temple of the gods, gave rise to the stories of
Olympus, Meru, and Asgard. The City of the Golden Gates--the capital of
Atlantis--is the one now preserved among numerous religions as the City of the
Gods or the Holy City. Here is the archetype of the New Jerusalem, with its
streets paved with gold and its twelve gates shining with precious stones.
"The history of Atlantis," writes Ignatius Donnelly, "is the key of the Greek
mythology. There can be no question that these gods of Greece were human
beings. The tendency to attach divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one
deeply implanted in human nature." (See Atlantis.)
The same author sustains his views by noting that the deities of the Greek
pantheon were nor looked upon as creators of the universe but rather as re-
gents set over it by its more ancient original fabricators. The Garden of Eden
from which humanity was driven by a flaming sword is perhaps an allusion to
the earthly paradise supposedly located west of the Pillars of Hercules and
destroyed by volcanic cataclysms. The Deluge legend may be traced also to the

85
Atlantean inundation, during which a "world" was destroyed by water.,
Was the religious, philosophic, and scientific knowledge possessed by the
priestcrafts of antiquity secured from Atlantis, whose submergence obliterated
every vestige of its part in the drama of world progress? Atlantean sun worship
has been perpetuated in the ritualism and ceremonialism of both Christianity
and pagandom. Both the cross and the serpent were Atlantean emblems of
divine wisdom. The divine (Atlantean) progenitors of the Mayas and Quichs
of Central America coexisted within the green and azure radiance of Gucu-
matz, the "plumed" serpent. The six sky-born sages came into manifestation as
centers of light bound together or synthesized by the seventh--and chief--of
their order, the "feathered" snake. (See the Popol Vuh.) The title of "winged" or
"plumed" snake was applied to Quetzalcoatl, or Kukulcan, the Central Ameri-
can initiate. The center of the Atlantean Wisdom-Religion was presumably a
great pyramidal temple standing on the brow of a plateau rising in the midst of
the City of the Golden Gates. From here the Initiate-Priests of the Sacred
Feather went forth, carrying the keys of Universal Wisdom to the uttermost
parts of the earth.
The mythologies of many nations contain accounts of gods who "came out of
the sea." Certain shamans among the American Indians tell of holy men
dressed in birds' feathers and wampum who rose out of the blue waters and
instructed them in the arts and crafts. Among the legends of the Chaldeans is
that of Oannes, a partly amphibious creature who came out of the sea and
taught the savage peoples along the shore to read and write, till the soil, culti-
vate herbs for healing, study the stars, establish rational forms of government,
and become conversant with the sacred Mysteries. Among the Mayas, Quetzal-
coatl, the Savior-God (whom some Christian scholars believe to have been St.
Thomas), issued from the waters and, after instructing the people in the essen-
tials of civilization, rode out to sea on a magic raft of serpents to escape the
wrath of the fierce god of the Fiery Mirror, Tezcatlipoca.
May it not have been that these demigods of a fabulous age who, Esdras-like,
came out of the sea were Atlantean priests? All that primitive man remem-
bered of the Atlanteans was the glory of their golden ornaments, the transcen-
dency of their wisdom, and the sanctity of their symbols--the cross and the
serpent. That they came in ships was soon forgotten, for untutored minds con-
sidered even boats as supernatural. Wherever the Atlanteans proselyted they
erected pyramids and temples patterned after the great sanctuary in the City of
the Golden Gates. Such is the origin of the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, and
Central America. The mounds in Normandy and Britain, as well as those of
the American Indians, are remnants of a similar culture. In the midst of the
Atlantean program of world colonization and conversion, the cataclysms which
sank Atlantis began. The Initiate-Priests of the Sacred Feather who promised

86
to come back to their missionary settlements never returned; and after the
lapse of centuries tradition preserved only a fantastic account of gods who
came from a place where the sea now is.
H. P. Blavatsky thus sums up the causes which precipitated the Atlantean
disaster: "Under the evil insinuations of their demon, Thevetat, the Atlantis-
race became a nation of wicked magicians. In consequence of this, war was
declared, the story of which would be too long to narrate; its substance may be
found in the disfigured allegories of the race of Cain, the giants, and that of
Noah and his righteous family. The conflict came to an end by the submersion
of the Atlantis; which finds its imitation in the stories of the Babylonian and
Mosaic flood: The giants and magicians '* * * and all flesh died * * * and every
man.' All except Xisuthrus and Noah, who are substantially identical with the
great Father of the Thlinkithians in the Popol Vuh, or the sacred book of the
Guatemaleans, which also tells of his escaping in a large boat, like the Hindu
Noah--Vaiswasvata. " (See Isis Unveiled.)
From the Atlanteans the world has received not only the heritage of arts and
crafts, philosophies and sciences, ethics and religions, but also the heritage of
hate, strife, and perversion. The Atlanteans instigated the first war; and it has
been said that all subsequent wars were fought in a fruitless effort to justify the
first one and right the wrong which it caused. Before Atlantis sank, its spiritual-
ly illumined Initiates, who realized that their land was doomed because it had
departed from the Path of Light, withdrew from the ill-fated continent. Carry-
ing with them the sacred and secret doctrine, these Atlanteans established
themselves in Egypt, where they became its first "divine" rulers. Nearly all the
great cosmologic myths forming the foundation of the various sacred books of
the world are based upon the Atlantean Mystery rituals.

THE MYTH OF THE DYING GOD

The myth of Tammuz and Ishtar is one of the earliest examples of the dying-
god allegory, probably antedating 4000 B. C. (See Babylonia and Assyria by
Lewis Spence.) The imperfect condition of the tablets upon which the legends
are inscribed makes it impossible to secure more than a fragmentary account of
the Tammuz rites. Being the esoteric god of the sun, Tammuz did not occupy
a position among the first deities venerated by the Babylonians, who for lack of
deeper knowledge looked upon him as a god of agriculture or a vegetation
spirit. Originally he was described as being one of the guardians of the gates of
the underworld. Like many other Savior-Gods, he is referred to as a "shepherd"
or "the lord of the shepherd seat." Tammuz occupies the remarkable position

87
of son and husband of Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian Mother-goddess.
Ishtar--to whom the planer Venus was sacred--was the most widely venerated
deity of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon. She was probably identical
with Ashterorh, Astarte, and Aphrodite. The story of her descent into the un-
derworld in search presumably for the sacred elixir which alone could restore
Tammuz to life is the key to the ritual of her Mysteries. Tammuz, whose an-
nual festival took place just before the summer solstice, died in midsummer in
the ancient month which bore his name, and was mourned with elaborate ce-
remonies. The manner of his death is unknown, but some of the accusations
made against Ishtar by Izdubar (Nimrod) would indicate that she, indirectly at
least, had contributed to his demise. The resurrection of Tammuz was the
occasion of great rejoicing, at which time he was hailed as a "redeemer" of his
people.
With outspread wings, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin (the Moon), sweeps
downward to the gates of death. The house of darkness--the dwelling of the god
Irkalla--is described as "the place of no return." It is without light; the nourish-
ment of those who dwell therein is dust and their food is mud. Over the bolts
on the door of the house of Irkalla is scattered dust, and the keepers of the
house are covered with feathers like birds. Ishtar demands that the keepers
open the gates, declaring that if they do not she will shatter the doorposts and
strike the hinges and raise up dead devourers of the living. The guardians of
the gates beg her to be patient while they go to the queen of Hades from whom
they secure permission to admit Ishtar, but only in the same manner as all oth-
ers came to this dreary house. Ishtar thereupon descends through the seven
gates which lead downward into the depths of the underworld. At the first gate
the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from
her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gate the
ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist, at the
sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the
covering cloak of her body. Ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of
apparel is taken from her, bur the guardian tells her that this is the experience
of all who enter the somber domain of death. Enraged upon beholding Ishtar,
the Mistress of Hades inflicts upon her all manner of disease and imprisons
her in the underworld.
As Ishtar represents the spirit of fertility, her loss prevents the ripening of
the crops and the maturing of all life upon the earth.
In this respect the story parallels the legend of Persephone. The gods, realiz-
ing that the loss of Ishtar is disorganizing all Nature, send a messenger to the
underworld and demand her release. The Mistress of Hades is forced to
comply, and the water of life is poured over Ishtar. Thus cured of the infirmi-
ties inflicted on her, she retraces her way upward through the seven gates, at

88
each of which she is reinvested with the article of apparel which the guardians
had removed. (See The Chaldean Account of Genesis.) No record exists that
Ishtar secured the water of life which would have wrought the resurrection of
Tammuz.
The myth of Ishtar symbolizes the descent of the human spirit through the
seven worlds, or spheres of the sacred planets, until finally, deprived of its spi-
ritual adornments, it incarnates in the physical body--Hades--where the mistress
of that body heaps every form of sorrow and misery upon the imprisoned con-
sciousness. The waters of life--the secret doctrine--cure the diseases of ignor-
ance; and the spirit, ascending again to its divine source, regains its God-given
adornments as it passes upward through the rings of the planets.
Another Mystery ritual among the Babylonians and Assyrians was that of
Merodach and the Dragon. Merodach, the creator of the inferior universe,
slays a horrible monster and out of her body forms the universe. Here is the
probable source of the so-called Christian allegory of St. George and the Dra-
gon.
The Mysteries of Adonis, or Adoni, were celebrated annually in many parts
of Egypt, Phnicia, and Biblos. The name Adonis, or Adoni, means "Lord"
and was a designation applied to the sun and later borrowed by the Jews as the
exoteric name of their God. Smyrna, mother of Adonis, was turned into a tree
by the gods and after a time the bark burst open and the infant Savior issued
forth. According to one account, he was liberated by a wild boar which split the
wood of the maternal tree with its tusks. Adonis was born at midnight of the
24th of December, and through his unhappy death a Mystery rite was estab-
lished that wrought the salvation of his people. In the Jewish month of Tam-
muz (another name for this deity) he was gored to death by a wild boar sent by
the god Ars (Mars). The Adoniasmos was the ceremony of lamenting the pre-
mature death of the murdered god.
In Ezekiel viii. 14, it is written that women were weeping for Tammuz (Ado-
nis) at the north gate of the Lord's House in Jerusalem. Sir James George Fraz-
er cites Jerome thus: "He tells us that Bethlehem, the traditionary birthplace of
the Lord, was shaded by a grove of that still older Syrian Lord, Adonis, and
that where the infant Jesus had wept, the lover of Venus was bewailed." (See
The Golden Bough.) The effigy of a wild boar is said to have been set over one
of the gates of Jerusalem in honor of Adonis, and his rites celebrated in the
grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Adonis as the "gored" (or "god") man is one
of the keys to Sir Francis Bacon's use of the "wild boar" in his cryptic symbol-
ism.
Adonis was originally an androgynous deity who represented the solar power
which in the winter was destroyed by the evil principle of cold--the boar. After
three days (months) in the tomb, Adonis rose triumphant on the 25th day of

89
March, amidst the acclamation of his priests and followers, "He is risen!" Ado-
nis was born out of a myrrh tree. Myrrh, the symbol of death because of its
connection with the process of embalming, was one of the gifts brought by the
three Magi to the manger of Jesus.
In the Mysteries of Adonis the neophyte passed through the symbolic death
of the god and, "raised" by the priests, entered into the blessed state of redemp-
tion made possible by the sufferings of Adonis. Nearly all authors believe
Adonis to have been originally a vegetation god directly connected with the
growth and maturing of flowers and fruits. In support of this viewpoint they
describe the "gardens of Adonis, " which were small baskets of earth in which
seeds were planted and nurtured for a period of eight days. When those plants
prematurely died for lack of sufficient earth, they were considered emblematic
of the murdered Adonis and were usually cast into the sea with images of the
god.

Click to enlarge
THE GREAT GOD PAN.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
The great Pan was celebrated as the author and director of the sacred dances which he
is supposed to have instituted to symbolize the circumambulations of the heavenly
bodies. Pan was a composite creature, the upper part--with the exception of his horns--
being human, and the lower part in the form of a goat. Pan is the prototype of natural
energy and, while undoubtedly a phallic deity, should nor be confused with Priapus.
The pipes of Pan signify the natural harmony of the spheres, and the god himself is a
symbol of Saturn because this planet is enthroned in Capricorn, whose emblem is a
goat. The Egyptians were initiated into the Mysteries of Pan, who was regarded as a
phase of Jupiter, the Demiurgus. Pan represented the impregnating power of the sun
and was the chief of a horde rustic deities, and satyrs. He also signified the controlling
spirit of the lower worlds. The fabricated a story to the effect that at the time of the
birth of Christ the oracles were silenced after giving utterance to one last cry, "Great
Pan is dead!"

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In Phrygia there existed a remarkable school of religious philosophy which
centered around the life and untimely fate of another Savior-God known as
Atys, or Attis, by many considered synonymous with Adonis. This deity was
born at midnight on the 24th day of December. Of his death there are two
accounts. In one he was gored to death like Adonis; in the other he emascu-
lated himself under a pine tree and there died. His body was taken to a cave by
the Great Mother (Cybele), where it remained through the ages without decay-
ing. To the rites of Atys the modern world is indebted for the symbolism of the
Christmas tree. Atys imparted his immortality to the tree beneath which he
died, and Cybele took the tree with her when she removed the body. Atys re-
mained three days in the tomb, rose upon a date corresponding with Easter
morn, and by this resurrection overcame death for all who were initiated into
his Mysteries.
"In the Mysteries of the Phrygians, "says Julius Firmicus, "which are called
those of the MOTHER OF THE GODS, every year a PINE TREE is cut
down and in the inside of the tree the image of a YOUTH is tied in! In the
Mysteries of Isis the trunk of a PINE TREE is cut: the middle of the trunk is
nicely hollowed out; the idol of Osiris made from those hollowed pieces is
BURIED. In the Mysteries of Proserpine a tree cut is put together into the
effigy and form of the VIRGIN, and when it has been carried within the city it
is MOURNED 40 nights, but the fortieth night it is BURNED!" (See Sod, the
Mysteries of Adoni.)
The Mysteries of Atys included a sacramental meal during which the neophyte
ate out of a drum and drank from a cymbal. After being baptized by the blood
of a bull, the new initiate was fed entirely on milk to symbolize that he was still
a philosophical infant, having but recently been born out of the sphere of ma-
teriality. (See Frazer's The Golden Bough.) Is there a possible connection be-
tween this lacteal diet prescribed by the Attic rite and St. Paul's allusion to the
food for spiritual babes? Sallust gives a key to the esoteric interpretation of the
Attic rituals. Cybele, the Great Mother, signifies the vivifying powers of the
universe, and Atys that aspect of the spiritual intellect which is suspended be-
tween the divine and animal spheres. The Mother of the gods, loving Atys,
gave him a starry hat, signifying celestial powers, but Atys (mankind), falling in
love with a nymph (symbolic of the lower animal propensities), forfeited his
divinity and lost his creative powers. It is thus evident that Atys represents the
human consciousness and that his Mysteries are concerned with the reattain-
ment of the starry hat. (See Sallust on the Gods and the World.)
The rites of Sabazius were very similar to those of Bacchus and it is general-
ly believed that the two deities are identical. Bacchus was born at Sabazius, or
Sabaoth, and these names are frequently assigned to him. The Sabazian Myste-

91
ries were performed at night, and the ritual included the drawing of a live snake
across the breast of the candidate. Clement of Alexandria writes: "The token of
the Sabazian Mysteries to the initiated is 'the deity gliding over the breast.'" A
golden serpent was the symbol of Sabazius because this deity represented the
annual renovation of the world by the solar power. The Jews borrowed the
name Sabaoth from these Mysteries and adopted it as one of the appellations
of their supreme God. During the time the Sabazian Mysteries were celebrated
in Rome, the cult gained many votaries and later influenced the symbolism of
Christianity.
The Cabiric Mysteries of Samothrace were renowned among the ancients,
being next to the Eleusinian in public esteem. Herodotus declares that the
Samothracians received their doctrines, especially those concerning Mercury,
from the Pelasgians. Little is known concerning the Cabiric rituals, for they
were enshrouded in the profoundest secrecy. Some regard the Cabiri as seven
in number and refer to them as "the Seven Spirits of fire before the throne of
Saturn." Others believe the Cabiri to be the seven sacred wanderers, later
called the planets.
While a vast number of deities are associated with the Samothracian Myste-
ries, the ritualistic drama centers around four brothers. The first three--
Aschieros, Achiochersus, and Achiochersa--attack and murder the fourth--
Cashmala (or Cadmillus). Dionysidorus, however, identifies Aschieros with
Demeter, Achiochersus with Pluto, Achiochersa with Persephone, and Cash-
mala with Hermes. Alexander Wilder notes that in the Samothracian ritual
"Cadmillus is made to include the Theban Serpent-god, Cadmus, the Thoth of
Egypt, the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Emeph or sculapius of the Alex-
andrians and Phnicians. " Here again is a repetition of the story of Osiris,
Bacchus, Adonis, Balder, and Hiram Abiff. The worship of Atys and Cybele
was also involved in the Samothracian Mysteries. In the rituals of the Cabiri is
to be traced a form of pine-tree worship, for this tree, sacred to Atys, was first
trimmed into the form of a cross and then cut down in honor of the murdered
god whose body was discovered at its foot.
"If you wish to inspect the orgies of the Corybantes, " writes Clement, "Then
know that, having killed their third brother, they covered the head of the dead
body with a purple cloth, crowned it, and carrying it on the point of a spear,
buried it under the roots of Olympus. These mysteries are, in short, murders
and funerals. [This ante-Nicene Father in his efforts to defame the pagan rites
apparently ignores the fact that, like the Cabirian martyr, Jesus Christ was foul-
ly betrayed, tortured, and finally murdered!] And the priests Of these rites,
who are called kings of the sacred rites by those whose business it is to name
them, give additional strangeness to the tragic occurrence, by forbidding pars-
ley with the roots from being placed on the table, for they think that parsley

92
grew from the Corybantic blood that flowed forth; just as the women, in cele-
brating the Thcsmophoria, abstain from eating the seeds of the pomegranate,
which have fallen on the ground, from the idea that pomegranates sprang from
the drops of the blood of Dionysus. Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric;
and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery."
The Mysteries of the Cabiri were divided into three degrees, the first of
which celebrated the death of Cashmala, at the hands of his three brothers; the
second, the discovery of his mutilated body, the parts of which had been found
and gathered after much labor; and the third--accompanied by great rejoicing
and happiness--his resurrection and the consequent salvation of the world. The
temple of the Cabiri at Samothrace contained a number of curious divinities,
many of them misshapen creatures representing the elemental powers of Na-
ture, possibly the Bacchic Titans. Children were initiated into the Cabirian cult
with the same dignity as adults, and criminals who reached the sanctuary were
safe from pursuit. The Samothracian rites were particularly concerned with
navigation, the Dioscuri--Castor and Pollux, or the gods of navigation--being
among those propitiated by members of that cult. The Argonautic expedition,
listening to the advice of Orpheus, stopped at the island of Samothrace for the
purpose of having its members initiated into the Cabiric rites.
Herodotus relates that when Cambyses entered the temple of the Cabiri he
was unable to restrain his mirth at seeing before him the figure of a man stand-
ing upright and, facing the man, the figure of a woman standing on her head.
Had Cambyses been acquainted with the principles of divine astronomy, he
would have realized that he was then in the presence of the key to universal
equilibrium. "'I ask,' says Voltaire, 'who were these Hierophants, these sacred
Freemasons, who celebrated their Ancient Mysteries of Samothracia, and
whence came they and their gods Cabiri?'" (See Mackey's Encyclopdia of
Freemasonry.) Clement speaks of the Mysteries of the Cabiri as "the sacred
Mystery of a brother slain by his brethren," and the "Cabiric death" was one of
the secret symbols of antiquity. Thus the allegory of the Self murdered by the
not-self is perpetuated through the religious mysticism of all peoples. The phi-
losophic death and the philosophic resurrection are the Lesser and the Greater
Mysteries respectively.
A curious aspect of the dying-god myth is that of the Hanged Man. The
most important example of this peculiar conception is found in the Odinic
rituals where Odin hangs himself for nine nights from the branches of the
World Tree and upon the same occasion also pierces his own side with the
sacred spear. As the result of this great sacrifice, Odin, while suspended over
the depths of Nifl-heim, discovered by meditation the runes or alphabets by
which later the records of his people were preserved. Because of this remarka-
ble experience, Odin is sometimes shown seated on a gallows tree and he be-

93
came the patron deity of all who died by the noose. Esoterically, the Hanged
Man is the human spirit which is suspended from heaven by a single thread.
Wisdom, not death, is the reward for this voluntary sacrifice during which the
human soul, suspended above the world of illusion, and meditating upon its
unreality, is rewarded by the achievement of self-realization.
From a consideration of all these ancient and secret rituals it becomes evi-
dent that the mystery of the dying god was universal among the illumined and
venerated colleges of the sacred teaching. This mystery has been perpetuated
in Christianity in the crucifixion and death of the God-man-Jesus the Christ.
The secret import of this world tragedy and the Universal Martyr must be re-
discovered if Christianity is to reach the heights attained by the pagans in the
days of their philosophic supremacy. The myth of the dying god is the key to
both universal and individual redemption and regeneration, and those who do
not comprehend the true nature of this supreme allegory are not privileged to
consider themselves either wise or truly religious.

94
 The Life and Teachings of
Thoth Hermes Trismegistus

THUNDER rolled, lightning flashed, the veil of the Temple was rent from top
to bottom. The venerable initiator, in his robes of blue and gold, slowly raised
his jeweled wand and pointed with it into the darkness revealed by the tearing
of the silken curtain: "Behold the Light of Egypt! " The candidate, in his plain
white robe, gazed into the utter blackness framed by the two great Lotus-
headed columns between which the veil had hung. As he watched, a luminous
haze distributed itself throughout the atmosphere until the air was a mass of
shining particles. The face of the neophyte was illumined by the soft glow as he
scanned the shimmering cloud for some tangible object. The initiator spoke
again: "This Light which ye behold is the secret luminance of the Mysteries.
Whence it comes none knoweth, save the 'Master of the Light.' Behold Him!"
Suddenly, through the gleaming mist a figure appeared, surrounded by a flick-
ering greenish sheen. The initiator lowered his wand and, bowing his head,
placed one hand edgewise against his breast in humble salutation. The neo-
phyte stepped back in awe, partly blinded by the glory of the revealed figure.
Gaining courage, the youth gazed again at the Divine One. The Form before
him was considerably larger than that of a mortal man. The body seemed part-
ly transparent so that the heart and brain could be seen pulsating and radiant.
As the candidate watched, the heart changed into an ibis, and the brain into a
flashing emerald. In Its hand this mysterious Being bore a winged rod, ent-
wined with serpents. The aged initiator, raising his wand, cried out in a loud
voice: "All hail Thee, Thoth Hermes, Thrice Greatest; all hail Thee, Prince of
Men; all hail Thee who standeth upon the head of Typhon!" At the same in-
stant a lurid writhing dragon appeared--a hideous monster, part serpent, part
crocodile, and part hog. From its mouth and nostrils poured sheets of flame
and horrible sounds echoed through the vaulted chambers. Suddenly Hermes
struck the advancing reptile with the serpent-wound staff and with snarling cry
the dragon fell over upon its side, while the flames about it slowly died away.
Hermes placed His foot upon the skull of the vanquished Typhon. The next
instant, with a blaze of unbearable glory that sent the neophyte staggering
backward against a pillar, the immortal Hermes, followed by streamers of
greenish mist, passed through the chamber and faded into nothingness.

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SUPPOSITIONS CONCERNING THE IDENTITY OF HERMES

Iamblichus averred that Hermes was the author of twenty thousand books;
Manetho increased the number to more than thirty-six thousand (see James
Gardner)--figures which make it evident that a solitary individual, even though
he be overshadowed by divine prerogative, could scarcely have accomplished
such a monumental labor. Among the arts and sciences which it is affirmed
Hermes revealed to mankind were medicine, chemistry, law, arc, astrology,
music, rhetoric, Magic, philosophy, geography, mathematics (especially geome-
try), anatomy, and oratory. Orpheus was similarly acclaimed by the Greeks.
In his Biographia Antiqua, Francis Barrett says of Hermes: "* * * if God
ever appeared in man, he appeared in him, as is evident both from his books
and his Pymander; in which works he has communicated the sum of the Abyss,
and the divine knowledge to all posterity; by which he has demonstrated him-
self to have been not only an inspired divine, but also a deep philosopher,
obtaining his wisdom from God and heavenly things, and not from man."
His transcendent learning caused Hermes to be identified with many of the
early sages and prophets. In his Ancient Mythology, Bryant writes: "I have
mentioned that Cadmus was the same as the Egyptian Thoth; and it is manifest
from his being Hermes, and from the invention of letters being attributed to
him. " (In the chapter on the theory of Pythagorean Mathematics will be found
the table of the original Cadmean letters.) Investigators believe that it was
Hermes who was known to the Jews as "Enoch," called by Kenealy the "Second
Messenger of God." Hermes was accepted into the mythology of the Greeks,
later becoming the Mercury of the Latins. He was revered through the form of
the planet Mercury because this body is nearest to the sun: Hermes of all crea-
tures was nearest to God, and became known as the Messenger of the Gods.
In the Egyptian drawings of him, Thoth carries a waxen writing tablet and
serves as the recorder during the weighing of the souls of the dead in the judg-
ment Hall of Osiris--a ritual of great significance. Hermes is of first importance
to Masonic scholars, because he was the author of the Masonic initiatory ri-
tuals, which were borrowed from the Mysteries established by Hermes. Nearly
all of the Masonic symbols are Hermetic in character. Pythagoras studied ma-
thematics with the Egyptians and from them gained his knowledge of the sym-
bolic geometric solids. Hermes is also revered for his reformation of the calen-
dar system. He increased the year from 360 to 365 days, thus establishing a
precedent which still prevails. The appellation "Thrice Greatest" was given to
Hermes because he was considered the greatest of all philosophers, the great-
est of all priests, and the greatest of all kings. It is worthy of note that the last
poem of America's beloved poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a lyric
ode to Hermes. (See Chambers' Encyclopdia.)

96
THE MUTILATED HERMETIC FRAGMENTS

On the subject of the Hermetic books, James Campbell Brown, in his History
of Chemistry, has written: "Leaving the Chaldean and earliest Egyptian periods,
of which we have remains but no record, and from which no names of either
chemists or philosophers have come down to us, we now approach the Histor-
ic Period, when books were written, not at first upon parchment or paper, but
upon papyrus. A series of early Egyptian books is attributed to Hermes Tris-
megistus, who may have been a real savant, or may be a personification of a
long succession of writers. * * * He is identified by some with the Greek god
Hermes, and the Egyptian Thoth or Tuti, who was the moon-god, and is
represented in ancient paintings as ibis-headed with the disc and crescent of the
moon. The Egyptians regarded him as the god of wisdom, letters, and the re-
cording of time. It is in consequence of the great respect entertained for
Hermes by the old alchemists that chemical writings were called 'hermetic,' and
that the phrase 'hermetically sealed' is still in use to designate the closing of a
glass vessel by fusion, after the manner of chemical manipulators. We find the
same root in the hermetic medicines of Paracelsus, and the hermetic freema-
sonry of the Middle Ages."
Among the fragmentary writings believed to have come from the stylus of
Hermes are two famous works. The first is the Emerald Table, and the second
is the Divine Pymander, or, as it is more commonly called, The Shepherd of
Men, a discussion of which follows. One outstanding point in connection with
Hermes is that he was one of the few philosopher-priests of pagandom upon
whom the early Christians did not vent their spleen. Some Church Fathers
went so far as to declare that Hermes exhibited many symptoms of intelligence,
and that if he had only been born in a more enlightened age so that he might
have benefited by their instructions he would have been a really great man!
In his Stromata, Clement of Alexandria, one of the few chroniclers of pagan
lore whose writings have been preserved to this age, gives practically all the
information that is known concerning the original forty-two books of Hermes
and the importance with which these books were regarded by both the tempor-
al and spiritual powers of Egypt. Clement describes one of their ceremonial
processions as follows:
"For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is principally shown
by their sacred ceremonial. For first advances the Singer, bearing some one of
the symbols of music. For they say that he must learn two of the books of
Hermes, the one of which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regu-
lations for the king's life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer, with a
horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of astrology. He must have the
astrological books of Hermes, which are four in number, always in his mouth.

97
Of these, one is about the order of the fixed stars that are visible, and another
about the conjunctions and luminous appearances of the sun and moon; and
the rest respecting their risings. Next in order advances the sacred Scribe, with
wings on his head, and in his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink
and the reed, with which they write. And he must be acquainted with what are
called hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography, the position
of the sun and moon, and about the five planets; also the description of Egypt,
and the chart of the Nile; and the description of the equipment of the priests
and of the place consecrated to them, and about the measures and the things in
use in the sacred rites. Then the Stole-keeper follows those previously men-
tioned, with the cubit of justice and the cup for libations. He is acquainted with
all points called Pdeutic (relating to training) and Moschophaltic (sacrificial).
There are also ten books which relate to the honour paid by them to their
gods, and containing the Egyptian worship; as that relating to sacrifices, first-
fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and the like. And behind all walks
the Prophet, with the water-vase carried openly in his arms; who is followed by
those who carry the issue of loaves. He, as being the governor of the temple,
learns the ten books called 'Hieratic'; and they contain all about the laws, and
the gods, and the whole of the training of the priests. For the Prophet is,
among the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the revenues. There are then
forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; of which the six-and-thirty
containing the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are learned by the foremen-
tioned personages; and the other six, which are medical, by the Pastophoroi
(image-bearers),--treating of the structure of the body, and of disease, and in-
struments, and medicines, and about the eyes, and the last about women.

Click to enlarge
HERMES MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTUS.
From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
Master of all arts and sciences. perfect in all crafts, Ruler of the Three Worlds, Scribe
of the Gods, and Keeper of the Books of Life, Thoth Hermes Trismegistus--the Three
Times Greatest, the "First Intelligencer"--was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the
embodiment of the Universal Mind. While in all probability there actually existed a
98
great sage and educator by the name of Hermes, it is impossible to extricate the histor-
ical man from the mass of legendary accounts which attempt to identify him with the
Cosmic Principle of Thought.

One of the greatest tragedies of the philosophic world was the loss of nearly all
of the forty-two books of Hermes mentioned in the foregoing. These books
disappeared during the burning of Alexandria, for the Romans--and later the
Christians--realized that until these books were eliminated they could never
bring the Egyptians into subjection. The volumes which escaped the fire were
buried in the desert and their location is now known to only a few initiates of
the secret schools.

THE BOOK OF THOTH

While Hermes still walked the earth with men, he entrusted to his chosen suc-
cessors the sacred Book of Thoth. This work contained the secret processes by
which the regeneration of humanity was to be accomplished and also served as
the key to his other writings. Nothing definite is known concerning the contents
of the Book of Thoth other than that its pages were covered with strange hie-
roglyphic figures and symbols, which gave to those acquainted with their use
unlimited power over the spirits of the air and the subterranean divinities.
When certain areas of the brain are stimulated by the secret processes of the
Mysteries, the consciousness of man is extended and he is permitted to behold
the Immortals and enter into the presence of the superior gods. The Book of
Thoth described the method whereby this stimulation was accomplished. In
truth, therefore, it was the "Key to Immortality."
According to legend, the Book of Thoth was kept in a golden box in the
inner sanctuary of the temple. There was but one key and this was in the pos-
session of the "Master of the Mysteries," the highest initiate of the Hermetic
Arcanum. He alone knew what was written in the secret book. The Book of
Thoth was lost to the ancient world with the decay of the Mysteries, but its
faithful initiates carried it sealed in the sacred casket into another land. The
book is still in existence and continues to lead the disciples of this age into the
presence of the Immortals. No other information can be given to the world
concerning it now, but the apostolic succession from the first hierophant in-
itiated by Hermes himself remains unbroken to this day, and those who are
peculiarly fitted to serve the Immortals may discover this priceless document if
they will search sincerely and tirelessly for it.

99
 It has been asserted that the Book of Thoth is, in reality, the mysterious
Tarot of the Bohemians--a strange emblematic book of seventy-eight leaves
which has been in possession of the gypsies since the time when they were
driven from their ancient temple, the Serapeum. (According to the Secret His-
tories the gypsies were originally Egyptian priests.) There are now in the world
several secret schools privileged to initiate candidates into the Mysteries, but in
nearly every instance they lighted their altar fires from the flaming torch of
Herm. Hermes in his Book of Thoth revealed to all mankind the "One Way,"
and for ages the wise of every nation and every faith have reached immortality
by the "Way" established by Hermes in the midst of the darkness for the re-
demption of humankind.

POIMANDRES, THE VISION OF HERMES

The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus is one of the earliest

of the Hermetic writings now extant. While probably not in its original form,
having been remodeled during the first centuries of the Christian Era and in-
correctly translated since, this work undoubtedly contains many of the original
concepts of the Hermetic cultus. The Divine Pymander consists of seventeen
fragmentary writings gathered together and put forth as one work. The second
book of The Divine Pymander, called Poimandres, or The Vision, is believed
to describe the method by which the divine wisdom was first revealed to
Hermes. It was after Hermes had received this revelation that he began his
ministry, teaching to all who would listen the secrets of the invisible universe as
they had been unfolded to him.
The Vision is the most: famous of all the Hermetic fragments, and contains
an exposition of Hermetic cosmogony and the secret sciences of the Egyptians
regarding the culture and unfoldment of the human soul. For some time it was
erroneously called "The Genesis of Enoch," but that mistake has now been
rectified. At hand while preparing the following interpretation of the symbolic
philosophy concealed within The Vision of Hermes the present author has had
these reference works: The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegis-
tus (London, 1650), translated out of the Arabic and Greek by Dr. Everard;
Hermetica (Oxford, 1924), edited by Walter Scott; Hermes, The Mysteries of
Egypt (Philadelphia, 1925), by Edouard Schure; and the Thrice-Greatest
Hermes (London, 1906), by G. R. S. Mead. To the material contained in the
above volumes he has added commentaries based upon the esoteric philoso-
phy of the ancient Egyptians, together with amplifications derived partly from
other Hermetic fragments and partly from the secret arcanum of the Hermetic

100
sciences. For the sake of clarity, the narrative form has been chosen in prefe-
rence to the original dialogic style, and obsolete words have given place to
those in current use.
Hermes, while wandering in a rocky and desolate place, gave himself over to
meditation and prayer. Following the secret instructions of the Temple, he
gradually freed his higher consciousness from the bondage of his bodily senses;
and, thus released, his divine nature revealed to him the mysteries of the tran-
scendental spheres. He beheld a figure, terrible and awe-inspiring. It was the
Great Dragon, with wings stretching across the sky and light streaming in all
directions from its body. (The Mysteries taught that the Universal Life was
personified as a dragon.) The Great Dragon called Hermes by name, and
asked him why he thus meditated upon the World Mystery. Terrified by the
spectacle, Hermes prostrated himself before the Dragon, beseeching it to re-
veal its identity. The great creature answered that it was Poimandres, the Mind
of the Universe, the Creative Intelligence, and the Absolute Emperor of all.
(Schure identifies Poimandres as the god Osiris.) Hermes then besought Poi-
mandres to disclose the nature of the universe and the constitution of the gods.
The Dragon acquiesced, bidding Trismegistus hold its image in his mind.
Immediately the form of Poimandres changed. Where it had stood there
was a glorious and pulsating Radiance. This Light was the spiritual nature of
the Great Dragon itself. Hermes was "raised" into the midst of this Divine Ef-
fulgence and the universe of material things faded from his consciousness.
Presently a great darkness descended and, expanding, swallowed up the Light.
Everything was troubled. About Hermes swirled a mysterious watery substance
which gave forth a smokelike vapor. The air was filled with inarticulate moan-
ings and sighings which seemed to come from the Light swallowed up in the
darkness. His mind told Hermes that the Light was the form of the spiritual
universe and that the swirling darkness which had engulfed it represented ma-
terial substance.

101
Click to enlarge
THOTH, THE IBIS-HEADED.
From Wilkinson's Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
It is doubtful that the deity called Thoth by the Egyptians was originally Hermes, but
the two personalities were blended together and it is now impossible to separate them.
Thoth was called "The Lord of the Divine Books" and "Scribe of the Company of the
Gods." He is generally depicted with the body of a man and the head of an ibis. The
exact symbolic meaning of this latter bird has never been discovered. A careful analysis
of the peculiar shape of the ibis--especially its head and beak--should prove illuminat-
ing.

Then out of the imprisoned Light a mysterious and Holy Word came forth
and took its stand upon the smoking waters. This Word--the Voice of the
Light--rose out of the darkness as a great pillar, and the fire and the air fol-
lowed after it, but the earth and the water remained unmoved below. Thus the
waters of Light were divided from the waters of darkness, and from the waters
of Light were formed the worlds above and from the waters of darkness were
formed the worlds below. The earth and the water next mingled, becoming
inseparable, and the Spiritual Word which is called Reason moved upon their
surface, causing endless turmoil.
Then again was heard the voice of Poimandres, but His form was not re-
vealed: "I Thy God am the Light and the Mind which were before substance
was divided from spirit and darkness from Light. And the Word which ap-
peared as a pillar of flame out of the darkness is the Son of God, born of the
mystery of the Mind. The name of that Word is Reason. Reason is the
offspring of Thought and Reason shall divide the Light from the darkness and
establish Truth in the midst of the waters. Understand, O Hermes, and medi-
tate deeply upon the mystery. That which in you sees and hears is not of the

102
earth, but is the Word of God incarnate. So it is said that Divine Light dwells
in the midst of mortal darkness, and ignorance cannot divide them. The union
of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life. As the
darkness without you is divided against itself, so the darkness within you is
likewise divided. The Light and the fire which rise are the divine man, ascend-
ing in the path of the Word, and that which fails to ascend is the mortal man,
which may not partake of immortality. Learn deeply of the Mind and its mys-
tery, for therein lies the secret of immortality."
The Dragon again revealed its form to Hermes, and for a long time the two
looked steadfastly one upon the other, eye to eye, so that Hermes trembled
before the gaze of Poimandres. At the Word of the Dragon the heavens
opened and the innumerable Light Powers were revealed, soaring through
Cosmos on pinions of streaming fire. Hermes beheld the spirits of the stars,
the celestials controlling the universe, and all those Powers which shine with
the radiance of the One Fire--the glory of the Sovereign Mind. Hermes rea-
lized that the sight which he beheld was revealed to him only because Poiman-
dres had spoken a Word. The Word was Reason, and by the Reason of the
Word invisible things were made manifest. Divine Mind--the Dragon--
continued its discourse:
"Before the visible universe was formed its mold was cast. This mold was
called the Archetype, and this Archetype was in the Supreme Mind long before
the process of creation began. Beholding the Archetypes, the Supreme Mind
became enamored with Its own thought; so, taking the Word as a mighty
hammer, It gouged out caverns in primordial space and cast the form of the
spheres in the Archetypal mold, at the same time sowing in the newly fa-
shioned bodies the seeds of living things. The darkness below, receiving the
hammer of the Word, was fashioned into an orderly universe. The elements
separated into strata and each brought forth living creatures. The Supreme
Being--the Mind--male and female, brought forth the Word; and the Word,
suspended between Light and darkness, was delivered of another Mind called
the Workman, the Master-Builder, or the Maker of Things.
"In this manner it was accomplished, O Hermes: The Word moving like a
breath through space called forth the Fire by the friction of its motion. There-
fore, the Fire is called the Son of Striving. The Workman passed as a whirl-
wind through the universe, causing the substances to vibrate and glow with its
friction, The Son of Striving thus formed Seven Governors, the Spirits of the
Planets, whose orbits bounded the world; and the Seven Governors controlled
the world by the mysterious power called Destiny given them by the Fiery
Workman. When the Second Mind (The Workman) had organized Chaos,
the Word of God rose straightway our of its prison of substance, leaving the
elements without Reason, and joined Itself to the nature of the Fiery Work-

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man. Then the Second Mind, together with the risen Word, established Itself
in the midst of the universe and whirled the wheels of the Celestial Powers.
This shall continue from an infinite beginning to an infinite end, for the begin-
ning and the ending are in the same place and state.
"Then the downward-turned and unreasoning elements brought forth crea-
tures without Reason. Substance could not bestow Reason, for Reason had
ascended out of it. The air produced flying things and the waters such as swim.
The earth conceived strange four-footed and creeping beasts, dragons, compo-
site demons, and grotesque monsters. Then the Father--the Supreme Mind--
being Light and Life, fashioned a glorious Universal Man in Its own image, not
an earthy man but a heavenly Man dwelling in the Light of God. The Supreme
Mind loved the Man It had fashioned and delivered to Him the control of the
creations and workmanships.
The Man, desiring to labor, took up His abode in the sphere of generation
and observed the works of His brother--the Second Mind--which sat upon the
Ring of the Fire. And having beheld the achievements of the Fiery Workman,
He willed also to make things, and His Father gave permission. The Seven
Governors, of whose powers He partook, rejoiced and each gave the Man a
share of Its own nature.
"The Man longed to pierce the circumference of the circles and understand
the mystery of Him who sat upon the Eternal Fire. Having already all power,
He stooped down and peeped through the seven Harmonies and, breaking
through the strength of the circles, made Himself manifest to Nature stretched
out below. The Man, looking into the depths, smiled, for He beheld a shadow
upon the earth and a likeness mirrored in the waters, which shadow and like-
ness were a reflection of Himself. The Man fell in love with His own shadow
and desired to descend into it. Coincident with the desire, the Intelligent Thing
united Itself with the unreasoning image or shape.
"Nature, beholding the descent, wrapped herself about the Man whom she
loved, and the two were mingled. For this reason, earthy man is composite.
Within him is the Sky Man, immortal and beautiful; without is Nature, mortal
and destructible. Thus, suffering is the result of the Immortal Man's falling in
love with His shadow and giving up Reality to dwell in the darkness of illusion;
for, being immortal, man has the power of the Seven Governors--also the Life,
the Light, and the Word-but being mortal, he is controlled by the Rings of the
Governors--Fate or Destiny.
"Of the Immortal Man it should be said that He is hermaphrodite, or male
and female, and eternally watchful. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, and is
governed by a Father also both male and female, and ever watchful. Such is the
mystery kept hidden to this day, for Nature, being mingled in marriage with the
Sky Man, brought forth a wonder most wonderful--seven men, all bisexual,

104
male and female, and upright of stature, each one exemplifying the natures of
the Seven Governors. These O Hermes, are the seven races, species, and
wheels.
"After this manner were the seven men generated. Earth was the female
element and water the male element, and from the fire and the ther they
received their spirits, and Nature produced bodies after the species and shapes
of men. And man received the Life and Light of the Great Dragon, and of the
Life was made his Soul and of the Light his Mind. And so, all these composite
creatures containing immortality, but partaking of mortality, continued in this
state for the duration of a period. They reproduced themselves out of them-
selves, for each was male and female. But at the end of the period the knot of
Destiny was untied by the will of God and the bond of all things was loosened.
"Then all living creatures, including man, which had been hermaphroditical,
were separated, the males being set apart by themselves and the females like-
wise, according to the dictates of Reason.
"Then God spoke to the Holy Word within the soul of all things, saying:
'Increase in increasing and multiply in multitudes, all you, my creatures and
workmanships. Let him that is endued with Mind know himself to be immortal
and that the cause of death is the love of the body; and let him learn all things
that are, for he who has recognized himself enters into the state of Good.'

Click to enlarge
A GREEK FORM OF HERMES.
From Bryant's Mythology.
The name Hermes is derived from "Herm," a form of CHiram, the Personified Uni-
versal Life Principle, generally represented by fire. The Scandinavians worshiped
Hermes under the name of Odin; the Teutons as Wotan, and certain of the Oriental
peoples as Buddha, or Fo. There are two theories concerning his demise. The first
declares that Hermes was translated like Enoch and carried without death into the
presence of God, the second states that he was buried in the Valley of Ebron and a
great treasure placed in his tomb--not a treasure of gold but of books and sacred learn-
ing.
The Egyptians likened humanity to a flock of sheep. The Supreme and Inconceivable
105
Father was the Shepherd, and Hermes was the shepherd dog. The origin of the
shepherd's crook in religious symbolism may be traced to the Egyptian rituals. The
three scepters of Egypt include the shepherd's crook, symbolizing that by virtue of the
power reposing in that symbolic staff the initiated Pharaohs guided the destiny of their
people.

"And when God had said this, Providence, with the aid of the Seven Governors
and Harmony, brought the sexes together, making the mixtures and establish-
ing the generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind. He
who through the error of attachment loves his body, abides wandering in dark-
ness, sensible and suffering the things of death, but he who realizes that the
body is but the tomb of his soul, rises to immortality."
Then Hermes desired to know why men should be deprived of immortality
for the sin of ignorance alone. The Great Dragon answered:, To the ignorant
the body is supreme and they are incapable of realizing the immortality that is
within them. Knowing only the body which is subject to death, they believe in
death because they worship that substance which is the cause and reality of
death."
Then Hermes asked how the righteous and wise pass to God, to which Poi-
mandres replied: "That which the Word of God said, say I: 'Because the Father
of all things consists of Life and Light, whereof man is made.' If, therefore, a
man shall learn and understand the nature of Life and Light, then he shall pass
into the eternity of Life and Light."
Hermes next inquired about the road by which the wise attained to Life
eternal, and Poimandres continued: "Let the man endued with a Mind mark,
consider, and learn of himself, and with the power of his Mind divide himself
from his not-self and become a servant of Reality."
Hermes asked if all men did not have Minds, and the Great Dragon replied:
"Take heed what you say, for I am the Mind--the Eternal Teacher. I am the
Father of the Word--the Redeemer of all men--and in the nature of the wise
the Word takes flesh. By means of the Word, the world is saved. I, Thought
(Thoth)--the Father of the Word, the Mind--come only unto men that are holy
and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously, and my
presence is an inspiration and a help to them, for when I come they imme-
diately know all things and adore the Universal Father. Before such wise and
philosophic ones die, they learn to renounce their senses, knowing that these
are the enemies of their immortal souls.
"I will not permit the evil senses to control the bodies of those who love me,
nor will I allow evil emotions and evil thoughts to enter them. I become as a
porter or doorkeeper, and shut out evil, protecting the wise from their own

106
lower nature. But to the wicked, the envious and the covetous, I come not, for
such cannot understand the mysteries of Mind; therefore, I am unwelcome. I
leave them to the avenging demon that they are making in their own souls, for
evil each day increases itself and torments man more sharply, and each evil
deed adds to the evil deeds that are gone before until finally evil destroys itself.
The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment."
Hermes bowed his head in thankfulness to the Great Dragon who had
taught him so much, and begged to hear more concerning the ultimate of the
human soul. So Poimandres resumed: "At death the material body of man is
returned to the elements from which it came, and the invisible divine man
ascends to the source from whence he came, namely the Eighth Sphere. The
evil passes to the dwelling place of the demon, and the senses, feelings, desires,
and body passions return to their source, namely the Seven Governors, whose
natures in the lower man destroy but in the invisible spiritual man give life.
"After the lower nature has returned to the brutishness, the higher struggles
again to regain its spiritual estate. It ascends the seven Rings upon which sit the
Seven Governors and returns to each their lower powers in this manner: Upon
the first ring sits the Moon, and to it is returned the ability to increase and di-
minish. Upon the second ring sits Mercury, and to it are returned machina-
tions, deceit, and craftiness. Upon the third ring sits Venus, and to it are re-
turned the lusts and passions. Upon the fourth ring sits the Sun, and to this
Lord are returned ambitions. Upon the fifth ring sits Mars, and to it are re-
turned rashness and profane boldness. Upon the sixth ring sits Jupiter, and to it
are returned the sense of accumulation and riches. And upon the seventh ring
sits Saturn, at the Gate of Chaos, and to it are returned falsehood and evil plot-
ting.
"Then, being naked of all the accumulations of the seven Rings, the soul
comes to the Eighth Sphere, namely, the ring of the fixed stars. Here, freed of
all illusion, it dwells in the Light and sings praises to the Father in a voice which
only the pure of spirit may understand. Behold, O Hermes, there is a great
mystery in the Eighth Sphere, for the Milky Way is the seed-ground of souls,
and from it they drop into the Rings, and to the Milky Way they return again
from the wheels of Saturn. But some cannot climb the seven-runged ladder of
the Rings. So they wander in darkness below and are swept into eternity with
the illusion of sense and earthiness.
"The path to immortality is hard, and only a few find it. The rest await the
Great Day when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal
sparks shall escape from the sheaths of substance. Woe unto those who wait,
for they must return again, unconscious and unknowing, to the seed-ground of
stars, and await a new beginning. Those who are saved by the light of the mys-
tery which I have revealed unto you, O Hermes, and which I now bid you to

107
establish among men, shall return again to the Father who dwelleth in the
White Light, and shall deliver themselves up to the Light and shall be ab-
sorbed into the Light, and in the Light they shall become Powers in God. This
is the Way of Good and is revealed only to them that have wisdom.
"Blessed art thou, O Son of Light, to whom of all men, I, Poimandres, the
Light of the World, have revealed myself. I order you to go forth, to become as
a guide to those who wander in darkness, that all men within whom dwells the
spirit of My Mind (The Universal Mind) may be saved by My Mind in you,
which shall call forth My Mind in them. Establish My Mysteries and they shall
not fail from the earth, for I am the Mind of the Mysteries and until Mind fails
(which is never) my Mysteries cannot fail." With these parting words, Poiman-
dres, radiant with celestial light, vanished, mingling with the powers of the hea-
vens. Raising his eyes unto the heavens, Hermes blessed the Father of All
Things and consecrated his life to the service of the Great Light.
Thus preached Hermes: "O people of the earth, men born and made of the
elements, but with the spirit of the Divine Man within you, rise from your sleep
of ignorance! Be sober and thoughtful. Realize that your home is not in the
earth but in the Light. Why have you delivered yourselves over unto death,
having power to partake of immortality? Repent, and change your minds. De-
part from the dark light and forsake corruption forever. Prepare yourselves to
climb through the Seven Rings and to blend your souls with the eternal Light."
Some who heard mocked and scoffed and went their way, delivering them-
selves to the Second Death from which there is no salvation. But others, cast-
ing themselves before the feet of Hermes, besought him to teach them the
Way of Life. He lifted them gently, receiving no approbation for himself, and
staff in hand, went forth teaching and guiding mankind, and showing them how
they might be saved. In the worlds of men, Hermes sowed the seeds of wisdom
and nourished the seeds with the Immortal Waters. And at last came the even-
ing of his life, and as the brightness of the light of earth was beginning to go
down, Hermes commanded his disciples to preserve his doctrines inviolate
throughout all ages. The Vision of Poimandres he committed to writing that all
men desiring immortality might therein find the way.
In concluding his exposition of the Vision, Hermes wrote: "The sleep of the
body is the sober watchfulness of the Mind and the shutting of my eyes reveals
the true Light. My silence is filled with budding life and hope, and is full of
good. My words are the blossoms of fruit of the tree of my soul. For this is the
faithful account of what I received from my true Mind, that is Poimandres, the
Great Dragon, the Lord of the Word, through whom I became inspired by
God with the Truth. Since that day my Mind has been ever with me and in my
own soul it hath given birth to the Word: the Word is Reason, and Reason
hath redeemed me. For which cause, with all my soul and all my strength, I

108
give praise and blessing unto God the Father, the Life and the Light, and the
Eternal Good.
"Holy is God, the Father of all things, the One who is before the First Be-
ginning.
"Holy is God, whose will is performed and accomplished by His own Powers
which He hath given birth to out of Himself.
"Holy is God, who has determined that He shall be known, and who is
known by His own to whom He reveals Himself.
"Holy art Thou, who by Thy Word (Reason) hast established all things.
"Holy art Thou, of whom all Nature is the image.
"Holy art Thou, whom the inferior nature has not formed.
"Holy art Thou, who art stronger than all powers.
"Holy art Thou, who art greater than all excellency.
"Holy art Thou, who art better than all praise.
"Accept these reasonable sacrifices from a pure soul and a heart stretched
out unto Thee.
"O Thou Unspeakable, Unutterable, to be praised with silence!
"I beseech Thee to look mercifully upon me, that I may not err from the
knowledge of Thee and that I may enlighten those that are in ignorance, my
brothers and Thy sons.
"Therefore I believe Thee and bear witness unto Thee, and depart in peace
and in trustfulness into Thy Light and Life.
"Blessed art Thou, O Father! The man Thou hast fashioned would be sanc-
tified with Thee as Thou hast given him power to sanctify others with Thy
Word and Thy Truth."

The Vision of Hermes, like nearly all of the Hermetic writings, is an allegorical
exposition of great philosophic and mystic truths, and its hidden meaning may
be comprehended only by those who have been "raised" into the presence of
the True Mind.

109
 The Initiation of the Pyramid

SUPREME among the wonders of antiquity, unrivaled by the achievements of

later architects and builders, the Great Pyramid of Gizeh bears mute witness to
an unknown civilization which, having completed its predestined span, passed
into oblivion. Eloquent in its silence, inspiring in its majesty, divine in its sim-
plicity, the Great Pyramid is indeed a sermon in stone. Its magnitude over-
whelms the puny sensibilities of man. Among the shifting sands of time it
stands as a fitting emblem of eternity itself. Who were the illumined mathema-
ticians who planned its parts and dimensions, the master craftsmen who super-
vised its construction, the skilled artisans who trued its blocks of stone?
The earliest and best-known account of the building of the Great Pyramid is
that given by that highly revered but somewhat imaginative historian, Herodo-
tus. "The pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called, or, accord-
ing to others, altar-wise. After laying the stones for the base, they raised the
remaining stones to their places by means of machines formed of short wood-
en planks. The first machine raised them from the ground to the top of the
first step. On this there was another machine, which received the stone upon
its arrival, and conveyed it to the second step, whence a third machine ad-
vanced it still higher. Either they had as many machines as there were steps in
the pyramid, or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being easily
moved, was transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose. Both accounts are
given, and therefore I mention both. The upper portion of the pyramid was
finished first, then the middle, and finally the part which was lowest and nearest
the ground. There is an inscription in Egyptian characters on the pyramid
which records the quantity of radishes, onions, and garlick consumed by the
labourers who constructed it; and I perfectly well remember that the interpre-
ter who read the writing to me said that the money expended in this way was
1600 talents of silver. If this then is a true record, what a vast sum must have
been spent on the iron tools used in the work, and on the feeding and clothing
of the labourers, considering the length of time the work lasted, which has al-
ready been stated [ten years], and the additional time--no small space, I im-
agine--which must have been occupied by the quarrying of the stones, their
conveyance, and the formation of the underground apartments."
While his account is extremely colorful, it is apparent that the Father of
History, for reasons which he doubtless considered sufficient, concocted a
fraudulent story to conceal the true origin and purpose of the Great Pyramid.
This is but one of several instances in his writings which would lead the though-
tful reader to suspect that Herodotus himself was an initiate of the Sacred

110
Schools and consequently obligated to preserve inviolate the secrets of the
ancient orders. The theory advanced by Herodotus and now generally ac-
cepted that the Pyramid was the tomb of the Pharaoh Cheops cannot be subs-
tantiated. In fact, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and Diodorus Siculus all differ from
Herodotus--as well as from each other--regarding the name of the builder of
this supreme edifice. The sepulchral vault, which, according to the Lepsius
Law of pyramid construction, should have been finished at the same time as
the monument or sooner, was never completed. There is no proof that the
building was erected by the Egyptians, for the elaborate carvings with which the
burial chambers of Egyptian royalty are almost invariably ornamented are en-
tirely lacking and it embodies none of the elements of their architecture or
decoration, such as inscriptions, images, cartouches, paintings, and other dis-
tinctive features associated with dynastic mortuary art. The only hieroglyphics
to be found within the Pyramid are a few builders' marks sealed up in the
chambers of construction, first opened by Howard Vyse. These apparently
were painted upon the stones before they were set in position, for in a number
of instances the marks were either inverted or disfigured by the operation of
fitting the blocks together. While Egyptologists have attempted to identify the
crude dabs of paint as cartouches of Cheops, it is almost inconceivable that this
ambitious ruler would have permitted his royal name to suffer such indignities.
As the most eminent authorities on the subject are still uncertain as to the true
meaning of these crude markings, whatever proof they might be that the build-
ing was erected during the fourth dynasty is certainly offset by the sea shells at
the base of the Pyramid which Mr. Gab advances as evidence that it was
erected before the Deluge--a theory substantiated by the much-abused Arabian
traditions. One Arabian historian declared that the Pyramid was built by the
Egyptian sages as a refuge against the Flood, while another proclaimed it to
have been the treasure house of the powerful antediluvian king Sheddad Ben
Ad. A panel of hieroglyphs over the entrance, which the casual observer might
consider to afford a solution of the mystery, unfortunately dates back no fur-
ther than A.D. 1843, having been cut at that time by Dr. Lepsius as a tribute to
the King of Prussia.
Caliph al Mamoun, an illustrious descendant of the Prophet, inspired by
stories of the immense treasures sealed within its depths, journeyed from Bag-
dad to Cairo, A.D. 820, with a great force of workmen to open the mighty Py-
ramid. When Caliph al Mamoun first reached the foot of the "Rock of Ages"
and gazed up at its smooth glistening surface, a tumult of emotions undoubted-
ly racked his soul. The casing stones must have been in place at the time of his
visit, for the Caliph could find no indication of an entrance--four perfectly
smooth surfaces confronted him. Following vague rumors, he set his followers
to work on the north side of the Pyramid, with instructions to keep on cutting

111
and chiseling until they discovered something. To the Moslems with their
crude instruments and vinegar it was a herculean effort to tunnel a full hundred
feet through the limestone. Many times they were on the point of rebellion, but
the word of the Caliph was law and the hope of a vast fortune buoyed them up.
At last on the eve of total discouragement fate came to their rescue. A great
stone was heard to fall somewhere in the wall near the toiling and disgruntled
Arabs. Pushing on toward the sound with renewed enthusiasm, they finally
broke into the descending passage which leads into the subterranean chamber.
They then chiseled their way around the great stone portcullis which had fallen
into a position barring their progress, and attacked and removed one after
another the granite plugs which for a while continued to slide down the passage
leading from the Queen's Chamber above.
Finally no more blocks descended and the way was clear for the followers of
the Prophet. But where were the treasures? From room to room the frantic
workmen rushed, looking in vain for loot. The discontent of the Moslems
reached such a height that Caliph al Mamoun--who had inherited much of the
wisdom of his illustrious father, the Caliph al Raschid--sent to Bagdad for
funds, which he caused to be secretly buried near the entrance of the Pyramid.
He then ordered his men to dig at that spot and great was their rejoicing when
the treasure was discovered, the workmen being deeply impressed by the wis-
dom of the antediluvian monarch who had carefully estimated their wages and
thoughtfully caused the exact amount to be buried for their benefit!
The Caliph then returned to the city of his fathers and the Great Pyramid
was left to the mercy of succeeding generations. In the ninth century the sun's
rays striking the highly polished surfaces of the original casing stones caused
each side of the Pyramid to appear as a dazzling triangle of light. Since that
time, all but two of these casing stones have disappeared. Investigation has
resulted in their discovery, recut and resurfaced, in the walls of Mohammedan
mosques and palaces in various parts of Cairo and its environs.

112
Click to enlarge
DIPUS AND THE SPHINX.
From Levi's Les Mystres de la Kaballe.
The Egyptian Sphinx is closely related to the Greek legend of dipus, who first
solved the famous riddle propounded by the mysterious creature with the body of a
winged lion There is still another answer to the riddle of the sphinx, an answer best
revealed by a consideration of the Pythagorean values of numbers. The 4, the 2 and
the 3 produce the sum of 9, which is the natural number of man and also of the lower
worlds. The 4 represents the ignorant man, the 2 the intellectual man, and the 3 the
spiritual man. Infant humanity walks on four legs, evolving humanity on two legs, and
to the power of his own mind the redeemed and illumined magus adds the staff of
wisdom. The sphinx is therefore the mystery of Nature, the embodiment of the secret
doctrine, and all who cannot solve her riddle perish. To pass the sphinx is to attain
personal immortality.

PYRAMID PROBLEMS

C. Piazzi Smyth asks: "Was the Great Pyramid, then, erected before the inven-
tion of hieroglyphics, and previous to the birth of the Egyptian religion?" Time
may yet prove that the upper chambers of the Pyramid were a sealed mystery
before the establishment of the Egyptian empire. In the subterranean chamber,
however, are markings which indicate that the Romans gained admission there.
In the light of the secret philosophy of the Egyptian initiates, W. W. Harmon,
by a series of extremely complicated yet exact mathematical calculations; de-
termines that the first ceremonial of the Pyramid was performed 68,890 years
ago on the occasion when the star Vega for the first time sent its ray down the
descending passage into the pit. The actual building of the Pyramid was ac-
complished in the period of from ten to fifteen years immediately preceding
this date.
While such figures doubtless will evoke the ridicule of modern Egyptolo-
113
gists, they are based upon an exhaustive study of the principles of sidereal me-
chanics as incorporated into the structure of the Pyramid by its initiated build-
ers. If the casing stones were in position at the beginning of the ninth century,
the so-called erosion marks upon the outside were not due to water. The
theory also that the salt upon the interior stones of the Pyramid is evidence that
the building was once submerged is weakened by the scientific fact that this
kind of stone is subject to exudations of salt. While the building may have been
submerged, at least in part, during the many thousands of years since its erec-
tion, the evidence adduced to prove this point is not conclusive.
The Great Pyramid was built of limestone and granite throughout, the two
kinds of rock being combined in a peculiar and significant manner. The stones
were trued with the utmost precision, and the cement used was of such re-
markable quality that it is now practically as hard as the stone itself. The limes-
tone blocks were sawed with bronze saws, the teeth of which were diamonds or
other jewels. The chips from the stones were piled against the north side of the
plateau on which the structure stands, where they form an additional buttress
to aid in supporting the weight of the structure. The entire Pyramid is an ex-
ample of perfect orientation and actually squares the circle. This last is accom-
plished by dropping a vertical line from the apex of the Pyramid to its base
line. If this vertical line be considered as the radius of an imaginary circle, the
length of the circumference of such a circle will be found to equal the sum of
the base lines of the four sides of the Pyramid.
If the passage leading to the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber was
sealed up thousands of years before the Christian Era, those later admitted into
the Pyramid Mysteries must have received their initiations in subterranean
galleries now unknown. Without such galleries there could have been no poss-
ible means of ingress or egress, since the single surface entrance was complete-
ly dosed with casing stones. If not blocked by the mass of the Sphinx or con-
cealed in some part of that image, the secret entrance may be either in one of
the adjacent temples or upon the sides of the limestone plateau.
Attention is called to the granite plugs filling the ascending passageway to the
Queen's Chamber which Caliph al Mamoun was forced practically to pulverize
before he could clear a way into the upper chambers. C. Piazzi Smyth notes
that the positions of the stones demonstrate that they were set in place from
above--which made it necessary for a considerable number of workmen to de-
part from the upper chambers. How did they do it? Smyth believes they des-
cended through the well (see diagram), dropping the ramp stone into place
behind them. He further contends that robbers probably used the well as a
means of getting into the upper chambers. The ramp stone having been set in a
bed of plaster, the robbers were forced to break through it, leaving a jagged
opening. Mr. Dupr, an architect who has spent years investigating the pyra-

114
mids, differs from Smyth, however, in that he believes the well itself to be a
robbers' hole, being the first successful attempt made to enter the upper cham-
bers from the subterranean chamber, then the only open section of the Pyra-
mid.
Mr. Dupr bases his conclusion upon the fact that the well is merely a rough
hole and the grotto an irregular chamber, without any evidence of the architec-
tural precision with which the remainder of the structure was erected. The
diameter of the well also precludes the possibility of its having been dug down-
ward; it must have been gouged out from below, and the grotto was necessary
to supply air to the thieves. It is inconceivable that the Pyramid builders would
break one of their own ramp stones and leave its broken surface and a gaping
hole in the side wall of their otherwise perfect gallery. If the well is a robbers'
hole, it may explain why the Pyramid was empty when Caliph al Mamoun en-
tered it and what happened to the missing coffer lid. A careful examination of
the so-called unfinished subterranean chamber, which must have been the base
of operations for the robbers, might disclose traces of their presence or show
where they piled the rubble which must have accumulated as a result of their
operations. While it is not entirely clear by what entrance the robbers reached
the subterranean chamber, it is improbable that they used the descending pas-
sageway.
There is a remarkable niche in the north wall of the Queen's Chamber
which the Mohammedan guides glibly pronounce to be a shrine. The general
shape of this niche, however, with its walls converging by a series of overlaps
like those of the Grand Gallery, would indicate that originally it had been in-
tended as a passageway. Efforts made to explore this niche have been nonpro-
ductive, but Mr. Dupr believes an entrance to exist here through which--if the
well did not exist at the time--the workmen made their exit from the Pyramid
after dropping the stone plugs into the ascending gallery.
Biblical scholars have contributed a number of most extraordinary concep-
tions regarding the Great Pyramid. This ancient edifice has been identified by
them as Joseph's granary (despite its hopelessly inadequate capacity); as the
tomb prepared for the unfortunate Pharaoh of the Exodus who could not be
buried there because his body was never recovered from the Red Sea; and
finally as a perpetual confirmation of the infallibility of the numerous prophe-
cies contained in the Authorized Version!

115
THE SPHINX

Although the Great Pyramid, as Ignatius Donnelly has demonstrated, is pat-

terned after an antediluvian type of architecture, examples of which are to be
found in nearly every part of the world, the Sphinx (Hu) is typically Egyptian.
The stele between its paws states the Sphinx is an image of the Sun God, Har-
mackis, which was evidently made in the similitude of the Pharaoh during
whose reign it was chiseled. The statue was restored and completely excavated
by Tahutmes IV as the result of a vision in which the god had appeared and
declared himself oppressed by the weight of the sand about his body. The bro-
ken beard of the Sphinx was discovered during excavations between the front
paws. The steps leading up to the sphinx and also the temple and altar between
the paws are much later additions, probably Roman, for it is known that the
Romans reconstructed many Egyptian antiquities. The shallow depression in
the crown of the head, once thought to be the terminus of a closed up passa-
geway leading from the Sphinx to the Great Pyramid, was merely intended to
help support a headdress now missing.
Metal rods have been driven into the Sphinx in a vain effort to discover
chambers or passages within its body. The major part of the Sphinx is a single
stone, but the front paws have been built up of smaller stones. The Sphinx is
about 200 feet long, 70 feet high, and 38 feet wide across the shoulders. The
main stone from which it was carved is believed by some to have been trans-
ported from distant quarries by methods unknown, while others assert it to be
native rock, possibly an outcropping somewhat resembling the form into which
it was later carved. The theory once advanced that both the Pyramid and the
Sphinx were built from artificial stones made on the spot has been abandoned.
A careful analysis of the limestone shows it to be composed of small sea crea-
tures called mummulites.
The popular supposition that the Sphinx was the true portal of the Great
Pyramid, while it survives with surprising tenacity, has never been substan-
tiated. P. Christian presents this theory as follows, basing it in part upon the
authority of Iamblichus:
"The Sphinx of Gizeh, says the author of the Trait des Mystres, served as
the entrance to the sacred subterranean chambers in which the trials of the
initiate were undergone. This entrance, obstructed in our day by sands and
rubbish, may still be traced between the forelegs of the crouched colossus. It
was formerly closed by a bronze gate whose secret spring could be operated
only by the Magi. It was guarded by public respect: and a sort of religious fear
maintained its inviolability better than armed protection would have done. In
the belly of the Sphinx were cut out galleries leading to the subterranean part
of the Great Pyramid. These galleries were so artfully crisscrossed along their

116
course to the Pyramid that in setting forth into the passage without a guide
through this network, one ceaselessly and inevitably returned to the starting
point." (See Histoire de la Magie.)
Unfortunately, the bronze door referred to cannot be found, nor is there any
evidence that it ever existed. The passing centuries have wrought many changes
in the colossus, however, and the original opening may have been closed.
Nearly all students of the subject believe that subterranean chambers exist
beneath the Great Pyramid. Robert Ballard writes: "The priests of the Pyramids
of Lake Mris had their vast subterranean residences. It appears to me more
than probable that those of Gizeh were similarly provided. And I may go fur-
ther:--Out of these very caverns may have been excavated the limestone of
which the Pyramids were built. * * * In the bowels of the limestone ridge on
which the Pyramids are built will yet be found, I feel convinced, ample infor-
mation as to their uses. A good diamond drill with two or three hundred feet of
rods is what is wanted to test this, and the solidarity of the Pyramids at the
same time." (See The Solution of the Pyramid Problem.)

p. 43

Click to enlarge
A VERTICAL SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.
From Smyth's Life and Wok at the Great Pyramid.
The Great Pyramid stands upon a limestone plateau at the base of which, according to
ancient history, the Nile once flooded, thus supplying a method for the huge blocks
used in its construction. Presuming that the capstone as originally in place, the Pyramid
is, according to John Taylor, in round figures 486 feet high; the base of each side is
764 feet long, and the entire structure covers a ground area of more than 13 acres.
The Great Pyramid is the only one in the group at Gizeh--in fact, as far as known, the
only one in Egypt--that has chambers within the actual body of the Pyramid itself. Far
this reason it is said to refute the Lepsius Law, which asserts that each of these struc-
tures is a monument raised over a subterranean chamber in which a ruler is entombed.
The Pyramid contains four chambers, which in the diagram are lettered K, H, F, and
O.
The King's Chamber (K) is an oblong apartment 39 feet long, 17 felt wide, and 19 feet
high (disregarding fractional parts of a foot in each case), with a flat roof consisting of
nine great stones, the largest in the Pyramid. Above the King's Chamber are five low

117
compartments (L), generally termed construction chambers. In the lowest of these the
so-called hieroglyphs of the Pharaoh Cheops are located. The roof of the fifth con-
struction chamber is peaked. At the end of the King's Chamber opposite the entrance
stands the famous sarcophagus, or coffer (I), and behind it is a shallow opening that
was dug in the hope of discovering valuables. Two air vents (M, N) passing through the
entire body of the Pyramid ventilate the King's Chamber. In itself this is sufficient to
establish that the building was not intended for a tomb.
Between the upper end of the Grand Gallery (G. G.) and the King's Chamber is a
small antechamber (H), its extreme length 9 feet, its extreme width 5 feet, and its ex-
treme height 12 feet, with its walls grooved far purposes now unknown. In the groove
nearest the Grand Gallery is a slab of stone in two sections, with a peculiar boss or
knob protruding about an inch from the surface of the upper part facing the Grand
Gallery. This stone does not reach to the floor of the antechamber and those entering
the King's Chamber must pass under the slab. From the King's Chamber, the Grand
Gallery--157 feet in length, 28 feet in height, 7 feet in width at its widest point and
decreasing to 3 feet as the result of seven converging overlaps, of the stones forming
the walls--descends to a little above the level of the Queen's Chamber. Here a gallery
(E) branches off, passing mere than 100 feet back towards the center of the Pyramid
and opening into the Queen's Chamber (F). The Queen's Chamber is 19 feet long, 17
feet wide, and 20 feet high. Its roof is peaked and composed of great slabs of stone.
Air passages not shown lead from the Queen's Chamber, but these were not open
originally. In the east wall of the Queen's Chamber is a peculiar niche of gradually
converging stone, which in all likelihood, may prove to be a new lost entrance way.
At the paint where the Grand Gallery ends and the horizontal passage towards the
Queen's Chamber begins is the entrance to the well and also the opening leading down
the first ascending passage (D) to the point where this passage meets the descending
passage (A) leading from the outer wall of the Pyramid down to the subterranean
chamber. After descending 59 feet down the well (P), the grotto is reached. Continuing
through the floor of the grotto the well leads downward 133 feet to the descending
entrance passage (A), which it meets a short distance before this passage becomes
horizontal and leads into the subterranean chamber.
The subterranean chamber (O) is about 46 feet long and 27 feet wide, but is extremely
low, the ceiling varying in height from a little over 3 feet to about 13 feet from the
rough and apparently unfinished floor. From the south side of the subterranean cham-
ber a low tunnel runs about 50 feet and then meets a blank wall. These constitute the
only known openings in the Pyramid, with the exception of a few niches, exploration
holes, blind passages, and the rambling cavernous tunnel (B) hewn out by the Moslems
under the leadership of the Prophet's descendant, Caliph al Mamoun.

Mr. Ballard's theory of extensive underground apartments and quarries brings

up an important problem in architectonics. The Pyramid builders were too
farsighted to endanger the permanence of the Great Pyramid by placing over
118
five million tons of limestone and granite on any but a solid foundation. It is
therefore reasonably certain that such chambers or passageways as may exist
beneath the building are relatively insignificant, like those within the body of
the structure, which occupy less than one sixteen-hundredth of the cubic con-
tents of the Pyramid.
The Sphinx was undoubtedly erected for symbolical purposes at the instiga-
tion of the priestcraft. The theories that the urus upon its forehead was origi-
nally the finger of an immense sundial and that both the Pyramid and the
Sphinx were used to measure time, the seasons, and the precession of the
equinoxes are ingenious but not wholly convincing. If this great creature was
erected to obliterate the ancient passageway leading into the subterranean tem-
ple of the Pyramid, its symbolism would be most appropriate. In comparison
with the overwhelming size and dignity of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx is
almost insignificant. Its battered face, upon which may still be seen vestiges of
the red paint with which the figure was originally covered, is disfigured beyond
recognition. Its nose was broken off by a fanatical Mohammedan, lest the fol-
lowers of the Prophet be led into idolatry. The very nature of its construction
and the present repairs necessary to prevent the head from falling off indicate
that it could not have survived the great periods of time which have elapsed
since the erection of the Pyramid.
To the Egyptians, the Sphinx was the symbol of strength and intelligence. It
was portrayed as androgynous to signify that they recognized the initiates and
gods as partaking of both the positive and negative creative powers. Gerald
Massey writes: "This is the secret of the Sphinx. The orthodox sphinx of Egypt
is masculine in front and feminine behind. So is the image of Sut-Typhon, a
type of horn and tail, male in front and female behind. The Pharaohs, who
wore the tail of the Lioness or Cow behind them, were male in front and fe-
male behind. Like the Gods they included the dual totality of Being in one
person, born of the Mother, but of both sexes as the Child." (See The Natural
Genesis.)
Most investigators have ridiculed the Sphinx and, without even deigning to
investigate the great colossus, have turned their attention to the more over-
whelming mystery of the Pyramid.

THE PYRAMID MYSTERIES

The word pyramid is popularly supposed to be derived from , fire, thus

signifying that it is the symbolic representation of the One Divine Flame, the
life of every creature. John Taylor believes the word pyramid to mean a "meas-

119
ure of wheat, " while C. Piazzi Smyth favors the Coptic meaning, "a division
into ten." The initiates of old accepted the pyramid form as the ideal symbol of
both the secret doctrine and those institutions established for its dissemination.
Both pyramids and mounds are antitypes of the Holy Mountain, or High Place
of God, which was believed to stand in the "midst" of the earth. John P. Lundy
relates the Great Pyramid to the fabled Olympus, further assuming that its
subterranean passages correspond to the tortuous byways of Hades.
The square base of the Pyramid is a constant reminder that the House of
Wisdom is firmly founded upon Nature and her immutable laws. "The Gnos-
tics," writes Albert Pike, "claimed that the whole edifice of their science rested
on a square whose angles were: , Silence; , Profundity; , Intelligence;
and Truth." (See Morals and Dogma.) The sides of the Great Pyramid
face the four cardinal angles, the latter signifying according to Eliphas Levi the
extremities of heat and cold (south and north) and the extremities of light and
darkness (east and west). The base of the Pyramid further represents the four
material elements or substances from the combinations of which the quater-
nary body of man is formed. From each side of the square there rises a trian-
gle, typifying the threefold divine being enthroned within every quaternary ma-
terial nature. If each base line be considered a square from which ascends a
threefold spiritual power, then the sum of the lines of the four faces (12) and
the four hypothetical squares (16) constituting the base is 28, the sacred num-
ber of the lower world. If this be added to the three septenaries composing the
sun (21), it equals 49, the square of 7 and the number of the universe.
The twelve signs of the zodiac, like the Governors' of the lower worlds, are
symbolized by the twelve lines of the four triangles--the faces of the Pyramid.
In the midst of each face is one of the beasts of Ezekiel, and the structure as a
whole becomes the Cherubim. The three main chambers of the Pyramid are
related to the heart, the brain, and the generative system--the spiritual centers
of the human constitution. The triangular form of the Pyramid also is similar to
the posture assumed by the body during the ancient meditative exercises. The
Mysteries taught that the divine energies from the gods descended upon the
top of the Pyramid, which was likened to an inverted tree with its branches
below and its roots at the apex. From this inverted tree the divine wisdom is
disseminated by streaming down the diverging sides and radiating throughout
the world.
The size of the capstone of the Great Pyramid cannot be accurately deter-
mined, for, while most investigators have assumed that it was once in place, no
vestige of it now remains. There is a curious tendency among the builders of
great religious edifices to leave their creations unfinished, thereby signifying
that God alone is complete. The capstone--if it existed--was itself a miniature
pyramid, the apex of which again would be capped by a smaller block of simi-

120
lar shape, and so on ad infinitum. The capstone therefore is the epitome of the
entire structure. Thus, the Pyramid may be likened to the universe and the
capstone to man. Following the chain of analogy, the mind is the capstone of
man, the spirit the capstone of the mind, and God--the epitome of the whole--
the capstone of the spirit. As a rough and unfinished block, man is taken from
the quarry and by the secret culture of the Mysteries gradually transformed into
a trued and perfect pyramidal capstone. The temple is complete only when the
initiate himself becomes the living apex through which the divine power is fo-
cused into the diverging structure below.
W. Marsham Adams calls the Great Pyramid "the House of the Hidden
Places"; such indeed it was, for it represented the inner sanctuary of pre-
Egyptian wisdom. By the Egyptians the Great Pyramid was associated with
Hermes, the god of wisdom and letters and the Divine Illuminator worshiped
through the planet Mercury. Relating Hermes to the Pyramid emphasizes anew
the fact that it was in reality the supreme temple of the Invisible and Supreme
Deity. The Great Pyramid was not a lighthouse, an observatory, or a tomb, but
the first temple of the Mysteries, the first structure erected as a repository for
those secret truths which are the certain foundation of all arts and sciences. It
was the perfect emblem of the microcosm and the macrocosm and, according
to the secret teachings, the tomb of Osiris, the black god of the Nile. Osiris
represents a certain manifestation of solar energy, and therefore his house or
tomb is emblematic of the universe within which he is entombed and upon the
cross of which he is crucified.
Through the mystic passageways and chambers of the Great Pyramid passed
the illumined of antiquity. They entered its portals as men; they came forth as
gods. It was the place of the "second birth," the "womb of the Mysteries," and
wisdom dwelt in it as God dwells in the hearts of men. Somewhere in the
depths of its recesses there resided an unknown being who was called "The
Initiator," or "The Illustrious One," robed in blue and gold and bearing in his
hand the sevenfold key of Eternity. This was the lion-faced hierophant, the
Holy One, the Master of Masters, who never left the House of Wisdom and
whom no man ever saw save he who had passed through the gates of prepara-
tion and purification. It was in these chambers that Plato--he of the broad
brow---came face to face with the wisdom of the ages personified in the Master
of the Hidden House.
Who was the Master dwelling in the mighty Pyramid, the many rooms of
which signified the worlds in space; the Master whom none might behold save
those who had been "born again"? He alone fully knew the secret of the Pyra-
mid, but he has departed the way of the wise and the house is empty. The
hymns of praise no longer echo in muffled tones through the chambers; the
neophyte no longer passes through the elements and wanders among the seven

121
stars; the candidate no longer receives the "Word of Life" from the lips of the
Eternal One. Nothing now remains that the eye of man can see but an empty
shell--the outer symbol of an inner truth--and men call the House of God a
tomb!
The technique of the Mysteries was unfolded by the Sage Illuminator, the
Master of the Secret House. The power to know his guardian spirit was re-
vealed to the new initiate; the method of disentangling his material body from.
his divine vehicle was explained; and to consummate the magnum opus, there
was revealed the Divine Name--the secret and unutterable designation of the
Supreme Deity, by the very knowledge of which man and his God are made
consciously one. With the giving of the Name, the new initiate became himself
a pyramid, within the chambers of whose soul numberless other human beings
might also receive spiritual enlightenment.
In the King's Chamber was enacted the drama of the "second death." Here
the candidate, after being crucified upon the cross of the solstices and the
equinoxes, was buried in the great coffer. There is a profound mystery to the
atmosphere and temperature of the King's Chamber: it is of a peculiar death-
like cold which cuts to the marrow of the bone. This room was a doorway be-
tween the material world and the transcendental spheres of Nature. While his
body lay in the coffer, the soul of the neophyte soared as a human-headed
hawk through the celestial realms, there to discover first hand the eternity of
Life, Light, and Truth, as well as the illusion of Death, Darkness, and Sin.
Thus in one sense the Great Pyramid may be likened to a gate through which
the ancient priests permitted a few to pass toward the attainment of individual
completion. It is also to be noted incidentally that if the coffer in the King's
Chamber be struck, the sound emitted has no counterpart in any known musi-
cal scale. This tonal value may have formed part of that combination of cir-
cumstances which rendered the King's Chamber an ideal setting for the con-
ferment of the highest degree of the Mysteries.
The modern world knows little of these ancient rites. The scientist and the
theologian alike gaze upon the sacred structure, wondering what fundamental
urge inspired the herculean labor. If they would but think for a moment, they
would realize that there is only one urge in the soul of man capable of supply-
ing the required incentive--namely, the desire to know, to understand, and to
exchange the narrowness of human mortality for the greater breadth and scope
of divine enlightenment. So men say of the Great Pyramid that it is the most
perfect building in the world, the source of weights and measures, the original
Noah's Ark, the origin of languages, alphabets,. and scales of temperature and
humidity. Few realize, however, that it is the gateway to the Eternal.
Though the modern world may know a million secrets, the ancient world
knew one--and that one was greater than the million; for the million secrets

122
breed death, disaster, sorrow, selfishness, lust, and avarice, but the one secret
confers life, light, and truth. The time will come when the secret wisdom shall
again be the dominating religious and philosophical urge of the world. The day
is at hand when the doom of dogma shall be sounded. The great theological
Tower of Babel, with its confusion of tongues, was built of bricks of mud and
the mortar of slime. Out of the cold ashes of lifeless creeds, however, shall rise
phnixlike the ancient Mysteries. No other institution has so completely satis-
fied the religious aspirations of humanity, for since the destruction of the Mys-
teries there never has been a religious code to which Plato could have sub-
scribed. The unfolding of man's spiritual nature is as much an exact science as
astronomy, medicine or jurisprudence. To accomplish this end religions were
primarily established; and out of religion have come science, philosophy, and
logic as methods whereby this divine purpose might be realized.
The Dying God shall rise again! The secret room in the House of the Hid-
den Places shall be rediscovered. The Pyramid again shall stand as the ideal
emblem of solidarity, inspiration, aspiration, resurrection, and regeneration. As
the passing sands of time bury civilization upon civilization beneath their
weight, the Pyramid shall remain as the Visible covenant between Eternal Wis-
dom and the world. The time may yet come when the chants of the illumined
shall be heard once more in its ancient passageways and the Master of the
Hidden House shall await in the Silent Place for the coming of that man who,
casting aside the fallacies of dogma and tenet, seeks simply Truth and will be
satisfied with neither substitute nor counterfeit.

123
 Isis, the Virgin of the World

IT is especially fitting that a study of Hermetic symbolism should begin with a

discussion of the symbols and attributes of the Saitic Isis. This is the Isis of
Sais, famous for the inscription concerning her which appeared on the front of
her temple in that city: "I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; no mor-
tal Man hath ever me unveiled."
Plutarch affirms that many ancient authors believed this goddess to be the
daughter of Hermes; others held the opinion that she was the child of Prome-
theus. Both of these demigods were noted for their divine wisdom. It is not
improbable that her kinship to them is merely allegorical. Plutarch translates
the name Isis to mean wisdom. Godfrey Higgins, in his Anacalypsis, derives
the name of Isis from the Hebrew , Iso, and the Greek , to save. Some
authorities, however, for example, Richard Payne Knight (as stated in his Sym-
bolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology), believe the word to be of
Northern extraction, possibly Scandinavian or Gothic. In these languages the
name is pronounced Isa, meaning ice, or water in its most passive, crystallized,
negative state.
This Egyptian deity under many names appears as the principle of natural fe-
cundity among nearly all the religions of the ancient world. She was known as
the goddess with ten thousand appellations and was metamorphosed by Chris-
tianity into the Virgin Mary, for Isis, although she gave birth to all living things--
chief among them the Sun--still remained a virgin, according to the legendary
accounts.
Apuleius in the eleventh book of The Golden Ass ascribes to the goddess
the following statement concerning her powers and attributes: "Behold, * *, I,
moved by thy prayers, am present with thee; I, who am Nature, the parent of
things, the queen of all the elements, the primordial progeny of ages, the su-
preme of Divinities, the sovereign of the spirits of the dead, the first of the
celestials, and the uniform resemblance of Gods and Goddesses. I, who rule by
my nod the luminous summits of the heavens, the salubrious breezes of the
sea, and the deplorable silences of the realms beneath, and whose one divinity
the whole orb of the earth venerates under a manifold form, by different rites
and a variety of appellations. Hence the primogenial Phrygians call me Pessi-
nuntica, the mother of the Gods, the Attic Aborigines, Cecropian Minerva; the
floating Cyprians, Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Diana Dictynna;
the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and the Eleusinians, the an-
cient Goddess Ceres. Some also call me Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate,
and others Rhamnusia. And those who are illuminated by the incipient rays of

124
that divinity the Sun, when he rises, viz. the Ethiopians, the Arii, and the Egyp-
tians skilled in ancient learning, worshipping me by ceremonies perfectly ap-
propriate, call me by my true name, Queen Isis."
Le Plongeon believes that the Egyptian myth of Isis had a historical basis
among the Mayas of Central America, where this goddess was known as Queen
Moo. In Prince Coh the same author finds a correspondence to Osiris, the
brother-husband of Isis. Le Plongeon's theory is that Mayan civilization was far
more ancient than that of Egypt. After the death of Prince Coh, his widow,
Queen Moo, fleeing to escape the wrath of his murderers, sought refuge
among the Mayan colonies in Egypt, where she was accepted as their queen
and was given the name of Isis. While Le Plongeon may be right, the possible
historical queen sinks into insignificance when compared with the allegorical,
symbolic World Virgin; and the fact that she appears among so many different
races and peoples discredits the theory that she was a historical individual.
According to Sextus Empyricus, the Trojan war was fought over a statue of
the moon goddess. For this lunar Helena, and not for a woman, the Greeks
and Trojans struggled at the gates of Troy.
Several authors have attempted to prove that Isis, Osiris, Typhon, Nephthys,
and Aroueris (Thoth, or Mercury) were grandchildren of the great Jewish pa-
triarch Noah by his son Ham. But as the story of Noah and his ark is a cosmic
allegory concerning the repopulation of planets at the beginning of each world
period, this only makes it less likely that they were historical personages. Ac-
cording to Robert Fludd, the sun has three properties--life, light, and heat.
These three vivify and vitalize the three worlds--spiritual, intellectual, and ma-
terial. Therefore, it is said "from one light, three lights," i. e. the first three Mas-
ter Masons. In all probability, Osiris represents the third, or material, aspect of
solar activity, which by its beneficent influences vitalizes and enlivens the flora
and fauna of the earth. Osiris is not the sun, but the sun is symbolic of the vital
principle of Nature, which the ancients knew as Osiris. His symbol, therefore,
was an opened eye, in honor of the Great Eye of the universe, the sun. Op-
posed to the active, radiant principle of impregnating fire, hear, and motion
was the passive, receptive principle of Nature.
Modern science has proved that forms ranging in magnitude from solar sys-
tems to atoms are composed of positive, radiant nuclei surrounded by negative
bodies that exist upon the emanations of the central life. From this allegory we
have the story of Solomon and his wives, for Solomon is the sun and his wives
and concubines are the planets, moons, asteroids, and other receptive bodies
within his house--the solar mansion. Isis, represented in the Song of Solomon
by the dark maid of Jerusalem, is symbolic of receptive Nature--the watery,
maternal principle which creates all things out of herself after impregnation has
been achieved by the virility of the sun.

125
 In the ancient world the year had 360 days. The five extra days were ga-
thered together by the God of Cosmic Intelligence to serve as the birthdays of
the five gods and goddesses who are called the sons and daughters of Ham.
Upon the first of these special days Osiris was born and upon the fourth of
them Isis. (The number four shows the relation that this goddess bears to the
earth and its elements.) Typhon, the Egyptian Demon or Spirit of the Adver-
sary, was born upon the third day. Typhon is often symbolized by a crocodile;
sometimes his body is a combination of crocodile and hog. Isis stands for
knowledge and wisdom, and according to Plutarch the word Typhon means
insolence and pride. Egotism, self-centeredness, and pride are the deadly ene-
mies of understanding and truth. This part of the allegory is revealed.
After Osiris, here symbolized as the sun, had become King of Egypt and had
given to his people the full advantage of his intellectual light, he continued his
path through the heavens, visiting the peoples of other nations and converting
all with whom he came in contact. Plutarch further asserts that the Greeks rec-
ognized in Osiris the same person whom they revered under the names of
Dionysos and Bacchus. While he was away from his country, his brother, Ty-
phon, the Evil One, like the Loki of Scandinavia, plotted against the Sun God
to destroy him. Gathering seventy-two persons as fellow conspirators, he at-
tained his nefarious end in a most subtle manner. He had a wonderful orna-
mented box made just the size of the body of Osiris. This he brought into a
banquet hall where the gods and goddesses were feasting together. All admired
the beautiful chest, and Typhon promised to give it to the one whose body
fitted it most perfectly. One after another lay down in the box, but in disap-
pointment rose again, until at last Osiris also tried. The moment he was in the
chest Typhon and his accomplices nailed the cover down and sealed the cracks
with molten lead. They then cast the box into the Nile, down which it floated
to the sea. Plutarch states that the date upon which this occurred was the seven-
teenth day of the month Athyr, when the sun was in the constellation of Scor-
pio. This is most significant, for the Scorpion is the symbol of treachery. The
time when Osiris entered the chest was also the same season that Noah entered
the ark to escape from the Deluge.

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Click to enlarge
ISIS, QUEEN OF HEAVEN.
From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.
Diodorus writes of a famous inscription carved on a column at Nysa, in Arabia, where-
in Isis described herself as follows: "I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed
by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest
daughter of Saturn, most ancient of the gods. I am the wife and sister of Osiris the
King. I first made known to mortals the use of wheat. I am the mother of Orus the
King. In my honor was the city of Bubaste built. Rejoice, O Egypt, rejoice, land that
gave me birth!" (See "Morals and Dogma," by Albert Pike.)

Plutarch further declares that the Pans and Satyrs (the Nature spirits and ele-
mentals) first discovered that Osiris had been murdered. These immediately
raised an alarm, and from this incident the word panic, meaning fright or
amazement of the multitudes, originated. Isis, upon receiving the news of her
husband's murder, which she learned from some children who had seen the
murderers making off with the box, at once robed herself in mourning and
started forth in quest of him.
At length Isis discovered that the chest had floated to the coast of Byblos.
There it had lodged in the branches of a tree, which in a short time miracu-
lously grew up around the box. This so amazed the king of that country that he
ordered the tree to be cut down and a pillar made from its trunk to support the
roof of his palace. Isis, visiting Byblos, recovered the body of her husband, but
it was again stolen by Typhon, who cut it into fourteen parts, which he scat-
tered all over the earth. Isis, in despair, began gathering up the severed remains
of her husband, but found only thirteen pieces. The fourteenth part (the phal-
lus) she reproduced in gold, for the original had fallen into the river Nile and
had been swallowed by a fish.
Typhon was later slain in battle by the son of Osiris. Some of the Egyptians
believed that the souls of the gods were taken to heaven, where they shone
127
forth as stars. It was supposed that the soul of Isis gleamed from the Dog Star,
while Typhon became the constellation of the Bear. It is doubtful, however,
whether this idea was ever generally accepted.
Among the Egyptians, Isis is often represented with a headdress consisting of
the empty throne chair of her murdered husband, and this peculiar structure
was accepted during certain dynasties as her hieroglyphic. The headdresses of
the Egyptians have great symbolic and emblematic importance, for they
represent the auric bodies of the superhuman intelligences, and are used in the
same way that the nimbus, halo, and aureole are used in Christian religious art.
Frank C. Higgins, a well-known Masonic symbolist, has astutely noted that the
ornate headgears of certain gods and Pharaohs are inclined backward at the
same angle as the earth's axis. The robes, insignia, jewels, and ornamentations
of the ancient hierophants symbolized the spiritual energies radiating from the
human body. Modern science is rediscovering many of the lost secrets of
Hermetic philosophy. One of these is the ability to gauge the mental develop-
ment, the soul qualities, and the physical health of an individual from the
streamers of semi-visible electric force which pour through the surface of the
skin of every human being at all times during his life. (For details concerning a
scientific process for making the auric emanations visible, see The Human
Atmosphere by Dr. Walter J. Kilner.)
Isis is sometimes symbolized by the head of a cow; occasionally the entire
animal is her symbol. The first gods of the Scandinavians were licked out of
blocks of ice by the Mother Cow (Audhumla), who symbolized the principle of
natural nutriment and fecundity because of her milk. Occasionally Isis is
represented as a bird. She often carries in one hand the crux ansata, the sym-
bol of eternal life, and in the other the flowered scepter, symbolic of her au-
thority.
Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, the founder of Egyptian learning, the Wise
Man of the ancient world, gave to the priests and philosophers of antiquity the
secrets which have been preserved to this day in myth and legend. These alle-
gories and emblematic figures conceal the secret formul for spiritual, mental,
moral, and physical regeneration commonly known as the Mystic Chemistry of
the Soul (alchemy). These sublime truths were communicated to the initiates
of the Mystery Schools, but were concealed from the profane. The latter, una-
ble to understand the abstract philosophical tenets, worshiped the concrete
sculptured idols which were emblematic of these secret truths. The wisdom
and secrecy of Egypt are epitomized in the Sphinx, which has preserved its
secret from the seekers of a hundred generations. The mysteries of Hermetic-
ism, the great spiritual truths hidden from the world by the ignorance of the
world, and the keys of the secret doctrines of the ancient philosophers, are all
symbolized by the Virgin Isis. Veiled from head to foot, she reveals her wis-

128
dom only to the tried and initiated few who have earned the right to enter her
sacred presence, tear from the veiled figure of Nature its shroud of obscurity,
and stand face to face with the Divine Reality.
The explanations in these pages of the symbols peculiar to the Virgin Isis are
based (unless otherwise noted) on selections from a free translation of the
fourth book of Bibliotque des Philosophes Hermtiques, entitled "The Her-
metical Signification of the Symbols and Attributes of Isis," with interpolations
by the compiler to amplify and clarify the text.
The statues of Isis were decorated with the sun, moon, and stars, and many
emblems pertaining to the earth, over which Isis was believed to rule (as the
guardian spirit of Nature personified). Several images of the goddess have been
found upon which the marks of her dignity and position were still intact. Ac-
cording to the ancient philosophers, she personified Universal Nature, the
mother of all productions. The deity was generally represented as a partly nude
woman, often pregnant, sometimes loosely covered with a garment either of
green or black color, or of four different shades intermingled-black, white,
yellow, and red.
Apuleius describes her as follows: "In the first place, then, her most copious
and long hairs, being gradually intorted, and promiscuously scattered on her
divine neck, were softly defluous. A multiform crown, consisting of various
flowers, bound the sublime summit of her head. And in the middle of the
crown, just on her forehead, there was a smooth orb resembling a mirror, or
rather a white refulgent light, which indicated that she was the moon. Vipers
rising up after the manner of furrows, environed the crown on the right hand
and on the left, and Cerealian ears of corn were also extended from above.
Her garment was of many colours, and woven from the finest flax, and was at
one time lucid with a white splendour, at another yellow from the flower of
crocus, and at another flaming with a rosy redness. But that which most exces-
sively dazzled my sight, was a very black robe, fulgid with a dark splendour,
and which, spreading round and passing under her right side, and ascending to
her left shoulder, there rose protuberant like the center of a shield, the depen-
dent part of the robe falling in many folds, and having small knots of fringe,
gracefully flowing in its extremities. Glittering stars were dispersed through the
embroidered border of the robe, and through the whole of its surface: and the
full moon, shining in the middle of the stars, breathed forth flaming fires. Nev-
ertheless, a crown, wholly consisting of flowers and fruits of every kind, ad-
hered with indivisible connexion to the border of that conspicuous robe, in all
its undulating motions. What she carried in her hands also consisted of things
of a very different nature. For her right hand, indeed, bore a brazen rattle [si-
strum] through the narrow lamina of which bent like a belt, certain rods pass-
ing, produced a sharp triple sound, through the vibrating motion of her arm.

129
An oblong vessel, in the shape of a boat, depended from her left hand, on the
handle of which, in that part in which it was conspicuous, an asp raised its erect
head and largely swelling neck. And shoes woven from the leaves of the victo-
rious palm tree covered her immortal feet."
The green color alludes to the vegetation which covers the face of the earth,
and therefore represents the robe of Nature. The black represents death and
corruption as being the way to a new life and generation. "Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) White, yellow,
and red signify the three principal colors of the alchemical, Hermetical, univer-
sal medicine after the blackness of its putrefaction is over.
The ancients gave the name Isis to one of their occult medicines; therefore
the description here given relates somewhat to chemistry. Her black drape also
signifies that the moon, or the lunar humidity--the sophic universal mercury
and the operating substance of Nature in alchemical terminology--has no light
of its own, but receives its light, its fire, and its vitalizing force from the sun. Isis
was the image or representative of the Great Works of the wise men: the Phi-
losopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, and the Universal Medicine.

Click to enlarge
THE SISTRUM.
"The sistrum is designed * * * to represent to us, that every thing must be kept in con-
tinual agitation, and never cease from motion; that they ought to be mused and well-
shaken, whenever they begin to grow drowsy as it were, and to droop in their motion.
For, say they, the sound of these sistra averts and drives away Typho; meaning hereby,
that as corruption clogs and puts a stop to the regular course of nature; so generation,
by the means of motion, loosens it again, and restores it to its former vigour. Now the
outer surface of this instrument is of a convex figure, as within its circumference are
contained those four chords or bars [only three shown], which make such a rattling
when they are shaken--nor is this without its meaning; for that part of the universe
which is subject to generation and corruption is contained within the sphere of the
moon; and whatever motions or changes may happen therein, they are all effected by
the different combinations of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water, and air--
moreover, upon the upper part of the convex surface of the sistrum is carved the effi-
gies of a cat with a human visage, as on the lower edge of it, under those moving

130
chords, is engraved on the one side the face of Isis, and on the other that of Nephthys--
by the faces symbolically representing generation and corruption (which, as has been
already observed, is nothing but the motion and alteration of the four elements one
amongst another),"
(From Plutarch's Isis and Osiris.)

Other hieroglyphics seen in connection with Isis are no less curious than those
already described, but it is impossible to enumerate all, for many symbols were
used interchangeably by the Egyptian Hermetists. The goddess often wore
upon her head a hat made of cypress branches, to signify mourning for her
dead husband and also for the physical death which she caused every creature
to undergo in order to receive a new life in posterity or a periodic resurrection.
The head of Isis is sometimes ornamented with a crown of gold or a garland of
olive leaves, as conspicuous marks of her sovereignty as queen of the world
and mistress of the entire universe. The crown of gold signifies also the aurific
unctuosity or sulphurous fatness of the solar and vital fires which she dispenses
to every individual by a continual circulation of the elements, this circulation
being symbolized by the musical rattle which she carries in her hand. This
sistrum is also the yonic symbol of purity.
A serpent interwoven among the olive leaves on her head, devouring its own
tail, denotes that the aurific unctuosity was soiled with the venom of terrestrial
corruption which surrounded it and must be mortified and purified by seven
planetary circulations or purifications called flying eagles (alchemical terminol-
ogy) in order to make it medicinal for the restoration of health. (Here the
emanations from the sun are recognized as a medicine for the healing of hu-
man ills.) The seven planetary circulations are represented by the circumambu-
lations of the Masonic lodge; by the marching of the Jewish priests seven times
around the walls of Jericho, and of the Mohammedan priests seven times
around the Kabba at Mecca. From the crown of gold project three horns of
plenty, signifying the abundance of the gifts of Nature proceeding from one
root having its origin in the heavens (head of Isis).
In this figure the pagan naturalists represent all the vital powers of the three
kingdoms and families of sublunary nature-mineral, plant, and animal (man
considered as an animal). At one of her ears was the moon and at the other the
sun, to indicate that these two were the agent and patient, or father and mother
principles of all natural objects; and that Isis, or Nature, makes use of these two
luminaries to communicate her powers to the whole empire of animals, vege-
tables, and minerals. On the back of her neck were the characters of the pla-
nets and the signs of the zodiac which assisted the planets in their functions.
This signified that the heavenly influences directed the destinies of the prin-

131
ciples and sperms of all things, because they were the governors of all sublu-
nary bodies, which they transformed into little worlds made in the image of the
greater universe.
Isis holds in her right hand a small sailing ship with the spindle of a spinning
wheel for its mast. From the top of the mast projects a water jug, its handle
shaped like a serpent swelled with venom. This indicates that Isis steers the
bark of life, full of troubles and miseries, on the stormy ocean of Time. The
spindle symbolizes the fact that she spins and cuts the thread of Life. These
emblems further signify that Isis abounds in humidity, by means of which she
nourishes all natural bodies, preserving them from the heat of the sun by hu-
midifying them with nutritious moisture from the atmosphere. Moisture sup-
ports vegetation, but this subtle humidity (life ether) is always more or less in-
fected by some venom proceeding from corruption or decay. It must be puri-
fied by being brought into contact with the invisible cleansing fire of Nature.
This fire digests, perfects, and revitalizes this substance, in order that the hu-
midity may become a universal medicine to heal and renew all the bodies in
Nature.
The serpent throws off its skin annually and is thereby renewed (symbolic of
the resurrection of the spiritual life from the material nature). This renewal of
the earth takes place every spring, when the vivifying spirit of the sun returns to
the countries of the Northern Hemisphere,
The symbolic Virgin carries in her left hand a sistrum and a cymbal, or
square frame of metal, which when struck gives the key-note of Nature (Fa);
sometimes also an olive branch, to indicate the harmony she preserves among
natural things with her regenerating power. By the processes of death and cor-
ruption she gives life to a number of creatures of diverse forms through pe-
riods of perpetual change. The cymbal is made square instead of the usual
triangular shape in order to symbolize that all things are transmuted and rege-
nerated according to the harmony of the four elements.
Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom believed that if a physician could establish harmo-
ny among the elements of earth, fire, air, and water, and unite them into a
stone (the Philosopher's Stone) symbolized by the six-pointed star or two inter-
laced triangles, he would possess the means of healing all disease. Dr. Bac-
strom further stated that there was no doubt in his mind that the universal,
omnipresent fire (spirit) of Nature: "does all and is all in all." By attraction,
repulsion, motion, heat, sublimation, evaporation, exsiccation, inspissation,
coagulation, and fixation, the Universal Fire (Spirit) manipulates matter, and
manifests throughout creation. Any individual who can understand these prin-
ciples and adapt them to the three departments of Nature becomes a true phi-
losopher.
From the right breast of Isis protruded a bunch of grapes and from, the left

132
an ear of corn or a sheaf of wheat, golden in color. These indicate that Nature
is the source of nutrition for plant, animal, and human life, nourishing all
things from herself. The golden color in the wheat (corn) indicates that in the
sunlight or spiritual gold is concealed the first sperm of all life.
On the girdle surrounding the upper part of the body of the statue appear a
number of mysterious emblems. The girdle is joined together in front by four
golden plates (the elements), placed in the form of a square. This signified that
Isis, or Nature, the first matter (alchemical terminology), was the essence- of
the four elements (life, light, heat, and force), which quintessence generated all
things. Numerous stars are represented on this girdle, thereby indicating their
influence in darkness as well as the influence of the sun in light. Isis is the Vir-
gin immortalized in the constellation of Virgo, where the World Mother is
placed with the serpent under her feet and a crown. of stars on her head. In
her arms she carries a sheaf of grain and sometimes the young Sun God.
The statue of Isis was placed on a pedestal of dark stone ornamented with
rams' heads. Her feet trod upon a number of venomous reptiles. This indicates
that Nature has power to free from acidity or saltness all corrosives and to
overcome all impurities from terrestrial corruption adhering to bodies. The
rams' heads indicate that the most auspicious time for the generation of life is
during the period when the sun passes through the sign of Aries. The serpents
under her feet indicate that Nature is inclined to preserve life and to heal dis-
ease by expelling impurities and corruption.
In this sense the axioms known to the ancient philosophers are verified; name-
ly:

Nature contains Nature,

Nature rejoices in her own nature,
Nature surmounts Nature;
Nature cannot be amended but in her own nature.

Therefore, in contemplating the statue of Isis, we must not lose sight of the
occult sense of its allegories; otherwise, the Virgin remains an inexplicable
enigma.
From a golden ring on her left arm a line descends, to the end of which is
suspended a deep box filled with flaming coals and incense. Isis, or Nature
personified, carries with her the sacred fire, religiously preserved and kept
burning in. a special temple by the vestal virgins. This fire is the genuine, im-
mortal flame of Nature--ethereal, essential, the author of life. The inconsuma-
ble oil; the balsam of life, so much praised by the wise and so often referred to
in the Scriptures, is frequently symbolized as the fuel of this immortal flame.
From the right arm of the figure also descends a thread, to the end of which

133
is fastened a pair of scales, to denote the exactitude of Nature in her weights
and measures. Isis is often represented as the symbol of justice, because Na-
ture is eternally consistent.

Click to enlarge
THOTH, THE DOG-HEADED.
From Lenoir's La Franche-Maconnerie.
Aroueris, or Thoth, one of the five immortals, protected the infant Horus from the
wrath of Typhon after the murder of Osiris. He also revised the ancient Egyptian ca-
lendar by increasing the year from 360 days to 365. Thoth Hermes was called "The
Dog-Headed" because of his faithfulness and integrity. He is shown crowned with a
solar nimbus, carrying in one hand the Crux Ansata, the symbol of eternal life, and in
the other a serpent-wound staff symbolic of his dignity as counselor of the gods.

Click to enlarge
THE EGYPTIAN MADONNA.
From Lenoir's La Franche-Maconnerie.
Isis is shown with her son Horus in her arms. She is crowned with the lunar orb, or-
namented with the horns of rams or bulls. Orus, or Horus as he is more generally
known, was the son of Isis and Osiris. He was the god of time, hours, days, and this
134
narrow span of life recognized as mortal existence. In all probability, the four sons of
Horus represent the four kingdoms of Nature. It was Horus who finally avenged the
murder of his father, Osiris, by slaying Typhon, the spirit of Evil.

The World Virgin is sometimes shown standing between two great pillars--the
Jachin and Boaz of Freemasonry--symbolizing the fact that Nature attains
productivity by means of polarity. As wisdom personified, Isis stands between
the pillars of opposites, demonstrating that understanding is always found at the
point of equilibrium and that truth is often crucified between the two thieves of
apparent contradiction.
The sheen of gold in her dark hair indicates that while she is lunar, her
power is due to the sun's rays, from which she secures her ruddy complexion.
As the moon is robed in the reflected light of the sun, so Isis, like the virgin of
Revelation, is clothed in the glory of solar luminosity. Apuleius states that while
he was sleeping he beheld the venerable goddess Isis rising out of the ocean.
The ancients realized that the primary forms of life first came out of water, and
modem science concurs in this view. H. G. Wells, in his Outline of History,
describing primitive life on the earth, states: "But though the ocean and inter-
tidal water already swarmed with life, the land above the high-tide line was still,
so far as we can guess, a stony wilderness without a trace of life." In the next
chapter he adds: "Wherever the shore-line ran there was life, and that life went
on in and by and with water as its home, its medium, and its fundamental ne-
cessity." The ancients believed that the universal sperm proceeded from warm
vapor, humid but fiery. The veiled Isis, whose very coverings represent vapor,
is symbolic of this humidity, which is the carrier or vehicle for the sperm life of
the sun, represented by a child in her arms. Because the sun, moon, and stars
in setting appear to sink into the sea and also because the water receives their
rays into itself, the sea was believed to be the breeding ground for the sperm of
living things. This sperm is generated from the combination of the influences
of the celestial bodies; hence Isis is sometimes represented as pregnant.
Frequently the statue of Isis was accompanied by the figure of a large black
and white ox. The ox represents either Osiris as Taurus, the bull of the zodiac,
or Apis, an animal sacred to Osiris because of its peculiar markings and color-
ings. Among the Egyptians, the bull was a beast of burden. Hence the presence
of the animal was a reminder of the labors patiently performed by Nature that
all creatures may have life and health. Harpocrates, the God of Silence, hold-
ing his fingers to his mouth, often accompanies the statue of Isis. He warns all
to keep the secrets of the wise from those unfit to know them.
The Druids of Britain and Gaul had a deep knowledge concerning the mys-
teries of Isis and worshiped her under the symbol of the moon. Godfrey Hig-

135
gins considers it a mistake to regard Isis as synonymous with the moon. The
moon was chosen for Isis because of its dominion over water. The Druids
considered the sun to be the father and the moon the mother of all things. By
means of these symbols they worshiped Universal Nature.
The figure of Isis is sometimes used to represent the occult and magical arts,
such as necromancy, invocation, sorcery, and thaumaturgy. In one of the myths
concerning her, Isis is said to have conjured the invincible God of Eternities,
Ra, to tell her his secret and sacred name, which he did. This name is equiva-
lent to the Lost Word of Masonry. By means of this Word, a magician can
demand obedience from the invisible and superior deities. The priests of Isis
became adepts in the use of the unseen forces of Nature. They understood
hypnotism, mesmerism, and similar practices long before the modem world
dreamed of their existence.
Plutarch describes the requisites of a follower of Isis in this manner: "For as
'tis not the length of the beard, or the coarseness of the habit which makes a
philosopher, so neither will those frequent shavings, or the mere wearing [of] a
linen vestment constitute a votary of Isis; but he alone is a true servant or fol-
lower of this Goddess, who after he has heard, and been made acquainted in a
proper manner with the history of the actions of these Gods, searches into the
hidden truths which he concealed under them, and examines the whole by the
dictates of reason and philosophy."
During the Middle Ages the troubadours of Central Europe preserved in
song the legends of this Egyptian goddess. They composed sonnets to the most
beautiful woman in all the world. Though few ever discovered her identity, she
was Sophia, the Virgin of Wisdom, whom all the philosophers of the world
have wooed. Isis represents the mystery of motherhood, which the ancients
recognized as the most apparent proof of Nature's omniscient wisdom and
God's overshadowing power. To the modern seeker she is the epitome of the
Great Unknown, and only those who unveil her will be able to solve the myste-
ries of life, death, generation, and regeneration.

MUMMIFICATION OF THE EGYPTIAN DEAD

Servius, commenting on Virgil's neid, observes that "the wise Egyptians took
care to embalm their bodies, and deposit them in catacombs, in order that the
soul might be preserved for a long time in connection with the body, and might
not soon be alienated; while the Romans, with an opposite design, committed
the remains of their dead to the funeral pile, intending that the vital spark
might immediately be restored to the general element, or return to its pristine

136
nature." (From Prichard's An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.)
No complete records are available which give the secret doctrine of the
Egyptians concerning the relationship existing between the spirit, or conscious-
ness, and the body which it inhabited. It is reasonably certain, however, that
Pythagoras, who had been initiated in the Egyptian temples, when he promul-
gated the doctrine of metempsychosis, restated, in part at least, the teachings of
the Egyptian initiates. The popular supposition that the Egyptians mummified
their dead in order to preserve the form for a physical resurrection is untenable
in the light of modern knowledge regarding their philosophy of death. In the
fourth book of On Abstinence from Animal Food, Porphyry describes an
Egyptian custom of purifying the dead by removing the contents of the abdo-
minal cavity, which they placed in a separate chest. He then reproduces the
following oration which had been translated out of the Egyptian tongue by Eu-
phantus: "O sovereign Sun, and all ye Gods who impart life to men, receive
me, and deliver me to the eternal Gods as a cohabitant. For I have always
piously worshipped those divinities which were pointed out to me by my par-
ents as long as I lived in this age, and have likewise always honored those who
procreated my body. And, with respect to other men, I have never slain any
one, nor defrauded any one of what he deposited with me, nor have I commit-
ted any other atrocious deed. If, therefore, during my life I have acted erro-
neously, by eating or drinking things which it is unlawful to cat or drink, I have
not erred through myself, but through these" (pointing to the chest which con-
tained the viscera). The removal of the organs identified as the seat of the ap-
petites was considered equivalent to the purification of the body from their evil
influences.
So literally did the early Christians interpret their Scriptures that they pre-
served the bodies of their dead by pickling them in salt water, so that on the
day of resurrection the spirit of the dead might reenter a complete and perfect-
ly preserved body. Believing that the incisions necessary to the embalming
process and the removal of the internal organs would prevent the return of the
spirit to its body, the Christians buried their dead without resorting to the more
elaborate mummification methods employed by the Egyptian morticians.
In his work on Egyptian Magic, S.S.D.D. hazards the following speculation
concerning the esoteric purposes behind the practice of mummification.
"There is every reason to suppose," he says, "that only those who had received
some grade of initiation were mummified; for it is certain that, in the eyes of
the Egyptians, mummification effectually prevented reincarnation. Reincarna-
tion was necessary to imperfect souls, to those who had failed to pass the tests
of initiation; but for those who had the Will and the capacity to enter the Se-
cret Adytum, there was seldom necessity for that liberation of the soul which is
said to be effected by the destruction of the body. The body of the Initiate was

137
therefore preserved after death as a species of Talisman or material basis for
the manifestation of the Soul upon earth."
During the period of its inception mummification was limited to the Pha-
raoh and such other persons of royal rank as presumably partook of the
attributes of the great Osiris, the divine, mummified King of the Egyptian Un-
derworld.

Click to enlarge
OSIRIS, KING OF THE UNDERWORLD.
Osiris is often represented with the lower par, of his body enclosed in a mummy case
or wrapped about with funeral bandages. Man's spirit consists of three distinct parts,
only one of which incarnates in physical form. The human body was considered to be
a tomb or sepulcher of this incarnating spirit. Therefore Osiris, a symbol of the incar-
nating ego, was represented with the lower half of his body mummified to indicate that
he was the living spirit of man enclosed within the material form symbolized by the
mummy case.
There is a romance between the active principle of God and the passive principle of
Nature. From the union of these two principles is produced the rational creation. Man
is a composite creature. From his Father (the active principle) he inherits his Divine
Spirit, the fire of aspiration--that immortal part of himself which rises triumphant from
the broken clay of mortality: that part which remains after the natural organisms have
disintegrated or have been regenerated. From his Mother (the passive principle) he
inherits his body--that part over which the laws of Nature have control: his humanity,
his mortal personality, his appetites, his feelings, and his emotions. The Egyptians also
believed that Osiris was the river Nile and that Isis (his sister-wife) was the contiguous
land, which, when inundated by the river, bore fruit and harvest. The murky water of
the Nile were believed to account for the blackness of Osiris, who was generally sym-
bolized as being of ebony hue.

138
 The Sun, A Universal Deity

THE adoration of the sun was one of the earliest and most natural forms of
religious expression. Complex modern theologies are merely involvements and
amplifications of this simple aboriginal belief. The primitive mind, recognizing
the beneficent power of the solar orb, adored it as the proxy of the Supreme
Deity. Concerning the origin of sun worship, Albert Pike makes the following
concise statement in his Morals and Dogma: "To them [aboriginal peoples] he
[the sun] was the innate fire of bodies, the fire of Nature. Author of Life, heat,
and ignition, he was to them the efficient cause of all generation, for without
him there was no movement, no existence, no form. He was to them immense,
indivisible, imperishable, and everywhere present. It was their need of light,
and of his creative energy, that was felt by all men; and nothing was more fear-
ful to them than his absence. His beneficent influences caused his identifica-
tion with the Principle of Good; and the BRAHMA of the Hindus, and
MITHRAS of the Persians, and ATHOM, AMUN, PHTHA, and OSIRIS, of
the Egyptians, the BEL of the Chaldeans, the ADONAI of the Phnicians, the
ADONIS and APOLLO of the Greeks, became but personifications of the
Sun, the regenerating Principle, image of that fecundity which perpetuates and
rejuvenates the world's existence."
Among all the nations of antiquity, altars, mounds, and temples were dedi-
cated to the worship of the orb of day. The ruins of these sacred places yet
remain, notable among them being the pyramids of Yucatan and Egypt, the
snake mounds of the American Indians, the Zikkurats of Babylon and Chal-
dea, the round towers of Ireland, and the massive rings of uncut stone in Brit-
ain and Normandy. The Tower of Babel, which, according to the Scriptures,
was built so that man might reach up to God, was probably an astronomical
observatory.
Many early priests and prophets, both pagan and Christian, were versed in
astronomy and astrology; their writings are best understood when read in the
light of these ancient sciences. With the growth of man's knowledge of the con-
stitution and periodicity of the heavenly bodies, astronomical principles and
terminology were introduced into his religious systems. The tutelary gods were
given planetary thrones, the celestial bodies being named after the deities as-
signed to them. The fixed stars were divided into constellations, and through
these constellations wandered the sun and its planets, the latter with their ac-
companying satellites.

139
THE SOLAR TRINITY

The sun, as supreme among the celestial bodies visible to the astronomers of
antiquity, was assigned to the highest of the gods and became symbolic of the
supreme authority of the Creator Himself. From a deep philosophic considera-
tion of the powers and principles of the sun has come the concept of the Trini-
ty as it is understood in the world today. The tenet of a Triune Divinity is not
peculiar to Christian or Mosaic theology, but forms a conspicuous part of the
dogma of the greatest religions of both ancient and modern times. The Per-
sians, Hindus, Babylonians, and Egyptians had their Trinities. In every instance
these represented the threefold form of one Supreme Intelligence. In modern
Masonry, the Deity is symbolized by an equilateral triangle, its three sides
representing the primary manifestations of the Eternal One who is Himself
represented as a tiny flame, called by the Hebrews Yod (). Jakob Bhme, the
Teutonic mystic, calls the Trinity The Three Witnesses, by means of which the
Invisible is made known to the visible, tangible universe.
The origin of the Trinity is obvious to anyone who will observe the daily
manifestations of the sun. This orb, being the symbol of all Light, has three
distinct phases: rising, midday, and setting. The philosophers therefore divided
the life of all things into three distinct parts: growth, maturity, and decay. Be-
tween the twilight of dawn and the twilight of evening is the high noon of res-
plendent glory. God the Father, the Creator of the world, is symbolized by the
dawn. His color is blue, because the sun rising in the morning is veiled in blue
mist. God the Son he Illuminating One sent to bear witness of His Father be-
fore all the worlds, is the celestial globe at noonday, radiant and magnificent,
the maned Lion of Judah, the Golden-haired Savior of the World. Yellow is
His color and His power is without end. God the Holy Ghost is the sunset
phase, when the orb of day, robed in flaming red, rests for a moment upon the
horizon line and then vanishes into the darkness of the night to wandering the
lower worlds and later rise again triumphant from the embrace of darkness.
To the Egyptians the sun was the symbol of immortality, for, while it died
each night, it rose again with each ensuing dawn. Not only has the sun this di-
urnal activity, but it also has its annual pilgrimage, during which time it passes
successively through the twelve celestial houses of the heavens, remaining in
each for thirty days. Added to these it has a third path of travel, which is called
the precession of the equinoxes, in which it retrogrades around the zodiac
through the twelve signs at the rate of one degree every seventy-two years.
Concerning the annual passage of the sun through the twelve houses of the
heavens, Robert Hewitt Brown, 32, makes the following statement: "The Sun,
as he pursued his way among these 'living creatures' of the zodiac, was said, in
allegorical language, either to assume the nature of or to triumph over the sign

140
he entered. The sun thus became a Bull in Taurus, and was worshipped as
such by the Egyptians under the name of Apis, and by the Assyrians as Bel,
Baal, or Bul. In Leo the sun became a Lion-slayer, Hercules, and an Archer in
Sagittarius. In Pisces, the Fishes, he was a fish--Dagon, or Vishnu, the fish-god
of the Philistines and Hindoos."
A careful analysis of the religious systems of pagandom uncovers much evi-
dence of the fact that its priests served the solar energy and that their Supreme
Deity was in every case this Divine Light personified. Godfrey Higgins, after
thirty years of inquiry into the origin of religious beliefs, is of the opinion that
"All the Gods of antiquity resolved themselves into the solar fire, sometimes
itself as God, or sometimes an emblem or shekinah of that higher principle,
known by the name of the creative Being or God."
The Egyptian priests in many of their ceremonies wore the skins of lions,
which were symbols of the solar orb, owing to the fact that the sun is exalted,
dignified, and most fortunately placed in the constellation of Leo, which he
rules and which was at one time the keystone of the celestial arch. Again, Her-
cules is the Solar Deity, for as this mighty hunter performed his twelve labors,
so the sun, in traversing the twelve houses of the zodiacal band, performs dur-
ing his pilgrimage twelve essential and benevolent labors for the human race
and for Nature in general, Hercules, like the Egyptian priests, wore the skin of
a lion for a girdle. Samson, the Hebrew hero, as his name implies, is also a
solar deity. His fight with the Nubian lion, his battles with the Philistines, who
represent the Powers of Darkness, and his memorable feat of carrying off the
gates of Gaza, all refer to aspects of solar activity. Many of the ancient peoples
had more than one solar deity; in fact, all of the gods and goddesses were sup-
posed to partake, in part at least, of the sun's effulgence.

Click to enlarge
THE LION OF THE SUN.
From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
The sun rising over the back of the lion or, astrologically, in the back of the lion, has
141
always been considered symbolic of power and rulership. A symbol very similar to the
one above appears on the flag of Persia, whose people have always been sun worshi-
pers. Kings and emperors have frequently associated their terrestrial power with the
celestial Power of the solar orb, and have accepted the sun, or one of its symbolic
beasts or birds, as their emblem. Witness the lion of the Great Mogul and the eagles of
Csar and Napoleon.

Click to enlarge
THE WINGED GLOBE OF EGYPT.
From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
This symbol, which appears over the Pylons or gates of many Egyptian palaces and
temples, is emblematic of the three persons of the Egyptian Trinity. The wings, the
serpents, and the solar orb are the insignia of Ammon, Ra, and Osiris.

The golden ornaments used by the priestcraft of the various world religions are
again a subtle reference to the solar energy, as are also the crowns of kings. In
ancient times, crowns had a number of points extending outward like the rays
of the sun, but modern conventionalism has, in many cases, either removed
the points or else bent: them inward, gathered them together, and placed an
orb or cross upon the point where they meet. Many of the ancient prophets,
philosophers, and dignitaries carried a scepter, the upper end of which bore a
representation of the solar globe surrounded by emanating rays. All the king-
doms of earth were but copies of the kingdoms of Heaven, and the kingdoms
of Heaven were best symbolized by the solar kingdom, in which the sun was
the supreme ruler, the planets his privy council, and all Nature the subjects of
his empire.
Many deities have been associated with the sun. The Greeks believed that
Apollo, Bacchus, Dionysos, Sabazius, Hercules, Jason, Ulysses, Zeus, Uranus,
and Vulcan partook of either the visible or invisible attributes of the sun. The
Norwegians regarded Balder the Beautiful as a solar deity, and Odin is often
connected with the celestial orb, especially because of his one eye. Among the
Egyptians, Osiris, Ra, Anubis, Hermes, and even the mysterious Ammon him-
self had points of resemblance with the solar disc. Isis was the mother of the
sun, and even Typhon, the Destroyer, was supposed to be a form of solar
energy. The Egyptian sun myth finally centered around the person of a myste-
rious deity called Serapis. The two Central American deities, Tezcatlipoca and
Quetzalcoatl, while often associated with the winds, were also undoubtedly
142
solar gods.
In Masonry the sun has many symbols. One expression of the solar energy is
Solomon, whose name SOL-OM-ON is the name for the Supreme Light in
three different languages. Hiram Abiff, the CHiram (Hiram) of the Chaldees,
is also a solar deity, and the story of his attack and murder by the Ruffians, with
its solar interpretation, will be found in the chapter The Hiramic Legend. A
striking example of the important part which the sun plays in the symbols and
rituals of Freemasonry is given by George Oliver, D.D., in his Dictionary of
Symbolical Masonry, as follows:
"The sun rises in the east, and in the east is the place for the Worshipful
Master. As the sun is the source of all light and warmth, so should the Wor-
shipful Master enliven and warm the brethren to their work. Among the an-
cient Egyptians the sun was the symbol of divine providence." The hierophants
of the Mysteries were adorned with many. insignia emblematic of solar power.
The sunbursts of gilt embroidery on the back of the vestments of the Catholic
priesthood signify that the priest is also an emissary and representative of Sol
Invictus.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUN

For reasons which they doubtless considered sufficient, those who chronicled
the life and acts of Jesus found it advisable to metamorphose him into a solar
deity. The historical Jesus was forgotten; nearly all the salient incidents record-
ed in the four Gospels have their correlations in the movements, phases, or
functions of the heavenly bodies.
Among other allegories borrowed by Christianity from pagan antiquity is the
story of the beautiful, blue-eyed Sun God, with His golden hair falling upon
His shoulders, robed from head to foot in spotless white and carrying in His
arms the Lamb of God, symbolic of the vernal equinox. This handsome youth
is a composite of Apollo, Osiris, Orpheus, Mithras, and Bacchus, for He has
certain characteristics in common with each of these pagan deities.
The philosophers of Greece and Egypt divided the life of the sun during the
year into four parts; therefore they symbolized the Solar Man by four different
figures. When He was born in the winter solstice, the Sun God was symbolized
as a dependent infant who in some mysterious manner had managed to escape
the Powers of Darkness seeking to destroy Him while He was still in the cradle
of winter. The sun, being weak at this season of the year, had no golden rays
(or locks of hair), but the survival of the light through the darkness of winter
was symbolized by one tiny hair which alone adorned the head of the Celestial

143
Child. (As the birth of the sun took place in Capricorn, it was often
represented as being suckled by a goat.)
At the vernal equinox, the sun had grown to be a beautiful youth. His golden
hair hung in ringlets on his shoulders and his light, as Schiller said, extended to
all parts of infinity. At the summer solstice, the sun became a strong man, heav-
ily bearded, who, in the prime of maturity, symbolized the fact that Nature at
this period of the year is strongest and most fecund. At the autumnal equinox,
the sun was pictured as an aged man, shuffling along with bended back and
whitened locks into the oblivion of winter darkness. Thus, twelve months were
assigned to the sun as the length of its life. During this period it circled the
twelve signs of the zodiac in a magnificent triumphal march. When fall came, it
entered, like Samson, into the house of Delilah (Virgo), where its rays were cut
off and it lost its strength. In Masonry, the cruel winter months are symbolized
by three murderers who sought to destroy the God of Light and Truth.
The coming of the sun was hailed with joy; the time of its departure was
viewed as a period to be set aside for sorrow and unhappiness. This glorious,
radiant orb of day, the true light "which lighteth every man who cometh into the
world," the supreme benefactor, who raised all things from the dead, who fed
the hungry multitudes, who stilled the tempest, who after dying rose again and
restored all things to life--this Supreme Spirit of humanitarianism and philanth-
ropy is known to Christendom as Christ, the Redeemer of worlds, the Only
Begotten of The Father, the Word made Flesh, and the Hope of Glory.

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE SUN

The pagans set aside the 25th of December as the birthday of the Solar Man.
They rejoiced, feasted, gathered in processions, and made offerings in the
temples. The darkness of winter was over and the glorious son of light was
returning to the Northern Hemisphere. With his last effort the old Sun God
had torn down the house of the Philistines (the Spirits of Darkness) and had
cleared the way for the new sun who was born that day from the depths of the
earth amidst the symbolic beasts of the lower world.
Concerning this season of celebration, an anonymous Master of Arts of Bal-
liol College, Oxford, in his scholarly treatise, Mankind Their Origin and Des-
tiny, says: "The Romans also had their solar festival, and their games of the
circus in honor of the birth of the god of day. It took place the eighth day be-
fore the kalends of January--that is, on December 25. Servius, in his commen-
tary on verse 720 of the seventh book of the neid, in which Virgil speaks of
the new sun, says that, properly speaking, the sun is new on the 8th of the Ka-

144
lends of January-that is, December 25. In the time of Leo I. (Leo, Serm. xxi.,
De Nativ. Dom. p. 148), some of the Fathers of the Church said that 'what
rendered the festival (of Christmas) venerable was less the birth of Jesus Christ
than the return, and, as they expressed it, the new birth of the sun.' It was on
the same day that the birth of the Invincible Sun (Natalis solis invicti), was cel-
ebrated at Rome, as can be seen in the Roman calendars, published in the
reign of Constantine and of Julian (Hymn to the Sun, p. 155). This epithet
'Invictus' is the same as the Persians gave to this same god, whom they wor-
shipped by the name of Mithra, and whom they caused to be born in a grotto
(Justin. Dial. cum Trips. p. 305), just as he is represented as being born in a
stable, under the name of Christ, by the Christians."
Concerning the Catholic Feast of the Assumption and its parallel in astron-
omy, the same author adds: "At the end of eight months, when the sun-god,
having increased, traverses the eighth sign, he absorbs the celestial Virgin in his
fiery course, and she disappears in the midst of the luminous rays and the glory
of her son. This phenomenon, which takes place every year about the middle
of August, gave rise to a festival which still exists, and in which it is supposed
that the mother of Christ, laying aside her earthly life, is associated with the
glory of her son, and is placed at his side in the heavens. The Roman calendar
of Columella (Col. 1. II. cap. ii. p. 429) marks the death or disappearance of
Virgo at this period. The sun, he says, passes into Virgo on the thirteenth day
before the kalends of September. This is where the Catholics place the Feast of
the Assumption, or the reunion of the Virgin to her Son. This feast was for-
merly called the feast of the Passage of the Virgin (Beausobre, tome i. p. 350);
and in the Library of the Fathers (Bibl. Part. vol. II. part ii. p. 212) we have an
account of the Passage of the Blessed Virgin. The ancient Greeks and Romans
fix the assumption of Astraea, who is also this same Virgin, on that day."

Click to enlarge
THE THREE SUNS.
From Lilly's Astrological Predictions for 1648, 1649, and 1650.)
The following description of this phenomenon appears in a letter written by Jeremiah
Shakerley in Lancashire, March 4th, 1648:--"On Monday the 28th of February last,
there arose with the Sun two Parelii, on either side one; their distance from him was by
estimation, about ten degrees; they continued still of the same distance from the Ze-
nith, or height above the Horizon, that the Sun did; and from the parts averse to the
145
Sun, there seemed to issue out certain bright rays, not unlike those which the Sun
sendeth from behind a cloud, but brighter. The parts of these Parelii which were to-
ward the Sun, were of a mixt colour, wherein green and red were most predominant. A
little above them was a thin rainbow, scarcely discernible, of a bright colour, with the
concave towards the Sun, and the ends thereof seeming to touch the Parelii: Above
that, in a clear diaphanous ayr, [air], appeared another conspicuous Rainbow, beauti-
fied with divers colours; it was as neer as I could discern to the Zenith; it seemed of
something a lesser radius than the other, they being back to back, yet a pretty way
between. At or neer the apparent time of the full Moon, they vanished, leaving abun-
dance of terror and amazement in those that saw them. (See William Lilly.)

This Virgin mother, giving birth to the Sun God which Christianity has so faith-
fully preserved, is a reminder of the inscription concerning her Egyptian proto-
type, Isis, which appeared on the Temple of Sais: "The fruit which I have
brought forth is the Sun." While the Virgin was associated with the moon by
the early pagans, there is no doubt that they also understood her position as a
constellation in the heavens, for nearly all the peoples of antiquity credit her as
being the mother of the sun, and they realized that although the moon could
not occupy that position, the sign of Virgo could, and did, give birth to the sun
out of her side on the 25th day of December. Albertus Magnus states, "We
know that the sign of the Celestial Virgin rose over the Horizon at the moment
at which we fix the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Among certain of the Arabian and Persian astronomers the three stars form-
ing the sword belt of Orion were called the Magi who came to pay homage to
the young Sun God. The author of Mankind--Their Origin and Destiny contri-
butes the following additional information: "In Cancer, which had risen to the
meridian at midnight, is the constellation of the Stable and of the Ass. The
ancients called it Prsepe Jovis. In the north the stars of the Bear are seen,
called by the Arabians Martha and Mary, and also the coffin of Lazarus. "Thus
the esotericism of pagandom was embodied in Christianity, although its keys
are lost. The Christian church blindly follows ancient customs, and when asked
for a reason gives superficial and unsatisfactory explanations, either forgetting
or ignoring the indisputable fact that each religion is based upon the secret
doctrines of its predecessor.

THE THREE SUNS

The solar orb, like the nature of man, was divided by the ancient sages into
three separate bodies. According to the mystics, there are three suns in each
146
solar system, analogous to the three centers of life in each individual constitu-
tion. These are called three lights: the spiritual sun, the intellectual or soular
sun, and the material sun (now symbolized in Freemasonry by three candles).
The spiritual sun manifests the power of God the Father; the soular sun ra-
diates the life of God the Son; and the material sun is the vehicle of manifesta-
tion for God the Holy Spirit. Man's nature was divided by the mystics into
three distinct parts: spirit, soul, and body. His physical body was unfolded and
vitalized by the material sun; his spiritual nature was illuminated by the spiritual
sun; and his intellectual nature was redeemed by the true light of grace--the
soular sun. The alignment of these three globes in the heavens was one expla-
nation offered for the peculiar fact that the orbits of the planets are not circular
but elliptical.
The pagan priests always considered the solar system as a Grand Man, and
drew their analogy of these three centers of activity from the three main centers
of life in the human body: the brain, the heart, and the generative system. The
Transfiguration of Jesus describes three tabernacles, the largest being in the
center (the heart), and a smaller one on either side (the brain and the genera-
tive system). It is possible that the philosophical hypothesis of the existence of
the three suns is based upon a peculiar natural phenomenon which has oc-
curred many times in history. In the fifty- first year after Christ three suns were
seen at once in the sky and also in the sixty-sixth year. In the sixty-ninth year,
two suns were seen together. According to William Lilly, between the years
1156 and 1648 twenty similar occurrences were recorded.
Recognizing the sun as the supreme benefactor of the material world, Her-
metists believed that there was a spiritual sun which ministered to the needs of
the invisible and divine part of Nature--human and universal. Anent this sub-
ject, the great Paracelsus wrote: "There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of
all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun; and those who are blind
and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an Eternal Sun, which is the
source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life
will see that sun and be conscious of His existence; but those who have not
attained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty
which is called Intuition."
Certain Rosicrucian scholars have given special appellations to these three
phases of the sun: the spiritual sun they called Vulcan; the soular and intellec-
tual sun, Christ and Lucifer respectively; and the material sun, the Jewish De-
miurgus Jehovah. Lucifer here represents the intellectual mind without the
illumination of the spiritual mind; therefore it is "the false light. " The false light
is finally overcome and redeemed by the true light of the soul, called the
Second Logos or Christ. The secret processes by which the Luciferian intellect
is transmuted into the Christly intellect constitute one of the great secrets of

147
alchemy, and are symbolized by the process of transmuting base metals into
gold.
In the rare treatise The Secret Symbols of The Rosicrucians, Franz Hart-
mann defines the sun alchemically as: "The symbol of Wisdom. The Centre of
Power or Heart of things. The Sun is a centre of energy and a storehouse of
power. Each living being contains within itself a centre of life, which may grow
to be a Sun. In the heart of the regenerated, the divine power, stimulated by
the Light of the Logos, grows into a Sun which illuminates his mind." In a note,
the same author amplifies his description by adding: "The terrestrial sun is the
image or reflection of the invisible celestial sun; the former is in the realm of
Spirit what the latter is in the realm of Matter; but the latter receives its power
from the former."
In the majority of cases, the religions of antiquity agree that the material
visible sun was a reflector rather than a source of power. The sun was some-
times represented as a shield carried on the arm of the Sun God, as for exam-
ple, Frey, the Scandinavian Solar Deity. This sun reflected the light of the invis-
ible spiritual sun, which was the true source of life, light, and truth. The physi-
cal nature of the universe is receptive; it is a realm of effects. The invisible
causes of these effects belong to the spiritual world. Hence, the spiritual world
is the sphere of causation; the material world is the sphere of effects; while the
intellectual--or soul--world is the sphere of mediation. Thus Christ, the personi-
fied higher intellect and soul nature, is called "the Mediator" who, by virtue of
His position and power, says: "No man cometh to the Father, but by me."
What the sun is to the solar system, the spirit is to the bodies of man; for his
natures, organs, and functions are as planets surrounding the central life (or
sun) and living upon its emanations. The solar power in man is divided into
three parts, which are termed the threefold human spirit of man. All three of
these spiritual natures are said to be radiant and transcendent; united, they
form the Divinity in man. Man's threefold lower nature--consisting of his physi-
cal organism, his emotional nature, and his mental faculties--reflects the light of
his threefold Divinity and bears witness of It in the physical world. Man's three
bodies are symbolized by an upright triangle; his threefold spiritual nature by
an inverted triangle. These two triangles, when united in the form of a six-
pointed star, were called by the Jews "the Star of David," "the Signet of Solo-
mon," and are more commonly known today as "the Star of Zion." These trian-
gles symbolize the spiritual and material universes linked together in the consti-
tution of the human creature, who partakes of both Nature and Divinity. Man's
animal nature partakes of the earth; his divine nature of the heavens; his hu-
man nature of the mediator.

148
THE CELESTIAL INHABITANTS OF THE SUN

The Rosicrucians and the Illuminati, describing the angels, archangels, and
other celestial creatures, declared that they resembled small suns, being centers
of radiant energy surrounded by streamers of Vrilic force. From these outpour-
ing streamers of force is derived the popular belief that angels have wings.
These wings are corona-like fans of light, by means of which the celestial crea-
tures propel themselves through the subtle essences of the superphysical
worlds.
True mystics are unanimous in their denial of the theory that the angels and
archangels are human in form, as so often pictured. A human figure would be
utterly useless in the ethereal substances through which they manifest. Science
has long debated the probability of the other planers being inhabited. Objec-
tions to the idea are based upon the argument that creatures with human or-
ganisms could nor possibly exist in the environments of Mars, Jupiter, Uranus,
and Neptune. This argument fails to take into account Nature's universal law of
adjustment to environment. The ancients asserted that life originated from the
sun, and that everything when bathed in the light of the solar orb was capable
of absorbing the solar life elements and later radiating them as flora and fauna.
One philosophical concept regarded the sun as a parent and the planers as
embryos still connected to the solar body by means of ethereal umbilical cords
which served as channels to convey life and nourishment to the planets.

Click to enlarge
SURYA, THE REGENT OF THE SUN.
From Moor's Hindu Pantheon.
Moor describes this figure as follows: "The cast is nine inches in height, representing
the glorious god of day-holding the attributes of VISHNU, seated on a seven-headed
serpent; his car drawn by a seven-headed horse, driven by the legless ARUN, a perso-
nification of the dawn, or AURORA." (See Moor's Hindu Pantheon.)

149
Some secret orders have taught that the sun was inhabited by a race of crea-
tures with bodies composed of a radiant, spiritual ether not unlike in its consti-
tuency the actual glowing ball of the sun itself. The solar heat had no harmful
effect upon them, because their organisms were sufficiently refined and sensi-
tized to harmonize with the sun's tremendous vibratory rate. These creatures
resemble miniature suns, being a little larger than a dinner plate in size, al-
though some of the more powerful are considerably larger. Their color is the
golden white light of the sun, and from them emanate four streamers of Vril.
These streamers are often of great length and are in constant motion. A pecu-
liar palpitation is to be noted throughout the structure of the globe and is
communicated in the form of ripples to the emanating streamers. The greatest
and most luminous of these spheres is the Archangel Michael; and the entire
order of solar life, which resemble him and dwell upon the sun, are called by
modern Christians "the archangels" or "the spirits of the light.

THE SUN IN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLOGY

Gold is the metal of the sun and has been considered by many as crystallized
sunlight. When gold is mentioned in alchemical tracts, it may be either the
metal itself or the celestial orb which is the source, or spirit, of gold. Sulphur
because of its fiery nature was also associated with the sun.
As gold was the symbol of spirit and the base metals represented man's low-
er nature, certain alchemists were called "miners" and were pictured with picks
and shovels digging into the earth in search of the precious metal--those finer
traits of character buried in the earthiness of materiality and ignorance. The
diamond concealed in the heart of the black carbon illustrated the same prin-
ciple. The Illuminati used a pearl hidden in the shell of an oyster at the bottom
of the sea to signify spiritual powers. Thus the seeker after truth became a
pearl-fisher: he descended into the sea of material illusion in search of under-
standing, termed by the initiates "the Pearl of Great Price."
When the alchemists stated that every animate and inanimate thing in the
universe contained the seeds of gold, they meant that even the grains of sand
possessed a spiritual nature, for gold was the spirit of all things. Concerning
these seeds of spiritual gold the following Rosicrucian axiom is significant: "A
seed is useless and impotent unless it is put in its appropriate matrix." Franz
Hartmann comments on this axiom with these illuminating words: "A soul can-
not develop and progress without an appropriate body, because it is the physi-
cal body that furnishes the material for its development." (See In the Pronaos
of the Temple of Wisdom.)
150
 The purpose of alchemy was not to make something out of nothing but ra-
ther to fertilize and nurture the seed which was already present. Its processes
did nor actually create gold but rather made the ever-present seed of gold grow
and flourish. Everything which exists has a spirit--the seed of Divinity within
itself--and regeneration is not the process of attempting to place something
where it previously had not existed. Regeneration actually means the unfold-
ment of the omnipresent Divinity in man, that this Divinity may shine forth as
a sun and illumine all with whom it comes in contact.

THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Apuleius said when describing his initiation (vide ante): "At midnight I saw the
sun shining with a splendid light." The midnight sun was also part of the mys-
tery of alchemy. It symbolized the spirit in man shining through the darkness
of his human organisms. It also referred to the spiritual sun in the solar system,
which the mystic could see as well at midnight as at high noon, the material
earth bring powerless to obstruct the rays of this Divine orb. The mysterious
lights which illuminated the temples of the Egyptian Mysteries during the noc-
turnal hours were said by some to he reflections of the spiritual sun gathered
by the magical powers of the priests. The weird light seen ten miles below the
surface of the earth by I-AM-THE-MAN in that remarkable Masonic allegory
Etidorhpa (Aphrodite spelt backward) may well refer to the mysterious mid-
night sun of the ancient rites.
Primitive conceptions concerning the warfare between the principles of
Good and Evil were often based upon the alternations of day and night. During
the Middle Ages, the practices of black magic were confined to the nocturnal
hours; and those who served the Spirit of Evil were called black magicians,
while those who served the Spirit of Good were called white magicians. Black
and white were associated respectively with night and day, and the endless con-
flict of light and shadow is alluded to many times in the mythologies of various
peoples.
The Egyptian Demon, Typhon, was symbolized as part crocodile and part:
hog because these animals are gross and earthy in both appearance and tempe-
rament. Since the world began, living things have feared the darkness; those
few creatures who use it as a shield for their maneuvers were usually connected
with the Spirit of Evil. Consequently cats, bats, toads, and owls are associated
with witchcraft. In certain parts of Europe it is still believed that at night black
magicians assume the bodies of wolves and roam around destroying. From this
notion originated the stories of the werewolves. Serpents, because they lived in

151
the earth, were associated with the Spirit of Darkness. As the battle between
Good and Evil centers around the use of the generative forces of Nature,
winged serpents represent the regeneration of the animal nature of man or
those Great Ones in whom this regeneration is complete. Among the Egyptians
the sun's rays are often shown ending in human hands. Masons will find a con-
nection between these hands and the well-known Paw of the Lion which raises
all things to life with its grip.

SOLAR COLORS

The theory so long held of three primary and four secondary colors is purely
exoteric, for since the earliest periods it has been known that there are seven,
and not three, primary colors, the human eye being capable of estimating only
three of them. Thus, although green can be made by combining blue and yel-
low, there is also a true or primary green which is not a compound. This can
he proved by breaking up the spectrum with a prism. Helmholtz found that the
so-called secondary colors of the spectrum could not be broken up into their
supposed primary colors. Thus the orange of the spectrum, if passed through a
second prism, does not break up into red and yellow but remains orange.
Consciousness, intelligence, and force are fittingly symbolized by the colors
blue, yellow, and red. The therapeutic effects of the colors, moreover, are in
harmony with this concept, for blue is a fine, soothing, electrical color; yellow,
a vitalizing and refining color; and red, an agitating and heat-giving color. It has
also been demonstrated that minerals and plants affect the human constitution
according to their colors. Thus a yellow flower generally yields a medicine that
affects the constitution in a manner similar to yellow light or the musical tone
mi. An orange flower will influence in a manner similar to orange light and,
being one of the so-called secondary colors, corresponds either to the tone re
or to the chord of do and mi.
The ancients conceived the spirit of man to correspond with the color blue,
the mind with yellow, and the body with red. Heaven is therefore blue, earth
yellow, and hell--or the underworld--red. The fiery condition of the inferno
merely symbolizes the nature of the sphere or plane of force of which it is
composed. In the Greek Mysteries the irrational sphere was always considered
as red, for it represented that condition in which the consciousness is enslaved
by the lusts and passions of the lower nature. In India certain of the gods--
usually attributes of Vishnu--are depicted with blue skin to signify their divine
and supermundane constitution. According to esoteric philosophy, blue is the
true and sacred color of the sun. The apparent orange-yellow shade of this orb

152
is the result of its rays being immersed in the substances of the illusionary
world.
In the original symbolism of the Christian Church, colors were of first im-
portance and their use was regulated according to carefully prepared rules.
Since the Middle Ages, however, the carelessness with which colors have been
employed has resulted in the loss of their deeper emblematic meanings. In its
primary aspect, white or silver signified life, purity, innocence, joy, and light;
red, the suffering and death of Christ and His saints, and also divine love,
blood, and warfare or suffering; blue, the heavenly sphere and the states of
godliness and contemplation; yellow or gold, glory, fruitfulness, and goodness;
green, fecundity, youthfulness, and prosperity; violet, humility, deep affection,
and sorrow; black, death, destruction, and humiliation. In early church art the
colors of robes and ornaments also revealed whether a saint had been mar-
tyred, as well as the character of the work that he had done to deserve canoni-
zation.
In addition to the colors of the spectrum there are a vast number of vibrato-
ry color waves, some too low and others too high to be registered by the hu-
man optical apparatus. It is appalling to contemplate man's colossal ignorance
concerning these vistas of abstract space. As in the past man explored unknown
continents, so in the future, armed with curious implements fashioned for the
purpose, he will explore these little known fastnesses of light, color, sound, and
consciousness.

Click to enlarge
THE SOLAR FACE.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
The corona of the sun is here shown in the form of a lion's mane. This is a subtle
reminder of the fact that at one time the summer solstice took place in the sign of Leo,
the Celestial Lion.

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 The Zodiac and Its Signs

IT is difficult for this age to estimate correctly the profound effect produced
upon the religions, philosophies, and sciences of antiquity by the study of the
planets, luminaries, and constellations. Not without adequate reason were the
Magi of Persia called the Star Gazers. The Egyptians were honored with a spe-
cial appellation because of their proficiency in computing the power and mo-
tion of the heavenly bodies and their effect upon the destinies of nations and
individuals. Ruins of primitive astronomical observatories have been discov-
ered in all parts of the world, although in many cases modern archologists are
unaware of the true purpose for which these structures were erected. While the
telescope was unknown to ancient astronomers, they made many remarkable
calculations with instruments cut from blocks of granite or pounded from
sheets of brass and cop per. In India such instruments are still in use, and they
posses a high degree of accuracy. In Jaipur, Rajputana, India, an observatory
consisting largely of immense stone sundials is still in operation. The famous
Chinese observatory on the wall of Peking consists of immense bronze instru-
ments, including a telescope in the form of a hollow tube without lenses.
The pagans looked upon the stars as living things, capable of influencing the
destinies of individuals, nations, and races. That the early Jewish patriarchs
believed that the celestial bodies participated in the affairs of men is evident to
any student of Biblical literature, as, for example, in the Book of Judges: "They
fought from heaven, even the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." The
Chaldeans, Phnicians, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, and Chinese all had zo-
diacs that were much alike in general character, and different authorities have
credited each of these nations with being the cradle of astrology and astrono-
my. The Central and North American Indians also had an understanding of
the zodiac, but the patterns and numbers of the signs differed in many details
from those of the Eastern Hemisphere.
The word zodiac is derived from the Greek (zodiakos), which means
"a circle of animals," or, as some believe, "little animals." It is the name given by
the old pagan astronomers to a band of fixed stars about sixteen degrees wide,
apparently encircling the earth. Robert Hewitt Brown, 32, states that the
Greek word zodiakos comes from zo-on, meaning "an animal." He adds: "This
latter word is compounded directly from the primitive Egyptian radicals, zo,
life, and on, a being."
The Greeks, and later other peoples influenced by their culture, divided the
band of the zodiac into twelve sections, each being sixteen degrees in width and
thirty degrees in length. These divisions were called the Houses of the Zodiac.

154
The sun during its annual pilgrimage passed through each of these in turn,
Imaginary creatures were traced in the Star groups bounded by these rectan-
gles; and because most of them were animal--or part animal--in form, they later
became known as the Constellations, or Signs, of the Zodiac.
There is a popular theory concerning the origin of the zodiacal creatures to
the effect that they were products of the imagination of shepherds, who, watch-
ing their flocks at night, occupied their minds by tracing the forms of animals
and birds in the heavens. This theory is untenable, unless the "shepherds" be
regarded as the shepherd priests of antiquity. It is unlikely that the zodiacal
signs were derived from the star groups which they now represent. It is far
more probable that the creatures assigned to the twelve houses are symbolic of
the qualities and intensity of the sun's power while it occupies different parts of
the zodiacal belt.
On this subject Richard Payne Knight writes: "The emblematical meaning,
which certain animals were employed to signify, was only some particular
property generalized; and, therefore, might easily be invented or discovered by
the natural operation of the mind: but the collections of stars, named after
certain animals, have no resemblance whatever to those animals; which are
therefore merely signs of convention adopted to distinguish certain portions of
the heavens, which were probably consecrated to those particular personified
attributes, which they respectively represented." (The Symbolical Language of
Ancient Art and Mythology.)
Some authorities are of the opinion that the zodiac was originally divided
into ten (instead of twelve) houses, or "solar mansions." In early times there
were two separate standards--one solar and the other lunar--used for the mea-
surement of the months, years, and seasons. The solar year was composed of
ten months of thirty-six days each, and five days sacred to the gods. The lunar
year consisted of thirteen months of twenty-eight days each, with one day left
over. The solar zodiac at that time consisted often houses of thirty-six degrees
each.
The first six signs of the zodiac of twelve signs were regarded as benevolent,
because the sun occupied them while traversing the Northern Hemisphere.
The 6,000 years during which, according to the Persians, Ahura-Mazda ruled
His universe in harmony and peace, were symbolic of these six signs. The
second six were considered malevolent, because while the sun was traveling the
Southern Hemisphere it was winter with the Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians.
Therefore these six months symbolic of the 6,000 years of misery and suffering
caused by the evil genius of the Persians, Ahriman, who sought to overthrow
the power of Ahura-Mazda.
Those who hold the opinion that before its revision by the Greeks the zo-
diac consisted of only ten signs adduce evidence to show that Libra (the Scales)

155
was inserted into the zodiac by dividing the constellation of Virgo Scorpio (at
that time one sign) into two parts, thus establishing "the balance" at the point of
equilibrium between the ascending northern and the descending southern
signs. (See The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, by Hargrave Jen-
nings.) On this subject Isaac Myer states: "We think that the Zodiacal constella-
tions were first ten and represented an immense androgenic man or deity; sub-
sequently this was changed, resulting in Scorpio and Virgo and making eleven;
after this from Scorpio, Libra, the Balance, was taken, making the present
twelve." (The Qabbalah.)
Each year the sun passes entirely around the zodiac and returns to the point
from which it started--the vernal equinox--and each year it falls just a little short
of making the complete circle of the heavens in the allotted period of time. As
a result, it crosses the equator just a little behind the spot in the zodiacal sign
where it crossed the previous year. Each sign of the zodiac consists of thirty
degrees, and as the sun loses about one degree every seventy two years, it re-
gresses through one entire constellation (or sign) in approximately 2,160 years,
and through the entire zodiac in about 25,920 years. (Authorities disagree con-
cerning these figures.) This retrograde motion is called the precession of the
equinoxes. This means that in the course of about 25,920 years, which consti-
tute one Great Solar or Platonic Year, each one of the twelve constellations
occupies a position at the vernal equinox for nearly 2,160 years, then gives
place to the previous sign.

Click to enlarge
CHART SHOWING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN BODY AND THE EXTERIOR
UNIVERSE.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
The ornamental border contains groups of names of animal, mineral, and vegetable
substances, Their relationship to corresponding parts of the human body is shown by
the dotted lines. The words in capital letters on the dotted lines indicate to what corpo-
real member, organ, or disease, the herb or other substance is related. The favorable
positions in relation to the time of year are shown by the signs of the zodiac, each
156
house of which is divided by crosses into its three decans. This influence is further
emphasized by the series of planetary signs placed on either side of the figure.

Click to enlarge
THE EQUINOXES AND SOLSTICES.
The plane of the zodiac intersects the celestial equator at an angle of approximately 23
28'. The two points of intersection (A and B) are called the equinoxes.

Among the ancients the sun was always symbolized by the figure and nature of
the constellation through which it passed at the vernal equinox. For nearly the
past 2,000 years the sun has crossed the equator at the vernal equinox in the
constellation of Pisces (the Two Fishes). For the 2,160 years before that it
crossed through the constellation of Aries (the Ram). Prior to that the vernal
equinox was in the sign of Taurus (the Bull). It is probable that the form of the
bull and the bull's proclivities were assigned to this constellation because the
bull was used by the ancients to plow the fields, and the season set aside for
plowing and furrowing corresponded to the time at which the sun reached the
segment of the heavens named Taurus.
Albert Pike describes the reverence which the Persians felt for this sign and
the method of astrological symbolism in vogue among them, thus: "In Zoroast-
er's cave of initiation, the Sun and Planets were represented, overhead, in gems
and gold, as was also the Zodiac. The Sun appeared, emerging from the back
of Taurus. " In the constellation of the Bull are also to be found the "Seven
Sisters"--the sacred Pleiades--famous to Freemasonry as the Seven Stars at the
upper end of the Sacred Ladder.
In ancient Egypt it was during this period--when the vernal equinox was in
the sign of Taurus--that the Bull, Apis, was sacred to the Sun God, who was
worshiped through the animal equivalent of the celestial sign which he had
impregnated with his presence at the time of its crossing into the Northern
Hemisphere. This is the meaning of an ancient saying that the celestial Bull
"broke the egg of the year with his horns."
Sampson Arnold Mackey, in his Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients
Demonstrated, makes note of two very interesting points concerning the bull in
Egyptian symbolism. Mr. Mackey is of the opinion that the motion of the earth
that we know as the alternation of the poles has resulted in a great change of

157
relative position of the equator and the zodiacal band. He believes that origi-
nally the band of the zodiac was at right angles to the equator, with the sign of
Cancer opposite the north pole and the sign of Capricorn opposite the south
pole. It is possible that the Orphic symbol of the serpent twisted around the
egg attempts to show the motion of the sun in relation to the earth under such
conditions. Mr. Mackey advances the Labyrinth of Crete, the name Abraxas,
and the magic formula, abracadabra, among other things, to substantiate his
theory. Concerning abracadabra he states:
"But the slow progressive disappearance of the Bull is most happily com-
memorated in the vanishing series of letters so emphatically expressive of the
great astronomical fact. For ABRACADABRA is The Bull, the only Bull. The
ancient sentence split into its component parts stands thus: Ab'r-achad-ab'ra, i.
e., Ab'r, the Bull; achad, the only, &c.--Achad is one of the names of the Sun,
given him in consequence of his Shining ALONE,--he is the ONLY Star to be
seen when he is seen--the remaining ab'ra, makes the whole to be, The Bull,
the only Bull; while the repetition of the name omitting a letter, till all is gone,
is the most simple, yet the most satisfactory method that could have been de-
vised to preserve the memory of the fact; and the name of Sorapis, or Serapis,
given to the Bull at the above ceremony puts it beyond all doubt. * * * This
word (Abracadabra) disappears in eleven decreasing stages; as in the figure.
And what is very remarkable, a body with three heads is folded up by a Serpent
with eleven Coils, and placed by Sorapis: and the eleven Volves of the Serpent
form a triangle similar to that formed by the ELEVEN diminishing lines of the
abracadabra."
Nearly every religion of the world shows traces of astrological influence. The
Old Testament of the Jews, its writings overshadowed by Egyptian culture, is a
mass of astrological and astronomical allegories. Nearly all the mythology of
Greece and Rome may be traced in star groups. Some writers are of the opi-
nion that the original twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet were derived
from groups of stars, and that the starry handwriting on the wall of the heavens
referred to words spelt out, with fixed stars for consonants, and the planets, or
luminaries, for vowels. These, coming into ever-different combinations, spelt
words which, when properly read, foretold future events.
As the zodiacal band marks the pathway of the sun through the constella-
tions, it results in the phenomena of the seasons. The ancient systems of mea-
suring the year were based upon the equinoxes and the solstices. The year
always began with the vernal equinox, celebrated March 21 with rejoicing to
mark the moment when the sun crossed the equator northward up the zodiacal
arc. The summer solstice was celebrated when the sun reached its most nor-
therly position, and the day appointed was June 21. After that time the sun
began to descend toward the equator, which it recrossed southbound at the

158
autumnal equinox, September 21. The sun reached its most southerly position
at the winter solstice, December 21.
Four of the signs of the zodiac have been permanently dedicated to the equi-
noxes and the solstices; and, while the signs no longer correspond with the
ancient constellations to which they were assigned, and from which they se-
cured their names, they are accepted by modern astronomers as a basis of cal-
culation. The vernal equinox is therefore said to occur in the constellation of
Aries (the Ram). It is fitting that of all beasts a Ram should be placed at the
head of the heavenly flock forming the zodiacal band. Centuries before the
Christian Era, the pagans revered this constellation. Godfrey Higgins states:
"This constellation was called the 'Lamb of God.' He was also called the
'Savior,' and was said to save mankind from their sins. He was always honored
with the appellation of 'Dominus' or 'Lord.' He was called the 'Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world.' The devotees addressing him in their
litany, constantly repeated the words, 'O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin
of the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us Thy peace."' Therefore, the Lamb
of God is a title given to the sun, who is said to be reborn every year in the
Northern Hemisphere in the sign of the Ram, although, due to the existing
discrepancy between the signs of the zodiac and the actual star groups, it actual-
ly rises in the sign of Pisces.
The summer solstice is regarded as occurring in Cancer (the Crab), which
the Egyptians called the scarab--a beetle of the family Lamellicornes, the head
of the insect kingdom, and sacred to the Egyptians as the symbol of Eternal
Life. It is evident that the constellation of the Crab is represented by this pecu-
liar creature because the sun, after passing through this house, proceeds to
walk backwards, or descend the zodiacal arc. Cancer is the symbol of genera-
tion, for it is the house of the Moon, the great Mother of all things and the
patroness of the life forces of Nature. Diana, the moon goddess of the Greeks,
is called the Mother of the World. Concerning the worship of the feminine or
maternal principle, Richard Payne Knight writes:
"By attracting or heaving the waters of the ocean, she naturally appeared to
be the sovereign of humidity; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon
the constitutions of women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and regu-
latress of nutrition and passive generation: whence she is said to have received
her nymphs, or subordinate personifications, from the ocean; and is often
represented by the symbol of the sea crab, an animal that has the property of
spontaneously detaching from its own body any limb that has been hurt or
mutilated, and reproducing another in its place." (The Symbolical Language of
Ancient Art and Mythology.) This water sign, being symbolic of the maternal
principle of Nature, and recognized by the pagans as the origin of all life, was a
natural and consistent domicile of the moon.

159
 The autumnal equinox apparently occurs in the constellation of Libra (the
Balances). The scales tipped and the solar globe began its pilgrimage toward
the house of winter. The constellation of the Scales was placed in the zodiac to
symbolize the power of choice, by means of which man may weigh one prob-
lem against another. Millions of years ago, when the human race was in the
making, man was like the angels, who knew neither good nor evil. He fell into
the state of the knowledge of good and evil when the gods gave him the seed
for the mental nature. From man's mental reactions to his environments he
distills the product of experience, which then aids him to regain his lost posi-
tion plus an individualized intelligence. Paracelsus said: "The body comes from
the elements, the soul from the stars, and the spirit from God. All that the in-
tellect can conceive of comes from the stars [the spirits of the stars, rather than
the material constellations]."
The constellation of Capricorn, in which the winter solstice theoretically
takes place, was called The House of Death, for in winter all life in the North-
ern Hemisphere is at its lowest ebb. Capricorn is a composite creature, with
the head and upper body of a goat and the tail of a fish. In this constellation
the sun is least powerful in the Northern Hemisphere, and after passing
through this constellation it immediately begins to increase. Hence the Greeks
said that Jupiter (a name of the Sun God) was suckled by a goat. A new and
different sidelight on zodiacal symbolism is supplied by John Cole, in A Trea-
tise on the Circular Zodiac of Tentyra, in Egypt: "The symbol therefore of the
Goat rising from the body of a fish [Capricorn], represents with the greatest
propriety the mountainous buildings of Babylon rising out of its low and
marshy situation; the two horns of the Goat being emblematical of the two
towns, Nineveh and Babylon, the former built on the Tigris, the latter on the
Euphrates; but both subjected to one sovereignty."

Click to enlarge
THE MICROCOSM.
From Schotus' Margarita Philosophica.
The pagans believed that the zodiac formed the body of the Grand Man of the Un-
iverse. This body, which they called the Macrocosm (the Great World), was divided

160
into twelve major parts, one of which was under the control of the celestial powers
reposing in each of the zodiacal constellations. Believing that the entire universal sys-
tem was epitomized in man's body, which they called the Microcosm (the Little
World), they evolved that now familiar figure of "the cut-up man in the almanac" by
allotting a sign of the zodiac to each of twelve major parts of the human body.

The period of 2,160 years required for the regression of the sun through one
of the zodiacal constellations is often termed an age. According to this system,
the age secured its name from the sign through which the sun passes year after
year as it crosses the equator at the vernal equinox. From this arrangement are
derived the terms The Taurian Age, The Aryan Age, The Piscean Age, and
The Aquarian Age. During these periods, or ages, religious worship takes the
form of the appropriate celestial sign--that which the sun is said to assume as a
personality in the same manner that a spirit assumes a body. These twelve signs
are the jewels of his breastplate and his light shines forth from them, one after
the other.
From a consideration of this system, it is readily understood why certain
religious symbols were adopted during different ages of the earth's history; for
during the 2,160 years the sun was in the constellation of Taurus, it is said that
the Solar Deity assumed the body of Apis, and the Bull became sacred to Osi-
ris. (For details concerning the astrological ages as related to Biblical symbol-
ism, see The Message of the Stars by Max and Augusta Foss Heindel.) During
the Aryan Age the Lamb was held sacred and the priests were called shephe-
rds. Sheep and goats were sacrificed upon the altars, and a scapegoat was ap-
pointed to bear the sins of Israel.
During the Age of Pisces, the Fish was the symbol of divinity and the Sun
God fed the multitude with two small fishes. The frontispiece of Inman's An-
cient Faiths shows the goddess Isis with a fish on her head; and the Indian Sa-
vior God, Christna, in one of his incarnations was cast from the mouth of a
fish.
Not only is Jesus often referred to as the Fisher of Men, but as John P. Lun-
dy writes: "The word Fish is an abbreviation of this whole title, Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Savior, and Cross; or as St. Augustine expresses it, 'If you join
together the initial letters of the five Greek words, ,
which mean Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, they will make , Fish, in
which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live in the
abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters, that is, without sin.'" (Monu-
mental Christianity.) Many Christians observe Friday, which is sacred to the
Virgin (Venus), upon which day they shall eat fish and not meat. The sign of
the fish was one of the earliest symbols of Christianity; and when drawn upon

161
the sand, it informed one Christian that another of the same faith was near.
Aquarius is called the Sign of the Water Bearer, or the man with a jug of
water on his shoulder mentioned in the New Testament. This is sometimes
shown as an angelic figure, supposedly androgynous, either pouring water from
an urn or carrying the vessel upon its shoulder. Among Oriental peoples, a
water vessel alone is often used. Edward Upham, in his History and Doctrine
of Budhism, describes Aquarius as being "in the shape of a pot and of a color
between blue and yellow; this Sign is the single house of Saturn."
When Herschel discovered the planet Uranus (sometimes called by the
name of its discoverer), the second half of the sign of Aquarius was allotted to
this added member of the planetary family. The water pouring from the urn of
Aquarius under the name of "the waters of eternal life" appears many times in
symbolism. So it is with all the signs. Thus the sun in its path controls whatever
form of worship man offers to the Supreme Deity.
There are two distinct systems of astrological philosophy. One of them, the
Ptolemaic, is geocentric: the earth is considered the center of the solar system,
around which the sun, moon, and planets revolve. Astronomically, the geocen-
tric system is incorrect; but for thousands of years it has proved its accuracy
when applied to the material nature of earthly things. A careful consideration
of the writings of the great occultists and a study of their diagrams reveal the
fact that many of them were acquainted with another method of arranging the
heavenly bodies.
The other system of astrological philosophy is called the heliocentric. This
posits the sun in the center of the solar system, where it naturally belongs, with
the planets and their moons revolving about it. The great difficulty, however,
with the heliocentric system is that, being comparatively new, there has not
been sufficient time to experiment successfully and catalogue the effects of its
various aspects and relationships. Geocentric astrology, as its name implies, is
confined to the earthy side of nature, while heliocentric astrology may be used
to analyze the higher intellectual and spiritual faculties of man.
The important point to be remembered is that when the sun was said to be
in a certain sign of the zodiac, the ancients really meant that the sun occupied
the opposite sign and cast its long ray into the house in which they enthroned
it. Therefore, when it is said that the sun is in Taurus, it means (astronomically)
that the sun is in the sign opposite to Taurus, which is Scorpio. This resulted in
two distinct schools of philosophy: one geocentric and exoteric, the other he-
liocentric and esoteric. While the ignorant multitudes worshiped the house of
the sun's reflection, which in the case described would be the Bull, the wise
revered the house of the sun's actual dwelling, which would be the Scorpion, or
the Serpent, the symbol of the concealed spiritual mystery. This sign has three
different symbols. The most common is that of a Scorpion, who was called by

162
the ancients the backbiter, being the symbol of deceit and perversion; the
second (and less common) form of the sign is a Serpent, often used by the
ancients to symbolize wisdom.
Probably the rarest form of Scorpio is that of an Eagle. The arrangement of
the stars of the constellation bears as much resemblance to a flying bird as to a
scorpion. Scorpio, being the sign of occult initiation, the flying eagle--the king
of birds--represents the highest and most spiritual type of Scorpio, in which it
transcends the venomous insect of the earth. As Scorpio and Taurus are oppo-
site each other in the zodiac, their symbolism is often closely intermingled.
The Hon. E. M. Plunket, in Ancient Calendars and Constellations, says: "The
Scorpion (the constellation Scorpio of the Zodiac opposed to Taurus) joins
with Mithras in his attack upon the Bull, and always the genii of the spring and
autumn equinoxes are present in joyous and mournful attitudes."
The Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, who knew the sun as a
Bull, called the zodiac a series of furrows, through which the great celestial Ox
dragged the plow of the sun. Hence the populace offered up sacrifice and led
through the streets magnificent steers, bedecked with flowers and surrounded
with priests, dancing girls of the temple, and musicians. The philosophic elect
did not participate in these idolatrous ceremonials, but advocated them as most
suitable for the types of mind composing the mass of the population. These
few possessed a far deeper understanding, as the Serpent of Scorpio upon their
foreheads--the Urus--bore witness.
The sun is often symbolized with its rays in the form of a shaggy mane. Con-
cerning the Masonic significance of Leo, Robert Hewitt Brown, 32, has writ-
ten: "On the 21st of June, when the sun arrives at the summer solstice, the con-
stellation Leo--being but 30 in advance of the sun--appears to be leading the
way, and to aid by his powerful paw in lifting the sun up to the summit of the
zodiacal arch. * * * This visible connection between the constellation Leo and
the return of the sun to his place of power and glory, at the summit of the Roy-
al Arch of heaven, was the principal reason why that constellation was held in
such high esteem and reverence by the ancients. The astrologers distinguished
Leo as the 'sole house of the sun,' and taught that the world was created when
the sun was in that sign. 'The lion was adored in the East and the West by the
Egyptians and the Mexicans. The chief Druid of Britain was styled a lion.'"
(Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy.) When the Aquarian Age is tho-
roughly established, the sun will be in Leo, as will be noted from the explana-
tion previously given in this chapter regarding the distinction between geocen-
tric and heliocentric astrology. Then, indeed, will the secret religions of the
world include once more the raising to initiation by the Grip of the Lion's Paw.
(Lazarus will come forth.)

163
Click to enlarge
THE CIRCULAR ZODIAC OF TENTYRA.
From Cole's Treatise--the Circular Zodiac of Tentyra, in Egypt.
The oldest circular zodiac known is the one found at Tentyra, in Egypt, and now in the
possession of the French government. Mr. John Cole describes this remarkable zodiac
as follows: "The diameter of the medallion in which the constellations are sculptured,
is four feet nine inches, French measure. It is surrounded by another circle of much
larger circumference, containing hieroglyphic characters; this second circle is enclosed
in a square, whose sides are seven feet nine inches long. * * * The asterisms, constitut-
ing the Zodiacal constellations mixed with others, are represented in a spiral. The
extremities of this spiral, after one revolution, are Leo and Cancer. Leo is no doubt at
the head. It appears to be trampling on a serpent, and its tail to be held by a woman.
Immediately after the Lion comes the Virgin holding an ear of corn, Further on, we
perceive two scales of a balance, above which, in a medal lion, is the figure of Harpo-
crates. Then follows the Scorpion and Sagittarius, to whom the Egyptians gave wings,
and two faces. After Sagittarius are successively placed, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces,
the Ram, the Bull, and the Twins. This Zodiacal procession is, as we have already
observed, terminated by Cancer, the Crab."

The antiquity of the zodiac is much in dispute. To contend that it originated

but a mere few thousand years before the Christian Era is a colossal mistake on
the part of those who have sought to compile data, concerning its origin. The
zodiac necessarily must be ancient enough to go backward to that period when
its signs and symbols coincided exactly with the positions of the constellations
whose various creatures in their natural functions exemplified the outstanding
features of the sun's activity during each of the twelve months. One author,
after many years of deep study on the subject, believed man's concept of the
zodiac to be at least five million years old. In all probability it is one of the
many things for which the modem world is indebted to the Atlantean or the
Lemurian civilizations. About ten thousand years before the Christian Era
there was a period of many ages when knowledge of every kind was sup-
pressed, tablets destroyed, monuments torn down, and every vestige of availa-
ble material concerning previous civilizations completely obliterated. Only a
few copper knives, some arrowheads, and crude carvings on the walls of caves
bear mute witness of those civilizations which preceded this age of destruction.

164
Here and there a few gigantic structures have remained which, like the strange
monoliths on Easter Island, are evidence of lost arts and sciences and lost rac-
es. The human race is exceedingly old. Modern science counts its age in tens
of thousands of years; occultism, in tens of millions. There is an old saying that
"Mother Earth has shaken many civilizations from her back," and it is not
beyond reason that the principles of astrology and astronomy were evolved
millions of years before the first white man appeared.
The occultists of the ancient world had a most remarkable understanding of
the principle of evolution. They recognized all life as being in various stages of
becoming. They believed that grains of sand were in the process of becoming
human in consciousness but not necessarily in form; that human creatures were
in the process of becoming planets; that planets were in the process of becom-
ing solar systems; and that solar systems were in the process of becoming cos-
mic chains; and so on ad infinitum. One of the stages between the solar system
and the cosmic chain was called the zodiac; therefore they taught that at a cer-
tain time a solar system breaks up into a zodiac. The house of the zodiac be-
come the thrones for twelve Celestial Hierarchies, or as certain of the ancients
state, ten Divine Orders. Pythagoras taught that 10, or the unit of the decimal
system, was the most perfect of all numbers, and he symbolized the number
ten by the lesser tetractys, an arrangement of ten dots in the form of an upright
triangle.
The early star gazers, after dividing the zodiac into its houses, appointed the
three brightest scars in each constellation to be the joint rulers of that house.
Then they divided the house into three sections of ten degrees each, which
they called decans. These, in turn, were divided in half, resulting in the break-
ing up of the zodiac into seventy-two duodecans of five degrees each. Over
each of these duodecans the Hebrews placed a celestial intelligence, or angel,
and from this system, has resulted the Qabbalistic arrangement of the seventy-
two sacred names, which correspond to the seventy-two flowers, knops, and
almonds upon the seven-branched Candlestick of the Tabernacle, and the
seventy-two men who were chosen from the Twelve Tribes to represent Israel.
The only two signs not already mentioned are Gemini and Sagittarius. The
constellation of Gemini is generally represented as two small children, who,
according to the ancients, were born out of eggs, possibly the ones that the Bull
broke with his horns. The stories concerning Castor and Pollux, and Romulus
and Remus, may be the result of amplifying the myths of these celestial Twins.
The symbols of Gemini have passed through many modifications. The one
used by the Arabians was the peacock. Two of the important stars in the con-
stellation of Gemini still bear the names of Castor and Pollux. The sign of
Gemini is supposed to have been the patron of phallic worship, and the two
obelisks, or pillars, in front of temples and churches convey the same symbol-

165
ism as the Twins.
The sign of Sagittarius consists of what the ancient Greeks called a centaur--a
composite creature, the lower half of whose body was in the form of a horse,
while the upper half was human. The centaur is generally shown with a bow
and arrow in his hands, aiming a shaft far off into the stars. Hence Sagittarius
stands for two distinct principles: first, it represents the spiritual evolution of
man, for the human form is rising from the body of the beast; secondly, it is
the symbol of aspiration and ambition, for as the centaur aims his arrow at the
stars, so every human creature aims at a higher mark than he can reach.
Albert Churchward, in The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, sums up
the influence of the zodiac upon religious symbolism in the following words:
"The division here [is] in twelve parts, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve
tribes of Israel, twelve gates of heaven mentioned in Revelation, and twelve
entrances or portals to be passed through in the Great Pyramid, before finally
reaching the highest degree, and twelve Apostles in the Christian doctrines, and
the twelve original and perfect points in Masonry."
The ancients believed that the theory of man's being made in the image of
God was to be understood literally. They maintained that the universe was a
great organism not unlike the human body, and that every phase and function
of the Universal Body had a correspondence in man. The most precious Key
to Wisdom that the priests communicated to the new initiates was what they
termed the law of analogy. Therefore, to the ancients, the study of the stars was
a sacred science, for they saw in the movements of the celestial bodies the ever-
present activity of the Infinite Father.
The Pythagoreans were often undeservedly criticized for promulgating the
so-called doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. This con-
cept as circulated among the uninitiated was merely a blind, however, to con-
ceal a sacred truth. Greek mystics believed that the spiritual nature of man
descended into material existence from the Milky Way--the seed ground of
souls--through one of the twelve gates of the great zodiacal band. The spiritual
nature was therefore said to incarnate in the form of the symbolic creature
created by Magian star gazers to represent the various zodiacal constellations. If
the spirit incarnated through the sign of Aries, it was said to be born in the
body of a ram; if in Taurus, in the body of the celestial bull. All human beings
were thus symbolized by twelve mysterious creatures through the natures of
which they were able to incarnate into the material world. The theory of
transmigration was not applicable to the visible material body of man, but ra-
ther to the invisible immaterial spirit wandering along the pathway of the stars
and sequentially assuming in the course of evolution the forms of the sacred
zodiacal animals.
In the Third Book of the Mathesis of Julius Firmicus Maternus appears the

166
following extract concerning the positions of the heavenly bodies at the time of
the establishment of the inferior universe: "According to sculapius, therefore,
and Anubius, to whom especially the divinity Mercury committed the secrets of
the astrological science, the geniture of the world is as follows: They consti-
tuted the Sun in the 15th part of Leo, the Moon in the 15th part of Cancer,
Saturn in the 15th part of Capricorn, Jupiter in the 15th part of Sagittary, Mars
in the 15th part of Scorpio, Venus in the 15th part of Libra, Mercury in the
15th part of Virgo, and the Horoscope in the 15th part of Cancer. Conforma-
bly to this geniture, therefore, to these conditions of the stars, and the testimo-
nies which they adduce in confirmation of this geniture, they are of opinion
that the destinies of men, also, are disposed in accordance with the above ar-
rangement, as maybe learnt from that book of sculapius which is called
, (i.e. Ten Thousand, or an innumerable multitude of Genitures) in
order that nothing in the several genitures of men may be found to be discor-
dant with the above-mentioned geniture of the world." The seven ages of man
are under the control of the planets in the following order: infancy, the moon;
childhood, Mercury; adolescence, Venus; maturity, the sun; middle age, Mars;
advanced age, Jupiter; and decrepitude and dissolution, Saturn.

Click to enlarge
HIEROGLYPHIC PLAN, By HERMES, OF THE ANCIENT ZODIAC.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
The inner circle contains the hieroglyph of Hemphta, the triform and pantamorphic
deity. In the six concentric bands surrounding the inner circle are (from within out-
ward): (1) the numbers of the zodiacal houses in figures and also in words; (2) the
modern names of the houses.(3) the Greek or the Egyptian names of the Egyptian
deities assigned to the houses; (4) the complete figures of these deities; (5) the ancient
or the modem zodiacal signs, sometimes both; (6) the number of decans or subdivi-
sions of the houses.

167
Click to enlarge
THE BEMBINE TABLE OF ISIS.
Concerning the theurgic or magic sense in which the Egyptian priests exhibited in the
Bembine Table of Isis the philosophy of sacrifice, rites, and ceremonies by a system of
occult symbols, Athanasius Kircher writes:
"The early priests believed that a great spiritual power was invoked by correct and
unabridged sacrificial ceremonies. If one feature were lacking, the whole was vitiated,
says Iamblichus. Hence they were most careful in all details, for they considered it
absolutely essential for the entire chain of logical connections to be exactly according
to ritual. Certainly for no other reason did they prepare and prescribe for future use
the manuals, as it were, for conducting the rites. They learned, too, what the first hie-
romancers--possessed, as it were, by a divine fury--devised as a system of symbolism for
exhibiting their mysteries. These they placed in this Tablet of Isis, before the eyes of
those admitted to the sanctum sanctorum in order to teach the nature of the Gods and
the prescribed forms of sacrifice. Since each of the orders of Gods had its own pecu-
liar symbols, gestures, costumes, and ornaments, they thought it necessary to observe
these in the whole apparatus of worship, as nothing was more efficacious in drawing
the benign attention of the deities and genii. * * * Thus their temples, remote from the
usual haunts of men, contained representations of nearly every form in nature. First, in
the pavement, they symbolized the physical economy of the world, using minerals,
stones and other things suitable for ornaments, including little streams of water. The
walls showed the starry world, and the done the world of genii. In the center was the
altar, to suggest the emanations of the Supreme Mind from its center. Thus the entire
interior constituted a picture of the Universe of Worlds. The priests in making sacri-
fices wore raiment adorned with figures similar to those attributed to the Gods. Their
bodies were partially bare like those of the deities, and they themselves were divested
of all material cares and practices the strictest chastity. * * * Their heads were veiled to
indicate their charge of earthly things. Their heads and bodies were shaved, for they
regarded hair as a useless excrescence. Upon the head they bore the same insignia as
those attributed to the Gods. Thus arrayed, they regarded themselves to be trans-
formed into that intelligence with which they constantly desired to be identified. For

168
example, in order to call down to the world the soul and spirit of the Universe, they
stood before the image shown in the center of our Tablet, wearing the same symbols as
that figure and its attendants, and offered sacrifices. By these and the accompanying
singing of hymns they believed that they infallibly drew the God's attention to their
prayer. And so they did in regard to other regions of the Tablet, believing of necessity
the proper ritual properly carried out would evoke the deity desired. That this was the
origin of the science of oracles is apparent. As a touched chord produces a harmony of
sound, likewise the adjoining chords respond though not touched. Similarly the idea
they expressed by their concurrent acts while adoring the God came into accord with
basic Idea and, by an intellectual union, it was returned to them deiformed, and they
thus obtained the Idea of Ideas. Hence there sprang up in their souls, they thought, the
gift of prophecy and divination, and they believed they could foretell future events,
impending evils, etc. For as in the Supreme Mind everything is simultaneous and
spaceless, the future is therefore present in that Mind; and they thought that while the
human mind was absorbed in the Supreme by contemplation, by that union they were
enabled to know all the future. Nearly all that is represented in our Tablet consists of
amulets which, by analogy above described, would inspire them, under the described
conditions, with the virtues of the Supreme Power and enable them to receive good
and avert evil. They also believed they could in this magical manner effect cures of
diseases; that genii could be induced to appear to them during sleep and cure or teach
them to cure the sick. In this belief they consulted the Gods about all sort of doubts
and difficulties, while adorned with the simulacra of the mystic rite and intently con-
templating the Divine Ideas; and while so enraptured they believed the God by some
sign, nod or gesture communicated with them, whether asleep or awake, concerning
the truth or falsity of the matter in point." (See dipus gyptiacus.)

169
 The Bembine Table of Isis

A MANUSCRIPT by Thomas Taylor contains the following remarkable para-

graph:
"Plato was initiated into the 'Greater Mysteries' at the age of 49. The initia-
tion took place in one of the subterranean halls of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
The ISIAC TABLE formed the altar, before which the Divine Plato stood and
received that which was always his, but which the ceremony of the Mysteries
enkindled and brought from its dormant state. With this ascent, after three
days in the Great Hall, he was received by the Hierophant of the Pyramid (the
Hierophant was seen only by those who had passed the three days, the three
degrees, the three dimensions) and given verbally the Highest Esoteric Teach-
ings, each accompanied with Its appropriate Symbol. After a further three
months' sojourn in the halls of the Pyramid, the Initiate Plato was sent out into
the world to do the work of the Great Order, as Pythagoras and Orpheus had
been before him."
Before the sacking of Rome in 1527 there is no historical mention of the
Mensa Isiaca, (Tablet of Isis). At that time the Tablet came into the possession
of a certain locksmith or ironworker, who sold it at an exorbitant price to Car-
dinal Bembo, a celebrated antiquary, historiographer of the Republic of Ve-
nice, and afterwards librarian of St. Mark's. After his death in 1547 the Isiac
Tablet was acquired by the House of Mantua, in whose museum it remained
until 1630, when troops of Ferdinand II captured the city of Mantua. Several
early writers on the subject have assumed that the Tablet was demolished by
the ignorant soldiery for the silver it contained. The assumption, however, was
erroneous. The Tablet fell into the hands of Cardinal Pava, who presented it to
the Duke of Savoy, who in turn presented it to the King of Sardinia. When the
French conquered Italy in 1797 the Tablet was carried to Paris. In 1809, Alex-
andre Lenoir, writing of the Mensa Isiaca, said it was on exhibition at the Bib-
liothque Nationale. Upon the establishment of peace between the two coun-
tries it was returned to Italy. In his Guide to Northern Italy, Karl Baedeker
describes the Mensa Isiaca as being in the center of Gallery 2 in the Museum
of Antiquities at Turin.
A faithful reproduction of the original Tablet was made in 1559 by the cele-
brated neas Vicus of Parma, and a copy of the engraving was given by the
Chancellor of the Duke of Bavaria to the Museum of Hieroglyphics. Athana-
sius Kircher describes the Tablet as "five palms long and four wide." W. Wynn
Westcott says it measures 50 by 30 inches. It was made of bronze and deco-
rated with encaustic or smalt enamel and silver inlay. Fosbroke adds: "The

170
figures are cut very shallow, and the contour of most of them is encircled by
threads of silver. The bases upon which the figures were seated or reclined,
and left blank in the prints, were of silver and are torn away." (See Encyc-
lopdia of Antiquities.)
Those familiar with the fundamental principles of Hermetic philosophy will
recognize in the Mensa Isiaca the key to Chaldean, Egyptian, and Greek theol-
ogy. In his Antiquities, the learned Benedictine, Father Montfaucon, admits his
inability to cope with the intricacies of its symbolism. He therefore doubts that
the emblems upon the Tablet possess any significance worthy of consideration
and ridicules Kircher, declaring him to be more obscure than the Tablet itself.
Laurentius Pignorius reproduced the Tablet in connection with a descriptive
essay in 1605, but his timidly advanced explanations demonstrated his ignor-
ance concerning the actual interpretation of the figures.
In his dipus gyptiacus, published in 1654, Kircher attacked the prob-
lem with characteristic avidity. Being peculiarly qualified for such a task by
years of research in matters pertaining to the secret doctrines of antiquity, and
with the assistance of a group of eminent scholars, Kircher accomplished much
towards an exposition of the mysteries of the Tablet. The master secret, how-
ever, eluded even him, as Eliphas Levi has shrewdly noted in his History of
Magic.
"The learned Jesuit, " writes Levi, "divined that it contained the hieroglyphic
key to sacred alphabets, though he was unable to develop the explanation. It is
divided into three equal compartments; above are the twelve houses of heaven
and below are the corresponding distributions of labor [work periods]
throughout the year, while in the middle place are twenty-one sacred signs ans-
wering to the letters of the alphabet. In the midst of all is a seated figure of the
pantomorphic IYNX, emblem of universal being and corresponding as such to
the Hebrew Yod, or to that unique letter from which all the other letters were
formed. The IYNX is encircled by the Ophite triad, answering to the Three
Mother Letters of the Egyptian and Hebrew alphabets. On the right are the
Ibimorphic and Serapian triads; on the left are those of Nepthys and Hecate,
representing active and passive, fixed and volatile, fructifying fire and generat-
ing water. Each pair of triads in conjunction with the center produces a septe-
nary, and a septenary is contained in the center. The three septenaries furnish
the absolute number of the three worlds, as well as the complete number of
primitive letters, to which a complementary sign is added, like zero to the nine
numerals."
Levi's hint may be construed to mean that the twenty-one figures in the cen-
ter section of the Table represent the twenty-one major trumps of the Tarot
cards. If this be so, is not the zero card, cause of so much controversy, the
nameless crown of the Supreme Mind, the crown being symbolized by the

171
hidden triad in the upper part of the throne in the center of the Table? Might
not the first emanation of this Supreme Mind be well symbolized by a juggler
or magician with the symbols of the four lower worlds spread out on a table
before him: the rod, the sword, the cup, and the coin? Thus considered, the
zero card belongs nowhere among the others but is in fact the fourth dimen-
sional point from which they all emanated and consequently is broken up into
the twenty-one cards (letters) which, when gathered together, produce the zero.
The cipher appearing upon this card would substantiate this interpretation, for
the cipher, or circle, is emblematic of the superior sphere from which issue the
lower worlds, powers, and letters.
Westcott carefully collected the all too meager theories advanced by various
authorities and in 1887 published his now extremely rare volume, which con-
tains the only detailed description of the Isiac Tablet published in English since
Humphreys translated Montfaucon's worthless description in 1721. After ex-
plaining his reticence to reveal that which Levi evidently felt was better left
concealed, Westcott sums up his interpretation of the Tablet as follows:
"The diagram of Levi, by which he explains the mystery of the Tablet, shows
the Upper Region divided into the four seasons of the year, each with three
signs of the Zodiac, and he has added the four-lettered sacred name, the Te-
tragrammaton, assigning Jod to Aquarius, that is Canopus, He to Taurus, that
is Apis, Vau to Leo, that is Momphta, and He final to Typhon. Note the Che-
rubic parallel--Man, Bull, Lion and Eagle. The fourth form is found either as
Scorpion or Eagle depending upon the Occult good or evil intention: in the
Demotic Zodiac, the Snake replaces the Scorpion.
"The Lower Region he ascribes to the twelve simple Hebrew letters, associat-
ing them with the four quarters of the horizon. Compare the Sepher Yerzirah,
Cap. v., sec. 1.
"The Central Region he ascribes to the Solar powers and the Planetary. In
the middle we see above, the Sun, marked Ops, and below it is a Solomon's
Seal, above a cross; a double triangle Hexapla, one light and one dark triangle
superposed, the whole forming a sort of complex symbol of Venus. To the
Ibimorphos he gives the three dark planets, Venus, Mercury, and Mars placed
around a dark triangle erect, denoting Fire. To the Nephthan triad he gives
three light planets, Saturn, Luna, and Jupiter, around a light inverted triangle
which denotes Water. There is a necessary connection between water, female
power, passive principle, Binah, and Sephirotic Mother, and Bride. (See the
Kabbalah by Mathers.) Note the ancient signs for the planets were all com-
posed of a Cross, Solar Disc and Crescent: Venus is a cross below a Sun disc,
Mercury, a disc With a crescent above and cross below, Saturn is a Cross
whose lowest point touches the apex of the crescent; Jupiter is a Crescent
whose lowest point touches the left hand end of a cross: all these are deep mys-

172
teries. Note that Levi in his original plate transposed Serapis and Hecate, but
not the Apis noir and Apis blanc, perhaps because of the head of Bes being
associated by him with Hecate. Note that having referred the 12 simple letters
to the lower, the 7 double must correspond to the central region of the planets,
and then the great triad A.M.S. the mother letters representing Air, Water, and
Fire remain to be pictured, around S the Central Iynx, or Yod, by the Ophio-
nian Triad the two Serpents and the Leonine Sphynx. Levi's word OPS in the
centre is the Latin Ops, Terra, genius of the Earth; and the Greek Ops, Rhea,
or Kubele (Cybele) often drawn as a goddess seated in a chariot drawn by
lions; she is crowned with turrets, and holds a Key." (See The Isiac Tablet.)

Click to enlarge
LEVI'S KEY TO THE BEMBINE TABLE.
From Levi's History of Magic.
"The Isiac Tablet, writes Levi, is a Key to the Ancient Book of Thoth, which has sur-
vived to some extent the lapse of centuries and is pictured to us in the still compara-
tively ancient set of Tarocchi Cards. To him the Book of Thoth was a rsum of the
esoteric learning of the Egyptians, after the decadence of their civilization, this lore
became crystallized in a hieroglyphic form as the Tarot; this Tarot having become
partially or entirely forgotten or misunderstood, its pictured symbols fell into the hands
of the sham diviners, and of the providers of the public amusement by games of Cards.
The modem Tarot, or Tarocchi pack of cards consists of 78 cards, of which 22 form a
special group of trumps, of pictorial design: the remaining 56 are composed of four
suits of 10 numerals and four court cards, King, Queen, Knight, and Knave or Valet;
the suits are Swords (Militaryism), Cups (Sacerdocy), Clubs or Wands (Agriculture),
and Shekels or Coins (Commerce), answering respectively to our Spades, Hearts,
Clubs and Diamonds. Our purpose is with the 22 trumps, these form the special cha-
racteristic of the Pack and are the lineal descendants of the Hieroglyphics of the Tarot.
These 22 respond to the letters of the Hebrew and other sacred alphabets, which fall
naturally into three classes of a Trio of Mothers, a Heptad of doubles, and a duodecad
of simple letters. They are also considered as a triad of Heptads and one apart, a sys-
tem of Initiation and an Uninitiate." (See Westcott's The Isiac Tablet.)

The essay published in French by Alexandre Lenoir in 1809, while curious and
original, contains little real information on the Tablet, which the author seeks
to prove was an Egyptian calendar or astrological chart. As both Montfaucon

173
and Lenoir--in fact all writers on the subject since 1651--either have based their
work upon that of Kircher or have been influenced considerably by him, a
careful translation has been made of the latter's original article (eighty pages of
seventeenth century Latin). The double-page plate at the beginning of this
chapter is a faithful reproduction made by Kircher from the engraving in the
Museum of Hieroglyphics. The small letters and numbers used to designate
the figures were added by him to clarify his commentary and will be used for
the same purpose in this work.
Like nearly all religious and philosophical antiquities, the Bembine Table of
Isis has been the subject of much controversy. In a footnote, A. E. Waite--
unable to differentiate between the true and the purported nature or origin of
the Tablet--echoes the sentiments of J.G. Wilkinson, another eminent exoteri-
cus: "The original [Table] is exceedingly late and is roughly termed a forgery."
On the other hand, Eduard Winkelmann, a man of profound learning, de-
fends the genuineness and antiquity of the Tablet. A sincere consideration of
the Mensa Isiaca discloses one fact of paramount importance: that although
whoever fashioned the Table was not necessarily an Egyptian, he was an initiate
of the highest order, conversant with the most arcane tenets of Hermetic esote-
ricism.

SYMBOLISM OF THE BEMBINE TABLE

The following necessarily brief elucidation of the Bembine Table is based

upon a digest of the writings of Kircher supplemented by other information
gleaned by the present author from the mystical writings of the Chaldeans,
Hebrews, Egyptians, and Greeks. The temples of the Egyptians were so de-
signed that the arrangement of chambers, decorations, and utensils was all of
symbolic significance, as shown by the hieroglyphics that covered them. Beside
the altar, which usually was in the center of each room, was the cistern of Nile
water which flowed in and out through unseen pipes. Here also were images of
the gods in concatenated series, accompanied by magical inscriptions. In these
temples, by use of symbols and hieroglyphics, neophytes were instructed in the
secrets of the sacerdotal caste.
The Tablet of Isis was originally a table or altar, and its emblems were part
of the mysteries explained by priests. Tables were dedicated to the various gods
and goddesses; in this case Isis was so honored. The substances from which the
tables were made differed according to the relative dignities of the deities. The
tables consecrated to Jupiter and Apollo were of gold; those to Diana, Venus,
and Juno were of silver; those to the other superior gods, of marble; those to

174
the lesser divinities, of wood. Tables were also made of metals corresponding
to the planets governed by the various celestials. As food for the body is spread
on a banquet table, so on these sacred altars were spread the symbols which,
when understood, feed the invisible nature of man.
In his introduction to the Table, Kircher summarizes its symbolism thus: "It
teaches, in the first place, the whole constitution of the threefold world--
archetypal, intellectual, and sensible. The Supreme Divinity is shown moving
from the center to the circumference of a universe made up of both sensible
and inanimate things, all of which are animated and agitated by the one su-
preme power which they call the Father Mind and represented by a threefold
symbol. Here also are shown three triads from the Supreme One, each mani-
festing one attribute of the first Trimurti. These triads are called the Founda-
tion, or the base of all things. In the Table is also set forth the arrangement and
distribution of those divine creatures that aid the Father Mind in the control of
the universe. Here [in the upper panel] are to be seen the Governors of the
worlds, each with its fiery, ethereal, and material insignia. Here also [in the
lower panel] are the Fathers of Fountains, whose duty it is to care for and pre-
serve the principles of all things and sustain the inviolable laws of Nature. Here
are the gods of the spheres and also those who wander from place to place,
laboring with all substances and forms (Zonia and Azonia), grouped together as
figures of both sexes, with their faces turned to their superior deity."
The Mensa Isiaca, which is divided horizontally into three chambers or pa-
nels, may represent the ground plan of the chambers in which the Isiac Myste-
ries were given. The center panel is divided into seven parts or lesser rooms,
and the lower has two gates, one at each end. The entire Table contains forty-
five figures of first importance and a number of lesser symbols. The forty-five
main figures are grouped into fifteen triads, of which four are in the upper
panel, seven in the central, and four in the lower. According to both Kircher
and Levi, the triads are divided in the following manner:

In the upper section

1. P, S, V--Mendesian Triad.
2. X, Z, A--Ammonian Triad.
3. B, C, D--Momphtan Triad.
4. F, G, H-Omphtan Triad.
In the center section
1. G, I, K--Isiac Triad.
2. L, M, N--Hecatine Triad.
3. O, Q, R--Ibimorphous Triad.
4. V, S, W--Ophionic Triad.
5. X, Y, Z--Nephtan Triad.

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6. , , --Serapan Triad.
7. , (not shown), --Osirian Triad.
In the lower section
1. , , --Horan Triad.
2. , , --Pandochan Triad.
3. , , --Thaustic Triad.
4. , F, --luristic Triad.

Of these fifteen triads Kircher writes: "The figures differ from each other in
eight highly important respects, i. e., according to form, position, gesture, act,
raiment, headdress, staff, and, lastly, according to the hieroglyphics placed
around them, whether these be flowers, shrubs, small letters or animals." These
eight symbolic methods of portraying the secret powers of the figures are subtle
reminders of the eight spiritual senses of cognition by means of which the Real
Self in man may be comprehended. To express this spiritual truth the Budd-
hists used the wheel with eight spokes and raised their consciousness by means
of the noble eightfold path. The ornamented border enclosing the three main
panels of the Table contains many symbols consisting of birds, animals, rep-
tiles, human beings, and composite forms. According to one reading of the
Table, this border represents the four elements; the creatures are elemental
beings. According to another interpretation, the border represents the arche-
typal spheres, and in its frieze of composite figures are the patterns of those
forms which in various combinations will subsequently manifest themselves in
the material world. The four flowers at the corners of the Table are those
which, because their blossoms always face the sun and follow its course across
the sky, are sacred emblems of that finer part of man's nature which delights in
facing its Creator.
According to the secret doctrine of the Chaldeans, the universe is divided
into four states of being (planes or spheres): archetypal, intellectual, sidereal,
and elemental. Each of these reveals the others; the superior controlling the
inferior, and the inferior receiving influence from the superior. The archetypal
plane was considered synonymous with the intellect of the Triune Divinity.
Within this divine, incorporeal, and eternal sphere are included all the lower
manifestations of life-all that is, has been, or ever shall be. Within the Kosmic
Intellect all things spiritual or material exist as archetypes, or divine thought-
forms, which is shown in the Table by a chain of secret similes.
In the middle region of the Table appears the all-form-containing personi-
fied Spiritual Essence--the source and substance of all things. From this pro-
ceed the lower worlds as nine emanations in groups of three (the Ophionic,
Ibimorphous, and Nephtan Triads). Consider in this connection the analogy
of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, or the nine spheres issuing from Kether, the

176
Crown. The twelve Governors of the Universe (the Mendesian, Ammonian,
Momphtan, and Omphtan Triads)--vehicles for the distribution of the crea-
tive influences, and shown in the upper region of the Table-are directed in
their activities by the Divine Mind patterns existing in the archetypal sphere,
The archetypes are abstract patterns formulated in the Divine Mind and by
them all the inferior activities are controlled.
In the lower region of the Table are the Father Fountains (the Horan,
Pandochan, Thaustic, and luristic Triads), keepers of the great gates of the
universe. These distribute to the lower worlds the influences descending from
the Governors shown above.
In the theology of the Egyptians, goodness takes precedence and all things
partake of its nature to a higher or lower degree. Goodness is sought by all. It is
the Prime Cause of causes. Goodness is self-diffused and hence exists in all
things, for nothing can produce that which it does not have in itself. The Table
demonstrates that all is in God and God is in all; that all is in all and each is in
each. In the intellectual world are invisible spiritual counterparts of the crea-
tures which inhabit the elemental world. Therefore, the lowest exhibits the
highest, the corporeal declares the intellectual, and the invisible i,. made ma-
nifest by its works. For this reason the Egyptians made images of substances
existing in the inferior sensible world to serve as visible exemplars of superior
and invisible powers. To the corruptible images they assigned the virtues of the
incorruptible divinities, thus demonstrating arcanely that this world is but the
shadow of God, the outward picture of the paradise within. All that is in the
invisible archetypal sphere is revealed in the sensible corporeal world by the
light of Nature.
The Archetypal and Creative Mind--first through its Paternal Foundation
and afterwards through secondary Gods called Intelligences--poured our the
whole infinity of its powers by continuous exchange from highest to lowest. In
their phallic symbolism the Egyptians used the sperm to represent the spiritual
spheres, because each contains all that comes forth from it. The Chaldeans and
Egyptians also held that everything which is a result dwells in the cause of itself
and turns to that cause as the lotus to the sun. Accordingly, the Supreme Intel-
lect, through its Paternal Foundation, first created light--the angelic world. Out
of that light were then created the invisible hierarchies of beings which some
call the stars; and out of the stars the four elements and the sensible world were
formed. Thus all are in all, after their respective kinds. All visible bodies or
elements are in the invisible stars or spiritual elements, and the stars are like-
wise in those bodies; the stars are in the angels and the angels in the stars; the
angels are in God and God is in all. Therefore, all are divinely in the Divine,
angelically in the angels, and corporeally in the corporeal world, and vice versa.
just as the seed is the tree folded up, so the world is God unfolded.

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 Proclus says: "Every property of divinity permeates all creation and gives
itself to all inferior creatures. "One of the manifestations of the Supreme Mind
is the power of reproduction according to species which it confers upon every
creature of which it is the divine part. Thus souls, heavens, elements, animals,
plants, and stones generate themselves each according to its pattern, but all are
dependent upon the one fertilizing principle existing in the Supreme Mind.
The fecundative power, though of itself a unit, manifests differently through the
various substances, for in the mineral it contributes to material existence, in the
plant it manifests as vitality, and in the animal as sensibility. It imparts motion
to the heavenly bodies, thought to the souls of men, intellectuality to the angels,
and superessentiality to God. Thus it is seen that all forms are of one substance
and all life of one force, and these are co-existent in the nature of the Supreme
One.
This doctrine was first expounded by Plato. His disciple, Aristotle, set it
forth in these words: "We say that this Sensible World is an image of another;
therefore since this world is vivid or alive, how much more, then, that other
must live. * * * Yonder, therefore, above the stellar virtues, stand other hea-
vens to be attained, like the heavens of this world; beyond them, because they
are of a higher kind, brighter and vaster; nor are they distant from each Other
like this one, for they are incorporeal. Yonder, too, exists an earth, not of in-
animate matter, but vivid with animal life and all natural terrestrial phenomena
like this one, but of other kinds and perfections. There are plants, also, and
gardens, and flowing water; there are aquatic animals but of nobler species.
Yonder is air and life appropriate to it, all immortal. And although the life
there is analogous to ours, yet it is nobler, seeing that it is intellectual, perpetual
and unalterable. For if anyone should object and ask, How in the world above
do the plants, etc. above mentioned find footing, we should answer that they do
not have objective existence, for they were produced by the primal Author in
an absolute condition and without exteriorization. They are, therefore, in the
same case as intellect and soul; they suffer no defect such as waste and corrup-
tion, since the beings yonder are full of energy, strength and joy, as living in a
life sublime and being the issue of one fount and of one quality, compounded
of all like sweet savors, delicate perfumes, harmonious color and sound, and
other perfections. Nor do they move violently about nor intermix nor corrupt
each other, but each perfectly preserves its own essential character; and they
are simple and do not multiply as corporeal beings do."
In the midst of the Table is a great covered throne with a seated female fig-
ure representing Isis, but here called the Pantomorphic IYNX. G. R. S. Mead
defines the IYNX as "a transmitting intelligence." Others have declared it to be
a symbol of Universal Being. Over the head of the goddess the throne is sur-
mounted by a triple crown, and beneath her feet is the house of material sub-

178
stance. The threefold crown is here symbolic of the Triune Divinity, called by
the Egyptians the Supreme Mind, and described in the Sepher ha Zohar as
being "hidden and unrevealed." According to the Hebrew system of Qabbalism,
the Tree of the Sephiroth was divided into two parts, the upper invisible and
the lower visible. The upper consisted of three parts and the lower of seven.
The three uncognizable Sephiroth were called Kether, the Crown; Chochmah,
Wisdom; and Binah, Understanding. These are too abstract to permit of com-
prehension, whereas the lower seven spheres that came forth from them were
within the grasp of human consciousness. The central panel contains seven
triads of figures. These represent the lower Sephiroth, all emanating from the
concealed threefold crown over the throne.
Kircher writes: "The throne denotes the diffusion of the triform Supreme
Mind along the universal paths of the three worlds. Out of these three intangi-
ble spheres emerges the sensible universe, which Plutarch calls the 'House of
Horns' and the Egyptians, the 'Great Gate of the Gods.' The top of the throne
is in the midst of diffused serpent-shaped flames, indicating that the Supreme
Mind is filled with light and life, eternal and incorruptible, removed from all
material contact. How the Supreme Mind communicated His fire to all crea-
tures is clearly set forth in the symbolism of the Table. The Divine Fire is
communicated c to lower spheres through the universal power of Nature per-
sonified by the World Virgin, Isis, here denominated the IYNX, or the poly-
morphous all-containing Universal Idea." The word Idea is here used in its
Platonic sense. "Plato believed that there are eternal forms of all possible things
which exist without matter; and to these eternal and immaterial forms he gave
the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, ideas were the patterns according to
which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world." (Sir W. Hamil-
ton.)
Kircher describes the 21 figures in the central panel thus: "Seven principal
triads, corresponding to seven superior worlds, are shown in the central section
of the Table. They all originate from the fiery, invisible archetype [the triple
crown of the throne]. The first, the Ophionic or IYNX Triad, V S W, corres-
ponds to the vital and fiery world and is the first intellectual world, called by
the ancients the Aetherium. Zoroaster says of it: 'Oh, what rigorous rulers this
world has!' The second, or Ibimorphous Triad, O Q R, corresponds to the
second intellectual, or ethereal, world, and is concerned with the principle of
humidity. The third, or Nephtan Triad, X Y Z, corresponds to the third in-
tellectual and ethereal [world] and is concerned with fecundity. These are the
three triads of the ethereal worlds, which correspond to the Father Foundation.
Then follow the four triads of the sensible, or material, worlds, of which the
first two correspond to the sidereal worlds, G I K and , namely, Osiris and
Isis, Sun and Moon, indicated by two bulls. They are followed by two triads--

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the Hecatine, LM N, and the Serapan, , corresponding to the sublunary
and subterranean worlds. These complete the seven worlds of primary Genii
ruling the natural universe. Psellus quotes Zoroaster: 'The Egyptians and the
Chaldeans, taught that there were seven corporeal worlds (i. e., worlds ruled by
the intellectual powers);the first is of pure fire; the second, third, and fourth,
ethereal; the fifth, sixth, and seventh, material; the seventh being the one called
terrestrial and hater of light, and is located under the Moon, comprising within
itself the matter called fundus, or foundation. 'These seven, plus the one invisi-
ble crown, constitute the eight worlds. * * *

Click to enlarge
WESTCOTT'S KEY TO THE BEMBINE TABLE.
From Westcott's The Isiac Tablet.
Zoroaster declared that the number three shines throughout the world. This is re-
vealed in the Bembine, Table by a series of triads representing the creative impulses.
Of the Isiac Table Alexandre Lenoir writes: "The Isiac Table, as a work of art, is not of
great interest. it is but a composition, rather cold and insignificant, whose figures,
summarily sketched and methodically placed near each other, give but little impression
of life. But, if on the contrary after examining it, we understand the purpose of the
author, we become soon convinced that the Isiac Table is an image of the heavenly
sphere divided in small parts to be used very like, for general teaching. According to
that idea, we can conclude that the Isiac Table was originally the introduction to a
collection followed by the Mysteries of Isis. It was engraved on copper in order to be
used in the ceremonial of initiation." (See New Essay on the Isiac Table.)

"Plato writes that it is needful for the philosopher to know how the seven circles
beneath the first one are arranged according to the Egyptians. The first triad of
fire denotes life; the second, water, over which rule the Ibimorphous divinities;
and the third, air, ruled by Nephta. From the fire the heavens were created,
from the water the earth, and air was the mediator between them. In the Sephi-
ra Yetzirah it is said that from the three originate the seven, i. e., the height, the
depth, the East, the West, the North, and the South, and the Holy Temple in
the center sustaining them all. Is not the Holy Temple in the center the great
throne of the many-formed Spirit of Nature which is shown in the middle of
the Tablet? What are the seven triads but the seven Powers that rule over the
world? Psellus writes: 'The Egyptians worshipped the triad of faith, truth, and
180
love; and the seven fountains: the Sun as ruler--the fountain of matter; then the
fountain of the archangels; the fountain of the senses; of judgment; of lightning;
of reflections; and of characters of unknown composition. They say that the
highest material fountains are those of Apollo, Osiris, and Mercury--the foun-
tains of the centers of the elements. 'Thus, they understood by the Sun as ruler
the solar world; by the material archangelic, the lunar world; by the fountain of
the senses, the world of Saturn; by judgment, Jupiter; by lightning, Mars; by
that of the reflections, or mirrors, the world of Venus; by the fountain of cha-
racters, the world of Mercury. All these are shown by the figures in the center
pane of the Tablet."
The upper panel contains the twelve figures of the zodiac arranged in four
triads. The center figure in each group represents one of the four fixed signs of
the zodiac. S is the sign of Aquarius; Z, Taurus; C, Leo; and G, Scorpio. These
are called the Fathers. In the secret teachings of the Far East these four figures-
-the man, the bull, the lion, and the eagle--are called the winged globes or the
four Maharajahs who stand upon the corners of creation. The four cardinal
signs--P, Capricorn; X, Aries; B, Cancer; F, Libra--are called the Powers. The
four common signs--V, Pisces; A, Gemini; E, Virgo; H, Sagittarius--are called
the Minds of the Four Lords. This explains the meaning of the winged globes
of Egypt, for the four central figures--Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio
(called by Ezekiel the Cherubim)--are the globes; the cardinal and common
signs on either side are the wings. Therefore the twelve signs of the zodiac may
be symbolized by four globes, each with two wings.
The celestial triads are further shown by the Egyptians as a globe (the Fa-
ther) from which issue a serpent (the Mind) and wings (the Power). These
twelve forces are the fabricators of the world, and from them emanate the mi-
crocosm, or the mystery of the twelve sacred animals--representing in the un-
iverse the twelve parts of the world and in man the twelve parts of the human
body. Anatomically, the twelve figures in the upper panel may well symbolize
the twelve convolutions of the brain and the twelve figures in the lower panel
the twelve zodiacal members and organs of the human body, for man is a crea-
ture formed of the twelve sacred animals with his members and organs under
the direct control of the twelve governors or powers resident in the brain.
A more profound interpretation is found in the correspondences between
the twelve figures in the upper panel and the twelve in the lower. This furnish-
es a key to one of the most arcane of ancient secrets--the relationship existing
between the two great zodiacs the fixed and the movable. The fixed zodiac is
described as an immense dodecahedron, its twelve surfaces representing the
outermost walls of abstract space. From each surface of this dodecahedron a
great spiritual power, radiating inward, becomes embodied as one of the hie-
rarchies of the movable zodiac, which is a band of circumambulating so-called

181
fixed stars. Within this movable zodiac are posited the various planetary and
elemental bodies. The relation of these two zodiacs to the subzodiacal spheres
has a correlation in the respiratory system of the human body. The great fixed
zodiac may be said to represent the atmosphere, the movable zodiac the lungs,
and the subzodiacal worlds the body. The spiritual atmosphere containing the
vivifying energies of the twelve divine powers of the great fixed zodiac is in-
haled by the cosmic lungs--the movable zodiac--and distributed by them
through the constitution of the twelve holy animals which are the parts and
members of the material universe. The functional cycle is completed when the
poisonous effluvia of the lower worlds collected by the movable zodiac are
exhaled into the great fixed zodiac, there to be purified by being passed
through the divine natures of its twelve eternal hierarchies.
The Table as a whole is susceptible of many interpretations. If the border of
the Table with its hieroglyphic figures be accepted as the spiritual source, then
the throne in the center represents the physical body within which human na-
ture is enthroned. From this point of view the entire Table becomes emblemat-
ic of the auric bodies of man, with the border as the outer extremity or shell of
the auric egg. If the throne be accepted as the symbol of the spiritual sphere,
the border typifies the elements, and the various panels surrounding the central
one become emblematic of the worlds or planes emanating from the one di-
vine source. If the Table be considered from a purely physical basis, the throne
becomes symbolic of the generative system and the Table reveals the secret
processes of embryology as applied to the formation of the material worlds. If a
purely physiological and anatomical interpretation be desired, the central
throne becomes the heart, the Ibimorphous Triad the mind, the Nephtan
Triad the generative system, and the surrounding hieroglyphics the various
parts and members of the human body. From the evolutionary viewpoint the
central gate becomes the point of both entrance and exit. Here also is set forth
the process of initiation, in which the candidate after passing successfully
through the various ordeals is finally brought into the presence of his own soul,
which he alone is capable of unveiling.
If cosmogony be the subject of consideration, the central panel represents
the spiritual worlds, the upper panel the intellectual worlds, and the lower pan-
el the material worlds. The central panel may also symbolize the nine invisible
worlds, and the creature marked T the physical nature--the footstool of Isis, the
Spirit of Universal Life. Considered in the light of alchemy, the central panel
contains the metals and the borders the alchemical processes. The figure
seated on the throne is the Universal Mercury--the "stone of the wise"; the flam-
ing canopy of the throne above is the Divine Sulphur; and the cube of earth
beneath is the elemental salt.
The three triads--or the Paternal Foundation--in the central panel represent

182
the Silent Watchers, the three invisible parts of the nature of man; the two
panels on either side are the quaternary lower nature of man. In the central
panel are 21 figures. This number is sacred to the sun--which consists of three
great powers, each with seven attributes--and by Qabbalistic reduction 21 be-
comes 3, or the Great Triad.
It will yet be proved that the Table of Isis is directly connected with Egyptian
Gnosticism, for in a Gnostic papyrus preserved in the Bodleian Library there is
a direct reference to the twelve Fathers or Paternities beneath whom are twelve
Fountains. (See Egyptian Magic by S.S.D.D.) That the lower panel represents
the underworld is further emphasized by the two gates--the great gate of the
East and the great gate of the West--for in the Chaldean theology the sun rises
and sets through gates in the underworld, where it wanders during the hours of
darkness. As Plato was for thirteen years under the instruction of the Magi
Patheneith, Ochoaps, Sechtnouphis, and Etymon of Sebbennithis, his philoso-
phy consequently is permeated with the Chaldean and Egyptian system of tri-
ads. The Bembine Table is a diagrammatic exposition of the so-called Platonic
philosophy, for in its design is epitomized the entire theory of mystic cosmo-
gony and generation. The most valuable guide to the interpretation of this Ta-
ble is the Commentaries of Proclus on the Theology of Plato. The Chaldean
Oracles of Zoroaster also contains many allusions to the theogonic principles
which are demonstrated by the Table.
The Theogony of Hesiod contains the most complete account of the Greek
cosmogony myth. Orphic cosmogony has left its impress upon the various
forms of philosophy and religion--Greek, Egyptian, and Syrian--which it con-
tacted. Chief of the Orphic symbols was the mundane egg from which Phanes
sprang into light. Thomas Taylor considers the Orphic egg to be synonymous
with the mixture from bound and infinity mentioned by Plato in the Philebus.
The egg is furthermore the third Intelligible Triad and the proper symbol of
the Demiurgus, whose auric body is the egg of the inferior universe.
Eusebius, on the authority of Porphyry, declared that the Egyptians ac-
knowledged one intellectual Author or Creator of the world under the name of
Cneph and that they worshiped him in a statue of human form and dark blue
complexion, holding in his hand a girdle and a scepter, wearing on his head a
royal plume, and thrusting forth an egg out of his mouth. (See An Analysis of
the Egyptian Mythology) While the Bembine Table is rectangular-shaped, it
signifies philosophically the Orphic egg of the universe with its contents. In the
esoteric doctrines the supreme individual achievement is the breaking of the
Orphic egg, which is equivalent to the return of the spirit to the Nirvana--the
absolute condition--of the Oriental mystics.
The New Pantheon by Samuel Boyse contains three plates showing various
sections of the Bembine Table. The author, however, makes no important

183
contribution to the knowledge of the subject. In The Mythology and Fables of
the Ancients Explained from History, the Abb Banier devotes a chapter to a
consideration of the Mensa Isiaca. After reviewing the conclusions of Montfau-
con, Kircher, and Pignorius, he adds: "I am of the opinion that: it was a votive
table, which some prince or private person had consecrated to Isis, as an ac-
knowledgment for some benefit which he believed she had conferred upon
him."

184
 Wonders of Antiquity

IT was a common practice among the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to
seal lighted lamps in the sepulchers of their dead as offerings to the God of
Death. Possibly it was also believed that the deceased could use these lights in
finding his way through the Valley of the Shadow. Later as the custom became
generally established, not only actual lamps but miniatures of them in terra
cotta were buried with the dead. Some of the lamps were enclosed in circular
vessels for protection; and instances have been recorded in which the original
oil was found in them, in a perfect state of preservation, after more than 2,000
years. There is ample proof that many of these lamps were burning when the
sepulchers were sealed, and it has been declared that they were still burning
when the vaults were opened hundreds of years later. The possibility of prepar-
ing a fuel which would renew itself as rapidly as it was consumed has been a
source of considerable controversy among medival authors. After due con-
sideration of the evidence at hand, it seems well within the range of possibility
that the ancient priest-chemists did manufacture lamps that burned, if not inde-
finitely, at least for considerable periods of time.
Numerous authorities have written on the subject of ever-burning lamps. W.
Wynn Westcott estimates the number of writers who have given the subject
consideration as more than 150, and H. P. Blavatsky as 173. While conclu-
sions reached by different authors are at variance, a majority admit the exis-
tence of these phenomenal lamps. Only a few maintained that the lamps would
burn forever, but many were willing to concede that they might remain alight
for several centuries without replenishment of the fuel. Some considered the
so-called perpetual lights as mere artifices of the crafty pagan priests, while a
great many, admitting that the lamps actually burned, made the sweeping asser-
tion that the Devil was using this apparent miracle to ensnare the credulous
and thereby lead their souls to perdition.
On this subject the learned Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, usually dependable,
exhibits a striking inconsistency. In his dipus gyptiacus he writes: "Not a
few of these ever-burning lamps have been found to be the devices of devils, *
* * And I take it that all the lamps found in the tombs of the Gentiles dedicat-
ed to the worship of certain gods, were of this kind, not because they burned,
or have been reported to burn, with a perpetual flame, but because probably
the devil set them there, maliciously intending thereby to obtain fresh credence
for a false ."
Having admitted that dependable authorities defend the existence of the
ever-burning lamps, and that even the Devil lends himself to their manufacture,

185
Kircher next declared the entire theory to be desperate and impossible, and to
be classed with perpetual motion and the Philosopher's Stone. Having already
solved the problem to his satisfaction once, Kircher solves it again--but diffe-
rently--in the following words: "In Egypt there are rich deposits of asphalt and
petroleum. What did these clever fellows [the priests] do, then, but connect an
oil deposit by a secret duct with one or more lamps, provided with wicks of
asbestos! How could such lamps help burning perpetually? * * * In my opi-
nion this is the solution of the riddle of the supernatural everlastingness of
these ancient lamps."
Montfaucon, in his Antiquities, agrees in the main with the later deductions
of Kircher, believing the fabled perpetual lamps of the temples to be cunning
mechanical contrivances. He further adds that the belief that lamps burned
indefinitely in tombs was the result of the noteworthy fact that in some cases
fumes resembling smoke poured forth from the entrances of newly opened
vaults. Parties going in later and discovering lamps scattered about the floor
assumed that they were the source of the fumes.
There are several interesting stories concerning the discoveries of ever-
burning lamps in various parts of the world. In a tomb on the Appian Way
which was opened during the papacy of Paul III was found a burning lamp
which had remained alight in a hermetically sealed vault for nearly 1,600 years.
According to an account written by a contemporary, a body--that of a young
and beautiful girl with long golden hair--was found floating in an unknown
transparent liquid and as well preserved as though death had occurred but a
few hours before. About the interior of the vault were a number of significant
objects, which included several lamps, one of them alight. Those entering the
sepulcher declared that the draft caused by the opening of the door blew out
the light and the lamp could not be relighted. Kircher reproduces an epitaph,
"TULLIOLAE FILIAE MEAE," supposedly found in the tomb, but which
Montfaucon declares never existed, the latter adding that although conclusive
evidence was not found, the body was generally believed to be that of Tulliola,
the daughter of Cicero.
Ever-burning lamps have been discovered in all parts of the world. Not only
the Mediterranean countries but also India, Tibet, China, and South America
have contributed records of lights which burned continuously without fuel. The
examples which follow were selected at random from the imposing list of per-
petual lamps found in different ages.
Plutarch wrote of a lamp that burned over the door of a temple to Jupiter
Ammon; the priests declared that it had remained alight for centuries without
fuel.
St. Augustine described a perpetual lamp, guarded in a temple in Egypt sa-
cred to Venus, which neither wind nor water could extinguish. He believed it

186
to be the work of the Devil.
An ever-burning lamp was found at Edessa, or Antioch, during the reign of
the Emperor Justinian. It was in a niche over the city gate, elaborately enclosed
to protect it from the elements. The date upon it proved that the lamp had
been burning for more than 500 years. It was destroyed by soldiers.
During the early Middle Ages a lamp was found in England which had
burned since the third century after Christ. The monument containing it was
believed to be the tomb of the father of Constantine the Great.
The Lantern of Pallas was discovered near Rome in A.D. 1401. It was found
in the sepulcher of Pallas, son of Evander, immortalized by Virgil in his ne-
id. The lamp was placed at the head of the body and had burned with a steady
glow for more than 2,000 years.
In A.D. 1550 on the island of Nesis, in the Bay of Naples, a magnificent
marble vault was opened in which was found a lamp still alight which had been
placed there before the beginning of the Christian Era.
Pausanias described a beautiful golden lamp in the temple of Minerva which
burned steadily for a year without refueling or having the wick trimmed. The
ceremony of filling the lamp took place annually, and time was measured by
the ceremony.
According to the Fama Fraternitatis, the crypt of Christian Rosencreutz
when opened 120 years after his death was found to be brilliantly illuminated
by a perpetual lamp suspended from the ceiling.
Numa Pompilius, King of Rome and magician of considerable power,
caused a perpetual light to burn in the dome of a temple he had created in
honor of an elemental being.
In England a curious tomb was found containing an automaton which
moved when certain stones in the floor of the vault were stepped upon by an
intruder. At that time the Rosicrucian controversy was at its height, so it was
decided that the tomb was that of a Rosicrucian initiate. A countryman, disco-
vering the tomb and entering, found the interior brilliantly lighted by a lamp
hanging from the ceiling. As he walked, his weight depressed some of the floor
stones. At once a seated figure in heavy armor began to move. Mechanically it
rose to its feet and struck the lamp with an iron baton, completely destroying it,
and thus effectually preventing the discovery of the secret substance which
maintained the flame. How long the lamp had burned is unknown, but certain-
ly it had been for a considerable number of years.

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Click to enlarge
BASE OF A DELPHIAN TRIPOD.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
The windings of these serpents formed the base, and the three heads sustained the
three feet of the tripod. It is impossible to secure satisfactory information concerning
the shape and size of the celebrated Delphian tripod. Theories concerning it are based
(in most part) upon small ornamental tripods discovered in various temples.

Click to enlarge
THE DELPHIAN TRIPOD RESTORED.
From Beaumont's Gleanings of Antiquities.
According to Beaumont, the above is the most authentic form of the Delphian tripod
extant; but as the tripod must have changed considerably during the life of the oracle,
hasty conclusions are unwise. In his description of the tripod, Beaumont divides it into
four Parts: (1) a frame with three (2), a reverberating basin or bowl set in the frame; (e)
a flat plate or table upon which the Pythia sat; and (4) a cone-shaped cover over the
table, which completely concealed the priestess and from beneath which her voice
sounded forth in weird and hollow tones, Attempts have been made to relate the Del-
phian tripod with the Jewish Ark of the Covenant. The frame of three legs was likened
to the Ark of the Covenant; the flat plate or table to the Mercy Seat; and the cone-
shaped covering to the tent of the Tabernacle itself. This entire conception differs
widely from that popularly accepted, but discloses a valuable analogy between Jewish
and Greek symbolism.

It is related that among the tombs near Memphis and in the Brahmin temples
of India lights have been found in sealed chambers and vessels, but sudden
188
exposure to the air has extinguished them and caused their fuel to evaporate.
It is now believed that the wicks of these perpetual lamps were made of
braided or woven asbestos, called by the alchemists salamander's wool, and
that the fuel was one of the products of alchemical research. Kircher attempted
to extract oil from asbestos, being convinced that as the substance itself was
indestructible by fire an oil extracted from it would supply the lamp with a fuel
likewise indestructible. After spending two years in fruitless experimental work,
he concluded that the task was impossible of accomplishment.
Several formul for the making of the fuel for the lamps have been pre-
served. In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky reprints two of these formul from
early authors--Tritenheim and Bartolomeo Korndorf. One will suffice to give a
general understanding of the process:
"Sulphur. Alum ust. a iv.; sublime them into flowers to ij., of which add
of crystalline Venetian borax (powdered) j.; upon these affuse high rectified
spirit of wine and digest it, then abstract it and pour on fresh; repeat this so
often till the sulphur melts like wax without any smoke, upon a hot plate of
brass: this is for the pabulum, but the wick is to be prepared after this manner:
gather the threads or thrums of the Lapis asbestos, to the thickness of your
middle and the length of your little finger, then put them into a Venetian glass,
and covering them over with the aforesaid depurated sulphur or aliment set the
glass in sand for the space of twenty-four hours, so hot that the sulphur may
bubble all the while. The wick being thus besmeared and anointed, is to be put
into a glass like a scallop-shell, in such manner that some part of it may lie
above the mass of prepared sulphur; then setting this glass upon hot sand, you
must melt the sulphur, so that it may lay hold of the wick, and when it is
lighted, it will burn with a perpetual flame and you may set this lamp in any
place where you please."

THE GREEK ORACLES

The worship of Apollo included the establishment and maintenance of places

of prophecy by means of which the gods could communicate with mankind
and reveal futurity to such as deserved the boon. The early history of Greece
abounds with accounts of talking trees, rivers, statues, and caves in which
nymphs, dryads, or dmons had taken up their abodes and from which they
delivered oracles. While Christian authors have tried to prove that oracular
revelations were delivered by the Devil for the purpose of misleading humani-
ty, they have not dared to attack the theory of oracles, because of the repeated
reference to it in their own sacred writings. If the onyx stones on the shoulders
189
of Israel's high priest made known by their flashings the will of Jehovah, then a
black dove, temporarily endowed with the faculty of speech, could indeed pro-
nounce oracles in the temple of Jupiter Ammon. If the witch of Endor could
invoke the shade of Samuel, who in turn gave prophecies to Saul, could not a
priestess of Apollo call up the specter of her liege to foretell the destiny of
Greece?
The most famous oracles of antiquity were those of Delphi, Dodona, Tro-
phonius, and Latona, of which the talking oak trees of Dodona were the oldest.
Though it is impossible to trace back to the genesis of the theory of oracular
prophecy, it is known that many of the caves and fissures set aside by the
Greeks as oracles were sacred long before the rise of Greek culture.
The oracle of Apollo at Delphi remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the
ancients. Alexander Wilder derives the name Delphi from delphos, the womb.
This name was chosen by the Greeks be cause of the shape of the cavern and
the vent leading into the depths of the earth. The original name of the oracle
was Pytho, so called because its chambers had been the abode of the great
serpent Python, a fearsome creature that had crept out of the slime left by the
receding flood that had destroyed all human beings except Deucalion and Pyr-
rha. Apollo, climbing the side of Mount Parnassus, slew the serpent after a
prolonged combat, and threw the body down the fissure of the oracle. From
that time the Sun God, surnamed the Pythian Apollo, gave oracles from the
vent. With Dionysos he shared the honor of being the patron god of Delphi.
After being vanquished by Apollo, the spirit of Python remained at Delphi
as the representative of his conqueror, and it was with the aid of his effluvium
that the priestess was able to become en rapport with the god. The fumes rising
from the fissure of the oracle were supposed to come from the decaying body
of Python. The name Pythoness, or Pythia, given to the female hierophant of
the oracle, means literally one who has been thrown into a religious frenzy by
inhaling fumes rising from decomposing matter. It is of further interest to note
that the Greeks believed the oracle of Delphi to be the umbilicus of the earth,
thus proving that they considered the planet an immense human being. The
connection between the principle of oracular revelation and the occult signific-
ance of the navel is an important secret belonging to the ancient Mysteries.
The oracle, however, is much older than the foregoing account indicates. A
story of this kind was probably invented by the priests to explain the pheno-
mena to those inquisitive persons whom they did not consider worthy of en-
lightenment regarding the true esoteric nature of the oracle. Some believe that
the Delphic fissure was discovered by a Hypoborean priest, but as far back as
recorded history goes the cave was sacred, and persons came from all parts of
Greece and the surrounding countries to question the dmon who dwelt in its
chimney-like vent. Priests and priestesses guarded it closely and served the

190
spirit who dwelt therein and who enlightened humanity through the gift of
prophecy.
The story of the original discovery of the oracle is somewhat as follows:
Shepherds tending their flocks on the side of Mount Parnassus were amazed at
the peculiar antics of goats that wandered close to a great chasm on its south-
western spur. The animals jumped about as though trying to dance, and emit-
ted strange cries unlike anything before heard. At last one of the shepherds,
curious to learn the cause of the phenomenon, approached the vent, from
which were rising noxious fumes. Immediately he was seized with a prophetic
ecstasy; he danced with wild abandon, sang, jabbered inarticulate sounds, and
foretold future events. Others went close to the fissure, with the same result.
The fame of the place spread, and many came to learn of the future by inhal-
ing the mephitic fumes, which exhilarated to the verge of delirium.
Some of those who came, being unable to control themselves, and having
temporarily the strength of madmen, tore themselves from those seeking to
restrain them, and, jumping into the vent, perished. In order to prevent others
from doing likewise, a wall was erected around the fissure and a prophetess was
appointed to act as mediator between the oracle and those who came to ques-
tion it. According to later authorities, a tripod of gold, ornamented with carv-
ings of Apollo in the form of Python, the great serpent, was placed over the
cleft, and on this was arranged a specially prepared seat, so constructed that a
person would have difficulty in falling off while under the influence of the ora-
cular fumes. just before this time, a story had been circulated that the fumes of
the oracle arose from the decaying body of Python. It is possible that the oracle
revealed its own origin.
For many centuries during its early history, virgin maidens were consecrated
to the service of the oracle. They were called the Phbades, or Pythi, and
constituted that famous order now known as the Pythian priesthood. It is prob-
able that women were chosen to receive the oracles because their sensitive and
emotional nature responded more quickly and completely to "the fumes of
enthusiasm." Three days before the time set to receive the communications
from Apollo, the virgin priestess began the ceremony of purification. She
bathed in the Castalian well, abstained from all food, drank only from the
fountain of Cassotis, which was brought into the temple through concealed
pipes, and just before mounting the tripod, she chewed a few leaves of the sa-
cred bay tree. It has been said that the water was drugged to bring on distorted
visions, or the priests of Delphi were able to manufacture an exhilarating and
intoxicating gas, which they conducted by subterranean ducts and released into
the shaft of the oracle several feet below the surface. Neither of these theories
has been proved, however, nor does either in any way explain the accuracy of
the predictions.

191
Click to enlarge
THE PYTHIAN APOLLO.
From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
Apollo, the twin brother of Diana, was the son of Jupiter and Latona. Apollo was fully
adult at the time of his birth. He was considered to be the first physician and the inven-
tor of music and song. The Greeks also acclaimed him to be father of the bow and
arrow. The famous temple of Apollo at Delphi was rebuilt five times. The first temple
was formed only of laurel branches; the second was somewhat similar; the third was
brass and the fourth and fifth were probably of marble, of considerable size and great
beauty. No other oracle in Greece equaled in magnificence that of Delphi in the zenith
of its power. Writers declared that it contained many statues of solid gold and silver,
marvelous ornaments, and implements of the most valuable materials and beautiful
workmanship, donated by princes and kings who came from all parts of the civilized
world to consult the spirit of Apollo dwelling in this sanctuary.

When the young prophetess had completed the process of purification, she
was clothed in sanctified raiment and led to the tripod, upon which she seated
herself, surrounded by the noxious vapors rising from the yawning fissure.
Gradually, as she inhaled the fumes, a change came over her. It was as if a
different spirit had entered her body. She struggled, tore her clothing, and ut-
tered inarticulate cries. After a time her struggles ceased. Upon becoming calm
a great majesty seemed to posses her, and with eyes fixed on space and body
rigid, she uttered the prophetic words. The predictions were usually in the
form of hexameter verse, but the words were often ambiguous and sometimes
unintelligible. Every sound that she made, every motion of her body, was care-
fully recorded by the five Hosii, or holy men, who were appointed as scribes to
preserve the minutest details of each divination. The Hosii were appointed for
life, and were chosen from the direct descendants of Deucalion.
After the oracle was delivered, the Pythia began to struggle again, and the
spirit released her. She was then carried or supported to a chamber of rest,
where she remained till the nervous ecstasy had passed away.
Iamblichus, in his dissertation on The Mysteries, describes how the spirit of
the oracle--a fiery dmon, even Apollo himself--took control of the Pythoness
192
and manifested through her: "But the prophetess in Delphi, whether she gives
oracles to mankind through an attenuated and fiery spirit, bursting from the
mouth of the cavern; or whether being seated in the adytum on a brazen tri-
pod, or on a stool with four feet, she becomes sacred to the God; whichsoever
of these is the case, she entirely gives herself up to a divine spirit, and is illumi-
nated with a ray of divine fire. And when, indeed, fire ascending from the
mouth of the cavern circularly invests her in collected abundance, she becomes
filled from it with a divine splendour. But when she places herself on the seat
of the God, she becomes co-adapted to his stable prophetic power: and from
both of these preparatory operations she becomes wholly possessed by the
God. And then, indeed, he is present with and illuminates her in a separate
manner, and is different from the fire, the spirit, the proper seat, and, in short,
from all the visible apparatus of the place, whether physical or sacred."
Among the celebrities who visited the oracle of Delphi were the immortal
Apollonius of Tyana and his disciple Damis. He made his offerings and, after
being crowned with a laurel wreath and given a branch of the same plant to
carry in his hand, he passed behind the statue of Apollo which stood before
the entrance to the cave, and descended into the sacred place of the oracle.
The priestess was also crowned with laurel and her head bound with a band of
white wool. Apollonius asked the oracle if his name would be remembered by
future generations. The Pythoness answered in the affirmative, but declared
that it would always be calumniated. Apollonius left the cavern in anger, but
time has proved the accuracy of the prediction, for the early church fathers
perpetuated the name of Apollonius as the Antichrist. (For details of the story
see Histoire de la Magie.)
The messages given by the virgin prophetess were turned over to the philo-
sophers of the oracle, whose duty it was to interpret and apply them. The
communications were then delivered to the poets, who immediately translated
them into odes and lyrics, setting forth in exquisite form the statements suppo-
sedly made by Apollo and making them available for the populace.
Serpents were much in evidence at the oracle of Delphi. The base of the
tripod upon which the Pythia sat was formed of the twisted bodies of three
gigantic snakes. According to some authorities, one of the processes used to
produce the prophetic ecstasy was to force the young priestess to gaze into the
eyes of a serpent. Fascinated and hypnotized, she then spoke with the voice of
the god.
Although the early Pythian priestesses were always maidens--some still in
their teens--a law was later enacted that only women past fifty years of age
should be the mouthpiece of the oracle. These older women dressed as young
girls and went through the same ceremonial as the first Pythi. The change was
probably the indirect result of a series of assaults made upon the persons of the

193
priestesses by the profane.
During the early history of the Delphian oracle the god spoke only at each
seventh birthday of Apollo. As time went on, however, the demand became so
great that the Pythia was forced to seat herself upon the tripod every month.
The times selected for the consultation and the questions to be asked were
determined by lot or by vote of the inhabitants of Delphi.
It is generally admitted that the effect of the Delphian oracle upon Greek
culture was profoundly constructive. James Gardner sums up its influence in
the following words: "It responses revealed many a tyrant and foretold his fate.
Through its means many an unhappy being was saved from destruction and
many a perplexed mortal guided in the right way. It encouraged useful institu-
tions, and promoted the progress of useful discoveries. Its moral influence was
on the side of virtue, and its political influence in favor of the advancement of
civil liberty." (See The Faiths of The World.)
The oracle of Dodona was presided over by Jupiter, who uttered prophecies
through oak trees, birds, and vases of brass. Many writers have noted the simi-
larities between the rituals of Dodona and those of the Druid priests of Britain
and Gaul. The famous oracular dove of Dodona, alighting upon the branches
of the sacred oaks, not only discoursed at length in the Greek tongue upon
philosophy and religion, but also answered the queries of those who came
from distant places to consult it.
The "talking" trees stood together, forming a sacred grove. When the priests
desired answers to important questions, after careful and solemn purifications
they retired to the grove. They then accosted the trees, beseeching a reply from
the god who dwelt therein. When they had stated their questions, the trees
spoke with the voices of human beings, revealing to the priests the desired
information. Some assert that there was but one tree which spoke--an oak or a
beech standing in the very heart of the ancient grove. Because Jupiter was be-
lieved to inhabit this tree he was sometimes called Phegonus, or one who
lives in a beech tree.
Most curious of the oracles of Dodona were the "talking" vases, or kettles.
These were made of brass and so carefully fashioned that when struck they
gave off sound for hours. Some writers have described a row of these vases and
have declared that if one of them was struck its vibrations would be communi-
cated to all the others and a terrifying din ensue. Other authors describe a large
single vase, standing upon a pillar, near which stood another column, support-
ing the statue of a child holding a whip. At the end of the whip were a number
of swinging cords tipped with small metal balls, and the wind, which blew in-
cessantly through the open building, caused the balls to strike against the vase.
The number and intensity of the impacts and the reverberations of the vase
were all carefully noted, and the priests delivered their oracles accordingly.

194
 When the original priests of Dodona--the Selloi--mysteriously vanished, the
oracle was served for many centuries by three priestesses who interpreted the
vases and at midnight interrogated the sacred trees. The patrons of the oracles
were expected to bring offerings and to make contributions.
Another remarkable oracle was the Cave of Trophonius, which stood upon
the side of a hill with an entrance so small that it seemed impossible for a hu-
man being to enter. After the consultant had made his offering at the statue of
Trophonius and had donned the sanctified garments, he climbed the hill to the
cave, carrying in one hand a cake of honey. Sitting down at the edge of the
opening, he lowered his feet into the cavern. Thereupon his entire body was
precipitately drawn into the cave, which was described by those who had en-
tered it as having only the dimensions of a fair-sized oven. When the oracle
had completed its revelation, the consultant, usually delirious, was forcibly
ejected from the cave, feet foremost.

Click to enlarge
THE DODONEAN JUPITER.
From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
Jupiter was called Dodonean after the city of Dodona in Epirus. Near this city was a
hill thickly covered with oak trees which from the most ancient times had been sacred
to Jupiter. The grove was further venerated because dryads, fauns, satyrs, and nymphs
were believed to dwell in its depths. From the ancient oaks and beeches were hung
many chains of tiny bronze bells which tinkled day and night as the wind swayed the
branches. Some assert that the celebrated talking dove of Dodona was in reality a
woman, because in Thessaly both prophetesses and doves were called Peleiadas. It is
supposed that the first temple of Dodona was erected by Deucalion and those who
survived the great flood with him. For this reason the oracle at Dodona was considered
the oldest in Greece.

Near the cave of the oracle two fountains bubbled out of the earth within a few
feet of each other. Those about to enter the cave drank first from these foun-
tains, the waters of which seemed to possess peculiar occult properties. The
195
first contained the water of forgetfulness, and all who drank thereof forgot their
earthly sorrows. From the second fountain flowed the sacred water of Mnemo-
syne, or remembrance, for later it enabled those who partook of it to recall
their experiences while in the cave.
Though its entrance was marked by two brass obelisks, the cave, surrounded
by a wall of white stones and concealed in the heart of a grove of sacred trees,
did not present an imposing appearance. There is no doubt that those entering
it passed through strange experiences, for they were obliged to leave at the
adjacent temple a complete account of what they saw and heard while in the
oracle. The prophecies were given in the form of dreams and visions, and were
accompanied by severe pains in the head; some never completely recovered
from the after effects of their delirium. The confused recital of their expe-
riences was interpreted by the priests according to the question to be answered.
While the priests probably used some unknown herb to produce the dreams
or visions of the cavern, their skill in interpreting them bordered on the Super-
natural. Before consulting the oracle, it was necessary to offer a ram to the
dmon of the cave, and the priest decided by hieromancy whether the time
chosen was propitious and the sacrifice was satisfactory.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD

Many of the sculptors and architects of the ancient world were initiates of the
Mysteries, particularly the Eleusinian rites. Since the dawn of time, the truers
of stone and the hewers of wood have constituted a divinely overshadowed
caste. As civilization spread slowly over the earth, cities were built and de-
serted; monuments were erected to heroes at present unknown; temples were
built to gods who lie broken in the dust of the nations they inspired. Research
has proved not only that the builders of these cities and monuments and the
sculptors who chiseled out the inscrutable faces of the gods were masters of
their crafts, but that in the world today there are none to equal them. The pro-
found knowledge of mathematics and astronomy embodied in ancient architec-
ture, and the equally profound knowledge of anatomy revealed in Greek statu-
ary, prove that the fashioners of both were master minds, deeply cultured in
the wisdom which constituted the arcana of the Mysteries .Thus was estab-
lished the Guild of the Builders, progenitors of modern Freemasons. When
employed to build palaces, temples or combs, or to carve statues for the weal-
thy, those initiated architects and artists concealed in their works the secret
doctrine, so that now, long after their bones have returned to dust, the world
realizes that those first artisans were indeed duly initiated and worthy to receive

196
the wages of Master Masons.
The Seven Wonders of the World, while apparently designed for divers
reasons, were really monuments erected to perpetuate the arcana of the Myste-
ries. They were symbolic structures, placed in peculiar spots, and the real pur-
pose of their erection can be sensed only by the initiated. Eliphas Levi has
noted the marked correspondence between these Seven Wonders and the
seven planets. The Seven Wonders of the World were built by Widow's sons
in honor of the seven planetary genii. Their secret symbolism is identical with
that of the seven seals of Revelation and the seven churches of Asia.
1. The Colossus of Rhodes, a gigantic brass statue about 109 feet in height
and requiring over twelve years to build, was the work of an initiated artist,
Chares of Lindus. The popular theory--accepted for several hundred years--
that the figure stood with one foot on each side of the entrance to the harbor of
Rhodes and that full-rigged ships passed between its feet, has never been subs-
tantiated. Unfortunately, the figure remained standing but fifty-six years, being
thrown down by an earthquake in 224 B.C. The shattered parts of the Colos-
sus lay scattered about the ground for more than 900 years, when they were
finally sold to a Jewish merchant, who carried the metal away on the backs of
700 camels. Some believed that the brass was converted into munitions and
others that it was made into drainage pipes. This gigantic gilded figure, with its
crown of solar rays and its upraised torch, signified occultly the glorious Sun
Man of the Mysteries, the Universal Savior.
2. The architect Ctesiphon, in the fifth century B.C., submitted to the Ionian
cities a plan for erecting a joint monument to their patron goddess, Diana. The
place chosen was Ephesus, a city south of Smyrna. The building was con-
structed of marble. The roof was supported by 127 columns, each 60 feet high
and weighing over 150 tons. The temple was destroyed by black magic about
356 B.C., but the world fixes the odious crime upon the tool by means of
which the destruction was accomplished--a mentally deranged man named
Herostratus. It was later rebuilt, but the symbolism was lost. The original tem-
ple, designed as a miniature of the universe, was dedicated to the moon, the
occult symbol of generation.
3. Upon his exile from Athens, Phidias--the greatest of all the Greek sculp-
tors--went to Olympia in the province of Elis and there designed his colossal
statue of Zeus, chief of the gods of Greece. There is not even an accurate de-
scription of this masterpiece now in existence; only a few old coins give an
inadequate idea of its general appearance. The body of the god was overlaid
with ivory and the robes were of beaten gold. In one hand he is supposed to
have held a globe supporting a figure of the Goddess of Victory, in the other a
scepter surmounted by an eagle. The head of Zeus was archaic, heavily
bearded, and crowned with an olive wreath. The statue was seated upon an

197
elaborately decorated throne. As its name implies, the monument was dedicat-
ed to the spirit of the planet Jupiter,--one of the seven Logi who bow before the
Lord of the Sun.
4. Eliphas Levi includes the Temple of Solomon among the Seven Wonders
of the World, giving it the place occupied by the Pharos, or Lighthouse, of
Alexandria. The Pharos, named for the island upon which it stood, was de-
signed and constructed by Sostratus of Cnidus during the reign of Ptolemy
(283-247 B.C.). It is described as being of white marble and over 600 feet high.
Even in that ancient day it cost nearly a million dollars. Fires were lighted in
the top of it and could be seen for miles out at sea. It was destroyed by an
earthquake in the thirteenth century, but remains of it were visible until A.D.
1350. Being the tallest of all the Wonders, it: was naturally assigned to Saturn,
the Father of the gods and the true illuminator of all humanity.
5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a magnificent monument erected
by Queen Artemisia in memory of her dead husband, King Mausolus, from
whose name the word mausoleum is derived. The designers of the building
were Satyrus and Pythis, and four great sculptors were employed to ornament
the edifice. The building, which was 114 feet long and 92 feet wide, was di-
vided into five major sections (the senses) and surmounted by a pyramid (the
spiritual nature of man). The pyramid rose in 24 steps (a sacred number), and
upon the apex was a statue of King Mausolus in a chariot. His figure was 9 feet
9 inches tall. Many attempts have been made to reconstruct the monument,
which. was destroyed by an earthquake, but none has been altogether success-
ful. This monument was sacred to the planet Mars and was built by an initiate
for the enlightenment of the world.
6. The Gardens of Semiramis at Babylon--more commonly known as the
Hanging Gardens--stood within the palace grounds of Nebuchadnezzar, near
the Euphrates River. They rose in a terrace-like pyramid and on the top was a
reservoir for the watering of the gardens. They were built about 600 B.C., but
the name of the landscape artist has not been preserved. They symbolized the
planes of the invisible world, and were consecrated to Venus as the goddess of
love and beauty.
7. The Great Pyramid was supreme among the temples of the Mysteries. In
order to be true to its astronomical symbolism, it must have been constructed
about 70,000 years ago. It was the tomb of Osiris, and was believed to have
been built by the gods themselves, and the architect may have been the immor-
tal Hermes. It is the monument of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and
the universal symbol of wisdom and letters.

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Click to enlarge
TROPHONIUS OF LEBADIA.
from Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
Trophonius and his brother Agamedes were famous architects. While building a cer-
tain treasure vault, they contrived to leave one stone movable so that they might secret-
ly enter and steal the valuables stored there. A trap was set by the owner, who had
discovered the plot, and Agamedes was caught. To prevent discovery, Trophonius
decapitated his brother and fled, hotly pursued. He hid in the grove of Lebadia, where
the earth opened and swallowed him up. The spirit of Trophonius thereafter delivered
oracles in the grove and its caverns. The name Trophonius means "to be agitated,
excited, or roiled." It was declared that the terrible experiences through which consul-
tants passed in the oracular caverns so affected them that they never smiled again. The
bees which accompany the figure of Trophonius were sacred because they led the first
envoys from Btia to the site of the oracle. The figure above is said to be a production
of a statue of Trophonius which was placed on the brow of the hill above the oracle
and surrounded with sharply pointed stakes that it could not be touched.

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 The Life and Philosophy of Pythagoras

WHILE Mnesarchus, the father of Pythagoras, was in the city of Delphi on

matters pertaining to his business as a merchant, he and his wife, Parthenis,
decided to consult the oracle of Delphi as to whether the Fates were favorable
for their return voyage to Syria. When the Pythoness (prophetess of Apollo)
seated herself on the golden tripod over the yawning vent of the oracle, she did
not answer the question they had asked, but told Mnesarchus that his wife was
then with child and would give birth to a son who was destined to surpass all
men in beauty and wisdom, and who throughout the course of his life would
contribute much to the benefit of mankind. Mnesarchus was so deeply im-
pressed by the prophecy that he changed his wife's name to Pythasis, in honor
of the Pythian priestess. When the child was born at Sidon in Phnicia, it was-
-as the oracle had said--a son. Mnesarchus and Pythasis named the child Pytha-
goras, for they believed that he had been predestined by the oracle.
Many strange legends have been preserved concerning the birth of Pythago-
ras. Some maintained that he was no mortal man: that he was one of the gods
who had taken a human body to enable him to come into the world and in-
struct the human race. Pythagoras was one of the many sages and saviors of
antiquity for whom an immaculate conception is asserted. In his Anacalypsis,
Godfrey Higgins writes: "The first striking circumstance in which the history of
Pythagoras agrees with the history of Jesus is, that they were natives of nearly
the same country; the former being born at Sidon, the latter at Bethlehem,
both in Syria. The father of Pythagoras, as well as the father of Jesus, was pro-
phetically informed that his wife should bring forth a son, who should be a
benefactor to mankind. They were both born when their mothers were from
home on journeys, Joseph and his wife having gone up to Bethlehem to be
taxed, and the father of Pythagoras having travelled from Samos, his residence,
to Sidon, about his mercantile concerns. Pythais [Pythasis], the mother of Py-
thagoras, had a connexion with an Apolloniacal spectre, or ghost, of the God
Apollo, or God Sol, (of course this must have been a holy ghost, and here we
have the Holy Ghost) which afterward appeared to her husband, and told him
that he must have no connexion with his wife during her pregnancy--a story
evidently the same as that relating to Joseph and Mary. From these peculiar
circumstances, Pythagoras was known by the same title as Jesus, namely, the
son of God; and was supposed by the multitude to be under the influence of
Divine inspiration."
This most famous philosopher was born sometime between 600 and 590
B.C., and the length of his life has been estimated at nearly one hundred years.

200
The teachings of Pythagoras indicate that he was thoroughly conversant with
the precepts of Oriental and Occidental esotericism. He traveled among the
Jews and was instructed by the Rabbins concerning the secret traditions of
Moses, the lawgiver of Israel. Later the School of the Essenes was conducted
chiefly for the purpose of interpreting the Pythagorean symbols. Pythagoras
was initiated into the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chaldean Mysteries. Although
it is believed by some that he was a disciple of Zoroaster, it is doubtful whether
his instructor of that name was the God-man now revered by the Parsees.
While accounts of his travels differ, historians agree that he visited many coun-
tries and studied at the feet of many masters.
"After having acquired all which it was possible for him to learn of the Greek
philosophers and, presumably, become an initiate in the Eleusinian mysteries,
he went to Egypt, and after many rebuffs and refusals, finally succeeded in
securing initiation in the Mysteries of Isis, at the hands of the priests of Thebes.
Then this intrepid 'joiner' wended his way into Phoenicia and Syria where the
Mysteries of Adonis were conferred upon him, and crossing to the valley of the
Euphrates he tarried long enough to become versed in, the secret lore of the
Chaldeans, who still dwelt in the vicinity of Babylon. Finally, he made his
greatest and most historic venture through Media and Persia into Hindustan
where he remained several years as a pupil and initiate of the learned Brah-
mins of Elephanta and Ellora." (See Ancient Freemasonry, by Frank C. Hig-
gins, 32.) The same author adds that the name of Pythagoras is still preserved
in the records of the Brahmins as Yavancharya, the Ionian Teacher.
Pythagoras was said to have been the first man to call himself a philosopher;
in fact, the world is indebted to him for the word philosopher. Before that time
the wise men had called themselves sages, which was interpreted to mean those
who know. Pythagoras was more modest. He coined the word philosopher,
which he defined as one who is attempting to find out.
After returning from his wanderings, Pythagoras established a school, or as it
has been sometimes called, a university, at Crotona, a Dorian colony in South-
ern Italy. Upon his arrival at Crotona he was regarded askance, but after a
short time those holding important positions in the surrounding colonies
sought his counsel in matters of great moment. He gathered around him a
small group of sincere disciples whom he instructed in the secret wisdom
which had been revealed to him, and also in the fundamentals of occult ma-
thematics, music, and astronomy, which he considered to be the triangular
foundation of all the arts and sciences.
When he was about sixty years old, Pythagoras married one of his disciples,
and seven children resulted from the union. His wife was a remarkably able
woman, who not only inspired him during the years of his life but after his
assassination continued to promulgate his doctrines.

201
 As is so often the case with genius, Pythagoras by his outspokenness in-
curred both political and personal enmity. Among those who came for initia-
tion was one who, because Pythagoras refused to admit him, determined to
destroy both the man and his philosophy. By means of false propaganda, this
disgruntled one turned the minds of the common people against the philoso-
pher. Without warning, a band of murderers descended upon the little group
of buildings where the great teacher and his disciples dwelt, burned the struc-
tures and killed Pythagoras.
Accounts of the philosopher's death do not agree. Some say that he was mur-
dered with his disciples; others that, on escaping from Crotona with a small
band of followers, he was trapped and burned alive by his enemies in a little
house where the band had decided to rest for the night. Another account states
that, finding themselves trapped in the burning structure, the disciples threw
themselves into the flames, making of their own bodies a bridge over which
Pythagoras escaped, only to die of a broken heart a short time afterwards as the
result of grieving over the apparent fruitlessness of his efforts to serve and illu-
minate mankind.
His surviving disciples attempted to perpetuate his doctrines, but they were
persecuted on every hand and very little remains today as a testimonial to the
greatness of this philosopher. It is said that the disciples of Pythagoras never
addressed him or referred to him by his own name, but always as The Master
or That Man. This may have been because of the fact that the name Pythagoras
was believed to consist of a certain number of specially arranged letters with
great sacred significance. The Word magazine has printed an article by T. R.
Prater, showing that Pythagoras initiated his candidates by means of a certain
formula concealed within the letters of his own name. This may explain why
the word Pythagoras was so highly revered.

Click to enlarge
PYTHAGORAS, THE FIRST PHILOSOPHER.
From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
During his youth, Pythagoras was a disciple of Pherecydes and Hermodamas, and

202
while in his teens became renowned for the clarity of his philosophic concepts. In
height he exceeded six feet; his body was as perfectly formed as that of Apollo. Pytha-
goras was the personification of majesty and power, and in his presence a felt humble
and afraid. As he grew older, his physical power increased rather than waned, so that
as he approached the century mark he was actually in the prime of life. The influence
of this great soul over those about him was such that a word of praise from Pythagoras
filled his disciples with ecstasy, while one committed suicide because the Master be-
came momentarily irritate over something he had dome. Pythagoras was so impressed
by this tragedy that he never again spoke unkindly to or about anyone.

After the death of Pythagoras his school gradually disintegrated, but those who
had benefited by its teachings revered the memory of the great philosopher, as
during his life they had reverenced the man himself. As time went on, Pythago-
ras came to be regarded as a god rather than a man, and his scattered disciples
were bound together by their common admiration for the transcendent genius
of their teacher. Edouard Schure, in his Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries,
relates the following incident as illustrative of the bond of fellowship uniting the
members of the Pythagorean School:
"One of them who had fallen upon sickness and poverty was kindly taken in
by an innkeeper. Before dying he traced a few mysterious signs (the pentagram,
no doubt) on the door of the inn and said to the host, 'Do not be uneasy, one
of my brothers will pay my debts.' A year afterwards, as a stranger was passing
by this inn he saw the signs and said to the host, 'I am a Pythagorean; one of
my brothers died here; tell me what I owe you on his account.'"
Frank C. Higgins, 32, gives an excellent compendium of the Pythagorean
tenets in the following outline:
"Pythagoras' teachings are of the most transcendental importance to Masons,
inasmuch as they are the necessary fruit of his contact with the leading philoso-
phers of the whole civilized world of his own day, and must represent that in
which all were agreed, shorn of all weeds of controversy. Thus, the determined
stand made by Pythagoras, in defense of pure monotheism, is sufficient evi-
dence that the tradition to the effect that the unity of God was the supreme
secret of all the ancient initiations is substantially correct. The philosophical
school of Pythagoras was, in a measure, also a series of initiations, for he
caused his pupils to pass through a series of degrees and never permitted them
personal contact with himself until they had reached the higher grades. Accord-
ing to his biographers, his degrees were three in number. The first, that of
'Mathematicus,' assuring his pupils proficiency in mathematics and geometry,
which was then, as it would be now if Masonry were properly inculcated, the
basis upon which all other knowledge was erected. Secondly, the degree of

203
'Theoreticus,' which dealt with superficial applications of the exact sciences,
and, lastly, the degree of 'Electus,' which entitled the candidate to pass forward
into the light of the fullest illumination which he was capable of absorbing. The
pupils of the Pythagorean school were divided into 'exoterici,' or pupils in the
outer grades, and 'esoterici,' after they had passed the third degree of initiation
and were entitled to the secret wisdom. Silence, secrecy and unconditional
obedience were cardinal principles of this great order." (See Ancient Freema-
sonry.)

PYTHAGORIC FUNDAMENTALS

The study of geometry, music, and astronomy was considered essential to a

rational understanding of God, man, or Nature, and no one could accompany
Pythagoras as a disciple who was not thoroughly familiar with these sciences.
Many came seeking admission to his school. Each applicant was tested on
these three subjects, and if found ignorant, was summarily dismissed.
Pythagoras was not an extremist. He taught moderation in all things rather
than excess in anything, for he believed that an excess of virtue was in itself a
vice. One of his favorite statements was: "We must avoid with our utmost en-
deavor, and amputate with fire and sword, and by all other means, from the
body, sickness; from the soul, ignorance; from the belly, luxury; from a city,
sedition; from a family, discord; and from all things, excess." Pythagoras also
believed that there was no crime equal to that of anarchy.
All men know what they want, but few know what they need. Pythagoras
warned his disciples that when they prayed they should not pray for them-
selves; that when they asked things of the gods they should not ask things for
themselves, because no man knows what is good for him and it is for this rea-
son undesirable to ask for things which, if obtained, would only prove to be
injurious.
The God of Pythagoras was the Monad, or the One that is Everything. He
described God as the Supreme Mind distributed throughout all parts of the
universe--the Cause of all things, the Intelligence of all things, and the Power
within all things. He further declared the motion of God to be circular, the
body of God to be composed of the substance of light, and the nature of God
to be composed of the substance of truth.
Pythagoras declared that the eating of meat clouded the reasoning faculties.
While he did not condemn its use or totally abstain therefrom himself, he de-
clared that judges should refrain from eating meat before a trial, in order that
those who appeared before them might receive the most honest and astute

204
decisions. When Pythagoras decided (as he often did) to retire into the temple
of God for an extended period of time to meditate and pray, he took with his
supply of specially prepared food and drink. The food consisted of equal parts
of the seeds of poppy and sesame, the skin of the sea onion from which the
juice had been thoroughly extracted, the flower of daffodil, the leaves of mal-
lows, and a paste of barley and peas. These he compounded together with the
addition of wild honey. For a beverage he took the seeds of cucumbers, dried
raisins (with seeds removed), the flowers of coriander, the seeds of mallows
and purslane, scraped cheese, meal, and cream, mixed together and sweetened
with wild honey. Pythagoras claimed that this was the diet of Hercules while
wandering in the Libyan desert and was according to the formula given to that
hero by the goddess Ceres herself.
The favorite method of healing among the Pythagoreans was by the aid of
poultices. These people also knew the magic properties of vast numbers of
plants. Pythagoras highly esteemed the medicinal properties of the sea onion,
and he is said to have written an entire volume on the subject. Such a work,
however, is not known at the present time. Pythagoras discovered that music
had great therapeutic power and he prepared special harmonies for various
diseases. He apparently experimented also with color, attaining considerable
success. One of his unique curative processes resulted from his discovery of
the healing value of certain verses from the Odyssey and the Iliad of Homer.
These he caused to be read to persons suffering from certain ailments. He was
opposed to surgery in all its forms and also objected to cauterizing. He would
not permit the disfigurement of the human body, for such, in his estimation,
was a sacrilege against the dwelling place of the gods.
Pythagoras taught that friendship was the truest and nearest perfect of all
relationships. He declared that in Nature there was a friendship of all for all; of
gods for men; of doctrines one for another; of the soul for the body; of the
rational part for the irrational part; of philosophy for its theory; of men for one
another; of countrymen for one another; that friendship also existed between
strangers, between a man and his wife, his children, and his servants. All bonds
without friendship were shackles, and there was no virtue in their maintenance.
Pythagoras believed that relationships were essentially mental rather than phys-
ical, and that a stranger of sympathetic intellect was closer to him than a blood
relation whose viewpoint was at variance with his own. Pythagoras defined
knowledge as the fruitage of mental accumulation. He believed that it would be
obtained in many ways, but principally through observation. Wisdom was the
understanding of the source or cause of all things, and this could be secured
only by raising the intellect to a point where it intuitively cognized the invisible
manifesting outwardly through the visible, and thus became capable of bringing
itself en rapport with the spirit of things rather than with their forms. The ulti-

205
mate source that wisdom could cognize was the Monad, the mysterious perma-
nent atom of the Pythagoreans.
Pythagoras taught that both man and the universe were made in the image of
God; that both being made in the same image, the understanding of one predi-
cated the knowledge of the other. He further taught that there was a constant
interplay between the Grand Man (the universe) and man (the little universe).
Pythagoras believed that all the sidereal bodies were alive and that the forms of
the planets and stars were merely bodies encasing souls, minds, and spirits in
the same manner that the visible human form is but the encasing vehicle for an
invisible spiritual organism which is, in reality, the conscious individual. Pytha-
goras regarded the planets as magnificent deities, worthy of the adoration and
respect of man. All these deities, however, he considered subservient to the
One First Cause within whom they all existed temporarily, as mortality exists in
the midst of immortality.
The famous Pythagorean signified the power of choice and was used in the
Mysteries as emblematic of the Forking of the Ways. The central stem sepa-
rated into two parts, one branching to the right and the other to the left. The
branch to the right was called Divine Wisdom and the one to the left Earthly
Wisdom. Youth, personified by the candidate, walking the Path of Life, sym-
bolized by the central stem of the , reaches the point where the Path divides.
The neophyte must then choose whether he will take the left-hand path and,
following the dictates of his lower nature, enter upon a span of folly and
thoughtlessness which will inevitably result in his undoing, or whether he will
take the right-hand road and through integrity, industry, and sincerity ultimately
regain union with the immortals in the superior spheres.

Click to enlarge
THE SYMMETRICAL GEOMETRIC SOLIDS.
To the five symmetrical solids of the ancients is added the sphere (1), the most perfect
of all created forms. The five Pythagorean solids are: the tetrahedron (2) with four
equilateral triangles as faces; the cube (3) with six squares as faces; the octahedron (4)

206
with eight equilateral triangles as faces; the icosahedron (5) with twenty equilateral
triangles as faces; and the dodecahedron (6) with twelve regular pentagons as faces.

It is probable that Pythagoras obtained his concept of the from the Egyptians,
who included in certain of their initiatory rituals a scene in which the candidate
was confronted by two female figures. One of them, veiled with the white robes
of the temple, urged the neophyte to enter into the halls of learning; the other,
bedecked with jewels, symbolizing earthly treasures, and bearing in her hands a
tray loaded with grapes (emblematic of false light), sought to lure him into the
chambers of dissipation. This symbol is still preserved among the Tarot cards,
where it is called The Forking of the Ways. The forked stick has been the
symbol of life among many nations, and it was placed in the desert to indicate
the presence of water.
Concerning the theory of transmigration as disseminated by Pythagoras,
there are differences of opinion. According to one view, he taught that mortals
who during their earthly existence had by their actions become like certain
animals, returned to earth again in the form of the beasts which they had grown
to resemble. Thus, a timid person would return in the form of a rabbit or a
deer; a cruel person in the form of a wolf or other ferocious animal; and a
cunning person in the guise of a fox. This concept, however, does not fit into
the general Pythagorean scheme, and it is far more likely that it was given in an
allegorical rather than a literal sense. It was intended to convey the idea that
human beings become bestial when they allow themselves to be dominated by
their own lower desires and destructive tendencies. It is probable that the term
transmigration is to be understood as what is more commonly called reincarna-
tion, a doctrine which Pythagoras must have contacted directly or indirectly in
India and Egypt.
The fact that Pythagoras accepted the theory of successive reappearances of
the spiritual nature in human form is found in a footnote to Levi's History of
Magic: "He was an important champion of what used to be called the doctrine
of metempsychosis, understood as the soul's transmigration into successive
bodies. He himself had been (a) Aethalides, a son of Mercury; (b) Euphorbus,
son of Panthus, who perished at the hands of Menelaus in the Trojan war; (c)
Hermotimus, a prophet of Clazomenae, a city of Ionia; (d) a humble fisher-
man; and finally (e) the philosopher of Samos."
Pythagoras also taught that each species of creatures had what he termed a
seal, given to it by God, and that the physical form of each was the impression
of this seal upon the wax of physical substance. Thus each body was stamped
with the dignity of its divinely given pattern. Pythagoras believed that ultimately
man would reach a state where he would cast off his gross nature and function

207
in a body of spiritualized ether which would be in juxtaposition to his physical
form at all times and which might be the eighth sphere, or Antichthon. From
this he would ascend into the realm of the immortals, where by divine birth-
right he belonged.
Pythagoras taught that everything in nature was divisible into three parts and
that no one could become truly wise who did not view every problem as being
diagrammatically triangular. He said, "Establish the triangle and the problem is
two-thirds solved"; further, "All things consist of three." In conformity with this
viewpoint, Pythagoras divided the universe into three parts, which he called the
Supreme World, the Superior World, and the Inferior World. The highest, or
Supreme World, was a subtle, interpenetrative spiritual essence pervading all
things and therefore the true plane of the Supreme Deity itself, the Deity being
in every sense omnipresent, omniactive, omnipotent, and omniscient. Both of
the lower worlds existed within the nature of this supreme sphere.
The Superior World was the home of the immortals. It was also the dwel-
ling place of the archetypes, or the seals; their natures in no manner partook of
the material of earthiness, but they, casting their shadows upon the deep (the
Inferior World), were cognizable only through their shadows. The third, or
Inferior World, was the home of those creatures who partook of material sub-
stance or were engaged in labor with or upon material substance. Hence, this
sphere was the home of the mortal gods, the Demiurgi, the angels who labor
with men; also the dmons who partake of the nature of the earth; and finally
mankind and the lower kingdoms, those temporarily of the earth but capable
of rising above that sphere by reason and philosophy.
The digits 1 and 2 are not considered numbers by the Pythagoreans, be-
cause they typify the two supermundane spheres. The Pythagorean numbers,
therefore, begin with 3, the triangle, and 4, the square. These added to the 1
and the 2, produce the 10, the great number of all things, the archetype of the
universe. The three worlds were called receptacles. The first was the receptacle
of principles, the second was the receptacle of intelligences, and the third, or
lowest, was the receptacle of quantities.
"The symmetrical solids were regarded by Pythagoras, and by the Greek
thinkers after him, as of the greatest importance. To be perfectly symmetrical
or regular, a solid must have an equal number of faces meeting at each of its
angles, and these faces must be equal regular polygons, i. e., figures whose
sides and angles are all equal. Pythagoras, perhaps, may be credited with the
great discovery that there are only five such solids.* * *
'Now, the Greeks believed the world [material universe] to be composed of
four elements--earth, air, fire, water--and to the Greek mind the conclusion was
inevitable that the shapes of the particles of the elements were those of the
regular solids. Earth-particles were cubical, the cube being the regular solid

208
possessed of greatest stability; fire-particles were tetrahedral, the tetrahedron
being the simplest and, hence, lightest solid. Water-particles were icosahedral
for exactly the reverse reason, whilst air-particles, as intermediate between the
two latter, were octahedral. The dodecahedron was, to these ancient mathema-
ticians, the most mysterious of the solids; it was by far the most difficult to con-
struct, the accurate drawing of the regular pentagon necessitating a rather ela-
borate application of Pythagoras' great theorem. Hence the conclusion, as Plato
put it, that 'this (the regular dodecahedron) the Deity employed in tracing the
plan of the Universe.' (H. Stanley Redgrove, in Bygone Beliefs.)
Mr. Redgrove has not mentioned the fifth element of the ancient Mysteries,
that which would make the analogy between the symmetrical solids and the
elements complete. This fifth element, or ether, was called by the Hindus aka-
sa. It was closely correlated with the hypothetical ether of modern science, and
was the interpenetrative substance permeating all of the other elements and
acting as a common solvent and common denominator of them. The twelve-
faced solid also subtly referred to the Twelve Immortals who surfaced the un-
iverse, and also to the twelve convolutions of the human brain--the vehicles of
those Immortals in the nature of man.
While Pythagoras, in accordance with others of his day, practiced divination
(possibly arithmomancy), there is no accurate information concerning the me-
thods which he used. He is believed to have had a remarkable wheel by means
of which he could predict future events, and to have learned hydromancy from
the Egyptians. He believed that brass had oracular powers, because even when
everything was perfectly still there was always a rumbling sound in brass bowls.
He once addressed a prayer to the spirit of a river and out of the water arose a
voice, "Pythagoras, I greet thee." It is claimed for him that he was able to cause
dmons to enter into water and disturb its surface, and by means of the agita-
tions certain things were predicted.
After having drunk from a certain spring one day, one of the Masters of
Pythagoras announced that the spirit of the water had just predicted that a great
earthquake would occur the next day--a prophecy which was fulfilled. It is high-
ly probable that Pythagoras possessed hypnotic power, not only over man but
also over animals. He caused a bird to change the course of its flight, a bear to
cease its ravages upon a community, and a bull to change its diet, by the exer-
cise of mental influence. He was also gifted with second sight, being able to see
things at a distance and accurately describe incidents that had not yet come to
pass.

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THE SYMBOLIC APHORISMS OF PYTHAGORAS

Iamblichus gathered thirty-nine of the symbolic sayings of Pythagoras and in-

terpreted them. These have been translated from the Greek by Thomas Tay-
lor. Aphorismic statement was one of the favorite methods of instruction used
in the Pythagorean university of Crotona. Ten of the most representative of
these aphorisms are reproduced below with a brief elucidation of their con-
cealed meanings.
I. Declining from the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths. By this it is to
be understood that those who desire wisdom must seek it in solitude.

Click to enlarge
NUMBER RELATED TO FORM.
Pythagoras taught that the dot symbolized the power of the number 1, the line the
power of the number 2, the surface the power of the number 3, and the solid the pow-
er of the number 4.

II. Govern your tongue before all other things, following the gods. This
aphorism warns man that his words, instead of representing him, misrepresent
him, and that when in doubt as to what he should say, he should always be
silent.
III. The wind blowing, adore the sound. Pythagoras here reminds his dis-
ciples that the fiat of God is heard in the voice of the elements, and that all
things in Nature manifest through harmony, rhythm, order, or procedure the
attributes of the Deity.
IV. Assist a man in raising a burden; but do not assist him in laying it down.
The student is instructed to aid the diligent but never to assist those who seek
to evade their responsibilities, for it is a great sin to encourage indolence.
V. Speak not about Pythagoric concerns without light. The world is herein
warned that it should not attempt to interpret the mysteries of God and the
secrets of the sciences without spiritual and intellectual illumination.
VI. Having departed from your house, turn not back, for the furies will be
your attendants. Pythagoras here warns his followers that any who begin the

210
search for truth and, after having learned part of the mystery, become discou-
raged and attempt to return again to their former ways of vice and ignorance,
will suffer exceedingly; for it is better to know nothing about Divinity than to
learn a little and then stop without learning all.
VII. Nourish a cock, but sacrifice it not; for it is sacred to the sun and moon.
Two great lessons are concealed in this aphorism. The first is a warning against
the sacrifice of living things to the gods, because life is sacred and man should
not destroy it even as an offering to the Deity. The second warns man that the
human body here referred to as a cock is sacred to the sun (God) and the
moon (Nature), and should be guarded and preserved as man's most precious
medium of expression. Pythagoras also warned his disciples against suicide.
VIII. Receive not a swallow into your house. This warns the seeker after
truth not to allow drifting thoughts to come into his mind nor shiftless persons
to enter into his life. He must ever surround himself with rationally inspired
thinkers and with conscientious workers.
IX. Offer not your right hand easily to anyone. This warns the disciple to
keep his own counsel and not offer wisdom and knowledge (his right hand) to
such as are incapable of appreciating them. The hand here represents Truth,
which raises those who have fallen because of ignorance; but as many of the
unregenerate do not desire wisdom they will cut off the hand that is extended
in kindness to them. Time alone can effect the redemption of the ignorant
masses
X. When rising from the bedclothes, roll them together, and obliterate the
impression of the body. Pythagoras directed his disciples who had awakened
from the sleep of ignorance into the waking state of intelligence to eliminate
from their recollection all memory of their former spiritual darkness; for a wise
man in passing leaves no form behind him which others less intelligent, seeing,
shall use as a mold for the casting of idols.
The most famous of the Pythagorean fragments are the Golden Verses, as-
cribed to Pythagoras himself, but concerning whose authorship there is an
element of doubt. The Golden Verses contain a brief summary of the entire
system of philosophy forming the basis of the educational doctrines of Croto-
na, or, as it is more commonly known, the Italic School. These verses open by
counseling the reader to love God, venerate the great heroes, and respect the
dmons and elemental inhabitants. They then urge man to think carefully and
industriously concerning his daily life, and to prefer the treasures of the mind
and soul to accumulations of earthly goods. The verses also promise man that
if he will rise above his lower material nature and cultivate self-control, he will
ultimately be acceptable in the sight of the gods, be reunited with them, and
partake of their immortality. (It is rather significant to note that Plato paid a
great price for some of the manuscripts of Pythagoras which had been saved

211
from the destruction of Crotona. See Historia Deorum Fatidicorum, Geneva,
1675.)

PYTHAGOREAN ASTRONOMY

According to Pythagoras, the position of each body in the universe was deter-
mined by the essential dignity of that body. The popular concept of his day was
that the earth occupied the center of the solar system; that the planets, includ-
ing the sun and moon, moved about the earth; and that the earth itself was flat
and square. Contrary to this concept, and regardless of criticism, Pythagoras
declared that fire was the most important of all the elements; that the center
was the most important part of every body; and that, just as Vesta's fire was in
the midst of every home, so in the midst of the universe was a flaming sphere
of celestial radiance. This central globe he called the Tower of Jupiter, the
Globe of Unity, the Grand Monad, and the Altar of Vesta. As the sacred num-
ber 10 symbolized the sum of all parts and the completeness of all things, it
was only natural for Pythagoras to divide the universe into ten spheres, symbo-
lized by ten concentric circles. These circles began at the center with the globe
of Divine Fire; then came the seven planers, the earth, and another mysterious
planet, called Antichthon, which was never visible.
Opinions differ as to the nature of Antichthon. Clement of Alexandria be-
lieved that it represented the mass of the heavens; others held the opinion that
it was the moon. More probably it was the mysterious eighth sphere of the
ancients, the dark planet which moved in the same orbit as the earth but which
was always concealed from the earth by the body of the sun, being in exact
opposition to the earth at all times. Is this the mysterious Lilith concerning
which astrologers have speculated so long?
Isaac Myer has stated: "The Pythagoreans held that each star was a world
having its own atmosphere, with an immense extent surrounding it, of aether."
(See The Qabbalah.) The disciples of Pythagoras also highly revered the planet
Venus, because it was the only planet bright enough to cast a shadow. As the
morning star, Venus is visible before sunrise, and as the evening star it shines
forth immediately after sunset. Because of these qualities, a number of names
have been given to it by the ancients. Being visible in the sky at sunset, it was
called vesper, and as it arose before the sun, it was called the false light, the star
of the morning, or Lucifer, which means the light-bearer. Because of this rela-
tion to the sun, the planet was also referred to as Venus, Astarte, Aphrodite,
Isis, and The Mother of the Gods. It is possible that: at some seasons of the
year in certain latitudes the fact that Venus was a crescent could be detected

212
without the aid of a telescope. This would account for the crescent which is
often seen in connection with the goddesses of antiquity, the stories of which
do not agree with the phases of the moon. The accurate knowledge which Py-
thagoras possessed concerning astronomy he undoubtedly secured in the Egyp-
tian temples, for their priests understood the true relationship of the heavenly
bodies many thousands of years before that knowledge was revealed to the
uninitiated world. The fact that the knowledge he acquired in the temples
enabled him to make assertions requiring two thousand years to check proves
why Plato and Aristotle so highly esteemed the profundity of the ancient Mys-
teries. In the midst of comparative scientific ignorance, and without the aid of
any modern instruments, the priest-philosophers had discovered the true fun-
damentals of universal dynamics.
An interesting application of the Pythagorean doctrine of geometric solids as
expounded by Plato is found in The Canon. "Nearly all the old philosophers,"
says its anonymous author, "devised an harmonic theory with respect to the
universe, and the practice continued till the old mode of philosophizing died
out. Kepler (1596), in order to demonstrate the Platonic doctrine, that the
universe was formed of the five regular solids, proposed the following rule.
'The earth is a circle, the measurer of all. Round it describe a dodecahedron;
the circle inclosing this will be Mars. Round Mars describe a tetrahedron; the
sphere inclosing this will be Jupiter. Describe a cube round Jupiter; the sphere
containing this will be Saturn. Now inscribe in the earth an icosahedron; the
circle inscribed in it will be Venus. Inscribe an octahedron in Venus; the circle
inscribed in it will be Mercury' (Mysterium Cosmographicum, 1596). This rule
cannot be taken seriously as a real statement of the proportions of the cosmos,
fox it bears no real resemblance to the ratios published by Copernicus in the
beginning of the sixteenth century. Yet Kepler was very proud of his formula,
and said he valued it more than the Electorate of Saxony. It was also approved
by those two eminent authorities, Tycho and Galileo, who evidently unders-
tood it. Kepler himself never gives the least hint of how his precious rule is to
be interpreted." Platonic astronomy was not concerned with the material consti-
tution or arrangement of the heavenly bodies, but considered the stars and
planers primarily as focal points of Divine intelligence. Physical astronomy was
regarded as the science of "shadows," philosophical astronomy the science of
"realities."

213
Click to enlarge
THE TETRACTYS.
Theon of Smyrna declares that the ten dots, or tetractys of Pythagoras, was a symbol of
the greatest importance, for to the discerning mind it revealed the mystery of universal
nature. The Pythagoreans bound themselves by the following oath: "By Him who gave
to our soul the tetractys, which hath the fountain and root of ever-springing nature."

Click to enlarge
THE CUBE AND THE STAR.
By connecting the ten dots of the tetractys, nine triangles are formed. Six of these are
involved in the forming of the cube. The same triangles, when lines are properly drawn
between them, also reveal the six-pointed star with a dot in the center. Only seven dots
are used in forming the cube and the star. Qabbalistically, the three unused corner
dots represent the threefold, invisible causal nature of the universe, while the seven
dots involved in the cube and the star are the Elohim--the Spirits of the seven creative
periods. The Sabbath, or seventh day, is the central dot.

214
 Pythagorean Mathematics

CONCERNING the secret significance of numbers there has been much

speculation. Though many interesting discoveries have been made, it may be
safely said that with the death of Pythagoras the great key to this science was
lost. For nearly 2500 years philosophers of all nations have attempted to unra-
vel the Pythagorean skein, but apparently none has been successful. Notwith-
standing attempts made to obliterate all records of the teachings of Pythagoras,
fragments have survived which give clues to some of the simpler parts of his
philosophy. The major secrets were never committed to writing, but were
communicated orally to a few chosen disciples. These apparently dated not
divulge their secrets to the profane, the result being that when death sealed
their lips the arcana died with diem.
Certain of the secret schools in the world today are perpetuations of the
ancient Mysteries, and although it is quite possible that they may possess some
of the original numerical formul, there is no evidence of it in the voluminous
writings which have issued from these groups during the last five hundred
years. These writings, while frequently discussing Pythagoras, show no indica-
tion of a more complete knowledge of his intricate doctrines than the post-
Pythagorean Greek speculators had, who talked much, wrote little, knew less,
and concealed their ignorance under a series of mysterious hints and promises.
Here and there among the literary products of early writers are found enigmat-
ic statements which they made no effort: to interpret. The following example is
quoted from Plutarch:
"The Pythagoreans indeed go farther than this, and honour even numbers
and geometrical diagrams with the names and titles of the gods. Thus they call
the equilateral triangle head-born Minerva and Tritogenia, because it may be
equally divided by three perpendiculars drawn from each of the angles. So the
unit they term Apollo, as to the number two they have affixed the name of
strife and audaciousness, and to that of three, justice. For, as doing an injury is
an extreme on the one side, and suffering one is an extreme on the on the one
side, and suffering in the middle between them. In like manner the number
thirty-six, their Tetractys, or sacred Quaternion, being composed of the first
four odd numbers added to the first four even ones, as is commonly reported,
is looked upon by them as the most solemn oath they can take, and called
Kosmos." (Isis and Osiris.)
Earlier in the same work, Plutarch also notes: "For as the power of the trian-
gle is expressive of the nature of Pluto, Bacchus, and Mars; and the properties
of the square of Rhea, Venus, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno; of the Dodecahedron of

215
Jupiter; so, as we are informed by Eudoxus, is the figure of fifty-six angles ex-
pressive of the nature of Typhon." Plutarch did not pretend to explain the in-
ner significance of the symbols, but believed that the relationship which Pytha-
goras established between the geometrical solids and the gods was the result of
images the great sage had seen in the Egyptian temples.
Albert Pike, the great Masonic symbolist, admitted that there were many
points concerning which he could secure no reliable information. In his Sym-
bolism, for the 32 and 33, he wrote: "I do not understand why the 7 should be
called Minerva, or the cube, Neptune." Further on he added: "Undoubtedly the
names given by the Pythagoreans to the different numbers were themselves
enigmatical and symbolic-and there is little doubt that in the time of Plutarch
the meanings these names concealed were lost. Pythagoras had succeeded too
well in concealing his symbols with a veil that was from the first impenetrable,
without his oral explanation * * *."
This uncertainty shared by all true students of the subject proves conclusive-
ly that it is unwise to make definite statements founded on the indefinite and
fragmentary information available concerning the Pythagorean system of ma-
thematical philosophy. The material which follows represents an effort to col-
lect a few salient points from the scattered records preserved by disciples of
Pythagoras and others who have since contacted his philosophy.

METHOD OF SECURING THE NUMERICAL POWER OF WORDS

The first step in obtaining the numerical value of a word is to resolve it back
into its original tongue. Only words of Greek or Hebrew derivation can be
successfully analyzed by this method, and all words must be spelled in their
most ancient and complete forms. Old Testament words and names, therefore,
must be translated back into the early Hebrew characters and New Testament
words into the Greek. Two examples will help to clarify this principle.
The Demiurgus of the Jews is called in English Jehovah, but when seeking
the numerical value of the name Jehovah it is necessary to resolve the name
into its Hebrew letters. It becomes , and is read from right to left. The
Hebrew letters are: , He; , Vau; , He; , Yod; and when reversed into the
English order from left to right read: Yod-He-Vau-He. By consulting the fore-
going table of letter values, it is found that the four characters of this sacred
name have the following numerical significance: Yod equals 10. He equals 5,
Vau equals 6, and the second He equals 5. Therefore, 10+5+6+5=26, a syn-
onym of Jehovah. If the English letters were used, the answer obviously would
not be correct.
216
 The second example is the mysterious Gnostic pantheos Abraxas. For this
name the Greek table is used. Abraxas in Greek is . = 1, = 2, =
100, = 1, =60, = 1, = 200, the sum being 365, the number of days in the
year. This number furnishes the key to the mystery of Abraxas, who is symbol-
ic of the 365 ons, or Spirits of the Days, gathered together in one composite
personality. Abraxas is symbolic of five creatures, and as the circle of the year
actually consists of 360 degrees, each of the emanating deities is one-fifth of
this power, or 72, one of the most sacred numbers in the Old Testament of the
Jews and in their Qabbalistic system. This same method is used in finding the
numerical value of the names of the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and
Jews.
All higher numbers can be reduced to one of the original ten numerals, and
the 10 itself to 1. Therefore, all groups of numbers resulting from the transla-
tion of names of deities into their numerical equivalents have a basis in one of
the first ten numbers. By this system, in which the digits are added together,
666 becomes 6+6+6 or 18, and this, in turn, becomes 1+8 or 9. According to
Revelation, 144,000 are to be saved. This number becomes 1+4+4+0+0+0,
which equals 9, thus proving that both the Beast of Babylon and the number of
the saved refer to man himself, whose symbol is the number 9. This system can
be used successfully with both Greek and Hebrew letter values.
The original Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy contains nothing
to justify the practice now in vogue of changing the given name or surname in
the hope of improving the temperament or financial condition by altering the
name vibrations.
There is also a system of calculation in vogue for the English language, but
its accuracy is a matter of legitimate dispute. It is comparatively modern and
has no relationship either to the Hebrew Qabbalistic system or to the Greek
procedure. The claim made by some that it is Pythagorean is not supported by
any tangible evidence, and there are many reasons why such a contention is
untenable. The fact that Pythagoras used 10 as the basis of calculation, while
this system uses 9--an imperfect number--is in itself almost conclusive. Fur-
thermore, the arrangement of the Greek and Hebrew letters does not agree
closely enough with the English to permit the application of the number se-
quences of one language to the number sequences of the others. Further expe-
rimentation with the system may prove profitable, but it is without basis in an-
tiquity. The arrangement of the letters and numbers is as follows:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

217
 The letters under each of the numbers have the value of the figure at: the
top of the column. Thus, in the word man, M = 4, A = 1, N = 5: a total of 10.
The values of the numbers are practically the same as those given by the Py-
thagorean system.

Click to enlarge
THE NUMERICAL VALUES OF THE HEBREW, GREEK, AND SAMARITAN ALPHABETS.
From Higgins' Celtic Druids.
Column
1 Names of the Hebrew letters.
2 Samaritan Letters.
3 Hebrew and Chaldean letters.
4 Numerical equivalents of the letters.
5 Capital and small Greek letters.
The letters marked with asterisks are those brought to Greece from
6
Phnicia by Cadmus.
7 Name of the Greek letters.
Nearest English equivalents to the Hebrew, Greek, and Samaritan
8
Letters.
NOTE. When used at the end of a word, the Hebrew Tau has the numerical value
440, Caph 500, Mem 600, Nun 700, Pe 800, Tzadi 900. A dotted Alpha and a dashed
Aleph have the value of 1,000.

218
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PYTHAGOREAN
THEORY OF NUMBERS

(The following outline of Pythagorean mathematics is a paraphrase of the

opening chapters of Thomas Taylor's Theoretic Arithmetic, the rarest and
most important compilation of Pythagorean mathematical fragments extant.)
The Pythagoreans declared arithmetic to be the mother of the mathematical
sciences. This is proved by the fact that geometry, music, and astronomy are
dependent upon it but it is not dependent upon them. Thus, geometry may be
removed but arithmetic will remain; but if arithmetic be removed, geometry is
eliminated. In the same manner music depends upon arithmetic, but the eli-
mination of music affects arithmetic only by limiting one of its expressions.
The Pythagoreans also demonstrated arithmetic to be prior to astronomy, for
the latter is dependent upon both geometry and music. The size, form, and
motion of the celestial bodies is determined by the use of geometry; their har-
mony and rhythm by the use of music. If astronomy be removed, neither geo-
metry nor music is injured; but if geometry and music be eliminated, astrono-
my is destroyed. The priority of both geometry and music to astronomy is
therefore established. Arithmetic, however, is prior to all; it is primary and
fundamental.
Pythagoras instructed his disciples that the science of mathematics is divided
into two major parts. The first is concerned with the multitude, or the constitu-
ent parts of a thing, and the second with the magnitude, or the relative size or
density of a thing.
Magnitude is divided into two parts--magnitude which is stationary and mag-
nitude which is movable, the stationary pare having priority. Multitude is also
divided into two parts, for it is related both to itself and to other things, the first
relationship having priority. Pythagoras assigned the science of arithmetic to
multitude related to itself, and the art of music to multitude related to other
things. Geometry likewise was assigned to stationary magnitude, and spherics
(used partly in the sense of astronomy) to movable magnitude. Both multitude
and magnitude were circumscribed by the circumference of mind. The atomic
theory has proved size to be the result of number, for a mass is made up of
minute units though mistaken by the uninformed for a single simple substance.
Owing to the fragmentary condition of existing Pythagorean records, it is
difficult to arrive at exact definitions of terms. Before it is possible, however, to
unfold the subject further some light must he cast upon the meanings of the
words number, monad, and one.
The monad signifies (a) the all-including ONE. The Pythagoreans called the
monad the "noble number, Sire of Gods and men." The monad also signifies

219
(b) the sum of any combination of numbers considered as a whole. Thus, the
universe is considered as a monad, but the individual parts of the universe
(such as the planets and elements) are monads in relation to the parts of which
they themselves are composed, though they, in turn, are parts of the greater
monad formed of their sum. The monad may also be likened (c) to the seed of
a tree which, when it has grown, has many branches (the numbers). In other
words, the numbers are to the monad what the branches of the tree are to the
seed of the tree. From the study of the mysterious Pythagorean monad, Leib-
nitz evolved his magnificent theory of the world atoms--a theory in perfect ac-
cord with the ancient teachings of the Mysteries, for Leibnitz himself was an
initiate of a secret school. By some Pythagoreans the monad is also considered
(d) synonymous with the one.
Number is the term applied to all numerals and their combinations. (A strict
interpretation of the term number by certain of the Pythagoreans excludes 1
and 2.) Pythagoras defines number to be the extension and energy of the
spermatic reasons contained in the monad. The followers of Hippasus de-
clared number to be the first pattern used by the Demiurgus in the formation
of the universe.
The one was defined by the Platonists as "the summit of the many." The one
differs from the monad in that the term monad is used to designate the sum of
the parts considered as a unit, whereas the one is the term applied to each of
its integral parts.
There are two orders of number: odd and even. Because unity, or 1, always
remains indivisible, the odd number cannot be divided equally. Thus, 9 is
4+1+4, the unity in the center being indivisible. Furthermore, if any odd num-
ber be divided into two parts, one part will always be odd and the other even.
Thus, 9 may be 5+4, 3+6, 7+2, or 8+1. The Pythagoreans considered the odd
number--of which the monad was the prototype--to be definite and masculine.
They were not all agreed, however, as to the nature of unity, or 1. Some de-
clared it to be positive, because if added to an even (negative) number, it pro-
duces an odd (positive) number. Others demonstrated that if unity be added to
an odd number, the latter becomes even, thereby making the masculine to be
feminine. Unity, or 1, therefore, was considered an androgynous number, par-
taking of both the masculine and the feminine attributes; consequently both
odd and even. For this reason the Pythagoreans called it evenly-odd. It was
customary for the Pythagoreans to offer sacrifices of an uneven number of
objects to the superior gods, while to the goddesses and subterranean spirits an
even number was offered.
Any even number may be divided into two equal parts, which are always
either both odd or both even. Thus, 10 by equal division gives 5+5, both odd
numbers. The same principle holds true if the 10 be unequally divided. For

220
example, in 6+4, both parts are even; in 7+3, both parts are odd; in 8+2, both
parts are again even; and in 9+1, both parts are again odd. Thus, in the even
number, however it may be divided, the parts will always be both odd or both
even. The Pythagoreans considered the even number-of which the duad was
the prototype--to be indefinite and feminine.
The odd numbers are divided by a mathematical contrivance--called "the
Sieve of Eratosthenes"--into three general classes: incomposite, composite, and
incomposite-composite.
The incomposite numbers are those which have no divisor other than them-
selves and unity, such as 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, and
so forth. For example, 7 is divisible only by 7, which goes into itself once, and
unity, which goes into 7 seven times.
The composite numbers are those which are divisible not only by them-
selves and unity but also by some other number, such as 9, 15, 21, 25, 27, 33,
39, 45, 51, 57, and so forth. For example, 21 is divisible not only by itself and
by unity, but also by 3 and by 7.
The incomposite-composite numbers are those which have no common
divisor, although each of itself is capable of division, such as 9 and 25. For
example, 9 is divisible by 3 and 25 by 5, but neither is divisible by the divisor of
the other; thus they have no common divisor. Because they have individual
divisors, they are called composite; and because they have no common divisor,
they are called in, composite. Accordingly, the term incomposite-composite
was created to describe their properties.
Even numbers are divided into three classes: evenly-even, evenly-odd, and
oddly-odd.
The evenly-even numbers are all in duple ratio from unity; thus: 1, 2, 4, 8,
16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1,024. The proof of the perfect evenly-even
number is that it can be halved and the halves again halved back to unity, as
1/2 of 64 = 32; 1/2 of 32 = 16; 1/2 of 16 = 8; 1/2 of 8 = 4; 1/2 of 4 = 2; 1/2 of 2
= 1; beyond unity it is impossible to go.
The evenly-even numbers possess certain unique properties. The sum of
any number of terms but the last term is always equal to the last term minus
one. For example: the sum of the first and second terms (1+2) equals the third
term (4) minus one; or, the sum of the first, second, third, and fourth terms
(1+2+4+8) equals the fifth term (16) minus one.
In a series of evenly-even numbers, the first multiplied by the last equals the
last, the second multiplied by the second from the last equals the last, and so
on until in an odd series one number remains, which multiplied by itself equals
the last number of the series; or, in an even series two numbers remain, which
multiplied by each other give the last number of the series. For example: 1, 2,
4, 8, 16 is an odd series. The first number (1) multiplied by the last number

221
(16) equals the last number (16). The second number (2) multiplied by the
second from the last number (8) equals the last number (16). Being an odd
series, the 4 is left in the center, and this multiplied by itself also equals the last
number (16).
The evenly-odd numbers are those which, when halved, are incapable of
further division by halving. They are formed by taking the odd numbers in
sequential order and multiplying them by 2. By this process the odd numbers
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 produce the evenly-odd numbers, 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22. Thus,
every fourth number is evenly-odd. Each of the even-odd numbers may be
divided once, as 2, which becomes two 1's and cannot be divided further; or 6,
which becomes two 3's and cannot be divided further.
Another peculiarity of the evenly-odd numbers is that if the divisor be odd
the quotient is always even, and if the divisor be even the quotient is always
odd. For example: if 18 be divided by 2 (an even divisor) the quotient is 9 (an
odd number); if 18 be divided by 3 (an odd divisor) the quotient is 6 (an even
number).
The evenly-odd numbers are also remarkable in that each term is one-half of
the sum of the terms on either side of it. For example:

Click to enlarge
THE SIEVE OF ERATOSTHENES.
Redrawn from Taylor's Theoretic Arithmetic.
This sieve is a mathematical device originated by Eratosthenes about 230 B.C. far the
purpose of segregating the composite and incomposite odd numbers. Its use is ex-
tremely simple after the theory has once been mastered. All the odd numbers are first
arranged in their natural order as shown in the second panel from the bottom, desig-
nated Odd Numbers. It will then be seen that every third number (beginning with 3) is
divisible by 3, every fifth number (beginning with 5;) is divisible by 5, every seventh
number (beginning with 7) is divisible by 7, every ninth number (beginning with 9) is
divisible by 9, every eleventh number (beginning with 11) is divisible by 11, and so on
to infinity. This system finally sifts out what the Pythagoreans called the "incomposite"
numbers, or those having no divisor other than themselves and unity. These will be
found in the lowest panel, designated Primary and Incomposite Numbers. In his His-
tory of Mathematics, David Eugene Smith states that Eratosthenes was one of the
greatest scholars of Alexandria and was called by his admirers "the second Plato." Era-
222
tosthenes was educated at Athens, and is renowned not only for his sieve but for having
computed, by a very ingenious method, the circumference and diameter of the earth.
His estimate of the earth's diameter was only 50 miles less than the polar diameter
accepted by modern scientists. This and other mathematical achievements of Eratos-
thenes, are indisputable evidence that in the third century before Christ the Greeks not
only knew the earth to be spherical in farm but could also approximate, with amazing
accuracy, its actual size and distance from both the sun and the moon. Aristarchus of
Samos, another great Greek astronomer and mathematician, who lived about 250
B.C., established by philosophical deduction and a few simple scientific instruments
that the earth revolved around the sun. While Copernicus actually believed himself to
be the discoverer of this fact, he but restated the findings advanced by Aristarchus
seventeen hundred years earlier.

10 is one-half of the sum of 6 and 14; 18 is one-half the sum of 14 and 22; and
6 is one-half the sum of 2 and 10.
The oddly-odd, or unevenly-even, numbers are a compromise between the
evenly-even and the evenly-odd numbers. Unlike the evenly-even, they cannot
be halved back to unity; and unlike the evenly-odd, they are capable of more
than one division by halving. The oddly-odd numbers are formed by multiply-
ing the evenly-even numbers above 2 by the odd numbers above one. The odd
numbers above one are 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and so forth. The evenly-even numbers
above 2 are 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and soon. The first odd number of the series (3)
multiplied by 4 (the first evenly-even number of the series) gives 12, the first
oddly-odd number. By multiplying 5, 7, 9, 11, and so forth, by 4, oddly-odd
numbers are found. The other oddly-odd numbers are produced by multiply-
ing 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and so forth, in turn, by the other evenly-even numbers (8,
16, 32, 64, and so forth). An example of the halving of the oddly-odd number
is as follows: 1/2 of 12 = 6; 1/2 of 6 = 3, which cannot be halved further be-
cause the Pythagoreans did not divide unity.
Even numbers are also divided into three other classes: superperfect, defi-
cient, and perfect.
Superperfect or superabundant numbers are such as have the sum of their
fractional parts greater than themselves. For example: 1/2 of 24 = 12; 1/4 = 6;
1/3 = 8; 1/6 = 4; 1/12 = 2; and 1/24 = 1. The sum of these parts
(12+6+8+4+2+1) is 33, which is in excess of 24, the original number.
Deficient numbers are such as have the sum of their fractional parts less
than themselves. For example: 1/2 of 14 = 7; 1/7 = 2; and 1/14 = 1. The sum of
these parts (7+2+1) is 10, which is less than 14, the original number.
Perfect numbers are such as have the sum of their fractional parts equal to
themselves. For example: 1/2 of 28 = 14; 1/4 = 7; 1/7 = 4; 1/14 = 2; and 1/28 =
1. The sum of these parts (14+7+4+2+1) is equal to 28.
223
 The perfect numbers are extremely rare. There is only one between 1 and
10, namely, 6; one between 10 and 100, namely, 28; one between 100 and
1,000, namely, 496; and one between 1,000 and 10,000, namely, 8,128. The
perfect numbers are found by the following rule: The first number of the even-
ly-even series of numbers (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so forth) is added to the
second number of the series, and if an incomposite number results it is multip-
lied by the last number of the series of evenly-even numbers whose sum pro-
duced it. The product is the first perfect number. For example: the first and
second evenly-even numbers are 1 and 2. Their sum is 3, an incomposite
number. If 3 be multiplied by 2, the last number of the series of evenly-even
numbers used to produce it, the product is 6, the first perfect number. If the
addition of the evenly-even numbers does not result in an incomposite num-
ber, the next evenly-even number of the series must be added until an incom-
posite number results. The second perfect number is found in the following
manner: The sum of the evenly-even numbers 1, 2, and 4 is 7, an incomposite
number. If 7 be multiplied by 4 (the last of the series of evenly-even numbers
used to produce it) the product is 28, the second perfect number. This method
of calculation may be continued to infinity.
Perfect numbers when multiplied by 2 produce superabundant numbers,
and when divided by 2 produce deficient numbers.
The Pythagoreans evolved their philosophy from the science of numbers. The
following quotation from Theoretic Arithmetic is an excellent example of this
practice:
"Perfect numbers, therefore, are beautiful images of the virtues which are
certain media between excess and defect, and are not summits, as by some of
the ancients they were supposed to be. And evil indeed is opposed to evil, but
both are opposed to one good. Good, however, is never opposed to good, but
to two evils at one and the same time. Thus timidity is opposed to audacity, to
both [of] which the want of true courage is common; but both timidity and
audacity are opposed to fortitude. Craft also is opposed to fatuity, to both [of]
which the want of intellect is common; and both these are opposed to pru-
dence. Thus, too, profusion is opposed to avarice, to both [of] which illiberality
is common; and both these are opposed to liberality. And in a similar manner
in the other virtues; by all [of] which it is evident that perfect numbers have a
great similitude to the virtues. But they also resemble the virtues on another
account; for they are rarely found, as being few, and they are generated in a
very constant order. On the contrary, an infinite multitude of superabundant
and diminished numbers may be found, nor are they disposed in any orderly
series, nor generated from any certain end; and hence they have a great simili-
tude to the vices, which are numerous, inordinate, and indefinite."

224
THE TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS

(The following outline of the Pythagorean numbers is a paraphrase of the writ-

ings of Nicomachus, Theon of Smyrna, Proclus, Porphyry, Plutarch, Clement
of Alexandria, Aristotle, and other early authorities.)
Monad--1--is so called because it remains always in the same condition--that
is, separate from multitude. Its attributes are as follows: It is called mind, be-
cause the mind is stable and has preeminence; hermaphrodism, because it is
both male and female; odd and even, for being added to the even it makes
odd, and to the odd, even; God, because it is the beginning and end of all, but
itself has neither beginning nor end; good, for such is the nature of God; the
receptacle of matter, because it produces the duad, which is essentially materi-
al.
By the Pythagoreans monad was called chaos, obscurity, chasm, Tartarus,
Styx, abyss, Lethe, Atlas, Axis, Morpho (a name for Venus), and Tower or
Throne of Jupiter, because of the great power which abides in the center of the
universe and controls the circular motion of the planers about itself. Monad is
also called germinal reason, because it is the origin of all the thoughts in the
universe. Other names given to it were: Apollo, because of its relation to the
sun; Prometheus, because he brought man light; Pyralios, one who exists in
fire; geniture, because without it no number can exist; substance, because sub-
stance is primary; cause of truth; and constitution of symphony: all these be-
cause it is the primordial one.
Between greater and lesser the monad is equal; between intention and re-
mission it is middle; in multitude it is mean; and in time it is now, because
eternity knows neither past nor future. It is called Jupiter, because he is Father
and head of the gods; Vesta, the fire of the home, because it is located in the
midst of the universe and remains there inclining to no side as a dot in a circle;
form, because it circumscribes, comprehends, and terminates; love, concord,
and piety, because it is indivisible. Other symbolic names for the monad are
ship, chariot, Proteus (a god capable of changing his form), Mnemosyne, and
Polyonymous (having many names).
The following symbolic names were given to the duad--2--because it has
been divided, and is two rather than one; and when there are two, each is op-
posed to the other: genius, evil, darkness, inequality, instability, movability,
boldness, fortitude, contention, matter, dissimilarity, partition between multi-
tude and monad, defect, shapelessness, indefiniteness, indeterminate ness,
harmony, tolerance, root, feet of fountain-abounding idea, top, Phanes, opi-
nion, fallacy, alterity, diffidence, impulse, death, motion, generation, mutation,
division, longitude, augmentation, composition, communion, misfortune, sus-
225
tentation, imposition, marriage, soul, and science.
In his book, Numbers, W. Wynn Westcott says of the duad: "it was called
'Audacity,' from its being the earliest number to separate itself from the Divine
One; from the 'Adytum of God-nourished Silence,' as the Chaldean oracles
say."
As the monad is the father, so the duad is the mother; therefore, the duad has
certain points in common with the goddesses Isis, Rhea (Jove's mother), Phry-
gia, Lydia, Dindymene (Cybele), and Ceres; Erato (one of the Muses); Diana,
because the moon is forked; Dictynna, Venus, Dione, Cytherea; Juno, because
she is both wife and sister of Jupiter; and Maia, the mother of Mercury.
While the monad is the symbol of wisdom, the duad is the symbol of ignor-
ance, for in it exists the sense of separateness--which sense is the beginning of
ignorance. The duad, however, is also the mother of wisdom, for ignorance--
out of the nature of itself--invariably gives birth to wisdom.
The Pythagoreans revered the monad but despised the duad, because it was
the symbol of polarity. By the power of the duad the deep was created in con-
tradistinction to the heavens. The deep mirrored the heavens and became the
symbol of illusion, for the below was merely a reflection of the above. The
below was called maya, the illusion, the sea, the Great Void, and to symbolize
it the Magi of Persia carried mirrors. From the duad arose disputes and con-
tentions, until by bringing the monad between the duad, equilibrium was rees-
tablished by the Savior-God, who took upon Himself the form of a number
and was crucified between two thieves for the sins of men.
The triad--3--is the first number actually odd (monad not always being con-
sidered a number). It is the first equilibrium of unities; therefore, Pythagoras
said that Apollo gave oracles from a tripod, and advised offer of libation three
times. The keywords to the qualities of the triad are friendship, peace, justice,
prudence, piety, temperance, and virtue. The following deities partake of the
principles of the triad: Saturn (ruler of time), Latona, Cornucopi, Ophion
(the great serpent), Thetis, Hecate, Polyhymnia (a Muse), Pluto, Triton, Presi-
dent of the Sea, Tritogenia, Achelous, and the Faces, Furies, and Graces. This
number is called wisdom, because men organize the present, foresee the fu-
ture, and benefit by the experiences of the fast. It is cause of wisdom and un-
derstanding. The triad is the number of knowledge--music, geometry, and as-
tronomy, and the science of the celestials and terrestrials. Pythagoras taught
that the cube of this number had the power of the lunar circle.
The sacredness of the triad and its symbol--the triangle--is derived from the
fact that it is made up of the monad and the duad. The monad is the symbol of
the Divine Father and the duad of the Great Mother. The triad being made of
these two is therefore androgynous and is symbolic of the fact that God gave
birth to His worlds out of Himself, who in His creative aspect is always symbo-

226
lized by the triangle. The monad passing into the duad was thus capable of
becoming the parent of progeny, for the duad was the womb of Meru, within
which the world was incubated and within which it still exists in embryo.
The tetrad--4--was esteemed by the Pythagoreans as the primogenial num-
ber, the root of all things, the fountain of Nature and the most perfect number.
All tetrads are intellectual; they have an emergent order and encircle the world
as the Empyreum passes through it. Why the Pythagoreans expressed God as a
tetrad is explained in a sacred discourse ascribed to Pythagoras, wherein God is
called the Number of Numbers. This is because the decad, or 10, is composed
of 1, 2, 3, and 4. The number 4 is symbolic of God because it is symbolic of
the first four numbers. Moreover, the tetrad is the center of the week, being
halfway between 1 and 7. The tetrad is also the first geometric solid.
Pythagoras maintained that the soul of man consists of a tetrad, the four
powers of the soul being mind, science, opinion, and sense. The tetrad con-
nects all beings, elements, numbers, and seasons; nor can anything be named
which does not depend upon the tetractys. It is the Cause and Maker of all
things, the intelligible God, Author of celestial and sensible good, Plutarch
interprets this tetractys, which he said was also called the world, to be 36, con-
sisting of the first four odd numbers added to the first four even numbers, thus:

1 + 3 +5 +7 = 16
2+4+6+8 = 20
36

Keywords given to the tetrad are impetuosity, strength, virility, two-mothered,

and the key keeper of Nature, because the universal constitution cannot be
without it. It is also called harmony and the first profundity. The following
deities partook of the nature of the tetrad: Hercules, Mercury, Vulcan, Bac-
chus, and Urania (one of the Muses).
The triad represents the primary colors and the major planets, while the
tetrad represents the secondary colors and the minor planets. From the first
triangle come forth the seven spirits, symbolized by a triangle and a square.
These together form the Masonic apron.
The pentad--5--is the union of an odd and an even number (3 and 2).
Among the Greeks, the pentagram was a sacred symbol of light, health, and
vitality. It also symbolized the fifth element--ether--because it is free from the
disturbances of the four lower elements. It is called equilibrium, because it
divides the perfect number 10 into two equal parts.
The pentad is symbolic of Nature, for, when multiplied by itself it returns
into itself, just as grains of wheat, starting in the form of seed, pass through

227
Nature's processes and reproduce the seed of the wheat as the ultimate form of
their own growth. Other numbers multiplied by themselves produce other
numbers, but only 5 and 6 multiplied by themselves represent and retain their
original number as the last figure in their products.
The pentad represents all the superior and inferior beings. It is sometimes
referred to as the hierophant, or the priest of the Mysteries, because of its con-
nection with the spiritual ethers, by means of which mystic development is
attained. Keywords of the pentad are reconciliation, alternation, marriage, im-
mortality, cordiality, Providence, and sound. Among the deities who partook of
the nature of the pentad were Pallas, Nemesis, Bubastia (Bast), Venus, Andro-
gynia, Cytherea, and the messengers of Jupiter.
The tetrad (the elements) plus the monad equals the pentad. The Pythago-
reans taught that the elements of earth, fire, air, and water were permeated by a
substance called ether--the basis of vitality and life. Therefore, they chose the
five-pointed star, or pentagram, as the symbol of vitality, health, and interpene-
tration.
It was customary for the philosophers to conceal the element of earth under
the symbol of a dragon, and many of the heroes of antiquity were told to go
forth and slay the dragon. Hence, they drove their sword (the monad) into the
body of the dragon (the tetrad). This resulted in the formation of the pentad, a
symbol of the victory of the spiritual nature over the material nature. The four
elements are symbolized in the early Biblical writings as the four rivers that
poured out of Garden of Eden. The elements themselves are under the control
of the composite Cherubim of Ezekiel.
The Pythagoreans held the hexad--6--to represent, as Clement of Alexandria
conceived, the creation of the world according to both the prophets and the
ancient Mysteries. It was called by the Pythagoreans the perfection of all the
parts. This number was particularly sacred to Orpheus, and also to the Fate,
Lachesis, and the Muse, Thalia. It was called the form of forms, the articula-
tion of the universe, and the maker of the soul.
Among the Greeks, harmony and the soul were considered to be similar in
nature, because all souls are harmonic. The hexad is also the symbol of mar-
riage, because it is formed by the union of two triangles, one masculine and the
other feminine. Among the keywords given to the hexad are: time, for it is the
measure of duration; panacea, because health is equilibrium, and the hexad is
a balance number; the world, because the world, like the hexad, is often seen
to consist of contraries by harmony; omnisufficient, because its parts are suffi-
cient for totality (3 +2 + 1 = 6); unwearied, because it contains the elements of
immortality.
By the Pythagoreans the heptad--7--was called "worthy of veneration." It was
held to be the number of religion, because man is controlled by seven celestial

228
spirits to whom it is proper for him to make offerings. It was called the number
of life, because it was believed that human creatures born in the seventh month
of embryonic life usually lived, but those born in the eighth month often died.
One author called it the Motherless Virgin, Minerva, because it was nor born
of a mother but out of the crown, or the head of the Father, the monad. Key-
words of the heptad are fortune, occasion, custody, control, government,
judgment, dreams, voices, sounds, and that which leads all things to their end.
Deities whose attributes were expressed by the heptad were gis, Osiris, Mars,
and Cleo (one of the Muses).
Among many ancient nations the heptad is a sacred number. The Elohim of
the Jews were supposedly seven in number. They were the Spirits of the Dawn,
more commonly known as the Archangels controlling the planets. The seven
Archangels, with the three spirits controlling the sun in its threefold aspect,
constitute the 10, the sacred Pythagorean decad. The mysterious Pythagorean
tetractys, or four rows of dots, increasing from 1 to 4, was symbolic of the stag-
es of creation. The great Pythagorean truth that all things in Nature are regene-
rated through the decad, or 10, is subtly preserved in Freemasonry through
these grips being effected by the uniting of 10 fingers, five on the hand of each
person.
The 3 (spirit, mind, and soul) descend into the 4 (the world), the sum being
the 7, or the mystic nature of man, consisting of a threefold spiritual body and
a fourfold material form. These are symbolized by the cube, which has six
surfaces and a mysterious seventh point within. The six surfaces are the direc-
tions: north, east, south, west, up, and down; or, front, back, right, left, above,
and below; or again, earth, fire, air, water, spirit, and matter. In the midst of
these stands the 1, which is the upright figure of man, from whose center in the
cube radiate six pyramids. From this comes the great occult axiom: "The center
is the father of the directions, the dimensions, and the distances."
The heptad is the number of the law, because it is the number of the Makers
of Cosmic law, the Seven Spirits before the Throne.
The ogdoad--8--was sacred because it was the number of the first cube,
which form had eight corners, and was the only evenly-even number under 10
(1-2-4-8-4-2-1). Thus, the 8 is divided into two 4's, each 4 is divided into two
2's, and each 2 is divided into two 1's, thereby reestablishing the monad.
Among the keywords of the ogdoad are love, counsel, prudence, law, and con-
venience. Among the divinities partaking of its nature were Panarmonia, Rhea,
Cibele, Cadma, Dindymene, Orcia, Neptune, Themis, and Euterpe (a
Muse).
The ogdoad was a mysterious number associated with the Eleusinian Myste-
ries of Greece and the Cabiri. It was called the little holy number. It derived its
form partly from the twisted snakes on the Caduceus of Hermes and partly

229
from the serpentine motion of the celestial bodies; possibly also from the
moon's nodes.
The ennead--9--was the first square of an odd number (3x3). It was asso-
ciated with failure and shortcoming because it fell short of the perfect number
10 by one. It was called the called the number of man, because of the nine
months of his embryonic life. Among its keywords are ocean and horizon,
because to the ancients these were boundless. The ennead is the limitless
number because there is nothing beyond it but the infinite 10. It was called
boundary and limitation, because it gathered all numbers within itself. It was
called the sphere of the air, because it surrounded the numbers as air sur-
rounds the earth, Among the gods and goddesses who partook in greater or
less degree of its nature were Prometheus, Vulcan, Juno, the sister and wife of
Jupiter, Pan, and Aglaia, Tritogenia, Curetes, Proserpine, Hyperion, and
Terpsichore (a Muse).
The 9 was looked upon as evil, because it was an inverted 6. According to
the Eleusinian Mysteries, it was the number of the spheres through which the
consciousness passed on its way to birth. Because of its close resemblance to
the spermatozoon, the 9 has been associated with germinal life.
The decad--10--according to the Pythagoreans, is the greatest of numbers,
not only because it is the tetractys (the 10 dots) but because it comprehends all
arithmetic and harmonic proportions. Pythagoras said that 10 is the nature of
number, because all nations reckon to it and when they arrive at it they return
to the monad. The decad was called both heaven and the world, because the
former includes the latter. Being a perfect number, the decad was applied by
the Pythagoreans to those things relating to age, power, faith, necessity, and the
power of memory. It was also called unwearied, because, like God, it was tire-
less. The Pythagoreans divided the heavenly bodies into ten orders. They also
stated that the decad perfected all numbers and comprehended within itself the
nature of odd and even, moved and unmoved, good and ill. They associated its
power with the following deities: Atlas (for it carried the numbers on its shoul-
ders), Urania, Mnemosyne, the Sun, Phanes, and the One God.
The decimal system can probably be traced back to the time when it was
customary to reckon on the fingers, these being among the most primitive of
calculating devices and still in use among many aboriginal peoples.

230
 The Human Body in Symbolism

THE oldest, the most profound, the most universal of all symbols is the hu-
man body. The Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and Hindus considered a philo-
sophical analysis of man's triune nature to be an indispensable part of ethical
and religious training. The Mysteries of every nation taught that the laws, ele-
ments, and powers of the universe were epitomized in the human constitution;
that everything which existed outside of man had its analogue within man. The
universe, being immeasurable in its immensity and inconceivable in its profun-
dity, was beyond mortal estimation. Even the gods themselves could compre-
hend but a part of the inaccessible glory which was their source. When tempo-
rarily permeated with divine enthusiasm, man may transcend for a brief mo-
ment the limitations of his own personality and behold in part that celestial
effulgence in which all creation is bathed. But even in his periods of greatest
illumination man is incapable of imprinting upon the substance of his rational
soul a perfect image of the multiform expression of celestial activity.
Recognizing the futility of attempting to cope intellectually with that which
transcends the comprehension of the rational faculties, the early philosophers
turned their attention from the inconceivable Divinity to man himself, with in
the narrow confines of whose nature they found manifested all the mysteries of
the external spheres. As the natural outgrowth of this practice there was fabri-
cated a secret theological system in which God was considered as the Grand
Man and, conversely, man as the little god. Continuing this analogy, the un-
iverse was regarded as a man and, conversely, man as a miniature universe.
The greater universe was termed the Macrocosm--the Great World or Body--
and the Divine Life or spiritual entity controlling its functions was called the
Macroprosophus. Man's body, or the individual human universe, was termed
the Microcosm, and the Divine Life or spiritual entity controlling its functions
was called the Microprosophus. The pagan Mysteries were primarily con-
cerned with instructing neophytes in the true relationship existing between the
Macrocosm and the Microcosm--in other words, between God and man. Ac-
cordingly, the key to these analogies between the organs and functions of the
Microcosmic man and those of the Macrocosmic Man constituted the most
prized possession of the early initiates.
In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky summarizes the pagan concept of man as
follows: "Man is a little world--a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a
fetus, he is suspended, by all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocos-
mos; and while his terrestrial body is in constant sympathy with its parent earth,
his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal anima mundi. He is in it, as it is

231
in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space, and is space itself, only
shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it but an infinite-
simal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the Highest
Cause--the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and inor-
ganic nature--the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of
which Proclus says that 'The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eterni-
ty; the third, the paradigm, or pattern of the universe;' the three constituting the
Intelligible Triad."
Long before the introduction of idolatry into religion, the early priests
caused the statue of a man to be placed in the sanctuary of the temple. This
human figure symbolized the Divine Power in all its intricate manifestations.
Thus the priests of antiquity accepted man as their textbook, and through the
study of him learned to understand the greater and more abstruse mysteries of
the celestial scheme of which they were a part. It is not improbable that this
mysterious figure standing over the primitive altars was made in the nature of a
manikin and, like certain emblematic hands in the Mystery schools, was cov-
ered with either carved or painted hieroglyphs. The statue may have opened,
thus showing the relative positions of the organs, bones, muscles, nerves, and
other parts. After ages of research, the manikin became a mass of intricate
hieroglyphs and symbolic figures. Every part had its secret meaning. The mea-
surements formed a basic standard by means of which it was possible to meas-
ure all parts of cosmos. It was a glorious composite emblem of all the know-
ledge possessed by the sages and hierophants.
Then came the age of idolatry. The Mysteries decayed from within. The
secrets were lost and none knew the identity of the mysterious man who stood
over the altar. It was remembered only that the figure was a sacred and glorious
symbol of the Universal Power, and it: finally came to be looked upon as a
god--the One in whose image man was made. Having lost the knowledge of the
purpose for which the manikin was originally constructed, the priests wor-
shiped this effigy until at last their lack of spiritual understanding brought the
temple down in ruins about their heads and the statue crumbled with the civili-
zation that had forgotten its meaning.
Proceeding from this assumption of the first theologians that man is actually
fashioned in the image of God, the initiated minds of past ages erected the
stupendous structure of theology upon the foundation of the human body. The
religious world of today is almost totally ignorant of the fact that the science of
biology is the fountainhead of its doctrines and tenets. Many of the codes and
laws believed by modern divines to have been direct revelations from Divinity
are in reality the fruitage of ages of patient delving into the intricacies of the
human constitution and the infinite wonders revealed by such a study.
In nearly all the sacred books of the world can be traced an anatomical analo-

232
gy. This is most evident in their creation myths. Anyone familiar with embryol-
ogy and obstetrics will have no difficulty in recognizing the basis of the allegory
concerning Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the nine degrees of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Brahmanic legend of Vishnu's incarnations. The
story of the Universal Egg, the Scandinavian myth of Ginnungagap (the dark
cleft in space in which the seed of the world is sown), and the use of the fish as
the emblem of the paternal generative power--all show the true origin of theo-
logical speculation. The philosophers of antiquity realized that man himself
was the key to the riddle of life, for he was the living image of the Divine Plan,
and in future ages humanity also will come to realize more fully the solemn
import of those ancient words: "The proper study of mankind is man."
Both God and man have a twofold constitution, of which the superior part is
invisible and the inferior visible. In both there is also an intermediary sphere,
marking the point where these visible and invisible natures meet. As the spiri-
tual nature of God controls His objective universal form-which is actually a
crystallized idea--so the spiritual nature of man is the invisible cause and con-
trolling power of his visible material personality. Thus it is evident that the
spirit of man bears the same relationship to his material body that God bears to
the objective universe. The Mysteries taught that spirit, or life, was anterior to
form and that what is anterior includes all that is posterior to itself. Spirit being
anterior to form, form is therefore included within the realm of spirit. It is also
a popular statement or belief that man's spirit is within his body. According to
the conclusions of philosophy and theology, however, this belief is erroneous,
for spirit first circumscribes an area and then manifests within it. Philosophical-
ly speaking, form, being a part of spirit, is within spirit; but: spirit is more than
the sum of form, As the material nature of man is therefore within the sum of
spirit, so the Universal Nature, including the entire sidereal system, is within
the all-pervading essence of God--the Universal Spirit.
According to another concept of the ancient wisdom, all bodies--whether
spiritual or material--have three centers, called by the Greeks the upper center,
the middle center, and the lower center. An apparent ambiguity will here be
noted. To diagram or symbolize adequately abstract mental verities is impossi-
ble, for the diagrammatic representation of one aspect of metaphysical rela-
tionships may be an actual contradiction of some other aspect. While that
which is above is generally considered superior in dignity and power, in reality
that which is in the center is superior and anterior to both that which is said to
be above and that which is said to be below. Therefore, it must be said that the
first--which is considered as being above--is actually in the center, while both of
the others (which are said to be either above or below) are actually beneath.
This point can be further simplified if the reader will consider above as indicat-
ing degree of proximity to source and below as indicating degree of distance

233
from source, source being posited in the actual center and relative distance
being the various points along the radii from the center toward the circumfe-
rence. In matters pertaining to philosophy and theology, up may be considered
as toward the center and down as toward the circumference. Center is spirit;
circumference is matter. Therefore, up is toward spirit along an ascending scale
of spirituality; down is toward matter along an ascending scale of materiality.
The latter concept is partly expressed by the apex of a cone which, when
viewed from above, is seen as a point in the exact center of the circumference
formed by the base of the cone.

Click to enlarge
THE TETRAGRAMMATON IN THE HUMAN HEART.
From Bhme's Libri Apologetici.
The Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered Name of God, is here arranged as a tetractys
within the inverted human heart. Beneath, the name Jehovah is shown transformed
into Jehoshua by the interpolation of the radiant Hebrew letter , Shin. The drawing
as a whole represents the throne of God and His hierarchies within the heart of man.
In the first book of his Libri Apologetici, Jakob Bhme thus describes the meaning of
the symbol: "For we men have one book in common which points to God. Each has it
within himself, which is the priceless Name of God. Its letters are the flames of His
love, which He out of His heart in the priceless Name of Jesus has revealed in us.
Read these letters in your hearts and spirits and you have books enough. All the writ-
ings of the children of God direct you unto that one book, for therein lie all the trea-
sures of wisdom. * * * This book is Christ in you."

These three universal centers--the one above, the one below, and the link unit-
ing them-represent three suns or three aspects of one sun--centers of efful-
gence. These also have their analogues in the three grand centers of the human
body, which, like the physical universe, is a Demiurgic fabrication. "The first of
these [suns]," says Thomas Taylor, "is analogous to light when viewed subsisting
in its fountain the sun; the second to the light immediately proceeding from the
sun; and the third to the splendour communicated to other natures by this
light."
Since the superior (or spiritual) center is in the midst of the other two, its
234
analogue in the physical body is the heart--the most spiritual and mysterious
organ in the human body. The second center (or the link between the superior
and inferior worlds) is elevated to the position of greatest physical dignity--the
brain. The third (or lower) center is relegated to the position of least physical
dignity but greatest physical importance--the generative system. Thus the heart
is symbolically the source of life; the brain the link by which, through rational
intelligence, life and form are united; and the generative system--or infernal
creator--the source of that power by which physical organisms are produced.
The ideals and aspirations of the individual depend largely upon which of
these three centers of power predominates in scope and activity of expression.
In the materialist the lower center is the strongest, in the intellectualist the
higher center; but in the initiate the middle center--by bathing the two extremes
in a flood of spiritual effulgence--controls wholesomely both the mind and the
body.
As light bears witness of life-which is its source-so the mind bears witness of
the spirit, and activity in a still lower plane bears witness of intelligence. Thus
the mind bears witness of the heart, while the generative system, in turn, bears
witness of the mind. Accordingly, the spiritual nature is most commonly sym-
bolized by a heart; the intellectual power by an opened eye, symbolizing the
pineal gland or Cyclopean eye, which is the two-faced Janus of the pagan Mys-
teries; and the generative system by a flower, a staff, a cup, or a hand.
While all the Mysteries recognized the heart as the center of spiritual con-
sciousness, they often purposely ignored this concept and used the heart in its
exoteric sense as the symbol of the emotional nature, In this arrangement the
generative center represented the physical body, the heart the emotional body,
and the brain the mental body. The brain represented the superior sphere, but
after the initiates had passed through the lower degrees they were instructed
that the brain was the proxy of the spiritual flame dwelling in the innermost
recesses of the heart. The student of esotericism discovers ere long that the
ancients often resorted to various blinds to conceal the true interpretations of
their Mysteries. The substitution of the brain for the heart was one of these
blinds.
The three degrees of the ancient Mysteries were, with few exceptions, given
in chambers which represented the three great centers of the human and Uni-
versal bodies. If possible, the temple itself was constructed in the form of the
human body. The candidate entered between the feet and received the highest
degree in the point corresponding to the brain. Thus the first degree was the
material mystery and its symbol was the generative system; it raised the candi-
date through the various degrees of concrete thought. The second degree was
given in the chamber corresponding to the heart, but represented the middle
power which was the mental link. Here the candidate was initiated into the

235
mysteries of abstract thought and lifted as high as the mind was capable of pe-
netrating. He then passed into the third chamber, which, analogous to the
brain, occupied the highest position in the temple but, analogous to the heart,
was of the greatest dignity. In the brain chamber the heart mystery was given.
Here the initiate for the first time truly comprehended the meaning of those
immortal words: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." As there are seven
hearts in the brain so there are seven brains in the heart, but this is a matter of
superphysics of which little can be said at the present time.
Proclus writes on this subject in the first book of On the Theology of Plato:
"Indeed, Socrates in the (First) Alcibiades rightly observes, that the soul enter-
ing into herself will behold all other things, and deity itself. For verging to her
own union, and to the centre of all life, laying aside multitude, and the variety
of the all manifold powers which she contains, she ascends to the highest
watch-tower offerings. And as in the most holy of the mysteries, they say, that
the mystics at first meet with the multi form, and many-shaped genera, which
are hurled forth before the gods, but on entering the temple, unmoved, and
guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom [heart] divine
illumination, and divested of their garments, as they would say, participate of a
divine nature; the same mode, as it appears to me, takes place in the specula-
tion of wholes. For the soul when looking at things posterior to herself, beholds
the shadows and images of beings, but when she converts herself to herself she
evolves her own essence, and the reasons which she contains. And at first in-
deed, she only as it were beholds herself; but, when she penetrates more pro-
foundly into the knowledge of herself, she finds in herself both intellect, and
the orders of beings. When however, she proceeds into her interior recesses,
and into the adytum as it were of the soul, she perceives with her eye closed
[without the aid of the lower mind], the genus of the gods, and the unities of
beings. For all things are in us psychically, and through this we are naturally
capable of knowing all things, by exciting the powers and the images of wholes
which we contain."
The initiates of old warned their disciples that an image is not a reality but
merely the objectification of a subjective idea. The image, of the gods were nor
designed to be objects of worship but were to be regarded merely as emblems
or reminders of invisible powers and principles. Similarly, the body of man
must not be considered as the individual but only as the house of the individu-
al, in the same manner that the temple was the House of God. In a state of
grossness and perversion man's body is the tomb or prison of a divine prin-
ciple; in a state of unfoldment and regeneration it is the House or Sanctuary of
the Deity by whose creative powers it was fashioned. "Personality is suspended
upon a thread from the nature of Being," declares the secret work. Man is es-
sentially a permanent and immortal principle; only his bodies pass through the

236
cycle of birth and death. The immortal is the reality; the mortal is the unreality.
During each period of earth life, reality thus dwells in unreality, to be liberated
from it temporarily by death and permanently by illumination.

Click to enlarge
HAND DECORATED WITH EFFIGIES OF JESUS CHRIST, THE VIRGIN MARY, AND THE TWELVE
APOSTLES.
From an old print, courtesy of Carl Oscar Borg.
Upon the twelve phalanges of the fingers, appear the likenesses of the Apostles, each
bearing its own appropriate symbol. In the case of those who suffered martyrdom the
symbol signifies the instrument of death. Thus, the symbol of St. Andrew is a cross; of
St. Thomas, a javelin or a builder's square; of St. James the Less, a club; of St Philip, a
cross; of St. Bartholomew, a large knife or scimitar; of St. Matthew, a sword or spear
(sometimes a purse); of St. Simon, a club or saw; of St. Matthias, an axe; and of St.
Judas, a halbert. The Apostles whose symbols do not elate to their martyrdom are St.
Peter, who carries two crossed keys, one gold and one silver; St. James the Great, who
bears a pilgrim's staff and an escalop shell; and St. John, who holds a cup from which
the poison miraculously departed in the form of a serpent. (See Handbook of Chris-
tian Symbolism.) The figure of Christ upon the second phalange of the thumb does
not follow the pagan system of assigning the first Person of the Creative Triad to this
Position. God the Father should occupy the second Phalange, God the Son the first
phalange, while to God the Holy Spirit is assigned the base of the thumb.--Also, ac-
cording to the Philosophic arrangement, the Virgin should occupy the base of the
thumb, which is sacred to the moon.

While generally regarded as polytheists, the pagans gained this reputation not
because they worshiped more than one God but rather because they personi-
fied the attributes of this God, thereby creating a pantheon of posterior deities
each manifesting a part of what the One God manifested as a whole. The vari-
ous pantheons of ancient religions therefore actually represent the catalogued
and personified attributes of Deity. In this respect they correspond to the hie-
rarchies of the Hebrew Qabbalists. All the gods and goddesses of antiquity
237
consequently have their analogies in the human body, as have also the ele-
ments, planets, and constellations which were assigned as proper vehicles for
these celestials. Four body centers are assigned to the elements, the seven vital
organs to the planets, the twelve principal parts and members to the zodiac, the
invisible parts of man's divine nature to various supermundane deities, while
the hidden God was declared to manifest through the marrow in the bones.
It is difficult for many to realize that they are actual universes; that their
physical bodies are a visible nature through the structure of which countless
waves of evolving life are unfolding their latent potentialities. Yet through man's
physical body not only are a mineral, a plant, and an animal kingdom evolving,
but also unknown classifications and divisions of invisible spiritual life. just as
cells are infinitesimal units in the structure of man, so man is an infinitesimal
unit in the structure of the universe. A theology based upon the knowledge and
appreciation of these relationships is as profoundly just as it is profoundly true.
As man's physical body has five distinct and important extremities--two legs,
two arms, and a head, of which the last governs the first four--the number 5 has
been accepted as the symbol of man. By its four corners the pyramid symbo-
lizes the arms and legs, and by its apex the head, thus indicating that one ra-
tional power controls four irrational corners. The hands and feet are used to
represent the four elements, of which the two feet are earth and water, and the
two hands fire and air. The brain then symbolizes the sacred fifth element--
ther--which controls and unites the other four. If the feet are placed together
and the arms outspread, man then symbolizes the cross with the rational intel-
lect as the head or upper limb.
The fingers and toes also have special significance. The toes represent the
Ten Commandments of the physical law and the fingers the Ten Command-
ments of the spiritual law. The four fingers of each hand represent the four
elements and the three phalanges of each finger represent the divisions of the
element, so that in each hand there are twelve parts to the fingers, which are
analogous to the signs of the zodiac, whereas the two phalanges and base of
each thumb signify the threefold Deity. The first phalange corresponds to the
creative aspect, the second to the preservative aspect, and the base to the ge-
nerative and destructive aspect. When the hands are brought together, the
result is the twenty-four Elders and the six Days of Creation.
In symbolism the body is divided vertically into halves, the right half being
considered as light and the left half as darkness. By those unacquainted with
the true meanings of light and darkness the light half was denominated spiritual
and the left half material. Light is the symbol of objectivity; darkness of subjec-
tivity. Light is a manifestation of life and is therefore posterior to life. That
which is anterior to light is darkness, in which light exists temporarily but dark-
ness permanently. As life precedes light, its only symbol is darkness, and dark-

238
ness is considered as the veil which must eternally conceal the true nature of
abstract and undifferentiated Being.
In ancient times men fought with their right arms and defended the vital
centers with their left arms, on which was carried the protecting shield. The
right half of the body was regarded therefore as offensive and the left half de-
fensive. For this reason also the right side of the body was considered mascu-
line and the left side feminine. Several authorities are of the opinion that the
present prevalent right-handedness of the race is the outgrowth of the custom
of holding the left hand in restraint for defensive purposes. Furthermore, as
the source of Being is in the primal darkness which preceded light, so the spiri-
tual nature of man is in the dark part of his being, for the heart is on the left
side.
Among the curious misconceptions arising from the false practice of asso-
ciating darkness with evil is one by which several early nations used the right
hand for all constructive labors and the left hand for only those purposes
termed unclean and unfit for the sight of the gods. For the same reason black
magic was often referred to as the left-hand path, and heaven was said to be
upon the right and hell upon the left. Some philosophers further declared that
there were two methods of writing: one from left to right, which was considered
the exoteric method; the other from right to left, which was considered esoter-
ic. The exoteric writing was that which was done out or away from the heart,
while the esoteric writing was that which--like the ancient Hebrew--was written
toward the heart.
The secret doctrine declares that every part and member of the body is epi-
tomized in the brain and, in turn, that all that is in the brain is epitomized in
the heart. In symbolism the human head is frequently used to represent intelli-
gence and self-knowledge. As the human body in its entirety is the most perfect
known product of the earth's evolution, it was employed to represent Divinity--
the highest appreciable state or condition. Artists, attempting to portray Divini-
ty, often show only a hand emerging from an impenetrable cloud. The cloud
signifies the Unknowable Divinity concealed from man by human limitation.
The hand signifies the Divine activity, the only part of God which is cognizable
to the lower senses.
The face consists of a natural trinity: the eyes representing the spiritual pow-
er which comprehends; the nostrils representing the preservative and vivifying
power; and the mouth and ears representing the material Demiurgic power of
the lower world. The first sphere is eternally existent and is creative; the
second sphere pertains to the mystery of the creative breach; and the third
sphere to the creative word. By the Word of God the material universe was
fabricated, and the seven creative powers, or vowel sounds--which had been
brought into existence by the speaking of the Word--became the seven Elohim

239
or Deities by whose power and ministration the lower world was organized.
Occasionally the Deity is symbolized by an eye, an ear, a nose, or a mouth. By
the first, Divine awareness is signified; by the second, Divine interest; by the
third, Divine vitality; and by the fourth, Divine command.

Click to enlarge
THE THREEFOLD LIFE OF THE INNER MAN.
Redrawn from Gichtel's Theosophia Practica.
Johann Georg Gichtel, a profound Philosopher and mystic, the most illumined of the
disciples of Jakob Bhme, secretly circulated the above diagrams among a small group
of devoted friends and students. Gichtel republished the writings of Bhme, illustrating
them with numerous remarkable figures. According to Gichtel, the diagrams above,
represent the anatomy of the divine (or inner) man, and graphically set forth its condi-
tion during its human, infernal, and divine states. The plates in the William Law edi-
tion of Bhme's works are based apparently upon Gichtel's diagrams, which they fol-
low in all essentials. Gichtel gives no detailed description of his figures, and the letter-
ing on the original diagrams here translated out of the German is the only clue to the
interpretation of the charts.
The two end figures represent the obverse and reverse of the same diagram and are
termed Table Three. They are "designed to show the Condition of the whole Man, as
to all his three essential Parts, Spirit, Soul, and Body, in his Regenerated State." The
third figure from the left is called the Second Table, and sets forth "the Condition of
Man in his old, lapsed, and corrupted State; without any respect to, or consideration of
his renewing by regeneration." The third figure, however, does not correspond with the
First Table of William Law. The First Table presumably represents the condition of
humanity before the Fall, but the Gichtel plate pertains to the third, or regenerated,
state of mankind. William Law thus describes the purpose of the diagrams, and the
symbols upon them: "These three tables are designed to represent Man in his different
Threefold State: the First before his Fall, in Purity, Dominion, and Glory: the Second
after his Fall, in Pollution and Perdition: and the Third in his rising from the Fall, or
on the Way of regeneration, in Sanctification and Tendency to his last Perfection."
The student of Orientalism will immediately recognize in the symbols upon the figures
the Hindu chakras, or centers of spiritual force, the various motions and aspects of
which reveal the condition of the disciple's internal divine nature.

240
The ancients did not believe that spirituality made men either righteous or
rational, but rather that righteousness and rationality made men spiritual. The
Mysteries taught that spiritual illumination was attained only by bringing the
lower nature up to a certain standard of efficiency and purity. The Mysteries
were therefore established for the purpose of unfolding the nature of man ac-
cording to certain fixed rules which, when faithfully followed, elevated the hu-
man consciousness to a point where it was capable of cognizing its own consti-
tution and the true purpose of existence. This knowledge of how man's mani-
fold constitution could be most quickly and most completely regenerated to
the point of spiritual illumination constituted the secret, or esoteric, doctrine of
antiquity. Certain apparently physical organs and centers are in reality the veils
or sheaths of spiritual centers. What these were and how they could be un-
folded was never revealed to the unregenerate, for the philosophers realized
that once he understands the complete working of any system, a man may ac-
complish a prescribed end without being qualified to manipulate and control
the effects which he has produced. For this reason long periods of probation
were imposed, so that the knowledge of how to become as the gods might re-
main the sole possession of the worthy.
Lest that knowledge be lost, however, it was concealed in allegories and
myths which were meaningless to the profane but self-evident to those ac-
quainted with that theory of personal redemption which was the foundation of
philosophical theology. Christianity itself may be cited as an example. The
entire New Testament is in fact an ingeniously concealed exposition of the
secret processes of human regeneration. The characters so long considered as
historical men and women are really the personification of certain processes
which take place in the human body when man begins the task of consciously
liberating himself from the bondage of ignorance and death.
The garments and ornamentations supposedly worn by the gods are also
keys, for in the Mysteries clothing was considered as synonymous with form.
The degree of spirituality or materiality of the organisms was signified by the
quality, beauty, and value of the garments worn. Man's physical body was
looked upon as the robe of his spiritual nature; consequently, the more devel-
oped were his super-substantial powers the more glorious his apparel. Of
course, clothing was originally worn for ornamentation rather than protection,
and such practice still prevails among many primitive peoples. The Mysteries
caught that man's only lasting adornments were his virtues and worthy characte-
ristics; that he was clothed in his own accomplishments and adorned by his
attainments. Thus the white robe was symbolic of purity, the red robe of sacri-
fice and love, and the blue robe of altruism and integrity. Since the body was
said to be the robe of the spirit, mental or moral deformities were depicted as
deformities of the body.

241
 Considering man's body as the measuring rule of the universe, the philoso-
phers declared that all things resemble in constitution--if not in form--the hu-
man body. The Greeks, for example, declared Delphi to be the navel of the
earth, for the physical planet was looked upon as a gigantic human being
twisted into the form of a ball. In contradistinction to the belief of Christen-
dom that the earth is an inanimate thing, the pagans considered not only the
earth but also all the sidereal bodies as individual creatures possessing individ-
ual intelligences. They even went so far as to view the various kingdoms of
Nature as individual entities. The animal kingdom, for example, was looked
upon as one being--a composite of all the creatures composing that kingdom.
This prototypic beast was a mosaic embodiment of all animal propensities and
within its nature the entire animal world existed as the human species exists
within the constitution of the prototypic Adam.
In the same manner, races, nations, tribes, religions, states, communities,
and cities were viewed as composite entities, each made up of varying numbers
of individual units. Every community has an individuality which is the sum of
the individual attitudes of its inhabitants. Every religion is an individual whose
body is made up of a hierarchy and vast host of individual worshipers. The
organization of any religion represents its physical body, and its individual
members the cell life making up this organism. Accordingly, religions, races,
and communities--like individuals--pass through Shakespeare's Seven Ages, for
the life of man is a standard by which the perpetuity of all things is estimated.
According to the secret doctrine, man, through the gradual refinement of his
vehicles and the ever-increasing sensitiveness resulting from that refinement, is
gradually overcoming the limitations of matter and is disentangling himself
from his mortal coil. When humanity has completed its physical evolution, the
empty shell of materiality left behind will be used by other life waves as step-
pingstones to their own liberation. The trend of man's evolutionary growth is
ever toward his own essential Selfhood. At the point of deepest materialism,
therefore, man is at the greatest distance from Himself. According to the Mys-
tery teachings, not all the spiritual nature of man incarnates in matter. The
spirit of man is diagrammatically shown as an equilateral triangle with one point
downward. This lower point, which is one-third of the spiritual nature but in
comparison to the dignity of the other two is much less than a third, descends
into the illusion of material existence for a brief space of time. That which nev-
er clothes itself in the sheath of matter is the Hermetic Anthropos--the Over-
man-- analogous to the Cyclops or guardian dmon of the Greeks, the angel of
Jakob Bhme, and the Oversoul of Emerson, "that Unity, that Oversoul, within
which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other."
At birth only a third part of the Divine Nature of man temporarily disso-
ciates itself from its own immortality and takes upon itself the dream of physi-

242
cal birth and existence, animating with its own celestial enthusiasm a vehicle
composed of material elements, part of and bound to the material sphere. At
death this incarnated part awakens from the dream of physical existence and
reunites itself once more with its eternal condition. This periodical descent of
spirit into matter is termed the wheel of life and death, and the principles in-
volved are treated at length by the philosophers under the subject of metemp-
sychosis. By initiation into the Mysteries and a certain process known as opera-
tive theology, this law of birth and death is transcended, and during the course
of physical existence that part of the spirit which is asleep in form is awakened
without the intervention of death--the inevitable Initiator--and is consciously
reunited with the Anthropos, or the overshadowing substance of itself. This is
at once the primary purpose and the consummate achievement of the Myste-
ries: that man shall become aware of and consciously be reunited with the di-
vine source of himself without tasting of physical dissolution.

Click to enlarge
THE DIVINE TREE IN MAN
(reverse)
From Law's Figures of Jakob Bhme.
Just as the diagram representing the front view of man illustrates his divine principles
in their regenerated state, so the back view of the same figure sets forth the inferior, or
"night," condition of the sun. From the Sphere of the Astral Mind a line ascends
through the Sphere of reason into that of the Senses. The Sphere of the Astral Mind
and of the Senses are filled with stars to signify the nocturnal condition of their natures.
In the sphere of reason, the superior and the inferior are reconciled, Reason in the
mortal man corresponding to Illumined Understanding in the spiritual man.

243
Click to enlarge
THE DIVINE TREE IN MAN
(obverse)
From Law's Figures of Jakob Bhme.
A tree with its roots in the heart rises from the Mirror of the Deity through the Sphere
of the Understanding to branch forth in the Sphere of the Senses. The roots and trunk
of this tree represent the divine nature of man and may be called his spirituality; the
branches of the tree are the separate parts of the divine constitution and may be li-
kened to the individuality; and the leaves--because of their ephemeral nature--
correspond to the personality, which partakes of none of the permanence of its divine
source.

244
 The Hiramic Legend

WHEN Solomon--the beloved of God, builder of the Everlasting House, and

Grand Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem--ascended the throne of his father
David he consecrated his life to the erection of a temple to God and a palace
for the kings of Israel. David's faithful friend, Hiram, King of Tyre, hearing
that a son of David sat upon the throne of Israel, sent messages of congratula-
tion and offers of assistance to the new ruler. In his History of the Jews, Jose-
phus mentions that copies of the letters passing between the two kings were
then to be seen both at Jerusalem and at Tyre. Despite Hiram's lack of apprec-
iation for the twenty cities of Galilee which Solomon presented to him upon
the completion of the temple, the two monarchs remained the best of friends.
Both were famous for their wit and wisdom, and when they exchanged letters
each devised puzzling questions to test the mental ingenuity of the other. So-
lomon made an agreement with Hiram of Tyre promising vast amounts of
barley, wheat, corn, wine, and oil as wages for the masons and carpenters from
Tyre who were to assist the Jews in the erection of the temple. Hiram also sup-
plied cedars and other fine trees, which were made into rafts and floated down
the sea to Joppa, whence they were taken inland by Solomon's workmen to the
temple site.
Because of his great love for Solomon, Hiram of Tyre sent also the Grand
Master of the Dionysiac Architects, CHiram Abiff, a Widow's Son, who had no
equal among the craftsmen of the earth. CHiram is described as being "a Ty-
rian by birch, but of Israelitish descent," and "a second Bezaleel, honored by
his king with the title of Father." The Freemason's Pocket Companion (pub-
lished in 1771) describes CHiram as "the most cunning, skilful and curious
workman that ever lived, whose abilities were not confined to building alone,
but extended to all kinds of work, whether in gold, silver, brass or iron; wheth-
er in linen, tapestry, or embroidery; whether considered as an architect, statu-
ary [sic]; founder or designer, separately or together, he equally excelled. From
his designs, and under his direction, all the rich and splendid furniture of the
Temple and its several appendages were begun, carried on, and finished. So-
lomon appointed him, in his absence, to fill the chair, as Deputy Grand-
Master; and in his presence, Senior Grand-Warden, Master of work, and gen-
eral overseer of all artists, as well those whom David had formerly procured
from Tyre and Sidon, as those Hiram should now send." (Modem Masonic
writers differ as to the accuracy of the last sentence.)
Although an immense amount of labor was involved in its construction, So-
lomon's Temple--in the words of George Oliver--"was only a small building and

245
very inferior in point of size to some of our churches." The number of build-
ings contiguous to it and the vast treasure of gold and precious stones used in
its construction concentrated a great amount of wealth within the temple area.
In the midst of the temple stood the Holy of Holies, sometimes called the
Oracle. It was an exact cube, each dimension being twenty cubits, and exempli-
fied the influence of Egyptian symbolism. The buildings of the temple group
were ornamented with 1,453 columns of Parian marble, magnificently sculp-
tured, and 2,906 pilasters decorated with capitals. There was a broad porch
facing the east, and the sanctum sanctorum was upon the west. According to
tradition, the various buildings and courtyards could hold in all 300,000 per-
sons. Both the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies were entirely lined with solid
gold plates encrusted with jewels.
King Solomon began the building of the temple in the fourth year of his
reign on what would be, according to modern calculation, the 21st day of April,
and finished it in the eleventh year of his reign on the 23rd day of October.
The temple was begun in the 480th year after the children of Israel had passed
the Red Sea. Part of the labor of construction included the building of an artifi-
cial foundation on the brow of Mount Moriah. The stones for the temple were
hoisted from quarries directly beneath Mount Moriah and were trued before
being brought to the surface. The brass and golden ornaments for the temple
were cast in molds in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredatha, and the
wooden parts were all finished before they reached the temple site. The build-
ing was put together, consequently, without sound and without instruments, all
its parts fitting exactly "without the hammer of contention, the axe of division,
or any tool of mischief."
Anderson's much-discussed Constitutions of the Free-Masons, published in
London in 1723, and reprinted by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1734,
thus describes the division of the laborers engaged in the building of the Ever-
lasting House:
"But Dagon's Temple, and the finest structures of Tyre and Sidon, could not
be compared with the Eternal God's Temple at Jerusalem, * * * there were
employed about it no less than 3,600 Princes, or Master-Masons, to conduct
the work according to Solomon's directions, with 80,000 hewers of stone in the
mountain, or Fellow Craftsmen, and 70,000 labourers, in all 153,600 besides
the levy under Adoniram to work in the mountains of Lebanon by turns with
the Sidonians, viz., 30,000, being in all 183,600." Daniel Sickels gives 3,300
overseers, instead of 3,600, and lists the three Grand Masters separately. The
same author estimates the cost of the temple at nearly four thousand millions
of dollars.
The Masonic legend of the building of Solomon's Temple does not in every
particular parallel the Scriptural version, especially in those portions relating to

246
CHiram Abiff. According to the Biblical account, this Master workman re-
turned to his own country; in the Masonic allegory he is foully murdered. On
this point A. E. Waite, in his New Encyclopdia of Freemasonry, makes the
following explanatory comment:
"The legend of the Master-Builder is the great allegory of Masonry. It hap-
pens that his figurative story is grounded on the fact of a personality mentioned
in Holy Scripture, but this historical background is of the accidents and not the
essence; the significance is in the allegory and not in any point of history which
may lie behind it."
CHiram, as Master of the Builders, divided his workmen into three groups,
which were termed Entered Apprentices, Fellow-Craftsmen, and Master Ma-
sons. To each division he gave certain passwords and signs by which their re-
spective excellence could be quickly determined. While all were classified ac-
cording to their merits some were dissatisfied, for they desired a more exalted
position than they were capable of filling. At last three Fellow-Craftsmen, more
daring than their companions, determined to force CHiram to reveal to them
the password of the Master's degree. Knowing that CHiram always went into
the unfinished sanctum sanctorum at high noon to pray, these ruffians--whose
names were Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum--lay in wait for him, one at each of the
main gates of the temple. CHiram, about to leave the temple by the south gate,
was suddenly confronted by Jubela armed with a twenty-four-inch gauge. Upon
CHiram's refusal to reveal the Master's Word, the ruffian struck him on the
throat with the rule, and the wounded Master then hastened to the west gate,
where Jubelo, armed with a square, awaited him and made a similar demand.
Again CHiram was silent, and the second assassin struck him on the breast
with the square. CHiram thereupon staggered to the east gate, only to be met
there by Jubelum armed with a maul. When CHiram, refused him the Master's
Word, Jubelum struck the Master between the eyes with the mallet and CHi-
ram fell dead.

Click to enlarge
A MASONIC APRON WITH SYMBOLIC FIGURES.
From an early hand-painted Masonic apron.
While the mystic symbolism of Freemasonry decrees that the apron shall be a simple
square of white lambskin with appropriate flap, Masonic aprons are frequently deco-

247
rated with curious and impressive figures. "When silk cotton, or linen is worn," writes
Albert Pike, "the symbolism is lost. Nor is one clothed who blots, defaces, and dese-
crates the white surface with ornamentation, figuring, or colors of any kind." (See Sym-
bolism.)
To Mars, the ancient plane of cosmic energy, the Atlantean and Chaldean "star
gazers" assigned Aries as a diurnal throne and Scorpio as a nocturnal throne. Those
not raised to spiritual life by initiation are described as "dead from the sting of a scor-
pion," for they wander in the night side of divine power. Through the mystery of the
Paschal Lamb, or the attainment of the Golden Fleece, these soul are raised into the
constructive day Power of Mars in Aries--the symbol of the Creator.
When worn over the area related to the animal passions, the pure lambskin signifies
the regeneration of the procreative forces and their consecration to the service of the
Deity. The size of the apron, exclusive of the flap, makes it the symbol of salvation, for
the Mysteries declare that it must consist of 144 square inches.
The apron shown above contains a wealth of symbolism: the beehive, emblematic
of the Masonic lodge itself, the trowel, the mallet, and the trestleboad; the rough and
trued ashlars; the pyramids and hills of Lebanon; the pillars, the Temple, and check-
erboard floor; and the blazing star and tools of the Craft. The center of the apron is
occupied by the compass and square, representative of the Macrocosm an the micro-
cosm, and the alternately black and white serpent of astral light. Below is an acacia
branch with seven sprigs, signifying the life Centers of the superior and the inferior
man. The skull and cross bones are a continual reminder that the spiritual nature at-
tains liberation only after the philosophical death of man's sensuous personality.

The body of CHiram was buried by the murderers over the brow of Mount
Moriah and a sprig of acacia placed upon the grave. The murderers then
sought to escape punishment for their crime by embarking for Ethiopia, but
the port was closed. All three were finally captured, and after admitting their
guilt were duly executed. Parties of three were then sent out by King Solomon,
and one of these groups discovered the newly made grave marked by the ever-
green sprig. After the Entered Apprentices and the Fellow-Craftsmen had
failed to resurrect their Master from the dead he was finally raised by the Mas-
ter Mason with the "strong grip of a Lion's Paw."
To the initiated Builder the name CHiram Abiff signifies "My Father, the
Universal Spirit, one in essence, three in aspect." Thus the murdered Master is
a type of the Cosmic Martyr--the crucified Spirit of Good, the dying god--whose
Mystery is celebrated throughout the world. Among the manuscripts of Dr.
Sigismund Bastrom, the initiated Rosicrucian, appears the following extract
from von Welling concerning the true philosophic nature of the Masonic CHi-
ram:
"The original word , CHiram, is a radical word consisting of three con-

248
sonants and i. e. Cheth, Resh and Mem. (1) , Cheth, signifies Chamah,
the Sun's light, i. e. the Universal, invisible, cold fire of Nature attracted by the
Sun, manifested into light and sent down to us and to every planetary body
belonging to the solar system. (2) , Resh, signifies Ruach, i. e. Spirit, air,
wind, as being the Vehicle which conveys and collects the light into numberless
Foci, wherein the solar rays of light are agitated by a circular motion and mani-
fested in Heat and burning Fire. (3) , or Mem, signifies majim, water, hu-
midity, but rather the mother of water, i. e. Radical Humidity or a particular
kind of condensed air. These three constitute the Universal Agent or fire of
Nature in one word, , CHiram, not Hiram."
Albert Pike mentions several forms of the name CHiram: Khirm, Khurm,
and Khur-Om, the latter ending in the sacred Hindu monosyllable OM, which
may also be extracted from the names of the three murderers. Pike further
relates the three ruffians to a triad of stars in the constellation of Libra and also
calls attention to the fact that the Chaldean god Bal--metamorphosed into a
demon by the Jews--appears in the name of each of the murderers, Jubela,
Jubelo, and Jubelum. To interpret the Hiramic legend requires familiarity with
both the Pythagorean and Qabbalistic systems of numbers and letters, and also
the philosophic and astronomic cycles of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Brah-
mins. For example, consider the number 33. The first temple of Solomon
stood for thirty-three years in its pristine splendor. At the end of that time it
was pillaged by the Egyptian King Shishak, and finally (588 B.C.) it was com-
pletely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Jerusalem were led
into captivity to Babylon. (See General History of Freemasonry, by Robert
Macoy.) Also King David ruled for thirty-three years in Jerusalem; the Masonic
Order is divided into thirty-three symbolic degrees; there are thirty-three seg-
ments in the human spinal column; and Jesus was crucified in the thirty-third
year of His life.
The efforts made to discover the origin of the Hiramic legend show that,
while the legend in its present form is comparatively modem, its underlying
principles run back to remotest antiquity. It is generally admitted by modem
Masonic scholars that the story of the martyred CHiram is based upon the
Egyptian rites of Osiris, whose death and resurrection figuratively portrayed the
spiritual death of man and his regeneration through initiation into the Myste-
ries. CHiram is also identified with Hermes through the inscription on the
Emerald Table. From these associations it is evident that CHiram is to be con-
sidered as a prototype of humanity; in fact he is Plato's Idea (archetype) of
man. As Adam after the Fall symbolizes the Idea of human degeneration, so
CHiram through his resurrection symbolizes the Idea of human regeneration.
On the 19th day of March, 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master
of the Knights Templars, was burned on a pyre erected upon that point of the
249
islet of the Seine, at Paris, where afterwards was erected the statue of King
Henry IV. (See The Indian Religions, by Hargrave Jennings.) "It is mentioned
as a tradition in some of the accounts of the burning," writes Jennings, "that
Molay, ere he expired, summoned Clement, the Pope who had pronounced
the bull of abolition against the Order and had condemned the Grand Master
to the flames, to appear, within forty days, before the Supreme Eternal judge,
and Philip [the king] to the same awful tribunal within the space of a year. Both
predictions were fulfilled." The close relationship between Freemasonry and
the original Knights Templars has caused the story of CHiram to be linked
with the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay. According to this interpretation, the
three ruffians who cruelly slew their Master at the gates of the temple because
he refused to reveal the secrets of his Order represent the Pope, the king, and
the executioners. De Molay died maintaining his innocence and refusing to
disclose the philosophical and magical arcana of the Templars.
Those who have sought to identify CHiram with the murdered King Charles
the First conceive the Hiramic legend to have been invented for that purpose
by Elias Ashmole, a mystical philosopher, who was probably a member of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. Charles was dethroned in 1647 and died on the block
in 1649, leaving the Royalist party leaderless. An attempt has been made to
relate the term "the Sons of the Widow" (an appellation frequently applied to
members of the Masonic Order) to this incident in English history, for by the
murder of her king England became a Widow and all Englishmen Widow's
Sons.
To the mystic Christian Mason, CHiram. represents the Christ who in three
days (degrees) raised the temple of His body from its earthly sepulcher. His
three murderers were Csar's agent (the state), the Sanhedrin (the church), and
the incited populace (the mob). Thus considered, CHiram becomes the higher
nature of man and the murderers are ignorance, superstition, and fear. The
indwelling Christ can give expression to Himself in this world only through
man's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Right thinking, right feeling, and right
action--these are three gates through which the Christ power passes into the
material world, there to labor in the erection of the Temple of Universal Bro-
therhood. Ignorance, superstition, and fear are three ruffians through whose
agencies the Spirit of Good is murdered and a false kingdom, controlled by
wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong action, established in its stead. In the
material universe evil appears ever victorious.
"In this sense," writes Daniel Sickels, "the myth of the Tyrian is perpetually
repeated in the history of human affairs. Orpheus was murdered, and his body
thrown into the Hebrus; Socrates was made to drink the hemlock; and, in all
ages, we have seen Evil temporarily triumphant, and Virtue and Truth calum-
niated, persecuted, crucified, and slain. But Eternal justice marches surely and

250
swiftly through the world: the Typhons, the children of darkness, the plotters
of crime, all the infinitely varied forms of evil, are swept into oblivion; and
Truth and Virtue--for a time laid low--come forth, clothed with diviner majesty,
and crowned with everlasting glory!" (See General Ahiman Rezon.)
If, as there is ample reason to suspect, the modern Freemasonic Order was
profoundly influenced by, if it is not an actual outgrowth of, Francis Bacon's
secret society, its symbolism is undoubtedly permeated with Bacon's two great
ideals: universal education and universal democracy. The deadly enemies of
universal education are ignorance, superstition, and fear, by which the human
soul is held in bondage to the lowest part of its own constitution. The arrant
enemies of universal democracy have ever been the crown, the tiara, and the
torch. Thus CHiram symbolizes that ideal state of spiritual, intellectual, and
physical emancipation which has ever been sacrificed upon the altar of human
selfishness. CHiram is the Beautifier of the Eternal House. Modern utilitarian-
ism, however, sacrifices the beautiful for the practical, in the same breath dec-
laring the obvious lie that selfishness, hatred, and discord are practical.
Dr. Orville Ward Owen found a considerable part of the first thirty-two
degrees of Freemasonic ritualism hidden in the text of the First Shakespeare
Folio. Masonic emblems are to be observed also upon the title pages of nearly
every book published by Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon considered himself as a
living sacrifice upon the altar of human need; he was obviously cut down in the
midst of his labors, and no student of his New Atlantis can fail to recognize the
Masonic symbolism contained therein. According to the observations of Jo-
seph Fort Newton, the Temple of Solomon described by Bacon in that utopian
romance was not a house at all but the name of an ideal state. Is it not true that
the Temple of Freemasonry is also emblematic of a condition of society?
While, as before stated, the principles of the Hiramic legend are of the greatest
antiquity, it is not impossible that its present form may be based upon incidents
in the life of Lord Bacon, who passed through the philosophic death and was
raised in Germany.

Click to enlarge
THE EMBLEMATIC HAND OF THE MYSTERIES.

251
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
A hand covered with numerous symbols was extended to the neophytes when they
entered into the Temple of Wisdom. An understanding of the embossed upon the
surface of the hand brought with it Divine power and regeneration Therefore, by
means of these symbolic hands the candidate was said to be raised from the dead.

In an old manuscript appears the statement that the Freemasonic Order was
formed by alchemists and Hermetic philosophers who had banded themselves
together to protect their secrets against the infamous methods used by avari-
cious persons to wring from them the secret of gold-making. The fact that the
Hiramic legend contains an alchemical formula gives credence to this story.
Thus the building of Solomon's Temple represents the consummation of the
magnum opus, which cannot be realized without the assistance of CHiram, the
Universal Agent. The Masonic Mysteries teach the initiate how to prepare with-
in his own soul a miraculous powder of projection by which it is possible for
him to transmute the base lump of human ignorance, perversion, and discord
into an ingot of spiritual and philosophic gold.
Sufficient similarity exists between the Masonic CHiram and the Kundalini
of Hindu mysticism to warrant the assumption that CHiram may be considered
a symbol also of the Spirit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal
column. The exact science of human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry,
for when the Spirit Fire is lifted up through the thirty-three degrees, or seg-
ments of the spinal column, and enters into the domed chamber of the human
skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it invokes Ra (the
pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name. Operative Masonry, in the fullest
meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is
opened. E. A. Wallis Budge has noted that in some of the papyri illustrating
the entrance of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris the de-
ceased person has a pine cone attached to the crown of his head. The Greek
mystics also carried a symbolic staff, the upper end being in the form of a pine
cone, which was called the thyrsus of Bacchus. In the human brain there is a
tiny gland called the pineal body, which is the sacred eye of the ancients, and
corresponds to the third eye of the Cyclops. Little is known concerning the
function of the pineal body, which Descartes suggested (more wisely than he
knew) might be the abode of the spirit of man. As its name signifies, the pineal
gland is the sacred pine cone in man--the eye single, which cannot be opened
until CHiram (the Spirit Fire) is raised through the sacred seals which are
called the Seven Churches in Asia.
There is an Oriental painting which shows three sun bursts. One sunburst
covers the head, in the midst of which sits Brahma with four heads, his body a

252
mysterious dark color. The second sunburst--which covers the heart, solar
plexus, and upper abdominal region--shows Vishnu sitting in the blossom of
the lotus on a couch formed of the coils of the serpent of cosmic motion, its
seven-hooded head forming a canopy over the god. The third sunburst is over
the generative system, in the midst of which sits Shiva, his body a grayish white
and the Ganges River flowing out of the crown of his head. This painting was
the work of a Hindu mystic who spent many years subtly concealing great phi-
losophical principles within these figures. The Christian legends could be re-
lated also to the human body by the same method as the Oriental, for the ar-
cane meanings hidden in the teachings of both schools are identical.
As applied to Masonry, the three sunbursts represent the gates of the temple
at which CHiram was struck, there being no gate in the north because the sun
never shines from the northern angle of the heavens. The north is the symbol
of the physical because of its relation to ice (crystallized water) and to the body
(crystallized spirit). In man the light shines toward the north but never from it,
because the body has no light of its own but shines with the reflected glory of
the divine life-particles concealed within physical substance. For this reason the
moon is accepted as the symbol of man's physical nature. CHiram is the myste-
rious fiery, airy water which must be raised through the three grand centers
symbolized by the ladder with three rungs and the sunburst flowers mentioned
in the description of the Hindu painting. It must also pass upward by means of
the ladder of seven rungs-the seven plexuses proximate to the spine. The nine
segments of the sacrum and coccyx are pierced by ten foramina, through which
pass the roots of the Tree of Life. Nine is the sacred number of man, and in
the symbolism of the sacrum and coccyx a great mystery is concealed. That
part of the body from the kidneys downward was termed by the early Qabbal-
ists the Land of Egypt into which the children of Israel were taken during the
captivity. Out of Egypt, Moses (the illuminated mind, as his name implies) led
the tribes of Israel (the twelve faculties) by raising the brazen serpent in the
wilderness upon the symbol of the Tau cross. Not only CHiram but the god-
men of nearly every pagan Mystery ritual are personifications of the Spirit Fire
in the human spinal cord.
The astronomical aspect of the Hiramic legend must not be overlooked.
The tragedy of CHiram is enacted annually by the sun during its passage
through the signs of the zodiac.
"From the journey of the Sun through the twelve signs," writes Albert Pike,
"come the legend of the twelve labors of Hercules, and the incarnations of
Vishnu and Buddha. Hence came the legend of the murder of Khurum, repre-
sentative of the Sun, by the three Fellow-Crafts, symbols of the Winter signs,
Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, who assailed him at the three gates of Hea-
ven and slew him at the Winter Solstice. Hence the search for him by the nine

253
Fellow-Crafts, the other nine signs, his finding, burial, and resurrection." (See
Morals and Dogma.)
Other authors consider Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius as the three murder-
ers of the sun, inasmuch as Osiris was murdered by Typhon, to whom were
assigned the thirty degrees of the constellation of Scorpio. In the Christian
Mysteries also Judas signifies the Scorpion, and the thirty pieces of silver for
which he betrayed His Lord represent the number of degrees in that sign. Hav-
ing been struck by Libra (the state), Scorpio (the church), and Sagittarius (the
mob), the sun (CHiram) is secretly home through the darkness by the signs of
Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces and buried over the brow of a hill (the vernal
equinox). Capricorn has for its symbol an old man with a scythe in his hand.
This is Father Time--a wayfarer--who is symbolized in Masonry as straightening
out the ringlets of a young girl's hair. If the Weeping Virgin be considered a
symbol of Virgo, and Father Time with his scythe a symbol of Capricorn, then
the interval of ninety degrees between these two signs will be found to corres-
pond to that occupied by the three murderers. Esoterically, the urn containing
the ashes of CHiram represents the human heart. Saturn, the old man who
lives at the north pole, and brings with him to the children of men a sprig of
evergreen (the Christmas tree), is familiar to the little folks under the name of
Santa Claus, for he brings each winter the gift of a new year.
The martyred sun is discovered by Aries, a Fellow-Craftsman, and at the
vernal equinox the process of raising him begins. This is finally accomplished
by the Lion of Judah, who in ancient times occupied the position of the keys-
tone of the Royal Arch of Heaven. The precession of the equinoxes causes
various signs to play the rle of the murderers of the sun during the different
ages of the world, but the principle involved remains unchanged. Such is the
cosmic story of CHiram, the Universal Benefactor, the Fiery Architect: of the
Divine House, who carries with him to the grave that Lost Word which, when
spoken, raises all life to power and glory. According to Christian mysticism,
when the Lost Word is found it is discovered in a stable, surrounded by beasts
and marked by a star. "After the sun leaves Leo," writes Robert Hewitt Brown,
"the days begin to grow unequivocally shorter as the sun declines toward the
autumnal equinox, to be again slain by the three autumnal months, lie dead
through the three winter ones, and be raised again by the three vernal ones.
Each year the great tragedy is repeated, and the glorious resurrection takes
place." (See Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy.)
CHiram is termed dead because in the average individual the cosmic crea-
tive forces are limited in their manifestation to purely physical--and correspon-
dingly materialistic--expression. Obsessed by his belief in the reality and per-
manence of physical existence, man does not correlate the material universe
with the blank north wall of the temple. As the solar light symbolically is said to

254
die as it approaches the winter solstice, so the physical world may be termed
the winter solstice of the spirit. Reaching the winter solstice, the sun apparently
stands still for three days and then, rolling away the stone of winter, begins its
triumphal march north towards the summer solstice. The condition of ignor-
ance may be likened to the winter solstice of philosophy; spiritual understand-
ing to the summer solstice. From this point of view, initiation into the Mysteries
becomes the vernal equinox of the spirit, at which time the CHiram in man
crosses from the realm of mortality into that of eternal life. The autumnal
equinox is analogous to the mythological fall of man, at which time the human
spirit descended into the realms of Hades by being immersed in the illusion of
terrestrial existence.

Click to enlarge
DIANA OF EPHESUS.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
Crowned with a triple tower-like tiara and her form adorned with symbolic creatures
representative of her spiritual powers, Diana stood for the source of that imperishable
doctrine which, flowing from the bosom of the Great Multimammia, is the spiritual
food of those aspiring men and women who have consecrated their lives to the con-
templation of reality. As the physical body of man receives its nutriment from the
Great Earth Mother, so the spiritual nature of man is fed from the never failing foun-
tains of Truth pouring outward from the invisible worlds.

In An Essay on the Beautiful, Plotinus describes the refining effect of beauty

upon the unfolding consciousness of man. Commissioned to decorate the
Everlasting House, CHiram Abiff is the embodiment of the beautifying prin-
ciple. Beauty is essential to the natural unfoldment of the human soul. The
Mysteries held that man, in part at least, was the product of his environment.
Therefore they considered it imperative that every person be surrounded by
objects which would evoke the highest and noblest sentiments. They proved
that it was possible to produce beauty in life by surrounding life with beauty.
They discovered that symmetrical bodies were built by souls continuously in
the presence of symmetrical bodies; that noble thoughts were produced by
minds surrounded by examples of mental nobility. Conversely, if a man were
255
forced to look upon an ignoble or asymmetrical structure it would arouse with-
in him a sense of ignobility which would provoke him to commit ignoble
deeds. If an ill-proportioned building were erected in the midst of a city there
would be ill-proportioned children born in that community; and men and
women, gazing upon the asymmetrical structure, would live inharmonious lives.
Thoughtful men of antiquity realized that their great philosophers were the
natural products of the sthetic ideals of architecture, music, and art estab-
lished as the standards of the cultural systems of the time.
The substitution of the discord of the fantastic for the harmony of the beau-
tiful constitutes one of the great tragedies of every civilization. Not only were
the Savior-Gods of the ancient world beautiful, but each performed a ministry
of beauty, seeking to effect man's regeneration by arousing within him the love
of the beautiful. A renaissance of the golden age of fable can be made possible
only by the elevation of beauty to its rightful dignity as the all-pervading, idealiz-
ing quality in the religious, ethical, sociological, scientific, and political depart-
ments of life. The Dionysiac Architects were consecrated to the raising of their
Master Spirit--Cosmic Beauty--from the sepulcher of material ignorance and
selfishness by erecting buildings which were such perfect exemplars of symme-
try and majesty that they were actually magical formul by which was evoked
the spirit of the martyred Beautifier entombed within a materialistic world.
In the Masonic Mysteries the triune spirit of man (the light Delta) is symbo-
lized by the three Grand Masters of the Lodge of Jerusalem. As God is the
pervading principle of three worlds, in each of which He manifests as an active
principle, so the spirit of man, partaking of the nature of Divinity, dwells upon
three planes of being: the Supreme, the Superior, and the Inferior spheres of
the Pythagoreans. At the gate of the Inferior sphere (the underworld, or dwel-
ling place of mortal creatures) stands the guardian of Hades--the three--headed
dog Cerberus, who is analogous to the three murderers of the Hiramic legend.
According to this symbolic interpretation of the triune spirit, CHiram is the
third, or incarnating, part--the Master Builder who through all ages erects living
temples of flesh and blood as shrines of the Most High. CHiram comes forth
as a flower and is cut down; he dies at the gates of matter; he is buried in the
elements of creation, but--like Thor--he swings his mighty hammer in the fields
of space, sets the primordial atoms in motion, and establishes order out of
Chaos. As the potentiality of cosmic power within each human soul, CHiram
lies waiting for man by the elaborate ritualism of life to transmute potentiality
into divine potency. As the sense perceptions of the individual increase, how-
ever, man gains ever greater control over his various parts, and the spirit of life
within gradually attains freedom. The three murderers represent the laws of
the Inferior world--birth, growth, and decay--which ever frustrate the plan of
the Builder. To the average individual, physical birch actually signifies the

256
death of CHiram, and physical death the resurrection of CHiram. To the in-
itiate, however, the resurrection of the spiritual nature is accomplished without
the intervention of physical death.
The curious symbols found in the base of Cleopatra's Needle now standing
in Central Park, New York, were interpreted as being of first Masonic signific-
ance by S. A. Zola, 33 Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Egypt. Ma-
sons' marks and symbols are to be found on the stones of numerous public
buildings not only in England and on the Continent but also in Asia. In his
Indian Masons' Marks of the Moghul Dynasty, A. Gorham describes scores of
markings appearing on the walls of buildings such as the Taj Mahal, the Jama
Masjid, and that: famous Masonic structure, the Kutab Minar. According to
those who regard Masonry as an outgrowth of the secret society of architects
and builders which for thousands of years formed a caste of master craftsmen,
CHiram Abiff was the Tyrian Grand Master of a world-wide organization of
artisans, with headquarters in Tyre. Their philosophy consisted of incorporat-
ing into the measurements and ornamentation of temples, palaces, mauso-
leums, fortresses, and other public buildings their knowledge of the laws con-
trolling the universe. Every initiated workman was given a hieroglyphic with
which he marked the stones he trued to show to all posterity that he thus dedi-
cated to the Supreme Architect of the Universe each perfected product of his
labor. Concerning Masons' marks, Robert Freke Gould writes:
"It is very remarkable that these marks are to be found in all countries--in the
chambers of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, on the underground walls of Jerusa-
lem, in Herculaneum and Pompeii, on Roman walls and Grecian temples, in
Hindustan, Mexico, Peru, Asia Minor--as well as on the great ruins of England,
France, Germany, Scotland, Italy, Portugal and Spain." (See A Concise History
of Freemasonry.)
From this viewpoint the story of CHiram may well represent the incorpora-
tion of the divine secrets of architecture into the actual parts and dimensions of
earthly buildings. The three degrees of the Craft bury the Grand Master (the
Great Arcanum) in the actual structure they erect, after first having killed him
with the builders' tools, by reducing the dimensionless Spirit of Cosmic Beauty
to the limitations of concrete form. These abstract ideals of architecture can be
resurrected, however, by the Master Mason who, by meditating upon the struc-
ture, releases therefrom the divine principles of architectonic philosophy in-
corporated or buried within it. Thus the physical building is actually the tomb
or embodiment of the Creative Ideal of which its material dimensions are but
the shadow.
Moreover, the Hiramic legend may be considered to embody the vicissi-
tudes of philosophy itself. As institutions for the dissemination of ethical cul-
ture, the pagan Mysteries were the architects of civilization. Their power and

257
dignity were personified in CHiram Abiff--the Master Builder--but they even-
tually fell a victim to the onslaughts of that recurrent trio of state, church, and
mob. They were desecrated by the state, jealous of their wealth and power; by
the early church, fearful of their wisdom; and by the rabble or soldiery incited
by both state and church. As CHiram when raised from his grave whispers the
Master Mason's Word which was lost through his untimely death, so according
to the tenets of philosophy the reestablishment or resurrection of the ancient
Mysteries will result in the rediscovery of that secret teaching without which
civilization must continue in a state of spiritual confusion and uncertainty.
When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church go-
verns, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by
fear. Before men can live together in harmony and understanding, ignorance
must be transmuted into wisdom, superstition into an illumined faith, and fear
into love. Despite statements to the contrary, Masonry is a religion seeking to
unite God and man by elevating its initiates to that level of consciousness
whereon they can behold with clarified vision the workings of the Great Archi-
tect of the Universe. From age to age the vision of a perfect civilization is pre-
served as the ideal for mankind. In the midst of that civilization shall stand a
mighty university wherein both the sacred and secular sciences concerning the
mysteries of life will be freely taught to all who will assume the philosophic life.
Here creed and dogma will have no place; the superficial will be removed and
only the essential be preserved. The world will be ruled by its most illumined
minds, and each will occupy the position for which he is most admirably fitted.
The great university will be divided into grades, admission to which will be
through preliminary tests or initiations. Here mankind will be instructed in the
most sacred, the most secret, and the most enduring of all Mysteries--
Symbolism. Here the initiate will be taught that every visible object, every ab-
stract thought, every emotional reaction is but the symbol of an eternal prin-
ciple. Here mankind will learn that CHiram (Truth) lies buried in every atom
of Kosmos; that every form is a symbol and every symbol the tomb of an eter-
nal verity. Through education--spiritual, mental, moral, and physical--man will
learn to release living truths from their lifeless coverings. The perfect govern-
ment of the earth must be patterned eventually after that divine government by
which the universe is ordered. In that day when perfect order is reestablished,
with peace universal and good triumphant, men will no longer seek for happi-
ness, for they shall find it welling up within themselves. Dead hopes, dead aspi-
rations, dead virtues shall rise from their graves, and the Spirit of Beauty and
Goodness repeatedly slain by ignorant men shall again be the Master of Work.
Then shall sages sit upon the seats of the mighty and the gods walk with men.

258
 The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color

HARMONY is a state recognized by great philosophers as the immediate pre-

requisite of beauty. A compound is termed beautiful only when its parts are in
harmonious combination. The world is called beautiful and its Creator is des-
ignated the Good because good perforce must act in conformity with its own
nature; and good acting according to its own nature is harmony, because the
good which it accomplishes is harmonious with the good which it is. Beauty,
therefore, is harmony manifesting its own intrinsic nature in the world of form.
The universe is made up of successive gradations of good, these gradations
ascending from matter (which is the least degree of good) to spirit (which is the
greatest degree of good). In man, his superior nature is the summum bonum.
It therefore follows that his highest nature most readily cognizes good because
the good external to him in the world is in harmonic ratio with the good
present in his soul. What man terms evil is therefore, in common with matter,
merely the least degree of its own opposite. The least degree of good presup-
poses likewise the least degree of harmony and beauty. Thus deformity (evil) is
really the least harmonious combination of elements naturally harmonic as
individual units. Deformity is unnatural, for, the sum of all things being the
Good, it is natural that all things should partake of the Good and be arranged
in combinations that are harmonious. Harmony is the manifesting expression
of the Will of the eternal Good.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC

It is highly probable that the Greek initiates gained their knowledge of the phi-
losophic and therapeutic aspects of music from the Egyptians, who, in turn,
considered Hermes the founder of the art. According to one legend, this god
constructed the first lyre by stretching strings across the concavity of a turtle
shell. Both Isis and Osiris were patrons of music and poetry. Plato, in describ-
ing the antiquity of these arts among the Egyptians, declared that songs and
poetry had existed in Egypt for at least ten thousand years, and that these were
of such an exalted and inspiring nature that only gods or godlike men could
have composed them. In the Mysteries the lyre was regarded as the secret
symbol of the human constitution, the body of the instrument representing the
physical form, the strings the nerves, and the musician the spirit. Playing upon
the nerves, the spirit thus created the harmonies of normal functioning, which,
259
however, became discords if the nature of man were defiled.
While the early Chinese, Hindus, Persians, Egyptians, Israelites, and Greeks
employed both vocal and instrumental music in their religious ceremonials,
also to complement their poetry and drama, it remained for Pythagoras to raise
the art to its true dignity by demonstrating its mathematical foundation. Al-
though it is said that he himself was not a musician, Pythagoras is now generally
credited with the discovery of the diatonic scale. Having first learned the divine
theory of music from the priests of the various Mysteries into which he had
been accepted, Pythagoras pondered for several years upon the laws governing
consonance and dissonance. How he actually solved the problem is unknown,
but the following explanation has been invented.
One day while meditating upon the problem of harmony, Pythagoras
chanced to pass a brazier's shop where workmen were pounding out a piece of
metal upon an anvil. By noting the variances in pitch between the sounds made
by large hammers and those made by smaller implements, and carefully esti-
mating the harmonies and discords resulting from combinations of these
sounds, he gained his first clue to the musical intervals of the diatonic scale. He
entered the shop, and after carefully examining the tools and making mental
note of their weights, returned to his own house and constructed an arm of
wood so that it: extended out from the wall of his room. At regular intervals
along this arm he attached four cords, all of like composition, size, and weight.
To the first of these he attached a twelve-pound weight, to the second a nine-
pound weight, to the third an eight-pound weight, and to the fourth a six-pound
weight. These different weights corresponded to the sizes of the braziers'
hammers.
Pythagoras thereupon discovered that the first and fourth strings when
sounded together produced the harmonic interval of the octave, for doubling
the weight had the same effect as halving the string. The tension of the first
string being twice that of the fourth string, their ratio was said to be 2:1, or
duple. By similar experimentation he ascertained that the first and third string
produced the harmony of the diapente, or the interval of the fifth. The tension
of the first string being half again as much as that of the third string, their ratio
was said to be 3:2, or sesquialter. Likewise the second and fourth strings, hav-
ing the same ratio as the first and third strings, yielded a diapente harmony.
Continuing his investigation, Pythagoras discovered that the first and second
strings produced the harmony of the diatessaron, or the interval of the third;
and the tension of the first string being a third greater than that of the second
string, their ratio was said to be 4:3, or sesquitercian. The third and fourth
strings, having the same ratio as the first and second strings, produced another
harmony of the diatessaron. According to Iamblichus, the second and third
strings had the ratio of 8:9, or epogdoan.

260
 The key to harmonic ratios is hidden in the famous Pythagorean tetractys, or
pyramid of dots. The tetractys is made up of the first four numbers--1, 2, 3,
and 4--which in their proportions reveal the intervals of the octave, the di-
apente, and the diatessaron. While the law of harmonic intervals as set forth
above is true, it has been subsequently proved that hammers striking metal in
the manner described will not produce the various tones ascribed to them. In
all probability, therefore, Pythagoras actually worked out his theory of harmony
from the monochord--a contrivance consisting of a single string stretched be-
tween two pegs and supplied with movable frets.

Click to enlarge
THE INTERVALS AND HARMONIES OF THE SPHERES.
From Stanley's The History of Philosophy.
In the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres, the interval between the earth
and the sphere of the fixed stars was considered to be a diapason--the most perfect
harmonic interval. The allowing arrangement is most generally accepted for the musi-
cal intervals of the planets between the earth and the sphere of the fixed stars: From
the sphere of the earth to the sphere of the moon; one tone; from the sphere of the
moon to that of Mercury, one half-tone; from Mercury to Venus, one-half; from Venus
to the sun, one and one-half tones; from the sun to Mars, one tone; from Mars to Jupi-
ter, one-half tone; from Jupiter to Saturn, one-half tone; from Saturn to the fixed stars,
one-half tone. The sum of these intervals equals the six whole tones of the octave.

Click to enlarge
THE CONSONANCES OF THE MUNDANE MONOCHORD.
From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.
This diagrammatic sector represents the major gradations of energy and substance
between elemental earth and absolute unconditioned force. Beginning with the supe-
rior, the fifteen graduated spheres descend in the following order: Limitless and Eter-
nal Life; the superior, the middle, and the inferior Empyrean; the seven planets; and
261
the four elements. Energy is symbolized by Fludd as a pyramid with its base upon the
concave surface of the superior Empyrean, and substance as another Pyramid with its
base upon the convex surface of the sphere (not planet) of earth. These pyramids
demonstrate the relative proportions of energy and substance entering into the compo-
sition of the fifteen planes of being. It will be noted that the ascending pyramid of
substance touches but does not pierce the fifteenth sphere--that of Limitless and Eter-
nal Life. Likewise, the descending pyramid of energy touches but does not pierce the
first sphere--the grossest condition of substance. The plane of the sun is denominated
the sphere of equality, for here neither energy nor substance predominate. The mun-
dane monochord consists of a hypothetical string stretched from the base of the pyra-
mid of energy to the base of the pyramid of substance.

To Pythagoras music was one of the dependencies of the divine science of

mathematics, and its harmonies were inflexibly controlled by mathematical
proportions. The Pythagoreans averred that mathematics demonstrated the
exact method by which the good established and maintained its universe.
Number therefore preceded harmony, since it was the immutable law that go-
verns all harmonic proportions. After discovering these harmonic ratios, Py-
thagoras gradually initiated his disciples into this, the supreme arcanum of his
Mysteries. He divided the multitudinous parts of creation into a vast number of
planes or spheres, to each of which he assigned a tone, a harmonic interval, a
number, a name, a color, and a form. He then proceeded to prove the accura-
cy of his deductions by demonstrating them upon the different planes of intel-
ligence and substance ranging from the most abstract logical premise to the
most concrete geometrical solid. From the common agreement of these diver-
sified methods of proof he established the indisputable existence of certain
natural laws.
Having once established music as an exact science, Pythagoras applied his
newly found law of harmonic intervals to all the phenomena of Nature, even
going so far as to demonstrate the harmonic relationship of the planets, con-
stellations, and elements to each other. A notable example of modern corrobo-
ration of ancient philosophical reaching is that of the progression of the ele-
ments according to harmonic ratios. While making a list of the elements in the
ascending order of their atomic weights, John A. Newlands discovered at every
eighth element a distinct repetition of properties. This discovery is known as
the law of octaves in modern chemistry.
Since they held that harmony must be determined not by the sense percep-
tions but by reason and mathematics, the Pythagoreans called themselves Ca-
nonics, as distinguished from musicians of the Harmonic School, who asserted
taste and instinct to be the true normative principles of harmony. Recognizing,
however, the profound effect: of music upon the senses and emotions, Pytha-
262
goras did not hesitate to influence the mind and body with what he termed
"musical medicine."
Pythagoras evinced such a marked preference for stringed instruments that
he even went so far as to warn his disciples against allowing their ears to be
defiled by the sounds of flutes or cymbals. He further declared that the soul
could be purified from its irrational influences by solemn songs sung to the
accompaniment of the lyre. In his investigation of the therapeutic value of
harmonics, Pythagoras discovered that the seven modes--or keys--of the Greek
system of music had the power to incite or allay the various emotions. It is
related that while observing the stars one night he encountered a young man
befuddled with strong drink and mad with jealousy who was piling faggots
about his mistress' door with the intention of burning the house. The frenzy of
the youth was accentuated by a flutist a short distance away who was playing a
tune in the stirring Phrygian mode. Pythagoras induced the musician to change
his air to the slow, and rhythmic Spondaic mode, whereupon the intoxicated
youth immediately became composed and, gathering up his bundles of wood,
returned quietly to his own home.
There is also an account of how Empedocles, a disciple of Pythagoras, by
quickly changing the mode of a musical composition he was playing, saved the
life of his host, Anchitus, when the latter was threatened with death by the
sword of one whose father he had condemned to public execution. It is also
known that Esculapius, the Greek physician, cured sciatica and other diseases
of the nerves by blowing a loud trumpet in the presence of the patient.
Pythagoras cured many ailments of the spirit, soul, and body by having certain
specially prepared musical compositions played in the presence of the sufferer
or by personally reciting short selections from such early poets as Hesiod and
Homer. In his university at Crotona it was customary for the Pythagoreans to
open and to close each day with songs--those in the morning calculated to clear
the mind from sleep and inspire it to the activities of the coming day; those in
the evening of a mode soothing, relaxing, and conducive to rest. At the vernal
equinox, Pythagoras caused his disciples to gather in a circle around one of
their number who led them in song and played their accompaniment upon a
lyre.
The therapeutic music of Pythagoras is described by Iamblichus thus: "And
there are certain melodies devised as remedies against the passions of the soul,
and also against despondency and lamentation, which Pythagoras invented as
things that afford the greatest assistance in these maladies. And again, he em-
ployed other melodies against rage and anger, and against every aberration of
the soul. There is also another kind of modulation invented as a remedy
against desires." (See The Life of Pythagoras.)
It is probable that the Pythagoreans recognized a connection between the

263
seven Greek modes and the planets. As an example, Pliny declares that Saturn
moves in the Dorian mode and Jupiter in the Phrygian mode. It is also appar-
ent that the temperaments are keyed to the various modes, and the passions
likewise. Thus, anger--which is a fiery passion--may be accentuated by a fiery
mode or its power neutralized by a watery mode.
The far-reaching effect exercised by music upon the culture of the Greeks is
thus summed up by Emil Nauman: "Plato depreciated the notion that music
was intended solely to create cheerful and agreeable emotions, maintaining
rather that it should inculcate a love of all that is noble, and hatred of all that is
mean, and that nothing could more strongly influence man's innermost feelings
than melody and rhythm. Firmly convinced of this, he agreed with Damon of
Athens, the musical instructor of Socrates, that the introduction of a new and
presumably enervating scale would endanger the future of a whole nation, and
that it was not possible to alter a key without shaking the very foundations of
the State. Plato affirmed that music which ennobled the mind was of a far
higher kind than that which merely appealed to the senses, and he strongly
insisted that it was the paramount duty of the Legislature to suppress all music
of an effeminate and lascivious character, and to encourage only s that which
was pure and dignified; that bold and stirring melodies were for men, gentle
and soothing ones for women. From this it is evident that music played a con-
siderable part in the education of the Greek youth. The greatest care was also
to be taken in the selection of instrumental music, because the absence of
words rendered its signification doubtful, and it was difficult to foresee whether
it would exercise upon the people a benign or baneful influence. Popular taste,
being always tickled by sensuous and meretricious effects, was to be treated
with deserved contempt. (See The History of Music.)
Even today martial music is used with telling effect in times of war, and reli-
gious music, while no longer developed in accordance with the ancient theory,
still profoundly influences the emotions of the laity.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

The most sublime but least known of all the Pythagorean speculations was that
of sidereal harmonics. It was said that of all men only Pythagoras heard the
music of the spheres. Apparently the Chaldeans were the first people to con-
ceive of the heavenly bodies joining in a cosmic chant as they moved in stately
manner across the sky. Job describes a time "when the stars of the morning
sang together," and in The Merchant of Venice the author of the Shakesperian
plays
264
Click to enlarge
THE MUNDANE MONOCHORD WITH ITS PROPORTIONS AND INTERVALS.
From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.
In this chart is set forth a summary of Fludd's theory of universal music. The interval
between the element of earth and the highest heaven is considered as a double octave,
thus showing the two extremes of existence to be in disdiapason harmony. It is signifies
that the highest heaven, the sun, and the earth have the same time, the difference being
in pitch. The sun is the lower octave of the highest heaven and the earth the lower
octave of the sun. The lower octave ( to G) comprises that part of the universe in
which substance predominate over energy. Its harmonies, therefore, are more gross
than those of the higher octave (G to g) wherein energy predominates over substance.
"If struck in the more spiritual part," writes Fludd, "the monochord will give eternal life;
if in the more material part, transitory life." It will be noted that certain elements, pla-
nets, and celestial spheres sustain a harmonic ratio to each other, Fludd advanced this
as a key to the sympathies and antipathies existing between the various departments of
Nature.

writes: "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st but in his motion like
an angel sings." So little remains, however, of the Pythagorean system of celes-
tial music that it is only possible to approximate his actual theory.
Pythagoras conceived the universe to be an immense monochord, with its
single string connected at its upper end to absolute spirit and at its lower end to
absolute matter--in other words, a cord stretched between heaven and earth.
Counting inward from the circumference of the heavens, Pythagoras, according
to some authorities, divided the universe into nine parts; according to others,
into twelve parts. The twelvefold system was as follows: The first division was
called the empyrean, or the sphere of the fixed stars, and was the dwelling
place of the immortals. The second to twelfth divisions were (in order) the
spheres of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, Mercury, and the moon, and
fire, air, water, and earth. This arrangement of the seven planets (the sun and
moon being regarded as planets in the old astronomy) is identical with the can-
dlestick symbolism of the Jews--the sun in the center as the main stem with

265
three planets on either side of it.
The names given by the Pythagoreans to the various notes of the diatonic
scale were, according to Macrobius, derived from an estimation of the velocity
and magnitude of the planetary bodies. Each of these gigantic spheres as it
rushed endlessly through space was believed to sound a certain tone caused by
its continuous displacement of the thereal diffusion. As these tones were a
manifestation of divine order and motion, it must necessarily follow that they
partook of the harmony of their own source. "The assertion that the planets in
their revolutions round the earth uttered certain sounds differing according to
their respective 'magnitude, celerity and local distance,' was commonly made by
the Greeks. Thus Saturn, the farthest planet, was said to give the gravest note,
while the Moon, which is the nearest, gave the sharpest. 'These sounds of the
seven planets, and the sphere of the fixed stars, together with that above us
[Antichthon], are the nine Muses, and their joint symphony is called Mnemo-
syne.'" (See The Canon.)This quotation contains an obscure reference to the
ninefold division of the universe previously mentioned.
The Greek initiates also recognized a fundamental relationship between the
individual heavens or spheres of the seven planets, and the seven sacred vo-
wels. The first heaven uttered the sound of the sacred vowel (Alpha); the
second heaven, the sacred vowel (Epsilon); the third, (Eta); the fourth,
(Iota); the fifth, (Omicron); the sixth, (Upsilon); and the seventh heaven,
the sacred vowel (Omega). When these seven heavens sing together they
produce a perfect harmony which ascends as an everlasting praise to the throne
of the Creator. (See Irenus' Against Heresies.) Although not so stated, it is
probable that the planetary heavens are to be considered as ascending in the
Pythagorean order, beginning with the sphere of the moon, which would be the
first heaven.
Many early instruments had seven Strings, and it is generally conceded that
Pythagoras was the one who added the eighth string to the lyre of Terpander.
The seven strings were always related both to their correspondences in the
human body and to the planets. The names of God were also conceived to be
formed from combinations of the seven planetary harmonies. The Egyptians
confined their sacred songs to the seven primary sounds, forbidding any others
to be uttered in their temples. One of their hymns contained the following
invocation: "The seven sounding tones praise Thee, the Great God, the cease-
less working Father of the whole universe." In another the Deity describes
Himself thus: "I am the great indestructible lyre of the whole world, attuning
the songs of the heavens. (See Nauman's History of Music.)
The Pythagoreans believed that everything which existed had a voice and
that all creatures were eternally singing the praise of the Creator. Man fails to
hear these divine melodies because his soul is enmeshed in the illusion of ma-
266
terial existence. When he liberates himself from the bondage of the lower
world with its sense limitations, the music of the spheres will again be audible
as it was in the Golden Age. Harmony recognizes harmony, and when the hu-
man soul regains its true estate it will not only hear the celestial choir but also
join with it in an everlasting anthem of praise to that Eternal Good controlling
the infinite number of parts and conditions of Being.
The Greek Mysteries included in their doctrines a magnificent concept of
the relationship existing between music and form. The elements of architec-
ture, for example, were considered as comparable to musical modes and notes,
or as having a musical counterpart. Consequently when a building was erected
in which a number of these elements were combined, the structure was then
likened to a musical chord, which was harmonic only when it fully satisfied the
mathematical requirements of harmonic intervals. The realization of this anal-
ogy between sound and form led Goethe to declare that "architecture is crystal-
lized music."
In constructing their temples of initiation, the early priests frequently dem-
onstrated their superior knowledge of the principles underlying the phenome-
na known as vibration. A considerable part of the Mystery rituals consisted of
invocations and intonements, for which purpose special sound chambers were
constructed. A word whispered in one of these apartments was so intensified
that the reverberations made the entire building sway and be filled with a dea-
fening roar. The very wood and stone used in the erection of these sacred
buildings eventually became so thoroughly permeated with the sound vibra-
tions of the religious ceremonies that when struck they would reproduce the
same tones thus repeatedly impressed into their substances by the rituals.
Every element in Nature has its individual keynote. If these elements are com-
bined in a composite structure the result is a chord that, if sounded, will disin-
tegrate the compound into its integral parts. Likewise each individual has a
keynote that, if sounded, will destroy him. The allegory of the walls of Jericho
falling when the trumpets of Israel were sounded is undoubtedly intended to
set forth the arcane significance of individual keynote or vibration.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COLOR

"Light," writes Edwin D. Babbitt, "reveals the glories of the external world and
yet is the most glorious of them all. It gives beauty, reveals beauty and is itself
most beautiful. It is the analyzer, the truth-teller and the exposer of shams, for
it shows things as they are. Its infinite streams measure off the universe and
flow into our telescopes from stars which are quintillions of miles distant. On
267
the other hand it descends to objects inconceivably small, and reveals through
the microscope objects fifty millions of times less than can be seen by the
naked eye. Like all other fine forces, its movement is wonderfully soft, yet pe-
netrating and powerful. Without its vivifying influence, vegetable, animal, and
human life must immediately perish from the earth, and general ruin take
place. We shall do well, then, to consider this potential and beautiful principle
of light and its component colors, for the more deeply we penetrate into its
inner laws, the more will it present itself as a marvelous storehouse of power to
vitalize, heal, refine, and delight mankind." (See The Principles of Light and
Color.)
Since light is the basic physical manifestation of life, bathing all creation in its
radiance, it is highly important to realize, in part at least, the subtle nature of
this divine substance. That which is called light is actually a rate of vibration
causing certain reactions upon the optic nerve. Few realize how they are walled
in by the limitations of the sense perceptions. Not only is there a great deal
more to light than anyone has ever seen but there are also unknown forms of
light which no optical equipment will ever register. There are unnumbered
colors which cannot be seen, as well as sounds which cannot be heard, odors
which cannot be smelt, flavors which cannot be tasted, and substances which
cannot be felt. Man is thus surrounded by a supersensible universe of which he
knows nothing because the centers of sense perception within himself have not
been developed sufficiently to respond to the subtler rates of vibration of which
that universe is composed.

Click to enlarge
THE THEORY OF ELEMENTAL MUSIC.
From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.
In this diagram two interpenetrating pyramids are again employed, one of which
represents fire and the other earth. It is demonstrated according to the law of elemen-
tal harmony that fire does not enter into the composition of earth nor earth into the
composition of fire. The figures on the chart disclose the harmonic relationships exist-
ing between the four primary elements according to both Fludd and the Pythagoreans.
268
Earth consists of four parts of its own nature; water of three parts of earth and one part
of fire. The sphere of equality is a hypothetical point where there is an equilibrium of
two parts of earth and two parts of fire. Air is composed of three parts of fire and one
part of earth; fire, of four parts of its own nature. Thus earth and water bear to each
other the ratio of 4 to 3, or the diatessaron harmony, and water and the sphere of
equality the ratio of 3 to 2, or the diapente harmony. Fire and air also bear to each
other the ratio of 4 to 3, or the diatessaron harmony, and air and the sphere of equality
the ratio of 3 to 2, or the diapente harmony. As the sum of a diatessaron and a di-
apente equals a diapason, or octave, it is evident that both the sphere of fire and the
sphere of earth are in diapason harmony with the sphere of equality, and also that fire
and earth are in disdiapason harmony with each other.

Among both civilized and savage peoples color has been accepted as a natural
language in which to couch their religious and philosophical doctrines. The
ancient city of Ecbatana as described by Herodotus, its seven walls colored
according to the seven planets, revealed the knowledge of this subject pos-
sessed by the Persian Magi. The famous zikkurat or astronomical tower of the
god Nebo at Borsippa ascended in seven great steps or stages, each step being
painted in the key color of one of the planetary bodies. (See Lenormant's
Chaldean Magic.) It is thus evident that the Babylonians were familiar with the
concept of the spectrum in its relation to the seven Creative Gods or Powers.
In India, one of the Mogul emperors caused a fountain to be made with seven
levels. The water pouring down the sides through specially arranged channels
changed color as it descended, passing sequentially through all shades of the
spectrum. In Tibet, color is employed by the native artists to express various
moods. L. Austine Waddell, writing of Northern Buddhist art, notes that in
Tibetan mythology "White and yellow complexions usually typify mild moods,
while the red, blue, and black belong to fierce forms, though sometimes light
blue, as indicating the sky, means merely celestial. Generally the gods are pic-
tured white, goblins red, and devils black, like their European relative." (See
The Buddhism of Tibet.)
In Meno, Plato, speaking through Socrates, describes color as "an effluence
of form, commensurate with sight, and sensible." In Thetetus he discourses
more at length on the subject thus: "Let us carry out the principle which has
just been affirmed, that nothing is self-existent, and then we shall see that every
color, white, black, and every other color, arises out of the eye meeting the
appropriate motion, and that what we term the substance of each color is nei-
ther the active nor the passive element, but something which passes between
them, and is peculiar to each percipient; are you certain that the several colors
appear to every animal--say a dog--as they appear to you?"
In the Pythagorean tetractys--the supreme symbol of universal forces and
269
processes--are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music.
The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead
containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the
colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones
are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish
the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three
powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The high-
er group--that of three--becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe;
the lower group--that of four--manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior
world.
In the Mysteries the seven Logi, or Creative Lords, are shown as streams of
force issuing from the mouth of the Eternal One. This signifies the spectrum
being extracted from the white light of the Supreme Deity. The seven Creators,
or Fabricators, of the inferior spheres were called by the Jews the Elohim. By
the Egyptians they were referred to as the Builders (sometimes as the Gover-
nors) and are depicted with great knives in their hands with which they carved
the universe from its primordial substance. Worship of the planets is based
upon their acceptation as the cosmic embodiments of the seven creative
attributes of God. The Lords of the planets were described as dwelling within
the body of the sun, for the true nature of the sun, being analogous to the white
light, contains the seeds of all the tone and color potencies which it manifests.
There are numerous arbitrary arrangements setting forth the mutual rela-
tionships of the planets, the colors, and the musical notes. The most satisfacto-
ry system is that based upon the law of the octave. The sense of hearing has a
much wider scope than that of sight, for whereas the ear can register from nine
to eleven octaves of sound the eye is restricted to the cognition of but seven
fundamental color tones, or one tone short of the octave. Red, when posited as
the lowest color tone in the scale of chromatics, thus corresponds to do, the
first note of the musical scale. Continuing the analogy, orange corresponds to
re, yellow to mi, green to fa, blue to sol, indigo to la, and violet to si (ti). The
eighth color tone necessary to complete the scale should be the higher octave
of red, the first color tone. The accuracy of the above arrangement is attested
by two striking facts: (1) the three fundamental notes of the musical scale--the
first, the third, and the fifth--correspond with the three primary colors--red,
yellow, and blue; (2) the seventh, and least perfect, note of the musical scale
corresponds with purple, the least perfect tone of the color scale.
In The Principles of Light and Color, Edwin D. Babbitt confirms the cor-
respondence of the color and musical scales: "As C is at the bottom of the mus-
ical scale and made with the coarsest waves of air, so is red at the bottom of the
chromatic scale and made with the coarsest waves of luminous ether. As the
musical note B [the seventh note of the scale] requires 45 vibrations of air

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every time the note C at the lower end of the scale requires 24, or but little
over half as many, so does extreme violet require about 300 trillions of vibra-
tions of ether in a second, while extreme red requires only about 450 trillions,
which also are but little more than half as many. When one musical octave is
finished another one commences and progresses with just twice as many vibra-
tions as were used in the first octave, and so the same notes are repeated on a
finer scale. In the same way when the scale of colors visible to the ordinary eye
is completed in the violet, another octave of finer invisible colors, with just
twice as many vibrations, will commence and progress on precisely the same
law."
When the colors are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac, they are ar-
ranged as the spokes of a wheel. To Aries is assigned pure red; to Taurus, red-
orange; to Gemini, pure orange; to Cancer, orange-yellow; to Leo, pure yellow;
to Virgo, yellow-green; to Libra, pure green; to Scorpio, green-blue; to Sagitta-
rius, pure blue; to Capricorn, blue-violet; to Aquarius, pure violet; and to
Pisces, violet-red.
In expounding the Eastern system of esoteric philosophy, H. P, Blavatsky
relates the colors to the septenary constitution of man and the seven states of
matter as follows:

COLOR PRINCIPLES OF MAN

Violet Chaya, or Etheric Double
Indigo Higher Manas, or Spiritual Intelligence
Blue Auric Envelope
Green Lower Manas, or Animal Soul
Yellow Buddhi, or Spiritual Soul
Orange Prana, or Life Principle
Red Kama Rupa, or Seat of Animal Life

This arrangement of the colors of the spectrum and the musical notes of the
octave necessitates a different grouping of the planets in order to preserve their
proper tone and color analogies. Thus do becomes Mars; re, the sun; mi, Mer-
cury; fa, Saturn; sol, Jupiter; la, Venus; si (ti) the moon. (See The E. S. Instruc-
tions.)

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Click to enlarge
THE FOUR ELEMENTS AND THEIR CONSONANTAL INTERVALS.
From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.
In this diagram Fludd has divided each of the four Primary elements into three subdi-
visions. The first division of each element is the grossest, partaking somewhat of the
substance directly inferior to itself (except in the case of the earth, which has no state
inferior to itself). The second division consists of the element in its relatively pure
state, while the third division is that condition wherein the element partakes somewhat
of the substance immediately superior to itself. For example the lowest division of the
element of water is sedimentary, as it contains earth substance in solution; the second
division represents water in its most common state--salty--as in the case of the ocean;
and the third division is water in its purest state--free from salt. The harmonic interval
assigned to the lowest division of each element is one tone, to the central division also
a tone, but to the higher division a half-tone because it partakes of the division imme-
diately above it. Fludd emphasizes the fact that as the elements ascend in series of two
and a half tones, the diatessaron is the dominating harmonic interval of the elements.

272
 Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and Birds
Part I

THE creatures inhabiting the water, air, and earth were held in veneration by
all races of antiquity. Realizing that visible bodies are only symbols of invisible
forces, the ancients worshiped the Divine Power through the lower kingdoms
of Nature, because those less evolved and more simply constituted creatures
responded most readily to the creative impulses of the gods. The sages of old
studied living things to a point of realization that God is most perfectly unders-
tood through a knowledge of His supreme handiwork--animate and inanimate
Nature.
Every existing creature manifests some aspect of the intelligence or power of
the Eternal One, who can never be known save through a study and apprecia-
tion of His numbered but inconceivable parts. When a creature is chosen,
therefore, to symbolize to the concrete human mind some concealed abstract
principle it is because its characteristics demonstrate this invisible principle in
visible action. Fishes, insects, animals, reptiles, and birds appear in the reli-
gious symbolism of nearly all nations, because the forms and habits of these
creatures and the media in which they exist closely relate them to the various
generative and germinative powers of Nature, which were considered as prima-
facie evidence of divine omnipresence.
The early philosophers and scientists, realizing that all life has its origin in
water, chose the fish as the symbol of the life germ. The fact that fishes are
most prolific makes the simile still more apt. While the early priests may not
have possessed the instruments necessary to analyze the spermatozoon, they
concluded by deduction that it resembled a fish.
were sacred to the Greeks and Romans, being connected with the worship
of Aphrodite (Venus). An interesting survival of pagan ritualism is found in the
custom of eating fish on Friday. Freya, in whose honor the day was named, was
the Scandinavian Venus, and this day was sacred among many nations to the
goddess of beauty and fecundity. This analogy further links the fish with the
procreative mystery. Friday is also sacred to the followers of the Prophet Mo-
hammed.
The word nun means both fish and growth, and as Inman says: "The Jews
were led to victory by the Son of the Fish whose other names were Joshua and
Jesus (the Savior). Nun is still the name of a female devotee" of the Christian
faith. Among early Christians three fishes were used to symbolize the Trinity,
and the fish is also one of the eight sacred symbols of the great Buddha. It is

273
also significant that the dolphin should be sacred to both Apollo (the Solar
Savior) and Neptune. It was believed that this fish carried shipwrecked sailors
to heaven on its back. The dolphin was accepted by the early Christians as an
emblem of Christ, because the pagans had viewed this beautiful creature as a
friend and benefactor of man. The heir to the throne of France, the Dauphin,
may have secured his title from this ancient pagan symbol of the divine preser-
vative power. The first advocates of Christianity likened converts to fishes, who
at the time of baptism "returned again into the sea of Christ."
Primitive peoples believed the sea and land were inhabited by strange crea-
tures, and early books on zoology contain curious illustrations of composite
beasts, reptiles, and fishes, which did not exist at the time the medival authors
compiled these voluminous books. In the ancient initiatory rituals of the Per-
sian, Greek, and Egyptian Mysteries the priests disguised themselves as com-
posite creatures, thereby symbolizing different aspects of human conscious-
ness. They used birds and reptiles as emblems of their various deities, often
creating forms of grotesque appearance and assigning to them imaginary traits,
habits, and places of domicile, all of which were symbolic of certain spiritual
and transcendental truths thus concealed from the profane. The phnix made
its nest of incense and flames. The unicorn had the body of a horse, the feet of
an elephant, and the tail of a wild boar. The upper half of the centaur's body
was human and the lower half equine. The pelican of the Hermetists fed its
young from its own breast, and to this bird were assigned other mysterious
attributes which could have been true only allegorically.
Though regarded by many writers of the Middle Ages as actual living crea-
tures, none of these--the pelican excepted--ever existed outside the symbolism
of the Mysteries. Possibly they originated in rumors of animals then little
known. In the temple, however, they became a reality, for there they signified
the manifold characteristics of man's nature. The mantichora had certain
points in common with the hyena; the unicorn may have been the single-
horned rhinoceros. To the student of the secret wisdom these composite ani-
mals. and birds simply represent various forces working in the invisible worlds.
This is a point which nearly all writers on the subject of medival monsters
seem to have overlooked. (See Vlyssis Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia,
1642, and Physica Curiosa, by P. Gaspare Schotto, 1697.)
There are also legends to the effect that long before the appearance of hu-
man beings there existed a race or species of composite creatures which was
destroyed by the gods. The temples of antiquity preserved their own historical
records and possessed information concerning the prehistoric world that has
never been revealed to the uninitiated. According to these records, the human
race evolved from a species of creature that partook somewhat of the nature of
an amphibian, for at that time primitive man had the gills of a fish and was

274
partly covered with scales. To a limited degree, the human embryo demon-
strates the possibility of such a condition. As a result of the theory of man's
origin in water, the fish was looked upon as the progenitor of the human fami-
ly. This gave rise to the ichthyolatry of the Chaldeans, Phnicians, and Brah-
mins. The American Indians believe that the waters of lakes, rivers, and oceans
are inhabited by a mysterious people, the "Water Indians."
The fish has been used as an emblem of damnation; but among the Chinese
it typified contentment and good fortune, and fishes appear on many of their
coins. When Typhon, or Set, the Egyptian evil genius, had divided the body of
the god Osiris into fourteen parts, he cast one part into the river Nile, where,
according to Plutarch, it was devoured by three fishes--the lepidotus (probably
the lepidosiren), the phagrus, and the oxyrynchus (a form of pike). For this
reason the Egyptians would not eat the flesh of these fishes, believing that to do
so would be to devour the body of their god. When used as a symbol of evil,
the fish represented the earth (man's lower nature) and the tomb (the sepulcher
of the Mysteries). Thus was Jonah three days in the belly of the "great fish," as
Christ was three days in the tomb.
Several early church fathers believed that the "whale" which swallowed Jonah
was the symbol of God the Father, who, when the hapless prophet was thrown
overboard, accepted Jonah into His own nature until a place of safety was
reached. The story of Jonah is really a legend of initiation into the Mysteries,
and the "great fish" represents the darkness of ignorance which engulfs man
when he is thrown over the side of the ship (is born) into the sea (life). The
custom of building ships in the form of fishes or birds, common in ancient
times, could give rise to the story, and mayhap Jonah was merely picked up by
another vessel and carried into port, the pattern of the ship causing it to be
called a "great fish." ("Veritatis simplex oratio est!") More probably the "whale"
of Jonah is based upon the pagan mythological creature, hippocampus, part
horse and part dolphin, for the early Christian statues and carvings show the
composite creature and not a true whale.

275
Click to enlarge
THE FIRST INCARNATION, OR MATSYA AVATAR, OF VISHNU.
From Picart's Religious Ceremonials.
The fish has often been associated with the World Saviors. Vishnu, the Hindu Re-
deemer, who takes upon himself ten forms for the redemption of the universe, was
expelled from the mouth of a fish in his first incarnation. Isis, while nursing the infant
Horus, is often shown with a fish on her headdress. Oannes, the Chaldean Savior
(borrowed from the Brahmins), is depicted with the head and body of a fish, from
which his human form protrudes at various points. Jesus was often symbolized by a
fish. He told His disciples that they should became "fishers of men." The sign of the
fish was also the first monogram of the Christians. The mysterious Greek name of
Jesus, , means "a fish." The fish was accepted as a symbol of the Christ by a num-
ber of early canonized church fathers. St. Augustine likened the Christ to a fish that
had been broiled, and it was also pointed out that the flesh of that Fish was the food of
righteous and holy men.

It is reasonable to suppose that the mysterious sea serpents, which, according

to the Mayan and Toltec legends, brought the gods to Mexico were Viking or
Chaldean ships, built in the shape of composite sea monsters or dragons. H. P.
Blavatsky advances the theory that the word cetus, the great whale, is derived
from keto, a name for the fish god, Dagon, and that Jonah was actually con-
fined in a cell hollowed out in the body of a gigantic statue of Dagon after he
had been captured by Phnician sailors and carried to one of their cities.
There is no doubt a great mystery in the gigantic form of cetus, which is still
preserved as a constellation.
According to many scattered fragments extant, man's lower nature was sym-
bolized by a tremendous, awkward creature resembling a great sea serpent, or
dragon, called leviathan. All symbols having serpentine form or motion signify
the solar energy in one of its many forms. This great creature of the sea there-
fore represents the solar life force imprisoned in water and also the divine
energy coursing through the body of man, where, until transmuted, it manifests
itself as a writhing, twisting monster---man's greeds, passions, and lusts. Among

276
the symbols of Christ as the Savior of men are a number relating to the mystery
of His divine nature concealed within the personality of the lowly Jesus.
The Gnostics divided the nature of the Christian Redeemer into two parts--
the one Jesus, a mortal man; the other, Christos, a personification of Nous, the
principle of Cosmic Mind. Nous, the greater, was for the period of three years
(from baptism to crucifixion) using the fleshly garment of the mortal man (Je-
sus). In order to illustrate this point and still conceal it from the ignorant, many
strange, and often repulsive, creatures were used whose rough exteriors con-
cealed magnificent organisms. Kenealy, in his notes on the Book of Enoch,
observes: "Why the caterpillar was a symbol of the Messiah is evident; because,
under a lowly, creeping, and wholly terrestrial aspect, he conceals the beautiful
butterfly-form, with its radiant wings, emulating in its varied colors the Rain-
bow, the Serpent, the Salmon, the Scarab, the Peacock, and the dying Dolphin
* * *.

INSECTS

In 1609 Henry Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapienti tern was published.

Eliphas Levi declared that within its pages are concealed all the great secrets of
magical philosophy. A remarkable plate in this work shows the Hermetic
sciences being attacked by the bigoted and ignorant pedagogues of the seven-
teenth century. In order to express his complete contempt for his slanderers,
Khunrath made out of each a composite beast, adding donkey ears to one and
a false tail to another. He reserved the upper part of the picture for certain
petty backbiters whom he gave appropriate forms. The air was filled with
strange creatures--great dragon flies, winged frogs, birds with human heads, and
other weird forms which defy description--heaping venom, gossip, spite, sland-
er, and other forms of persecution upon the secret arcanum of the wise. The
drawing indicated that their attacks were ineffectual. Poisonous insects were
often used to symbolize the deadly power of the human tongue.
Insects of all kinds were also considered emblematic of the Nature spirits
and dmons, for both were believed to inhabit the atmosphere. Medival
drawings showing magicians in the act of invoking spirits, often portray the
mysterious powers of the other world, which the conjurer has exorcised, as
appearing to him in composite part-insect forms. The early philosophers ap-
parently held the opinion that the disease which swept through communities in
the form of plagues were actually living creatures, but instead of considering a
number of tiny germs they viewed the entire plague as one individuality and
gave it a hideous shape to symbolize its destructiveness. The fact that plagues

277
came in the air caused an insect or a bird to be used as their symbol.
Beautiful symmetrical forms were assigned to all natural benevolent condi-
tions or powers, but to unnatural or malevolent powers were assigned con-
torted and abnormal figures. The Evil One was either hideously deformed or
else of the nature of certain despised animals. A popular superstition during
the Middle Ages held that the Devil had the feet of a rooster, while the Egyp-
tians assigned to Typhon (Devil) the body of a hog.
The habits of the insects were carefully studied. Therefore the ant was
looked upon as emblematic of industry and foresight, as it stored up supplies
for the winter and also had strength to move objects many times its own weight.
The locusts which swept down in clouds, and in some parts of Africa and Asia
obscured the sun and destroyed every green thing, were considered fit em-
blems of passion, disease, hate, and strife; for these emotions destroy all that is
good in the soul of man and leave a barren desert behind them. In the folklore
of various nations, certain insects are given special significance, but the ones
which have received world-wide veneration and consideration ate the scarab,
the king of the insect kingdom; the scorpion, the great betrayer; the butterfly,
the emblem of metamorphosis; and the bee, the symbol of industry.
The Egyptian scarab is one of the most remarkable symbolic figures ever
conceived by the mind of man. It was evolved by the erudition of the
priestcraft from a simple insect which, because of its peculiar habits and ap-
pearance, properly symbolized the strength of the body, the resurrection of the
soul, and the Eternal and Incomprehensible Creator in His aspect as Lord of
the Sun. E. A. Wallis Budge says, in effect, of the worship of the scarab by the
Egyptians:
"Yet another view held in primitive times was that the sky was a vast meadow
over which a huge beetle crawled, pushing the disk of the sun before him. This
beetle was the Sky-god, and, arguing from the example of the beetle (Sca-
rabus sacer), which was observed to roll along with its hind legs a ball that was
believed to contain its eggs, the early Egyptians thought that the ball of the Sky-
god contained his egg and that the sun was his offspring. Thanks, however, to
the investigations of the eminent entomologist, Monsieur J. H. Fabre, we now
know that the ball which the Scarabus sacer rolls along contains not its eggs,
but dung that is to serve as food for its egg, which it lays in a carefully prepared
place."
Initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries were sometimes called scarabs; again,
lions and panthers. The scarab was the emissary of the sun, symbolizing light,
truth, and regeneration. Stone scarabs, called heart scarabs, about three inches
long, were placed in the heart cavity of the dead when that organ was removed
to be embalmed separately as part of the process of mummifying. Some main-
tain that the stone beetles were merely wrapped in the winding cloths at the

278
time of preparing the body for eternal preservation. The following passage
concerning this appears in the great Egyptian book of initiation, The Book of
the Dead: "And behold, thou shalt make a scarab of green stone, which shalt
be placed in the breast of a man, and it shall perform for him, 'the opening of
the mouth.'" The funeral rites of many nations bear a striking resemblance to
the initiatory ceremonies of their Mysteries.
Ra, the god of the sun, had three important aspects. As the Creator of the
universe he was symbolized by the head of a scarab and was called Khepera,
which signified the resurrection of the soul and a new life at the end of the
mortal span. The mummy cases of the Egyptian dead were nearly always or-
namented with scarabs. Usually one of these beetles, with outspread wings, was
painted on the mummy case directly over the breast of the dead. The finding
of such great numbers of small stone scarabs indicates that they were a favorite
article of adornment among the Egyptians. Because of its relationship to the
sun, the scarab symbolized the divine part of man's nature. The fact that its
beautiful wings were concealed under its glossy shell typified the winged soul of
man hidden within its earthly sheath. The Egyptian soldiers were given the
scarab as their special symbol because the ancients believed that these crea-
tures were all of the male sex and consequently appropriate emblems of virility,
strength, and courage.
Plutarch noted the fact that the scarab rolled its peculiar ball of dung back-
wards, while the insect itself faced the opposite direction. This made it an es-
pecially fitting symbol for the sun, because this orb (according to Egyptian as-
tronomy) was rolling from west to east, although apparently moving in the op-
posite direction. An Egyptian allegory states that the sunrise is caused by the
scarab unfolding its wings, which stretch out as glorious colors on each side of
its body--the solar globe--and that when it folds its wings under its dark shell at
sunset, night follows. Khepera, the scarab-headed aspect of Ra, is often symbo-
lized riding through the sea of the sky in a wonderful ship called the Boat of
the Sun.

Click to enlarge
THE MANTICHORA.
From Redgrove's Bygone Beliefs.
The most remarkable of allegorical creatures was the mantichora, which Ctesias de-
scribes as having aflame-colored body, lionlike in shape, three rows of teeth, a human

279
head and ears, blue eyes, a tail ending in a series of spikes and stings, thorny and scor-
pionlike, and a voice which sounded like the blare of trumpets. This synthetic qua-
druped ambled into medival works on natural history, but, though seriously consi-
dered, had never been seen, because it inhabited inaccessible regions and consequent-
ly was difficult to locate.

Click to enlarge
ROYAL EGYPTIAN SCARAB.
From Hall's Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, Etc., in the British Museum.
The flat under side of a scarab usually bears an inscription relating to the dynasty dur-
ing which it was cut. These scarabs were sometimes used as seals. Some were cut from
ordinary or precious stones; others were made of clay, baked and glazed. Occasionally
the stone scarabs were also glazed. The majority of the small scarabs are pierced as
though originally used as beads. Some are so hard that they will cut glass. In the picture
above, A shows top and side views of the scarab, and B and B the under surface with
the name of Men-ka-Ra within the central cartouche.

The scorpion is the symbol of both wisdom and self-destruction. It was called
by the Egyptians the creature accursed; the time of year when the sun entered
the sign of Scorpio marked the beginning of the rulership of Typhon. When
the twelve signs of the zodiac were used to represent the twelve Apostles (al-
though the reverse is true), the scorpion was assigned to Judas Iscariot--the
betrayer.
The scorpion stings with its tail, and for this reason it has been called a
backbiter, a false and deceitful thing. Calmet, in his Dictionary of the Bible,
declares the scorpion to be a fit emblem of the wicked and the symbol of per-
secution. The dry winds of Egypt are said to be produced by Typhon, who
imparts to the sand the blistering heat of the infernal world and the sting of the
scorpion. This insect was also the symbol of the spinal fire which, according to
the Egyptian Mysteries, destroyed man when it was permitted to gather at the
base of his spine (the tail of the scorpion).The red star Antares in the back of
the celestial scorpion was considered the worst light in the heavens. Kalb al
Akrab, or the heart of the scorpion, was called by the ancients the lieutenant or
deputy of Mars. (See footnote to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.) Antares was believed
to impair the eyesight, often causing blindness if it rose over the horizon when
280
a child was born. This may refer again to the sand storm, which was capable of
blinding unwary travelers.
The scorpion was also the symbol of wisdom, for the fire which it controlled
was capable of illuminating as well as consuming. Initiation into the Greater
Mysteries among the pagans was said to take place only in the sign of the scor-
pion. In the papyrus of Ani (The Book of the Dead), the deceased likens his
soul to a scorpion, saying: "I am a swallow, I am that scorpion, the daughter of
Ra!" Elizabeth Goldsmith, in her treatise on Sex Symbolism, states that the
scorpions were a "symbol of Selk, the Egyptian goddess of writing, and also
[were] revered by the Babylonians and Assyrians as guardians of the gateway of
the sun. Seven scorpions were said to have accompanied Isis when she
searched for the remains of Osiris scattered by Set" (Typhon).
In his Chaldean Account of the Genesis, George Smith, copying from the
cuneiform cylinders, in describing the wanderings of the hero Izdubar (Ni-
mrod), throws some light on the scorpion god who guards the sun. The tablet
which he translated is not perfect, but the meaning is fairly clear: "* * * who
each day guard the rising sun. Their crown was at the lattice of heaven, under
hell their feet were placed [the spinal column]. The scorpion man guarded the
gate, burning with terribleness, their appearance was like death, the might of
his fear shook the forest. At the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun,
they guarded the sun; Izdubar saw them and fear and terror came into his
face." Among the early Latins there was a machine of war called the scorpion.
It was used for firing arrows and probably obtained its name from a long beam,
resembling a scorpion's tail, which flew up to hurl the arrows. The missiles
discharged by this machine were also called scorpions.
The butterfly (under the name of Psyche, a beautiful maiden with wings of
opalescent light) symbolizes the human soul because of the stages it passes
through in order to unfold its power of flight. The three divisions through
which the butterfly passes in its unfoldment resemble closely the three degrees
of the Mystery School, which degrees are regarded as consummating the un-
foldment of man by giving him emblematic wings by which he may soar to the
skies. Unregenerate man, ignorant and helpless, is symbolized by the stage
between ovum and larva; the disciple, seeking truth and dwelling in medication,
by the second stage, from larva to pupa, at which time the insect enters its chry-
salis (the tomb of the Mysteries); the third stage, from pupa to imago (wherein
the perfect butterfly comes forth), typifies the unfolded enlightened soul of the
initiate rising from the tomb of his baser nature.
Night moths typify the secret wisdom, because they are hard to discover and
are concealed by the darkness (ignorance). Some are emblems of death, as
Acherontia atropos, the death's-head moth, which has a marking on its body
somewhat like a human skull. The death-watch beetle, which was believed to

281
give warning of approaching death by a peculiar ticking sound, is another in-
stance of insects involved in human affairs.
Opinions differ concerning the spider. Its shape makes it an appropriate
emblem of the nerve plexus and ganglia of the human body. Some Europeans
consider it extremely bad luck to kill a spider--possibly because it is looked
upon as an emissary of the Evil One, whom no person desires to offend. There
is a mystery concerning all poisonous creatures, especially insects. Paracelsus
taught that the spider was the medium for a powerful but evil force which the
Black Magicians used in their nefarious undertakings.
Certain plants, minerals, and animals have been sacred among all the na-
tions of the earth because of their peculiar sensitiveness to the astral fire--a
mysterious agency in Nature which the scientific world has contacted through
its manifestations as electricity and magnetism. Lodestone and radium in the
mineral world and various parasitic growths in the plant kingdom are strangely
susceptible to this cosmic electric fire, or universal life force. The magicians of
the Middle Ages surrounded themselves with such creatures as bats, spiders,
cats, snakes, and monkeys, because they were able to appropriate the life
forces of these species and use them to the attainment of their own ends. Some
ancient schools of wisdom taught that all poisonous insects and reptiles are
germinated out of the evil nature of man, and that when intelligent human be-
ings no longer breed hate in their own souls there will be no more ferocious
animals, loathsome diseases, or poisonous plants and insects.
Among the American Indians is the legend of a "Spider Man," whose web
connected the heaven worlds with the earth. The secret schools of India sym-
bolize certain of the gods who labored with the universe during its making as
connecting the realms of light with those of darkness by means of webs. There-
fore the builders of the cosmic system who held the embryonic universe to-
gether with threads of invisible force were sometimes referred to as the Spider
Gods and their ruler was designated The Great Spider.
The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor
for a common good true happiness and prosperity are found. The bee is a
symbol of wisdom, for as this tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so
men may extract wisdom from the experiences of daily life. The bee is sacred
to the goddess Venus and, according to mystics, it is one of several forms of life
which came to the earth from the planet Venus millions of years ago. Wheat
and bananas are said to be of similar origin. This is the reason why the origin
of these three forms of life cannot be traced. The fact that bees are ruled by
queens is one reason why this insect is considered a sacred feminine symbol.
In India the god Prana--the personification of the universal life force--is
sometimes shown surrounded by a circle of bees. Because of its importance in
pollenizing flowers, the bee is the accepted symbol of the generative power. At

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one time the bee was the emblem of the French kings. The rulers of France
wore robes embroidered with bees, and the canopies of their thrones were
decorated with gigantic figures of these insects.
The fly symbolizes the tormentor, because of the annoyance it causes to
animals. The Chaldean god Baal was often called Baal-Zebul, or the god of the
dwelling place. The word zebub, or zabab, means a fly, and Baal-Zebul became
Baalzebub, or Beelzebub, a word which was loosely translated to mean Jupi-
ter's fly. The fly was looked upon as a form of the divine power, because of its
ability to destroy decaying substances and thus promote health. The fly may
have obtained its name Zebub from its peculiar buzzing or humming. Inman
believes that Baalzebub, which the Jews ridiculed as My Lord of Flies, really
means My Lord Who Hums or Murmurs.
Inman recalls the singing Memnon on the Egyptian desert, a tremendous
figure with an olian harp on the top of its head. When the wind blows
strongly this great Statue sighs, or hums. The Jews changed Baalzebub into
Beelzebub, and made him their prince of devils by interpreting dmon as
"demon." Naudus, in defending Virgil from accusations of sorcery, attempted
a wholesale denial of the miracles supposedly performed by Virgil and pro-
duced enough evidence to convict the poet on all counts. Among other strange
fears, Virgil fashioned a fly out of brass, and after certain mysterious ceremo-
nies, placed it over one of the gates of Naples. As a result, no flies entered the
city for more than eight years.

REPTILES

The serpent was chosen as the head of the reptilian family. Serpent worship in
some form has permeated nearly all parts of the earth. The serpent mounds of
the American Indian; the carved-stone snakes of Central and South America;
the hooded cobras of India; Python, the great snake o the Greeks; the sacred
serpents of the Druids; the Midgard snake of Scandinavia; the Nagas of Burma,
Siam, and Cambodia; the brazen serpent of the Jews; the mystic serpent of
Orpheus; the snakes at the oracle; of Delphi twining themselves around the
tripod upon which the Pythian priestess sat, the tripod itself being in the form
of twisted serpents; the sacred serpents preserved in the Egyptian temples; the
Urus coiled upon the foreheads of the Pharaohs and priests;--all these bear
witness to the universal veneration in which the snake was held. In the ancient
Mysteries the serpent entwining a staff was the symbol of the physician. The
serpent-wound staff of Hermes remains the emblem of the medical profession.
Among nearly all these ancient peoples the serpent was accepted as the symbol

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of wisdom or salvation. The antipathy which Christendom feels towards the
snake is based upon the little-understood allegory of the Garden of Eden.

Click to enlarge
THE FLEUR-DE-LIS.
The bee was used as, a symbol of royalty by the immortal Charlemagne, and it is prob-
able that the fleur-de-lis, or lily of France, is merely a conventionalized bee and not a
flower. There is an ancient Greek legend to the effect that the nine Muses occasionally
assumed the form of bees.

Click to enlarge
THE SCORPION TALISMAN.
From Paracelsus' Archidoxes Magica.
The scorpion often appears upon the talismans and charms of the Middle Ages. This
hieroglyphic Arachnida was supposed to have the power of curing disease. The scor-
pion shown above was composed of several metals, and was made under certain plane-
tary configurations. Paracelsus advised that it be worn by those suffering from any
derangement of the reproductive system.

The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the know-
ledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man's disobe-
dience to the Demiurgus, Jehovah. How the serpent came to be in the garden
of the Lord after God had declared that all creatures which He had made dur-
ing the six days of creation were good has not been satisfactorily answered by
the interpreters of Scripture. The tree that grows in the midst of the garden is
the spinal fire; the knowledge of the use of that spinal fire is the gift of the great
serpent. Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, the serpent is the symbol
and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving crea-
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tion the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil. If this be not
so, why did Moses raise a brazen serpent upon a cross in the wilderness that all
who looked upon it might be saved from the sting of the lesser snakes? Was
not the brazen serpent a prophecy of the crucified Man to come? If the ser-
pent be only a thing of evil, why did Christ instruct His disciples to be as wise
as serpents?
The accepted theory that the serpent is evil cannot be substantiated. It has
long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarna-
tion, or metempsychosis, because it annually sheds its skin, reappearing, as it
were, in a new body. There is an ancient superstition to the effect that snakes
never die except by violence and that, if uninjured, they would live forever. It
was also believed that snakes swallowed themselves, and this resulted in their
being considered emblematic of the Supreme Creator, who periodically reab-
sorbed His universe back into Himself.
In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky makes this significant statement concerning
the origin of serpent worship: "Before our globe had become egg-shaped or
round it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a
serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos
until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular
shape of a serpent with its tail in its month--emblem of eternity in its spiritual
and of our world in its physical sense."
The seven-headed snake represents the Supreme Deity manifesting through
His Elohim, or Seven Spirits, by whose aid He established His universe. The
coils of the snake have been used by the pagans to symbolize the motion and
also the orbits of the celestial bodies, and it is probable that the symbol of the
serpent twisted around the egg--which was common to many of the ancient
Mystery schools--represented both the apparent motion of the sun around the
earth, and the bands of astral light, or the great magical agent, which move
about the planet incessantly.
Electricity was commonly symbolized by the serpent because of its motion.
Electricity passing between the poles of a spark gap is serpentine in its motion.
Force projected through atmosphere was called The Great Snake. Being sym-
bolic of universal force, the serpent was emblematic of both good and evil.
Force can tear down as rapidly as it can build up. The serpent with its tail in its
mouth is the symbol of eternity, for in this position the body of the reptile has
neither beginning nor end. The head and tail represent the positive and nega-
tive poles of the cosmic life circuit. The initiates of the Mysteries were often
referred to as serpents, and their wisdom was considered analogous to the di-
vinely inspired power of the snake. There is no doubt that the title "Winged
Serpents" (the Seraphim?) was given to one of the invisible hierarchies that
labored with the earth during its early formation.

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 There is a legend that in the beginning of the world winged serpents reigned
upon the earth. These were probably the demigods which antedate the histori-
cal civilization of every nation. The symbolic relationship between the sun and
the serpent found literal witness in the fact that life remains in the snake until
sunset, even though it be cut into a dozen parts. The Hopi Indians consider
the serpent to be in close communication with the Earth Spirit. Therefore, at
the time of their annual snake dance they send their prayers to the Earth Spirit
by first specially sanctifying large numbers of these reptiles and then liberating
them to return to the earth with the prayers of the tribe.
The great rapidity of motion manifested by lizards has caused them to be
associated with Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, whose winged feet tra-
veled infinite distances almost instantaneously. A point which must not be
overlooked in connection with reptiles in symbolism is clearly brought out by
the eminent scholar, Dr. H. E. Santee, in his Anatomy of the Brain and Spinal
Cord: "In reptiles there are two pineal bodies, an anterior and a posterior, of
which the posterior remains undeveloped but the anterior forms a rudimenta-
ry, cyclopean eye. In the Hatteria, a New Zealand lizard, it projects through the
parietal foramen and presents an imperfect lens and retina and, in its long
stalk, nerve fibers."
Crocodiles were regarded by the Egyptians both as symbols of Typhon and
emblems of the Supreme Deity, of the latter because while under water the
crocodile is capable of seeing--Plutarch asserts--though its eyes are covered by a
thin membrane. The Egyptians declared that no matter how far away the cro-
codile laid its eggs, the Nile would reach up to them in its next inundation, this
reptile being endowed with a mysterious sense capable of making known the
extent of the flood months before it took place. There were two kinds of cro-
codiles. The larger and more ferocious was hated by the Egyptians, for they
likened it to the nature of Typhon, their destroying demon. Typhon waited to
devour all who failed to pass the judgment of the Dead, which rite took place
in the Hall of Justice between the earth and the Elysian Fields. Anthony Todd
Thomson thus describes the good treatment accorded the smaller and tamer
crocodiles, which the Egyptians accepted as personifications of good: "They
were fed daily and occasionally had mulled wine poured down their throats.
Their ears were ornamented with rings of gold and precious stones, and their
forefeet adorned with bracelets."
To the Chinese the turtle was a symbol of longevity. At a temple in Singa-
pore a number of sacred turtles are kept, their age recorded by carvings on
their shells. The American Indians use the ridge down the back of the turtle
shell as a symbol of the Great Divide between life and death. The turtle is a
symbol of wisdom because it retires into itself and is its own protection. It is
also a phallic symbol, as its relation to long life would signify. The Hindus

286
symbolized the universe as being supported on the backs of four great ele-
phants who, in turn, are standing upon an immense turtle which is crawling
continually through chaos.
The Egyptian sphinx, the Greek centaur, and the Assyrian man-bull have
much in common. All are composite creatures combining human and animal
members; in the Mysteries all signify the composite nature of man and subtly
refer to the hierarchies of celestial beings that have charge of the destiny of
mankind. These hierarchies are the twelve holy animals now known as constel-
lations--star groups which are merely symbols of impersonal spiritual impulses.
Chiron, the centaur, teaching the sons of men, symbolizes the intelligences of
the constellation of Sagittarius, who were the custodians of the secret doctrine
while (geocentrically) the sun was passing through the sign of Gemini. The five-
footed Assyrian man-bull with the wings of an eagle and the head of a man is a
reminder that the invisible nature of man has the wings of a god, the head of a
man, and the body of a beast. The same concept was expressed through the
sphinx--that armed guardian of the Mysteries who, crouching at the gate of the
temple, denied entrance to the profane. Thus placed between man and his
divine possibilities, the sphinx also represented the secret doctrine itself. Child-
ren's fairy stories abound with descriptions of symbolic monsters, for nearly all
such tales are based upon the ancient mystic folklore.

Click to enlarge
THE URUS.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
The spinal cord was symbolized by a snake, and the serpent coiled upon the foreheads
of the Egyptian initiates represented the Divine Fire which had crawled serpentlike up
the Tree of Life.

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Click to enlarge
GOOD AND EVIL CONTENDING FOR THE UNIVERSAL EGG.
From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
Both Mithras, the Persian Redeemer, and Serapis, the Egyptian God of the Earth, are
symbolized by serpents coiled about their bodies. This remarkable drawing shows the
good and evil principles of Persia--Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman--contending for the Egg
of the Earth, which each trying to wrench from the teeth of the other.

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 Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and Birds
Part II

AS appropriate emblems of various human and divine attributes birds were

included in religious and philosophic symbolism that of pagans and of Chris-
tians alike. Cruelty was signified by the buzzard; courage by the eagle; self-
sacrifice by the pelican; and pride by the peacock. The ability of birds to leave
the earth and fly aloft toward the source of light has resulted in their being as-
sociated with aspiration, purity, and beauty. Wings were therefore often added
to various terrene creatures in an effort to suggest transcendency. Because their
habitat was among the branches of the sacred trees in the hearts of ancient
forests, birds were also regarded as the appointed messengers of the tree spirits
and Nature gods dwelling in these consecrated groves, and through their clear
notes the gods themselves were said to speak. Many myths have been fabri-
cated to explain the brilliant plumage of birds. A familiar example is the story
of Juno's peacock, in whose tail feathers were placed the eyes of Argus. Nu-
merous American Indian legends also deal with birds and the origin of the
various colors of feathers. The Navahos declare that when all living things
climbed to the stalk of a bamboo to escape the Flood, the wild turkey was on
the lowest branch and his tail feathers trailed in the water; hence the color was
all washed out.
Gravitation, which is a law in the material world, is the impulse toward the
center of materiality; levitation, which is a law in the spiritual world, is the im-
pulse toward the center of spirituality. Seeming to be capable of neutralizing
the effect of gravity, the bird was said to partake of a nature superior to other
terrestrial creation; and its feathers, because of their sustaining power, came to
be accepted as symbols of divinity, courage, and accomplishment. A notable
example is the dignity attached to eagle feathers by the American Indians,
among whom they are insignia of merit. Angels have been invested with wings
because, like birds, they were considered to be the intermediaries between the
gods and men and to inhabit the air or middle kingdom betwixt heaven and
earth. As the dome of the heavens was likened to a skull in the Gothic Myste-
ries, so the birds which flew across the sky were regarded as thoughts of the
Deity. For this reason Odin's two messenger ravens were called Hugin and
Munin--thought and memory.
Among the Greeks and Romans, the eagle was the appointed bird of Jupiter
and consequently signified the swiftly moving forces of the Demiurgus; hence it
was looked upon as the mundane lord of the birds, in contradistinction to the

289
phnix, which was symbolic of the celestial ruler. The eagle typified the sun in
its material phase and also the immutable Demiurgic law beneath which all
mortal creatures must bend. The eagle was also the Hermetic symbol of sul-
phur, and signified the mysterious fire of Scorpio--the most profoundly signifi-
cant sign of the zodiac and the Gate of the Great Mystery. Being one of the
three symbols of Scorpio, the eagle, like the Goat of Mendes, was an emblem
of the theurgic art and the secret processes by which the infernal fire of the
scorpion was transmuted into the spiritual light-fire of the gods.
Among certain American Indian tribes the thunderbird is held in peculiar
esteem. This divine creature is said to live above the clouds; the flapping of its
wings causes the rumbling which accompanies storms, while the flashes from
its eyes are the lightning. Birds were used to signify the vital breath; and among
the Egyptians, mysterious hawklike birds with human heads, and carrying in
their claws the symbols of immortality, are often shown hovering as emblems
of the liberated soul over the mummified bodies of the dead. In Egypt the
hawk was the sacred symbol of the sun; and Ra, Osiris, and Horns are often
depicted with the heads of hawks. The cock, or rooster, was a symbol of
Cashmala (Cadmillus) in the Samothracian Mysteries, and is also a phallic
symbol sacred to the sun. It was accepted by the Greeks as the emblem of Ares
(Mars) and typified watchfulness and defense. When placed in the center of a
weather vane it signifies the sun in the midst of the four corners of creation.
The Greeks sacrificed a rooster to the gods at the time of entering the Eleusi-
nian Mysteries. Sir Francis Bacon is supposed to have died as the result of
stuffing a fowl with snow. May this not signify Bacon's initiation into the pagan
Mysteries which still existed in his day?
Both the peacock and the ibis were objects of veneration because they de-
stroyed the poisonous reptiles which were popularly regarded as the emissaries
of the infernal gods. Because of the myriad of eyes in its tail feathers the pea-
cock was accepted as the symbol of wisdom, and on account of its general ap-
pearance it was often confused with the fabled phnix of the Mysteries. There
is a curious belief that the flesh of the peacock will not putrefy even though
kept for a considerable time. As an outgrowth of this belief the peacock be-
came the emblem of immortality, because the spiritual nature of man--like the
flesh of this bird--is incorruptible.
The Egyptians paid divine honors to the ibis and it was a cardinal crime to
kill one, even by accident. It was asserted that the ibis could live only in Egypt
and that if transported to a foreign country it would die of grief. The Egyptians
declared this bird to be the preserver of crops and especially worthy of venera-
tion because it drove out the winged serpents of Libya which the wind blew
into Egypt. The ibis was sacred to Thoth, and when its head and neck were
tucked under its wing its body closely resembled a human heart. (See Mont-

290
faucon's Antiquities.) The black and white ibis was sacred to the moon; but all
forms were revered because they destroyed crocodile eggs, the crocodile being
a symbol of the detested Typhon.
Nocturnal birds were appropriate symbols of both sorcery and the secret
divine sciences: sorcery because black magic cannot function in the light of
truth (day) and is powerful only when surrounded by ignorance (night); and the
divine sciences because those possessing the arcana are able to see through the
darkness of ignorance and materiality. Owls and bats were consequently often
associated with either witchcraft or wisdom. The goose was an emblem of the
first primitive substance or condition from which and within which the worlds
were fashioned. In the Mysteries, the universe was likened to an egg which the
Cosmic Goose had laid in space. Because of its blackness the crow was the
symbol of chaos or the chaotic darkness preceding the light of creation. The
grace and purity of the swan were emblematic of the spiritual grace and purity
of the initiate. This bird also represented the Mysteries which unfolded these
qualities in humanity. This explains the allegories of the gods (the secret wis-
dom) incarnating in the body of a swan (the initiate).
Being scavengers, the vulture, the buzzard, and the condor signified that
form of divine power which by disposing of refuse and other matter dangerous
to the life and health of humanity cleanses and purifies the lower spheres.
These birds were therefore adopted as symbols of the disintegrative processes
which accomplish good while apparently destroying, and by some religions
have been mistakenly regarded as evil. Birds such as the parrot and raven were
accorded veneration because, being able to mimic the human voice, they were
looked upon as links between the human and animal kingdoms.
The dove, accepted by Christianity as the emblem of the Holy Ghost, is an
extremely ancient and highly revered pagan yonic emblem. In many of the
ancient Mysteries it represented the third person of the Creative Triad, or the
Fabricator of the world. As the lower worlds were brought into existence
through a generative process, so the dove has been associated with those deities
identified with the procreative functions. It is sacred to Astarte, Cybele, Isis,
Venus, Juno, Mylitta, and Aphrodite. On account of its gentleness and devo-
tion to its young, the dove was looked upon as the embodiment of the maternal
instinct. The dove is also an emblem of wisdom, for it represents the power
and order by which the lower worlds are maintained. It has long been accepted
as a messenger of the divine will, and signifies the activity of God.
The name dove has been given to oracles and to prophets. "The true name
of the dove was Ionah or Inas; it was a very sacred emblem, and atone time
almost universally received; it was adopted by the Hebrews; and the mystic
Dove was regarded as a symbol from the days of Noah by all those who were
of the Church of God. The prophet sent to Ninevah as God's messenger was

291
called Jonah or the Dove; our Lord's forerunner, the Baptist, was called in
Greek by the name of Ioannes; and so was the Apostle of Love, the author Of
the fourth Gospel and of the Apocalypse, named Ioannes." (Bryant's Analysis
of Ancient Mythology.)

Click to enlarge
THE PHNIX ON ITS NEST OF FLAMES.
From Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum, ac Ostentorum Chronicon.
The phnix is the most celebrated of all the symbolic creatures fabricated by the an-
cient Mysteries for the purpose of concealing the great truths of esoteric philosophy.
Though modern scholars of natural history declare the existence of the phnix to be
purely mythical, Pliny describes the capture of one of these birds and it exhibition in
the Roman Forum during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.

In Masonry the dove is the symbol of purity and innocence. It is significant that
in the pagan Mysteries the dove of Venus was crucified upon the four spokes
of a great wheel, thus foreshadowing the mystery of the crucified Lord of Love.
Although Mohammed drove the doves from the temple at Mecca, occasionally
he is depicted with a dove sitting upon his shoulder as the symbol of divine
inspiration. In ancient times the effigies of doves were placed upon the heads
of scepters to signify that those bearing them were overshadowed by divine
prerogative. In medival art, the dove frequently was pictured as an emblem of
divine benediction.

THE PHNIX

Clement, one of the ante-Nican Fathers, describes, in the first century after
Christ, the peculiar nature and habits of the phnix, in this wise: "There is a
certain bird which is called a Phnix. This is the only one of its kind and lives
five hundred years. And when the time of its dissolution draws near that it must
die, it builds itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into

292
which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But as the flesh decays a
certain kind of worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the
dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes
up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it passes
from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open
day, flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and
having done this, hastens back to its former abode. The priests then inspect the
registers of the dates, and find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth
year was completed."
Although admitting that he had not seen the phnix bird (there being only
one alive at a time), Herodotus amplifies a bit the description given by Cle-
ment: "They tell a story of what this bird does which does not seem to me to be
credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird, all
plastered with myrrh, to the temple of the sun, and there buries the body. In
order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as big as he finds
that he can carry; then he hollows out the ball, and puts his parent inside; after
which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of ex-
actly the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as I
have said, and deposits it in the temple of the sun. Such is the story they tell of
the doings of this bird."
Both Herodotus and Pliny noted the general resemblance in shape between
the phnix and the eagle, a point which the reader should carefully consider,
for it is reasonably certain that the modern Masonic eagle was originally a
phnix. The body of the phnix is described as having been covered with
glossy purple feathers, while its long tail feathers were alternately blue and red.
Its head was light in color and about its neck was a circlet of golden plumage.
At the back of its head the phnix had a peculiar tuft of feathers, a fact quite
evident, although it has been overlooked by most writers and symbolists.
The phnix was regarded as sacred to the sun, and the length of its life (500
to 1000 years) was taken as a standard for measuring the motion of the heaven-
ly bodies and also the cycles of time used in the Mysteries to designate the
periods of existence. The diet of the bird was unknown. Some writers declare
that it subsisted upon the atmosphere; others that it ate at rare intervals but
never in the presence of man. Modern Masons should realize the special Ma-
sonic significance of the phnix, for the bird is described as using sprigs of
acacia in the manufacture of its nest.
The phnix (which is the mythological Persian roc) is also the name of a
Southern constellation, and therefore it has both an astronomical and an astro-
logical significance. In all probability, the phnix was the swan of the Greeks,
the eagle of the Romans, and the peacock of the Far East. To the ancient mys-
tics the phnix was a most appropriate symbol of the immortality of the hu-

293
man soul, for just as the phnix was reborn out of its own dead self seven
times seven, so again and again the spiritual nature of man rises triumphant
from his dead physical body.
Medival Hermetists regarded the phnix as a symbol of the accomplish-
ment of alchemical transmutation, a process equivalent to human regeneration.
The name phnix was also given to one of the secret alchemical formula. The
familiar pelican of the Rose Croix degree, feeding its young from its own
breast, is in reality a phnix, a fact which can be confirmed by an examination
of the head of the bird. The ungainly lower part of the pelican's beak is entirely
missing, the head of the phnix being far more like that of an eagle than of a
pelican. In the Mysteries it was customary to refer to initiates as phnixes or
men who had been born again, for just as physical birth gives man conscious-
ness in the physical world, so the neophyte, after nine degrees in the womb of
the Mysteries, was born into a consciousness of the Spiritual world. This is the
mystery of initiation to which Christ referred when he said, "Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John iii. 3). The phnix is a
fitting symbol of this spiritual truth.
European mysticism was not dead at the time the United States of America
was founded. The hand of the Mysteries controlled in the establishment of the
new government, for the signature of the Mysteries may still be seen on the
Great Seal of the United States of America. Careful analysis of the seal disclos-
es a mass of occult and Masonic symbols, chief among them the so-called
American eagle--a bird which Benjamin Franklin declared unworthy to be cho-
sen as the emblem of a great, powerful, and progressive people. Here again
only the student of symbolism can see through the subterfuge and realize that
the American eagle upon the Great Seal is but a conventionalized phnix, a
fact plainly discernible from an examination of the original seal. In his sketch
of The History of the Seal of the United States, Gaillard Hunt unwittingly
brings forward much material to substantiate the belief that the original seal
carried the Phnix bird on its obverse surface and the Great Pyramid of Gizeh
upon its reverse surface. In a colored sketch submitted as a design for the
Great Seal by William Barton in 1782, an actual phnix appears sitting upon a
nest of flames. This itself demonstrates a tendency towards the use of this em-
blematic bird.

294
Click to enlarge
PHNIX OR EAGLE, WHICH?
On the left is the bird's head from the first Great Seal of the United States (1782) and
on the right the Great Seal of 1902. When the first great Seal was actually cut, the bird
represented upon it was very different from the eagle which now appears; the neck was
much longer and the tuft of feathers, at the upper back part of the head was quite noti-
ceable; the beak bore little resemblance to that of the eagle; and the entire bird was
much thinner and its wings shorter. It requires very little imagination to trace in this
first so-called eagle the mythological Phnix of antiquity. What is more, there is every
reason why a phnix bird should be used to represent a new country rising out of an
old, while as Benjamin Franklin caustically noted, the eagle was not a bird of good
moral character!

Click to enlarge
AN EGYPTIAN PHNIX.
From Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
The Egyptians occasionally represented the Phnix as having the body of a man and
the wings of a bird. This biform, creature had a tuft of feathers upon its head and its
arms were upraised in an attitude of prayer. As the phnix was the symbol of regene-
ration, the tuft of feathers on the back of its head might well symbolize the activity of
the Pineal gland, or third eye, the occult function of which was apparently well unders-
tood by the ancient priestcraft.

Click to enlarge
THE OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
From Hunt's History of the Seal of the United States.
The significance of the mystical number 13, which frequently appears upon the Great

295
Seal of the United States, is not limited to the number of the original colonies. The
sacred emblem of the ancient initiates, here composed of 13 stars,, also appears above
the head of the "eagle." The motto, E Pluribus Unum, contains 13 letters, as does also
the inscription, Annuit Cptis. The "eagle" clutches in its right talon a branch bearing
13 leaves and 13 berries and in its left a sheaf of 13 arrows. The face of the pyramid,
exclusive of the panel containing the date, consists of 72 stones arranged in 13 rows.

If any one doubts the presence of Masonic and occult influences at the time
the Great Seal was designed, he should give due consideration to the com-
ments of Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard, who wrote concerning
the unfinished pyramid and the All-Seeing Eye which adorned the reverse of
the seal, as follows: "The device adopted by Congress is practically incapable of
effective treatment; it can hardly (however artistically treated by the designer)
look otherwise than as a dull emblem of a Masonic fraternity." (The History of
the Seal of the United States.)
The eagles of Napoleon and Csar and the zodiacal eagle of Scorpio are
really phnixes, for the latter bird--not the eagle--is the symbol of spiritual
victory and achievement. Masonry will be in a position to solve many of the
secrets of its esoteric doctrine when it realizes that both its single- and double-
headed eagles are phnixes, and that to all initiates and philosophers the
phnix is the symbol of the transmutation and regeneration of the creative
energy--commonly called the accomplishment of the Great Work. The double-
headed phnix is the prototype of an androgynous man, for according to the
secret teachings there will come a time when the human body will have two
spinal cords, by means of which vibratory equilibrium will be maintained in the
body.
Not only were many of the founders of the United States Government Ma-
sons, but they received aid from a secret and august body existing in Europe,
which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular pur-
pose known only to the initiated few. The Great Seal is the signature of this
exalted body--unseen and for the most part unknown--and the unfinished py-
ramid upon its reverse side is a trestleboard setting forth symbolically the task
to the accomplishment of which the United States Government was dedicated
from the day of its inception.

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ANIMALS

The lion is the king of the animal family and, like the head of each kingdom, is
sacred to the sun, whose rays are symbolized by the lion's shaggy mane. The
allegories perpetuated by the Mysteries (such as the one to the effect that the
lion opens the secret book) signify that the solar power opens the seed pods,
releasing the spiritual life within. There was also a curious belief among the
ancients that the lion sleeps with his eyes open, and for this reason the animal
was chosen as a symbol of vigilance. The figure of a lion placed on either side
of doors and gateways is an emblem of divine guardianship. King Solomon was
often symbolized as a lion. For ages the feline family has been regarded with
peculiar veneration. In several of the Mysteries--most notably the Egyptian--the
priests wore the skins of lions, tigers, panthers, pumas, or leopards. Hercules
and Samson (both solar symbols) slew the lion of the constellation of Leo and
robed themselves in his skin, thus signifying that they represented the sun itself
when at the summit of the celestial arch.
At Bubastis in Egypt was the temple of the famous goddess Bast, the cat
deity of the Ptolemies. The Egyptians paid homage to the cat, especially when
its fur was of three shades or its eyes of different colors. To the priests the cat
was symbolic of the magnetic forces of Nature, and they surrounded them-
selves with these animals for the sake of the astral fire which emanated from
their bodies. The cat was also a symbol of eternity, for when it sleeps it curls up
into a ball with its head and tail touching. Among the Greeks and Latins the cat
was sacred to the goddess Diana. The Buddhists of India invested the cat with
special significance, but for a different reason. The cat was the only animal
absent at the death of the great Buddha, because it had stopped on the way to
chase a mouse. That the symbol of the lower astral forces should not be
present at the liberation of the Buddha is significant.
Regarding the cat, Herodotus says: "Whenever a fire breaks out, cats are
agitated with a kind of divine motion, which they that keep them observe, neg-
lecting the fire: The cats, however, in spite of their care, break from them, leap-
ing even over the heads of their keepers to throw themselves into the fire. The
Egyptians then make great mourning for their death. If a cat dies a natural
death in a house, all they of that house shave their eyebrows: If a dog, they
shave the head and all the body. They used to embalm their dead cats, and
carry them to Bubastis to be interred in a sacred house. (Montfaucon's Antiqui-
ties.)
The most important of all symbolic animals was the Apis, or Egyptian bull
of Memphis, which was regarded as the sacred vehicle for the transmigration of
the soul of the god Osiris. It was declared that the Apis was conceived by a bolt
of lightning, and the ceremony attendant upon its selection and consecration

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was one of the most impressive in Egyptian ritualism. The Apis had to be
marked in a certain manner. Herodotus states that the bull must be black with
a square white spot on his forehead, the form of an eagle (probably a vulture)
on his back, a beetle upon (under) his tongue, and the hair of his tail lying two
ways. Other writers declare that the sacred bull was marked with twenty-nine
sacred symbols, his body was spotted, and upon his right side was a white mark
in the form of a crescent. After its sanctification the Apis was kept in a stable
adjacent to the temple and led in processionals through the streets of the city
upon certain solemn occasions. It was a popular belief among the Egyptians
that any child upon whom the bull breathed would become illustrious. After
reaching a certain age (twenty-five years) the Apis was taken either to the river
Nile or to a sacred fountain (authorities differ on this point) and drowned,
amidst the lamentations of the populace. The mourning and wailing for his
death continued until the new Apis was found, when it was declared that Osiris
had reincarnated, whereupon rejoicing took the place of grief.
The worship of the bull was not confined to Egypt, but was prevalent in
many nations of the ancient world. In India, Nandi--the sacred white bull of
Siva--is still the object of much veneration; and both the Persians and the Jews
accepted the bull as an important religious symbol. The Assyrians, Phnicians,
Chaldeans, and even the Greeks reverenced this animal, and Jupiter turned
himself into a white bull to abduct Europa. The bull was a powerful phallic
emblem signifying the paternal creative power of the Demiurgus. At his death
he was frequently mummified and buried with the pomp and dignity of a god
in a specially prepared sarcophagus. Excavations in the Serapeum at Memphis
have uncovered the tombs of more than sixty of these sacred animals.
As the sign rising over the horizon at the vernal equinox constitutes the star-
ry body for the annual incarnation of the sun, the bull not only was the celestial
symbol of the Solar Man but, because the vernal equinox took place in the
constellation of Taurus, was called the breaker or opener of the year. For this
reason in astronomical symbolism the bull is often shown breaking the annular
egg with his horns. The Apis further signifies that the God-Mind is incarnated
in the body of a beast and therefore that the physical beast form is the sacred
vehicle of divinity. Man's lower personality is the Apis in which Osiris incar-
nates. The result of the combination is the creation of Sor-Apis (Serapis)-the
material soul as ruler of the irrational material body and involved therein. After
a certain period (which is determined by the square of five, or twenty-five
years), the body of the Apis is destroyed and the soul liberated by the water
which drowns the material life. This was indicative of the washing away of the
material nature by the baptismal waters of divine light and truth. The drowning
of the Apis is the symbol of death; the resurrection of Osiris in the new bull is
the symbol of eternal renovation. The white bull was also symbolically sacred

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as the appointed emblem of the initiates, signifying the spiritualized material
bodies of both man and Nature.
When the vernal equinox no longer occurred in the sign of Taurus, the Sun
God incarnated in the constellation of Aries and the ram then became the ve-
hicle of the solar power. Thus the sun rising in the sign of the Celestial Lamb
triumphs over the symbolic serpent of darkness. The lamb is a familiar emb-
lem of purity because of its gentleness and the whiteness of its wool. In many
of the pagan Mysteries it signified the Universal Savior, and in Christianity it is
the favorite symbol of Christ. Early church paintings show a lamb standing
upon a little hill, and from its feet pour four streams of living water signifying
the four Gospels. The blood of the lamb is the solar life pouring into the world
through the sign of Aries.
The goat is both a phallic symbol and also an emblem of courage or aspira-
tion because of its surefootedness and ability to scale the loftiest peaks. To the
alchemists the goat's head was the symbol of sulphur. The practice among the
ancient Jews of choosing a scapegoat upon which to heap the sins of mankind
is merely an allegorical depiction of the Sun Man who is the scapegoat of the
world and upon whom are cast the sins of the twelve houses (tribes) of the ce-
lestial universe. Truth is the Divine Lamb worshiped throughout pagandom
and slain for the sins of the world, and since the dawn of time the Savior Gods
of all religions have been personifications of this Truth. The Golden Fleece
sought by Jason and his Argonauts is the Celestial Lamb--the spiritual and intel-
lectual sun. The secret doctrine is also typified by the Golden Fleece--the wool
of the Divine Life, the rays of the Sun of Truth. Suidas declares the Golden
Fleece to have been in reality a book, written upon skin, which contained the
formul for the production of gold by means of chemistry. The Mysteries were
institutions erected for the transmutation of base ignorance into precious illu-
mination. The dragon of ignorance was the terrible creature set to guard the
Golden Fleece, and represents the darkness of the old year which battles with
the sun at the time of its equinoctial passage.

THE SACRED BULL, OR APIS

The importance of the bull as the symbol of the sun at the vernal equinox is
discussed in the chapter on The Zodiac and Its Signs. The bull and the ox are
ancient emblems of the element of earth--consequently of the planet itself.
They also signify the animal nature of man, and for this reason were sacrificed
upon the altars of such ancient Mysteries as the Jewish and Druidic. Plutarch
wrote: "The Apis ought to be regarded by us, as a fair and beautiful image of

299
the soul of Osiris." Osiris represents the spiritual nature of the lower world
which is murdered and distributed throughout the substance of the physical
spheres; Apis is the emblem of the material world within which is the spiritual
nature--Osiris. The Apis is also the symbol of the exoteric (or profane) doc-
trine, in contradistinction to the esoteric (or divine) teachings represented by
the urus worn upon the foreheads of the priests. Front this is derived the
mythological allegory of Serapis, who in a certain sense is not only the compo-
site figure of Osiris and the lower world in which he is incarnated but also of
the Mysteries, which are the terrestrial bodies containing the secret teachings,
or the spiritual soul.
Deer were sacred in the Bacchic Mysteries of the Greeks; the Bacchantes
were often clothed in fawnskins. Deer were associated with the worship of the
moon goddess and the Bacchic orgies were usually conducted at night. The
grace and speed of this animal caused it to be accepted as the proper symbol of
esthetic abandon. Deer were objects of veneration with many nations. In Japan,
herds of them are still maintained in connection with the temples.
The wolf is usually associated with the principle of evil, because of the
mournful discordance of its howl and the viciousness of its nature. In Scandi-
navian mythology the Fenris Wolf was one of the sons of Loki, the infernal god
of the fires. With the temple of Asgard in flames about them, the gods under
the command of Odin fought their last great battle against the chaotic forces of
evil. With frothing jowls the Fenris Wolf devoured Odin, the Father of the
Gods, and thus destroyed the Odinic universe. Here the Fenris Wolf
represents those mindless powers of Nature that overthrew the primitive crea-
tion.
The unicorn, or monoceros, was a most curious creation of the ancient in-
itiates. It is described by Thomas Boreman as "a beast, which though doubted
of by many writers, yet is by others thus described: He has but one horn, and
that an exceedingly rich one, growing out of the middle of his forehead. His
head resembles an hart's, his feet an elephant's, his tail a boar's, and the rest of
his body an horse's. The horn is about a foot and half in length. His voice is
like the lowing of an ox. His mane and hair are of a yellowish colour. His horn
is as hard as iron, and as rough as any file, twisted or curled, like a flaming
sword; very straight, sharp, and every where black, excepting the point. Great
virtues are attributed to it, in expelling of poison and curing of several diseases.
He is not a beast of prey. " (See Redgrove's Bygone Beliefs.)
While the unicorn is mentioned several times in Scripture, no proof has yet
been discovered of its existence. There are a number of drinking horns in var-
ious museums presumably fashioned from its spike. It is reasonably certain,
however, that these drinking vessels were really made either from the tusks of
some large mammal or the horn of a rhinoceros. J. P. Lundy believes that the

300
horn of the unicorn symbolizes the hem of salvation mentioned by St. Luke
which, pricking the hearts of men, turns them to a consideration of salvation
through Christ. Medival Christian mystics employed the unicorn as an emb-
lem of Christ, and this creature must therefore signify the spiritual life in man.
The single horn of the unicorn may represent the pineal gland, or third eye,
which is the spiritual cognition center in the brain. The unicorn was adopted by
the Mysteries as a symbol of the illumined spiritual nature of the initiate, the
horn with which it defends itself being the flaming sword of the spiritual doc-
trine against, which nothing can prevail.
In the Book of Lambspring, a rare Hermetic tract, appears an engraving
showing a deer and a unicorn standing together in a wood. The picture is ac-
companied by the following text: "The Sages say truly that two animals are in
this forest: One glorious, beautiful, and swift, a great and strong deer; the other
an unicorn. * * * If we apply the parable of our art, we shall call the forest the
body. * * * The unicorn will be the spirit at all times. The deer desires no
other name but that of the soul; * * *. He that knows how to tame and master
them by art, to couple them together, and to lead them in and our of the form,
may justly be called a Master."
The Egyptian devil, Typhon, was often symbolized by the Set monster
whose identity is obscure. It has a queer snoutlike nose and pointed ears, and
may have been a conventional hyena. The Set monster lived in the sand storms
and wandered about the world promulgating evil. The Egyptians related the
howling of the desert winds with the moaning cry of the hyena. Thus when in
the depths of the night the hyena sent forth its doleful wail it sounded like the
last despairing cry of a lost soul in the clutches of Typhon. Among the duties of
this evil creature was that of protecting the Egyptian dead against: grave rob-
bers.
Among other symbols of Typhon was the hippopotamus, sacred to the god
Mars because Mars was enthroned in the sign of Scorpio, the house of Ty-
phon. The ass was also sacred to this Egyptian demon. Jesus riding into Jerusa-
lem upon the back of an ass has the same significance as Hermes standing
upon the prostrate form of Typhon. The early Christians were accused of wor-
shiping the head of an ass. A most curious animal symbol is the hog or sow,
sacred to Diana, and frequently employed in the Mysteries as an emblem of
the occult art. The wild boar which gored Atys shows the use of this animal in
the Mysteries.
According to the Mysteries, the monkey represents the condition of man
before the rational soul entered into his constitution. Therefore it typifies the
irrational man. By some the monkey is looked upon as a species not ensouled
by the spiritual hierarchies; by others as a fallen state wherein man has been
deprived of his divine nature through degeneracy. The ancients, though evolu-

301
tionists, did not trace man's ascent through the monkey; the monkey they con-
sidered as having separated itself from the main stem of progress. The monkey
was occasionally employed as a symbol of learning. Cynocephalus, the dog-
headed ape, was the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol of writing, and was closely
associated with Thoth. Cynocephalus is symbolic of the moon and Thoth of
the planet Mercury. Because of the ancient belief that the moon followed Mer-
cury about the heavens the dog-ape was described as the faithful companion of
Thoth.
The dog, because of its faithfulness, denotes the relationship which should
exist between disciple and master or between the initiate and his God. The
shepherd dog was a type of the priestcraft. The dog's ability to sense and follow
unseen persons for miles symbolized the transcendental power by which the
philosopher follows the thread of truth through the labyrinth of earthly error.
The dog is also the symbol of Mercury. The Dog Star, Sirius or Sothis, was
sacred to the Egyptians because it presaged the annual inundations of the Nile.
As a beast of burden the horse was the symbol of the body of man forced to
sustain the weight of his spiritual constitution. Conversely, it also typified the
spiritual nature of man forced to maintain the burden of the material personali-
ty. Chiron, the centaur, mentor of Achilles, represents the primitive creation
which was the progenitor and instructor of mankind, as described by Berossus.
The winged horse and the magic carpet both symbolize the secret doctrine and
the spiritualized body of man. The wooden horse of Troy, secreting an army
for the capture of the city, represents man's body concealing within it those
infinite potentialities which will later come forth and conquer his environment.
Again, like Noah's Ark, it represents the spiritual nature of man as containing a
host of latent potentialities which subsequently become active. The siege of
Troy is a symbolic account of the abduction of the human soul (Helena) by the
personality (Paris) and its final redemption, through persevering struggle, by
the secret doctrine--the Greek army under the command of Agamemnon.

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Click to enlarge
NEAS AND THE HARPIES.
From Virgil's neid. (Dryden's translation.)
Among the mythological creatures of the Mysteries were the harpies--projections into
material substance of beings existing in the invisible world of Nature. They were de-
scribed the Greeks as being composite, with the heads of maidens and the bodies of
birds. The wings of the harpies were composed of metal and their flight was, accom-
panied by a terrible clanging noise. During his wanderings, neas, the Trojan hero,
landed on the island of the harpies, where he and his followers vainly battled with
these monsters. One of the harpies perched upon a cliff and there prophesied to ne-
id that his attack upon them would bring dire calamity to the Trojans.

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 Flowers, Plants, Fruits, and Trees

THE yoni and phallus were worshiped by nearly all ancient peoples as appro-
priate symbols of God's creative power. The Garden of Eden, the Ark, the
Gate of the Temple, the Veil of the Mysteries, the vesica piscis or oval nimbus,
and the Holy Grail are important yonic symbols; the pyramid, the obelisk, the
cone, the candle, the tower, the Celtic monolith, the spire, the campanile, the
Maypole, and the Sacred Spear are symbolic of the phallus. In treating the
subject of Priapic worship, too many modern authors judge pagan standards by
their own and wallow in the mire of self-created vulgarity. The Eleusinian Mys-
teries--the greatest of all the ancient secret societies--established one of the
highest known standards of morality and ethics, and those criticizing their use
of phallic symbols should ponder the trenchant words of King Edward III,
"Honi soit qui mal y pense."
The obscene rites practiced by the later Bacchanalia and Dionysia were no
more representative of the standards of purity originally upheld by the Myste-
ries than the orgies occasionally occurring among the adherents of Christianity
till the eighteenth century were representative of primitive Christianity. Sir Wil-
liam Hamilton, British Minister at the Court of Naples, declares that in 1780,
Isernia, a community of Christians in Italy, worshiped with phallic ceremonies
the pagan god Priapus under the name of St. Cosmo. (See Two Essays on the
Worship of Priapus, by Richard Payne Knight.)
Father, mother, and child constitute the natural trinity. The Mysteries glori-
fied the home as the supreme institution consisting of this trinity functioning as
a unit. Pythagoras likened the universe to the family, declaring that as the su-
preme fire of the universe was in the midst of its heavenly bodies, so, by analo-
gy, the supreme fire of the world was upon its hearthstones. The Pythagorean
and other schools of philosophy conceived the one divine nature of God to
manifest itself in the threefold aspect of Father, Mother, and Child. These
three constituted the Divine Family, whose dwelling place is creation and
whose natural and peculiar symbol is the 47th problem of Euclid. God the
Father is spirit, God the Mother is matter, and God the Child--the product of
the two--represents the sum of living things born out of and constituting Na-
ture. The seed of spirit is sown in the womb of matter, and by an immaculate
(pure) conception the progeny is brought into being. Is not this the true mys-
tery of the Madonna holding the Holy Babe in her arms? Who dares to say
that such symbolism is improper? The mystery of life is the supreme mystery,
revealed in all of its divine dignity and glorified as Nature's per feet achieve-
ment by the initiated sages and seers of all ages.

304
 The prudery of today, however, declares this same mystery to be unfit for
the consideration of holy-minded people. Contrary to the dictates of reason, a
standard has been established which affirms that innocence bred of ignorance
is more to be desired than virtue born of knowledge. Eventually, however, man
will learn that he need never be ashamed of truth. Until he does learn this, he
is false to his God, to his world, and to himself. In this respect, Christianity has
woefully failed in its mission. While declaring man's body to be the living tem-
ple of the living God, in the same breath it asserts the substances and functions
of this temple to be unclean and their study defiling to the sensitive sentiments
of the righteous. By this unwholesome attitude, man's body--the house of God--
is degraded and defamed. Yet the cross itself is the oldest of phallic emblems,
and the lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals are proof that yonic symbols
have survived the destruction of the pagan Mysteries. The very structure of the
church itself is permeated with phallicism. Remove from the Christian Church
all emblems of Priapic origin and nothing is left, for even the earth upon which
it stands was, because of its fertility, the first yonic symbol. As the presence of
these emblems of the generative processes is either unknown or unheeded by
the majority, the irony of the situation is not generally appreciated. Only those
conversant with the secret language of antiquity are capable of understanding
the divine significance of these emblems.
Flowers were chosen as symbols for many reasons. The great variety of flora
made it possible to find some plant or flower which would be a suitable figure
for nearly any abstract quality or condition. A plant might be chosen because of
some myth connected with its origin, as the stories of Daphne and Narcissus;
because of the peculiar environment in which it thrived, as the orchid and the
fungus; because of its significant shape, as the passion flower and the Easter
lily; because of its brilliance or fragrance, as the verbena and the sweet lavend-
er; because it preserved its form indefinitely, as the everlasting flower; because
of unusual characteristics as the sunflower and heliotrope, which have long
been sacred because of their affinity for the sun.
The plant might also be considered worthy of veneration because from its
crushed leaves, petals, stalks, or roots could be extracted healing unctions,
essences, or drugs affecting the nature and intelligence of human beings--such
as the poppy and the ancient herbs of prophecy. The plant might also be re-
garded as efficacious in the cure of many diseases because its fruit, leaves, pet-
als, or roots bore a resemblance in shape or color to parts or organs of the
human body. For example, the distilled juices of certain species of ferns, also
the hairy moss growing upon oaks, and the thistledown were said to have the
power of growing hair; the dentaria, which resembles a tooth in shape, was said
to cure the toothache; and the palma Christi plant, because of its shape, cured
all afflictions of the hands.

305
 The blossom is really the reproductive system of the plant and is therefore
singularly appropriate as a symbol of sexual purity--an absolute requisite of the
ancient Mysteries. Thus the flower signifies this ideal of beauty and regenera-
tion which must ultimately take the place of lust and degeneracy.
Of all symbolic flowers the locus blossom of India and Egypt and the rose of
the Rosicrucians are the most important. In their symbolism these two flowers
are considered identical. The esoteric doctrines for which the Eastern lotus
stands have been perpetuated in modern Europe under the form of the rose.
The rose and the lotus are yonic emblems, signifying primarily the maternal
creative mystery, while the Easter lily is considered to be phallic.
The Brahmin and Egyptian initiates, who undoubtedly understood the se-
cret systems of spiritual culture whereby the latent centers of cosmic energy in
man may be stimulated, employed the lotus blossoms to represent the spinning
vortices of spiritual energy located at various points along the spinal column
and called chakras, or whirling wheels, by the Hindus. Seven of these chakras
are of prime importance and have their individual correspondences in the
nerve ganglia and plexuses. According to the secret schools, the sacral ganglion
is called the four-petaled lotus; the prostatic plexus, the six-petaled lotus; the
epigastric plexus and navel, the ten-petaled lotus; the cardiac plexus, the twelve-
petaled lotus; the pharyngeal plexus, the sixteen-petaled locus; the cavernous
plexus, the two-petaled lotus; and the pineal gland or adjacent unknown center,
the thousand-petaled locus. The color, size, and number of petals upon the
lotus are the keys to its symbolic import. A hint concerning the unfoldment of
spiritual understanding according to the secret science of the Mysteries is
found in the story of Aaron's rod that budded, and also in Wagner's great op-
era, Tannhuser, where the budding staff of the Pope signifies the unfolding
blossoms upon the sacred rod of the Mysteries--the spinal column.

306
Click to enlarge
THE TREE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE.
This remarkable example of the use of the tree in symbolism is from the Chateau de
Pierrefonds in the little town of Pierrefonds, northern France. The eight side branches
end in conventional cup-like flowers, from each of which rises the body of a knight
carrying in his hand a ribbon bearing his name. The central stem is surmounted by a
larger flower, from which emerges the body of King Arthur himself. The tree is a favo-
rite motif in heraldry. The one trunk with its multitude of branches caused the tree to
be frequently used in diagramming family lineage, from which practice has arisen the
custom of terming such tables "family trees."

The Rosicrucians used a garland of roses to signify the same spiritual vortices,
which are referred to in the Bible as the seven lamps of the candlestick and the
seven churches of Asia. In the 1642 edition of Sir Francis Bacon's History of
Henry the Seventh is a frontispiece showing Lord Bacon with Rosicrucian ros-
es for shoe buckles.
In the Hindu system of philosophy, each petal of the lotus bears a certain
symbol which gives an added clue to the meaning of the flower. The Orientals
also used the lotus plant to signify the growth of man through the three periods
of human consciousness--ignorance, endeavor, and understanding. As the lotus
exists in three elements (earth, water, and air) so man lives in three worlds--
material, intellectual, and spiritual. As the plant, with its roots in the mud and
the slime, grows upward through the water and finally blossoms forth in the
light and air, so the spiritual growth of man is upward from the darkness of
base action and desire into the light of truth and understanding, the water serv-
ing as a symbol of the ever-changing world of illusion through which the soul
must pass in its struggle to reach the state of spiritual illumination. The rose
and its Eastern equivalent, the lotus, like all beautiful flowers, represent spiri-

307
tual unfoldment and attainment: hence, the Eastern deities are often shown
seated upon the open petals of the lotus blossoms.
The lotus was also a universal motif in Egyptian art and architecture. The roofs
of many temples were upheld by lotus columns, signifying the eternal wisdom;
and the lotus-headed scepter--symbolic of self-unfoldment and divine preroga-
tive--was often carried in religious processions. When the flower had nine pet-
als, it was symbolic of man; when twelve, of the universe and the gods; when
seven, of the planets and the law; when five, of the senses and the Mysteries;
and when three, of the chief deities and the worlds. The heraldic rose of the
Middle Ages generally has either five or ten petals thereby showing its relation-
ship to the spiritual mystery of man through the Pythagorean pentad and de-
cad.

CULTUS ARBORUM

The worship of trees as proxies of Divinity was prevalent throughout the an-
cient world. Temples were often built in the heart of sacred groves, and noc-
turnal ceremonials were conducted under the wide-spreading branches of great
trees, fantastically decorated and festooned in honor of their patron deities. In
many instances the trees themselves were believed to possess the attributes of
divine power and intelligence, and therefore supplications were often ad-
dressed to them. The beauty, dignity, massiveness, and strength of oaks, elms,
and cedars led to their adoption as symbols of power, integrity, permanence,
virility, and divine protection.
Several ancient peoples--notably the Hindus and Scandinavians---regarded
the Macrocosm, or Grand Universe, as a divine tree growing from a single seed
sown in space. The Greeks, Persians, Chaldeans, and Japanese have legends
describing the axle tree or reed upon which the earth revolves. Kapila declares
the universe to be the eternal tree, Brahma, which springs from an impercepti-
ble and intangible seed--the material monad. The medival Qabbalists
represented creation as a tree with its roots in the reality of spirit and its
branches in the illusion of tangible existence. The Sephirothic tree of the Qab-
balah was therefore inverted, with its roots in heaven and its branches upon the
earth. Madam Blavatsky notes that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a
symbol of this inverted tree, with its root at the apex of the pyramid and its
branches diverging in four streams towards the base.
The Scandinavian world-tree, Yggdrasil, supports on its branches nine
spheres or worlds,--which the Egyptians symbolized by the nine stamens of the
persea or avocado. All of these are enclosed within the mysterious tenth sphere

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or cosmic egg--the definitionless Cipher of the Mysteries. The Qabbalistic tree
of the Jews also consists of nine branches, or worlds, emanating from the First
Cause or Crown, which surrounds its emanations as the shell surrounds the
egg. The single source of life and the endless diversity of its expression has a
perfect analogy in the structure of the tree. The trunk represents the single
origin of all diversity; the roots, deeply imbedded in the dark earth, are symbol-
ic of divine nutriment; and its multiplicity of branches spreading from the cen-
tral trunk represent the infinity of universal effects dependent upon a single
cause.
The tree has also been accepted as symbolic of the Microcosm, that is, man.
According to the esoteric doctrine, man first exists potentially within the body
of the world-tree and later blossoms forth into objective manifestation upon its
branches. According to an early Greek Mystery myth, the god Zeus fabricated
the third race of men from ash trees. The serpent so often shown wound
around the trunk of the tree usually signifies the mind--the power of thought--
and is the eternal tempter or urge which leads all rational creatures to the ulti-
mate discovery of reality and thus overthrows the rule of the gods. The serpent
hidden in the foliage of the universal tree represents the cosmic mind; and in
the human tree, the individualized intellect.
The concept that all life originates from seeds caused grain and various
plants to be accepted as emblematic of the human spermatozoon, and the tree
was therefore symbolic of organized life unfolding from its primitive germ. The
growth of the universe from its primitive seed may be likened to the growth of
the mighty oak from the tiny acorn. While the tree is apparently much greater
than its own source, nevertheless that source contains potentially every branch,
twig, and leaf which will later be objectively unfolded by the processes of
growth.
Man's veneration for trees as symbols of the abstract qualities of wisdom and
integrity also led him to designate as trees those individuals who possessed
these divine qualities to an apparently superhuman degree. Highly illumined
philosophers and priests were therefore often referred to as trees or tree men--
for example, the Druids, whose name, according to one interpretation, signifies
the men of the oak trees, or the initiates of certain Syrian Mysteries who were
called cedars; in fact it is far more credible and probable that the famous ce-
dars of Lebanon, cut down for the building of King Solomon's Temple, were
really illumined, initiated sages. The mystic knows that the true supports of
God's Glorious House were not the logs subject to decay but the immortal and
imperishable intellects of the tree hierophants.
Trees are repeatedly mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and in the
scriptures of various pagan nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which

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the angel appeared to Moses, the famous vine and fig tree of the New Testa-
ment, the grove of olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to
pray, and the miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore twelve manners of fruit
and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear witness to the
esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha received
his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras in India, and several
of the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in meditation beneath the spreading
branches of mighty trees. Many of the great sages and saviors carried wands,
rods, or staves cut from the wood of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and
Aaron; Gungnir--the spear of Odin--cut from the Tree of Life; and the conse-
crated rod of Hermes, around which the fighting serpents entwined themselves.
The numerous uses which the ancients made of the tree and its products are
factors in its symbolism. Its worship was, to a certain degree, based upon its
usefulness. Of this J. P. Lundy writes: "Trees occupy such an important place
in the economy of nature by way of attracting and retaining moisture, and shad-
ing the water-sources and the soil so as to prevent barrenness and desolation;
the), are so useful to man for shade, for fruit, for medicine, for fuel, for build-
ing houses and ships, for furniture, for almost every department of life, that it is
no wonder that some of the more conspicuous ones, such as the oak, the pine,
the palm, and the sycamore, have been made sacred and used for worship."
(See Monumental Christianity.)

Click to enlarge
THE TREE OF NOAH.
From the "Breeches" Bible of 1599.
Most Bibles published during the Middle Ages contain a section devoted to genealogi-
cal tables showing the descent of humanity from Father Adam to the advent of Jesus
Christ. The tree growing from the roof of the Ark represents the body of Noah and its
three branches, his sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The nations by the descendents of
Noah's three sons are appropriately shown in the circles upon the branches of the tree.
While such tables are hopelessly incorrect from a historical point of view, to the sym-
bolist their allegorical interpretations are of inestimable importance.

310
The early Fathers of the church sometimes used the tree to symbolize Christ.
They believed that ultimately Christianity would grow up like a mighty oak and
overshadow all other faiths of mankind. Because it annually discards its foliage,
the tree was also looked upon as an appropriate emblem of resurrection and
reincarnation, for though apparently dying each fall it blossomed forth again
with renewed verdure each ensuing spring.
Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity--the mystery of
equilibrium. The Tree of Life represents the spiritual point of balance--the
secret of immortality. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its
name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance--the secret of mortality. The
Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic dia-
gram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the Know-
ledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declares the
secret work, and all is made known. The apple represents the knowledge of the
procreative processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was
established. The allegory of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic
myth, revealing the methods of universal and individual establishment. The
literal story, accepted for so many centuries by an unthinking world, is prepos-
terous, but the creative mystery of which it is the symbol is one of Nature's
profoundest verities. The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered the Edenic
snake because it was the cause of individual existence. Though humanity is still
wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain completion and
eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst of the illusionary garden
of worldly things. Thus the Tree of Life is also the appointed symbol of the
Mysteries, and by partaking of its fruit man attains immortality.
The oak, the pine, the ash, the cypress, and the palm are the five trees of
greatest symbolic importance. The Father God of the Mysteries was often wor-
shiped under the form of an oak; the Savior God--frequently the World Mar-
tyr--in the form of a pine; the world axis and the divine nature in humanity in
the form of an ash; the goddesses, or maternal principle, in the form of a cy-
press; and the positive pole of generation in the form of the inflorescence of
the mate date palm. The pine cone is a phallic symbol of remote antiquity.
The thyrsus of Bacchus--a long wand or staff surmounted by a pine cone or
cluster of grapes and entwined with ivy or grape-vine leaves, sometimes rib-
bons--signifies that the wonders of Nature may only be accomplished by the aid
of solar virility, as symbolized by the cone or grapes. In the Phrygian Mysteries,
Atys--the ever-present sun-savior--dies under the branches of the pine tree (an
allusion to the solar globe at the winter solstice) and for this reason the pine
tree was sacred to his cult. This tree was also sacred in the Mysteries of Diony-
sos and Apollo.

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 Among the ancient Egyptians and Jews the acacia, or tamarisk, was held in
the highest religious esteem; and among modern Masons, branches of acacia,
cypress, cedar, or evergreen are still regarded as most significant emblems. The
shittim-wood used by the children of Israel in the construction of the Taber-
nacle and the Ark of the Covenant was a species of acacia. In describing this
sacred tree, Albert Pike has written: "The genuine acacia, also, is the thorny
tamarisk, the same tree which grew around the body of Osiris. It was a sacred
tree among the Arabs, who made of it the idol Al-Uzza, which Mohammed
destroyed. It is abundant as a bush in the desert of Thur; and of it the 'crown of
thorns' was composed, which was set on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. It is
a fit type of immortality on account of its tenacity of life; for it has been known,
when planted as a door-post, to take root again and shoot out budding boughs
above the threshold." (See Morals and Dogma.)
It is quite possible that much of the veneration accorded the acacia is due to
the peculiar attributes of the mimosa, or sensitive plant, with which it was often
identified by the ancients. There is a Coptic legend to the effect that the sensi-
tive plant was the first of all trees or shrubs to worship Christ. The rapid growth
of the acacia and its beauty have also caused it to be regarded as emblematic of
fecundity and generation.
The symbolism of the acacia is susceptible of four distinct interpretations:
(1) it is the emblem of the vernal equinox--the annual resurrection of the solar
deity; (2) under the form of the sensitive plant which shrinks from human
touch, the acacia signifies purity and innocence, as one of the Greek meanings
of its name implies; (3) it fittingly typifies human immortality and regeneration,
and under the form of the evergreen represents that immortal part of man
which survives the destruction of his visible nature; (4) it is the ancient and
revered emblem of the Mysteries, and candidates entering the tortuous pas-
sageways in which the ceremonials were given carried in their hands branches
of these sacred plants or small clusters of sanctified flowers.
Albert G. Mackey calls attention to the fact that each of the ancient Myste-
ries had its own peculiar plant sacred to the gods or goddesses in whose honor
the rituals were celebrated. These sacred plants were later adopted as the sym-
bols of the various degrees in which they were used. Thus, in the Mysteries of
Adonis, lettuce was sacred; in the Brahmin and Egyptian rites, the lotus; among
the Druids, the mistletoe; and among certain of the Greek Mysteries, the myr-
tle. (See Encyclopdia of Freemasonry.)
As the legend of CHiram Abiff is based upon the ancient Egyptian Mystery
ritual of the murder and resurrection of Osiris, it is natural that the sprig of
acacia should be preserved as symbolic of the resurrection of CHiram. The
chest containing the body of Osiris was washed ashore near Byblos and lodged
in the roots of a tamarisk, or acacia, which, growing into a mighty tree, en-

312
closed within its trunk the body of the murdered god. This is undoubtedly the
origin of the story that a sprig of acacia marks the grave of CHiram. The mys-
tery of the evergreen marking the grave of the dead sun god is also perpetuated
in the Christmas tree.
The apricot and quince are familiar yonic symbols, while the bunch of
grapes and the fig are phallic. The pomegranate is the mystic fruit of the Eleu-
sinian rites; by eating it, Prosperine bound herself to the realms of Pluto. The
fruit here signifies the sensuous life which, once tasted, temporarily deprives
man of immortality. Also on account of its vast number of seeds the pomegra-
nate was often employed to represent natural fecundity. For the same reason,
Jacob Bryant in his Ancient Mythology notes that the ancients recognized in
this fruit an appropriate emblem of the Ark of the Deluge, which contained the
seeds of the new human race. Among the ancient Mysteries the pomegranate
was also considered to be a divine symbol of such peculiar significance that its
true explanation could not be divulged. It was termed by the Cabiri "the for-
bidden secret." Many Greek gods and goddesses are depicted holding the fruit
or flower of the pomegranate in their hands, evidently to signify that they are
givers of life and plenty. Pomegranate capitals were placed upon the pillars of
Jachin and Boaz standing in front of King Solomon's Temple; and by the order
of Jehovah, pomegranate blossoms were embroidered upon the bottom of the
High Priest's ephod.

Click to enlarge
THE SUNFLOWER.
From Kircher's Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica Opus Tripartitum.
The above diagram illustrates a curious experiment in plant magnetism reproduced
with several other experiments in Athanasius Kircher's rare volume on magnetism.
Several plants were sacred to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hindus because of
the peculiar effect which the sun exerted over them. As it is difficult for man to look
upon the face of the sun without being blinded by the light, those plants which turned
and deliberately faced the solar orb were considered typical of very highly advanced

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souls. Since the sun was regarded as the personification of the Supreme Deity, those
forms of life over which it exercised marked influence were venerated as being sacred
to Divinity. The sunflower, because of its plainly perceptible affinity for the sun, was
given high rank among sacred plants.

Strong wine made from the juice of the grape was looked upon as symbolic of
the false life and false light of the universe, for it was produced by a false
process--artificial fermentation. The rational faculties are clouded by strong
drink, and the animal nature, liberated from bondage, controls the individual--
facts which necessarily were of the greatest spiritual significance. As the lower
nature is the eternal tempter seeking co lead man into excesses which inhibit
the spiritual faculties, the grape and its product were used to symbolize the
Adversary.
The juice of the grape was thought by the Egyptians to resemble human
blood more closely than did any other substance. In fact, they believed that the
grape secured its life from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the
earth. According to Plutarch, "The priests of the sun at Heliopolis never carry
any wine into their temples, * * * and if they made use of it at any time in their
libations to the gods, it was not because they looked upon it as in its own na-
ture acceptable to them; but they poured it upon their altars as the blood of
those enemies who formerly had fought against them. For they look upon the
vine to have first sprung out of the earth after it was fattened with the carcasses
of those who fell in the wars against the gods. And this, say they, is the reason
why drinking its juice in great quantities makes men mad and beside them-
selves, filling them as it were with the blood of their own ancestors." (See Isis
and Osiris.)
Among some cults the state of intoxication was viewed as a condition some-
what akin to ecstasy, for the individual was believed to be possessed by the
Universal Spirit of Life, whose chosen vehicle was the vine. In the Mysteries,
the grape was often used to symbolize lust and debauchery because of its de-
moralizing effect upon the emotional nature. The fact was recognized, howev-
er, that fermentation was the certain evidence of the presence of the solar fire,
hence the grape was accepted as the proper symbol of the Solar Spirit--the
giver of divine enthusiasm. In a somewhat similar manner, Christians have
accepted wine as the emblem of the blood of Christ, partaking of it in Holy
Communion. Christ, the exoteric emblem of the Solar Spirit, said, "I am the
vine." He was therefore worshiped with the wine of ecstasy in the same manner
as were his pagan prototypes--Bacchus, Dionysos, Arys, and Adonis.
The mandragora officinarum, or mandrake, is accredited with possessing the
most remarkable magical powers. Its narcotic properties were recognized by

314
the Greeks, who employed it to deaden pain during surgical operations, and it
has been identified also with baaras, the mystic herb used by the Jews for cast-
ing out demons. In the Jewish Wars, Josephus describes the method of secur-
ing the baaras, which he declares emits flashes of lightning and destroys all who
seek to touch it, unless they proceed according to certain rules supposedly
formulated by King Solomon himself.
The occult properties of the mandrake, while little understood, have been
responsible for the adoption of the plant as a talisman capable of increasing the
value or quantity of anything with which it was associated. As a phallic charm,
the mandrake was considered to be an infallible cure for sterility. It was one of
the Priapic symbols which the Knights Templars were accused of worshiping.
The root of the plant closely resembles a human body and often bore the out-
lines of the human head, arms, or legs. This striking similarity between the
body of man and the mandragora is one of the puzzles of natural science and is
the real basis for the veneration in which this plant was held. In Isis Unveiled,
Madam Blavatsky notes that the mandragora seems to occupy upon earth the
point where the vegetable and animal kingdoms meet, as the zoophites and
polypi do in die sea. This thought opens a vast field of speculation concerning
the nature of this animal-plant.
According to a popular superstition, the mandrake shrank from being
touched and, crying out with a human voice, clung desperately to the soil in
which it was imbedded. Anyone who heard its cry while plucking it either im-
mediately died or went mad. To circumvent this tragedy, it was customary to
dig around the roots of the mandrake until the plant was thoroughly loosened
and then to tie one end of a cord about the stalk and fasten the other end to a
dog. The dog, obeying his master's call, thereupon dragged the root from the
earth and became the victim of the mandragora curse. When once uprooted,
the plant could be handled with immunity.
During the Middle Ages, mandrake charms brought great prices and an art
was evolved by which the resemblance between the mandragora root and the
human body was considerably accentuated. Like most superstitions, the belief
in the peculiar powers of the mandrake was founded upon an ancient secret
doctrine concerning the true nature of the plant. "It is slightly narcotic," says
Eliphas Levi, "and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed to it by the ancients,
who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers for the composition
of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin, as a certain
magical mysticism has suggested? We dare not affirm it seriously, but it is true
all the same that man issued from the slime of earth and his first appearance
must have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of Nature compel
us to admit the notion, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case,
a family of gigantic, sensitive mandrogores, animated by the sun, who rooted

315
themselves up from the earth." (See Transcendental Magic.)
The homely onion was revered by the Egyptians as a symbol of the universe
because its rings and layers represented the concentric planes into which crea-
tion was divided according to the Hermetic Mysteries. It was also regarded as
possessing great medicinal virtue. Because of peculiar properties resulting from
its pungency, the garlic plant was a powerful agent in transcendental magic. To
this day no better medium has been found for the treatment of obsession.
Vampirism and certain forms of insanity--especially those resulting from medi-
umship and the influences of elemental larv--respond immediately to the use
of garlic. In the Middle Ages, its presence in a house was believed to ward off
all evil powers.
Trifoliate plants, such as the shamrock, were employed by many religious
cults to represent the principle of the Trinity. St. Patrick is supposed to have
used the shamrock to illustrate this doctrine of the triune Divinity. The reason
for the additional sanctity conferred by a fourth leaf is that the fourth principle
of the Trinity is man, and the presence of this leaf therefore signifies the re-
demption of humanity.
Wreaths were worn during initiation into the Mysteries and the reading of
the sacred books to signify that these processes were consecrated to the deities.
On the symbolism of wreaths, Richard Payne Knight writes: "Instead of beads,
wreaths of foliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak, appear upon
coins, sometimes encircling the symbolical figures, and sometimes as chaplets
upon their heads. All these were sacred to some peculiar personifications of
the deity, and significant of some particular attributes, and, in general, all ever-
greens were Dionysiac planes; that is, symbols of the generative power, signify-
ing perpetuity of youth and vigor, as the circles of beads and diadems signify
perpetuity of existence. (See Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythol-
ogy.)

Click to enlarge
THE TREE OF ALCHEMY.
From Musum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.
The alchemists were went to symbolize their metals by means of a tree, to indicate that
all seven were branches dependent upon the single trunk of solar life. As the Seven

316
Spirits depend upon God and are branches of a tree of which He is the root, trunk,
and the spiritual earth from which the root derives its nourishment, so the single trunk
of divine life and power nourishes all the multitudinous forms of which the universe is
composed.
In Gloria Mundi, from which the above illustration is reproduced, there is con-
tained an important thought concerning the plantlike growth of metals: "All trees,
herbs, stones, metals, and minerals grow and attain to perfection without being neces-
sarily touched by any human hand: for the seed is raised up from the ground, puts
forth flowers, and bears fruit, simply through the agency of natural influences. As it is
with plants, so it is with metals. While they lie in the heart of the earth, in their natural
ore, they grow and are developed, day by day, through the influence of the four ele-
ments: their fire is the splendor of the Sun and Moon; the earth conceives in her
womb the splendor of the Sun, and by it the seeds of the metals are well and equally
warmed, just like the grain in the fields. * * * For as each tree of the field has its own
peculiar shape, appearance, and fruit, so each mountain bears its own particular ore;
those stones and that earth being the soil in which the metals grow." (See Translation
of 1893.)

317
 Stones, Metals and Gems

EACH of the four primary elements as taught by the early philosophers has its
analogue in the quaternary terrestrial constitution of man. The rocks and earth
correspond to the bones and flesh; the water to the various fluids; the air to the
gases; and the fire to the bodily heat. Since the bones are the framework that
sustains the corporeal structure, they may be regarded as a fitting emblem of
the spirit--that divine foundation which supports the composite fabric of mind,
soul, and body. To the initiate, the skeleton of death holding in bony fingers
the reaper's scythe denotes Saturn (Kronos), the father of the gods, carrying the
sickle with which he mutilated Ouranos, his own sire.
In the language of the Mysteries, the spirits of men are the powdered bones
of Saturn. The latter deity was always worshiped under the symbol of the base
or footing, inasmuch as he was considered to be the substructure upholding
creation. The myth of Saturn has its historical basis in the fragmentary records
preserved by the early Greeks and Phnicians concerning a king by that name
who ruled over the ancient continent of Hyperborea. Polaris, Hyperborea, and
Atlantis, because they lie buried beneath the continents and oceans of the
modern world, have frequently been symbolized as rocks supporting upon
their broad surfaces new lands, races, and empires. According to the Scandina-
vian Mysteries, the stones and cliffs were formed from the bones of Ymir, the
primordial giant of the seething clay, while to the Hellenic mystics the rocks
were the bones of the Great Mother, Ga.
After the deluge sent by the gods to destroy mankind at the close of the Iron
Age, only Deucalion and Pyrrha were left alive. Entering a ruined sanctuary to
pray, they were directed by an oracle to depart from the temple and with heads
veiled and garments unbound cast behind them the bones of their mother.
Construing the cryptic message of the god to mean that the earth was the Great
Mother of all creatures, Deucalion picked up loose rocks and, bidding Pyrrha
do likewise, cast them behind him. From these rocks there sprang forth a new
and stalwart race of human beings, the rocks thrown by Deucalion becoming
men and those thrown by Pyrrha becoming women. In this allegory is epito-
mized the mystery of human evolution; for spirit, by ensouling matter, be-
comes that indwelling power which gradually but sequentially raises the mineral
to the status of the plant; the plant to the plane of the animal; the animal to the
dignity of man; and man to the estate of the gods.
The solar system was organized by forces operating inward from the great
ring of the Saturnian sphere; and since the beginnings of all things were under
the control of Saturn, the most reasonable inference is that the first forms of

318
worship were dedicated to him and his peculiar symbol--the stone. Thus the
intrinsic nature of Saturn is synonymous with that spiritual rock which is the
enduring foundation of the Solar Temple, and has its antitypc or lower octave
in that terrestrial rock--the planet Earth--which sustains upon its jagged surface
the diversified genera of mundane life.
Although its origin is uncertain, litholatry undoubtedly constitutes one of the
earliest forms of religious expression. "Throughout all the world, " writes Godf-
rey Higgins, "the first object of Idolatry seems to have been a plain, unwrought
stone, placed in the ground, as an emblem of the generative or procreative
powers of nature." (See The Celtic Druids.) Remnants of stone worship are
distributed over the greater part of the earth's surface, a notable example being
the menhirs at Carnac, in Brittany, where several thousand gigantic uncut
stones are arranged in eleven orderly rows. Many of these monoliths stand over
twenty feet out of the sand in which they are embedded, and it has been calcu-
lated that some of the larger ones weigh as much as 250,000 pounds. By some
it is believed that certain of the menhirs mark the location of buried treasure,
but the most plausible view is that which regards Carnac as a monument to the
astronomical knowledge of antiquity. Scattered throughout the British Isles and
Europe, these cairns, dolmens, menhirs, and cistvaens stand as mute but elo-
quent testimonials to the existence and achievements of races now extinct.
Of particular interest are the rocking or logan stones, which evince the me-
chanical skill of these early peoples. These relics consist of enormous boulders
poised upon one or two small points in such a manner that the slightest pres-
sure will sway them, but the greatest effort is not sufficient to overthrow them.
These were called living stones by the Greeks and Latins, the most famous one
being the Gygorian stone in the Strait of Gibraltar. Though so perfectly ba-
lanced that it could be moved with the stalk of a daffodil, this rock could not
be upset by the combined weight of many men. There is a legend that Her-
cules raised a rocking stone over the graves of the two sons of Boreas whom he
had killed in combat. This stone was so delicately poised that it swayed back
and forth with the wind, but no application of force could overturn it. A num-
ber of logan stones have been found in Britain, traces of one no longer stand-
ing having been discovered in Stonehenge. (See The Celtic Druids.) It is inter-
esting to note that the green stones forming the inner ring of Stonehenge are
believed to have been brought from Africa.
In many cases the monoliths are without carving or inscription, for they un-
doubtedly antedate both the use of tools and the art of writing. In some in-
stances the stones have been trued into columns or obelisks, as in the runic
monuments and the Hindu lingams and sakti stones; in other instances they
are fashioned into rough likenesses of the human body, as in the Easter Island
statues, or into the elaborately sculptured figures of the Central American In-

319
dians and the Khmers of Cambodia. The first rough-stone images can hardly
be considered as effigies of any particular deity but rather as the crude effort of
primitive man to portray in the enduring qualities of stone the procreative
attributes of abstract Divinity. An instinctive recognition of the stability of Deity
has persisted through all the intervening ages between primitive man and mod-
em civilization. Ample proof of the survival of litholatry in the Christian faith is
furnished by allusions to the rock of refuge, the rock upon which the church of
Christ was to be founded, the corner stone which the builders rejected, Jacob's
stony pillow which he set up and anointed with oil, the sling stone of David, the
rock Moriah upon which the altar of King Solomon's Temple was erected, the
white stone of Revelation, and the Rock of Ages.
Stones were highly venerated by prehistoric peoples primarily because of
their usefulness. Jagged bits of stone were probably man's first weapons; rocky
cliffs and crags constituted his first fortifications, and from these vantage points
he hurled loose boulders down upon marauders. In caverns or rude huts fa-
shioned from slabs of rock the first humans protected themselves from the
rigors of the elements. Stones were set up as markers and monuments to pri-
mitive achievement; they were also placed upon the graves of the dead, proba-
bly as a precautionary measure to prevent the depredations of wild beasts. Dur-
ing migrations, it was apparently customary for primitive peoples to carry about
with them stones taken from their original habitat. As the homeland or birth-
place of a race was considered sacred, these stones were emblematic of that
universal regard shared by all nations for the place of their geniture. The dis-
covery that fire could be produced by striking together two pieces of stone
augmented man's reverence for stones, but ultimately the hitherto unsuspected
world of wonders opened by the newly discovered element of fire caused pyro-
latry to supplant stone worship. The dark, cold Father--stone--gave birth out of
itself to the bright, glowing Son-fire; and the newly born flame, by displacing its
parent, became the most impressive and mysterious of all religio-philosophic
symbols, widespread and enduring through the ages.

320
Click to enlarge
SATURN SWALLOWING THE STONE SUBSTITUTED FOR JUPITER.
From Catrari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.
Saturn, having been warned by his parents that one of his own children would deth-
rone him, devoured each child at birth. At last Rhea, his wife, in order to save Jupiter,
her sixth child substituted for him a rock enveloped in swaddling clothes--which Sa-
turn, ignorant of the deception practiced upon him, immediately swallowed. Jupiter
was concealed on the island of Crete until he attained manhood, when he forced his
father to disgorge the five children he had eaten. The stone swallowed by Saturn in lieu
of his youngest son was placed by Jupiter at Delphi, where it was held in great venera-
tion and was daily anointed.

The body of every thing was likened to a rock, trued either into a cube or more
ornately chiseled to form a pedestal, while the spirit of everything was likened
to the elaborately carved figure surmounting it. Accordingly, altars were erected
as a symbol of the lower world, and fires were kept burning upon them to
represent that spiritual essence illuminating the body it surmounted. The
square is actually one surface of a cube, its corresponding figure in plane geo-
metry, and its proper philosophic symbol. Consequently, when considering the
earth as an element and not as a body, the Greeks, Brahmins, and Egyptians
always referred to its four corners, although they were fully aware that the pla-
net itself was a sphere.
Because their doctrines were the sure foundation of all knowledge and the
first step in the attainment of conscious immortality, the Mysteries were often
represented as cubical or pyramidal stones. Conversely, these stones them-
selves became the emblem of that condition of self-achieved godhood. The
unchangeability of the stone made it an appropriate emblem of God--the im-
movable and unchangeable Source of Existence--and also of the divine
sciences--the eternal revelation of Himself to mankind. As the personification
of the rational intellect, which is the true foundation of human life, Mercury, or
Hermes, was symbolized in a like manner. Square or cylindrical pillars, sur-
mounted by a bearded head of Hermes and called herm, were set up in pub-
lic places. Terminus, a form of Jupiter and god of boundaries and highways,
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from whose name is derived the modern word terminal, was also symbolized
by an upright stone, sometimes ornamented with the head of the god, which
was placed at the borders of provinces and the intersections of important
roads.
The philosopher's stone is really the philosophical stone, for philosophy is
truly likened to a magic jewel whose touch transmutes base substances into
priceless gems like itself. Wisdom is the alchemist's powder of projection
which transforms many thousand times its own weight of gross ignorance into
the precious substance of enlightenment.

THE TABLETS OF THE LAW

While upon the heights of Mount Sinai, Moses received from Jehovah two
tablets bearing the characters of the Decalogue traced by the very finger of
Israel's God. These tables were fashioned from the divine sapphire, Schethiy,
which the Most High, after removing from His own throne, had cast into the
Abyss to become the foundation and generator of the worlds. This sacred
stone, formed of heavenly dew, was sundered by the breath of God, and upon
the two parts were drawn in black fire the figures of the Law. These precious
inscriptions, aglow with celestial splendor, were delivered by the Lord on the
Sabbath day into the hands of Moses, who was able to read the illumined let-
ters from the reverse side because of the transparency of the great jewel. (See
The Secret Doctrine in Israel or The Zohar for details of this legend.)
The Ten Commandments are the ten shining gems placed by the Holy One
in the sapphire sea of Being, and in the depths of matter the reflections of
these jewels are seen as the laws governing the sublunary spheres. They are the
sacred ten by which the Supreme Deity has stamped His will upon the face of
Nature. This same decad was celebrated by the Pythagoreans under the form
of the tetractys--that triangle of spermatic points which reveals to the initiated
the whole working of the cosmic scheme; for ten is the number of perfection,
the key to creation, and the proper symbol of God, man, and the universe.
Because of the idolatry of the Israelites, Moses deemed the people unworthy
to receive the sapphire tables; hence he destroyed them, that the Mysteries of
Jehovah should not be violated. For the original set Moses substituted two tab-
lets of rough stone into the surface of which he had cut ten ancient letters.
While the former tables--partaking of the divinity of the Tree of Life--blazed
forth eternal verities, the latter--partaking of the nature of the Tree of Good
and Evil--revealed only temporal truths. Thus the ancient tradition of Israel
returned again to heaven, leaving only its shadow with the children of the

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twelve tribes.
One of the two tables of stone delivered by the Lawgiver to his followers
stood for the oral, the other for the written traditions upon which the Rabbini-
cal School was founded. Authorities differ widely as to the size and substance
of the inferior tables. Some describe them as being so small that they could be
held in the hollow of a man's hand; others declare that each table was ten or
twelve cubits in length and of enormous weight. A few even deny that the tables
were of stone, maintaining that they were of a wood called sedr, which, accord-
ing to the Mohammedans, grows profusely in Paradise.
The two tables signify respectively the superior and the inferior worlds--the
paternal and the maternal formative principles. In their undivided state they
represent the Cosmic Androgyne. The breaking of the tables signifies obscure-
ly the separation of the superior and the inferior spheres and also the division
of the sexes. In the religious processionals of the Greeks and Egyptians an ark
or ship was carried which contained stone tablets, cones, and vessels of various
shapes emblematic of the procreative processes. The Ark of the Israelites--
which was patterned after the sacred chests of the Isiac Mysteries--contained
three holy objects, each having an important phallic interpretation: the pot of
manna, the rod that budded, and the Tablets of the Law--the first, second, and
third Principles of the Creative Triad. The manna, the blossoming staff, and
the stone tables are also appropriate images respectively of the Qabbalah, the
Mishna, and the written law--the spirit, soul, and body of Judaism. When
placed in King Solomon's Everlasting House, the Ark of the Covenant con-
tained only the Tablets of the Law. Does this indicate that even at that early
date the secret tradition had been lost and the letter of the revelation alone
remained?
As representing the power that fabricated the lower, or Demiurgic, sphere,
the tablets of stone were sacred to Jehovah in contradistinction to the tablets of
sapphire that signified the potency that established the higher, or celestial,
sphere. Without doubt the Mosaic tablets have their prototype in the stone
pillars or obelisks placed on either side of the entrance to pagan temples.
These columns may pertain to that remote time when men worshiped the
Creator through His zodiacal sign of Gemini, the symbol of which is still the
phallic pillars of the Celestial Twins. "The Ten Commandments, writes Har-
grave Jennings, "are inscribed in two groups of five each, in columnar form.
The five to the right (looking from the altar) mean the 'Law'; the five to the left
mean the 'Prophets.' The right stone is masculine, the left stone is feminine.
They correspond to the two disjoined pillars of stone (or towers) in the front of
every cathedral, and of every temple in the heathen times." (See The Rosicru-
cians: Their Rites and Mysteries.) The same author states that the Law is mas-
culine because it was delivered direct from the Deity, while the Prophets, or

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Gospels, were feminine because born through the nature of man.
The right Tablet of the Law further signifies Jachin--the white pillar of light;
the left Tablet, Boaz--the shadowy pillar of darkness. These were the names of
the two pillars cast from brass set up on the porch of King Solomon's Temple.
They were eighteen cubits in height and beautifully ornamented with wreaths
of chainwork, nets, and pomegranates. On the top of each pillar was a large
bowl--now erroneously called a ball or globe--one of the bowls probably con-
taining fire and the other water. The celestial globe (originally the bowl of fire),
surmounting the right-hand column (Jachin), symbolized the divine man; the
terrestrial globe (the bowl of water), surmounting the left-hand column (Boaz),
signified the earthly man. These two pillars respectively connote also the active
and the passive expressions of Divine Energy, the sun and the moon, sulphur
and salt, good and bad, light and darkness. Between them is the door leading
into the House of God, and standing thus at the gates of Sanctuary they are a
reminder that Jehovah is both an androgynous and an anthropomorphic deity.
As two parallel columns they denote the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capri-
corn, which were formerly placed in the chamber of initiation to represent
birth and death--the extremes of physical life. They accordingly signify the
summer and the winter solstices, now known to Freemasons under the compa-
ratively modern appellation of the "two St. Johns."
In the mysterious Sephirothic Tree of the Jews, these two pillars symbolize
Mercy and Severity. Standing before the gate of King Solomon's Temple, these
columns had the same symbolic import as the obelisks before the sanctuaries
of Egypt. When interpreted Qabbalistically, the names of the two pillars mean
"In strength shall My House be established. "In the splendor of mental and
spiritual illumination, the High Priest stood between the pillars as a mute wit-
ness to the perfect virtue of equilibrium--that hypothetical point equidistant
from all extremes. He thus personified the divine nature of man in the midst of
his compound constitution--the mysterious Pythagorean Monad in the pres-
ence of the Duad. On one side towered the stupendous column of the intel-
lect; on the other, the brazen pillar of the flesh. Midway between these two
stands the glorified wise man, but he cannot reach this high estate without first
suffering upon the cross made by joining these pillars together. The early Jews
occasionally represented the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, as the legs of Jeho-
vah, thereby signifying to the modern philosopher that Wisdom and Love, in
their most exalted sense, support the whole order of creation--both mundane
and supermundane.

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Click to enlarge
MOSES RECEIVING THE TABLES OF THE LAW.
From an old Bible.
Moses Maimonides, the great Jewish Philosopher of the twelfth century, in describing
the Tables of the Law written by the finger of God, divides all productions into two
general orders: products of Nature and products of art. God works through Nature
and man through art, he asserts in his Guide for the Perplexed. Thus the Word of the
Lord is the hand, or active principle, by which the will of the Creator is traced upon
the face of His creation. The Tannaim, or initiates of the Jewish Mystery School, alone
possessed a complete understanding of the significance of the Ten Commandments.
These laws are esoterically related to the ten degrees of contemplation constituting the
Path of Ecstasy, which winds upward through he four worlds and ends in the efful-
gence of AIN SOPH.

THE HOLY GRAIL

Like the sapphire Schethiy, the Lapis Exilis, crown jewel of the Archangel
Lucifer, fell from heaven. Michael, archangel of the sun and the Hidden God
of Israel, at the head of the angelic hosts swooped down upon Lucifer and his
legions of rebellious spirits. During the conflict, Michael with his flaming sword
struck the flashing Lapis Exilis from the coronet of his adversary, and the green
stone fell through all the celestial rings into the dark and immeasurable Abyss.
Out of Lucifer's radiant gem was fashioned the Sangreal, or Holy Grail, from
which Christ is said to have drunk at the Last Supper.
Though some controversy exists as to whether the Grail was a cup or a plat-
ter, it is generally depicted in art as a chalice of considerable size and unusual
beauty. According to the legend, Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail Cup to
the place of the crucifixion and in it caught the blood pouring from the wounds
of the dying Nazarene. Later Joseph, who had become custodian of the sacred
relics--the Sangreal and the Spear of Longinus--carried them into a distant

325
country. According to one version, his descendants finally placed these relics in
Glastonbury Abbey in England; according to another, in a wonderful castle on
Mount Salvat, Spain, built by angels in a single night. Under the name of Pres-
ton John, Parsifal, the last of the Grail Kings, carried the Holy Cup with him
into India, and it disappeared forever from the Western World. Subsequent
search for the Sangreal was the motif for much of the knight errantry of the
Arthurian legends and the ceremonials of the Round Table. (See the Morte
d'Arthur.)
No adequate interpretation has ever been given to the Grail Mysteries. Some
believe the Knights of the Holy Grail to have been a powerful organization of
Christian mystics perpetuating the Ancient Wisdom under the rituals and sa-
craments of the oracular Cup. The quest for the Holy Grail is the eternal
search for truth, and Albert G. Mackey sees in it a variation of the Masonic
legend of the Lost Word so long sought by the brethren of the Craft. There is
also evidence to support the claim that the story of the Grail is an elaboration
of an early pagan Nature myth which has been preserved by reason of the sub-
tle manner in which it was engrafted upon the cult of Christianity. From this
particular viewpoint, the Holy Grail is undoubtedly a type of the ark or vessel
in which the life of the world is preserved and therefore is significant of the
body of the Great Mother--Nature. Its green color relates it to Venus and to
the mystery of generation; also to the Islamic faith, whose sacred color is green
and whose Sabbath is Friday, the day of Venus.
The Holy Grail is a symbol both of the lower (or irrational) world and of the
bodily nature of man, because both are receptacles for the living essences of
the superior worlds. Such is the mystery of the redeeming blood which, des-
cending into the condition of death, overcomes the last enemy by ensouling all
substance with its own immortality. To the Christian, whose mystic faith espe-
cially emphasizes the love element, the Holy Grail typifies the heart in which
continually swirls the living water of eternal life. Moreover, to the Christian, the
search for the Holy Grail is the search for the real Self which, when found, is
the consummation of the magnum opus.
The Holy Cup can be discovered only by those who have raised themselves
above the limitations of sensuous existence. In his mystic poem, The Vision of
Sir Launfal, James Russell Lowell discloses the true nature of the Holy Grail by
showing that it is visible only to a certain state of spiritual consciousness. Only
upon returning from the vain pursuit of haughty ambition did the aged and
broken knight see in the transformed leper's cup the glowing chalice of his
lifelong dream. Some writers trace a similarity between the Grail legend and
the stories of the martyred Sun Gods whose blood, descending from heaven
into the earth, was caught in the cup of matter and liberated therefrom by the
initiatory rites. The Holy Grail may also be the seed pod so frequently em-

326
ployed in the ancient Mysteries as an emblem of germination and resurrection;
and if the cuplike shape of the Grail be derived from the flower, it signifies the
regeneration and spiritualization of the generative forces in man.
There are many accounts of stone images which, because of the substances
entering into their composition and the ceremonials attendant upon their con-
struction, were ensouled by the divinities whom they were created to resemble.
To such images were ascribed various human faculties and powers, such as
speech, thought, and even motion. While renegade priests doubtless resorted
to trickery--an instance of which is related in a curious apocryphal fragment
entitled Bel and the Dragon and supposedly deleted from the end of the Book
of Daniel--many of the phenomena recorded in connection with sanctified
statues and relics can hardly be explained unless the work of supernatural
agencies be admitted.
History records the existence of stones which, when struck, threw all who
heard the sound into a state of ecstasy. There were also echoing images which
whispered for hours after the room itself had become silent, and musical
stones productive of the sweetest harmonies. In recognition of the sanctity
which the Greeks and Latins ascribed to stones, they placed their hands upon
certain consecrated pillars when taking an oath. In ancient times stones played
a part in determining the fate of accused persons, for it was customary for ju-
ries to reach their verdicts by dropping pebbles into a bag.
Divination by stones was often resorted to by the Greeks, and Helena is said
to have foretold by lithomancy the destruction of Troy. Many popular supersti-
tions about stones survive the so-called Dark Ages. Chief among these is the
one concerning the famous black stone in the seat of the coronation chair in
Westminster Abbey, which is declared to be the actual rock used by Jacob as a
pillow. The black stone also appears several times in religious symbolism. It
was called Heliogabalus, a word presumably derived from Elagabal, the Syro-
Phnician sun god. This stone was sacred to the sun and declared to possess
great and diversified properties. The black stone in the Caaba at Mecca is still
revered throughout the Mohammedan world. It is said to have been white orig-
inally and of such brilliancy that it could be seen many days' journey from
Mecca, but as ages passed it became blackened by the tears of pilgrims and the
sins of the world.

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THE MAGIC OF METALS AND GEMS

According to the teachings of the Mysteries, the rays of the celestial bodies,
striking the crystallizing influences of the lower world, become the various ele-
ments. Partaking of the astral virtues of their source, these elements neutralize
certain unbalanced forms of celestial activity and, when properly combined,
contribute much to the well-being of man. Little is known today concerning
these magical properties, but the modern world may yet find it profitable to
consider the findings of the early philosophers who determined these relation-
ships by extensive experimentation. Out of such research arose the practice of
identifying the metals with the bones of the various deities. For example, the
Egyptians, according to Manetho, considered iron to be the bone of Mars and
the lodestone the bone of Horus. By analogy, lead would be the physical skele-
ton of Saturn, copper of Venus, quicksilver of Mercury, gold of the sun, silver
of the moon, and antimony of the earth. It is possible that uranium will prove
to be the metal of Uranus and radium to be the metal of Neptune.
The four Ages of the Greek mystics--the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the
Bronze Age, and the Iron Age--are metaphoric expressions referring to the
four major periods in the life of all things. In the divisions of the day they signi-
fy dawn, midday, sunset, and midnight; in the duration of gods, men, and un-
iverses, they denote the periods of birth, growth, maturity, and decay. The
Greek Ages also bear a close correspondence to the four Yugas of the Hindus:
Krita-Yuga, Treta-Yuga, Dvapara-Yuga, and Kali-Yuga. Their method of calcu-
lation is described by Ullamudeian as follows: "In each of the 12 signs there are
1800 minutes; multiply this number by 12 you have 21600; e.g. 1800 X
12=21600. Multiply this 21600 by 80 and it will give 1,728,000, which is the
duration of the first age, called Krita-Yuga. If the same number be multiplied
by 60, it will give 1,296,000, the years of the second age, Treta-Yuga. The same
number multiplied by 40 gives 864,000, the length of the third age, Dvapara-
Yuga. The same multiplied by 20 gives 432,000, the fourth age, Kali-Yuga." (It
will be noted that these multipliers decrease in inverse ratio to the Pythagorean
tetractys: 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

328
Click to enlarge
EXAMPLES OF HERM.
From Christie's Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases.
The Primitive custom of worshiping the gods in the form of heaps of stones gave place
to the practice of erecting phallic pillars, or cones, in their honor. These columns dif-
fered widely in size and appearance. Some were of gigantic proportions and were rich-
ly ornamented with inscriptions or likenesses of the gods and heroes; others--like the
votive offerings of the Babylonians--were but a few inches high, without ornament, and
merely bore a brief statement of the purpose for which they had been prepared or a
hymn to the god of the temple in which they were placed. These small baked clay
cones were identical in their symbolic meaning with the large herm set up by the
roadside and in other public places. Later the upper end of the column was sur-
mounted by a human head. Often two projections, or tenons, corresponding to shoul-
ders were placed, one on either side, to support the wreaths of flowers adorning the
columns. Offerings, usually of food, were placed near the herm. Occasionally these
columns were used to uphold roofs and were numbered among the art objects orna-
menting the villas of wealthy Romans.

H. P. Blavatsky declares that Orpheus taught his followers how to affect a

whole audience by means of a lodestone, and that Pythagoras paid particular
attention to the color and nature of precious stones. She adds: "The Buddhists
assert that the sapphire produces peace of mind, equanimity, and chases all evil
thoughts by establishing a healthy circulation in man. So does an electric bat-
tery, with its well-directed fluid, say our electricians. 'The sapphire,' say the
Buddhists, 'will open barred doors and dwellings (for the spirit of man); it pro-
duces a desire for prayer, and brings with it more peace than any other gem;
but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life."' (See Isis Unveiled.)
Mythology abounds with accounts of magical rings and talismanic jewels. In
the second book of his Republic, Plato describes a ring which, when the collet
was turned in ward, rendered its wearer invisible. With this Gyges, the shephe-
rd, secured for himself the throne of Lydia. Josephus also describes magical
rings designed by Moses and King Solomon, and Aristotle mentions one which
brought love and honor to its possessor. In his chapter dealing with the subject,
Henry Cornelius Agrippa not only mentions the same rings, but states, upon
the authority of Philostratus Jarchus, that Apollonius of Tyana extended his life

329
to over 20 years with the aid of seven magical rings presented to him by an East
Indian prince. Each of these seven rings was set with a gem partaking of the
nature of one of the seven ruling planets of the week, and by daily changing the
rings Apollonius protected himself against sickness and death by the interven-
tion of the planetary influences. The philosopher also instructed his disciples
in the virtues of these talismanic jewels, considering such information to be
indispensable to the theurgist. Agrippa describes the preparation of magical
rings as follows: "When any Star [planet] ascends fortunately, with the fortunate
aspect or conjunction of the Moon, we must take a stone and herb that is un-
der that Star, and make a ring of the metal that is suitable to this Star, and in it
fasten the stone, putting the herb or root under it-not omitting the inscriptions
of images, names, and characters, as also the proper suffumigations." (See
Three Books of Occult Philosophy.)
The ring has long been regarded as the symbol of attainment, perfection,
and immortality-the last because the circlet of precious metal had neither be-
ginning nor end. In the Mysteries, rings chased to resemble a serpent with its
tail in its mouth were worn by the initiates as material evidence of the position
reached by them in the order. Signet rings, engraved with certain secret em-
blems, were worn by the hierophants, and it was not uncommon for a messen-
ger to prove that he was the official representative of a prince or other dignitary
by bringing with his message either an impression from his master's ring or the
signet itself. The wedding ring originally was intended to imply that in the na-
ture of the one who wore it the state of equilibrium and completion had been
attained. This plain band of gold therefore bore witness of the union of the
Higher Self (God) with the lower self (Nature) and the ceremony consummat-
ing this indissoluble blending of Divinity and humanity in the one nature of the
initiated mystic constituted the hermetic marriage of the Mysteries.
In describing the regalia of a magician, Eliphas Levi declares that on Sunday
(the day of the sun) he should carry in his right hand a golden wand, set with a
ruby or chrysolite; on Monday (the day of the moon) he should wear a collar of
three strands consisting of pearls, crystals, and selenites; on Tuesday (the day
of Mars) he should carry a wand of magnetized steel and a ring of the same
metal set with an amethyst, on Wednesday (the day of Mercury) he should
wear a necklace of pearls or glass beads containing mercury, and a ring set with
an agate; on Thursday (the day of Jupiter) he should carry a wand of glass or
resin and wear a ring set with an emerald or a sapphire; on Friday (the day of
Venus) he should carry a wand of polished copper and wear a ring set with a
turquoise and a crown or diadem decorated with lapis lazuli and beryl; and on
Saturday (the day of Saturn) he should carry a wand ornamented with onyx
stone and wear a ring set with onyx and a chain about the neck formed of lead.
(See The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum.)

330
 Paracelsus, Agrippa, Kircher, Lilly, and numerous other magicians and as-
trologers have tabulated the gems and stones corresponding to the various pla-
nets and zodiacal signs. The following list has been compiled from their writ-
ings. To the sun is assigned the carbuncle, ruby, garnet---especially the pyrope--
and other fiery stones, sometimes the diamond; to the moon, the pearl, sele-
nite, and other forms of crystal; to Saturn, the onyx, jasper, topaz, and some-
times the lapis lazuli; to Jupiter, the sapphire, emerald, and marble; to Mars,
the amethyst, hyacinth, lodestone, sometimes the diamond; to Venus, the tur-
quoise, beryl, emerald, and sometimes the pearl, alabaster, coral, and carne-
lian; to Mercury, the chrysolite, agate, and variegated marble.
To the zodiac the same authorities assigned the following gems and stones:
To Aries the sardonyx, bloodstone, amethyst, and diamond; to Taurus the
carnelian, turquoise, hyacinth, sapphire, moss agate, and emerald; to Gemini
the topaz, agate, chrysoprase, crystal, and aquamarine; to Cancer the topaz,
chalcedony, black onyx, moonstone, pearl, cat's-eye, crystal, and sometimes the
emerald; to Leo the jasper, sardonyx, beryl, ruby, chrysolite, amber, tourma-
line, sometimes the diamond; to Virgo the emerald, camelian, jade, chrysolite,
and sometimes the pink jasper and hyacinth; to Libra the beryl, sardius, coral,
lapis lazuli, opal, and sometimes the diamond; to Scorpio the amethyst, beryl,
sardonyx, aquamarine, carbuncle, lodestone, topaz, and malachite; to Sagitta-
rius die hyacinth, topaz, chrysolite, emerald, carbuncle, and turquoise; to Ca-
pricorn the chrysoprase, ruby, malachite, black onyx, white onyx, jet, and
moonstone; to Aquarius the crystal, sapphire, garnet, zircon, and opal; to
Pisces the sapphire, jasper, chrysolite, moonstone, and amethyst.
Both the magic mirror and the crystal ball are symbols little understood.
Woe to that benighted mortal who accepts literally the stories circulated con-
cerning them! He will discover--often at the cost of sanity and health--that sor-
cery and philosophy, while often confused, have nothing in common. The
Persian Magi carried mirrors as an emblem of the material sphere which re-
flects Divinity from its every part. The crystal ball, long misused as a medium
for the cultivation of psychical powers, is a threefold symbol: (1) it signifies the
crystalline Universal Egg in whose transparent depths creation exists; (2) it is a
proper figure of Deity previous to Its immersion in matter; (3) it signifies the
theric sphere of the world in whose translucent essences is impressed and
preserved the perfect image of all terrestrial activity.
Meteors, or rocks from heaven, were considered tokens of divine favor and
enshrined as evidence of a pact between the gods and the community in which
they fell. Curiously marked or chipped natural stones are occasionally found.
In China there is a slab of marble the grain of which forms a perfect likeness of
the Chinese dragon. The Oberammergau stone, chipped by Nature into a
close resemblance to the popular conception of the face of Christ, is so re-

331
markable that even the crowned heads of Europe requested the privilege of
beholding it. Stones of such nature were held in the highest esteem among
primitive peoples and even today exert a wide influence upon the religiously-
minded.

Click to enlarge
THE PYTHAGOREAN SIGNET RING.
From Cartari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.
The number five was peculiarly associated by the Pythagoreans with the art of healing,
and the pentagram, or five-pointed star, was to them the symbol of health. The above
figure represents a magical ring set with a talismanic gem bearing the pentalpha, or star
formed by five different positions of the Greek Alpha. On this subject Mackey writes:
"The disciples of Pythagoras, who were indeed its real inventors, placed within each of
its interior angles one of the letters of the Greek word , or the Latin one SA-
LUS, both of which signify health; and thus it was made the talisman of health. They
placed it at the beginning of their epistles as a greeting to invoke a secure health to
their correspondent. But its use was not confined to the disciples of Pythagoras. As a
talisman, it was employed all over the East as a charm to resist evil spirits."

332
CEREMONIAL MAGIC AND SORCERY

CEREMONIAL magic is the ancient art of invoking and controlling spirits by a

scientific application of certain formul. A magician, enveloped in sanctified
vestments and carrying a wand inscribed with hieroglyphic figures, could by the
power vested in certain words and symbols control the invisible inhabitants of
the elements and of the astral world. While the elaborate ceremonial magic of
antiquity was not necessarily evil, there arose from its perversion several false
schools of sorcery, or black magic.
Egypt, a great center of learning and the birthplace of many arts and
sciences, furnished an ideal environment for transcendental experimentation.
Here the black magicians of Atlantis continued to exercise their superhuman
powers until they had completely undermined and corrupted the morals of the
primitive Mysteries. By establishing a sacerdotal caste they usurped the posi-
tion formerly occupied by the initiates, and seized the reins of spiritual gov-
ernment. Thus black magic dictated the state religion and paralyzed the intel-
lectual and spiritual activities of the individual by demanding his complete and
unhesitating acquiescence in the dogma formulated by the priestcraft. The
Pharaoh became a puppet in the hands of the Scarlet Council--a committee of
arch-sorcerers elevated to power by the priesthood.
These sorcerers then began the systematic destruction of all keys to the an-
cient wisdom, so that none might have access to the knowledge necessary to
reach adeptship without first becoming one of their order. They mutilated the
rituals of the Mysteries while professing to preserve them, so that even though
the neophyte passed through the degrees he could not secure the knowledge to
which he was entitled. Idolatry was introduced by encouraging the worship of
the images which in the beginning the wise had erected solely as symbols for
study and meditation. False interpretations were given to the emblems and
figures of the Mysteries, and elaborate theologies were created to confuse the
minds of their devotees. The masses, deprived of their birthright of under-
standing and groveling in ignorance, eventually became the abject slaves of the
spiritual impostors. Superstition universally prevailed and the black magicians
completely dominated national affairs, with the result that humanity still suffers
from the sophistries of the priestcrafts of Atlantis and Egypt.
Fully convinced that their Scriptures sanctioned it, numerous medival
Qabbalists devoted their lives to the practice of ceremonial magic. The tran-
scendentalism of the Qabbalists is founded upon the ancient and magical for-
mula of King Solomon, who has long been considered by the Jews as the
prince of ceremonial magicians.
Among the Qabbalists of the Middle Ages were a great number of black
magicians who strayed from the noble concepts of the Sepher Yetzirah and

333
became enmeshed in demonism and witchcraft. They sought to substitute mag-
ic mirrors, consecrated daggers, and circles spread around posts of coffin nails,
for the living of that virtuous life which, without the assistance of complicated
rituals or submundane creatures, unfailingly brings man to the state of true
individual completion.
Those who sought to control elemental spirits through ceremonial magic did
so largely with the hope of securing from the invisible worlds either rare know-
ledge or supernatural power. The little red demon of Napoleon Bonaparte and
the infamous oracular heads of de Medici are examples of the disastrous re-
sults of permitting elemental beings to dictate the course of human procedure.
While the learned and godlike dmon of Socrates seems to have been an ex-
ception, this really proves that the intellectual and moral status of the magician
has much to do with the type of elemental he is capable of invoking. But even
the dmon of Socrates deserted the philosopher when the sentence of death
was passed.
Transcendentalism and all forms of phenomenalistic magic are but blind
alleys--outgrowths of Atlantean sorcery; and those who forsake the straight path
of philosophy to wander therein almost invariably fall victims to their impru-
dence. Man, incapable of controlling his own appetites, is not equal to the task
of governing the fiery and tempestuous elemental spirits.
Many a magician has lost his life as the result of opening a way whereby
submundane creatures could become active participants in his affairs. When
Eliphas Levi invoked the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, what did he hope to
accomplish? Is the gratification of curiosity a motive sufficient to warrant the
devotion of an entire lifetime to a dangerous and unprofitable pursuit? If the
living Apollonius refused to divulge his secrets to the profane, is there any
probability that after death he would disclose them to the curious-minded?
Levi himself did not dare to assert that the specter which appeared to him was
actually the great philosopher, for Levi realized only too well the proclivity of
elementals to impersonate those who have passed on. The majority of modern
mediumistic apparitions are but elemental creatures masquerading through
bodies composed of thought substance supplied by the very persons desiring to
behold these wraiths of decarnate beings.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BLACK MAGIC

Some understanding of the intricate theory and practice of ceremonial magic

may be derived from a brief consideration of its underlying premises.
First. The visible universe has an invisible counterpart, the higher planes of
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which are peopled by good and beautiful spirits; the lower planes, dark and
foreboding, are the habitation of evil spirits and demons under the leadership
of the Fallen Angel and his ten Princes.
Second. By means of the secret processes of ceremonial magic it is possible
to contact these invisible creatures and gain their help in some human under-
taking. Good spirits willingly lend their assistance to any worthy enterprise, but
the evil spirits serve only those who live to pervert and destroy.
Third. It is possible to make contracts with spirits whereby the magician
becomes for a stipulated time the master of an elemental being.
Fourth. True black magic is performed with the aid of a demoniacal spirit,
who serves the sorcerer for the length of his earthly life, with the understanding
that after death the magician shall become the servant of his own demon. For
this reason a black magician will go to inconceivable ends to prolong his physi-
cal life, since there is nothing for him beyond the grave.
The most dangerous form of black magic is the scientific perversion of oc-
cult power for the gratification of personal desire. Its less complex and more
universal form is human selfishness, for selfishness is the fundamental cause of
all worldly evil. A man will barter his eternal soul for temporal power, and
down through the ages a mysterious process has been evolved which actually
enables him to make this exchange. In its various branches the black art in-
cludes nearly all forms of ceremonial magic, necromancy, witchcraft, sorcery,
and vampirism. Under the same general heading are also included mesmerism
and hypnotism, except when used solely for medical purposes, and even then
there is an element of risk for all concerned.
Though the demonism of the Middle Ages seems to have disappeared, there
is abundant evidence that in many forms of modern thought--especially the so-
called "prosperity" psychology, "willpower-building" metaphysics, and systems of
"high-pressure" salesmanship black magic has merely passed through a me-
tamorphosis, and although its name be changed its nature remains the same.

335
Click to enlarge
BAPHOMET, THE GOAT OF MENDES.
From Levi's Transcendental Magic.
The practice of magic--either white or black--depends upon the ability of the adept to
control the universal life force--that which Eliphas Levi calls the great magical agent or
the astral light. By the manipulation of this fluidic essence the phenomena of transcen-
dentalism are produced. The famous hermaphroditic Goat of Mendes was a compo-
site creature formulated to symbolize this astral light. It is identical with Baphomet the
mystic pantheos of those disciples of ceremonial magic, the Templars, who probably
obtained it from the Arabians.

A well-known magician of the Middle Ages was Dr. Johannes Faustus, more
commonly known as Dr. Faust. By a study of magical writings he was enabled
to bind to his service an elemental who served him for many years in various
capacities. Strange legends are told concerning the magical powers possessed
by Dr. Faust. Upon one occasion the philosopher, being apparently in a playful
mood, threw his mantle over a number of eggs in a market-woman's basket,
causing them to hatch instantly. At another time, having fallen overboard from
a small boat, he was picked up and returned to the craft with his clothes still
dry. But, like nearly all other magicians, Dr. Faust came at length to disaster;
he was found one morning with a knife in his back, and it was commonly be-
lieved that his familiar spirit had murdered him. Although Goethe's Dr. Faust
is generally regarded as merely a fictional character, this old magician actually
lived during the sixteenth century. Dr. Faust wrote a book describing his expe-
riences with spirits, a section of which is reprinted below. (Dr. Faust must not
be confused with Johann Fust, the printer.)

EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DR. FAUST, WITTENBERG, 1524

(An abridged translation from the original German of a book ordered de-
stroyed.)
"From my youth I followed art and science and was tireless in my reading of
books. Among those which came to my hand was a volume containing all kinds
336
of invocations and magical formul. In this book I discovered information to
the effect that a spirit, whether he be of the fire, the water, the earth or the air,
can be compelled to do the will of a magician capable of controlling him. I also
discovered that according as one spirit has more power than another, each is
adapted for a different operation and each is capable of producing certain su-
pernatural effects.
"After reading this wonderful book, I made several experiments, desiring to
rest the accuracy of the statements made therein. At first I had little faith that
what was promised would take place. But at the very first invocation which I
attempted a mighty spirit manifested to me, desiring to know why I had in-
voked him. His coming so amazed me that I scarcely knew what to say, but
finally asked him if he would serve me in my magical investigations. He replied
that if certain conditions were agreed upon he would. The conditions were that
I should make a pact with him. This I did not desire to do, but as in my ignor-
ance I had not protected myself with a circle and was actually at the mercy of
the spirit, I did not dare to refuse his request and resigned myself to the inevit-
able, considering it wisest to turn my mantle according to the wind.
"I then told him that if he would be serviceable to me according to my de-
sires and needs for a certain length of time, I would sign myself over to him.
After the pact had been arranged, this mighty spirit, whose name was Asteroth,
introduced me to another spirit by the name of Marbuel, who was appointed to
be my servant. I questioned Marbuel as to his suitability for my needs. I asked
him how quick he was, and he answered, 'As swift as the winds.' This did not
satisfy me, so I replied, 'You cannot become my servant. Go again whence you
have come.' Soon another spirit manifested itself, whose name was Aniguel.
Upon asking him the same question he answered that he was swift as a bird in
the air. I said, 'You are still too slow for me. Go whence you came.' In the
same moment another spirit by the name of Aciel manifested himself. For the
third time I asked my question and he answered, 'I am as swift as human
thought.' 'You shall serve me,' I replied. This spirit was faithful for a long time,
but to tell you how he served me is not possible in a document of this length
and I will here only indicate how spirits are to be invoked and how the circles
for protection are to be prepared. There are many kinds of spirits which will
permit themselves to be invoked by man and become his servant. Of these I
will list a few:
"Aciel: The mightiest among those who serve men. He manifests in pleasing
human form about three feet high. He must be invoked three times before he
will come forth into the circle prepared for him. He will furnish riches and will
instantly fetch things from a great distance, according to the will of the magi-
cian. He is as swift as human thought.
"Aniguel: Serviceable and most useful, and comes in the form of a ten-year-

337
old boy. He must be invoked three times. His special power is to discover trea-
sures and minerals hidden in the ground, which he will furnish to the magician.
"Marbuel: A true lord of the mountains and swift as a bird on the wing. He is
an opposing and troublesome spirit, hard to control. You must invoke him
four times. He appears in the person of Mars [a warrior in heavy armor]. He
will furnish the magician those things which grow above and under the earth.
He is particularly the lord of the spring-root. [The spring-root is a mysterious
herb, possibly of a reddish color, which medival magicians asserted had the
property of drawing forth or opening anything it touched. If placed against a
locked door, it would open the door. The Hermetists believed that the red-
capped woodpecker was specially endowed with the faculty of discovering
spring-root, so they followed this bird to its nest, and then stopped up the hole
in the tree where its young were. The red-crested woodpecker went at once in
quest of the spring-root, and, discovering it, brought it to the tree. It imme-
diately drew forth the stopper from the entrance to the nest. The magician then
secured the root from the bird. It was also asserted that because of its structure,
the etheric body of the spring-root was utilized as a vehicle of expression by
certain elemental spirits which manifested through the proclivity of drawing out
or opening things.]
"Aciebel: A mighty ruler of the sea, controlling things both upon and under
the water. He furnishes things lost or sunk in rivers, lakes, and oceans, such as
sunken ships and treasures. The more sharply you invoke him, the swifter he is
upon his errands.
"Machiel: Comes in the form of a beautiful maiden and by her aid the magi-
cian is raised to honor and dignity. She makes those she serves worthy and
noble, gracious and kindly, and assists in all matters of litigation and justice.
She will not come unless invoked twice.
"Baruel: The master of all arts. He manifests as a master workman and
comes wearing an apron. He can teach a magician more in a moment than all
the master workmen of the world combined could accomplish in twenty years.
He must be invoked three times.
"These are the spirits most serviceable to man, but there are numerous oth-
ers which, for lack of space, I am unable to describe. Now, if you desire the aid
of the spirit to get this or that, then you must first draw the sign of the spirit
whom you desire to invoke. The drawing must be made just in front of a circle
made before sunrise, in which you and your assistants will stand. If you desire
financial assistance, then you must invoke the spirit Aciel. Draw his sign in
front of the circle. If you need other things, then draw the sign of the spirit
capable of furnishing them. On the place where you intend to make the circle,
you must first draw a great cross with a large sword with which no one ever has
been hurt. Then you must make three concentric circles. The innermost circle

338
is made of a long narrow strip of virgin parchment and must be hung upon
twelve crosses made of the wood of cross-thorn. Upon the parchment you must
write the names and symbols according to the figure which follows. Outside
this first circle make the second as follows:
"First secure a thread of red silk that has been spun or twisted to the left instead
of the right. Then place in the ground twelve crosses made of laurel leaves, and
also prepare a long strip of new white paper. Write with an unused pen the
characters and symbols as seen on the second circle. Wind this latter strip of
paper around with the red silken thread and pin them upon the twelve crosses
of laurel leaves. Outside this second circle make a third one which is also of
virgin parchment and pinned upon twelve crosses of consecrated palm. When
you have made these three circles, retire into them until at last you stand in the
center upon a pentagram drawn in the midst of the great cross first drawn.
Now, to insure success, do everything according to the description, and when
you have read off the sacred invocation pronounce the name of the spirit
which you desire to appear. It is essential that you pronounce the name very
distinctly. You must also note the day and the hour, for each spirit can only be
invoked at certain times."
While the black magician at the time of signing his pact with the elemental
demon maybe fully convinced that he is strong enough to control indefinitely
the powers placed at his disposal, he is speedily undeceived. Before many
years elapse he must turn all his energies to the problem of self-preservation. A
world of horrors to which he has attuned himself by his own covetousness
looms nearer every day, until he exists upon the edge of a seething maelstrom,
expecting momentarily to be sucked down into its turbid depths. Afraid to die--
because he will become the servant of his own demon--the magician commits
crime after crime to prolong his wretched earthly existence. Realizing that life
is maintained by the aid of a mysterious universal life force which is the com-
mon property of all creatures, the black magician often becomes an occult
vampire, stealing this energy from others. According to medival superstition,
black magicians turned themselves into werewolves and roamed the earth at
night, attacking defenseless victims for the life force contained in their blood.

339
Click to enlarge
A MAGICAL SWORD.
From Levi's The Magical Ritual.
Eliphas Levi describes the preparation of a magical sword in substance as follows: The
steel blade should be forged in the hour of Mars, with new tools. The pommel should
be of hollow silver containing quicksilver, and the symbols of Mercury and the moon
and the signatures of Gabriel and Samael should be engraved upon it. The hilt should
be encased with tin, with the symbol of Jupiter and the signature of Michael engraved
upon it. A copper triangle should extend from the hilt along the blade a short distance
on each side: these should bear the symbols of Mercury and Venus. Five Sephiroth
should be engraved upon the handle, as shown. The blade itself should have the word
Malchut upon one side and Quis ut Deus upon the other. The sword should be con-
secrated on Sunday.

Click to enlarge
A MAGIC CIRCLE.
From The Complete Book of Magic Science (unpublished).
The above figure is a complete and faithful representation of a magic circle as designed
by medival conjurers for the invocation of spirits. The magician accompanied by his
assistant takes his place at the point formed by the crossing of the central lines marked
340
MAGISTER. The words about the circle are the names of the invisible intelligences,
and the small crosses mark points at which certain prayers and invocations are recited.
The small circle outside is prepared for the spirit to be invoked, and while in use has
the signature of the desired intelligence traced within the triangle.

MODUS OPERANDI FOR THE INVOCATION OF SPIRITS

The following condensed extract from an ancient manuscript is reproduced

herewith as representative of the ritualism of ceremonial magic. The extract is
from The Complete Book of Magic Science, an unpublished manuscript (orig-
inal in the British Museum), with pentacles in colors, mentioned by Francis
Barrett in his Magus.
"Opening Prayer
"Omnipotent and Eternal God who hath ordained the whole creation for thy
praise and glory and for the salvation of man, I earnestly beseech thee that
thou wouldst send one of thy spirits of the order of Jupiter, one of the messen-
gers of Zadkiel whom thou hast appointed governor of thy firmament at the
present time, most faithfully, willingly, and readily to show me these things
which I shall ask, command or require of him, and truly execute my desires.
Nevertheless, O Most Holy God, thy will and not mine be done through JC,
thine only begotten Son our Lord. Amen.
"The Invocation.
[The magician, having properly consecrated his vestments and utensils and
being protected by his circle, now calls upon the spirits to appear and accede to
his demands.]
"Spirits, whose assistance I require, behold the sign and the very Hallowed
Names of God full of power. Obey the power of this our pentacle; go out your
hidden caves and dark places; cease your hurtful occupations to those unhappy
mortals whom without ceasing you torment; come into this place where the
Divine Goodness has assembled us; be attentive to our orders and known to
our just demands; believe not that your resistance will cause us to abandon our
operations. Nothing can dispense with your obeying us. We command you by
the Mysterious Names Elohe Agla Elohim Adonay Gibort. Amen.
"I call upon thee, Zadkiel, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, blessed Trinity, unspeakable Unity.
"I invoke and intreat thee, Zadkiel, in this hour to attend to the words and
conjurations which I shall use this day by the Holy Names of God Elohe El
Elohim Elion Zebaoth Escerehie Iah Adonay Tetragrammaton.
"I conjure thee, I exorcise thee, thou Spirit Zadkiel, by these Holy Names
Hagios O Theos Iscyros Athanatos Paracletus Agla on Alpha et Omega Ioth

341
Aglanbroth Abiel Anathiel Tetragrammaton: And by all other great and glo-
rious, holy and unspeakable, mysterious, mighty, powerful, incomprehensible
Names of God, that you attend unto the words of my mouth, and send unto
me Pabiel or other of your ministering, serving Spirits, who may show me such
things as I shall demand of him in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
"I intreat thee, Pabiel, by the whole Spirit of Heaven, Seraphim, Cherubim,
Thrones, Dominations, Witnesses, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and
Angels, by the holy, great, and glorious Angels Orphaniel Tetra-Dagiel Salamla
Acimoy pastor poti, that thou come forthwith, readily show thyself that we may
see you and audibly hear you, speak unto us and fulfil our desires, and by your
star which is Jupiter, and by all the constellations of Heaven, and by whatsoever
you obey, and by your character which you have given, proposed, and con-
firmed, that you attend unto me according to the prayer and petitions which I
have made unto Almighty God, and that you forthwith send me one of your
ministering Spirits, who may willingly, truly, and faithfully fulfil all my desires,
and that you command him to appear unto me in the form of a beautiful An-
gel, gently, courteously, affably, and meekly, entering into communication with
me, and that he neither permitting any evil Spirit to approach in any sort of
hurt, terrify or affright me in any way nor deceiving me in any wise. Through
the virtue of Our Lord JC, in whose Name I attend, wait for, and expect thy
appearance. Fiat, fiat, fiat. Amen, Amen, Amen.
"Interrogatories.
[Having summoned the spirit unto his presence, the magician shall question
him as follows:]
"'Comest thou in peace in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost?' [And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'
"'Thou art welcome, noble Spirit. What is thy Name?' [And the spirit shall
answer:] 'Pabiel.'
"'I have called thee in the Name of Jesu of Nazareth at whose Name every
knee doth bow in heaven, earth, and hell, and every tongue shall confess there
is no name like unto the Name of Jesus, who hath given power unto man to
bind and to loose all things in his most Holy Name, yea even unto those that
trust in his salvation.
"'Art thou the messenger of Zadkiel?' [And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'
"'Wilt thou confirm thyself unto me at this time and henceforth reveal all things
unto me that I shall desire to know, and teach me how I may increase in wis-
dom and knowledge and show unto me all the secrets of the Magic Art, and of
all liberal sciences, that I may thereby set forth the glory of Almighty God?'
[And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'
"'Then I pray thee give and confirm thy character unto me whereby I may

342
call thee at all times, and also swear unto me this oath and I will religiously
keep my vow and covenant unto Almighty God and will courteously receive
thee at all times where thou dost appear unto me.'
"License to Depart.
"'Forasmuch as thou comest in peace and quietness and hath answered unto
my petitions, I give humble and hearty thanks unto Almighty God in whose
Name I called and thou camest, and now thou mayest depart in peace unto
thine orders and return unto me again at what time soever I shall call thee by
thine oath, or by thy name or by thine order, or by thine office which is granted
thee from the Creator, and the power of God be with me and thee and upon
the whole issue of God, Amen.

Click to enlarge
THE PENTAGRAM.
From Levi's Transcendental Magic.
THE PENTAGRAM. The pentagram is the figure of the microcosm--the magical
formula of man. It is the one rising out of the four--the human soul rising from the
bondage of the animal nature. It is the true light--the "Star of the morning." It marks the
location of five mysterious centers of force, the awakening of which is the supreme
secret of white magic.

Click to enlarge
FORM OF PACT WITH THE SPIRIT OF JUPITER.
From The Complete Book of Magic Science.
The aforesaid Bond of spirits, together with the seal and character of the planetary
angel, must be written m virgin Parchment and laid before the Spirit [for signature]

343
when he appears; at that time the invocant must not lost confidence but be patient,
firm, bold, and Persevering, and take care that he asks nor requires nothing of the
Spirit but with a view to the glory of God and the well-being fellow creatures. Having
obtained his desires of the Spirit, the invocant may license him to depart."

"'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.'
[Note.] "It would be advisable for the invocant to remain in the circle for a
few minutes after reciting the license, and if the place of operation be in the
open air, let him destroy all traces of the circle, etcetera, and return quietly to
his home. But should the operation be performed in a retired part of a house,
cc cetera, the circle may remain, as it might serve in alike future operation, but
the room or building must be locked up to avoid the intrusion of strangers."
The agreement set forth above is purely ceremonial magic. In the case of
black magic, it is the magician and not the demon who must sign the pact.
When the black magician binds an elemental to his service, a battle of wits
ensues, which the demon eventually wins. With his own blood the magician
signs the pact between himself and the demon, for in the arcanum of magic it is
declared that "he controls the soul who controls the blood of another." As long
as the magician does not fail, the elemental will fulfil to the letter his obligation
under the pact, but the demon will try in every possible way to prevent the
magician from carrying out his part of the contract. When the conjurer, ens-
conced within his circle, has evoked the spirit he desires to control and has
made known his intention, the spirit will answer somewhat as follows: "I cannot
accede to your request nor fulfil it, unless after fifty years you give yourself to
me, body and soul, to do with as I may please."
If the magician refuses, other terms will be discussed. The spirit may say: "I
will remain in your service as long as on every Friday morning you will go forth
upon the public street giving alms in the name of Lucifer. The first time you
fail in this you belong to me."
If the magician still refuses, realizing that the demon will make it impossible
for him to fulfil his contract, other terms will be discussed, until at last a pact is
agreed upon. It may read as follows: "I hereby promise the Great Spirit Luci-
fuge, Prince of Demons, that each year I will bring unto him a human soul to
do with as it may please him, and in return Lucifuge promises to bestow upon
me the treasures of the earth and fulfil my every desire for the length of my
natural life. If I fail to bring him each year the offering specified above, then
my own soul shall be forfeit to him. Signed . . . . . . . . . . . . . " [Invocant signs
pact with his own blood.]

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THE PENTAGRAM

In symbolism, an inverted figure always signifies a perverted power. The aver-

age person does not even suspect the occult properties of emblematic pen-
tacles. On this subject the great Paracelsus has written: "No doubt many will
scoff at the seals, their characters and their uses, which are described in these
books, because it seems incredible to them that metals and characters which
are dead should have any power and effect. Yet no one has ever proved that
the metals and also the characters as we know them are dead, for the salts,
sulphur, and quintessences of metals are the highest preservatives of human
life and are far superior to all other simples." (Translated from the original
German.)
The black magician cannot use the symbols of white magic without bringing
down upon himself the forces of white magic, which would be fatal to his
schemes. He must therefore distort the hierograms so that they typify the oc-
cult fact that he himself is distorting the principles for which the symbols stand.
Black magic is not a fundamental art; it is the misuse of an art. Therefore it has
no symbols of its own. It merely takes the emblematic figures of white magic,
and by inverting and reversing them signifies that it is left-handed.
A good instance of this practice is found in the pentagram, or five-pointed
star, made of five connected lines. This figure is the time-honored symbol of
the magical arts, and signifies the five properties of the Great Magical Agent,
the five senses of man, the five elements of nature, the five extremities of the
human body. By means of the pentagram within his own soul, man not only
may master and govern all creatures inferior to himself, but may demand con-
sideration at the hands of those superior to himself.
The pentagram is used extensively in black magic, but when so used its form
always differs in one of three ways: The star may be broken at one point by not
permitting the converging lines to touch; it may be inverted by having one point
down and two up; or it may be distorted by having the points of varying lengths.
When used in black magic, the pentagram is called the "sign of the cloven
hoof," or the footprint of the Devil. The star with two points upward is also
called the "Goat of Mendes," because the inverted star is the same shape as a
goat's head. When the upright star turns and the upper point falls to the bot-
tom, it signifies the fall of the Morning Star.

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Click to enlarge
THE PENTACLES OF THE SEVEN PLANETS AND THE SEALS AND CHARACTERS OF THE PLA-
NETARY ANGELS.
From a medival Book of Spirits (unpublished).
The seven large circle are the planets, while the two small circles under each contain
the seal and the character of the controlling intelligence of the planet.

346
 The Elements and Their Inhabitants

FOR the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of occult pneumatology

(the branch of philosophy dealing with spiritual substances) extant, mankind is
indebted to Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Ho-
henheim), prince of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers and true possessor
of the Royal Secret (the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life). Paracelsus
believed that each of the four primary elements known to the ancients (earth,
fire, air, and water) consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corpo-
real substance.
Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible,
volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible and invisi-
ble, discernible and indiscernible--a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting
through a material, substantial flame. Carrying the analogy further, water con-
sists of a dense fluid and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has like-
wise two essential parts--the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile; the higher,
rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements has been applied to
the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name
elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions.
Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side
of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their
living organisms.
Henry Drummond, in Natural Law in the Spiritual World, describes this
process as follows: "If we analyse this material point at which all life starts, we
shall find it to consist of a clear structureless, jelly-like substance resembling
albumen or white of egg. It is made of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitro-
gen. Its name is protoplasm. And it is not only the structural unit with which all
living bodies start in life, but with which they are subsequently built up.
'Protoplasm,' says Huxley, 'simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It
is the clay of the Potter.'"
The water element of the ancient philosophers has been metamorphosed
into the hydrogen of modern science; the air has become oxygen; the fire, ni-
trogen; the earth, carbon.
Just as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures,
so, according to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature
(composed of the tenuous principles of the visible elements) is inhabited by a
host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the name elementals, and which
have later been termed the Nature spirits. Paracelsus divided these people of
the elements into four distinct groups, which he called gnomes, undines,

347
sylphs, and salamanders. He taught that they were really living entities, many
resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, un-
known to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning
beyond the limitations of the grosser elements.
The civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, and India believed impli-
citly in satyrs, sprites, and goblins. They peopled the sea with mermaids, the
rivers and fountains with nymphs, the air with fairies, the fire with Lares and
Penates, and the earth with fauns, dryads, and hamadryads. These Nature spi-
rits were held in the highest esteem, and propitiatory offerings were made to
them. Occasionally, as the result of atmospheric conditions or the peculiar
sensitiveness of the devotee, they became visible. Many authors wrote concern-
ing them in terms which signify that they had actually beheld these inhabitants
of Nature's finer realms. A number of authorities are of the opinion that many
of the gods worshiped by the pagans were elementals, for some of these invi-
sibles were believed to be of commanding stature and magnificent deportment.
The Greeks gave the name dmon to some of these elementals, especially
those of the higher orders, and worshiped them. Probably the most famous of
these dmons is the mysterious spirit which instructed Socrates, and of whom
that great philosopher spoke in the highest terms. Those who have devoted
much study to the invisible constitution of man realize that it is quite probable
the dmon of Socrates and the angel of Jakob Bhme were in reality not ele-
mentals, but the overshadowing divine natures of these philosophers them-
selves. In his notes to Apuleius on the God of Socrates, Thomas Taylor says:
"As the dmon of Socrates, therefore, was doubtless one of the highest or-
der, as may be inferred from the intellectual superiority of Socrates to most
other men, Apuleius is justified in calling this dmon a God. And that the
dmon of Socrates indeed was divine, is evident from the testimony of So-
crates himself in the First Alcibiades: for in the course of that dialogue he clear-
ly says, 'I have long been of the opinion that the God did not as yet direct me
to hold any conversation with you.' And in the Apology he most unequivocally
evinces that this dmon is allotted a divine transcendency, considered as rank-
ing in the order of dmons."
The idea once held, that the invisible elements surrounding and interpene-
trating the earth were peopled with living, intelligent beings, may seem ridicul-
ous to the prosaic mind of today. This doctrine, however, has found favor with
some of the greatest intellects of the world. The sylphs of Facius Cardin, the
philosopher of Milan; the salamander seen by Benvenuto Cellini; the pan of
St. Anthony; and le petit homme rouge (the little red man, or gnome) of Na-
poleon Bonaparte, have found their places in the pages of history.
Literature has also perpetuated the concept of Nature spirits. The mischiev-
ous Puck of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream; the elementals of Alex-

348
ander Pope's Rosicrucian poem, The Rape of the Lock, the mysterious crea-
tures of Lord Lytton's Zanoni; James Barrie's immortal Tinker Bell; and the
famous bowlers that Rip Van Winkle encountered in the Catskill Mountains,
are well-known characters to students of literature. The folklore and mythology
of all peoples abound in legends concerning these mysterious little figures who
haunt old castles, guard treasures in the depths of the earth, and build their
homes under the spreading protection of toadstools. Fairies are the delight of
childhood, and most children give them up with reluctance. Not so very long
ago the greatest minds of the world believed in the existence of fairies, and it is
still an open question as to whether Plato, Socrates, and Iamblichus were
wrong when they avowed their reality.
Paracelsus, when describing the substances which constitute the bodies of
the elementals, divided flesh into two kinds, the first being that which we have
all inherited through Adam. This is the visible, corporeal flesh. The second
was that flesh which had not descended from Adam and, being more atte-
nuated, was not subject to the limitations of the former. The bodies of the ele-
mentals were composed of this transubstantial flesh. Paracelsus stated that
there is as much difference between the bodies of men and the bodies of the
Nature spirits as there is between matter and spirit.
"Yet," he adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood
and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they cat and talk, act and sleep,
&c., and consequently they cannot be properly called 'spirits.' They are beings
occupying a place between men and spirits, resembling men and spirits, re-
sembling men and women in their organization and form, and resembling spi-
rits in the rapidity of their locomotion." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by
Franz Hartmann.) Later the same author calls these creatures composita, in-
asmuch as the substance out of which they are composed seems to be a com-
posite of spirit and matter. He uses color to explain the idea. Thus, the mixture
of blue and red gives purple, a new color, resembling neither of the others yet
composed of both. Such is the case with the Nature spirits; they resemble nei-
ther spiritual creatures nor material beings, yet are composed of the substance
which we may call spiritual matter, or ether.
Paracelsus further adds that whereas man is composed of several natures
(spirit, soul, mind, and body) combined in one unit, the elemental has but one
principle, the ether out of which it is composed and in which it lives. The
reader must remember that by ether is meant the spiritual essence of one of
the four elements. There areas many ethers as there are elements and as many
distinct families of Nature spirits as there are ethers. These families are com-
pletely isolated in their own ether and have no intercourse with the denizens of
the other ethers; but, as man has within his own nature centers of conscious-
ness sensitive to the impulses of all the four ethers, it is possible for any of the

349
elemental kingdoms to communicate with him under proper conditions.

Click to enlarge
A SALAMANDER, ACCORDING TO PARACELSUS.
From Paracelsus' Auslegung von 30 magischen Figuren.
The Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Persians often mistook the salamanders for gods, be-
cause of their radiant splendor and great power. The Greeks, following the example of
earlier nations, deified the fire spirits and in their honor kept incense and altar fire,
burning perpetually.

The Nature spirits cannot be destroyed by the grosser elements, such as ma-
terial fire, earth, air, or water, for they function in a rate of vibration higher
than that of earthy substances. Being composed of only one element or prin-
ciple (the ether in which they function), they have no immortal spirit and at
death merely disintegrate back into the element from which they were original-
ly individualized. No individual consciousness is preserved after death, for
there is no superior vehicle present to contain it. Being made of but one sub-
stance, there is no friction between vehicles: thus there is little wear or tear
incurred by their bodily functions, and they therefore live to great age. Those
composed of earth ether are the shortest lived; those composed of air ether,
the longest. The average length of life is between three hundred and a thou-
sand years. Paracelsus maintained that they live in conditions similar to our
earth environments, and are somewhat subject to disease. These creatures are
thought to be incapable of spiritual development, but most of them are of a
high moral character.
Concerning the elemental ethers in which the Nature spirits exist, Paracelsus
wrote: "They live in the four elements: the Nymph in the element of water,
the Sylphes in that of the air, the Pigmies in the earth, and the Salamanders in
fire. They are also called Undin, Sylvestres, Gnomi, Vulcani, &c. Each spe-
cies moves only in the element to which it belongs, and neither of them can go
out of its appropriate element, which is to them as the air is to us, or the water
to fishes; and none of them can live in the element belonging to another class.
350
To each elemental being the element in which it lives is transparent, invisible
and respirable, as the atmosphere is to ourselves." (Philosophia Occulta, trans-
lated by Franz Hartmann.)
The reader should be careful not to confuse the Nature spirits with the true
life waves evolving through the invisible worlds. While the elementals are
composed of only one etheric (or atomic) essence, the angels, archangels, and
other superior, transcendental entities have composite organisms, consisting of
a spiritual nature and a chain of vehicles to express that nature not unlike those
of men, but not including the physical body with its attendant limitations.
To the philosophy of Nature spirits is generally attributed an Eastern origin,
probably Brahmanic; and Paracelsus secured his knowledge of them from
Oriental sages with whom he came in contact during his lifetime of philosophi-
cal wanderings. The Egyptians and Greeks gleaned their information from the
same source. The four main divisions of Nature spirits must now be consi-
dered separately, according to the teachings of Paracelsus and the Abb de
Villars and such scanty writings of other authors as are available.

THE GNOMES

The elementals who dwell in that attenuated body of the earth which is called
the terreous ether are grouped together under the general heading of gnomes.
(The name is probably derived from the Greek genomus, meaning earth dwel-
ler. See New English Dictionary.)
Just as there are many types of human beings evolving through the objective
physical elements of Nature, so there are many types of gnomes evolving
through the subjective ethereal body of Nature. These earth spirits work in an
element so close in vibratory rate to the material earth that they have immense
power over its rocks and flora, and also over the mineral elements in the ani-
mal and human kingdoms. Some, like the pygmies, work with the stones, gems,
and metals, and are supposed to be the guardians of hidden treasures. They
live in caves, far down in what the Scandinavians called the Land of the Nibe-
lungen. In Wagner's wonderful opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelungen, Al-
berich makes himself King of the Pygmies and forces these little creatures to
gather for him the treasures concealed beneath the surface of the earth.
Besides the pygmies there are other gnomes, who are called tree and forest
sprites. To this group belong the sylvestres, satyrs, pans, dryads, hamadryads,
durdalis, elves, brownies, and little old men of the woods. Paracelsus states that
the gnomes build houses of substances resembling in their constituencies ala-
baster, marble, and cement, but the true nature of these materials is unknown,

351
having no counterpart in physical nature. Some families of gnomes gather in
communities, while others are indigenous to the substances with and in which
they work. For example, the hamadryads live and die with the plants or trees of
which they are a part. Every shrub and flower is said to have its own Nature
spirit, which often uses the physical body of the plant as its habitation. The
ancient philosophers, recognizing the principle of intelligence manifesting itself
in every department of Nature alike, believed that the quality of natural selec-
tion exhibited by creatures not possessing organized mentalities expressed in
reality the decisions of the Nature spirits themselves.
C. M. Gayley, in The Classic Myths, says: "It was a pleasing trait in the old
paganism that it loved to trace in every operation of nature the agency of deity.
The imagination of the Greeks peopled the regions of earth and sea with divin-
ities, to whose agency it attributed the phenomena that our philosophy ascribes
to the operation of natural law." Thus, in behalf of the plant it worked with, the
elemental accepted and rejected food elements, deposited coloring matter
therein, preserved and protected the seed, and performed many other benefi-
cent offices. Each species was served by a different but appropriate type of
Nature spirit. Those working with poisonous shrubs, for example, were offen-
sive in their appearance. It is said the Nature spirits of poison hemlock resem-
ble closely tiny human skeletons, thinly covered with a semi-transparent flesh.
They live in and through the hemlock, and if it be cut down remain with the
broken shoots until both die, but while there is the slightest evidence of life in
the shrub it shows the presence of the elemental guardian.
Great trees also have their Nature spirits, but these are much larger than the
elementals of smaller plants. The labors of the pygmies include the cutting of
the crystals in the rocks and the development of veins of ore. When the
gnomes are laboring with animals or human beings, their work is confined to
the tissues corresponding with their own natures. Hence they work with the
bones, which belong to the mineral kingdom, and the ancients believed the
reconstruction of broken members to be impossible without the cooperation of
the elementals.
The gnomes are of various sizes--most of them much smaller than human
beings, though some of them have the power of changing their stature at will.
This is the result of the extreme mobility of the element in which they func-
tion. Concerning them the Abb de Villars wrote: "The earth is filled well nigh
to its center with Gnomes, people of slight stature, who are the guardians of
treasures, minerals and precious stones. They are ingenious, friends of man,
and easy to govern."
Not all authorities agree concerning the amiable disposition of the gnomes.
Many state that they are of a tricky and malicious nature, difficult to manage,
and treacherous. Writers agree, however, that when their confidence is won

352
they are faithful and true. The philosophers and initiates of the ancient world
were instructed concerning these mysterious little people and were taught how
to communicate with them and gain their cooperation in undertakings of im-
portance. The magi were always warned, however, never to betray the trust of
the elementals, for if they did, the invisible creatures, working through the sub-
jective nature of man, could cause them endless sorrow and probably ultimate
destruction. So long as the mystic served others, the gnomes would serve him,
but if he sought to use their aid selfishly to gain temporal power they would
turn upon him with unrelenting fury. The same was true if he sought to deceive
them.
The earth spirits meet at certain times of the year in great conclaves, as Sha-
kespeare suggests in his Midsummer Night's Dream, where the elementals all
gather to rejoice in the beauty and harmony of Nature and the prospects of an
excellent harvest. The gnomes are ruled over by a king, whom they greatly love
and revere. His name is Gob; hence his subjects are often called goblins. Me-
dival mystics gave a corner of creation (one of the cardinal points) to each of
the four kingdoms of Nature spirits, and because of their earthy character the
gnomes were assigned to the North--the place recognized by the ancients as the
source of darkness and death. One of the four main divisions of human dispo-
sition was also assigned to the gnomes, and because so many of them dwelt in
the darkness of caves and the gloom of forests their temperament was said to
be melancholy, gloomy, and despondent. By this it is not meant that they
themselves are of such disposition, but rather that they have special control
over elements of similar consistency.
The gnomes marry and have families, and the female gnomes are called
gnomides. Some wear clothing woven of the element in which they live. In
other instances their garments are part of themselves and grow with them, like
the fur of animals. The gnomes are said to have insatiable appetites, and to
spend a great part of the rime eating, but they earn their food by diligent and
conscientious labor. Most of them are of a miserly temperament, fond of stor-
ing things away in secret places. There is abundant evidence of the fact that
small children often see the gnomes, inasmuch as their contact with the materi-
al side of Nature is not yet complete and they still function more or less con-
sciously in the invisible worlds.

353
Click to enlarge
CONVENTIONAL GNOMES.
From Gjellerup's Den ldre Eddas Gudesange.
The type of gnome most frequently seen is the brownie, or elf, a mischievous and
grotesque little creature from twelve to eighteen inches high, usually dressed in green
or russet brown. Most of them appear as very aged, often with long white beards, and
their figures are inclined to rotundity. They can be seen scampering out of holes in the
stumps of trees and sometimes they vanish by actually dissolving into the tree itself.

According to Paracelsus, "Man lives in the exterior elements and the Elemen-
tals live in the interior elements. The latter have dwellings and clothing, man-
ners and customs, languages and governments of their own, in the same sense
as the bees have their queens and herds of animals their leaders." (Philosophia
Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Paracelsus differs somewhat from the Greek mystics concerning the envi-
ronmental limitations imposed on the Nature spirits. The Swiss philosopher
constitutes them of subtle invisible ethers. According to this hypothesis they
would be visible only at certain times and only to those en rapport with their
ethereal vibrations. The Greeks, on the other hand, apparently believed that
many Nature spirits had material constitutions capable of functioning in the
physical world. Often the recollection of a dream is so vivid that, upon awaken-
ing, a person actually believes that he has passed through a physical experience.
The difficulty of accurately judging as to the end of physical sight and the be-
ginning of ethereal vision may account for these differences of opinion.
Even this explanation, however, does not satisfactorily account for the satyr
which, according to St. Jerome, was captured alive during the reign of Constan-
tine and exhibited to the people. It was of human form with the horns and feet
of a goat. After its death it was preserved in salt and taken to the Emperor that
he might testify to its reality. (It is within the bounds of probability that this
curiosity was what modern science knows as a monstrosity.)

354
THE UNDINES

As the gnomes were limited in their function to the elements of the earth, so
the undines (a name given to the family of water elementals) function in the
invisible, spiritual essence called humid (or liquid) ether. In its vibratory rate
this is close to the element water, and so the undines are able to control, to a
great degree, the course and function of this fluid in Nature. Beauty seems to
be the keynote of the water spirits. Wherever we find them pictured in art or
sculpture, they abound in symmetry and grace. Controlling the water element--
which has always been a feminine symbol--it is natural that the water spirits
should most often be symbolized as female.
There are many groups of undines. Some inhabit waterfalls, where they can
be seen in the spray; others are indigenous to swiftly moving rivers; some have
their habitat in dripping, oozing fens or marshes; while other groups dwell in
clear mountain lakes. According to the philosophers of antiquity, every foun-
tain had its nymph; every ocean wave its oceanid. The water spirits were known
under such names as oreades, nereides, limoniades, naiades, water sprites, sea
maids, mermaids, and potamides. Often the water nymphs derived their names
from the streams, lakes, or seas in which they dwelt.
In describing them, the ancients agreed on certain salient features. In gener-
al, nearly all the undines closely resembled human beings in appearance and
size, though the ones inhabiting small streams and fountains were of corres-
pondingly lesser proportions. It was believed that these water spirits were occa-
sionally capable of assuming the appearance of normal human beings and ac-
tually associating with men and women. There are many legends about these
spirits and their adoption by the families of fishermen, but in nearly every case
the undines heard the call of the waters and returned to the realm of Neptune,
the King of the Sea.
Practically nothing is known concerning the male undines. The water spirits
did not establish homes in the same way that the gnomes did, but lived in coral
caves under the ocean or among the reeds growing on the banks of rivers or
the shores of lakes. Among the Celts there is a legend to the effect that Ireland
was peopled, before the coming of its present inhabitants, by a strange race of
semi-divine creatures; with the coming of the modem Celts they retired into the
marshes and fens, where they remain even to this day. Diminutive undines
lived under lily pads and in little houses of moss sprayed by waterfalls. The
undines worked with the vital essences and liquids in plants, animals, and hu-
man beings, and were present in everything containing water. When seen, the
undines generally resembled the goddesses of Greek statuary. They rose from
the water draped in mist and could not exist very long apart from it.
There are many families of undines, each with its peculiar limitations, it is

355
impossible to consider them here in detail. Their ruler, Necksa, they love and
honor, and serve untiringly. Their temperament is said to be vital, and to them
has been given as their throne the western corner of creation. They are rather
emotional beings, friendly to human life and fond of serving mankind. They
are sometimes pictured riding on dolphins or other great fish and seem to have
a special love of flowers and plants, which they serve almost as devotedly and
intelligently as the gnomes. Ancient poets have said that the songs of the un-
dines were heard in the West Wind and that their lives were consecrated to the
beautifying of the material earth.

THE SALAMANDERS

The third group of elementals is the salamanders, or spirits of fire, who live in
that attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire element of Nature.
Without them material fire cannot exist; a match cannot be struck nor will flint
and steel give off their spark without the assistance of a salamander, who im-
mediately appears (so the medival mystics believed), evoked by friction. Man
is unable to communicate successfully with the salamanders, owing to the fiery
element in which they dwell, for everything is resolved to ashes that comes into
their presence. By specially prepared compounds of herbs and perfumes the
philosophers of the ancient world manufactured many kinds of incense. When
incense was burned, the vapors which arose were especially suitable as a me-
dium for the expression of these elementals, who, by borrowing the ethereal
effluvium from the incense smoke, were able to make their presence felt.
The salamanders are as varied in their grouping and arrangement as either
the undines or the gnomes. There are many families of them, differing in ap-
pearance, size, and dignity. Sometimes the salamanders were visible as small
balls of light. Paracelsus says: "Salamanders have been seen in the shapes of
fiery balls, or tongues of fire, running over the fields or peering in houses."
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Medival investigators of the Nature spirits were of the opinion that the
most common form of salamander was lizard-like in shape, a foot or more in
length, and visible as a glowing Urodela, twisting and crawling in the midst of
the fire. Another group was described as huge flaming giants in flowing robes,
protected with sheets of fiery armor. Certain medival authorities, among
them the Abb de Villars, held that Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the son of
Vesta (believed to have been the wife of Noah) and the great salamander Oro-
masis. Hence, from that time onward, undying fires have been maintained
upon the Persian altars in honor of Zarathustra's flaming father.

356
 One most important subdivision of the salamanders was the Acthnici. These
creatures appeared only as indistinct globes. They were supposed to float over
water at night and occasionally to appear as forks of flame on the masts and
rigging of ships (St. Elmo's fire). The salamanders were the strongest and most
powerful of the elementals, and had as their ruler a magnificent flaming spirit
called Djin, terrible and awe-inspiring in appearance. The salamanders were
dangerous and the sages were warned to keep away from them, as the benefits
derived from studying them were often not commensurate with the price paid.
As the ancients associated heat with the South, this corner of creation was as-
signed to the salamanders as their drone, and they exerted special influence
over all beings of fiery or tempestuous temperament. In both animals and men,
the salamanders work through the emotional nature by means of the body
heat, the liver, and the blood stream. Without their assistance there would be
no warmth.

THE SYLPHS

While the sages said that the fourth class of elementals, or sylphs, lived in the
element of air, they meant by this not the natural atmosphere of the earth, but
the invisible, intangible, spiritual medium--an ethereal substance similar in
composition to our atmosphere, but far more subtle. In the last: discourse of
Socrates, as preserved by Plato in his Phdo, the condemned philosopher
says:
"And upon the earth are animals and men, some in a middle region, others
(elementals] dwelling about the air as we dwell about the sea; others in islands
which the air flows round, near the continent; and in a word, the air is used by
them as the water and the sea are by us, and the ether is to them what the air is
to us. More over, the temperament of their seasons is such that they have no
disease [Paracelsus disputes this], and live much longer than we do, and have
sight and bearing and smell, and all the other senses, in far greater perfection,
in the same degree that air is purer than water or the ether than air. Also they
have temples and sacred places in which the gods really dwell, and they hear
their voices and receive their answers, and are conscious of them and hold
converse with them, and they see the sun, moon, and stars as they really are,
and their other blessedness is of a piece with this." While the sylphs were be-
lieved to live among the clouds and in the surrounding air, their true home was
upon the tops of mountains.

357
Click to enlarge
A MERMAID.
From Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon.
Probably the most famous of the undines were the mythological mermaids, with which
early mariners peopled the Seven Seas. Belief in the existence of these creatures, the
upper half of their bodies human in form and the lower half fishlike, may have been
inspired by flocks of penguins seen at great distance, or possibly seals. In medival
descriptions of mermaids, it was also stated that their hair was green like seaweed and
that they wore wreaths twisted from the blossoms of subaqueous plants and sea ane-
mones.

In his editorial notes to the Occult Sciences of Salverte, Anthony Todd Thom-
son says: "The Fayes and Fairies are evidently of Scandinavian origin, although
the name of Fairy is supposed to be derived from, or rather [is] a modification
of the Persian Peri, an imaginary benevolent being, whose province it was to
guard men from the maledictions of evil spirits; but with more probability it
may be referred to the Gothic Fagur, as the term Elves is from Alfa, the general
appellation for the whole tribe. If this derivation of the name of Fairy be admit-
ted, we may date the commencement of the popular belief in British Fairies to
the period of the Danish conquest. They were supposed to be diminutive aeri-
al beings, beautiful, lively, and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals,
inhabiting a region called Fairy Land, Alf-heinner; commonly appearing on
earth at intervals--when they left traces of their visits, in beautiful green-rings,
where the dewy sward had been trodden in their moonlight dances."
To the sylphs the ancients gave the labor of modeling the snowflakes and
gathering clouds. This latter they accomplished with the cooperation of the
undines who supplied the moisture. The winds were their particular vehicle
and the ancients referred to them as the spirits of the air. They are the highest
of all the elementals, their native element being the highest in vibratory rate.
They live hundreds of years, often attaining to a thousand years and never
seeming to grow old. The leader of the sylphs is called Paralda, who is said to
dwell on the highest mountain of the earth. The female sylphs were called syl-
phids.

358
 It is believed that the sylphs, salamanders, and nymphs had much to do with
the oracles of the ancients; that in fact they were the ones who spoke from the
depths of the earth and from the air above.
The sylphs sometimes assume human form, but apparently for only short
periods of time. Their size varies, but in the majority of cases they are no larger
than human beings and often considerably smaller. It is said that the sylphs
have accepted human beings into their communities and have permitted them
to live there for a considerable period; in fact, Paracelsus wrote of such an in-
cident, but of course it could not have occurred while the human stranger was
in his physical body. By some, the Muses of the Greeks are believed to have
been sylphs, for these spirits are said to gather around the mind of the drea-
mer, the poet, and the artist, and inspire him with their intimate knowledge of
the beauties and workings of Nature. To the sylphs were given the eastern cor-
ner of creation. Their temperament is mirthful, changeable, and eccentric. The
peculiar qualities common to men of genius are supposedly the result of the
cooperation of sylphs, whose aid also brings with it the sylphic inconsistency.
The sylphs labor with the gases of the human body and indirectly with the
nervous system, where their inconstancy is again apparent. They have no fixed
domicile, but wander about from place to place--elemental nomads, invisible
but ever-present powers in the intelligent activity of the universe.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Certain of the ancients, differing with Paracelsus, shared the opinion that the
elemental kingdoms were capable of waging war upon one another, and they
recognized in the battlings of the elements disagreements among these king-
doms of Nature spirits. When lightning struck a rock and splintered it, they
believed that the salamanders were attacking the gnomes. As they could not
attack one another on the plane of their own peculiar etheric essences, owing
to the fact that there was no vibratory correspondence between the four ethers
of which these kingdoms are composed, they had to attack through a common
denominator, namely, the material substance of the physical universe over
which they had a certain amount of power.
Wars were also fought within the groups themselves; one army of gnomes
would attack another army, and civil war would be rife among them. Philoso-
phers of long ago solved the problems of Nature's apparent inconsistencies by
individualizing and personifying all its forces, crediting them with having tem-
peraments not unlike the human and then expecting them to exhibit typical
human inconsistencies. The four fixed signs of the zodiac were assigned to the

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four kingdoms of elementals. The gnomes were said to be of the nature of
Taurus; the undines, of the nature of Scorpio; the salamanders exemplified the
constitution of Leo; while the sylphs manipulated the emanations of Aquarius.
The Christian Church gathered all the elemental entities together under the
title of demon. This is a misnomer with far-reaching consequences, for to the
average mind the word demon means an evil thing, and the Nature spirits are
essentially no more malevolent than are the minerals, plants, and animals.
Many of the early Church Fathers asserted that they had met and debated with
the elementals.
As already stated, the Nature spirits are without hope of immortality, al-
though some philosophers have maintained that in isolated cases immortality
was conferred upon them by adepts and initiates who understood certain subtle
principles of the invisible world. As disintegration takes place in the physical
world, so it takes place in the ethereal counterpart of physical substance. Un-
der normal conditions at death, a Nature spirit is merely resolved back into the
transparent primary essence from which it was originally individualized. What-
ever evolutionary growth is made is recorded solely in the consciousness of that
primary essence, or element, and not in the temporarily individualized entity of
the elemental. Being without man's compound organism and lacking his spiri-
tual and intellectual vehicles, the Nature spirits are subhuman in their rational
intelligence, but from their functions--limited to one element--has resulted a
specialized type of intelligence far ahead of man in those lines of research pe-
culiar to the element in which they exist.
The terms incubus and succubus have been applied indiscriminately by the
Church Fathers to elementals. The incubus and succubus, however, are evil
and unnatural creations, whereas elementals is a collective term for all the in-
habitants of the four elemental essences. According to Paracelsus, the incubus
and succubus (which are male and female respectively) are parasitical creatures
subsisting upon the evil thoughts and emotions of the astral body. These terms
are also applied to the superphysical organisms of sorcerers and black magi-
cians. While these larv are in no sense imaginary beings, they are, neverthe-
less, the offspring of the imagination. By the ancient sages they were recognized
as the invisible cause of vice because they hover in the ethers surrounding the
morally weak and continually incite them to excesses of a degrading nature.
For this reason they frequent the atmosphere of the dope den, the dive, and
the brothel, where they attach themselves to those unfortunates who have given
themselves up to iniquity. By permitting his senses to become deadened
through indulgence in habit-forming drugs or alcoholic stimulants, the individ-
ual becomes temporarily en rapport with these denizens of the astral plane.
The houris seen by the hasheesh or opium addict and the lurid monsters
which torment the victim of delirium tremens are examples of submundane

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beings, visible only to those whose evil practices are the magnet for their attrac-
tion.
Differing widely from the elementals and also the incubus and succubus is
the vampire, which is defined by Paracelsus as the astral body of a person ei-
ther living or dead (usually the latter state). The vampire seeks to prolong exis-
tence upon the physical plane by robbing the living of their vital energies and
misappropriating such energies to its own ends.
In his De Ente Spirituali Paracelsus writes thus of these malignant beings: "A
healthy and pure person cannot become obsessed by them, because such
Larv can only act upon men if the later make room for them in their minds.
A healthy mind is a castle that cannot be invaded without the will of its master;
but if they are allowed to enter, they excite the passions of men and women,
they create cravings in them, they produce bad thoughts which act injuriously
upon the brain; they sharpen the animal intellect and suffocate the moral
sense. Evil spirits obsess only those human beings in whom the animal nature
is predominating. Minds that are illuminated by the spirit of truth cannot be
possessed; only those who are habitually guided by their own lower impulses
may become subjected to their influences." (See Paracelsus, by Franz Hart-
mann.)
A strange concept, and one somewhat at variance with the conventional, is
that evolved by the Count de Gabalis concerning the immaculate conception,
namely, that it represents the union of a human being with an elemental.
Among the offspring of such unions he lists Hercules, Achilles, neas, The-
seus, Melchizedek, the divine Plato, Apollonius of Tyana, and Merlin the Ma-
gician.

Click to enlarge
A SYLPH.
From sketch by Howard Wookey.
The sylphs were changeable entities, passing to and fro with the rapidity of lightning.
They work through the gases and ethers of the earth and are kindly disposed toward
human beings. They are nearly always represented as winged, sometimes as tiny che-
rubs and at other times as delicate fairies.

361
 Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry,
and Therapeutics

THE art of healing was originally one of the secret sciences of the priestcraft,
and the mystery of its source is obscured by the same veil which hides the ge-
nesis of religious belief. All higher forms of knowledge were originally in the
possession of the sacerdotal castes. The temple was the cradle of civilization.
The priests, exercising their divine prerogative, made the laws and enforced
them; appointed the rulers and controlled than; ministered to the needs of the
living, and guided the destinies of the dead. All branches of learning were mo-
nopolized by the priesthood, who admitted into their ranks only those intellec-
tually and morally qualified to perpetuate their arcanum. The following quota-
tion from Plato's Statesman is apropos of the subject: " * * * in Egypt, the King
himself is not allowed to reign, unless he have priestly powers; and if he should
be one of another class, and have obtained the throne by violence, he must get
enrolled in the priestcraft."
Candidates aspiring to membership in the religious orders underwent severe
tests to prove their worthiness. These ordeals were called initiations. Those
who passed them successfully were welcomed as brothers by the priests and
were instructed in the secret teachings. Among the ancients, philosophy,
science, and religion were never considered as separate units: each was re-
garded as an integral part of the whole. Philosophy was scientific and religious;
science was philosophic and religious I religion was philosophic and scientific.
Perfect wisdom was considered unattainable save as the result of harmonizing
all three of these expressions of mental and moral activity.
While modern physicians accredit Hippocrates with being the father of
medicine, the ancient therapeut ascribed to the immortal Hermes the distinc-
tion of being the founder of the art of healing. Clemens Alexandrinus, in de-
scribing the books purported to be from the stylus of Hermes, divided the
sacred writings into six general classifications, one of which, the Pastophorus,
was devoted to the science of medicine. The Smaragdine, or Emerald Tablet
found in the valley of Ebron and generally accredited to Hermes, is in reality a
chemical formula of a high and secret order.
Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, during the fifth century before
Christ, dissociated the healing art from the other sciences of the temple and
thereby established a precedent for separateness. One of the consequences is
the present widespread crass scientific materialism. The ancients realized the
interdependence of the sciences. The moderns do not; and as a result, incom-

362
plete systems of learning are attempting to maintain isolated individualism. The
obstacles which confront present-day scientific research are largely the result of
prejudicial limitations imposed by those who are unwilling to accept that which
transcends the concrete perceptions of the five primary human senses.

THE PARACELSIAN SYSTEM OF MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY

During the Middle Ages the long-ignored axioms and formul of Hermetic
wisdom were assembled once more, and chronicled, and systematic attempts
were made to test their accuracy. To Theophrastus of Hohenheim, who called
himself Paracelsus (a name meaning "greater than Celsus"), the world is in-
debted for much of the knowledge it now possesses of the ancient systems of
medicine. Paracelsus devoted his entire life to the study and exposition of
Hermetic philosophy. Every notion and theory was grist to his mill, and, while
members of the medical fraternity belittle his memory now as they opposed his
system then, the occult world knows that he will yet be recognized as the great-
est physician of all times. While the heterodox and exotic temperament of
Paracelsus has been held against him by his enemies, and his wanderlust has
been called vagabondage, he was one of the few minds who intelligently sought
to reconcile the art of healing with the philosophic and religious systems of
paganism and Christianity.
In defending his right to seek knowledge in all parts of the earth, and among
all classes of society, Paracelsus wrote: "Therefore I consider that it is for me a
matter of praise, not of blame, that I have hitherto and worthily pursued my
wanderings. For this will I bear witness respecting nature: he who will investi-
gate her ways must travel her books with his feet. That which is written is inves-
tigated through its letters, but nature from land to land-as often a land so often
a leaf. Thus is the Codex of Nature, thus must its leaves be turned." (Paracel-
sus, by John Maxson Stillman.)
Paracelsus was a great observationalist, and those who knew him best have
called him "The Second Hermes" and "The Trismegistus of Switzerland." He
traveled Europe from end to end, and may have penetrated Eastern lands
while running down superstitions and ferreting out supposedly lost doctrines.
From the gypsies he learned much concerning the uses of simples, and appar-
ently from the Arabians concerning the making of talismans and the influences
of the heavenly bodies. Paracelsus felt that the healing of the sick was of far
greater importance than the maintaining of an orthodox medical standing, so
he sacrificed what might otherwise have been a dignified medical career and at
the cost of lifelong persecution bitterly attacked the therapeutic systems of his

363
day.
Uppermost in his mind was the hypothesis that everything in the universe is
good for something--which accounts for his cutting fungus from tombstones
and collecting dew on glass plates at midnight. He was a true explorer of Na-
ture's arcanum. Many authorities have held the opinion that he was the disco-
verer of mesmerism, and that Mesmer evolved the art as the result of studying
the writings of this great Swiss physician.
The utter contempt which Paracelsus felt for the narrow systems of medicine
in vogue during his lifetime, and his conviction of their inadequacy, are best
expressed in his own quaint way: "But the number of diseases that originate
from some unknown causes is far greater than those that come from mechani-
cal causes, and for such diseases our physicians know no cure because not
knowing such causes they cannot remove them. All they can prudently do is to
observe the patient and make their guesses about his condition; and the patient
may rest satisfied if the medicines administered to him do no serious harm,
and do not prevent his recovery. The best of our popular physicians are the
ones that do least harm. But, unfortunately, some poison their patients with
mercury, others purge them or bleed them to death. There are some who have
learned so much that their learning has driven out all their common sense, and
a there are others who care a great: deal more for their own profit than for the
health of their patients. A disease does not change its state to accommodate
itself to the knowledge of the physician, but the physician should understand
the causes of the disease. A physician should be a servant of Nature, and not
her enemy; he should be able to guide and direct her in her struggle for life
and not throw, by his unreasonable interference, fresh obstacles in the way of
recovery." (From the Paragranum, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
The belief that nearly all diseases have their origin in the invisible nature of
man (the Astrum) is a fundamental precept of Hermetic medicine, for while
Hermetists in no way disregarded the physical body, they believed that man's
material constitution was an emanation from, or an objectification of, his invis-
ible spiritual principles. A brief, but it is believed fairly comprehensive, rsum
of the Hermetic principles of Paracelsus follows.

364
Click to enlarge
THE TITLE PAGE OF THE BOOK OF ALZE.
From Musum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.
This title page is a further example of Hermetic and alchemical symbolism. The seven-
pointed star of the sacred metals is arranged that one black point is downward, thus
symbolizing Saturn, the Destroyer. Beginning in the space immediately to the left of
the black point, reading clockwise discloses the cryptic word VITRIOL formed by the
capital letters of the seven Latin words in the outer circle.

There is one vital substance in Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called
archus, or vital life force, and is synonymous with the astral light or spiritual
air of the ancients. In regard to this substance, Eliphas Levi has written: "Light,
that creative agent, the vibrations of which are the movement and life of all
things; light, latent in the universal ether, radiating about absorbing centres,
which, being saturated thereby, project movement and life in their turn, so
forming creative currents; light, astralized in the stars, animalized in animals,
humanized in human beings; light, which vegetates all plants, glistens in metals,
produces all forms of Nature and equilibrates all by the laws of universal sym-
pathy--this is the light which exhibits the phenomena of magnetism, divined by
Paracelsus, which tinctures the blood, being released from the air as it is in-
haled and discharged by the hermetic bellows of the lungs." (The History of
Magic.)
This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every
created thing has two bodies, one visible and substantial, the other invisible and
transcendent. The latter consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical
form; it constitutes the vehicle of archus, and may be called a vital body. This
etheric shadow sheath is not dissipated by death, but remains until the physical
form is entirely disintegrated. These "etheric doubles, "seen around graveyards,
have given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer in its substances than the
earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to impulses and inhar-
monies. It is derangements of this astral light body that cause much disease.
Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental attitude could poison his
own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting the natural flow of vital life
force, would later appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an

365
invisible nature composed of this "archus," but each manifests it in a different
way.
Concerning the astral-light bodies of flowers, James Gaffarel, in 1650, wrote
the following: "I answer, that though they be chopt in pieces, brayed in a Mor-
tar, and even burnt to Ashes; yet do they neverthelesse retaine, (by a certaine
Secret, and wonderfull Power of Nature), both in the Juyce, and in the Ashes,
the selfe same Forme, and Figure, that they had before: and though it be not
there Visible, yet it may by Art be drawne forth, and made Visible to the Eye,
by an Artist. This perhaps will seem a Ridiculous story to those, who reade
only the Titles of Bookes: but, those that please, may see this truth confirmed,
if they but have recourse to the Workes of M. du Chesne, S. de la Violette,
one of the best Chymists that our Age hath produced; who affirmes, that him-
selfe saw an Excellent Polich Physician of Cracovia, who kept, in Glasses, the
Ashes of almost all the Hearbs that are knowne: so that, when any one, out of
Curiosity, had a desire to see any of them, as (for example) a Rose, in one of
his Glasses, he tooke That where the Ashes of a Rose were preserved; and
holding it over a lighted Candle, so soone as it ever began to feele the Heat,
you should presently see the Ashes begin to Move; which afterwards rising up,
and dispersing themselves about the Glasse, you should immediately observe a
kind of little Dark Cloud; which dividing it selfe into many parts, it came at
length to represent a Rose; but so Faire, so Fresh, and so Perfect a one, that
you would have thought it to have been as Substancial, & as Odoriferous a
Rose, as growes on the Rose-tree." (Unheard-of Curiosities Concerning Talis-
manical Sculpture of the Persians.)
Paracelsus, recognizing derangements of the etheric double as the most im-
portant cause of disease, sought to reharmonize its substances by bringing into
contact with it other bodies whose vital energy could supply elements needed,
or were strong enough to overcome the diseased conditions existing in the aura
of the sufferer. Its invisible cause having been thus removed, the ailment spee-
dily vanished.
The vehicle for the archus, or vital life force, Paracelsus called the mumia.
A good example of a physical mumia is vaccine, which is the vehicle of a semi-
astral virus. Anything which serves as a medium for the transmission of the
archus, whether it be organic or inorganic, truly physical or partly spiritua-
lized, was termed a mumia. The most universal form of the mumia was ether,
which modern science has accepted as a hypothetical substance serving as a
medium between the realm of vital energy and that of organic and inorganic
substance.
The control of universal energy is virtually impossible, save through one of
its vehicles (the mumia). A good example of this is food. Man does not secure
nourishment from dead animal or plant organisms, but when he incorporates

366
their structures into his own body he first gains control over the mumia, or
etheric double, of the animal or plant. Having obtained this control, the human
organism then diverts the flow of the archus to its own uses. Paracelsus says:
"That which constitutes life is contained in the Mumia, and by imparting the
Mumia we impart life." This is the secret of the remedial properties of talis-
mans and amulets, for the mumia of the substances of which they are com-
posed serves as a channel to connect the person wearing them with certain
manifestations of the universal vital life force.
According to Paracelsus, in the same way that plants purify the atmosphere
by accepting into their constitutions the carbon dioxid exhaled by animals and
humans, so may plants and animals accept disease elements transferred to
them by human beings. These lower forms of life, having organisms and needs
different from man, are often able to assimilate these substances without ill
effect. At other times, the plant or animal dies, sacrificed in order that the
more intelligent, and consequently more useful, creature may survive. Paracel-
sus discovered that in either case the patient was gradually relieved of his mala-
dy. When the lower life had either completely assimilated the foreign mumia
from the patient, or had itself died and disintegrated as the result of its inability
to do so, complete recovery resulted. Many years of investigation were neces-
sary to determine which herb or animal most readily accepted the mumia of
each of various diseases.
Paracelsus discovered that in many cases plants revealed by their shape the
particular organs of the human body which they served most effectively. The
medical system of Paracelsus was based on the theory that by removing the
diseased etheric mumia from the organism of the patient and causing it to be
accepted into the nature of some distant and disinterested thing of compara-
tively little value, it was possible to divert from the patient the flow of the
archus which had been continually revitalizing and nourishing the malady. Its
vehicle of expression being transplanted, the archus necessarily accompanied
its mumia, and the patient recovered.

THE HERMETIC THEORY CONCERNING THE CAUSATIONS

OF DISEASE

According to the Hermetic philosophers, there were seven primary causes of

disease. The first was evil spirits. These were regarded as creatures born of
degenerate actions, subsisting on the vital energies of those to whom they at-
tached themselves. The second cause was a derangement of the spiritual nature
and the material nature: these two, failing to coordinate, produced mental and
367
physical subnormality. The third was an unhealthy or abnormal mental atti-
tude. Melancholia, morbid emotions, excess of feeling, such as passions, lusts,
greeds, and hates, affected the mumia, from which they reacted into the physi-
cal body, where they resulted in ulcers, tumors, cancers, fevers, and tuberculo-
sis. The ancients viewed the disease germ as a unit of mumia which had been
impregnated with the emanations from evil influences which it had contacted.
In other words, germs were minute creatures born out of man's evil thoughts
and actions.

Click to enlarge
JOHANNIS BAPTISTAE VON HELMONT.
From von Helmont's Ausgang der Artznen-Kunst.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century von Helmont, the Belgian alchemist (to
whom incidentally, the world is indebted for the common term gas, as distinguished
from other kinds of air), while experimenting with the root of A---, touched it to the tip
of his tongue, without swallowing any of the substance. He himself describes the result
in the following manner:
"Immediately my head seemed tied tightly with a string, and soon after there happened
to me a singular circumstance such as I had never before experienced. I observed with
astonishment that I no longer felt and thought with the head, but with the region of the
stomach, as if consciousness had now taken up its seat in the stomach. Terrified by this
unusual phenomenon, I asked myself and inquired into myself carefully; but I only
became the more convinced that my power of perception was became greater and
more comprehensive. This intellectual clearness was associated with great pleasure. I
did not sleep, nor did I dream; I was perfectly sober; and my health was perfect. I had
occasionally had ecstasies, but these had nothing in common with this condition of the
stomach, in which it thought and felt, and almost excluded all cooperation of the head.
In the meantime my friends were troubled with the fear that I might go mad. But my
faith to God, and my submission to His will, soon dissipated this fear. This state con-
tinued for two hours, after which I had same dizziness. I afterwards frequently tasted of
the A---, but I never again could reproduce these sensations." (Van Helmont, Demens
idea. Reprinted by P. Davidson in The Mistletoe and Its Philosophy.)
Von Helmont is only one of many who have accidentally hit upon the secrets of the
early priestcrafts, but none in this age give evidence of an adequate comprehension of
the ancient Hermetic secrets. From the description von Helmont gives, it is probable

368
that the herb mentioned by him paralyzed temporarily the cerebrospinal nervous sys-
tem, the result being that the consciousness was forced to function through the sympa-
thetic nervous system and its brain--the solar plexus.

The fourth cause of disease was what the Orientals called Karma, that is, the
Law of Compensation, which demanded that the individual pay in full for the
indiscretions and delinquencies of the past. A physician had to be very careful
how he interfered with the workings of this law, lest he thwart the plan of Eter-
nal justice. The fifth cause was the motion and aspects of the heavenly bodies.
The stars did not compel the sickness but rather impelled it. The Hermetists
taught that a strong and wise man ruled his stars, but that a negative, weak per-
son was ruled by them. These five causes of disease are all superphysical in
nature. They must be estimated by inductive and deductive reasoning and a
careful consideration of the life and temperament of the patient.
The sixth cause of disease was a misuse of faculty, organ, or function, such
as overstraining a member or overtaxing the nerves. The seventh cause was the
presence in the system of foreign substances, impurities, or obstructions. Un-
der this heading must be considered diet, air, sunlight, and the presence of
foreign bodies. This list does not include accidental injuries; such do not be-
long under the heading of disease. Frequently they are methods by which the
Law of Karma expresses itself.
According to the Hermetists, disease could be prevented or successfully
combated in seven ways. First, by spells and invocations, in which the physician
ordered the evil spirit causing the disease to depart from the patient. This pro-
cedure was probably based on the Biblical account of the man possessed of
devils whom Jesus healed by commanding the devils to leave the man and en-
ter into a herd of swine. Sometimes the evil spirits entered a patient at the bid-
ding of someone desiring to injure him. In these cases the physician com-
manded the spirits to return to the one who sent them. It is recorded that in
some instances the evil spirits departed through the mouth in the form of
clouds of smoke; sometimes from the nostrils as flames. It is even averred that
the spirits might depart in the form of birds and insects.
The second method of healing was by vibration. The inharmonies of the
bodies were neutralized by chanting spells and intoning the sacred names or by
playing upon musical instruments and singing. Sometimes articles of various
colors were exposed to the sight of the sick, for the ancients recognized, at least
in part, the principle of color therapeutics, now in the process of rediscovery.
The third method was with the aid of talismans, charms, and amulets. The
ancients believed that the planets controlled the functions of the human body
and that by making charms out of different metals they could combat the ma-

369
lignant influences of the various stars. Thus, a person who is anmic lacks
iron. Iron was believed to be under the control of Mars. Therefore, in order to
bring the influence of Mars to the sufferer, around his neck was hung a talis-
man made of iron and bearing upon it certain secret instructions reputed to
have the power of invoking the spirit of Mars. If there was too much iron in the
system, the patient was subjected to the influence of a talisman composed of
the metal corresponding to some planet having an antipathy to Mars. This
influence would then offset the Mars energy and thus aid in restoring normali-
ty.
The fourth method was by the aid of herbs and simples. While they used
metal talismans, the majority of the ancient physicians did not approve of min-
eral medicine in any form for internal use. Herbs were their favorite remedies.
Like the metals, each herb was assigned to one of the planets. Having diag-
nosed by the stars the sickness and its cause, the doctors then administered the
herbal antidote.
The fifth method of healing disease was by prayer. All ancient peoples be-
lieved in the compassionate intercession of the Deity for the alleviation of hu-
man suffering. Paracelsus said that faith would cure all disease. Few persons,
however, possess a sufficient degree of faith.
The sixth method--which was prevention rather than cure--was regulation of
the diet and daily habits of life. The individual, by avoiding the things which
caused illness, remained well. The ancients believed that health was the normal
state of man; disease was the result of man's disregard of the dictates of Nature.
The seventh method was "practical medicine," consisting chiefly of bleeding,
purging, and similar lines of treatment. These procedures, while useful in
moderation, were dangerous in excess. Many a useful citizen has died twenty-
five or fifty years before his time as the result of drastic purging or of having all
the blood drained out of his body.
Paracelsus used all seven methods of treatment, and even his worst enemies
admitted that he accomplished results almost miraculous in character. Near his
old estate in Hohenheim, the dew falls very heavily at certain seasons of the
year, and Paracelsus discovered that by gathering the dew under certain confi-
gurations of the planets he obtained a water possessing marvelous medicinal
virtue, for it had absorbed the properties of the heavenly bodies.

370
HERMETIC HERBALISM AND PHARMACOLOGY

The herbs of the fields were sacred to the early pagans, who believed that the
gods had made plants for the cure of human ills. When properly prepared and
applied, each root and shrub could be used for the alleviation of suffering, or
for the development of spiritual, mental, moral, or physical powers. In The
Mistletoe and Its Philosophy, P. Davidson pays the following beautiful tribute
to the plants: "Books have been written on the language of flowers and herbs,
the poet from the earliest ages has held the sweetest and most loving converse
with them, kings are even glad to obtain their essences at second hand to per-
fume themselves; but to the true physician--Nature's High-Priest--they speak in
a far higher and more exalted strain. There is not a plant or mineral which has
disclosed the last of its properties to the scientists. How can they feel confident
that for every one of the discovered properties there may not be many powers
concealed in the inner nature of the plant? Well have flowers been called the
'Stars of Earth,' and why should they not be beautiful? Have they not from the
time of their birth smiled in the splendor of the sun by day, and slumbered
under the brightness of the stars by night? Have they not come from another
and more spiritual world to our earth, seeing that God made 'every plant of the
field BEFORE it was in the earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE IT
GREW'?"
Many primitive peoples used herbal remedies, with many remarkable cures.
The Chinese, Egyptians, and American Indians cured with herbs diseases for
which modern science knows no remedy. Doctor Nicholas Culpeper, whose
useful life ended in 1654, was probably the most famous of herbalists. Finding
that the medical systems of his day were unsatisfactory in the extreme, Culpe-
per turned his attention to the plants of the fields, and discovered a medium of
healing which gained for him national renown.
In Doctor Culpeper's correlation of astrology and herbalism, each plant was
under the jurisdiction of one of the planets or luminaries. He believed that
disease was also controlled by celestial configurations. He summed up his sys-
tem of treatment as follows: "You may oppose diseases by Herbs of the planet
opposite to the planet that causes them: as diseases of Jupiter by Herbs of
Mercury, and the contrary; diseases of the Luminaries by the Herbs of Saturn,
and the contrary; diseases of Mars by Herbs of Venus and the contrary. * * *
There is a way to cure diseases sometimes by Sympathy, and so every planet
cures his own disease; as the Sun and Moon by their Herbs cure the Eyes,
Saturn the Spleen, Jupiter the Liver, Mars the Gall and diseases of choler, and
Venus diseases in the Instruments of Generation." (The Complete Herbal.)
Medival European herbalists rediscovered only in part the ancient Her-
metic secrets of Egypt and Greece. These earlier nations evolved the funda-

371
mentals of nearly all modern arcs and sciences.

Click to enlarge
NICHOLAS CULPEPER.
From Culpeper's Semeiotica Uranica.
This famous physician, herbalist, and astrologer spent the greater part of his useful life
ranging the hills and forests of England and cataloguing literally hundreds of medicinal
herbs. Condemning the unnatural methods of contemporaneous medicos, Culpeper
wrote: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable tome, I consulted with my two
brothers, DR. REASON and DR. EXPERIENCE, and took a voyage to visit my
mother NATURE, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. DILIGENCE, I at
last obtained my desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY, a stranger in our days,
to publish it to the world, I have done it." (From the Introduction to the 1835 Edition
of The Complete Herbal.) Doctor Johnson said of Culpeper that he merited the grati-
tude of posterity.

At that time the methods used in healing were among the secrets imparted to
initiates of the Mysteries. Unctions, collyria, philters, and potions were con-
cocted to the accompaniment of strange rites. The effectiveness of these medi-
cines is a matter of historical record. Incenses and perfumes were also much
used.
Barrett in his Magus describes the theory on which they worked, as follows:
"For, because our spirit is the pure, subtil, lucid, airy and unctuous vapour of
the blood, nothing, therefore, is better adapted for collyriums than the like
vapours which are more suitable to our spirit in substance; for then, by reason
of their likeness, they do more stir up, attract and transform the spirit."
Poisons were thoroughly studied, and in some communities extracts of dead-
ly herbs were administered to persons sentenced to death--as in the case of
Socrates. The infamous Borgias of Italy developed the art of poisoning to its
highest degree. Unnumbered brilliant men and women were quietly and effi-
ciently disposed of by the almost superhuman knowledge of chemistry which
for many centuries was preserved in the Borgia family.
Egyptian priests discovered herb extracts by means of which temporary
clairvoyance could be induced, and they made use of these during the initiatory
372
rituals of their Mysteries. The drugs were sometimes mixed with the food given
to candidates, and at other times were presented in the form of sacred potions,
the nature of which was explained. Shortly after the drugs were administered to
him, the neophyte was attacked by a spell of dizziness. He found himself float-
ing through space, and while his physical body was absolutely insensible (being
guarded by priests that no ill should befall it) the candidate passed through a
number of weird experiences, which he was able to relate after regaining con-
sciousness. In the light of present-day knowledge, it is difficult to appreciate an
art so highly developed that by means of draughts, perfumes, and incenses any
mental attitude desired could be induced almost instantaneously, yet such an
art actually existed among the priestcraft of the early pagan world.
Concerning this subject, H. P. Blavatsky, the foremost occultist of the nine-
teenth century, has written: 'Plants also have like mystical properties in a most
wonderful degree, and the secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments
are only lost to European science, and useless to say, too, are unknown to it,
except in a few marked instances, such as opium and hashish. Yet, the psychi-
cal effects of even these few upon the human system are regarded as evidences
of a temporary mental disorder. The women of Thessaly and Epirus, the fe-
male hierophants of the rites of Sabazius, did not carry their secrets away with
the downfall of their sanctuaries. They are still preserved, and those who are
aware of the nature of Soma, know the properties of other plants as well." (Isis
Unveiled.)
Herbal compounds were used to cause temporary clairvoyance in connec-
tion with the oracles, especially the one at Delphi. Words spoken while in
these imposed trances were regarded as prophetic. Modem mediums, while
under control as the result of partly self-imposed catalepsy, give messages
somewhat similar to those of the ancient prophets, but in the majority of cases
their results are far less accurate, for the soothsayers of today lack the know-
ledge of Nature's hidden forces.
The Mysteries taught that during the higher degrees of initiation the gods
themselves took part in the instruction of candidates or at least were present,
which was in itself a benediction. As the deities dwelt in the invisible worlds
and came only in their spiritual bodies, it was impossible for the neophyte to
cognize them without the assistance of drugs which stimulated the clairvoyant
center of his consciousness (probably the pineal gland). Many initiates in the
ancient Mysteries stated emphatically that they had conversed with the immor-
tals, and had beheld the gods.
When the standards of the pagans became corrupted, a division took place
in the Mysteries. The band of truly enlightened ones separated themselves
from the rest and, preserving the most important of their secrets, vanished
without leaving a trace. The rest slowly drifted, like rudderless ships, on the

373
rocks of degeneracy and disintegration. Some of the less important of the se-
cret formul fell into the hands of the profane, who perverted them--as in the
case of the Bacchanalia, during which drugs were mixed with wine and became
the real cause of the orgies.
In certain parts of the earth it was maintained that there were natural wells,
springs, or fountains, in which the water (because of the minerals through
which it coursed) was tinctured with sacred properties. Temples were often
built near these spots, and in some cases natural caves which chanced to be in
the vicinity were sanctified to some deity.
"The aspirants to initiation, and those who came to request prophetic
dreams of the Gods, were prepared by a fast, more or less prolonged, after
which they partook of meals expressly prepared; and also of mysterious drinks,
such as the water of Lethe, and the water of Mnemosyne in the grotto of Tro-
phonius; or of the Ciceion in the mysteries of the Eleusinia. Different drugs
were easily mixed up with the meats or introduced into the drinks, according to
the state of mind or body into which it was necessary to throw the recipient,
and the nature of the visions he was desirous of procuring.'' (Salverte's The
Occult Sciences.) The same author states that certain sects of early Christianity
were accused of using drugs for the same general purposes as the pagans.
The sect of the Assassins, or the Yezidees as they are more generally known,
demonstrated a rather interesting aspect of the drug problem. In the eleventh
century this order, by capturing the fortress of Mount Alamont, established
itself at Irak. Hassan Sabbah, the founder of the order, known as the "Old Man
of the Mountain, " is suspected of having controlled his followers by the use of
narcotics. Hassan made his followers believe that they were in Paradise, where
they would be forever if they implicitly obeyed him while they were alive. De
Quincey, in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, describes the peculiar psycho-
logical effects produced by this product of the poppy, and the use of a similar
drug may have given rise to the idea of Paradise which filled the minds of the
Yezidees.
The philosophers of all ages have taught that the visible universe was but a
fractional part of the whole, and that by analogy the physical body of man is in
reality the least important part of his composite constitution. Most of the medi-
cal systems of today almost entirely ignore the superphysical man. They pay
but scant attention to causes, and concentrate their efforts on ameliorating ef-
fects. Paracelsus, noting the same proclivity on the part of physicians during his
day, aptly remarked: "There is a great difference between the power that re-
moves the invisible causes of disease, and which is Magic, and that which caus-
es merely external effects [to] disappear, and which is Physic, Sorcery, and
Quackery." (Translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Disease is unnatural, and is evidence that there is a maladjustment within or

374
between organs or tissues. Permanent health cannot be regained until harmony
is restored. The outstanding virtue of Hermetic medicine was its recognition of
spiritual and psychophysical derangements as being largely responsible for the
condition which is called physical disease. Suggestive therapy was used with
marked success by the priest-physicians of the ancient world. Among the-
American Indians, the Shamans--or "Medicine Men"--dispelled sickness with
the aid of mysterious dances, invocations, and charms. The fact that in spite of
their ignorance of modern methods of medical treatment these sorcerers ef-
fected innumerable cures, is well worthy of consideration.
The magic rituals used by the Egyptian priests for the curing of disease were
based upon a highly developed comprehension of the complex workings of the
human mind and its reactions upon the physical constitution. The Egyptian
and Brahmin worlds undoubtedly understood the fundamental principle of
vibrotherapeutics. By means of chants and mantras, which emphasized certain
vowel and consonant sounds, they set up vibratory reactions which dispelled
congestions and assisted Nature in reconstructing broken members and dep-
leted organisms. They also applied their knowledge of the laws governing vibra-
tion to the spiritual constitution of man; by their intonings, they stimulated
latent centers of consciousness and thereby vastly increased the sensitiveness of
the subjective nature.
In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, many of the Egyptian secrets have
been preserved to this generation. While this ancient scroll has been well trans-
lated, only a few understand the secret: significance of its magical passages.
Oriental races have a keen realization of the dynamics of sound. They know
that every spoken word has tremendous power and that by certain arrange-
ments of words they can create vortices of force in the invisible universe about
them and thereby profoundly influence physical substance. The Sacred Word
by which the world was established, the Lost Word which Masonry is still seek-
ing, and the threefold Divine Name symbolized by A. U. M.--the creative tone
of the Hindus--all are indicative of the veneration accorded the principle of
sound.
The so-called "new discoveries" of modern science are often only rediscove-
ries of secrets well known to the priests and philosophers of ancient pagandom.
Man's inhumanity to man has resulted in the loss of records and formula:
which, had they been preserved, would have solved many of the greatest prob-
lems of this civilization. With sword and firebrand, races obliterate the records
of their predecessors, and then inevitably meet with an untimely fate for need
of the very wisdom they have destroyed.

375
Click to enlarge
CHEMICAL SYLLABLES.
From De Monte-Snyders' Metamorphosis Planetarum.
De Monte-Snyders declares that each of the above characters forms one syllables of a
word having seven syllables, the word itself representing the materia prima, or first
substance of the universe. As all substance is composed of seven powers combined
according to certain cosmic laws, a great mystery is concealed within the sevenfold
constitution of man, and the universe. Of the above seven characters, De Monte-
Snyder writes:
Whoever wants to know the true name and character of the materia prima shall know
that out of the combination of the above figures syllables are produced, and out of
these the verbum significativum."

376
 The Qabbalah, the Secret Doctrine of Israel

ALBERT PIKE, quoting from Transcendental Magic, thus sums up the impor-
tance of Qabbalism as a key to Masonic esotericism: "One is filled with admira-
tion, on penetrating into the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine so
logical, so simple, and at the same time so absolute. The necessary union of
ideas and signs, the consecration of the most fundamental realities by the pri-
mitive characters; the Trinity of Words, Letters, and Numbers; a philosophy
simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as the Word; theorems more
complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology summed up by
counting on one's fingers; an Infinite which can be held in the hollow of an
infant's hand; ten ciphers and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square, and a cir-
cle,--these are all the elements of the Kabalah. These are the elementary prin-
ciples of the written Word, reflection of that spoken Word that created the
world!" (Morals and Dogma.)
Hebrew theology was divided into three distinct parts. The first was the law,
the second was the soul of the law, and the third was the soul of the soul of the
law. The law was taught to all the children of Israel; the Mishna, or the soul of
the law, was revealed to the Rabbins and teachers; but the Qabbalah, the soul
of the soul of the law, was cunningly concealed, and only the highest initiates
among the Jews were instructed in its secret principles.
According to certain Jewish mystics, Moses ascended Mount Sinai three
times, remaining in the presence of God forty days each time. During the first
forty days the tables of the written law were delivered to the prophet; during
the second forty days he received the soul of the law; and during the last forty
days God instructed him in the mysteries of the Qabbalah, the soul of the soul
of the law. Moses concealed in the first four books of the Pentateuch the secret
instructions that God had given him, and for centuries students of Qabbalism.
have sought therein the secret doctrine of Israel. As the spiritual nature of man
is concealed in his physical body, so the unwritten law--the Mishna and the
Qabbalah--is concealed within the written teachings of the Mosaic code. Qab-
balah means the secret or hidden tradition, the unwritten law, and according to
an early Rabbi, it was delivered to man in order that through the aid of its ab-
struse principles he might learn to understand the mystery of both the universe
about him and the universe within him.
The origin of Qabbalism is a legitimate subject for controversy. Early in-
itiates of the Qabbalistic Mysteries believed that its principles were first taught
by God to a school of His angels before the fall of man. The angels later com-
municated the secrets to Adam, so that through the knowledge gained from an

377
understanding of its principles fallen humanity might regain its lost a estate.
The Angel Raziel was dispatched from heaven to instruct Adam in the myste-
ries of the Qabbalah. Different angels were employed to initiate the succeeding
patriarchs in this difficult science. Tophiel was the teacher of Shem, Raphael of
Isaac, Metatron of Moses, and Michael of David. (See Faiths of the World.)
Christian D. Ginsburg has written: "From Adam it passed over to Noah, and
then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the
patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in
this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other East-
ern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was
learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his
birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness,
when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but
received lessons in it from one of the angels. * * * Moses also initiated the
seventy Elders into the secrets of this doctrine and they again transmitted them
from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David
and Solomon were most initiated into the Kabbalah." (See The Kabbalah.)
According to Eliphas Levi, the three greatest books of Qabbalism are the
Sepher Yetzirah, The Book of Formation; the Sepher ha Zohar, The Book of
Splendor; and the Apocalypse, The Book of Revelation. The dates of the writ-
ing of these books are by no means thoroughly established. Qabbalists declare
that the Sepher Yetzirah was written by Abraham. Although it is by far the old-
est of the Qabbalistic books, it was probably from the pen of the Rabbi Akiba,
A.D. 120.
The Sepher ha Zohar presumably was written by Simeon ben Jochai, a dis-
ciple of Akiba. Rabbi Simeon was sentenced to death about A.D. 161 by Lu-
cius Verus, co-regent of the Emperor Marc Aurelius Antoninus. He escaped
with his son and, hiding in a cave, transcribed the manuscript of the Zohar with
the assistance of Elias, who appeared to them at intervals. Simeon was twelve
years in the cave, during which time he evolved the complicated symbolism of
the "Greater Face" and the "Lesser Face." While discoursing with disciples Rab-
bi Simeon expired, and the "Lamp of Israel" was extinguished. His death and
burial were accompanied by many supernatural phenomena. The legend goes
on to relate that the secret doctrines of Qabbalism had been in existence since
the beginning of the world, but that Rabbi Simeon was the first man permitted
to reduce them to writing. Twelve hundred years later the books which he had
compiled were discovered and published for the benefit of humanity by Moses
de Len. The probability is that Moses de Len himself compiled the Zohar
about A.D. 1305, drawing his material from the unwritten secrets of earlier
Jewish mystics. The Apocalypse, accredited to St. John the Divine, is also of
uncertain date, and the identity of its author has never been satisfactorily

378
proved.
Because of its brevity and because it is the key to Qabbalistic thought, the
Sepher Yetzirah is reproduced in full in this chapter. So far as is known, the
Sepher ha Zohar has never been completely translated into English, but it can
be obtained in French. (S. L. MacGregor-Mathers translated three books of the
Zohar into English.) The Zohar contains a vast number of philosophical tenets,
and a paraphrase of its salient points is embodied in this work.

Click to enlarge
THE SEVENTY-TWO NAMES OF GOD.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
This rare cut shows the name of God in seventy-two languages inscribed upon the
petals of a symbolic sunflower. Above the circle are the seventy-two powers of God
according to the Hebrew Qabbalah. Below two trees, that on the left bearing the sym-
bols of the planets and that on the right the signs of the zodiac and the names of the
tribes of Israel. The esoteric doctrines of the Qabbalah are in alignment with the secret
teachings of all the schools of philosophy, but the method by which its secrets are
revealed to the wise and concealed from the ignorant is most unusual. As the religious
world interprets its scriptures with twentieth-century educational facilities, it becomes
ever more apparent that the sacred books were not historical documents, but that the
kings, sages, prophets, and saviors whom Bible students ham revered for ages as once-
existing personalities are in reality only personified attributes of man himself.

Few realize the influence exerted by Qabbalism over medival thought, both
Christian and Jewish. It taught that there existed within the sacred writings a
hidden doctrine which was the key to those writings. This is symbolized by the
crossed keys upon the papal crest. Scores of learned minds began to search for
those arcane truths by which the race should be redeemed; and that their labor
was not without its reward, their subsequent writings have demonstrated.
The theories of Qabbalism are inextricably interwoven with the tenets of
alchemy, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. The words Qabbal-
379
ism and Hermeticism are now considered as synonymous terms covering all
the arcana and esotericism of antiquity. The simple Qabbalism of the first cen-
turies of the Christian Era gradually evolved into an elaborate theological sys-
tem, which became so involved that it was next to impossible to comprehend
its dogma.
The Qabbalists divided the uses of their sacred science into five sections.
The Natural Qabbalah was used solely to assist the investigator in his study of
Nature's mysteries. The Analogical Qabbalah was formulated to exhibit the
relationship which exists between all things in Nature, and it revealed to the
wise that all creatures and substances were one in essence, and that man--the
Little Universe--was a replica in miniature of God--the Great Universe. The
Contemplative Qabbalah was evolved for the purpose of revealing through the
higher intellectual faculties the mysteries of the celestial spheres. By its aid the
abstract reasoning faculties cognized the measureless planes of infinity and
learned to know the creatures existing within them. The Astrological Qabbalah
instructed those who studied its lore in the power, magnitude, and actual sub-
stance of the sidereal bodies, and also revealed the mystical constitution of the
planet itself. The fifth, or Magical Qabbalah, was studied by such as desired to
gain control over the demons and subhuman intelligences of the invisible
worlds. It was also highly valued as a method of healing the sick by talismans,
amulets, charms, and invocations.
The Sepher Yetzirah, according to Adolph Franck, differs from other sacred
books in that it does not explain the world and the phenomena of which it is
the stage by leaning on the idea of God or by setting itself up as the interpreter
of the supreme will. This ancient work rather reveals God by estimating His
manifold handiwork. In preparing the Sepher Yetzirah for the consideration of
the reader, five separate English translations have been compared. The result-
ing form, while it embodies the salient features of each, is not a direct transla-
tion from any one Hebrew or Latin text. Although the purpose was to convey
the spirit rather than the letter of the ancient document, there are no wide dev-
iations from the original rendition. So far as known, the first translation of the
Sepher Yetzirah into English was made by the Rev. Dr. Isidor Kalisch, in 1877.
(See Arthur Edward Waite.) In this translation the Hebrew text accompanies
the English words. The work of Dr. Kalisch has been used as the foundation of
the following interpretation, but material from other authorities has been in-
corporated and many passages have been rewritten to simplify the general
theme.
At hand also was a manuscript copy in English of the Book of the Cabalis-
tick Art, by Doctor John Pistor. The document is undated; but judging from
the general type of the writing, the copy was made during the eighteenth cen-
tury. The third volume used as a reference was the Sepher Yetzirah, by the late

380
Win. Wynn Westcott, Magus of the Rosicrucian Society of England. The
fourth was the Sepher Yetzirah, or The Book of Creation, according to the
translation in the Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, edited by
Prof. Charles F. Horne. The fifth was a recent publication, The Book of For-
mation, by Knut Stenring, containing an introduction by Arthur Edward Waite.
At hand also were four other copies--two German, one Hebrew, and one Latin.
Certain portions of the Sepher Yetzirah are considered older and more au-
thentic than the rest, bur the controversy regarding them is involved and non-
productive that it is useless to add further comment. The doubtful passages are
therefore included in the document at the points where they would naturally
fall.

THE SEPHER YETZIRAH, THE BOOK OF FORMATION

Chapter One

1. YAH, the Lord of Hosts, the living Elohim, King of the Universe, Omnipo-
tent, the Merciful and Gracious God, Supreme and Extolled, Dweller in the
Height whose habitation is Eternity, who is Sublime and Most-Holy, engraved
His name and ordained (formed) and created the Universe in thirty-two myste-
rious paths (stages) of wisdom (science), by three Sepharim, namely, Numbers,
Letters, and Sounds, which are in Him one and the same.
2. Ten Sephiroth (ten properties from the Ineffable One) and twenty-two let-
ters are the Foundation of all things. Of these twenty-two letters three are called
"Mothers," sewn "Double," and twelve "Simple."
3. The ten numbers (Sephiroth) out of Nothing are analogous to the ten fingers
and the ten toes: five over against five. In the center between them is the cove-
nant with the Only One God. In the spiritual world it is the covenant of the
voice (the Word), and in the corporeal world the circumcision of the flesh (the
rite of Abraham).
4. Ten are the numbers (of the Sephiroth) out of Nothing, ten--not nine; ten--
not eleven. Comprehend this great, wisdom, understand this knowledge and be
wise. Inquire into the mystery and ponder it. Examine all things by means of
the ten Sephiroth. Restore the Word to Its Creator and lead the Creator back
to His throne again. He is the only Formator and beside Him there is no oth-
er. His attributes are ten and are without limit.
5. The ten ineffable Sephiroth have ten infinitudes, which are as follows:
The infinite beginning and the infinite end;
The infinite good and the infinite evil;

381
The infinite height and the infinite depth;
The infinite East and the infinite West;
The infinite North and the infinite South;
and over them is the Lord Superlatively One, the faithful King. He rules over
all in all from His holy habitation for ages of ages.
6. The appearance of the ten spheres (Sephiroth) out of Nothing is as a flash of
lightning or a sparkling flame, and they are without beginning or end. The
Word of God is in them when they go forth and when they return. They run
by His order like a whirlwind and prostrate themselves before His throne.
7. The ten Sephiroth have their end linked to their beginning and their begin-
ning linked to their end, cojoined as the flame is wedded to the live coal, for
the Lord is Superlatively One and to Him there is no second. Before One
what can you count?
8. Concerning the number (10) of the spheres of existence (Sephiroth) out of
Nothing, seal up your lips and guard your heart as you consider them, and if
your month opens for utterance and your heart turns towards thought, control
them, returning to silence. So it is written: "And the living creatures ran and
returned." (Ezekiel i. 14.) And on this wise was the covenant made with us,
9. These are the ten emanations of number out of Nothing:
1st. The spirit of the living Elohim, blessed and more than blessed be the living
Elohim of ages. His Voice, His Spirit, and His Word are the Holy Spirit.
2nd. He produced air from the spirit and in the air. He formed and estab-
lished twenty-two sounds--the letters. Three of them were fundamental, or
mothers; seven were double; and twelve were simple (single); but the spirit is
the first one and above all.
3rd. Primordial water He extracted from the air. He formed therein twenty-two
letters and established them out of mud and loam, making them like a border,
putting them up like a wall, and surrounding them as with a rampart. He
poured snow upon them and it became earth, as it reads: "He said to the snow
be thou earth." (Job. xxxvii. 6.)
4th. Fire (ether) He drew forth from the water. He engraved and established by
it the Throne of Glory. He fashioned the Seraphim, the Ophanim, and the
Holy Living Creatures (Cherubim?), as His ministering angels; and with (of)
these three He formed His habitation, as it reads: "Who made His angels spi-
rits, His ministers a flaming fire." (Psalms civ. 4.)

382
Click to enlarge
THE TETRAGRAMMATON.
By arranging the four letters of the Great Name, , (I H V H), in the form of the
Pythagorean Tetractys, the 72 powers of the Great Name of God are manifested. The
key to the problem is as follows:
. = I = 10 = 10
.. = HI = 5+10 = 15
... = VHI = 6+5+10 = 21
.... = HVHI = 5+6+5+10 = 26
The Great
Name of = 72
God

5th. He selected three consonants (I, H, V) from the simple ones--a secret
belonging to the three mothers, or first elements; ( A, M, Sh), air, water,
fire (ether). He sealed them with His spirit and fashioned them into a Great
Name and with this sealed the universe in six directions. He turned towards the
above and sealed the height with ( I, H, V).
6th. He turned towards the below and sealed the depth with( H, I, V).
7th. He turned forward and sealed the East with ( V, I, H).
8th. He turned backward and sealed the West with ( V H, I).
9th. He turned to the right and sealed the South with ( I, V, H).
10th. He turned to the left and sealed the North with ( H, V, I).
NOTE. This arrangement of the letters of the Great Name is according to the
Rev. Dr. Isidor Kalisch.
10. These are the ten ineffable existences out of nothing; From the spirit of the
Living God emanated air; from the air, water; from the water, fire (ether); from
the fire, the height and the depth, the East and the West, the North and the
South.

383
Chapter Two

1. There are twenty-two basic (sounds and) letters. Three are the first elements
(water, air, fire), fundamentals, or mothers; seven are double letters; and twelve
are simple letters. The three fundamental letters have as their basis the
balance. At one end of the scale are the virtues and at the other the vices,
placed in equilibrium by the tongue. Of the fundamental letters ( M) is mute
like the water, ( Sh) hissing like fire, ( A) a reconciling breath between them.
t
2. The twenty-two basic letters having been designed, appointed, and estab-
lished by God, He combined, weighed, and exchanged them (each with the
others), and formed by them all beings which are in existence, and all which
will be formed in time to come.
3. He established twenty-two basic letters, formed by the voice and impressed
upon the air by the breath. He set them to be audibly uttered in five different
parts of the human mouth: namely, Gutturals, ; Palatals, ; Linguals,
Dentals, ; Labials, .
4. He fixed the twenty-two basic letters in a ring (sphere) like a wall with two
hundred and thirty-one gates, and turned the sphere forward and backward.
Turned forward, the sphere signified good; when reversed, evil. Three letters
may serve for an illustration: There is nothing better than ( O, N, G), plea-
sure (joy), and nothing worse than ( N, G, O), plague (sorrow).
5. How was it all accomplished? He combined, weighed, and changed: the
(A) with all the other letters in succession, and all the others again with ( A),
and all again with ( B); and so with the whole series of letters. Hence it follows
that there are two hundred and thirty-one formations, or gates, through which
the powers of the letters go forth; every creature and every language proceeded
from One Name and the combinations of its letters.
6. He created a reality out of Nothing. He called the nonentity into existence
and hewed colossal pillars from intangible air. This has been shown by the
example of combining the letter ( A) with all the other letters, and all the oth-
er letters with . By speaking He created every creature and every word by the
power of One Name. As an illustration, consider the twenty-two elementary
substances from the primitive substance of . The production of every creature
from the twenty-two letters is proof that they are in reality the twenty-two parts
of one living body.

384
Chapter Three

1. The first three elements (the Mother letters, ) resemble a balance, in

one scale virtue and in the other vice, placed in equilibrium by the tongue.
2. The three Mothers, , enclose a great, wonderful, and unknown mys-
tery, and are sealed by six wings (or elementary circles), namely, air, water, fire-
-each divided into an active and a passive power. The Mothers, , gave
birth to the Fathers (the progenitors), and these gave birth to the generations.
3. God appointed and established three Mothers, , combined, weighed,
and exchanged them, forming by them three Mothers, in the universe, in the
year, and in man (male and female).
4. The three Mothers, , in the universe are: air, water, and fire. Heaven
was created from the elementary fire (or ether) , the earth, comprising sea
and land, from the elementary water, , and the atmospheric air from the ele-
mentary air, or spirit, , which establishes the balance among them. Thus were
all things produced.
5. The three Mothers, , produce in the year heat, coldness, and the tem-
perate state. Heat was created from fire, coldness from water, and the tempe-
rate state from air, which equilibrates them.
6. The three Mothers, , produce in man (male and female) breast, abdo-
men, and head. The head was formed from the fire, ;the abdomen from the
water, ;and the breast (thorax) from air, , which places them in equilibrium.
7. God let the letter ( A) predominate in primordial air, crowned it, combined
it with the other two, and sealed the air in the universe, the temperate state in
the year, and the breast in man (male and female).
8. He let the letter ( M) predominate in primordial water, crowned it, com-
bined it with the other two, and sealed the earth in the universe (including land
and sea), coldness in the year, and the abdomen in man (male and female).
9. He let the letter ( Sh) predominate in primordial fire, crowned it, com-
bined it with the other two, and sealed heaven in the universe, heat in the year,
and the head of man (male and female).

Chapter Four

1. The seven double letters, ( B, G, D, K, P, R, Th), have a duplici-

ty of pronunciation (two voices), aspirated and unaspirated, namely: , ,
, , , They serve as a model of softness and hardness, strength and
weakness.
2. The seven double letters symbolize wisdom, riches, fertility life, power,
peace, and grace.

385
3. The seven double letters also signify the antitheses to which human life is
exposed. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness; of riches, poverty; of fertility,
sterility; of life, death; of power, servitude; of peace, war; and of beauty, de-
formity.
4. The seven double letters point out the six dimensions, height, depth, East
and West, North and South, and the Holy Temple in the center, which sus-
tains them all.
5. The double letters are seven and not six, they are seven and not eight; reflect
upon this fact, search into it and reveal its hidden mystery and place the Crea-
tor on His throne again.
6. The seven double letters having been designed, established, purified,
weighed, and exchanged by God, He formed of them seven planets in the un-
iverse, seven days in the Year, and seven gateways of the senses in man (male
and female). From these seven He also produced seven heavens, seven earths,
and seven Sabbaths. Therefore He loved seven more than any other number
beneath His throne.
7. The seven planets in the universe are: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
Mercury, and Moon. The seven days in the Year are the seven days of the
week (possibly the seven creative days are meant). The seven gateways in man
(male and female) are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth.
8. NOTE. Knut Stenring differs from other authorities in his arrangement of
the planets and days of the week in the following seven stanzas. Kircher has still
a different order. Rev. Dr. Isidor Kalisch, Wm. Wynn Westcott, and The Sa-
cred Books and Early Literature of the East adopt the following arrangement.

Click to enlarge
THE HEBREW LETTERS ACCORDING TO THE SEPHER YETZIRAH.
In the central triangle are the three Mother Letters from which come forth the seven
Double Letters--the planets and the heavens. Surrounding the black star are the signs
of the zodiac symbolized by the twelve Simple Letters. In the midst of this star is the
Invisible Throne of the Most Ancient of the Ancients--the Supreme Definitionless
Creator.

386
1st. He caused the letter. ( B) to predominate in wisdom, crowned it, com-
bined each with the others, and formed by them the Moon in the universe, the
first day in the year, and the right eye in man (male and female).
2nd. He caused the letter ( G) to predominate in riches, crowned it, combined
each with the others, and formed by them Mars in the universe, the second day
in the year, and the right ear in man (male and female).
3rd. He caused the letter ( D) to predominate infertility, crowned it, com-
bined each with the others, and formed by them the Sun in the universe, the
third day in the year, and the right nostril in man (male and female).
4th. He caused the letter( K) to predominate in life, crowned it, combined
each with the others, and formed by them Venus in the universe, the fourth
day in the year, and the left eye in man (male and female).
5th. He caused the letter ( P) to predominate in power, crowned it, combined
each with the others, and formed by them Mercury in the universe, the fifth
day in the year, and the left ear in man (male and female).
6th. He caused the letter ( R) to predominate in peace, crowned it, combined
each with the others, and formed by them Saturn in the universe, the sixth day
in the year, and the left nostril in man (male and female).
7th. He caused the letter ( Th) to predominate in grace, crowned it, com-
bined each with the others, and formed by them Jupiter in the universe, the
seventh day in the year, and the mouth of man (male and female).
9. With the seven double letters He also designed seven earths, seven heavens,
seven continents, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven
weeks (from Passover to Pentecost), and in the midst of them His Holy Palace.
There is a cycle of seven years and the seventh is the release year, and after
seven release years is the Jubilee. For this reason God loves the number seven
more than any other thing under the heavens.
10. In this manner God joined the seven double letters together. Two stones
build two houses, three stones build six houses, four stones build twenty-four
houses, five stones build 120 houses, six stones build 720 houses, and seven
stones build 5,040 houses. Make a beginning according to this arrangement
and reckon further than the mouth can express or the ear can hear.

Chapter Five

1. The twelve simple letters ( H, V, Z, Ch, T, I, L, N, S, O,

Tz, Q) symbolize the twelve fundamental properties: speech, thought, move-
ment, sight, hearing, work, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste (or swallowing),
and mirth.
2. The simple letters correspond to twelve directions: east height, northeast,
east depth; south height, southeast, south depth; west height, southwest, west
387
depth; north height, northwest, north depth. They diverge to all eternity and
are the arms of the universe.
3. The simple letters having been designed, established, weighed, and ex-
changed by God, He produced by them twelve zodiacal signs in the universe,
twelve months in the year, and twelve chief organs in ` human body (male and
female).
4, The signs of the zodiac are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,
Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The months of
the year are: Nisan, liar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tisri, Marcheshvan, Kislev,
Tebet, Sebat, and Adar. The organs of the human body are: two hands, two
feet, two kidneys, gall, small intestine, liver, esophagus, stomach, and spleen.
5. NOTE. In the following twelve stanzas, Knut Stenring again differs, this time
as to the arrangement of properties:
1st. God caused the letter ( H) to predominate in speech, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aries (the Ram) in the un-
iverse, the month Nisan in the year, and the right foot of the human body
(male and female).
2nd. He caused the letter ( V) to predominate in thought, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Taurus (the Bull) in the un-
iverse, the month liar in the year, and the right kidney of the human body
(male and female).
3rd. He caused the letter ( Z) to predominate in movement, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Gemini (the Twins) in the un-
iverse, the month Sivan in the year, and the left foot of the human body (male
and female).
4th. He caused the letter ( Ch) to predominate in sight, crowned it, combined
it with the others, and fashioned by them Cancer (the Crab) in the universe, the
month Tammuz in the year, and the right hand of the human body (male and
female).
5th. He caused the letter ( T) to predominate in hearing, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Leo (the Lion) in the universe,
the month Ab in the year, and the left kidney of the human body (male and
female).
6th. He caused the letter ( I) to predominate in work, crowned it, combined it
with the others, and fashioned by them Virgo (the Virgin) in the universe, the
month Elul in the year, and the left hand of the human body (male and fe-
male).
7th. He caused the letter ( L) to predominate in coition, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Libra (the Balance) in the un-
iverse, the month Tisri in the year, and the gall of the human body (male and
female).
388
8th. He caused the letter ( N) to predominate in smell, crowned it, combined
it with the others, and fashioned by them Scorpio (the Scorpion) in the un-
iverse, the month Marcheshvan in the year, and the small intestine in the hu-
man body (male and female).
9th. He caused the letter ( S) to predominate in sleep, crowned it, combined
it with the others, and fashioned by them Sagittarius (the Archer) in the un-
iverse, the month Kislev in the year, and the stomach in the human body (male
and female).
10th. He caused the letter ( O) to predominate in anger, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Capricorn (the Goat) in the
universe, the month Tebet in the year, and the liver in the human body (male
and female).
11th. He caused the letter ( Tz) to predominate in taste (or swallowing),
crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aquarius (the
Water Bearer) in the universe, the month Sebat in the year, and the esophagus
in the human body (male and female).
12th. He caused the letter ( Q) to predominate in mirth, crowned it, com-
bined it with the others, and fashioned by them Pisces (the Fishes) in the un-
iverse, the month Adar in the year, and the spleen in the human body (male
and female).
6. He made them as a conflict, He arranged them as provinces and drew them
up like a wall. He armed them and set one against another as in warfare. (The
Elohim did likewise in the other spheres.)

Chapter Six

1. There are three Mothers or first elements, ( A, M, Sh), from which

emanated three Fathers (progenitors)--primordial (spiritual) air, water, and fire-
-from which issued the seven planets (heavens) with their angels, and the twelve
oblique points (zodiac).
2. To prove this there are three faithful witnesses: the universe, the year, and
man. There are the twelve, the balance, and the seven. Above is the Dragon,
below is the world, and lastly the heart of man; and in the midst is God who
regulates them all.
3. The first elements are air, water, and fire; the fire is above, the water is be-
low, and a breath of air establishes balance between them. The token is: the
fire carries the water. The letter( M) is mute; ( Sh) is hissing like fire; there is
( A) among them, a breath of air which reconciles the two.
4. The Dragon (Tali) is in the universe like a king upon his throne; the celestial
sphere is in the year like a king in his empire; and the heart is in the body of
men like a king in warfare.
389
5. God also set the opposites against each other: the good against the evil, and
the evil against the good. Good proceeds from good, evil from evil; the good
purifies the bad, the bad the good. The good is reserved for the good, and the
evil for the wicked.
6. There are three of which each stands by itself: one is in the affirmative (filled
with good), one is in the negative (filled with evil), and the third equilibrates
them.
7. There are seven divided three against three, and one in the midst of them
(balance). Twelve stand in warfare: three produce love and three hatred; three
are life-givers and three are destroyers.
8. The three that cause love are the heart and the two ears; the three that pro-
duce hatred are the liver, the gall, and the tongues; the three life-givers are the
two nostrils and the spleen; and the three destroyers are the mouth and the two
lower openings of the body. Over all these rules God, the faithful king, from
His holy habitation in all eternity. God is One above three, three are above
seven, seven are above twelve, yet all are linked together.
9. There are twenty-two letters by which the I AM (YAH), the Lord of Hosts,
Almighty and Eternal, designed and created by three Sepharim (Numbers,
Letters, and Sounds) His universe, and formed by them all creatures and all
those things that are yet to come.
10. When the Patriarch Abraham had comprehended the great truths, medi-
tated upon them, and understood them perfectly, the Lord of the Universe (the
Tetragrammaton) appeared to him, called him His friend, kissed him upon the
head, and made with him a covenant. First, the covenant was between the ten
fingers of his hands, which is the covenant of the tongue (spiritual); second, the
covenant was between the ten toes of his feet, which is the covenant of circum-
cision (material); and God said of him, "Before Abraham bound the spirit of
the twenty-two letters (the Thora) upon his tongue and God disclosed to him
their secrets. God permitted the letters to be immersed in water, He burned
them in the fire and imprinted them upon the winds. He distributed them
among the seven planets and gave them to the twelve zodiacal signs.

390
 Fundamentals of Qabbalistic Cosmogony

THE Qabbalists conceive of the Supreme Deity as an Incomprehensible Prin-

ciple to be discovered only through the process of eliminating, in order, all its
cognizable attributes. That which remains--when every knowable thing has
been removed--is AIN SOPH, the eternal state of Being. Although indefinable,
the Absolute permeates all space. Abstract to the degree of inconceivability,
AIN SOPH is the unconditioned state of all things. Substances, essences, and
intelligences are manifested out of the inscrutability of AIN SOPH, but the
Absolute itself is without substance, essence, or intelligence. AIN SOPH may
be likened to a great field of rich earth out of which rises a myriad of plants,
each different in color, formation, and fragrance, yet each with its roots in the
same dark loam--which, however, is unlike any of the forms nurtured by it.
The "plants" are universes, gods, and man, all nourished by AIN SOPH and all
with their source in one definitionless essence; all with their spirits, souls, and
bodies fashioned from this essence, and doomed, like the plant, to return to
the black ground--AIN SOPH, the only Immortal--whence they came.
AIN SOPH was referred to by the Qabbalists as The Most Ancient of all the
Ancients. It was always considered as sexless. Its symbol was a closed eye.
While it may be truly said of AIN SOPH that to define It is to defile It, the
Rabbis postulated certain theories regarding the manner in which AIN SOPH
projected creations out of Itself, and they also assigned to this Absolute Not-
Being certain symbols as being descriptive, in part at least, of Its powers. The
nature of AIN SOPH they symbolize by a circle, itself emblematic of eternity.
This hypothetical circle encloses a dimensionless area of incomprehensible
life, and the circular boundary of this life is abstract and measureless infinity.
According to this concept, God is not only a Center but also Area. Centrali-
zation is the first step towards limitation. Therefore, centers which form in the
substances of AIN SOPH are finite because they are predestined to dissolution
back into the Cause of themselves, while AIN SOPH Itself is infinite because
It is the ultimate condition of all things. The circular shape given to AIN
SOPH signifies that space is hypothetically enclosed within a great crystal-like
globe, outside of which there is nothing, not even a vacuum. Within this globe--
symbolic of AIN SOPH--creation and dissolution take place. Every element
and principle that will ever be used in the eternities of Kosmic birth, growth,
and decay is within the transparent substances of this intangible sphere. It is the
Kosmic Egg which is not broken till the great day "Be With Us," which is the
end of the Cycle of Necessity, when all things return to their ultimate cause.
In the process of creation the diffused life of AIN SOPH retires from the

391
circumference to the center of the circle and establishes a point, which is the
first manifesting One--the primitive limitation of the all-pervading O. When the
Divine Essence thus retires from the circular boundary to the center, It leaves
behind the Abyss, or, as the Qabbalists term it, the Great Privation. Thus, in
AIN SOPH is established a twofold condition where previously had existed but
one. The first condition is the central point--the primitive objectified radiance
of the eternal, subjectified life. About this radiance is darkness caused by the
deprivation of the life which is drawn to the center to create the first point, or
universal germ. The universal AIN SOPH, therefore, no longer shines through
space, but rather upon space from an established first point. Isaac Myer de-
scribes this process as follows: "The Ain Soph at first was filling All and then
made an absolute concentration into Itself which produced the Abyss, Deep,
or Space, the Aveer Qadmon or Primitive Air, the Azoth; but this is not consi-
dered in the Qabbalah as a perfect void or vacuum, a perfectly empty Space,
but is thought of as the Waters or Crystalline Chaotic Sea, in which was a cer-
tain degree of Light inferior to that by which all the created [worlds and hierar-
chies] were made." (See The Qabbalah.)
In the secret teachings of the Qabbalah it is taught that man's body is enve-
loped in an ovoid of bubble-like iridescence, which is called the Auric Egg.
This is the causal sphere of man. It bears the same relationship to man's physi-
cal body that the globe of AIN SOPH bears to Its created universes. In fact,
this Auric Egg is the AIN SOPH sphere of the entity called man. In reality,
therefore, the supreme consciousness of man is in this aura, which extends in
all directions and completely encircles his lower bodies. As the consciousness
in the Kosmic Egg is withdrawn into a central point, which is then called God--
the Supreme One--so the consciousness in the Auric Egg of man is concen-
trated, thereby causing the establishment of a point of consciousness called the
Ego. As the universes in Nature are formed from powers latent in the Kosmic
Egg, so everything used by man in all his incarnations throughout the kingdoms
of Nature is drawn from the latent powers within his Auric Egg. Man never
passes from this egg; it remains even after death. His births, deaths, and re-
births all take place within it, and it cannot be broken until the lesser day "Be
With Us," when mankind--like the universe--is liberated from the Wheel of
Necessity.

392
THE QABBALISTIC SYSTEM OF WORLDS

On the accompanying circular chart, the concentric rings represent diagram-

matically the forty rates of vibration (called by the Qabbalists Spheres) which
emanate from AIN SOPH. The circle X 1 is the outer boundary of space. It
circumscribes the area of AIN SOPH. The nature of AIN SOPH Itself is di-
vided into three parts, represented by the spaces respectively between X 1 and
X 2, X 2 and X 3, X 3 and A 1; thus:

X 1 to X 2, , AIN, the vacuum of pure spirit.

AIN SOPH, the Limitless and Bound-
X 2 to X 3, ,
less.
X 3 to A 1, , AIN SOPH AUR, the Limitless Light.

It should be borne in mind that in the beginning the Supreme Substance, AIN,
alone permeated the area of the circle; the inner rings had not yet come into
manifestation. As the Divine Essence concentrated Itself, the rings X 2 and X 3
became apprehensible, for AIN SOPH is a limitation of AIN, and AIN SOPH
AUR, or Light, is a still greater limitation. Thus the nature of the Supreme
One is considered to be threefold, and from this threefold nature the powers
and elements of creation were reflected into the Abyss left by the motion of
AIN SOPH towards the center of Itself. The continual motion of AIN SOPH
towards the center of Itself resulted in the establishment of the dot in the circle.
The dot was called God, as being the supreme individualization of the Univer-
sal Essence. Concerning this the Zohar says:
"When the concealed of the Concealed wished to reveal Himself He first
made a single point: the Infinite was entirely unknown, and diffused no light
before this luminous point violently broke through into vision."
The name of this point is I AM, called by the Hebrews Eheieh. The Qab-
balists gave many names to this dot. On this subject Christian D. Ginsberg
writes, in substance: The dot is called the first crown, because it occupies the
highest position. It is called the aged, because it is the first emanation. It is
called the primordial or smooth point. It is called the white head, the Long
Face--Macroprosophus--and the inscrutable height, because it controls and
governs all the other emanations.
When the white shining point had appeared, it was called Kether, which
means the Crown, and out of it radiated nine great globes, which arranged
themselves in the form of a tree. These nine together with the first crown con-
stituted the first system of Sephiroth. These ten were the first limitation of ten

393
abstract points within the nature of AIN SOPH Itself. The power of AIN
SOPH did not descend into these globes but rather was reflected upon them as
the light of the sun is reflected upon the earth and planets. These ten globes
were called the shining sapphires, and it is believed by many Rabbins that the
word sapphire is the basis of the word Sephira (the singular of Sephiroth). The
great area which had been privated by the withdrawal of AIN SOPH into the
central point, Kether, was now filled by four concentric globes called worlds, or
spheres, and the light of the ten Sephiroth was reflected down through each of
these in turn. This resulted in the establishment of four symbolical trees, each
hearing the reflections of the ten Sephirothic globes. The 40 spheres of crea-
tion out of AIN SOPH are divided into four great world chains, as follows:
A 1 to A 10, Atziluth, the Boundless World of Divine Names.
B 1 to B 10, Briah, the Archangelic World of Creations.
C 1 to C 10, Yetzirah, the Hierarchal World of Formations.
D 1 to D 10, Assiah, the Elemental World of Substances.

Click to enlarge
THE HEBREW TRIAD.
The Qabbalists used the letter , Shin, to signify the trinity of the first three Sephiroth.
The central circle slightly above the other two is the first Sephira--Kether, the White
Head, the Crown. The other two circles represent Chochmah, the Father, and Binah,
the Mother. From the union of the Divine Father and the Divine Mother are produced
the worlds and the generations of living things. The three flame-like points of the letter
have long been used to conceal this Creative Triad of the Qabbalists.

Each of these worlds has ten powers, or spheres--a parent globe and nine oth-
ers which conic out of it as emanations, each globe born out of the one preced-
ing. On the plane of Atziluth (A 1 to A 10), the highest and most divine of all
the created worlds, the unmanifested AIN SOPH established His first point or
dot in the Divine Sea--the three spheres of X. This dot--A 1--contains all crea-
tion within it, but in this first divine and uncontaminated state the dot, or first
manifested. God, was not considered as a personality by the Qabbalists but
rather as a divine establishment or foundation. It was called the First Crown
and from it issued the other circles of the Atziluthic World: A 2, A 3, A 4, A 5,

394
A 6, A 7, A 8, A 9, and A 10. In the three lower worlds these circles are intelli-
gences, planers, and elements, but in this first divine world they are called the
Rings of the Sacred Names.
The first ten great circles (or globes) of light which were manifested out of
AIN SOPH and the ten names of God assigned to them by the Qabbalists are
as follows:

From AIN SOPH came A 1, the First Crown, and the name of the first power
of God was Eheieh, which means I Am [That I Am].
From A 1 came A 2, the first Wisdom, and the name of the second power of
God was Jehovah, which means Essence of Being.
From A 2 came A 3, the first Understanding, and the name of the third power
of God was Jehovah Elohim, which means God of Gods.
From A 3 came A 4, the first Mercy, and the name of the fourth power of God
was El, which means God the Creator.
From A 4 came A 5, the first Severity, and the name of the fifth power of God
was Elohim Gibor, which means God the Potent.
From A 5 came A 6, the first Beauty, and the name of the sixth power of God
was Eloah Vadaath, which means God the Strong.
From A 6 came A 7, the first Victory, and the name of the seventh power of
God was Jehovah Tzaboath, which means God of Hosts.
From A 7 came A 8, the first Glory, and the name of the eighth power of God
was Elohim Tzaboath, which means Lord God of Hosts.
From A 8 came A 9, the first Foundation, and the name of the ninth power of
God was Shaddai, El Chai, which means Omnipotent.
From A 9 came A 10, the first Kingdom, and the name of the tenth power of
God was Adonai Melekh, which means God.
From A 10 came B 1, the Second Crown, and the World of Briah was estab-
lished.

The ten emanations from A 1 to A 10 inclusive are called the foundations of

all creations. The Qabbalists designate them the ten roots of the Tree of Life.
They are arranged in the form of a great human figure called Adam Qadmon--
the man made from the fire mist (red dirt), the prototypic Universal Man. In
the Atziluthic World, the powers of God are most purely manifested. These
ten pure and perfect radiations do not descend into the lower worlds and take
upon themselves forms, but are reflected upon the substances of the inferior
spheres. From the first, or Atziluthic, World they are reflected into the second,
or Briatic, World. As the reflection always lacks some of the brilliancy of the
original image, so in the Briatic World the ten radiations lose part of their infi-
nite power. A reflection is always like the thing reflected, but smaller and fain-

395
ter.
In the second world, B 1 to B 10, the order of the spheres is the Name as in
the Atziluthic World, but the ten circles of light are less brilliant and more
tangible, and are here referred to as ten great Spirits--divine creatures who as-
sist in the establishment of order and intelligence in the universe. As already
noted, B 1 is born out of A 10 and is included within all the spheres superior
to itself. Out of B 1 are taken nine globes--B 2, B 3, B 4, B 5, B 6, B 7, B 8, B
9, and B 10--which constitute the World of Briah. These ten subdivisions,
however, are really the ten Atziluthic powers reflected into the substance of the
Briatic World. B 1 is the ruler of this world, for it contains all the other rings of
its own world and also the rings of the third and fourth worlds, C and D. In the
World of Briah the ten spheres of light are called the Archangels of Briah.
Their order and powers are as follows:

From A 10 came B 1, the Second Crown; it is called Metatron, the Angel of

the Presence.
From B 1 came B 2, the second Wisdom; it is called Raziel, the Herald of
Deity who revealed the mysteries of Qabbalah to Adam.
From B 2 carne B 3, the second Understanding; it is called Tsaphkiel, the
Contemplation of God.
From B 3 came B 4 ' the second Mercy; it is called Tsadkiel, the justice of
God.
From B 4 came B 5, the second Severity; it is called Samael, the Severity of
God.
From B 5 came B 6, the second Beauty; it is called Michael, Like Unto God.
From B 6 came B 7, the second Victory; it is called Haniel, the Grace of God.
From B 7 came B 8, the second Glory; it is called Raphael, the Divine Physi-
cian.
From B 8 came B 9, the second Foundation; it is called Gabriel, the Man-God.
From B 9 came B 10, the second Kingdom; it is called Sandalphon, the Mes-
sias.
From B 10 came C 1, the Third Crown, and the World of Yetzirah was estab-
lished.

The ten Archangels of Briah are conceived to be ten great spiritual beings,
whose duty is to manifest the ten powers of the Great Name of God existent in
the Atziluthic World, which surrounds and interpenetrates the entire world of
creation. All things manifesting in the lower worlds exist first in the intangible
rings of the upper spheres, so that creation is, in truth, the process of making
tangible the intangible by extending the intangible into various vibratory rates.
The ten globes of Briatic power, while themselves reflections, are mirrored

396
downward into the third or Yetziratic World, where still more limited in their
expression they become the spiritual and invisible zodiac which is behind the
visible band of constellations. In this third world the ten globes of the original
Atziluthic World are greatly limited and dimmed, but they are still infinitely
powerful in comparison with the state of substance in which man dwells. In the
third world, C 1 to C 10, the globes become hierarchies of celestial creatures,
called the Choirs of Yetzirah. Here again, all are included within the ring C 1,
the power which controls the Yetziratic World and which includes within itself
and controls the entire world D. The order of the globes and the names of the
hierarchies composing them are as follows:

From B 10 came C 1, the Third Crown; the Hierarchy is the Cherubim,

Chaioth Ha Kadosh, the Holy Animals.
From C 1 came C 2, the third Wisdom; the Hierarchy is the Cherubim, Or-
phanim, the Wheels.
From C 2 came C 3, the third Understanding; the Hierarchy is the Thrones,
Aralim, the Mighty Ones.
From C 3 came C 4, the third Mercy; the Hierarchy is the Dominations,
Chashmalim, the Brilliant Ones.
From C 4 came C 5, the third Severity; the Hierarchy is the Powers, Seraphim,
the Flaming Serpents.
From C 5 came C 6, the third Beauty; the Hierarchy is the Virtues, Melachim,
the Kings.
From C 6 came C 7, the third Victory; the Hierarchy is the Principalities, Elo-
him, the Gods.
From C 7 came C 8, the third Glory; the Hierarchy is the Archangels, Ben
Elohim, the Sons of God.
From C 8 came C 9, the third Foundation; the Hierarchy is the Angels, Che-
rubim, the Scat of the Sons.
From C 9 came C 10, the third Kingdom; the Hierarchy is Humanity, the
Ishim, the Souls of Just Men.
From C 10 came D 1, the Fourth Crown, and the World of Assiah was estab-
lished.

From the Yetziratic World the light of the ten spheres is reflected into the
World of Assiah, the lowest of the four. The ten globes of the original Atziluth-
ic World here take upon themselves forms of physical matter and the sidereal
system is the result. The World of Assiah, or the elemental world of substance,
is the one into which humanity descended at the time of Adam's fall. The Gar-
den of Eden is the three upper worlds, and for his sins man was forced into the
sphere of substance and assumed coats of skin (bodies). All of the spiritual

397
forces of the upper worlds, A, B, C, when they strike against the elements of
the lower world, D, are distorted and perverted, resulting in the creation of
hierarchies of demons to correspond with the good spirits in each of the higher
worlds. In all the ancient Mysteries, matter was regarded as the source of all
evil and spirit the source of all good, for matter inhibits and limits, often so
clogging the inner perceptions that man is unable to recognize his own divine
potentialities. Since matter thus prevents humanity from claiming its birthright,
it is called the Adversary, the power of evil. The fourth world, D, is the world
of solar systems, comprising not only the one of which the earth is a part but all
the solar systems in the universe.

Click to enlarge
THE PLAN OF DIVINE ACTIVITY.
According to the Qabbalists, the life of the Supreme Creator permeates all substance,
all space, and all time, but for diagrammatic purposes the Supreme, All-Inclusive Life
is limited by Circle 3, which may be called "the boundary line of Divine existence." The
Divine Life permeating the area bounded by Circle 3 is focused at Point 1, which thus
becomes the personification of the impersonal life and is termed "the First Crown."
The creative forces pouring through Point 1 come into manifestation as the objective
universe in the intermediate space, Circle 2.

Opinions differ as to the arrangement of the globes of this last world, D 1 to D

10 inclusive. The ruler of the fourth world is D 1, called by some the Fiery
Heaven; by others the Primum Mobile, or the First Motion. From this whirling
fire emanates the material starry zodiac, D 2, in contradistinction to the invisi-
ble spiritual zodiac of the Yetziratic World. From the zodiac, D 2, are differen-
tiated the spheres of the planets in concatenate order. The ten spheres of the
World of Assiah are as follows:

From C 10 came D 1, the Fourth Crown; Rashith Ha-Galagalum, the Primum

Mobile, the fiery mist which is the beginning of the material universe.
From D 1 came D 2, the fourth Wisdom; Masloth, the Zodiac, the Firmament
of the Fixed Stars.
From D 2 came D 3, the fourth Understanding; Shabbathai, the sphere of Sa-
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turn.
From D 3 came D 4, the fourth Mercy; Tzedeg, the sphere of Jupiter.
From D 4 came D 5, the fourth Severity; Madim, the sphere of Mars.
From D 5 came D 6, the fourth Beauty; Shemesh, the sphere of the Sun.
From D 6 came D 7, the fourth Victory; Nogah, the sphere of Venus.
From D 7 came D 8, the fourth Glory; Kokab, the sphere of Mercury.
From D 8 came D 9, the fourth Foundation; Levanah, the sphere of the
Moon.
From D 9 came D 10, the Fourth Kingdom; Cholom Yosodoth, the sphere of
the Four Elements.

By inserting a sphere (which he calls the Empyrean) before the Primum Mo-
bile, Kircher moves each of the other spheres down one, resulting in the elimi-
nation of the sphere of the elements and making D 10 the sphere of the Moon.
In the World of Assiah are to be found the demons and tempters. These are
likewise reflections of the ten great globes of Atziluth, but because of the distor-
tion of the images resulting from the base substances of the World of Assiah
upon which they are reflected, they become evil creatures, called shells by the
Qabbalists. There are ten hierarchies of these demons to correlate with the ten
hierarchies of good spirits composing the Yetziratic World. There are also ten
Archdemons, corresponding to the ten Archangels of Briah. The black magi-
cians use these inverted spirits in their efforts to attain their nefarious ends, but
in time the demon destroys those who bind themselves to it. The ten orders of
demons and the ten Archdemons of the World of Assiah are as follows:
D 1, the evil Crown; the hierarchy is called Thaumiel, the doubles of God, the
Two-headed; the Archdemons are Satan and Moloch.
From D 1 came D 2, the evil Wisdom; the hierarchy is called Chaigidiel, those
who obstruct; the Archdemon is Adam Belial.
From D 2 came D 3, the evil Understanding; the hierarchy is called Satharial,
the concealment of God, the Archdemon is Lucifuge.
From D 3 came D 4, the evil Mercy; the hierarchy is called Gamchicoth, the
disturber of things; the Archdemon is Astaroth.
From D 4 came D 5, the evil Severity; the hierarchy is called Golab, incendiar-
ism and burning; the Archdemon is Asmodeus.
From D 5 came D 6, the evil Beauty; the hierarchy is called Togarini, the
wranglers; the Archdemon is Belphegor.
From D 6 came D 7, the evil Victory; the hierarchy is called Harab Serap, the
dispensing Raven; the Archdemon is Baal Chanan.
From D 7 came D 8, the evil Glory; the hierarchy is called Samael, the embroi-
ler; the Archdemon is Adramelek.
From D 8 came D 9, the evil Foundation; the hierarchy is called Gamaliel, the

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obscene; the Archdemon is Lilith.
From D 9 came D 10, the evil Kingdom; the hierarchy is called Nahemoth, the
impure; the Archdemon is Nahema.

Click to enlarge
THE QABBALISTIC SCHEME OF THE FOUR WORLDS.
In the above chart the dark line between X 3 and A 1 constitutes the boundary of the
original dot, while the concentric circles within this heavier line symbolize the emana-
tions and the worlds which came forth from the dot. As this dot is contained within the
outer rings X 1, X 2, and X 3, and represents the first establishment of an individua-
lized existence, so the lower universe symbolized by the forty concentric circles within
the dot represents the lower creation evolved out of and yet contained within the na-
ture of the first Crown, which may be called God, within whom the divine powers, the
celestial beings the sidereal worlds, and man, live and move and have their being. It is
highly important that all the rings within A 1 be considered as being enclosed by the
primitive dot, which is itself encircled by the great ring X 1, or the Auric Egg of AIN
SOPH.
Each ring includes with in its own nature all the rings within itself and is included
within the natures of all the rings outside of itself. Thus, A 1--the primitive dot--
controls and contains the thirty-nine rings which it encloses, all of these partaking of its
nature in varying degrees according to their respective dignities. Consequently, the
entire area from A 1 to D 10 inclusive is the original dot, and the rings symbolize the
divisions which took place with in it and the emanations which poured out from it after
its establishment in the midst of the abstract nature of AIN SOPH. The powers of the
rings decrease towards the center of the diagram, for Power is measured by the num-
ber of things controlled, and each ring controls the rings within it and is controlled by
the rings outside of it. Thus, while A 1 controls thirty-nine rings besides itself, B 1
controls only twenty-nine rings besides its own. Therefore, A 1 is more powerful than
B 1. As the greatest spiritual solidity, or permanence, is at the circumference and the
greatest material density, or impermanence, is at the center of the diagram, the rings as
they decrease in Power become more material and substantial until the center sphere,
D 10, symbolizes the actual chemical elements of the earth. The rates of vibration are
also lower as the rings approach the center. Thus, the vibration of A 2 is lower than A
400
1 but higher than A 3, and so on in decreasing scale towards the center, A 1 being the
highest and D 10 the lowest sphere of creation. While A 1, the ruler of creation, con-
trols the circles marked A, B, C, and D, it is less than the three rings of AIN SOPH--X
1, X2, and X3--and therefore bows before the throne of the ineffable Creator from
whose substances it was individualized.

The Qabbalists declare that the worlds, intelligences, and hierarchies were
established according to the vision of Ezekiel. By the man of Ezekiel's vision is
symbolized the World of Atziluth; by the throne, the World of Briah; by the
firmament, the World of Yetzirah; and by the living creatures the World of
Assiah. These spheres are the wheels within wheels of the prophet. The Qab-
balists next established a human figure in each of the four worlds: A 1 was the
head and A 10 the feet of the man of Atziluth; B 1 was the head and B 10 the
feet of the man of Briah; C 1 was the head and C 10 the feet of the man of
Yetzirah; D 1 was the head and D 10 the feet of the man of Assiah. These four
are called the World Men. They are considered androgynous and are the pro-
totypes of humanity.
The human body, like that of the universe, is considered to be a material
expression of ten globes or spheres of light. Therefore man is called the Mi-
crocosm--the little world, built in the image of the great world of which he is a
part. The Qabbalists also established a mysterious universal man with his head
at A 1 and his feet at D 10. This is probably the secret significance of the great
figure of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, with its head in the World of Atziluth, its
arms and hands in the World of Briah, its generative system in the World of
Yetzirah, and its legs and feet in the World of Assiah. This is the Grand Man
of the Zohar, of whom Eliphas Levi writes:
"It is not less astonishing to observe at the beginning of the Zohar the pro-
fundity of its notions and the sublime simplicity of its images. It is said as fol-
lows: 'The science of equilibrium is the key of occult science. Unbalanced
forces perish in the void. So passed the kings of the elder world, the princes of
the giants. They have fallen like trees without roots, and their place is found no
more. Through the conflict of unbalanced forces, the devastated earth was void
and formless, until the Spirit of God made for itself a place in heaven and re-
duced the mass of waters. All the aspirations of Nature were directed then
towards unity of form, towards the living synthesis (if equilibrated forces; the
face of God, crowned with light, rose over the vast sea and was reflected in the
waters thereof. His two eyes were manifested, radiating with splendour, darting
two beams of light which crossed with those of the reflection. The brow of God
and His eyes formed a triangle in heaven, and its reflection formed a second
triangle in the waters. So was revealed the number six, being that of universal

401
creation.' The text, which would be unintelligible in a literal version, is trans-
lated here by way of interpretation. The author makes it plain that the human
form which he ascribes to Deity is only an image of his meaning and that God
is beyond expression by human thought or representation by any figure. Pascal
said that God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumfe-
rence nowhere. But how is one to imagine a circle apart from its circumfe-
rence? The Zohar adopts the antithesis of this paradoxical image and in re-
spect of the circle of Pascal would say rather that the circumference is every-
where, while that which is nowhere is the center. It is however to a balance and
not to a circle that it compares the universal equilibrium of things. It affirms
that equilibrium is everywhere and so also is the central point where the bal-
ance hangs in suspension. We find that the Zohar is thus more forcible and
more profound than Pascal. * * * The Zohar is a genesis of light; the Sepher
Yetzirah is a ladder of truth. Therein are expounded the two-and-thirty abso-
lute symbols of speech--being numbers and letters. Each letter produces a
number, an idea and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and
ideas, even as to numbers, in virtue of an exact proportion, and a perfect cor-
respondence. By the science of the Sepher Yetzirah, the human mind is rooted
in truth and in reason; it accounts for all progress possible to intelligence by
means of the evolution of numbers. Thus does the Zohar represent absolute
truth, while the Sepher Yetzirah furnishes the method of its acquisition, its
discernment and application." (History of Magic.)
By placing man himself at the point D 10, his true constitution is revealed.
He exists upon four worlds, only one of which is visible. It is then made evi-
dent that his parts and members upon the material plane are, by analogy, hie-
rarchies and intelligences in the higher worlds. Here, again, the law of interpe-
netration is evidenced. Although within man is the entire universe (the 43
spheres interpenetrating D 10), he is ignorant of its existence because he can-
not exercise control over that which is superior to or greater than himself. Nev-
ertheless, all these higher spheres exercise control over him, as his functions
and activities demonstrate. If they did not, he would be an inert mass of sub-
stance. Death is merely the result of deflecting the life impulses of the higher
rings away from the lower body.
The control of the transubstantial rings over their own material reflection is
called life, and the spirit of man is, in reality, a name given to this great host of
intelligences, which are focused upon substance through a point called the ego,
established in the midst of themselves. X 1 is the outside boundary of the hu-
man Auric Egg, and the entire diagram becomes a cross section of the constitu-
tion of man, or a cross section of the Kosmic constitution, if correlated with the
universe. By the secret culture of the Qabbalistic School, man is taught how to
climb the rings (unfold his consciousness) until at last he returns to AIN

402
SOPH. The process by which this is accomplished is called the Fifty Gates of
Light. Kircher, the Jesuit Qabbalist, declares that Moses passed through forty-
nine of the gates, but that Christ alone passed the fiftieth gate.
To the third edition of the Sepher Yetzirah translated from the Hebrew by
Wm. Wynn Westcott are appended the Fifty Gates of Intelligence emanating
from Binah, the second Sephira. The source of this information is Kircher's
dipus gyptiacus. The gates are divided into six orders, of which the first
four have each ten subdivisions, the fifth nine, and the sixth only one.
The first order of gates is termed Elementary and its divisions areas follows:
(1) Chaos, Hyle, the First Matter; (2) Formless, void, lifeless; (3) The Abyss; (4)
Origin of the Elements; (5) Earth (no seed germs); (6) Water;(7) Air;(8)
Fire;(9) Differentiation of qualities; (10) Mixture and combination.
The second order of gates is termed Decad of Evolution and its divisions
areas follows: (11) Minerals differentiate; (12) Vegetable principles appear; (13)
Seeds germinate in moisture; (14) Herbs and Trees; (15) Fructification in vege-
table life; (16) Origin of low forms of animal life; (17) Insects and Reptiles ap-
pear; (18) Fishes, vertebrate life in the waters; (19) Birds, vertebrate life in the
air; (20) Quadrupeds, vertebrate earth animals.
The third order of gates is termed Decad of Humanity and its divisions are
as follows: (21) Appearance of Man; (22) Material human body; (23) Human
Soul conferred; (24) Mystery of Adam and Eve; (25) Complete Man as the
Microcosm; (26) Gift of five human faces acting exteriorly; (27) Gift of five
powers to the soul; (28) Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Man; (29) Angelic be-
ings, (30) Man in the image of God.
The fourth order of gates is termed World of Spheres and its divisions are
as follows: (31) The Heaven of the Moon; (32) The Heaven of Mercury, (33)
The Heaven of Venus; (34) The Heaven of the Sun; (35) The Heaven of Mars;
(36) The Heaven of Jupiter; (37) The Heaven of Saturn; (38) The Firmament;
(39) The Primum Mobile; (40) The Empyrean Heaven.
The fifth order of gates is termed The Angelic World and its divisions are as
follows: (41) Ishim--Sons of Fire; (42) Orphanim--Cherubim; (43) Aralim--
Thrones; (44) Chashmalim--Dominions; (45) Seraphim--Virtues; (46) Mela-
chim--Powers; (47) Elohim--Principalities; (48) Ben Elohim--Angels; (49) Che-
rubim--Archangels. [The order of the Angels is a matter of controversy, the
arrangement above differing from that accepted in other sections of this vo-
lume. The Rabbins disagree fundamentally as to the proper sequence of the
Angelic names.]
The sixth order is termed The Archetype and consists of but one gate: (50)
God, AIN SOPH, He whom no mortal eye hath seen. The fiftieth gate leads
from creation into the Creative Principle and he who passes through it returns
into the unlimited and undifferentiated condition of ALL. The fifty gates reveal

403
a certain evolutionary process and it was declared by the Rabbins that he who
would attain to the highest degree of understanding must pass sequentially
through all of these orders of life, each of which constituted a gate in that the
spirit, passing from the lower to the higher, found in each more responsive
organism new avenues of self-expression.

404
 The Tree of the Sephiroth

THE Tree of the Sephiroth may be considered an invaluable compendium of

the secret philosophy which originally was the spirit and soul of Chasidism.
The Qabbalah is the priceless heritage of Israel, but each year those who com-
prehend its true principles become fewer in number. The Jew of today, if he
lacks a realization of the profundity of his people's doctrines, is usually per-
meated with that most dangerous form of ignorance, modernism, and is prone
to regard the Qabbalah either as an evil to be shunned like the plague or as a
ridiculous superstition which has survived the black magic of the Dark Ages.
Yet without the key which the Qabbalah supplies, the spiritual mysteries of
both the Old and the New Testament must remain unsolved by Jew and Gen-
tile alike.
The Sephirothic Tree consists of ten globes of luminous splendor arranged
in three vertical columns and connected by 22 channels or paths. The ten
globes are called the Sephiroth and to them are assigned the numbers i to 10.
The three columns are called Mercy (on the right), Severity (on the left), and,
between them, Mildness, as the reconciling power. The columns may also be
said to represent Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, which form the triune sup-
port of the universe, for it is written that the foundation of all things is the
Three. The 22 channels are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and to them are
assigned the major trumps of the Tarot deck of symbolic cards.
Eliphas Levi declared that by arranging the Tarot cards according to a defi-
nite order man could discover all that is knowable concerning his God, his
universe, and himself. When the ten numbers which pertain to the globes (Se-
phiroth) are combined with the 22 letters relating to the channels, the resultant
sum is 32--the number peculiar to the Qabbalistic Paths of Wisdom. These
Paths, occasionally referred to as the 32 teeth in the mouth of the Vast Coun-
tenance or as the 32 nerves that branch out from the Divine Brain, are analog-
ous to the first 32 degrees of Freemasonry, which elevate the candidate to the
dignity of a Prince of the Royal Secret. Qabbalists also consider it extremely
significant that in the original Hebrew Scriptures the name of God should oc-
cur 32 times in the first chapter of Genesis. (In the English translations of the
Bible the name appears 33 times.) In the mystic analysis of the human body,
according to the Rabbins, 32 spinal segments lead upward to the Temple of
Wisdom--the skull.
The four Qabbalistic Trees described in the preceding chapter were com-
bined by later Jewish scholars into one all-inclusive diagram and termed by
them not only the Sephirothic but also the Archetypal, or Heavenly, Adam.

405
According to some authorities, it is this Heavenly Adam, and not a terrestrial
man, whose creation is described in the opening chapters of Genesis. Out of
the substances of this divine man the universe was formed; in him it remains
and will continue even after dissolution shall resolve the spheres back into their
own primitive substance. The Deity is never conceived of as actually contained
in the Sephiroth, which are purely hypothetical vessels employed to define the
limits of the Creative Essence. Adolph Franck rather likens the Sephiroth to
varicolored transparent glass bowls filled with pure light, which apparently as-
sumes the color of its containers but whose essential nature remains ever un-
changed and unchangeable.
The ten Sephiroth composing the body of the prototypic Adam, the num-
bers related to them, and the parts of the universe to which they correspond
are as follows:

No. THE SEPHIROTH THE UNIVERSE ALTERNATIVE

1 Kether--the Crown Primum Mobile The Fiery Heavens
2 Chochmah--Wisdom The Zodiac The First Motion
3 Binah--Understanding Saturn The Zodiac
4 Chesed--Mercy Jupiter Saturn
5 Geburah--Severity Mars Jupiter
6 Tiphereth--Beauty Sun Mars
7 Netsah--Victory Venus Sun
8 Hod--Glory Mercury Venus
9 Jesod--the Foundation Moon Mercury
10 Malchuth--the Kingdom Elements Moon

It must continually be emphasized that the Sephiroth and the properties as-
signed to them, like the tetractys of the Pythagoreans, are merely symbols of
the cosmic system with its multitude of parts. The truer and fuller meaning of
these emblems may not be revealed by writing or by word of mouth, but must
be divined as the result of study and meditation. In the Sepher ha Zohar it is
written that there is a garment--the written doctrine-which every man may see.
Those with understanding do not look upon the garment but at the body be-
neath it--the intellectual and philosophical code. The wisest of all, however, the
servants of the Heavenly King, look at nothing save the soul--the spiritual doc-
trine--which is the eternal and ever-springing root of the law. Of this great truth
Eliphas Levi also writes declaring that none can gain entrance to the secret
406
House of Wisdom unless he wear the voluminous cape of Apollonius of Tya-
na and carry in his hand the lamp of Hermes. The cape signifies the qualities
of self-possession and self-reliance which must envelope the seeker as a cloak
of strength, while the ever-burning lamp of the sage represents the illumined
mind and perfectly balanced intellect without which the mystery of the ages can
never be solved.
The Sephirothic Tree is sometimes depicted as a human body, thus more
definitely establishing the true identity of the first, or Heavenly, Man--Adam
Kadmon--the Idea of the Universe. The ten divine globes (Sephiroth) are then
considered as analogous to the ten sacred members and organs of the Proto-
gonos, according to the following arrangement. Kether is the crown of the Pro-
totypic Head and perhaps refers to the pineal gland; Chochmah and Binah are
the right and left hemispheres respectively of the Great Brain; Chesed and
Geburah (Pechad) are the right and left arms respectively, signifying the active
creative members of the Grand Man; Tiphereth is the heart, or, according to
some, the entire viscera; Netsah and Hod are the right and left legs respective-
ly, or the supports of the world; Jesod is the generative system, or the founda-
tion of form; and Malchuth represents the two feet, or the base of being. Occa-
sionally Jesod is considered as the male and Malchuth as the female generative
power. The Grand Man thus conceived is the gigantic image of Nebuchadnez-
zar's dream, with head of gold, arms and chest of silver, body of brass, legs of
iron, and feet of clay. The medival Qabbalists also assigned one of the Ten
Commandments and a tenth part of the Lord's Prayer in sequential order to
each of the ten Sephiroth.
Concerning the emanations from Kether which establish themselves as three
triads of Creative Powers--termed in the Sepher ha Zohar three heads each
with three faces--H. P. Blavatsky writes: "This [Kether] was the first Sephiroth,
containing in herself the other nine Sephiroth, or intelligences. In their
totality and unity they represent the archetypal man, Adam Kadmon, the
, who in his individuality or unity is yet dual, or bisexual, the Greek
Didumos, for he is the prototype of all humanity. Thus we obtain three trini-
ties, each contained in a 'head.' In the first head, or face (the three-faced Hindu
Trimurti), we find Sephira [Kether], the first androgyne, at the apex of the
upper triangle, emitting Hachama [Chochmah], or Wisdom, a masculine and
active potency--also called Jah, --and Binah, , or Intelligence, a female
and passive potency, also represented by the name Jehovah . These three
form the first trinity or 'face' of the Sephiroth. This triad emanated Hesed, ,
or Mercy, a masculine active potency, also called El, from which emanated
Geburah , or justice, also called Eloha, a feminine passive potency; from
the union of these two was produced Tiphereth , Beauty, Clemency, the
Spiritual Sun, known by the divine name Elohim; and the second triad, 'face,'
407
or 'head,' was formed. These emanating, in their turn, the masculine potency
Netzah, , Firmness, or Jehovah Sabaoth, who issued the feminine passive
potency Hod,, Splendor, or Elohim Sabaoth; the two produced Jesod, ,
Foundation, who is the mighty living one El-Chai, thus yielding the third trinity
or 'head.' The tenth Sephiroth is rather a duad, and is represented on the dia-
grams as the lowest circle. It is Malchuth or Kingdom, , and Shekinah,
, also called Adonai, and Cherubim among the angelic hosts. The first
'Head' is called the Intellectual world; the second 'Head' is the Sensuous, or the
world of Perception, and the third is the material or Physical world." (See Isis
Unveiled.)

Click to enlarge
THE FOUR SEPHIROTHIC TREES.
The forty concentric circles shown in the large circular cut in the preceding chapter are
here arranged as four trees, each consisting of ten circles. These trees disclose the
organization of the hierarchies controlling the destinies of all creation. The trees are
the same in each of the four world but the powers vested in the globes express them-
selves differently through the substances of each world, resulting in endless differentia-
tion.

Among the later Qabbalists there is also a division of the Sephirothic Tree into
five parts, in which the distribution of the globes is according to the following
order:
(1) Macroprosophus, or the Great Face, is the term applied to Kether as the
first and most exalted of the Sephiroth and includes the nine potencies or Se-
phiroth issuing from Kether.
(2) Abba, the Great Father, is the term generally applied to Chochmah--

408
Universal Wisdom--the first emanation of Kether, but, according to Ibn Gebi-
rol, Chochmah represents the Son, the Logos or the Word born from the un-
ion of Kether and Binah.
(3) Aima, the Great Mother, is the name by which Binah, or the third Sephi-
ra, is generally known. This is the Holy Ghost, from whose body the genera-
tions issue forth. Being the third person of the Creative Triad, it corresponds
to Jehovah, the Demiurgus.
(4) Microprosophus, or the Lesser Face, is composed of the six Sephiroth--
Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netsah, Hod, and Jesod. The Microprosophus
is commonly called the Lesser Adam, or Zauir Anpin, whereas the Macropro-
sophus, or Superior Adam, is Arikh Anpin. The Lesser Face is properly sym-
bolized by the six-pointed star or interlaced triangles of Zion and also by the six
faces of the cube. It represents the directions north, east, south, west, up, and
down, and also the first six days of Creation. In his list of the parts of the Mi-
croprosophus, MacGregor-Mathers includes Binah as the first and superior
part of the Lesser Adam, thus making his constitution septenary. If Micropro-
sophus be considered as sexpartite, then his globes (Sephiroth) are analogous
to the six days of Creation, and the tenth globe, Malchuth, to the Sabbath of
rest.
(5) The Bride of Microprosophus is Malchuth--the epitome of the Sephi-
roth, its quaternary constitution being composed of blendings of the four ele-
ments. This is the divine Eve that is taken out of the side of Microprosophus
and combines the potencies of the entire Qabbalistic Tree in one sphere,
which may be termed man.

Click to enlarge
A TABLE OF SEPHIROTHIC CORRESPONDENCES.
From Fludd's Collectio Operum.

409
The above diagram has been specially translated from the Latin as being of unique
value to students of Qabbalism and also as an example of Robert Fludd's unusual abili-
ty in assembling tables of correspondences. Robert Fludd ranks among the most emi-
nent Rosicrucians and Freemasons; in fact, he has often been called "the first English
Rosicrucian." He has written several valuable documents directly bearing upon the
Rosicrucian enigma. It is significant that the most important of his works should be
published at the same time as those of Bacon, Shakespeare, and the first Rosicrucian
authors.

Click to enlarge
THE SEPHIROTHIC TREE OF THE LATER QABBALISTS.
Translated from Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
Having demonstrated that the Qabbalists divided the universe into four worlds, each
consisting of ten spheres, it is necessary to consider next how the ten spheres of each
world were arranged into what is called the ''Sephirothic Tree." This Tree is composed
of ten circles, representing the numbers 1 to 20 and connected together by twenty-two
canals--the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The ten numbers plus the twen-
ty-two letters result in the occult number 32, which, according to the Mishna, signifies
the Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom. Letters and numbers, according to the Qabbalists,
are the keys to all knowledge, for by a secret system of arranging them the mysteries of
creation are revealed. For this reason they are called "the Paths of Wisdom." This
occult fact is carefully concealed in the 32nd degree of Freemasonry.
There are four trees, one in each of the four worlds established in the preceding
chapter. The first is in the Atziluthic World, the ten circles being the ten globes of light
established in the midst of AIN SOPH. The powers and attributes of this Tree are
reflected into each of the three lower worlds, the form of the Tree remaining the same
but its power diminishing as it descends. To further complicate their doctrine, the
Qabbalists created another tree, which was a composite of all four of the world trees

410
but consisted of only ten globes. In this single tree were condensed all the arcana pre-
viously scattered through the voluminous archives of Qabbalistic literature.

According to the mysteries of the Sephiroth, the order of the Creation, or the
Divine Lightning Flash which zigzags through the four worlds according to the
order of the divine emanations, is thus described: From AIN SOPH, the Noth-
ing and All, the Eternal and Unconditioned Potency, issues Macroprosophus,
the Long Face, of whom it is written, "Within His skull exist daily thirteen
thousand myriads of worlds which draw their existence from Him and by Him
are upheld." (See The Greater Holy Assembly.) Macroprosophus, the directio-
nalized will of AIN SOPH, corresponding to Kether, the Crown of the Sephi-
roth, gives birth out of Himself to the nine lesser spheres of which He is the
sum and the overbrooding cause. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, by
the various combinations of which the laws of the universe are established,
constitute the scepter of Macroprosophus which He wields from His flaming
throne in the Atziluthic World.
From this eternal and ancient androgyne--Kether--come forth Chochmah,
the great Father, and Binah, the great Mother. These two are usually referred
to as Abba and Aima respectively--the first male and the first female, the proto-
types of sex. These correspond to the first two letters of the sacred name, Je-
hovah, , IHVH. The Father is the , or I, and the Mother is the , or H.
Abba and Aima symbolize the creative activities of the universe, and are estab-
lished in the creative world of Briah. In the Sepher ha Zohar it is written, "And
therefore are all things established in the equality of male and female; for were
it not so, how could they subsist? This beginning is the Father of all things; the
Father of all Fathers; and both are mutually bound together, and the one path
shineth into the other--Chochmah, Wisdom, as the Father; Binah, Understand-
ing, as the Mother."
There is a difference of opinion concerning certain of the relationships of
the parts of the first triad. Some Qabbalists, including Ibn Gebirol, consider
Kether as the Father, Binah as the Mother, and Chochmah as the Son. In this
later arrangement, Wisdom, which is the attribute of the Son, becomes the
creator of the lower spheres. The symbol of Binah is the dove, a proper emb-
lem for the brooding maternal instinct of the Universal Mother.
Because of the close similarity of their creative triad to the Christian Trinity,
the later Qabbalists rearranged the first three Sephiroth and added a myste-
rious point called Daath--a hypothetical eleventh Sephira. This is located where
the horizontal line connecting Chochmah and Binah crosses the vertical line
joining Kether and Tiphereth. While Daath is not mentioned by the first Qab-
balists, it is a highly important element and its addition to the Sephirothic Tree

411
was not made without full realization of the significance of such action. If
Chochmah be considered the active, intelligent energy of Kether, and Binah
the receptive capacity of Kether, then Daath becomes the thought which,
created by Chochmah, flows into Binah. The postulation of Daath clarifies the
problem of the Creative Trinity, for here it is diagrammatically represented as
consisting of Chochmah (the Father), Binah (the Mother, or Holy Ghost), and
Daath, the Word by which the worlds were established. Isaac Myer discounts
the importance of Daath, declaring it a subterfuge to conceal the fact that
Kether, and not Chochmah; is the true Father of the Creative Triad. He makes
no attempt to give a satisfactory explanation for the symbolism of this hypothet-
ical Sephira.
According to the original conception, from the union of the Divine Father
and the Divine Mother is produced Microprosophus--the Short Face or the
Lesser Countenance, which is established in the Yetziratic World of formation
and corresponds to the letter , or V, in the Great Name. The six powers of
Microprosophus flow from and are contained in their own source, which is
Binah, the Mother of the Lesser Adam. These constitute the spheres of the
sacred planets; their name is Elohim, and they move upon the face of the
deep. The tenth Sephira--Malchuth, the Kingdom--is described as the Bride of
the Lesser Adam, created back to back with her lord, and to it is assigned the
final, , or H, the last letter of the Sacred Name. The dwelling place of Mal-
chuth is in the fourth world--Assiah--and it is composed of all the superior
powers reflected into the elements of the terrestrial sphere. Thus it will be seen
that the Qabbalistic Tree extends through four worlds, with its branches in
matter and its roots in the Ancient of Ancients--Macroprosophus.
Three vertical columns support the universal system as typified by the Se-
phirothic Tree. The central pillar has its foundation in Kether, the Eternal
One. It passes downward through the hypothetical Sephira, Daath, and then
through Tiphereth and Jesod, with its lower end resting upon the firm founda-
tion of Malchuth, the last of the globes. The true import of the central pillar is
equilibrium. It demonstrates how the Deity always manifests by emanating
poles of expression from the midst of Itself but remaining free from the illu-
sion of polarity. If the numbers of the four Sephiroth connected by this col-
umn be added together (1 +6 +9 + 10), the sum is 26, the number of Jehovah.
(See chapter on Pythagorean Mathematics.)
The column on the right, which is called Jachin, has its foundation on
Chochmah, the outpouring Wisdom of God; the three globes suspended from
it are all masculine potencies. The column at the left is called Boaz. The three
globes upon it are feminine and receptive potencies, for it is founded in Un-
derstanding, a receptive and maternal potency. Wisdom, it will be noted, is
considered as radiant or outpouring, and Understanding as receptive, or some-
412
thing which is filled by the flowing of Wisdom. The three pillars are ultimately
united in Malchuth, in which all the powers of the superior worlds are mani-
fested.
The four globes upon the central column reveal the function of the creative
power in the various worlds. In the first world the creative power is Will--the
one Divine Cause; in the second world, the hypothetical Daath--the Word
coming forth from the Divine Thought; in the third world, Tiphereth--the Sun,
or focal point between God and Nature; in the fourth world it is twofold, being
the positive and negative poles of the reproductive system, of which Jesod is
the male and Malchuth the female.
In Kircher's Sephirothic Tree it should be especially noted that the orna-
ments of the Tabernacle appear in the various parts of the diagram. These
indicate a direct relationship between the sacred House of God and the un-
iverse--a relationship which must always be considered as existing between the
Deity through whose activity the world is produced and the world itself, which
must be the house or vehicle of that Deity. Could the modern scientific world
but sense the true profundity of these philosophical deductions of the ancients,
it would realize that those who fabricated the structure of the Qabbalah pos-
sessed a knowledge of the celestial plan comparable in every respect with that
of the modern savant.
The Tetragrammaton, or the four-lettered Name of God, written thus ,
is pronounce Jehovah. The first letter is , Yod, the Germ, the Life, the Flame,
the Cause, the One, and the most fundamental of the Jewish phallic emblems.
Its numerical value is 10, and it is to be considered as the 1 containing the 10.
In the Qabbalah it is declared that the a Yod is in reality three Yods, of which
the first is the beginning, the second is the center, and the third is the end. Its
throne is the Sephira Chochmah (according to Ibn Gebirol, Kether), from
which it goes forth to impregnate Binah, which is the first , He. The result of
this union is Tiphereth, which is the Vau, whose power is 6 and which symbo-
lizes the six members of the Lesser Adam. The final , He, is Malchuth, the
Inferior Mother, partaking in part of the potencies of the Divine Mother, the
first He. By placing the four letters of the Tetragrammaton in a vertical col-
umn, a figure closely resembling the human body is produced, with Yod for
the head, the first He for the arms and shoulders, Vau for the trunk of the
body, and the final He for the hips and legs. If the Hebrew letters be ex-
changed for their English equivalents, the form is not materially changed or the
analogy altered. It is also extremely significant that by inserting the letter ,
Shin, in the middle of the name Jehovah, the word Jehoshua, or Jesus, is
formed thus:

In the Qabbalistic Mysteries, according to Eliphas Levi, the name Jehovah is
413
occasionally written by connecting together 24 dots--the 24 powers before the
throne--and it is believed that the name of the Power of Evil is the sign of Jeho-
vah reversed or inverted. (See Transcendental Magic.) Of the Great Word,
Albert Pike writes: "The True Word of a Mason is to be found in the con-
cealed and profound meaning of the Ineffable Name of Deity, communicated
by God to Moses; and which meaning was long lost by the very precautions
taken to conceal it. The true pronunciation of that name was in truth a secret,
in which, however, was involved the far more profound secret of its meaning.
In that meaning is included all the truth that can be known by us, in regard to
the nature of God." (See Morals and Dogma.)

Click to enlarge
THE SEPHIROTH IN THE FORM OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
Thomas Maurice reproduces the above engraving, which is modification of the elabo-
rate tree on the preceding page. The Sephiroth are here superimposed, decreasing in
size as they decrease in power and dignity. Thus, the Crown is the greatest and the all-
inclusive, and the Kingdom--which represents the physical universe--is the smallest and
of least importance.

414
 Qabbalistic Keys to the Creation of Man

HENRIE STEPHEN, in A World of Wonders, published in 1607, mentions a

monk of St. Anthony who declared that while in Jerusalem the patriarch of that
city had shown him not only one of the ribs of the Word made flesh and some
rays from the Star of Bethlehem, but also the snout of a seraph, a finger nail of
a cherub, the horns of Moses, and a casket containing the breath of Christ! To
a people believing implicitly in a seraph sufficiently tangible to have its probos-
cis preserved, the more profound issues of Judaistic philosophy must necessari-
ly be incomprehensible. Nor is it difficult to imagine the reaction taking place
in the mind of some ancient sage should he hear that a cherub--which, accord-
ing to St. Augustine, signifies the Evangelists; according to Philo Judus, the
outermost circumference of the entire heavens, and according to several of the
Church Fathers, the wisdom of God--had sprouted finger nails. The hopeless
confusion of divine principles with the allegorical figures created to represent
them to the limited faculties of the uninitiated has resulted in the most atro-
cious misconceptions of spiritual truths. Concepts well-nigh as preposterous as
these, however, still stand as adamantine barriers to a true understanding of
Old and New Testament symbolism; for, until man disentangles his reasoning
powers from the web of venerated absurdities in which his mind has lain ens-
nared for centuries, how can Truth ever be discovered?
The Old Testament--especially the Pentateuch--contains not only the tradi-
tional account of the creation of the world and of man, but also, locked within
it, the secrets of the Egyptian initiators of the Moses concerning the genesis of
the god-man (the initiate) and the mystery of his rebirth through philosophy.
While the Lawgiver of Israel is known to have compiled several works other
than those generally attributed to him, the writings now commonly circulated as
the purported sixth and seventh books of Moses are in reality spurious treatises
on black magic foisted on the credulous during the Middle Ages. Out of the
hundreds of millions of pious and thoughtful students of Holy Writ, it is al-
most inconceivable that but a mere handful have sensed the sublimity of the
esoteric teachings of Sod (the Jewish Mysteries of Adonai). Yet familiarity with
the three Qabbalistical processes termed Gematria, Notarikon, and Temurah
makes possible the discovery of many of the profoundest truths of ancient Jew-
ish superphysics.
By Gematria is meant not only the exchange of letters for their numerical
equivalents but also the method of determining by an analysis of its measure-
ments the mystic purpose for which a building or other object was constructed.
S. L. MacGregor-Mathers, in The Kabbalah Unveiled, gives this example of

415
the application of Gematria: "Thus also the passage, Gen. xviii. 2 VHNH
SHLSHH, Vehenna Shalisha, 'And lo, three men,' equals in numerical value
'ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhael Gabriel Ve-Raphael,' These are
Mikhael, Gabriel and Raphael; 'for each phrase = 701." Assuming the sides of a
scalene to be 11, 9, and 6 inches, a triangle of such dimensions would then be
an appropriate symbol of Jehovah, for the sum of its three sides would be 26,
the numerical value of the Hebrew word IHVH. Gematria also includes the
system of discovering the arcane meaning of a word by analyzing the size and
arrangement of the strokes employed in the formation of its various letters.
Gematria was employed by the Greeks as well as the Jews. The books of the
New Testament--particularly those attributed to St. John--contain many exam-
ples of its use. Nicephorus Callistus declared the Gospel according to St. John
to have been discovered in a cavern under the Temple at Jerusalem, the vo-
lume having been secreted "long anterior to the Christian ra." The existence
of interpolated material in the fourth Gospel substantiates the belief that the
work was originally written without any specific reference to the man Jesus, the
statements therein accredited to Him being originally mystical discourses deli-
vered by the personification of the Universal Mind. The remaining Johannine
writings--the Epistles and the Apocalypse--are enshrouded by a similar veil of
mystery.
By Notarikon each letter of a word may become the initial character of a
new word. Thus from BRASHITH, first word in the book of Genesis, are ex-
tracted six words which mean that "in the beginning the Elohim saw that Israel
would accept the law." Mr. MacGregor-Mathers also gives six additional exam-
ples of Notarikon formed from the above word by Solomon Meir Ben Moses,
a medival Qabbalist. From the famous acrostic ascribed to the Erythran
Sibyl, St. Augustine derived the word , which by Notarikon was ex-
panded into the phrase, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." By another use of
Notarikon, directly the reverse of the first, the initial, last, or middle letters of
the words of a sentence may be joined together to form a new word or words.
For example, the name Amen, , maybe extracted from , "the
Lord is the faithful King." Because they had embodied these cryptic devices in
their sacred writings, the ancient priests admonished their disciples never to
translate, edit, or rewrite the contents of the sacred books. .
Under the general heading of Temurah several systems may be grouped and
explained in which various letters are substituted for other letters according to
prearranged tables or certain mathematical arrangements of letters, regular or
irregular. Thus the alphabet may be broken into two equal parts and written in
horizontal lines so that the letters of the lower row can be exchanged for those
of the upper row, or vice versa. By this procedure the letters of the word Kuzu
may be exchanged for those of IHVH, the Tetragrammaton. In another form
416
of Temurah the letters are merely rearranged., is the stone which is found
in the center of the world, from which point the earth spread out on all sides.

Click to enlarge
THE VISION OF EZEKIEL.
From The "Bear" Bible.
This plate, which is from the first Protestant Bible published in Spanish, shows the
Mercavah, or chariot of Jehovah, which appeared to Ezekiel by the river Chebar. The
prophet beheld four strange creatures (E), each having four heads, four wings, and
brazen hoofs like those of a calf. And there were four wheels (F) filled with eyes.
Where the cherubim went the wheels went also. The space between the cherubim and
the wheels was filled with coals of fire. Upon the top of the chariot was a throne, upon
which sat the likeness of a man (H). Ezekiel fell upon his knees when he beheld the
Mercavah surrounded by a whirlwind of clouds and flames (A, B, C). A hand (K)
reached out from the clouds and the prophet was ordered to eat of a scroll which the
hand held forth.
According to the mystics, the wheels supporting the throne of God represent the orbits
of the planets, and the entire solar system is properly the Mercavah, or chariot of God.
One of the divisions of the Qabbalah--that dealing with the arts and sciences of those
planes which are under the heavens--is called the Mercavah. In the Zohar it is written
that the celestial throne or Ezekiel's vision signifies the traditional law; the appearance
of a man sitting upon the throne represents the written law, Philo Judus in describing
the cherubim upon the Ark of the Covenant declares that the figures are an intimation
of the revolutions of the whole heavens, one of the cherubim representing the outer
circumference and the other the inner sphere. Facing each other, they represent the
two hemispheres of the world. The flaming sword of the cherubim of Genesis is the
central motion and agitation of the heavenly bodies. In all probability it also represents
the solar ray.

When broken in two the stone is , which means "the placing of God."(See
Pekudei Rakov, 71, 72.) Again, Temurah may consist of a simple anagram, as
in the English word live, which reversed becomes evil. The various systems of
Temurah are among the most complicated and profound devices of the an-
417
cient Rabbins.
Among theological scholars there is a growing conviction that the hitherto
accepted translations of the Scriptural writings do not adequately express the
spirit of the original documents.
"After the first copy of the Book of God," writes H. P. Blavatsky, "has been
edited and launched on the world by Hilkiah, this copy disappears, and Ezra
has to make a new Bible, which Judas Maccabeus finishes; * * * when it was
copied from the horned letters into square letters, it was corrupted beyond
recognition; * * * the Masorah completed the work of destruction; finally, we
have a text, not 900 years old, abounding with omissions, interpolations, and
premeditated perversions." (See Isis Unveiled.)
Prof. Crawford Howell Toy of Harvard notes: "Manuscripts were copied and
recopied by scribes who not only sometimes made errors in letters and words,
but permitted themselves to introduce new material into the text, or to com-
bine in one manuscript, without mark of division, writings composed by differ-
ent men; instances of these sorts of procedure are found especially in Micah
and Jeremiah, and the groups of prophecies which go under the names of
Isaiah and Zachariah." (See Judaism and Christianity.)
Does the mutilated condition of the Holy Bible--in part accidental--represent
none the less a definite effort to confuse the uninitiated reader and thus better
conceal the secrets of the Jewish Tannaim? Never has the Christian world been
in possession of those hidden scrolls which contain the secret doctrine of
Israel, and if the Qabbalists were correct in their assumption that the lost
books of the Mosaic Mysteries have been woven into the fabric of the Torah,
then the Scriptures are veritably books within books. In rabbinical circles the
opinion is prevalent that Christendom never has understood the Old Testa-
ment and probably never will. In fact, the feeling exists--in some quarters, at
least--that the Old Testament is the exclusive possession of the Jewish faith;
also that Christianity, after its unrelenting persecution of the Jew, takes unwar-
ranted liberties when it includes strictly Jewish writings in its sacred canon. But,
as noted by one rabbi, if Christianity must use the Jewish Scriptures, it should
at least strive to do so with some degree of intelligence!
In the opening chapter of Genesis it is stated that after creating light and
separating it from darkness, the seven Elohim divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. Having
thus established the inferior universe in perfect accord with the esoteric teach-
ings of the Hindu, Egyptian, and Greek Mysteries, the Elohim next turned
their attention to the production of flora and fauna and lastly man. "And God
said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. * * * So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful,

418
and multiply, and replenish the earth, * * *."
Consider in thoughtful silence the startling use of pronouns in the above
extract from "the most perfect example of English literature." When the plural
and androgynous Hebrew word Elohim was translated into the singular and
sexless word God, the opening chapters of Genesis were rendered compara-
tively meaningless. It may have been feared that had the word been correctly
translated as "the male and female creative agencies," the Christians would have
been justly accused of worshiping a plurality of gods in the face of their re-
peated claims to monotheism! The plural form of the pronouns us and our
reveals unmistakably, however, the pantheistic nature of Divinity. Further, the
androgynous constitution of the Elohim (God) is disclosed in the next verse,
where he (referring to God) is said to have created man in his own image, male
and female; or, more properly, as the division of the sexes had not yet taken
place, male-female. This is a deathblow to the time-honored concept that God
is a masculine potency as portrayed by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sis-
tine Chapel. The Elohim then order these androgynous beings to be fruitful.
Note that neither the masculine nor the feminine principle as yet existed in a
separate state! And, lastly, note the word "replenish." The prefix re denotes
"back to an original or former state or position," or "repetition or restoration."
(See Webster's International Dictionary, 1926.) This definite reference to a
humanity existing prior to the "creation of man" described in Genesis must be
evident to the most casual reader of Scripture.
An examination of Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries
discloses the plural form of the word Elohim to be beyond the comprehension
of their respected authors and editors. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia
of Religious Knowledge thus sums up the controversy over the plural form of
the word Elohim: "Does it now or did it originally signify plurality of divine
being?" A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, contains the fol-
lowing conclusion, which echoes the sentiments of more critical etymologists of
the Bible: "The use of the plur. Elohim is also difficult to explain." Dr. Haver-
nick considers the plural form Elohim to signify the abundance and super-
richness existing in the Divine Being. His statement, which appears in The
Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopdia, is representative of the efforts made
to circumvent this extremely damaging word. The International Standard Bible
Dictionary considers the explanations offered by modern theologians--of which
Dr. Havernick's is a fair example--to be too ingenious to have been conceived
by the early Hebrews and maintains that the word represents the survival of a
polytheistic stage of Semitic thought. The Jewish Encyclopedia supports the
latter assumption with the following concise statement: "As far as epigraphic
material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the Semites are
shown to be of polytheistic leanings."

419
 Various schools of philosophy, both Jewish and Gentile, have offered expla-
nations erudite and otherwise of the identity of Adam. In this primordial man
the Neo-Platonists recognized the Platonic Idea of humanity--the archetype or
pattern of the genus homo. Philo Judus considered Adam to represent the
human mind, which could understand (and hence give names to) the creatures
about it, but could not comprehend (and hence left nameless) the mystery of
its own nature. Adam was also likened to the Pythagorean monad which by
virtue of its state of perfect unity could dwell in the Edenic sphere. When
through a process akin to fission the monad became the duad--the proper
symbol of discord and delusion--the creature thus formed was exiled from its
celestial home. Thus the twofold man was driven from the Paradise belonging
to the undivided creation and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed on
guard at the gates of the Causal World. Consequently, only after the reestab-
lishment of unity within himself can man regain his primal spiritual state.
According to the Isarim, the secret doctrine of Israel taught the existence of
four Adams, each dwelling in one of the four Qabbalistic worlds. The first, or
heavenly, Adam dwelt alone in the Atziluthic sphere and within his nature ex-
isted all spiritual and material potentialities. The second Adam resided in the
sphere of Briah. Like the first Adam, this being was androgynous and the tenth
division of its body (its heel, Malchuth) corresponded to the church of Israel
that shall bruise the serpent's head. The third Adam--likewise androgynous--
was clothed in a body of light and abode in the sphere of Yetzirah. The fourth
Adam was merely the third Adam after the fall into the sphere of Assiah, at
which time the spiritual man took upon himself the animal shell or coat of
skins. The fourth Adam was still considered as a single individual, though divi-
sion had taken place within his nature and two shells or physical bodies existed,
in one of which was incarnated the masculine and in the other the feminine
potency. (For further details consult Isaac Myer.)
The universal nature of Adam is revealed in the various accounts concerning
the substances of which he was formed. It was originally ordained that the "dirt"
to be used in fashioning him was to be derived from the seven worlds. As these
planes, however, refused to give of their substances, the Creator wrenched
from them by force the elements to be employed in the Adamic constitution.
St. Augustine discovered a Notarikon in the name of Adam. He showed that
the four letters, A-D-A-M, are the first letters of the four words Anatole Dysis
Arktos Mesembria, the Greek names for the four corners of the world. The
same author also sees in Adam a prototype of Christ, for he writes: "Adam
sleeps that Eve may be formed: Christ dies, that the Church may be formed.
While Adam sleeps, Eve is formed from his side. When Christ is dead, His
side is smitten with a spear, that there flow forth sacraments to form the
church. * * * Adam himself was the figure of Him that was to come."

420
 In his recent work, Judaism, George Foote Moore thus describes the pro-
portions of the Adamic man: "He was a huge mass that filled the whole world
to all the points of the compass. The dust of which his body was formed was
gathered from every part of the world, or from the site of the future altar. Of
greater interest is the notion that man was created androgynous, because it is
probably a bit of foreign lore adapted to the first pair in Genesis. R. Samuel
bar Nahman (third century), said, when God created Adam, He created him
facing both ways ( ;) then He sawed him in two and made two backs,
one for each figure.
The Zohar holds the concept of two Adams: the first a divine being who,
stepping forth from the highest original darkness, created the second, or
earthly, Adam in His own image. The higher, or celestial, man was the Causal
sphere With its divine potencies and potentialities considered as a gigantic
personality; its members, according to the Gnostics, being the basic elements
of existence. This Adam may have been symbolized as facing both ways to
signify that with one face it looked upon the proximate Cause of itself and with
the other face looked upon the vast sea of Cosmos into which it was to be im-
mersed.
Philosophically, Adam may be regarded as representative of the full spiritual
nature of man--androgynous and nor subject to decay.
Of this fuller nature the mortal man has little comprehension. Just as spirit
contains matter within itself and is both the source and ultimate of the state
denominated matter, so Eve represents the lower, or mortal, portion that is
taken out of, or has temporal existence in the greater and fuller spiritual crea-
tion. Being representative of the inferior part of the individual, Eve is the
temptress who, conspiring with the serpent of mortal knowledge, caused Adam
to sink into a trancelike condition in which he was unconscious of his own
higher Self. When Adam seemingly awoke, he actually sank into sleep, for he
no longer was in the spirit but in the body; division having taken place within
him, the true Adam rested in Paradise while his lesser part incarnated in a ma-
terial organism (Eve) and wandered in the darkness of mortal existence.
The followers of Mohammed apparently sensed more accurately than the
uninitiated of other sects the true mystic import of Paradise, for they realized
that prior to his fall the dwelling place of man was not in a physical garden in
any particular part of the earth but rather in a higher sphere (the angelic world)
watered by four mystical streams of life. After his banishment from Paradise,
Adam alighted on the Island of Ceylon, and this spot is sacred to certain Hin-
du sects who recognize the old Island of Lanka--once presumably connected
with the mainland by a bridge--as the actual site of the Garden of Eden from
which the human race migrated. According to the Arabian Nights (Sir Richard
Burton's translation), Adam's footprint may still be seen on the top of a Ceylo-

421
nese mountain. In the Islamic legends, Adam was later reunited with his wife
and after his death his body was brought to Jerusalem subsequent to the Flood
for burial by Melchizedek. (See the Koran.)
The word ADM signifies a species or race and only for lack of proper un-
derstanding has Adam been considered as an individual. As the Macrocosm,
Adam is the gigantic Androgyne, even the Demiurgus; as the Microcosm, he is
the chief production of the Demiurgus and within the nature of the Microcosm
the Demiurgus established all the qualities and powers which He Himself pos-
sessed. The Demiurgus, however, did not possess immortality and, therefore,
could not bestow it upon Adam. According to legend, the Demiurgus strove to
keep man from learning the incompleteness of his Maker. The Adamic man
consequently partook of the qualities and characteristics of the angels who were
the ministers of the Demiurgus. It was affirmed by the Gnostic Christians that
the redemption of humanity was assured through the descent of Nous (Univer-
sal Mind), who was a great spiritual being superior to the Demiurgus and who,
entering into the constitution of man, conferred conscious immortality upon
the Demiurgic fabrications.
That phallic symbolism occupies an important place in early Jewish mystic-
ism is indisputable. Hargrave Jennings sees in the figure of Adam a type of the
lingam of Shiva, which was a stone representative of the creative power of the
World Generator. "In Gregorie's works * * *," writes Jennings, "is a passage to
the effect that 'Noah daily prayed in the Ark before the Body of Adam,' i.e.,
before the Phallus--Adam being the primitive Phallus, great procreator of the
human race. 'It may possibly seem strange,' he says, 'that this orison should be
daily said before the body of Adam,' but 'it is a most confessed tradition among
the eastern men that Adam was commanded by God that his dead body should
be kept above ground till a fullness of time should come to commit it
to the middle of the earth by a priest of the Most High God.' This
means Mount Moriah, the Meru of India. 'This body of Adam was embalmed
and transmitted from father to son, till at last it was delivered up by Lamech
into the hands of Noah.'" (See Phallicism.)
This interpretation somewhat clarifies the Qabbalistic assertion that in the
first Adam were contained all the souls of the Israelites. (See Sod.) Though
according to the Aurea Legenda Adam was buried with the three seeds of the
Tree of Knowledge in his mouth, it should be borne in mind that apparently
conflicting myths were often woven around a single individual. One of the pro-
found mysteries of Qabbalism is that set forth in the Notarikon based upon the
letters of the name Adam (ADM). These three letters form the initials of the
names Adam, David, and the Messiah, and these three personalities were said
to contain one soul. As this soul represents the World Soul of humanity,
Adam signifies the involving soul, the Messiah the evolving soul, and David

422
that condition of the soul termed epigenesis.
In common with certain philosophic institutions of Asia, the Jewish Myste-
ries contained a strange doctrine concerning the shadows of the Gods. Gazing
down into the Abyss, the Elohim beheld their own shadows and from these
shadows patterned the inferior creation. "In the dramatic representation of the
creation of man in the Mysteries," writes the anonymous Master of Balliol Col-
lege, "the Aleim [Elohim] were represented by men who, when sculpturing the
form of an Adamite being, of a man, traced the outline of it on their own sha-
dow, or modelled it on their own shadow traced on the wall. This is how the
art of drawing originated in Egypt, and the hieroglyphic figures carved on the
Egyptian monuments have so little relief that they still resemble a shadow."
In the ritualism of the early Jewish Mysteries the pageantry of creation was
enacted, the various actors impersonating the Creative Agencies. The red dirt
from which the Adamic man was fashioned may signify fire, particularly since
Adam is related to the Yod, or fire flame, which is the first letter of the sacred
name Jehovah. In John ii. 20 it is written that the Temple was forty and six
years in the building, a statement in which St. Augustine sees a secret and sa-
cred Gematria; for, according to the Greek philosophy of numbers, the numer-
ical value of the name Adam is 46. Adam thus becomes the type of the Tem-
ple, for the House of God-like primitive man--was a microcosm or epitome of
the universe.
In the Mysteries, Adam is accredited with having the peculiar power of spiri-
tual generation. Instead of reproducing his kind by the physical generative
processes, he caused to issue from himself--or, more correctly, to be reflected
upon substance--a shadow of himself. This shadow he then ensouled and it
became a living creature. These shadows, however, remain only as long as the
original figure of which they are the reflections endures, for with the removal of
the original the host of likenesses vanish with it. Herein is the key to the alle-
gorical creation of Eve out of the side of Adam; for Adam, representative of
the idea or pattern, is reflected into the material universe as a multitude of
ensouled images which collectively are designated Eve. According to another
theory, the division of the sexes took place in the archetypal sphere; hence the
shadows in the lower world were divided into two classes consistent with the
orders established in the Archetype. In the apparently incomprehensible attrac-
tion of one sex for the other Plato recognized a cosmic urge toward reunion of
the severed halves of this archetypal Being.

423
Click to enlarge
NOAH AND HIS ZODIACAL ARK.
From Myer's Qabbalah.
The early Church Father--notably Tertullian, Firmilian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and
St. Chrysostom--recognized in the ark a type or symbol of the Holy Catholic Church.
Bede the Venerable, declared that Noah in all things typified Christ as Noah alone of
his generation was just, so Christ alone was without sin. With Christ there was a seven-
fold spirit of grace: with Noah seven righteous Persons. Noah by water and wood saved
his own family Christ by baptism and the cross saves Christians. The ark was built of
wood that did not decay. the church is composed of men who will live forever, for this
ark means the church which floats upon the waves of the world.
The diagram shown above is also reproduced in The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave
Jennings. This author adds to the original diagram appearing in Antiquitatum Judaica-
rum Libri IX the signs of the zodiac, placing Aries at the head and continuing in se-
quential order to Leo, which occupies the fifth cross section of the ark. Jennings as-
signs the panel containing the door to the undivided constellation of Virgo-Libra-
Scorpio (which is continued into the first subdivision of the second section) and the
remaining four cress sections to the constellations of Sagittarius to Pisces inclusive. A
study of the plate discloses the ark to be divided into eleven main sections, and along
the base and roof of each section are shown three subdivisions, thus making in all the
sacred number 33. Occupying the position corresponding to the generative system of
the human body will also be noted the cross upon the door of the central section. Two
openings are shown in the ark: one--the main door representing the orifice through
which the animal lives descend into physical existence; the other a small window prox-
imate to the crown of the head through which the spirit gains liberty according to the
ancient rites.
"When the androgenic Scorpio-Virgo was separated and the Balance or Harmony
made from Scorpio, and placed between Scorpio, i.e., male, and Virgo, i.e., female,
then appeared the 32 constellations or signs, as we now have them. The ark is three
stories high (perhaps to symbolize Heaven, Man, Earth). In the figure of the Man,
notice the parting of the hair in the middle of the forehead and the arrangement of the
beard, whiskers, moustache and the hair, on the back of the neck and shoulders." (See
The Qabbalah by Isaac Myer.)

Exactly what is to be inferred by the division of the sexes as symbolically de-

scribed in Genesis is a much-debated question. That man was primarily andro-
424
gynous is quite universally conceded and it is a reasonable presumption that he
will ultimately regain this bisexual state. As to the manner in which this will be
accomplished two opinions are advanced. One school of thought affirms that
the human soul was actually divided into two parts (male and female) and that
man remains an unperfected creature until these parts are reunited through the
emotion which man calls love. From this concept has grown the much-abused
doctrine of "soul mates" who must quest through the ages until the complemen-
tary part of each severed soul is discovered. The modern concept of marriage
is to a certain degree founded upon this ideal.
According to the other school, the so-called division of the sexes resulted
from suppression of one pole of the androgynous being in order that the vital
energies manifesting through it might be diverted to development of the ration-
al faculties. From this point of view man is still actually androgynous and spiri-
tually complete, but in the material world the feminine part of man's nature
and the masculine part of woman's nature are quiescent. Through spiritual
unfoldment and knowledge imparted by the Mysteries, however, the latent
element in each nature is gradually brought into activity and ultimately the hu-
man being thus regains sexual equilibrium. By this theory woman is elevated
from the position of being man's errant part to one of complete equality. From
this point of view, marriage is regarded as a companionship in which two com-
plete individualities manifesting opposite polarities are brought into association
that each may thereby awaken the qualities latent in the other and thus assist in
the attainment of individual completeness. The first theory may be said to re-
gard marriage as an end; the second as a means to an end. The deeper schools
of philosophy have leaned toward the latter as more adequately acknowledging
the infinite potentialities of divine completeness in both aspects of creation.
The Christian Church is fundamentally opposed to the theory of marriage,
claiming that the highest degree of spirituality is achievable only by those pre-
serving the virginal state. This concept seemingly originated among certain
sects of the early Gnostic Christians, who taught that to propagate the human
species was to increase and perpetuate the power of the Demiurgus; for the
lower world was looked upon as an evil fabrication created to ensnare the souls
of all born into it--hence it was a crime to assist in bringing souls to earth.
When, therefore, the unfortunate father or mother shall stand before the Final
Tribunal, all their offspring will also appear and accuse them of being the cause
of those miseries attendant upon physical existence. This view is strengthened
by the allegory of Adam and Eve, whose sin through which humanity has been
brought low is universally admitted to have been concerned with the mystery of
generation. Mankind, owing to Father Adam its physical existence, regards its
progenitor as the primary cause of its misery; and in the judgment Day, rising
up as a mighty progeny, will accuse its common paternal ancestor.

425
 Those Gnostic sects maintaining a more rational attitude on the subject de-
clared the very existence of the lower worlds to signify that the Supreme Crea-
tor had a definite purpose in their creation; to doubt his judgment was, there-
fore, a grievous error. The church, however, seemingly arrogated to itself the
astonishing prerogative of correcting God in this respect, for wherever possible
it continued to impose celibacy, a practice resulting in an alarming number of
neurotics. In the Mysteries, celibacy is reserved for those who have reached a
certain degree of spiritual unfoldment. When advocated for the mass of unen-
lightened humanity, however, it becomes a dangerous heresy, fatal alike to both
religion and philosophy. As Christendom in its fanaticism has blamed every
individual Jew for the crucifixion of Jesus, so with equal consistency it has ma-
ligned every member of the feminine sex. In vindication of Eve philosophy
claims that the allegory signifies merely that man is tempted by his emotions to
depart from the sure path of reason.
Many of the early Church Fathers sought to establish a direct relationship
between Adam and Christ, thereby obviously discounting the extremely sinful
nature of man's common ancestor, since it is quite certain that when St. Augus-
tine likens Adam to Christ and Eve to the church he does not intend to brand
the latter institution as the direct cause of the fall of man. For some inexplica-
ble reason, however, religion has ever regarded intellectualism--in fact every
form of knowledge--as fatal to man's spiritual growth. The Ignaratitine Friars
are an outstanding example of this attitude.
In this ritualistic drama--possibly derived from the Egyptians--Adam, ba-
nished from the Garden of Eden, represents man philosophically exiled from
the sphere of Truth. Through ignorance man falls; through wisdom he re-
deems himself. The Garden of Eden represents the House of the Mysteries
(see The Vision of Enoch) in the midst of which grew both the Tree of Life
and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Man, the banished Adam, seeks to pass from the outer court of the Sanctu-
ary (the exterior universe) into the sanctum sanctorum, but before him rises a
vast creature armed with a flashing sword that, moving slowly but continually,
sweeps clear a wide circle, and through this "Ring Pass Not" the Adamic man
cannot break.
The cherubim address the seeker thus: "Man, thou art dust and to dust thou
shalt return. Thou wert fashioned by the Builder of Forms; thou belongest to
the sphere of form, and the breath that was breathed into thy soul was the
breath of form and like a flame it shall flicker out. More than thou art thou
canst not be. Thou art a denizen of the outer world and it is forbidden thee to
enter this inner place."
And the Adam replies: "Many times have I stood within this courtyard and
begged admission to my Father's house and thou hast refused it me and sent

426
me back to wander in darkness. True it is that I was fashioned out of the dirt
and that my Maker could not confer upon me the boon of immortality. But no
more shalt thou send me away; for, wandering in the darkness, I have discov-
ered that the Almighty hath decreed my salvation because He hath sent out of
the most hidden Mystery His Only Begotten who didst take upon Himself the
world fashioned by the Demiurgus. Upon the elements of that world was He
crucified and from Him hath poured forth the blood of my salvation. And
God, entering into His creation, hath quickened it and established therein a
road that leadeth to Himself. While my Maker could not give me immortality,
immortality was inherent in the very dust of which I was composed, for before
the world was fabricated and before the Demiurgus became the Regent of Na-
ture the Eternal Life had impressed itself upon the face of Cosmos. This is its
sign--the Cross. Do you now deny me entrance, I who have at last learned the
mystery of myself?"
And the voice replies: "He who is aware, IS! Behold!"
Gazing about him, Adam finds himself in a radiant place, in the midst of
which stands a tree with flashing jewels for fruit and entwined about its trunk a
flaming, winged serpent crowned with a diadem of stars. It was the voice of the
serpent that had spoken.
"Who art thou?" demands the Adam.
"I," the serpent answers, "am Satan who was stoned; I am the Adversary--the
Lord who is against you, the one who pleads for your destruction before the
Eternal Tribunal. I was your enemy upon the day that you were formed; I have
led you into temptation; I have delivered you into the hands of evil; I have
maligned you; I have striven ever to achieve your undoing. I am the guardian
of the Tree of Knowledge and I have sworn that none whom I can lead astray
shall partake of its fruits."
The Adam replies: "For uncounted ages have I been thy servant. In my ig-
norance I listened to thy words and they led me into paths of sorrow. Thou
hast placed in my mind dreams of power, and when I struggled to realize those
dreams they brought me naught but pain. Thou hast sowed in me the seeds of
desire, and when I lusted after the things of the flesh agony was my only re-
compense. Thou hast sent me false prophets and false reasoning, and when I
strove to grasp the magnitude of Truth I found thy laws were false and only
dismay rewarded my strivings. I am done with thee forever, O artful Spirit! I
have tired of thy world of illusions. No longer will I labor in thy vineyards of
iniquity. Get thee behind me, rempter, and the host of thy temptations. There
is no happiness, no peace, no good, no future in the doctrines of selfishness,
hate, and passion preached by thee. All these things do I cast aside. Re-
nounced is thy rule forever!"
And the serpent makes answer: "Behold, O Adam, the nature of thy Adver-

427
sary!" The serpent disappears in a blinding sunburst of radiance and in its place
stands an angel resplendent in shining, golden garments with great scarlet wings
that spread from one corner of the heavens to the other. Dismayed and awe-
struck, the Adam falls before the divine creature.
"I am the Lord who is against thee and thus accomplishes thy salvation, "
continues the voice. "Thou hast hated me, but through the ages yet to be thou
shalt bless me, for I have led thee our of the sphere of the Demiurgus; I have
turned thee against the illusion of worldliness; I have weaned thee of desire; I
have awakened in thy soul the immortality of which I myself partake. Follow
me, O Adam, for I am the Way, the Life, and the Truth!"

428
 An Analysis of Tarot Cards

OPINIONS of authorities differ widely concerning the origin of playing cards,

the purpose for which they were intended, and the time of their introduction
into Europe. In his Researches into the History of Playing Cards, Samuel Wel-
ler Singer advances the opinion that cards reached Southern Europe from
India by way of Arabia. It is probable that the Tarot cards were part of the
magical and philosophical lore secured by the Knights Templars from the Sa-
racens or one of the mystical sects then flourishing in Syria. Returning to Eu-
rope, the Templars, to avoid persecution, concealed the arcane meaning of the
symbols by introducing the leaves of their magical book ostensibly as a device
for amusement and gambling. In support of this contention, Mrs. John King
Van Rensselaer states:
"That cards were brought by the home-returning warriors, who imported
many of the newly acquired customs and habits of the Orient to their own
countries, seems to be a well-established fact; and it does not contradict the
statement made by some writers who declared that the gypsies--who about that
time began to wander over Europe--brought with them and introduced cards,
which they used, as they do at the present day, for divining the future." (See
The Devil's Picture Books.)
Through the Gypsies the Tarot cards may be traced back to the religious
symbolism of the ancient Egyptians. In his remarkable work, The Gypsies,
Samuel Roberts presents ample proof of their Egyptian origin. In one place he
writes: "When Gypsies originally arrived in England is very uncertain. They are
first noticed in our laws, by several statutes against them in the reign of Henry
VIII.; in which they are described as 'an outlandish people, calling themselves
Egyptians,--who do not profess any craft or trade, but go about in great num-
bers, * * *.'" A curious legend relates that after the destruction of the Serapeum
in Alexandria, the large body of attendant priests banded themselves together
to preserve the secrets of the rites of Serapis. Their descendants (Gypsies) car-
rying with them the most precious of the volumes saved from the burning li-
brary--the Book of Enoch, or Thoth (the Tarot)--became wanderers upon the
face of the earth, remaining a people apart with an ancient language and a
birthright of magic and mystery.
Court de Gbelin believed the word Tarot itself to be derived from two
Egyptian words, Tar, meaning "road," and Ro, meaning "royal." Thus the Tarot
constitutes the royal road to wisdom. (See Le Monde Primitif.) In his History
of Magic, P. Christian, the mouthpiece of a certain French secret society,
presents a fantastic account of a purported initiation into the Egyptian Myste-

429
ries wherein the 22 major Tarots assume the proportions of trestleboards of
immense size and line a great gallery. Stopping before each card in turn, the
initiator described its symbolism to the candidate. Edouard Schur, whose
source of information was similar to that of Christian's, hints at the same cere-
mony in his chapter on initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. (See The Great
Initiates.) While the Egyptians may well have employed the Tarot cards in
their rituals, these French mystics present no evidence other than their own
assertions to support this theory. The validity also of the so-called Egyptian
Tarots now in circulation has never been satisfactorily established. The draw-
ings are not only quite modem but the symbolism itself savors of French rather
than Egyptian influence.
The Tarot is undoubtedly a vital element in Rosicrucian symbolism, possibly
the very book of universal knowledge which the members of the order claimed
to possess. The Rota Mundi is a term frequently occurring in the early manifes-
toes of the Fraternity of the Rose Cross. The word Rota by a rearrangement of
its letters becomes Taro, the ancient name of these mysterious cards. W. F. C.
Wigston has discovered evidence that Sir Francis Bacon employed the Tarot
symbolism in his ciphers. The numbers 21, 56, and 78, which are all directly
related to the divisions of the Tarot deck, are frequently involved in Bacon's
cryptograms. In the great Shakespearian Folio of 1623 the Christian name of
Lord Bacon appears 21 times on page 56 of the Histories. (See The Columbus
of Literature.)
Many symbols appearing upon the Tarot cards have definite Masonic inter-
est. The Pythagorean numerologist will also find an important relationship to
exist between the numbers on the cards and the designs accompanying the
numbers. The Qabbalist will be immediately impressed by the significant se-
quence of the cards, and the alchemist will discover certain emblems meaning-
less save to one versed in the divine chemistry of transmutation and regenera-
tion.' As the Greeks placed the letters of their alphabet--with their correspond-
ing numbers--upon the various parts of the body of their humanly represented
Logos, so the Tarot cards have an analogy not only in the parts and members
of the universe but also in the divisions of the human body.. They are in fact
the key to the magical constitution of man.
The Tarot cards must be considered (1) as separate and complete hierog-
lyphs, each representing a distinct principle, law, power, or element in Nature;
(2) in relation to each other as the effect of one agent operating upon another;
and (3) as vowels and consonants of a philosophic alphabet. The laws govern-
ing all phenomena are represented by the symbols upon the Tarot cards,
whose numerical values are equal to the numerical equivalents of the pheno-
mena. As every structure consists of certain elemental parts, so the Tarot cards
represent the components of the structure of philosophy. Irrespective of the

430
science or philosophy with which the student is working, the Tarot cards can
be identified with the essential constituents of his subject, each card thus being
related to a specific part according to mathematical and philosophical laws. "An
imprisoned person," writes Eliphas Levi, "with no other book than the Tarot, if
he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge, and
would be able to speak on all subjects with unequalled learning and inexhausti-
ble eloquence. " (See Transcendental Magic.)
The diverse opinions of eminent authorities on the Tarot symbolism are
quite irreconcilable. The conclusions of the scholarly Court de Gbelin and
the bizarre Grand Etteila--the first authorities on the subject--not only are at
radical variance but both are equally discredited by Levi, whose arrangement of
the Tarot trumps was rejected in turn by Arthur Edward Waite and Paul Case
as being an effort to mislead students. The followers of Levi--especially Papus,
Christian, Westcott, and Schur-are regarded by the "reformed Tarotists" as
honest but benighted individuals who wandered in darkness for lack of Pamela
Coleman Smith's new deck of Tarot cards with revisions by Mr. Waite.
Most writers on the Tarot (Mr. Waite a notable exception) have proceeded
upon the hypothesis that the 22 major trumps represent the letters of the He-
brew alphabet. This supposition is based upon nothing more substantial than
the coincidence that both consist of 22 parts. That Postel, St. Martin, and Levi
all wrote books divided into sections corresponding to the major Tarots is an
interesting sidelight on the subject. The major trump cards portray incidents
from the Book of Revelation; and the Apocalypse of St. John is also divided
into 22 chapters. Assuming the Qabbalah to hold the solution to the Tarot
riddle, seekers have often ignored other possible lines of research. The task,
however, of discovering the proper relationship sustained by the Tarot trumps
to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Paths of Wisdom thus far has not
met with any great measure of success. The major trumps of the Tarot and the
22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet cannot be synchronized without first fixing
the correct place of the unnumbered, or zero, card--Le Mat, the Fool. Levi
places this card between the 20th and 21st Tarots, assigning to it the Hebrew
letter Shin (). The same order is followed by Papus, Christian, and Waite, the
last, however, declaring this arrangement to be incorrect. Westcott makes the
zero card the 22nd of the Tarot major trumps. On the other hand, both Court
de Gbelin and Paul Case place the unnumbered card before the first num-
bered card of the major trumps, for if the natural order of the numbers (ac-
cording to either the Pythagorean or Qabbalistic system) be adhered to, the
zero card must naturally precede the number 1.

431
Click to enlarge
EARLY PORTUGUESE CARDS.
From Chatto's Origin and History of Playing Cards.
In writing of the deck from which the four cavaliers (jacks) here reproduced were tak-
en, William Andrew Chatto notes: "Some of the specimens of Portuguese cards given
in the 'Jeux de Cartes, Tarots et de Cartes Numrales' have very much the appearance
of having been originally suggested by, if net copied from, an Oriental type; more es-
pecially in the suits of Danari and Bastani,--Money and Clubs. In those cards the circu-
lar figure, generally understood as representing Danari, or Money, is certainly much
more like the Chakra, or quoit of Vichnou [Vishnu], as seen in Hindostanic drawings,
than a piece of coin; while on the top of the Club is a diamond proper, which is anoth-
er of the attributes of the same deity." Also worthy of note are the Rosicrucian and
Masonic emblems appearing on various medival decks. As the secrets of these organ-
izations were often concealed in cryptic engravings, it is very probable that the enigmat-
ic diagrams upon various decks of cards were used both to conceal and to perpetuate
the political and philosophical arcana of these orders. The frontispiece of Mr. Chatto's
books shows a knave of hearts bearing a shield emblazoned with a crowned Rosicru-
cian rose.

This does not dispose of the problem, however, for efforts to assign a Hebrew
letter to each Tarot trump in sequence produce an effect far from convincing.
Mr. Waite, who reedited the Tarot, expresses himself thus: "I am not to be
included among those who are satisfied that there is a valid correspondence
between Hebrew letters and Tarot Trump symbols." (See introduction to The
Book of Formation by Knut Stenring.) The real explanation may be that the
major Tarots no longer are in the same sequence as when they formed the
leaves of Hermes' sacred book, for the Egyptians--or even their Arabian suc-
cessors--could have purposely confused the cards so that their secrets might be
better preserved. Mr. Case has developed a system which, while superior to
most, depends largely upon two debatable points, namely, the accuracy of Mr.
Waite's revised Tarot and the justification for assigning the first letter of the
Hebrew alphabet to the unnumbered, or zero, card. Since Aleph (the first He-
432
brew letter) has the numerical value of 1, its assignment to the zero card is
equivalent to the statement that zero is equal to the letter Aleph and therefore
synonymous with the number 1.
With rare insight, Court de Gbelin assigned the zero card to AIN SOPH,
the Unknowable First Cause. As the central panel of the Bembine Table
represents the Creative Power surrounded by seven triads of manifesting divini-
ties, so may the zero card represent that Eternal Power of which the 21 sur-
rounding or manifesting aspects are but limited expressions. If the 21 major
trumps be considered as limited forms existing in the abstract substance of the
zero card, it then becomes their common denominator. Which letter, then, of
the Hebrew alphabet is the origin of all the remaining letters? The answer is
apparent: Yod. In the presence of so many speculations, one more may not
offend. The zero card--Le Mat, the Fool--has been likened to the material un-
iverse because the mortal sphere is the world of unreality. The lower universe,
like the mortal body of man, is but a garment, a motley costume, well likened
to cap and bells. Beneath the garments of the fool is the divine substance,
however, of which the jester is but a shadow; this world is a Mardi Gras--a pa-
geantry of divine sparks masked in the garb of fools. Was not this zero card
(the Fool) placed in the Tarot deck to deceive all who could not pierce the veil
of illusion?
The Tarot cards were entrusted by the illumined hierophants of the Myste-
ries into the keeping of the foolish and the ignorant, thus becoming playthings--
in many instances even instruments of vice. Man's evil habits therefore actually
became the unconscious perpetuators of his philosophical precepts. "We must
admire the wisdom of the Initiates," writes Papus, "who utilized vice and made
it produce more beneficial results than virtue." Does not this act of the ancient
priests itself afford proof that the entire mystery of the Tarot is wrapped up in
the symbolism of its zero card? If knowledge was thus entrusted to fools,
should it not be sought for in this card?
If Le Mat be placed before the first card of the Tarot deck and the others
laid out in a horizontal line in sequence from left to right, it will be found that
the Fool is walking toward the other trumps as though about to pass through
the various cards. Like the spiritually hoodwinked and bound neophyte, Le
Mat is about to enter upon the supreme adventure--that of passage through the
gates of the Divine Wisdom. If the zero card be considered as extraneous to
the major trumps, this destroys the numerical analogy between these cards and
the Hebrew letters by leaving one letter without a Tarot correspondent. In this
event it will be necessary to assign the missing letter to a hypothetical Tarot
card called the elements, assumed to have been broken up to form the 56
cards of the minor trumps. It is possible that each of the major trumps may be
subject to a similar division.

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 The first numbered major trump is called Le Bateleur, the juggler, and ac-
cording to Court de Gbelin, indicates the entire fabric of creation to be but a
dream, existence a juggling of divine elements, and life a perpetual game of
hazard. The seeming miracles of Nature are but feats of cosmic legerdemain.
Man is like the little ball in the hands of the juggler, who waves his wand and,
presto! the ball vanishes. The world looking on does not realize that the va-
nished article is still cleverly concealed by the juggler in the hollow of his hand.
This is also the Adept whom Omar Khayym calls "the master of the show."
His message is that the wise direct the phenomena of Nature and are never
deceived thereby.
The magician stands behind a table on which are spread out a number of
objects, prominent among them a cup--the Holy Grail and the cup placed by
Joseph in Benjamin's sack; a coin--the tribute money and the wages of a Master
Builder, and a sword, that of Goliath and also the mystic blade of the philoso-
pher which divides the false from the true. The magician's hat is in the form of
the cosmic lemniscate, signifying the first motion of creation. His right hand
points to the earth, his left holds aloft the rod of Jacob and also the staff that
budded--the human spine crowned with the globe of creative intelligence. In
the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the magician wears an urus or golden band
around his forehead, the table before him is in the form of a perfect cube, and
his girdle is the serpent of eternity devouring its own tail.
The second numbered major trump is called La Papesse, the Female Pope,
and has been associated with a curious legend of the only woman who ever sat
in the pontifical chair. Pope Joan is supposed to have accomplished this by
masquerading in malt attire, and was stoned to death when her subterfuge was
discovered. This card portrays a seated woman crowned with a tiara sur-
mounted by a lunar crescent. In her lap is the Tora, or book of the Law (usual-
ly partly closed), and in her left hand are the keys to the secret doctrine, one
gold and the other silver. Behind her rise two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) with a
multicolored veil stretched between. Her throne stands upon a checker-hoard
floor. A figure called Juno is occasionally substituted for La Papesse. like the
female hierophant of the Mysteries of Cybele, this symbolic figure personifies
the Shekinah, or Divine Wisdom. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the priestess is
veiled, a reminder that the full countenance truth is not revealed to uninitiated
man. A veil also covers one-half of her book, thus intimating that but one-half
of the mystery of being can be comprehended.
The third numbered major trump is called L'Impratrice, the Empress, and
has been likened to the "woman clothed with the sun" described in the Apoca-
lypse. On this card appears the winged figure of a woman seated upon a
throne, supporting with her right hand a shield emblazoned with a phnix and
holding in her left a scepter surmounted by an orb or trifoliate flower. Beneath

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her left foot is sometimes shown the crescent. Either the Empress is crowned
or her head is surrounded by a diadem of stars; sometimes both. She is called
Generation, and represents the threefold spiritual world out of which proceeds
the fourfold material world. To the graduate of the College of the Mysteries
she is the Alma Mater out of whose body the initiate has "born again." In the
pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the Empress is shown seated upon a cube filled with
eyes and a bird is balanced upon the forefinger other left hand. The upper part
of her body is surrounded by a radiant golden nimbus. Being emblematic of
the power from which emanates the entire tangible universe, L'Impratrice is
frequently symbolized as pregnant.
The fourth numbered major trump is called L'Empereur, the Emperor, and
by its numerical value is directly associated with the great Deity revered by the
Pythagoreans under the form of the tetrad. His symbols declare the Emperor
to be the Demiurgus, the Great King of the inferior world. The Emperor is
dressed in armor and his throne is a cube stone, upon which a phnix is also
clearly visible. The king has his legs crossed in a most significant manner and
carries either a scepter surmounted by an orb or a scepter in his right hand and
an orb n his left. The orb itself is evidence that he is supreme ruler of the
world. Upon his right and left breasts respectively appear the symbols of the
sun and moon, which in symbolism are referred to as the eyes of the Great
King. The position of the body and legs forms the symbol of sulphur, the sign
of the ancient alchemical monarch. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the figure is
in profile. He wears a Masonic apron and the skirt forms s right-angled trian-
gle. Upon his head is the Crown of the North and his forehead is adorned wit
the coiled urus.
The fifth numbered major trump is called Le Pape, the Pope, and
represents the high priest of a pagan or Christian Mystery school. In this card
the hierophant wears the tiara and carries in his left hand the triple cross sur-
mounting the globe of the world. His right hand, bearing upon its back the
stigmata, makes "the ecclesiastic sign of esotericism," and before him kneel two
suppliants or acolytes. The back of the papal throne is in the form of a celestial
and a terrestrial column. This card signifies the initiate or master of the mys-
tery of life and according to the Pythagoreans, the spiritual physician. The illu-
sionary universe in the form of the two figures (polarity) kneels before the
throne upon which sits the initiate who has elevated his consciousness to the
plane of spiritual understanding and reality. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the
Master wears the urus. A white and a black figure--life and death, light and
darkness, good and evil--kneel before him. The initiate's mastery over unreality
is indicated by the tiara and the triple cross, emblems of rulership over the
three worlds which have issued from the Unknowable First Cause.
The sixth numbered major trump is called L'Amoureux, the Lovers. There

435
are two distinct forms of this Tarot. One shows a marriage ceremony in which
a priest is uniting a youth and a maiden (Adam and Eve?) in holy wedlock.
Sometimes a winged figure above transfixes the lovers with his dart. The
second form of the card portrays a youth with a female figure on either side.
One of these figures wears a golden crown and is winged, while the other is
attired in the flowing robes of the bacchante and on her head is a wreath of
vine leaves. The maidens represent the twofold soul of man (spiritual and ani-
mal), the first his guardian angel and the second his ever-present demon. The
youth stands at the beginning of mature life, "the Parting of the Ways," where
he must choose between virtue and vice, the eternal and the temporal. Above,
in a halo of light, is the genius of Fate (his star), mistaken for Cupid by the
uninformed. If youth chooses unwisely, the arrow of blindfolded Fate will
transfix him. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the arrow of the genius points di-
rectly to the figure of vice, thereby signifying that the end of her path is destruc-
tion. This card reminds man that the price of free will--or, more correctly, the
power of choice--is responsibility.
The seventh numbered major trump is called Le Chariot, the Chariot, and
portrays a victorious warrior crowned and riding in a chariot drawn by black
and white sphinxes or horses. The starry canopy of the chariot is upheld by
four columns. This card signifies the Exalted One who rides in the chariot of
creation. The vehicle of the solar energy being numbered seven reveals the
arcane truth that the seven planers are the chariots of the solar power which
rides victorious in their midst. The four columns supporting the canopy
represent the four Mighty Ones who uphold the worlds represented by the
star-strewn drapery. The figure carries the scepter of the solar energy and its
shoulders are ornamented with lunar crescents--the Urim. and Thummim. The
sphinxes drawing the chariot resent the secret and unknown power by which
the victorious ruler is moved continuously through the various parts of his un-
iverse. In certain Tarot decks the victor signifies the regenerated man, for the
body of the chariot is a cubic stone. The man in armor is not standing in the
chariot but is rising out of the cube, thus typifying the ascension of the 3 out of
the 4--the turning upward of the flap of the Master Mason's apron. In the
pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the warrior carries the curved sword of Luna, is
bearded to signify maturity, and wears the collar of the planetary orbits. His
scepter (emblematic of the threefold universe) is crowned with a square upon
which is a circle surmounted by a triangle.
The eighth numbered major trump is called La Justice, Justice, and portrays
a seated figure upon a throne, the back of which rises in the form of two col-
umns. Justice is crowned and carries in her right hand a sword and in her left a
pair of scales. This card is a reminder of the judgment of the soul in the hall of
Osiris. It teaches that only balanced forces can endure and that eternal justice

436
destroys with the sword that which is unbalanced. Sometimes justice is depicted
with a braid of her own hair twisted around her neck in a manner resembling a
hangman's knot. This may subtly imply that man is the cause of his own un-
doing, his actions (symbolized by his hair) being the instrument of his annihila-
tion. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the figure of Justice is raised upon a dais of
three steps, for justice can be fully administered only by such as have been
elevated to the third degree. Justice is blindfolded, that the visible shall in no
way influence its decision. (For reasons he considers beyond his readers' intel-
ligence, Mr. Waite reversed the eighth and eleventh major trumps.)
The ninth numbered major trump is called L'Hermite, the Hermit, and
portrays an aged man, robed in a monkish habit and cowl, leaning on a staff.
This card was popularly supposed to represent Diogenes in his quest for an
honest man. In his right hand the recluse carries a lamp which he partly con-
ceals within the folds of his cape. The hermit thereby personifies the secret
organizations which for uncounted centuries have carefully concealed the light
of the Ancient Wisdom from the profane. The staff of the hermit is know-
ledge, which is man's main and only enduring support. Sometimes the mystic
rod is divided by knobs into seven sections, a subtle reference to the mystery of
the seven sacred centers along the human spine. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot
the hermit shields the lamp behind a rectangular cape to emphasize the philo-
sophic truth that wisdom, if exposed to the fury of ignorance, would be de-
stroyed like the tiny flame of a lamp unprotected from the storm. Man's bodies
form a cloak through which his divine nature is faintly visible like the flame of
the partly covered lantern. Through renunciation--the Hermetic life--man at-
tains depth of character and tranquility of spirit.
The tenth numbered major trump is called La Roue de Fortune, the Wheel
of Fortune, and portrays a mysterious wheel with eight spokes--the familiar
Buddhist symbol of the Cycle of Necessity. To its rim cling Anubis and Ty-
phon--the principles of good and evil. Above sits the immobile sphinx, carrying
the sword of Justice and signifying the perfect equilibrium of Universal Wis-
dom. Anubis is shown rising and Typhon descending; but when Typhon
reaches the bottom, evil ascends again, and when Anubis reaches the top good
wanes once more. The Wheel of Fortune represents the lower universe as a
whole with Divine Wisdom (the sphinx) as the eternal arbiter between good
and evil. In India, the chakra, or wheel, is associated with the life centers either
of a world or of an individual. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the Sphinx is
armed with a javelin, and Typhon is being thrown from the wheel. The vertical
columns, supporting the wheel and so placed that but one is visible, represent
the axis of the world with the inscrutable sphinx upon its northern pole. Some-
times the wheel with its supports is in a boat upon the water. The water is the
Ocean of Illusion, which is the sole foundation of the Cycle of Necessity.

437
 The eleventh numbered major trump is called La Force, Strength, and por-
trays a girl wearing a hat in the form of a lemniscate, with her hands upon the
mouth of an apparently ferocious lion. Considerable controversy exists as to
whether the maid is dosing or opening the lion's mouth. Most writers declare
her to be closing the jaws of the beast, but a critical inspection conveys the op-
posite impression. The young woman symbolizes spiritual strength and the lion
either the animal world which the girl is mastering or the Secret Wisdom over
which she is mistress. The lion also signifies the summer solstice and the girl,
Virgo, for when the sun enters this constellation, the Virgin robs the lion of his
strength. King Solomon's throne was ornamented with lions and he himself was
likened to the king of beasts with the key of wisdom between its teeth. In this
sense, the girl may be opening the lion's mouth to find the key contained there-
in for courage is a prerequisite to the attainment of knowledge. In the pseudo-
Egyptian Tarot the symbolism is the same except that the maiden is
represented as a priestess wearing an elaborate crown in the form of a bird
surmounted by serpents and an ibis.
The twelfth numbered major trump is called Le Pendu, the Hanged Man,
an portrays a young man hanging by his left leg from a horizontal beam, the
latter supported by two tree trunks from each of which six branches have been
removed. The right leg of the youth is crossed in back of the left and his arms
are folded behind his back in such a way as to form a cross surmounting a
downward pointing triangle. The figure thus forms an inverted symbol of sul-
phur and, according to Levi, signifies the accomplishment of the magnum
opus. In some decks the figure carries under each arm a money bag from
which coins are escaping. Popular tradition associates this card with Judas Isca-
riot, who is said to have gone forth and hanged himself, the money bags
representing the payment he received for his crime.
Levi likens the hanged man to Prometheus, the Eternal Sufferer, further
declaring that the upturned feet signify the spiritualization of the lower nature.
It is also possible that the inverted figure denotes the loss of the spiritual facul-
ties, for the head is below the level of the body. The stumps of the twelve
branches are the signs of the zodiac divided into two groups--positive and nega-
tive. The picture therefore depicts polarity temporarily triumphant over the
spiritual principle of equilibrium. To attain the heights of philosophy, there-
fore, man must reverse (or invert) the order of his life. He then loses his sense
of personal possession because he renounces the rule of gold in favor of the
golden rule. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the hanged man is suspended be-
tween two palm trees and signifies the Sun God who dies perennially for his
world.
The thirteenth numbered major trump is called La Mort, Death, and por-
trays a reaping skeleton with a great scythe cutting off the heads, hands, and

438
feet rising out of the earth about it. In the course of its labors the skeleton has
apparently cut off one of its own feet. Not all Tarot decks show this peculiarity,
but this point well emphasizes the philosophic truth that unbalance and de-
structiveness are synonymous. The skeleton is the proper emblem of the first
and supreme Deity because it is the foundation of the body, as the Absolute is
the foundation of creation. The reaping skeleton physically signifies death but
philosophically that irresistible impulse in Nature which causes every being to
be ultimately absorbed into the divine condition in which it existed before the
illusionary universe had been manifested. The blade of the scythe is the moon
with its crystallizing power. The field in which death reaps is the universe, and
the card discloses that all things growing out of the earth shall be cut down and
return to earth again.
Kings, Queens, courtesans, and knaves are alike to death, the master of the
visible and a parent parts of all creatures. In some Tarot decks death is symbo-
lized as a figure in armor mounted on a white horse which tramples under foot
old and young alike. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot a rainbow is seen behind
the figure of death, thus signifying that the mortality of the body of itself
achieves the immortality of the spirit. Death, though it destroys form, can never
destroy life, which continually renews itself. This card is the symbol of the con-
stant renovation of the universe--disintegration that reintegration may follow
upon a higher level of expression.
The fourteenth numbered major trump is called La Temperance, Temper-
ance, and portrays an angelic figure with the sun upon her forehead. She car-
ries two urns, one empty and the other full, and continually pours the contents
of the upper into the lower, In some Tarot decks the flowing water takes the
form of the symbol of Aquarius. Not one drop, however, of the living water is
lost in this endless transference between the superior vessel and the inferior.
When the lower urn is filled the vases are reversed, thus signifying that life
pours first from the invisible into the visible, then from the visible back into the
invisible. The spirit controlling this flow is an emissary of the great Jehovah,
Demiurgus of the world. The sun, or light cluster, upon the woman's forehead
controls the flow of water, which, being drawn upward into the air by the solar
rays, descends upon the earth as rain, to drawn up and fall again ad infinitum.
Herein is also shown the passage of the human life forces back and forth be-
tween positive and negative poles of the creative system. In the pseudo-
Egyptian Tarot the symbolism is the same, except that the winged figure is
male instead of female. It is surrounded by a solar nimbus and pours water
from a golden urn into a silver one, typifying the descent of celestial forces into
the sublunary spheres.
The fifteenth numbered major trump is called Le Diable, the Devil, and
portrays a creature resembling Pan with the horns of a ram or deer, the arms

439
and body of a man, and the legs and feet of a goat or dragon. The figure stands
upon a cubic stone, to a ring in the front of which are chained two satyrs. For a
scepter this so-called demon carries a lighted torch or candle. The entire figure
is symbolic of the magic powers of the astral light, or universal mirror, in which
the divine forces are reflected in an inverted, or infernal, state. The demon is
winged like a bar, showing that it pertains to the nocturnal, or shadow inferior
sphere. The animal natures of man, in the form of a male and a female ele-
mental, are chained to its footstool. The torch is the false light which guides
unillumined souls to their own undoing. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot appears
Typhon--a winged creature composed of a hog, a man, a bat, a crocodile, and a
hippopotamus--standing in the midst of its own destructiveness and holding
aloft the firebrand of the incendiary. Typhon is created by man's own mis-
deeds, which, turning upon their maker, destroy him.
The sixteenth numbered major trump is called Le Feu du Ciel, the Fire of
Heaven, and portrays a tower the battlements of which, in the form of a crown,
are being destroyed by a bolt of lightning issuing from the sun. The crown,
being considerably smaller than the tower which it surmounts, possibly indi-
cates that its destruction resulted from its insufficiency. The lighting bolt some-
times takes the form of the zodiacal sign of Scorpio, and the tower may be
considered a phallic emblem. Two figures are failing from the tower, one in
front and the other behind. This Tarot card is popularly associated with the
traditional fall of man. The divine nature of humanity is depicted as a tower.
When his crown is destroyed, man falls into the lower world and takes upon
himself the illusion of materiality. Here also is a key to the mystery of sex. The
tower is supposedly filled with gold coins which, showering out in great num-
bers from the rent made by the lightning bolt, suggesting potential powers. In
the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the tower is a pyramid, its apex shattered by a
lightning bolt. Here is a reference to the missing capstone of the Universal
House. In support of Levi's contention that this card is connected with the
Hebrew letter Ayin, the failing figure in the foreground is similar in general
appearance to the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
The seventeenth numbered major trump is called Les Etoiles, the Stars, and
portrays a young girl kneeling with one foot in water and the other on and, her
body somewhat suggesting the swastika. She has two urns, the contents of
which she pours upon the land and sea. Above the girl's head are eight stars,
one of which is exceptionally large and bright. Count de Gbelin considers the
great star to be Sothis or Sirius; the other seven are the sacred planets of the
ancients. He believes the female figure to be Isis in the act of causing the inun-
dations of the Nile which accompanied the rising of the Dog Star. The un-
clothed figure of Isis may well signify that Nature does not receive her garment
of verdure until the rising of the Nile waters releases the germinal life of plants

440
and flowers. The bush and bird (or butterfly) signify the growth and resurrec-
tion which accompany the rising of the waters. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot
the great star contains a diamond composed of a black and white triangle, and
the flowering bush is a tall plant with a trifoliate head upon which a butterfly
alights. Here Isis is in the form of an upright triangle and the vases have be-
come shallow cups. The elements of water and earth under her feet represent
the opposites of Nature sharing impartially in the divine abundance.
The eighteenth numbered major trump is called La Lune, the Moon, and
portrays Luna rising between two towers--one light and the other dark. A dog
and a wolf are baying at the rising moon, and in the foreground is a pool of
water from which emerges a crawfish. Between the towers a path winds, vanish-
ing in the extreme background. Court de Gbelin sees in this card another
reference to the rising of the Nile and states on the authority of Pausanius that
the Egyptians believed the inundations of the Nile to result from the tears of
the moon goddess which, falling into the river, swelled its flow. These tears are
seen dropping from the lunar face. Court de Gbelin also relates the towers to
the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which, according to the Egyptians, the lumina-
ries never passed. He notes also that the Egyptians represented the tropics as
dogs who as faithful doorkeepers prevented the sun and moon from penetrat-
ing too near the poles. The crab or crawfish signifies the retrograde motion of
the moon.

Click to enlarge
A CARD FROM THE MANTEGNA PACK.
From Taylor's The History of Playing Cards.
Among the more curious examples of playing cards are those of the Mantegna deck.
In 1820, a perfect deck of fifty cards brought the then amazing price of eighty pounds.
The fifty subjects composing the Mantegna deck, each of which is represented by an
appropriate figure, are: (1) A beggar; (2) A page; (3) A goldsmith; (4) A merchant; (5)
A gentleman; (6) A knight; (7) The Doge; (8) A king; (9) An emperor, (10) The Pope;
441
(11) Calliope; (12) Urania; (13) Terpsichore; (14) Erato; (15) Polyhymnia; (16) Thalia;
(17) Melpomene; (18) Euterpe; (19) Clio; (20) Apollo; (21) Grammar, (22) Logic; (23)
Rhetoric; (24) Geometry; (25) Arithmetic; (26) Music, (27) Poetry; (28) Philosophy;
(29) Astrology; (30) Theology; (31) Astronomy; (32) Chronology (33) Cosmogony; (34)
Temperance; (35) Prudence; (36) Fortitude; (37) Justice; (38) Charity; (39) Fortitude,
(40) Faith; (41) the Moon; (42) Mercury; (43) Venus; (45) the Sun; (45) Mars; (46)
Jupiter; (47) Saturn; (48) the eighth Sphere; (49) the Primum Mobile; (50) the First
Cause. The Qabbalistic significance of these cards is apparent, and it is possible that
they have a direct analogy to the fifty gates of light referred to in Qabbalistic writings.

This card also refers to the path of wisdom. Man in his quest of reality emerges
from the pool of illusion. After mastering the guardians of the gates of wisdom
he passes between the fortresses of science and theology and follows the
winding path leading to spiritual liberation. His way is faintly lighted by human
reason (the moon), which is but a reflection of divine wisdom. In the pseudo-
Egyptian Tarot the towers are pyramids, the dogs are black and white respec-
tively, and the moon is partly obscured by clouds. The entire scene suggests the
dreary and desolate place in which the Mystery dramas of the Lesser Rites
were enacted.
The nineteenth numbered major trump is called Le Soleil, the Sun, and
portrays two children--probably Gemini, the Twins--standing together in a gar-
den surrounded by a magic ring of flowers. One of these children should be
shown as male and the other female. Behind them is a brick wall apparently
enclosing the garden. Above the wall the sun is rising, its rays alternately
straight and curved. Thirteen teardrops are falling from the solar face Levi,
seeing in the two children Faith and Reason, which must coexist as long as the
temporal universe endures, writes: "Human equilibrium requires two feet, the
worlds gravitate by means of two forces, generation needs two sexes. Such is
the meaning of the arcanum of Solomon, represented by the two pillars of the
temple, Jakin and Bohas." (See Transcendental Magic.) The sun of Truth is
shining into the garden of the world over which these two children, as personi-
fications of eternal powers reside. The harmony of the world depends upon
the coordination of two qualities symbolized throughout the ages as the mind
and the heart. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the children give place to a youth
and a maiden. Above them in a solar nimbus is the phallic emblem of genera-
tion--a line piercing a circle. Gemini is ruled by Mercury and the two children
personify the serpents entwined around the caduceus.
The twentieth numbered major trump is called Le Jugement, the judgment,
and portrays three figures rising apparently from their tombs, though but one
coffin is visible. Above them in a blaze of glory is a winged figure (presumably

442
the Angel Gabriel) blowing a trumpet. This Tarot represents the liberation of
man's threefold spiritual nature from the sepulcher of his material constitution.
Since but one-third of the spirit actually enters the physical body, the other
two-thirds constituting the Hermetic anthropos or overman, only one of the
three figures is actually rising from the tomb. Court de Gbelin believes that
the coffin may have been an afterthought of the card makers and that the scene
actually represents creation rather than resurrection, In philosophy these two
words are practically synonymous. The blast of the trumpet represents the
Creative Word, by the intoning of which man is liberated from his terrestrial
limitations. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot it is evident that the three figures
signify the parts of a single being, for three mummies are shown emerging from
one mummy case.
The twenty-first numbered major trump is called Le Monde, the World, and
portrays a female figure draped with a scarf which the wind blows into the form
of the Hebrew letter Kaph. Her extended hands--each of which holds a wand--
and her left leg, which crosses behind the right, cause the figure to assume the
form of the alchemical symbol of sulphur. The central figure is surrounded by
a wreath in the form of a vesica piscis which Levi likens to the Qabbalistic
crown Kether. The Cherubim of Ezekiel's vision occupy the corners of the
card. This Tarot is called the Microcosm and the Macrocosm because in it are
summed up every agency contributing to the structure of creation. The figure
in the form Of the emblem of sulphur represents the divine fire and the heart
of the Great Mystery. The wreath is Nature, which surrounds the fiery center.
The Cherubim represent the elements, worlds, forces, and planes issuing out
of the divine fiery center of life. The wreath signifies the crown of the initiate
which is given to those who master the four guardians and enter into the pres-
ence of unveiled Truth. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the Cherubim surround
a wreath composed of twelve trifoliate flowers--the decanates of the zodiac. A
human figure kneels below this wreath, playing upon a harp of three strings, for
the spirit must create harmony in the triple constitution of its inferior nature
before it can gain for itself the solar crown of immortality.
The four suits of the minor trumps are considered as analogous to the four
elements, the four corners of creation, and the four worlds of Qabbalism. The
key to the lesser Tarots is presumably the Tetragrammaton, or the four-letter
name of Jehovah, IHVH. The four suits of the minor trumps represent also
the major divisions of society: cups are the priesthood, swords the military,
coins the tradesmen, and rods the farming class. From the standpoint of what
Court de Gbelin calls "political geography," cups represent the northern coun-
tries, swords the Orient, coins the Occident, and rods the southern countries.
The ten pip cards of each suit represent the nations composing each of these
grand divisions. The kings are their governments, the queens their religions,

443
the knights their histories and national characteristics, and the pages their arts
and sciences. Elaborate treatises have been written concerning the use of the
Tarot cards in divination, but as this practice is contrary to the primary purpose
of the Tarot no profit can result from its discussion.
Many interesting examples of early playing cards are found in the museums
of Europe, and there are also noteworthy specimens in the cabinets of various
private collectors. A few hand-painted decks exist which are extremely artistic.
These depict various important personages contemporary with the artists. In
some instances, the court cards are portraitures of the reigning monarch and
his family. In England engraved cards became popular, and in the British Mu-
seum are also to be seen some extremely quaint stenciled cards. Heraldic de-
vices were employed; and Chatto, in his Origin and History of Playing Cards,
reproduces four heraldic cards in which the arms of Pope Clement IX adorn
the king of clubs. There have been philosophical decks with emblems chosen
from Greek and Roman mythology, also educational decks ornamented with
maps or pictorial representations of famous historic places and incidents. Many
rare examples of playing-cards have been found bound into the covers of early
books. In Japan there are card games the successful playing of which requires
familiarity with nearly all the literary masterpieces of that nation. In India there
are circular decks depicting episodes from Oriental myths. There are also
cards which in one sense of the word are not cards, for the designs are on
wood, ivory, and even metal. There are comic cards caricaturing disliked per-
sons and places, and there are cards commemorating various human achieve-
ments. During the American Civil War a patriotic deck was circulated in which
stars, eagles, anchors, and American flags were substituted for the suits and the
court cards were famous generals.
Modern playing cards are the minor trumps of the Tarot, from each suit of
which the page, or valet, has been eliminated, leaving 13 cards. Even in its ab-
ridged form, however, the modern deck is of profound symbolic importance,
for its arrangement is apparently in accord with the divisions of the year. The
two colors, red and black, represent the two grand divisions of the year--that
during which the sun is north of the equator and that during which it is south of
the equator. The four suits represent the seasons, the ages of the ancient
Greeks, and the Yugas of the Hindus. The twelve court cards are the signs of
the zodiac arranged in triads of a Father, a Power, and a Mind according to the
upper section of the Bembine Table. The ten pip cards of each suit represent
the Sephirothic trees existing in each of the four worlds (the suits). The 13
cards of each suit are the 13 lunar months in each year, and the 52 cards of the
deck are the 52 weeks in the year. Counting the number of pips and reckoning
the jacks, queens, and kings as 11, 12, and 13 respectively, the sum for the 52
cards is 364. If the joker be considered as one point, the result is 365, or the

444
number of days in the year. Milton Pottenger believed that the United States of
America was laid out according to the conventional deck of playing cards, and
that the government will ultimately consist of 52 States administered by a 53rd
undenominated division, the District of Columbia.
The court cards contain a number of important Masonic symbols. Nine are
full face and three are profile. Here is the broken "Wheel of the Law," signify-
ing the nine months of the prenatal epoch and the three degrees of spiritual
unfoldment necessary to produce the perfect man. The four armed kings are
the Egyptian Ammonian Architects who gouged out the universe with knives.
They are also the cardinal signs of the zodiac. The four queens, carrying eight-
petaled flowers symbolic of the Christ, are the fixed signs of the zodiac. The
four jacks, two of whom bear acacia sprigs--the jack of hearts in his hand, the
jack of clubs in his hat-are the four common signs of the zodiac. It should be
noted also that the court cards of the spade suit will not look upon the pip in
the corner of the card but face away from it as though fearing this emblem of
death. The Grand Master of the Order of the Cards is the king of clubs, who
carries the orb as emblematic of his dignity.
In its symbolism chess is the most significant of all games. It has been called
"the royal game"--the pastime of kings. Like the Tarot cards, the chessmen
represent the elements of life and philosophy. The game was played in India
and China long before its introduction into Europe. East Indian princes were
wont to sit on the balconies of their palaces and play chess with living men
standing upon a checkerboard pavement of black and white marble in the
courtyard below. It is popularly believed that the Egyptian Pharaohs played
chess, but an examination of their sculpture and illuminations has led to the
conclusion that the Egyptian game was a form of draughts. In China, chessmen
are often carved to represent warring dynasties, as the Manchu and the Ming.
The chessboard consists of 64 squares alternately black and white and symbo-
lizes the floor of the House of the Mysteries. Upon this field of existence or
thought move a number of strangely carved figures, each according to fixed
law. The white king is Ormuzd; the black king, Ahriman; and upon the plains
of Cosmos the great war between Light and Darkness is fought through all the
ages. Of the philosophical constitution of man, the kings represent the spirit;
the queens the mind; the bishops the emotions; the knights the vitality; the
castles, or rooks, the physical body. The pieces upon the kings' side are posi-
tive; those upon the queens' side, negative. The pawns are the sensory impulses
and perceptive faculties--the eight parts of the soul. The white king and his
suite symbolize the Self and its vehicles; the black king and his retinue, the not-
self--the false Ego and its legion. The game of chess thus sets forth the eternal
struggle of each part of man's compound nature against the shadow of itself.
The nature of each of the chessmen is revealed by the way in which it moves;

445
geometry is the key to their interpretation. For example: The castle (the body)
moves on the square; the bishop (the emotions) moves on the slant; the king,
being the spirit, cannot be captured, but loses the battle when so surrounded
that it cannot escape.

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 The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

THERE is no doubt that much of the material recorded in the first five books
of the Old Testament is derived from the initiatory rituals of the Egyptian Mys-
teries. The priests of Isis were deeply versed in occult lore, and the Israelites
during their captivity in Egypt learned from them many things concerning the
significance of Divinity and the manner of worshiping It. The authorship of the
first five books of the Old Testament is generally attributed to Moses, but
whether or not he was the actual writer of them is a matter of controversy.
There is considerable evidence to substantiate the hypothesis that the Penta-
teuch was compiled at a much later date, from oral traditions. Concerning the
authorship of these books, Thomas Inman makes a rather startling statement:
"It is true that we have books which purport to be the books of Moses; so there
are, or have been, books purporting to be written by Homer, Orpheus, Enoch,
Mormon, and Junius; yet the existence of the writings, and the belief that they
were written by those whose name they bear, are no real evidences of the men
or the genuineness of the works called by their names. It is true also that Moses
is spoken of occasionally in the time of the early Kings of Jerusalem; but it is
clear that these passages are written by a late hand, and have been introduced
into the places where they are found, with the definite intention of making it
appear that the lawgiver was known to David and Solomon." (See Ancient
Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names.)
While this noted scholar undoubtedly had much evidence to support his
belief, it seems that this statement is somewhat too sweeping in character. It is
apparently based upon the fact that Thomas Inman doubted the historical exis-
tence of Moses. This doubt was based upon the etymological resemblance of
the word Moses to an ancient name for the sun. As the result of these deduc-
tions, Inman sought to prove that the Lawgiver of Israel was merely another
form of the omnipresent solar myth. While Inman demonstrated that by trans-
posing two of the ancient letters the word Moses ( )became Shemmah
(), an appellation of the celestial globe, he seems to have overlooked the
fact that in the ancient Mysteries the initiates were often given names syn-
onymous with the sun, to symbolize the fact that the redemption and regenera-
tion of the solar power had been achieved within their own natures. It is far
more probable that the man whom we know as Moses was an accredited repre-
sentative of the secret schools, laboring--as many other emissaries have la-
bored--to instruct primitive races in the mysteries of their immortal souls.
The true name of the Grand Old Man of Israel who is known to history as
Moses will probably never be ascertained. The word Moses, when understood

447
in its esoteric Egyptian sense, means one who has been admitted into the Mys-
tery Schools of Wisdom and ~as gone forth to teach the ignorant concerning
the will of the gods and the mysteries of life, as these mysteries were explained
within the temples of Isis, Osiris, and Serapis. There is much controversy con-
cerning the nationality of Moses. Some assert that he was a Jew, adopted and
educated by the ruling house of Egypt; others hold the opinion that he was a
full-blooded Egyptian. A few even believe him to be identical with the immor-
tal Hermes, for both these illustrious founders of religious systems received
tablets from heaven supposedly written by the finger of God. The stories told
concerning Moses, his discovery in the ark of bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter,
his adoption into the royal family of Egypt, and his later revolt against Egyptian
autocracy coincide exactly with certain ceremonies through which the candi-
dates of the Egyptian Mysteries passed in their ritualistic wanderings in search
of truth and understanding. The analogy can also be traced in the movements
of the heavenly bodies.
It is not strange that the erudite Moses, initiated in Egypt, should teach the
Jews a philosophy containing the more important principles of Egyptian esote-
ricism. The religions of Egypt at the time of the Israelitic captivity were far
older than even the Egyptians themselves realized. Histories were difficult to
compile in those days, and the Egyptians were satisfied to trace their race back
to a mythological period when the gods themselves walked the earth and with
their own power established the Double Empire of the Nile. The Egyptians did
not dream that these divine progenitors were the Atlanteans, who, forced to
abandon their seven islands because of volcanic cataclysms, had immigrated
into Egypt--then an Atlantean colony--where they established a great philosoph-
ic and literary center of civilization which was later to influence profoundly the
religions and science of unnumbered races and peoples. Today Egypt is forgot-
ten, but things Egyptian will always be remembered and revered. Egypt is dead-
-yet it lives immortal in its philosophy, and architectonics.
As Odin founded his Mysteries in Scandinavia, and Quexalcoatl in Mexico,
so Moses, laboring with the then nomadic people of Israel's twelve tribes, es-
tablished in the midst of them his secret and symbolic school, which has came
to be known as The Tabernacle Mysteries. The Tabernacle of: the Jews was
merely a temple patterned after the temples of Egypt, and transportable to
meet the needs of that roving disposition which the Israelites were famous.
Every part of the Tabernacle and the enclosure which surrounded it was sym-
bolic of some great natural or philosophic truth. To the ignorant it was but a
place to which to bring offerings and in which to make sacrifice; to the wise it
was a temple of learning, sacred to the Universal Spirit of Wisdom.
While the greatest, minds of the Jewish and Christian worlds have realized
that the Bible is a book of allegories, few seem to have taken the trouble to

448
investigate its symbols and parables. When Moses instituted his Mysteries, he
is said to have given to a chosen few initiates certain oral teachings which could
never be written but were to be preserved from one generation to the next by
word-of-mouth transmission. Those instructions were in the form of philosoph-
ical keys, by means of which the allegories were made to reveal their hidden
significance. These mystic keys to their sacred writings were called by the Jews
the Qabbalah (Cabala, Kaballah).
The modern world seems to have forgotten the existence of those unwritten
teachings which explained satisfactorily the apparent contradictions of the writ-
ten Scriptures, nor does it remember that the pagans appointed their two-faced
Janus as custodian of the key to the Temple of Wisdom. Janus has been me-
tamorphosed into St. Peter, so often symbolized as holding in his hand the key
to the gate of heaven. The gold and silver keys of "God's Vicar on Earth," the
Pope, symbolizes this "secret doctrine" which, when properly understood, un-
locks the treasure chest of the Christian and Jewish Qabbalah.
The temples of Egyptian mysticism (from which the Tabernacle was copied)
were--according to their own priests--miniature representations of the universe.
The solar system was always regarded as a great temple of initiation, which
candidates entered through the gates of birth; after threading the tortuous pas-
sageways of earthly existence, they finally approached the veil of the Great
Mystery--Death--through whose gate they vanished back into the invisible
world. Socrates subtly reminded his disciples that Death was, in reality, the
great initiation, for his last words were: "Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will
you remember to pay the debt?" (As the rooster was sacred to the gods and the
sacrifice of this bird accompanied a candidate's introduction into the Mysteries,
Socrates implied that he was about to take his great initiation.)
Life is the great mystery, and only those who pass successfully through its
tests and trials, interpreting them aright and extracting the essence of expe-
rience therefrom, achieve true understanding. Thus, the temples were built in
the form of the world and their rituals were based upon life and its multitudin-
ous problems. Nor only was the Tabernacle itself patterned according to Egyp-
tian mysticism; its utensils were also of ancient and accepted form. The Ark of
the Covenant itself was an adaptation of the Egyptian Ark, even to the kneeling
figures upon its lid. Bas-reliefs on the Temple of Phil show Egyptian priests
carrying their Ark--which closely resembled the Ark of the Jews--upon their
shoulders by means of staves like those described in Exodus.
The following description of the Tabernacle and its priests is based upon the
account of its construction and ceremonies recorded by Josephus in the Third
Book of his Antiquities of the Jews. The Bible references are from a "Breech-
es" Bible (famous for its rendering of the seventh verse of the third chapter of
Genesis), printed in London in 1599, and the quotations are reproduced in

449
their original spelling and punctuation.

Click to enlarge
THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.
From Montfaucon's Antiquities.
It is in this form that Jehovah is generally pictured by the Qabbalists. The drawing is
intended to represent the Demiurgus of the Greeks and Gnostics, called by the Greeks
"Zeus," the Immortal Mortal, and by the Hebrews "IHVH."

THE BUILDING OF THE TABERNACLE

Moses, speaking for Jehovah, the God of Israel, appointed two architects to
superintend the building of the Tabernacle. They were Besaleel, the son of
Uri, of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of
Dan. Their popularity was so great that they were also the unanimous choice of
the people. When Jacob upon his deathbed blessed his sons (see Genesis xlix),
he assigned to each a symbol. The symbol of Judah was a lion; that of Dan a
serpent or a bird (possibly an eagle). The lion and the eagle are two of the four
beasts of the Cherubim (the fixed signs of the zodiac); and the Rosicrucian
alchemists maintained that the mysterious Stone of the Wise (the Soul) was
compounded with the aid of the Blood of the Red Lion and the Gluten of the
White Eagle. It seems probable that there is a hidden mystic relationship be-
tween fire (the Red Lion), water (the White Eagle), as they were used in occult
chemistry, and the representatives of these two tribes whose symbols were
identical with these alchemical elements.
As the Tabernacle was the dwelling place of God among men, likewise the
soul body in man is the dwelling place of his divine nature, round which gath-
ers a twelvefold material constitution in the same manner that the tribes of
Israel camped about the enclosure sacred to Jehovah. The idea that the Ta-
bernacle was really symbolic of an invisible spiritual truth outside the compre-
hension of the Israelites is substantiated by a statement made in the eighth
chapter of Hebrews: "Who serve unto the paterne and shadowe of heavenly
things, as Moses was warned by God, when he was about to finish the Taber-
nacle." Here we find the material physical place of worship called a "shadow" or
symbol of a spiritual institution, invisible but omnipotent.

450
 The specifications of the Tabernacle are described in the book of Exodus,
twenty-fifth chapter: "Then the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speake unto
the children of Israel that they receive an offering for me: of every man, whose
heart giveth it freely, yee shall take the offering for me. And this is the offering
which ye shall take of them, gold and silver, and brass, and blue silke, and pur-
ple, and scarlet, and fine linnen and goats haire. And rammes skinnes coloured
red, and the skinnes of badgers, and the wood Shittim, oyle for the light, spices
for anoynting oyle, and for the perfume of sweet favour, onix stones, and sto-
ries to be set in the Ephod, and in the breastplate. Also they shall make me a
Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee,
even so shall ye make the forme of the Tabernacle, and the fashion of all the
instruments thereof."
The court of the Tabernacle was an enclosed area, fifty cubits wide and one
hundred cubits long, circumscribed by a wall of linen curtains hung from bra-
zen pillars five cubits apart. (The cubit is an ancient standard of measurement,
its length being equal to the distance between the elbow and the extreme end
of the index finger, approximately eighteen inches.) There were twenty of these
pillars on each of the longer sides and ten on the shorter. Each pillar had a
base of brass and a capital of silver. The Tabernacle was always laid out with
the long sides facing north and south and the short sides facing east and west,
with the entrance to the east, thus showing the influence of primitive sun wor-
ship.
The outer court served the principal purpose of isolating the tent of the Ta-
bernacle proper, which stood in the midst of the enclosure. At the entrance to
the courtyard, which was in the eastern face of the rectangle, stood the Altar of
Burnt Offerings, made of brass plates over wood and ornamented with the
horns of bulls and rams. Farther in, but on a line with this altar, stood the Lav-
er of Purification, a great vessel containing water for priestly ablutions. The
Laver was twofold in its construction, the upper part being a large bowl, proba-
bly covered, which served as a source of supply for a lower basin in which the
priests bathed themselves before participating in the various ceremonials. It is
supposed that this Laver was encrusted with the metal mirrors of the women of
the twelve tribes of Israel.
The dimensions of the Tabernacle proper were as follows: "Its length, when
it was set up, was thirty cubits, and its breadth was ten cubits. The one of its
walls was on the south, and the other was exposed to the north, and on the
back part of it remained the west. It was necessary that its height should be
equal to its breadth (ten cubits)." (Josephus.)
It is the custom of bibliologists to divide the interior of the Tabernacle into
two rooms: one room ten cubits wide, ten cubits high, and twenty cubits long,
which was called the Holy Place and contained three special articles of furni-

451
ture, namely, the Seven-Branched Candlestick, the Table of the Shewbread,
and the Altar of Burnt Incense; the other room ten cubits wide, ten cubits high,
and ten cubits long, which was called the Holy of Holies and contained but one
article of furniture--the Ark of the Covenant. The two rooms were separated
from each other by an ornamental veil upon which were embroidered many
kinds of flowers, but no animal or human figures.
Josephus hints that there was a third compartment which was formed by
subdividing the Holy Place, at least hypothetically, into two chambers. The
Jewish historian is not very explicit in his description of this third room, and
the majority of writers seem to have entirely overlooked and neglected this
point, although Josephus emphatically states that Moses himself divided the
inner tent into three sections. The veil separating the Holy Place from the Ho-
ly of Holies was hung across four pillars, which probably indicated in a subtle
way the four elements, while at the entrance to the tent proper the Jews placed
seven pillars, referring to the seven senses and the seven vowels of the Sacred
Name. That later only five pillars are mentioned may be accounted for by the
fact that at the present time man has only five developed senses and five active
vowels. The early Jewish writer of The Baraitha treats of the curtains as follows:
"There were provided ten curtains of blue, of purple, and scarlet, and fine-
twined linen. As is said, 'Moreover thou shall make the tabernacle with ten
curtains of fine-twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet.' * * * There
were provided eleven curtains of goats' hair, and the length of every one of
them was thirty cubits, * * *. Rabbi Judah said, 'There were two covers-the
lower one of rams' skins dyed red, and the upper one of badgers' skins. '"
Calmet is of the opinion that the Hebrew word translated "badger" really
means "dark purple" and therefore did not refer to any particular animal, but
probably to a heavily woven waterproof fabric of dark and inconspicuous color.
During the time of Israel's wanderings through the wilderness, it is supposed
that a pillar of fire hovered over the Tabernacle at night, while a column of
smoke traveled with it by day. This cloud was called by the Jews the Shechinah
and was symbolic of the presence of the Lord. In one of the early Jewish books
rejected at the time of the compiling of the Talmud the following description of
the Shechinah appears:
"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the
Lord filled the Tabernacle. And that was one of the clouds of glory, which
served the Israelites in the wilderness forty years. One on the right hand, and
one on the left, and one before them, and one behind them. And one over
them, and a cloud dwelling in their midst (and the cloud, the Shechinah which
was in the tent), and the pillar of cloud which moved before them, making low
before them the high places, and making high before them the low places, and
killing serpents and scorpions, and burning thorns and briars, and guiding

452
them in the straight way." (From The Baraitha, the Book of the Tabernacle.)

THE FURNISHINGS OF THE TABERNACLE

There is no doubt that the Tabernacle, its furnishings and ceremonials, when
considered esoterically, are analogous to the structure, organs, and functions of
the human body. At the entrance to the outer court of the Tabernacle stood
the Altar of Burnt Offerings, five cubits long and five cubits wide but only three
cubits high. Its upper surface was a brazen grill upon which the sacrifice was
placed, while beneath was a space for the fire. This altar signified that a candi-
date, when first entering the precincts of sanctuary, must offer upon the brazen
altar not a poor unoffending bull or ram but its correspondence within his own
nature. The bull, being symbolic of earthiness, represented his own gross con-
stitution which must be burned up by the fire of his Divinity. (The sacrificing of
beasts, and in some cases human beings, upon the altars of the pagans was the
result of their ignorance concerning the fundamental principle underlying sacri-
fice. They did not realize that their offerings must come from within their own
natures in order to be acceptable.)

Click to enlarge
THE BREASTPLATE OF THE HIGH PRIEST.
From Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible.
The order of the stones and the tribe over which each administered were, according to
Calmet, as in the above diagram. These gems, according to the Rosicrucians, were
symbolic of the twelve great qualities and virtues: Illumination, Love, Wisdom, Truth,
Justice, Peace, Equilibrium, Humility, Faith, Strength, Joy, Victory.

Farther westward, in line with the Brazen Altar, was the Laver of Purification
already described. It signified to the priest that he should cleanse not only his

453
body but also his soul from all stains of impurity, for none who is not clean in
both body and mind can enter into the presence of Divinity and live. Beyond
the Laver of Purification was the entrance to the Tabernacle proper, facing the
east, so that the first rays of the rising sun might enter and light the chamber.
Between the encrusted pillars could be seen the Holy Place, a mysterious
chamber, its walls hung with magnificent drapes embroidered with the faces of
Cherubs.
Against the wall on the southern side of the Holy Place stood the great Can-
dlestick, or lampstand, of cast gold, which was believed to weigh about a hun-
dred pounds. From its central shaft branched out six arms, each ending in a
cup-shaped depression in which stood an oil lamp. There were seven lamps,
three on the arms at each side and one on the central stem. The Candlestick
was ornamented with seventy-two almonds, knops, and flowers. Josephus says
seventy, but wherever this round number is used by the Hebrews it really
means seventy-two. Opposite the Candlestick, against the northern wall, was a
table bearing twelve loaves of Shewbread in two stacks of six loaves each.
(Calmet is of the opinion that the bread was not stacked up but spread out on
the table in two rows, each containing six loaves.) On this table also stood two
lighted incensories, which were placed upon the tops of the stacks of Shew-
bread so that the smoke of the incense might be an acceptable aroma to the
Lord, bearing with it in its ascent the soul of the Shewbread.
In the center of the room, almost against the partition leading into the Holy
of Holies, stood the Altar of Burnt Incense, made of wood overlaid with gol-
den plates. Its width and length were each a cubit and its height was two cubits.
This altar was symbolic of the human larynx, from which the words of man's
mouth ascend as an acceptable offering unto the Lord, for the larynx occupies
the position in the constitution of man between the Holy Place, which is the
trunk of his body, and the Holy of Holies, which is the head with its contents.
Into the Holy of Holies none might pass save the High Priest, and he only at
certain prescribed times, The room contained no furnishings save the Ark of
the Covenant, which stood against the western wall, opposite the entrance. In
Exodus the dimensions of the Ark are given as two and a half cubits for its
length, one cubit and a half its breadth and one cubit and a half its height. It
was made of shittim-wood, gold plated within and without, and contained the
sacred tablets of the Law delivered to Moses upon Sinai. The lid of the Ark
was in the form of a golden plate upon which knelt two mysterious creatures
called Cherubim, facing each other, with wings arched overhead. It was upon
this mercy seat between the wings of the celestials that the Lord of Israel des-
cended when He desired to communicate with His High Priest.
The furnishings of the Tabernacle were made conveniently portable. Each
altar and implement of any size was supplied with staves which could be put:

454
through rings; by this means it could be picked up and carried by four or more
bearers. The staves were never removed from the Ark of the Covenant until it
was finally placed in the Holy of Holies of the Everlasting House, King Solo-
mon's Temple.
There is no doubt that the Jews in early times realized, at least in part, that
their Tabernacle was a symbolic edifice. Josephus realized this and while he
has been severely criticized because he interpreted the Tabernacle symbolism
according to Egyptian and Grecian paganism, his description of the secret
meanings of its drapes and furnishings is well worthy of consideration. He says:
"When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of
them to the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land
and the sea, these being of general access to all; but he set apart the third divi-
sion for God, because heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered
twelve loaves to be set on a table, he denoted the year, as distinguished into so
many months. By branching out the candlestick into seventy parts, he secretly
intimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of the planets; and as to the seven
lamps upon the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets, of
which that is the number. The veils too, which were composed of four things,
they declared the four elements; for the plain linen was proper to signify the
earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, be-
cause that color is dyed by the blood of a sea shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify
the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire.
"Now the vestment of the high-priest being made of linen, signified the earth;
the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the
noise of the bells resembling thunder. And for the Ephod, it showed that God
had made the universe of four (elements); and as for the gold interwoven, * * *
it related to the splendor by which all things are enlightened. He also ap-
pointed the breastplate to be placed in the middle of the Ephod, to resemble
the earth, for that has the very middle place of the world. And the girdle which
encompassed the high-priest round signified the ocean, for that goes round
about and includes the universe. Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun
and the moon, those, I mean, that were in the nature of buttons on the high-
priest's shoulders. And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them
the months, or whether we understand the like number of the signs of that
circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac, we shall not be mistaken in their
meaning. And for the mitre, which was of a blue colour, it seems to me to
mean heaven; for how otherwise could the name of God be inscribed upon it?
That it was also illustrated with a crown, and that of gold also, is because of that
splendour with which God is pleased." It is also symbolically significant that the
Tabernacle was built in seven months and dedicated to God at the time of the
new moon.

455
 The metals used in the building of the Tabernacle were all emblematic.
Gold represents spirituality, and the golden plates laid over the shittim-wood
were emblems of the spiritual nature which glorifies the human nature symbo-
lized by the wood. Mystics have taught that man's physical body is surrounded
by a series of invisible bodies of diverse colors and great splendor. In the ma-
jority of people the spiritual nature is concealed and imprisoned in the material
nature, but in a few this internal constitution has been objectified and the spiri-
tual nature is outside, so that it surrounds man's personality with a great ra-
diance.
Silver, used as the capitals for the pillars, has its reference to the moon,
which was sacred to the Jews and the Egyptians alike. The priests held secret
ritualistic ceremonies at the time of the new and the full moon, both of which
periods were sacred to Jehovah. Silver, so the ancients taught, was gold with its
sun-ray turned inward instead of objectified. While gold symbolized the spiri-
tual soul, silver represented the purified and regenerated human nature of
man.
The brass used in the outer altars was a composite substance consisting of an
alloy of precious and base metals. Thus, it represented the constitution of the
average individual, who is a combination of both the higher and the lower ele-
ments.
The three divisions of the Tabernacle should have a special interest to
Freemasons, for they represent the three degrees of the Blue Lodge, while the
three orders of priests who served the Tabernacle are preserved to modern
Masonry as the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craftsman, and the Master
Mason. The Hawaiian Islanders built a Tabernacle not unlike that of the Jews,
except that their rooms were one above another and not one behind another,
as in the case of the Tabernacle of the Israelites. The three rooms are also the
three important chambers of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.

THE ROBES OF GLORY

As explained in the quotation from Josephus, the robes and adornments of the
Jewish priests had a secret significance, and even to this day there is a religious
cipher language concealed in the colors, forms, and uses of sacred garments,
not only among the Christian and Jewish priests but also among pagan reli-
gions. The vestments of the Tabernacle priests were called Cahan; those of
the High Priest were termed Cahan Rabb. Over the Machanese, an un-
dergarment resembling short trousers, they wore the Chethone, a finely woven
linen robe, which reached to the ground and had long sleeves tied to the arms

456
of the wearer. A brightly embroidered sash, twisted several times around the
waist (a little higher than is customary), with one end pendent in front, and a
closely fitting linen cap, designated Masnaemphthes, completed the costume of
the ordinary priest.

Click to enlarge
THE GARMENTS OF GLORY.
From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.
Th. robe of the High Priest of Israel were often called "The Garments of Glory", for
they resembled the regenerated and spiritualized nature of man, symbolized by a vest-
ment which all must weave from the threads of character and virtue before they can
become High Priests after the Order of Melchizedek.

The vestments of the High Priest were the same as those of the lesser degrees,
except that certain garments and adornments were added. Over the specially
woven white linen robe the High Priest wore a seamless and sleeveless habit,
sky-blue in color and reaching nearly to his feet. This was called the Meeir and
was ornamented with a fringe of alternated golden bells and pomegranates. In
Ecclesiasticus (one of the books rejected from the modern Bible), these bells
and their purpose are described in the following words: "And he compassed
him with pomegranates, and with many golden bells round about, that as he
went, there might be a sound and a noise that might be heard in the temple, for
a memorial to the children of his people." The Meeir was also bound in with a
variegated girdle finely embroidered and with gold wire inserted through the
embroidery.
The Ephod, a short vestment described by Josephus as resembling a coat or
jacket, was worn over the upper part of the Meeir. The threads of which the
Ephod was woven were of many colors, probably red, blue, purple, and white,
like the curtains and coverings of the Tabernacle. Fine gold wires were also
woven into the fabric. The Ephod was fastened at each shoulder with a large
457
onyx in the form of a button, and the names of the twelve sons of Jacob were
engraven upon these two stones, six on each. These onyx buttons were sup-
posed to have oracular powers, and when the High Priest asked certain ques-
tions, they emitted a celestial radiance. When the onyx on the right shoulder
was illuminated, it signified that Jehovah answered the question of the High
Priest: in the affirmative, and when the one on the left gleamed, it indicated a
negative answer to the query.
In the middle of the front surface of the Ephod was a space to accommodate
the Essen, or Breastplate of Righteousness and Prophecy, which, as its name
signifies, was also an oracle of great power. This pectoral was roughly square in
shape and consisted of a frame of embroidery into which were set twelve
stones, each held in a socket of gold. Because of the great weight of its stones,
each of which was of considerable size and immense value, the breastplate was
held in position by special golden chains and ribbons. The twelve stones of the
breastplate, like the onyx stones at the shoulders of the Ephod, had the myste-
rious power of lighting up with Divine glory and so serving as oracles. Concern-
ing the strange power of these flashing symbols of Israel's twelve tribes, Jose-
phus writes:
"Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful than this: For God declared
beforehand, by those twelve stones which the High Priest bare upon his breast
and which were inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious in
battle; for so great a splendor shone forth from them before the army began to
march, that all the people were sensible of God's being present for their assis-
tance. Whence it came to pass that those Greeks, who had a veneration for our
laws, because they could not possibly contradict this, called the breastplate, 'the
Oracle'." The writer then adds that the stones ceased to light up and gleam
some two hundred years before he wrote his history, because the Jews had
broken the laws of Jehovah and the God of Israel was no longer pleased with
His chosen people.
The Jews learned astronomy from the Egyptians, and it is not unlikely that
the twelve jewels of the breastplate were symbolic of the twelve constellations
of the zodiac. These twelve celestial hierarchies were looked upon as jewels
adorning the breastplate of the Universal Man, the Macroprosophus, who is
referred to in the Zohar as The Ancient of Days. The number twelve frequent-
ly occurs among ancient peoples, who in nearly every case had a pantheon
consisting of twelve demigods and goddesses presided over by The Invincible
One, who was Himself subject to the Incomprehensible All-Father. This use of
the number twelve is especially noted in the Jewish and Christian writings. The
twelve prophets, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, and the twelve Apos-
tles--each group has a certain occult significance, for each refers to the Divine
Duodecimo, or Twelvefold Deity, whose emanations are manifested in the

458
tangible created Universe through twelve individualized channels. The secret
doctrine also caught the priests that the jewels represented centers of life within
their own constitutions, which when unfolded according to the esoteric instruc-
tions of the Temple, were capable of absorbing into themselves and radiating
forth again the Divine light of the Deity. (The East Indian lotus blossoms have
a similar meaning.) The Rabbis have taught that each twisted linen thread used
in weaving the Tabernacle curtains and ornamentations consisted of twenty-
four separate strands, reminding the discerning that the experience, gained
during the twenty-four hours of the day (symbolized in Masonry by the twenty-
four-inch rule) becomes the threads from which are woven the Garments of
Glory.

THE URIM AND THUMMIM

In the reverse side of the Essen, or breastplate, was a pocket containing myste-
rious objects--the Urim and Thummim. Aside from the fact that they were
used in divination, little is now known about these objects. Some writers con-
tend that they were small stones (resembling the fetishes still revered by certain
aboriginal peoples) which the Israelites had brought with them out of Egypt
because of their belief that they possessed divine power. Others believe that
the Urim and Thummim were in the form of dice, used for deciding events by
being cast upon the ground. A few have maintained that they were merely sa-
cred names, written on plates of gold and carried as talismans. "According to
some, the Urim and the Thummim signify 'lights and perfections,' or 'light and
truth' which last present a striking analogy to the. two figures of Re (Ra) and
Themi in the breastplate worn by the Egyptians." (Gardner's The Faiths of the
World.)
Not the least remarkable of the vestments of the High Priest was his bonnet,
or headdress. Over the plain white cap of the ordinary priest this dignitary
wore an outer cloth of blue and a crown of gold, the crown consisting of three
bands, one above the other like the triple miter of the Persian Magi. This
crown symbolized that the High Priest was ruler not only over the three worlds
which the ancients had differentiated (heaven, earth, and hell), but also over
the threefold divisions of man and the universe--the spiritual, intellectual, and
material worlds. These divisions were also symbolized by the three apartments
of the Tabernacle itself.
At the peak of the headdress was a tiny cup of gold, made in the form of a
flower. This signified that the nature of the priest was receptive and that he had
a vessel in his own soul which, cuplike, was capable of catching the eternal

459
waters of life pouring upon him from the heavens above. This flower over the
crown of his head is similar in its esoteric meaning to the rose growing out of a
skull, so famous in Templar symbology. The ancients believed that the spiri-
tual nature escaping from the body passed upward through the crown of the
head; therefore, the flowerlike calyx, or cup, symbolized also the spiritual con-
sciousness. On the front of the golden crown were inscribed in Hebrew, Holi-
ness unto the Lord.
Though robes and ornaments augmented the respect and veneration of the
Israelites for their High Priest, such trappings meant nothing to Jehovah.
Therefore, before entering the Holy of Holies, the High Priest removed his
earthly finery and entered into the presence of the Lord God of Israel un-
clothed. There he could be robed only in his own virtues, and his spirituality
must adorn him as a garment.
There is a legend to the effect that any who chanced to enter the Holy of
Holies unclean were destroyed by a bolt of Divine fire from the Mercy Seat. If
the High Priest had but one selfish thought, he would be struck dead. As no
man knows when an unworthy thought may flash through his mind, precau-
tions had to be taken in case the High Priest should be struck dead while in the
presence of Jehovah. The other priests could not enter the sanctuary therefore,
when their leader was about to go in and receive the commands of the Lord,
they tied a chain around one of his feet so that if he were struck down while
behind the veil they could drag the body out.

Click to enlarge
THE HEADDRESS OF THE PRIESTS.
From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.
Over the plain white cap of the ordinary priests the High Priest wore an overcloth of
blue and a band of gold. On the front of the golden band were inscribed the Hebrew
words "Holiness unto the Lord." This illustration shows the arrangement of the bonnet
both with and without the golden crown.

460
Click to enlarge
THE ARK WITH ITS CHERUBIM.
From Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible.
Josephus tells its that the Cherubim were flying creatures but different in appearance,
from anything to be seen on earth; therefore impossible to describe. Moses is sup-
posed to have seen these beings kneeling at the footstool of God when he was picked
up and brought into the Presence of Jehovah. It is probable that they resembled, at
least in general appearance, the famous Cherubim of Ezekiel.

461
 The Fraternity of the Rose Cross

WHO were the Rosicrucians? Were they an organization of profound thinkers

rebelling against the inquisitional religious and philosophical limitations of their
time or were they isolated transcendentalists united only by the similarity of
their viewpoints and deductions? Where was the "House of the Holy Spirit, " in
which, according to their manifestoes, they met once a year to plan the future
activities of their Order? Who was the mysterious person referred to as "Our
Illustrious Father and Brother C.R.C."? Did those three letters actually stand
for the words "Christian Rosie Cross"? Was Christian Rosencreutz, the sup-
posed author of the Chymical Nuptials, the same person who with three others
founded "The Society of the Rose Cross"?
What relationship existed between Rosicrucianism and medival Freema-
sonry? Why were the destinies of these two organizations so closely interwo-
ven? Is the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" the much-sought-after link con-
necting the Freemasonry of the Middle Ages with the symbolism and mysticism
of antiquity, and are its secrets being perpetuated by modern Masonry? Did
the original Rosicrucian Order disintegrate in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, or does the Society still exist as an organization, maintaining the same
secrecy for which it was originally famous? What was the true purpose for
which the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" was formed? Were the Rosicru-
cians a religious and philosophic brotherhood, as they claimed to be, or were
their avowed tenets a blind to conceal the true object of the Fraternity, which
possibly was the political control of Europe? These are some of the problems
involved in the study of Rosicrucianism.
There are four distinct theories regarding the Rosicrucian enigma. Each is
the result of a careful consideration of the evidence by scholars who have spent
their lives ransacking the archives of Hermetic lore. The conclusions reached
demonstrate clearly the inadequacy of the records available concerning the
genesis and early activities of the "Brethren of the Rose Cross."

THE FIRST POSTULATE

It is assumed that the Rosicrucian Order existed historically in accordance with

the description of its foundation and subsequent activities published in its ma-
nifesto, the Fama Fraternitatis, which is believed to have been written in the
year 1610, but apparently did not appear in print until 1614, although an earli-
462
er edition is suspected by some authorities. Intelligent consideration of the
origin of Rosicrucianism requires a familiarity with the contents of the first and
most important of its documents. The Fama Fraternitatis begins with a re-
minder to all the world of God's goodness and mercy, and it warns the intelli-
gentsia that their egotism and covetousness cause them to follow after false
prophets and to ignore the true knowledge which God in His goodness has
revealed to them. Hence, a reformation is necessary, and God has raised up
philosophers and sages for this purpose.
In order to assist in bringing about the reformation, a mysterious person
called "The Highly Illuminated Father C.R.C.," a German by birth, descended
of a noble family, but himself a poor man, instituted the "Secret Society of the
Rose Cross." C.R.C. was placed in a cloister when only five years of age, but
later becoming dissatisfied with its educational system, he associated himself
with a brother of Holy Orders who was setting forth on a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land. They started out together, but the brother died at Cyprus and
C.R.C! continued alone to Damascus. Poor health prevented him from reach-
ing Jerusalem, so he remained at Damascus, studying with the philosophers
who dwelt there.
While pursuing his studies, he heard of a group of mystics and Qabbalists
abiding in the mystic Arabian city of Damcar. Giving up his desire to visit Jeru-
salem, he arranged with the Arabians for his transportation to Damcar. C.R.C.
was but sixteen years of age when he arrived at Damcar. He was received as
one who had been long expected, a comrade and a friend in philosophy, and
was instructed in the secrets of the Arabian adepts. While there, C.R.C.
learned the Arabic tongue and translated the sacred book M into Latin; and
upon returning to Europe he brought this important volume with him.
After studying three years in Damcar, C.R.C. departed for the city of Fez,
where the Arabian magicians declared further information would be given him.
At Fez he was instructed how to communicate with the Elementary inhabitants
[probably the Nature spirits], and these disclosed to him many other great se-
crets of Nature. While the philosophers in Fez were not so great as those in
Damcar, the previous experiences of C.R.C. enabled him to distinguish the
true from the false and thus add greatly to his store of knowledge.
After two years in Fez, C.R.C. sailed for Spain, carrying with him many trea-
sures, among them rare plants and animals accumulated during his wanderings.
He fondly hoped that the learned men of Europe would receive with gratitude
the rare intellectual and material treasures which he had brought for their con-
sideration. Instead he encountered only ridicule, for the so-called wise were
afraid to admit their previous ignorance lest their prestige be impaired. At this
point in the narrative is an interpolation stating that Paracelsus, while not a
member of the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross," had read the book M and from a

463
consideration of its contents had secured information which made him the
foremost physician of medival Europe.
Tired, but not discouraged, as the result of the fruitlessness of his efforts,
C.R.C. returned to Germany, where he built a house in which he could quietly
carry on his study and research. He also manufactured a number of rare scien-
tific instruments for research purposes. While he could have made himself
famous had he cared to commercialize his knowledge, he preferred the com-
panionship of God to the esteem of men.
After five years of retirement he decided to renew his struggle for a reforma-
tion of the arts and sciences of his day, this time with the aid of a few trusted
friends. He sent to the cloister where his early training had been received and
called to himself three brethren, whom he bound by an oath to preserve invi-
olate the secrets he should impart and to write down for the sake of posterity
the information he should dictate. These four founded the "Fraternity of the
Rose Cross." They prepared its secret cipher language and, according to the
Fama, a great dictionary in which all forms of wisdom were classified to the
glorification of God. They also began the work of transcribing the book M, but
found the task too difficult because of the demands of the great numbers of
sick who came to them for healing.

Click to enlarge
THE GOLDEN AND ROSY CROSS.
From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.
It is said of this cross that it is made of spiritual gold and that each Brother wears it
upon his breast. It bears the alchemical symbols of salt, sulphur, and mercury; also a
star of the planets; and around it are the four words FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, and
PATIENCE. The double-headed eagle, or Phnix, subtly foreshadows the ultimate
androgynous state of the human creature. Rosicrucian alchemy was not concerned with
metals alone. Man's own body was the alchemical laboratory, and none could reach
Rosicrucian adeptship until he had performed the supreme experiment of transmuta-
tion by changing the base metals of ignorance into the pure gold of wisdom and under-
standing.
464
Having completed a newer and larger building, which they called the "House of
the Holy Spirit," they decided to include four new members in the Fraternity,
thus increasing the number to eight, seven of whom were German. All were
unmarried. Working industriously together, they speedily completed the ar-
duous labor of preparing the documents, instructions, and arcana of the Order.
They also put the house called "Sancti Spiritus" in order.
They then decided to separate and visit the other countries of the earth, not
only that their wisdom might be given to others who deserved it but also that
they might check and correct any mistakes existing in their own system. Before
separating, the Brethren prepared six rules, or by-laws, and each bound himself
to obey them. The first rule was that they should take to themselves no other
dignity or credit than that they were willing to heal the sick without charge. The
second was that from that time on forever they should wear no special robe or
garment, but should dress according to the custom of the country wherein they
dwelt. The third stated that every year upon a certain day they should meet in
the "House of the Holy Spirit," or, if unable to do so, should be represented by
an epistle. The fourth decreed that each member should search for a worthy
person to succeed him at his own demise. The fifth stated that the letters "R.C."
should be their seal, mark, and character from that time onward. The sixth
specified that the Fraternity should remain unknown to the world for a period
of one hundred years.
After they had sworn to this code five of the Brothers departed to distant
lands, and a year later two of the others also went their way, leaving Father C.R.
C. alone in the "House of the Holy Spirit." Year after year they met with great
joy, for they had quietly and sincerely promulgated their doctrines among the
wise of the earth.
When the first of the Order died in England, it was decided that the burial
places of the members should be secret. Soon afterward Father C.R.C. called
the remaining six together, and it is supposed that then he prepared his own
symbolic tomb. The Fama records that none of the Brothers alive at the time
of its writing knew when Father C.R.C. died or where he was buried. His body
was accidentally discovered 120 years after his death when one of the Brothers,
who possessed considerable architectural skill, decided to make some altera-
tions in the "House of the Holy Spirit." [It is only suspected that the tomb was
in this building.]
While making his alterations, the Brother discovered a memorial tablet
upon which were inscribed the names of the early members of the Order. This
he decided to transfer to a more imposing chapel, for at that time no one knew
in what country Father C.R.C. had died, this information having been con-
cealed by the original members. In attempting to remove the memorial tablet,
which was held in place by a large nail, some stones and plastering were broken

465
from the wall, disclosing a door concealed in the masonry. The members of
the Order immediately cleared away the rest of the dbris and uncovered the
entrance to a vault. Upon the door in large letters were the words: POST CXX
ANNOS PATEBO. This, according to the mystic interpretation of the Breth-
ren, meant, "In 120 years I shall come forth."
The following morning the door was opened and the members entered a
vault with seven sides and seven corners, each side five feet broad and eight
feet high. Although the sun never penetrated this tomb, it was brilliantly illumi-
nated by a mysterious light in the ceiling. In the center was a circular altar,
upon which were brass plates engraved with strange characters. In each of the
seven sides was a small door which, upon being opened, revealed a number of
boxes filled with books, secret instructions, and the supposedly lost arcanum of
the Fraternity.
Upon moving the altar to one side a brass cover was disclosed. Lifting this
revealed a body, presumedly that of C.R.C., which, although it had lain there
120 years, was as well preserved as though it had just been interred. It was or-
namented and attired in the robes of the Order, and in one hand was clasped a
mysterious parchment which, next to the Bible, was the most valued possession
of the Society. After thoroughly investigating the contents of the secret cham-
ber, the brass plate and altar were put back in place, the door of the vault was
again sealed, and the Brothers went their respective ways, their spirits raised
and their faith increased by the miraculous spectacle which they had beheld.
The document ends by saying in effect, "In accordance with the will of Fa-
ther C.R.C., the Fama has been prepared and sent forth to the wise and
learned of all Europe in five languages, that all may know and understand the
secrets of the august Fraternity. All of sincere soul who labor for the glory of
God are invited to communicate with the Brethren and are promised that their
appeal shall be heard, regardless of where they are or how the messages are
sent. At the same time, those of selfish and ulterior motives are warned that
only sorrow and misery will attend any who attempt to discover the Fraternity
without a clean heart and a pure mind."
Such, in brief, is the story of the Fama Fraternitatis. Those who accept it
literally regard Father C.R.C. as the actual founder of the Brotherhood, which
he is believed to have organized about 1400. The fact that historical corrobora-
tion of the important points of the Fama has never been discovered is held
against this theory. There is no proof that Father C.R.C. ever approached the
learned men of Spain. The mysterious city of Damcar cannot be found, and
there is no record that anywhere in Germany there existed a place where great
numbers of the halt and sick came and were mysteriously healed. A. E. Waite's
The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry contains a picture of Father C.R.C.
showing him with a long beard upon his breast, sitting before a table upon

466
which burns a candle. One hand is supporting his head and the other is resting
the tip of its index finger on the temple of a human skull. The picture, however
(see plate at head of chapter), proves nothing. Father C.R.C. was never seen by
other than members of his own Order, and they did not preserve a description
of him. That his name was Christian Rosencreutz is most improbable, as the
two were not even associated until the writing of the Chymical Nuptials.

THE SECOND POSTULATE

Those Masonic brethren who have investigated the subject accept the historical
existence of the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" but are divided concerning
the origin of the Order. One group holds the society originated in medival
Europe as an outgrowth of alchemical speculation. Robert Macoy, 33, believes
that Johann Valentin Andre, a German theologian, was the true founder, and
he also believes it possible that this divine merely reformed and amplified an
existing society which had been founded by Sir Henry Cornelius Agrippa.
Some believe that Rosicrucianism represented the first European invasion of
Buddhist and Brahmin culture. Still others hold the opinion that the "Society
of the Rose Cross" was founded in Egypt during n the philosophic supremacy
of that empire, and that it also perpetuated the Mysteries of ancient Persia and
Chaldea.
In his Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins writes: "The Rosicrucians of Germany
are quite ignorant of their origin; but, by tradition, they suppose themselves
descendants of the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Magi, and Gymnosophists."
(The last was a name given by the followers of Alexander the Great to a caste
of naked Wise Men whom they found meditating along the river banks in In-
dia.) The consensus among these factions is that the story of Father C.R.C.,
like the Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff, is an allegory and should not be con-
sidered literally. A similar problem has confronted students of the Bible, who
have found not only difficult, but in the majority of cases impossible, their ef-
forts to substantiate the historical interpretation of the Scriptures.
Admitting the existence of the Rosicrucians as a secret society with both
philosophic and political ends, it is remarkable that an organization with mem-
bers in all parts of Europe could maintain absolute secrecy throughout the
centuries. Nevertheless, the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" were apparently able
to accomplish this. A great number of scholars and philosophers, among them
Sir Francis Bacon and Wolfgang von Goethe, have been suspected of affilia-
tion with the Order, but their connection has not been established to the satis-
faction of prosaic historians. Pseudo-Rosicrucians abounded, but the true

467
members of the "Ancient and Secret Order of The Unknown Philosophers"
have successfully lived up to their name; to this day they remain unknown.
During the Middle Ages a number of tracts appeared, purporting to be from
the pens of Rosicrucians. Many of them, however, were spurious, being issued
for their self-aggrandizement by unscrupulous persons who used the revered
and magic name Rosicrucian in the hope of gaining religious or political power.
This has greatly complicated the work of investigating the Society. One group
of pseudo-Rosicrucians went so far as to supply its members with a black cord
by which they were to know each other, and warned them that if they broke
their vow of secrecy the cord would be used to strangle them. Few of the prin-
ciples of Rosicrucianism have been preserved in literature, for the original Fra-
ternity published only fragmentary accounts of its principles and activities.

Click to enlarge
THE CRUCIFIED ROSE.
The original symbol of the Rosicrucian Fraternity was a hieroglyphic rose crucified
upon a cross. The cross was often raised upon a three-stepped Calvary. Occasionally
the symbol of a cross rising from a rose was used in connection with their activities.
The Rosicrucian rose was drawn upon the Round Table of King Arthur, and is the
central motif for the links forming the chain from which the "Great George" is sus-
pended among the jewels of The Order of the Garter. Hargrave Jennings suspects this
Order of having some connection with the Rosicrucians.

In his Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, Dr. Franz Hartmann describes the
Fraternity as "A secret society of men possessing superhuman--if not superna-
tural--powers; they were said to be able to prophesy future events, to penetrate
into the deepest mysteries of Nature, to transform Iron, Copper, Lead, or
Mercury into Gold, to prepare an Elixir of Life, or Universal Panacea, by the
use of which they could preserve their youth and manhood; and moreover it
was believed that they could command the Elemental Spirits of Nature, and
knew the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, a substance which rendered him
who possessed it all-powerful, immortal, and supremely wise."
468
 The same author further defines a Rosicrucian as "A person who by the
process of spiritual awakening has attained a practical knowledge of the secret
significance of the Rose and the Cross. * * * To call a person a Rosicrucian
does not make him one, nor does the act of calling a person a Christian make
him a Christ. The real Rosicrucian or Mason cannot be made; he must grow to
be one by the expansion and unfoldment of the divine power within his own
heart. The inattention to this truth is the cause that many churches and secret
societies are far from being that which their names express."
The symbolic principles of Rosicrucianism are so profound that even today
they are little appreciated. Their charts and diagrams are concerned with
weighty cosmic principles which they treat with a philosophic understanding
decidedly refreshing when compared with the orthodox narrowness prevalent
in their day. According to the available records, the Rosicrucians were bound
together by mutual aspirations rather than by the laws of a fraternity. The
"Brothers of the Rose Cross" are believed to have lived unobtrusively, laboring
industriously in trades and professions, disclosing their secret affiliation to no
one--in many cases not even to their own families. After the death of C.R.C.,
most of the Brethren apparently had no central meeting place. Whatever initia-
tory ritual the Order possessed was so closely guarded that it has never been
revealed. Doubtless it was couched in chemical terminology.
Efforts to join the Order were apparently futile, for the Rosicrucians always
chose their disciples. Having agreed on one who they believed would do honor
to their illustrious fraternity, they communicated with him in one of many mys-
terious ways. He might receive a letter, either anonymous or with a peculiar
seal, usually bearing the letters "C.R.C. "or "R.C. "upon it. He would be in-
structed to go to a certain place at an appointed time. What was disclosed to
him he never revealed, although in many cases his later writings showed that a
new influence had come into his life, deepening his understanding and broa-
dening his intellect. A few have written allegorically concerning what they be-
held when in the august presence of the "Brethren of the Rose Cross."
Alchemists were sometimes visited in their laboratories by mysterious stran-
gers, who delivered learned discourses concerning the secret processes of the
Hermetic arts and, after disclosing certain processes, departed, leaving no
trace. Others declared that the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" communicated
with them through dreams and visions, revealing the secrets of Hermetic wis-
dom to them while they were asleep. Having been instructed, the candidate was
bound to secrecy not only concerning the chemical formul which had been
disclosed to him but also concerning the method by which he had secured
them. While these nameless adepts were suspected of being ''Brothers of the
Rose Cross," it could never be proved who they were, and those visited could
only conjecture.

469
 Many suspect the Rosicrucian rose to be a conventionalization of the Egyp-
tian and Hindu lotus blossom, with the same symbolic meaning as this more
ancient symbol. The Divine Comedy stamps Dante Alighieri as being familiar
with the theory of Rosicrucianism. Concerning this point, Albert Pike in his
Morals and Dogma makes this significant statement: "His Hell is but a negative
Purgatory. His heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by
a cross, like the Pantacle of Ezekiel. In the center of this cross blooms a rose,
and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first time pub-
licly expounded and almost categorically explained."
Doubt has always existed as to whether the name Rosicrucian came from the
symbol of the rose and cross, or whether this was merely a blind to deceive the
uninformed and further conceal the true meaning of the Order. Godfrey Hig-
gins believes that the word Rosicrucian is not derived from the flower but from
the word Ros, which means dew. It is also interesting to note that the word Ras
means wisdom, while Rus is translated concealment. Doubtless all of these
meanings have contributed to Rosicrucian symbolism.
A. E. Waite holds with Godfrey Higgins that the process of forming the
Philosopher's Stone with the aid of dew is the secret concealed within the name
Rosicrucian. It is possible that the dew referred to is a mysterious substance
within the human brain, closely resembling the description given by alchemists
of the dew which, falling from heaven, redeemed the earth. The cross is sym-
bolic of the human body, and the two symbols together--the rose on the cross--
signify that the soul of man is crucified upon the body, where it is held by three
nails.
It is probable that Rosicrucian symbolism is a perpetuation of the secret
tenets of the Egyptian Hermes, and that the Society of Unknown Philosophers
is the true link connecting modern Masonry, with its mass of symbols, to an-
cient Egyptian Hermeticism, the source of that symbolism. In his Doctrine and
Literature of the Kabalah, A. E. Waite makes this important observation:
"There are certain indications which point to a possible connection between
Masonry and Rosicrucianism, and this, if admitted, would constitute the first
link in its connection with the past. The evidence is, however, inconclusive, or
at least unextricated. Freemasonry per se, in spite of the affinity with mysticism
which I have just mentioned, has never exhibited any mystic character, nor has
it a clear notion how it came by its symbols."
Many of those connected with the development of Freemasonry were sus-
pected of being Rosicrucians; some, as in the case of Robert Fludd, even wrote
defenses of this organization. Frank C. Higgins, a modern Masonic symbolist,
writes: "Doctor Ashmole, a member of this fraternity [Rosicrucian], is revered
by Masons as one of the founders of the first Grand Lodge in London." (See
Ancient Freemasonry.) Elias Ashmole is but one of many intellectual links
470
connecting Rosicrucianism with the genesis of Freemasonry. The Encyc-
lopdia Britannica notes that Elias Ashmole was initiated into the Freemasonic
Order in 1646, and further states that he was "the first gentleman, or amateur,
to be 'accepted'."
On this same subject, Papus, in his Tarot of the Bohemians, has written:
"We must not forger that the Rosicrucians were the Initiators of Leibnitz, and
the founders of actual Freemasonry through Ashmole." If the founders of
Freemasonry were initiated into the Great Arcanum of Egypt--and the symbol-
ism of modern Masonry would indicate that such was the case--then it is rea-
sonable to suppose that they secured their information from a society whose
existence they admitted and which was duly qualified to teach them these sym-
bols and allegories.
One theory concerning the two Orders is to the effect that Freemasonry was
an outgrowth of Rosicrucianism; in other words, that the "Unknown Philoso-
phers" became known through an organization which they created to serve
them in the material world. The story goes on to relate that the Rosicrucian
adepts became dissatisfied with their progeny and silently withdrew from the
Masonic hierarchy, leaving behind their symbolism and allegories, but carrying
away the keys by which the locked symbols could be made to give tip their
secret meanings. Speculators have gone so far as to state that, in their opinion,
modern Freemasonry has completely absorbed Rosicrucianism and succeeded
it as the world's greatest secret society. Other minds of equal learning declare
that the Rosicrucian Brotherhood still exists, preserving its individuality as the
result of having withdrawn from the Masonic Order.
According to a widely accepted tradition, the headquarters of the Rosicru-
cian Order is near Carlsbad, in Austria (see Doctor Franz Hartmann). Another
version has it that a mysterious school, resembling in general principles the
Rosicrucian Fraternity, which calls itself "The Bohemian Brothers," still main-
tains its individuality in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) of Germany. One thing
is certain: with the rise of Freemasonry, the Rosicrucian Order in Europe prac-
tically disappeared, and notwithstanding existing statements to the contrary, it is
certain that the 18th degree (commonly known as the Rose-Croix) perpetuates
many of the symbols of the Rosicrucian Fire Alchemists.
In an anonymous unpublished manuscript of the eighteenth century bearing
the earmarks of Rosicrucian Qabbalism appears this statement: "Yet will I now
give the over-wise world a paradox to be solved, namely, that some illuminated
men have undertaken to found Schools of Wisdom in Europe and these for
some peculiar reason have called themselves Fratres Rosa: Crucis. But soon
afterwards came false schools into existence and corrupted the good intentions
of these wise men. Therefore, the Order no longer exists as most people would
understand existence, and as this Fraternity of the Seculo Fili call themselves

471
Brothers of the Rosie Cross, so also will they in the Seculo Spiritus Sancti call
themselves Brothers of the Lily Cross and the Knights of the White Lion.
Then will the Schools of Wisdom begin again to blossom, but why the first one
chose their name and why the others shall also choose theirs, only those can
solve who have understanding grounded in Nature."

Click to enlarge
THE ROSICRUCIAN ROSE.
From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.
The rose is a yonic symbol associated with generation, fecundity, and purity. The fact
that flowers blossom by unfolding has caused them to be chosen as symbolic of spiri-
tual unfoldment. The red color of the rose refers to the blood of Christ, and the gol-
den heart concealed within the midst of the flower corresponds to the spiritual gold
concealed within the human nature. The number of its petals being ten is also a subtle
reminder of the perfect Pythagorean number. The rose symbolizes the heart, and the
heart has always been accepted by Christians as emblematic of the virtues of love and
compassion, as well as of the nature of Christ--the personification of these virtues. The
rose as a religious emblem is of great antiquity. It was accepted by the Greeks as the
symbol of the sunrise, or of the coming of dawn. In his Metamorphosis, or Golden
Ass, Apuleius, turned into a donkey because of his foolishness, regained his human
shape by eating a sacred rose given to him by the Egyptian priests.
The presence of a hieroglyphic rose upon the escutcheon of Martin Luther has been
the basis of much speculation as to whether any connection existed between his Re-
formation and the secret activities of the Rose Cross.

Political aspirations of the Rosicrucians were expressed through the activities of

Sir Francis Bacon, the Comte de St.-Germain, and the Comte di Cagliostro.
The last named is suspected of having been an emissary of the Knights Tem-
plars, a society deeply involved in transcendentalism, as Eliphas Levi has
noted. There is a popular supposition to the effect that the Rosicrucians were
at least partial instigators of the French Revolution. (Note particularly the in-
troduction to Lord Bulwer-Lytton's Rosicrucian novel Zanoni.)

472
THE THIRD POSTULATE

The third theory takes the form of a sweeping denial of Rosicrucianism, assert-
ing that the so-called original Order never had any foundation in fact but was
entirely a product of imagination. This viewpoint is best expressed by a num-
ber of questions which are still being asked by investigators of this elusive
group of metaphysicians. Was the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" merely a
mythical institution created in the fertile mind of some literary cynic for the
purpose of deriding the alchemical and Hermetic sciences? Did the "House of
the Holy Spirit" ever exist outside the imagination of some medival mystic?
Was the whole Rosicrucian story a satire to ridicule the gullibility of scholastic
Europe? Was the mysterious Father C.R.C. a product of the literary genius of
Johann Valentin Andre, or another of similar mind, who, attempting to score
alchemical and Hermetic philosophy, unwittingly became a great power in
furthering the cause of its promulgation? That at least one of the early docu-
ments of the Rosicrucians was from the pen of Andre there is little doubt, but
for just what purpose he compiled it still remains a matter of speculation. Did
Andre himself receive from some unknown person, or persons, instructions
to be carried out? If he wrote the Chymical Nuptials of Christian Rosencreutz
when only fifteen years old, was he overshadowed in the preparation of that
book?
To these vital questions no answers are forthcoming. A number of persons
accepted the magnificent imposture of Andre as absolute truth. It is main-
tained by many that, as a consequence, numerous pseudo-societies sprang up,
each asserting that it was the organization concerning which the Fama Fraterni-
tatis and the Confessio Fraternitatis were written. Beyond doubt there are many
spurious orders in existence today; but few of them can offer valid claims that
their history dates back farther than the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The mystery associated with the Rosicrucian Fraternity has resulted in end-
less controversy. Many able minds, notable among them Eugenius Philalethes,
Michael Maier, John Heydon, and Robert Fludd, defended the concrete exis-
tence of "The Society of Unknown Philosophers." Others equally qualified
have asserted it to be of fraudulent origin and doubtful existence. Eugenius
Philalethes, while dedicating books to the Order, and himself writing an ex-
tended exposition of its principles, disclaims all personal connection with it.
Many others have done likewise.
Some are of the opinion that Sir Francis Bacon had a hand in the writing of
the Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis, on the basis that the rhetorical style of
these works is similar to that of Bacon's New Atlantis. They also contend that
certain statements in the latter work point to an acquaintance with Rosicrucian
symbology. The elusiveness of the Rosicrucians has caused them to be favorite

473
subject's for literary works. Outstanding among the romances which have been
woven around them is Zanoni. The author, Lord Bulwer-Lytton, is regarded by
some as a member of the Order, while others assert that he applied for mem-
bership but was rejected. Pope's Rape of the Lock, &c. Comte de Gabalis by
Abb de Villars, and essays by De Quincy, Hartmann, Jennings, Mackenzie,
and others, are examples of Rosicrucian literature. Although the existence of
these medival Rosicrucians is difficult to prove, sufficient evidence is at hand
to make it extremely probable that there existed in Germany, and afterwards in
France, Italy, England, and other European countries, a secret society of illu-
minated savants who made contributions of great import to the sum of human
knowledge, while maintaining absolute secrecy concerning their personalities
and their organization.

THE FOURTH POSTULATE

The apparent incongruities of the Rosicrucian controversy have also been ac-
counted for by a purely transcendental explanation. There is evidence that
early writers were acquainted with such a supposition--which, however, was
popularized only after it had been espoused by Theosophy. This theory asserts
that the Rosicrucians actually possessed all the supernatural powers with which
they were credited; that they were in reality citizens of two worlds: that, while
they had physical bodies for expression on the material plane, they were also
capable, through the instructions they received from the Brotherhood, of func-
tioning in a mysterious ethereal body not subject to the limitations of time or
distance. By means of this "astral form" they were able to function in the invisi-
ble realm of Nature, and in this realm, beyond reach of the profane, their tem-
ple was located.
According to this viewpoint, the true Rosicrucian Brotherhood consisted of
a limited number of highly developed adepts, or initiates, those of the higher
degrees being no longer subject to the laws of mortality; candidates were ac-
cepted into the Order only after long periods of probation; adepts possessed
the secret of the Philosopher's Stone and knew the process of transmuting the
base metals into gold, but taught that these were only allegorical terms conceal-
ing the true mystery of human regeneration through the transmutation of the
"base elements" of man's lower nature into the "gold" of intellectual and spiritual
realization. According to this theory, those who have sought to record the
events of importance in connection with the Rosicrucian controversy have inva-
riably failed because they approached their subject from a purely physical or
materialistic angle.

474
 These adepts were believed to have been able to teach man how to function
away from his physical body at will by assisting him to remove the "rose from
the cross." They taught that the spiritual nature was attached to the material
form at certain points, symbolized by the "nails" of the crucifixion; but by three
alchemical initiations which took place in the spiritual world, in the true Tem-
ple of the Rose Cross, they were able to "draw" these nails and permit the di-
vine nature of man to come down from its cross. They concealed the processes
by which this was accomplished under three alchemical metaphoric expres-
sions: "The Casting of the Molten Sea," "The Making of the Rose Diamond,"
and "The Achieving of the Philosopher's Stone."
While the intellectualist flounders among contradictory theories, the mystic
treats the problem in an entirely different manner. He believes that the true
Rosicrucian Fraternity, consisting of a school of supermen (not unlike the
fabled Mahatmas of India), is an institution existing not in the visible world bur
in its spiritual counterpart, which he sees fit to call the "inner planes of Nature";
that the Brothers can be reached only by those who are capable of transcend-
ing the limitations of the material world. To substantiate their viewpoint, these
mystics cite the following significant statement from the Confessio Fraternitatis:
"A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may present
themselves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of
them, and hath so compassed us about with His clouds that unto us, His ser-
vants, no violence can be done; wherefore now no longer are we beheld by
human eyes, unless they have received strength borrowed from the eagle." In
mysticism the eagle is a symbol of initiation (the spinal Spirit Fire), and by this
is explained the inability of the unregenerated world to understand the Secret
Order of the Rose Cross.
Those professing this theory regard the Comte de St.-Germain as their high-
est adept and assert that he and Christian Rosencreutz were one and the same
individual. They accept fire as their universal symbol because it was the one
element by means of which they could control the metals. They declared
themselves the descendants of Tubal-cain and Hiram Abiff, and that the pur-
pose of their existence was to preserve the spiritual nature of man through ages
of materiality. "The Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars, Rosicru-
cians, and lastly the Freemasons, form the Western chain in the transmission
of occult science." (See The Tarot of the Bohemians translated by A. E. Waite
from the French of Papus.)
Max Heindel, the Christian mystic, described the Rosicrucian Temple as an
"etheric structure" located in and around the home of a European country gen-
tleman. He believed that this invisible building would ultimately be moved to
the American continent. Mr. Heindel referred to the Rosicrucian Initiates as so
advanced in the science of life that "death had forgotten them."

475
Click to enlarge
THE CREST OF JOHANN VALENTIN ANDRE.
From Chymische Hochzeit.
The reference to four red roses and a white cross in the Chymical Marriage of Chris-
tian Rosencreutz identified Johann Valentin Andre as its author, for his family crest,
shown above, consisted of four red roses and a white cross.

476
 Rosicrucian Doctrines and Tenets

TRUSTWORTHY information is unavailable concerning the actual philo-

sophical beliefs, political aspirations, and humanitarian activities of the Rosi-
crucian Fraternity. Today, as of old, the mysteries of the Society are preserved
inviolate by virtue of their essential nature; and attempts to interpret Rosicru-
cian philosophy are but speculations, anything to the contrary notwithstanding.
Evidence points to the probable existence of two distinct Rosicrucian bodies:
an inner organization whose members never revealed their identity or teachings
to the world, and an outer body under the supervision of the inner group. In
all probability, the symbolic tomb of Christian Rosencreutz, Knight of the Gol-
den Stone, was in reality this outer body, the spirit of which is in a more ex-
alted sphere. For a period of more than a century subsequent to 1614, the
outer body circulated tracts and manifestoes under either its own name or the
names of various initiated members. The purpose of these writings was appar-
ently to confuse and mislead investigators, and thus effectively to conceal the
actual designs of the Fraternity.
When Rosicrucianism became the philosophical "fad" of the seventeenth
century, numerous documents on the subject were also circulated for purely
commercial purposes by impostors desirous of capitalizing its popularity. The
cunningly contrived artifices of the Fraternity itself and the blundering literary
impostures of charlatans formed a double veil behind which the inner organi-
zation carried on its activities in a manner totally dissimilar to its purposes and
principles as publicly disseminated. The Fratres Rosa Crucis naively refer to
the misunderstandings which they have for obvious reasons permitted to exist
concerning themselves as being "clouds" within which they labor and behind
which they are concealed.
An inkling of the substance of Rosicrucianism--its esoteric doctrines--can be
gleaned from an analysis of its shadow--its exoteric writings. In one of the most
important of their "clouds," the Confessio Fraternitatis, the Brethren of the
Fraternity of R.C. seek to justify their existence and explain (?) the purposes
and activities of their Order. In its original form the Confessio is divided into
fourteen chapters, which are here epitomized.

CONFESSIO FRATERNITATIS R. C. AD ERUDITOS EUROP

Chapter I. Do not through hasty judgment or prejudice misinterpret the state-
ments concerning our Fraternity published in our previous manifesto--the Fa-
ma Fraternitatis. Jehovah, beholding the decadence of civilization, seeks to
redeem humanity by revealing to the willing and by thrusting upon the reluc-

477
tant those secrets which previously He had reserved for His elect. By this wis-
dom the godly shall be saved, but the sorrows of the ungodly shall be multip-
lied. While the true purpose of our Order was set forth in the Fama Fraternita-
tis, misunderstandings have arisen through which we have been falsely accused
of heresy and treason. In this document we hope so to clarify our position that
the learned of Europe will be moved to join with us in the dissemination of
divine knowledge according to the will of our illustrious founder.
Chapter II. While it is alleged by many that the philosophic cide (sic. JBH)
of our day is sound, we declare it to be false and soon to die of its own inhe-
rent weakness. just as Nature, however, provides a remedy for each new dis-
ease that manifests itself, so our Fraternity has provided a remedy for the in-
firmities of the world's philosophic system. The secret philosophy of the R.C.
is founded upon that knowledge which is the sum and head of all faculties,
sciences, and arts. By our divinely revealed system--which partakes much of
theology and medicine but little of jurisprudence--we analyze the heavens and
the earth; but mostly we study man himself, within whose nature is concealed
the supreme secret. If the learned of out day will accept our invitation and join
themselves to our Fraternity, we will reveal to them undreamed-of secrets and
wonders concerning the hidden workings of Nature.
Chapter III. Do not believe that the secrets discussed in this brief document
are lightly esteemed by us. We cannot describe fully the marvels of our Frater-
nity lest the uninformed be overwhelmed by our astonishing declarations and
the vulgar ridicule the mysteries which they do not comprehend. We also fear
that many will be confused by the unexpected generosity of our proclamation,
for not understanding the wonders of this sixth age they do nor realize the great
changes which are to come. Like blind men living in a world full of light, they
discern only through the sense of feeling. [By sight is implied spiritual cogni-
tion: by feeling, the material senses.]
Chapter IV. We firmly believe that through deep meditation on the inven-
tions of the human mind and the mysteries of life, through the cooperation of
the angels and spirits, and through experience and long observation, our loving
Christian Father C.R.C. was so fully illumined with God's wisdom that were all
the books and writings of the world lost and the foundations of science over-
turned, the Fraternity of R.C. could reestablish the structure of world thought
upon the foundation of divine truth and integrity. Because of the great depth
and perfection of our knowledge, those desiring to understand the mysteries of
the Fraternity of R. C. cannot attain to that wisdom immediately, but must grow
in understanding and knowledge. Therefore, our Fraternity is divided into
grades through which each must ascend step by step to the Great Arcanum.
Now that it has pleased God to lighten unto us His sixth candelabrum, is it not
better to seek truth in this way than to wander through the labyrinths of worldly

478
ignorance?
Furthermore, those who receive this knowledge shall become masters of all
arts and crafts; no secret shall be hidden from them; and all good works of the
past, present, and future shall be accessible to them. The whole world shall
become as one book and the contradictions of science and theology shall be
reconciled. Rejoice, O humanity! for the time has come when God has de-
creed that the number of our Fraternity shall be increased, a labor that we have
joyously undertaken. The doors of wisdom are now open to the world, but
only to those who have earned the privilege may the Brothers present them-
selves, for it is forbidden to reveal our knowledge even to our own children.
The right to receive spiritual truth cannot be inherited: it must be evolved with-
in the soul of man himself.
Chapter V. Though we may be accused of indiscretion in offering our trea-
sures so freely and promiscuously--without discriminating between the godly,
the wise, the prince, the peasant--we affirm that we have not betrayed our trust;
for although we have published our Fama in five languages, only those under-
stand it who have that right. Our Society is not to be discovered by curiosity

Click to enlarge
JOHANN VALENTIN ANDRE.
From a rare print.
In certain esoteric circles there are vague rumors which intimate that the humble per-
sonality of Johann Valentin Andre masked an exalted emissary of the Rose Cross.
While there is sufficient evidence at hand to establish the actual existence of a German
theologian by the name of Andre, there are many discrepancies in his biography
which have net been cleared up to the satisfaction of critical investigators. A compari-
son of the face shown above with that of Sir Francis Bacon discloses striking resem-
blances in spite of the differences due to age. If Lord Bacon borrowed the name and
identity of William Shakspere, he could also assume, after his mock funeral in Eng-
land, the personality of Johann Valentin Andre. The crescent below the bust is signif-
icant, as it also appears upon the crest of Lord Bacon; to denote that he was the

479
second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Further, the four letters (O MDC) in the frame at
the lower right corner of the plate, by a very simple Baconian cipher, can be changed
into number whose sum gives 33--the numerical equivalent of the name Bacon. These
several points of interest, when considered together, go far towards clearing up the
mystery surrounding the authorship of the first Rosicrucian manifestoes.

seekers, but only by serious and consecrated thinkers; nevertheless we have

circulated our Fama in five mother tongues so that the righteous of all nations
may have an opportunity to know of us, even though they be not scholars. A
thousand times the unworthy may present themselves and clamor at the gates,
but God has forbidden us of the Fraternity of R.C. to hear their voices, and He
has surrounded us with His clouds and His protection so that no harm may
come to us, and God has decreed that we of the Order of R.C. can no longer
be seen by mortal eyes unless they have received strength borrowed from the
eagle. We further affirm that we shall reform the governments of Europe and
pattern them according to the system applied by the philosophers of Damcar.
All men desirous of securing knowledge shall receive as much as they are ca-
pable of understanding. The rule of false theology shall be overthrown and
God shall make His will known through His chosen philosophers.
Chapter VII. Because of the need of brevity, it is enough to say that our
Father C.R.C. was born in the year 1378 and departed at the age of 106, leav-
ing to us the labor of spreading die doctrine of philosophic religion to the en-
tire world. Our Fraternity is open to all who sincerely seek for truth; but we
publicly warn the false and impious that they cannot betray or injure us, for
God has protected our Fraternity, and all who seek to do it harm shall have
their evil designs return and destroy them, while the treasures of our Fraternity
shall remain untouched, to be used by the Lion in the establishment of his
kingdom.
Chapter VII. We declare that God, before the end of the world, shall create
a great flood of spiritual light to alleviate the sufferings of humankind. False-
hood and darkness which have crept into the arts, sciences, religions, and gov-
ernments of humanity--making it difficult for even the wise to discover the path
of reality--shall be forever removed and a single standard established, so that all
may enjoy the fruitage of truth. We shall not be recognized as those responsi-
ble for this change, for people shall say that it is the result of the progressive-
ness of the age. Great are the reforms about to take place; but we of the Fra-
ternity of R.C. do not arrogate to ourselves the glory for this divine reforma-
tion, since many there are, not members of our Fraternity but honest, true and
wise men, who by their intelligence and their writings shall hasten its coming.
We testify that sooner the stones shall rise up and offer their services than that

480
there shall be any lack of righteous persons to execute the will of God upon
earth.
Chapter VIII. That no one may doubt, we declare that God has sent mes-
sengers and signs in the heavens, namely, the i new stars in Serpentarius and
Cygnus, to show that a great Council of the Elect is to take place. This proves
that God reveals in visible nature--for the discerning few--signs and symbols of
all things that are coming to pass. God has given man two eyes, two nostrils,
and two ears, but only one tongue. Whereas the eyes, the nostrils, and the ears
admit the wisdom of Nature into the mind, the tongue alone may give it forth.
In various ages there have been illumined ones who have seen, smelt, tasted, or
heard the will of God, but it will shortly come to pass that those who have seen,
smelt, tasted, or heard shall speak, and truth shall be revealed. Before this re-
velation of righteousness is possible, however, the world must sleep away the
intoxication of her poisoned chalice (filled with the false life of the theological
vine) and, opening her heart to virtue and understanding, welcome the rising
sun of Truth.
Chapter IX. We have a magic writing, copied from that divine alphabet with
which God writes His will upon the face of celestial and terrestrial Nature.
With this new language we read God's will for all His creatures, and just as
astronomers predict eclipses so we prognosticate the obscurations of the
church and how long they shall last. Our language is like unto that of Adam
and Enoch before the Fall, and though we understand and can explain our
mysteries in this our sacred language, we cannot do so in Latin, a tongue con-
taminated by the confusion of Babylon.
Chapter X. Although there are still certain powerful persons who oppose
and hinder us--because of which we must remain concealed--we exhort those
who would become of our Fraternity to study unceasingly the Sacred Scrip-
tures, for such as do this cannot be far from us. We do not mean that the Bible
should be continually in the mouth of man, but that he should search for its
true and eternal meaning, which is seldom discovered by theologians, scientists,
or mathematicians because they are blinded by the opinions of their sects. We
bear witness that never since the beginning of the world has there been given to
man a more excellent book than the Holy Bible. Blessed is he who possesses
it, more blessed he who reads it, most blessed he who understands it, and most
godlike he who obeys it.
Chapter XI. We wish the statements we made in the Fama Fraternitatis con-
cerning the transmutation of metals and the universal medicine to be lightly
understood. While we realize that both these works are attainable by man, we
fear that many really great minds may be led away from the true quest of know-
ledge and understanding if they permit themselves to limit their investigation to
the transmutation of metals. When to a man is given power to heal disease, to

481
overcome poverty, and to reach a position of worldly dignity, that man is beset
by numerous temptations and unless he possess true knowledge and full un-
derstanding he will become a terrible menace to mankind. The alchemist who
attains to the art of transmuting base metals can do all manner of evil unless his
understanding be as great as his self-created wealth. We therefore affirm that
man must first gain knowledge, virtue, and understanding; then all other things
may be added unto him. We accuse the Christian Church of the great sin of
possessing power and using it unwisely; therefore we prophesy that it shall fall
by the weight of its own iniquities and its crown shall be brought to naught.
Chapter XII. In concluding our Confessio, we earnestly admonish you to
cast aside the worthless books of pseudo-alchemists and philosophers (of
whom there are many in our age), who make light of the Holy Trinity and
deceive the credulous with meaningless enigmas. One of the greatest of these is
a stage player, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition. Such men are
mingled by the Enemy of human welfare among those who seek to do good,
thus making Truth more difficult of discovery. Believe us, Truth is simple and
unconcealed, while falsehood is complex, deeply hidden, proud, and its ficti-
tious worldly knowledge, seemingly a glitter with godly luster, is often mistaken
for divine wisdom. You that are wise will turn from these false teachings and
come to us, who seek not your money but freely offer you our greater treasure.
We desire not your goods, but that you should become partakers of our goods.
We do not deride parables, but invite you to understand all parables and all
secrets. We do not ask you to receive us, but invite you to come unto our king-
ly houses and palaces, not because of ourselves but because we are so ordered
by the Spirit of God, the desire of our most excellent Father C.R.C., and the
need of the present moment, which is very great.

Click to enlarge
A SYMBOLIC DIAGRAM OF THE OPERATIONS OF NATURE.
From Fludd's Collectio Operum.
This plate, engraved by de Bry, is the most famous of the diagrams illustrating the
philosophic principles of Robert Fludd (Robertus de Fluctibus). Three figures are
outstanding links between Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry: Michael Maier, Elias
Ashmole, and Robert Fludd. De Quincey considers Robert Fludd to be the immediate

482
father of Freemasonry. (See The Rosicrucians and Freemasons.) Edward Waite con-
siders Robert Fludd as second to none of the disciples of Paracelsus, even going as far
as to declare that Fludd far surpassed his master. He further adds, "The central figure
of Rosicrucian literature, towering as an intellectual giant above the crowd of souf-
fleurs, theosophists, and charlatanic Professors of the magnum opus, who, directly or
otherwise, were connected with the mysterious Brotherhood, is Robertus de Fluctibus,
the great English mystical philosopher of the seventeenth century, a man of immense
erudition, of exalted mind, and, to judge by his writings, of extreme personal sanctity. "
(See The Real History of the Rosicrucians.) Robert Fludd was born in 1574 and died
in 1637.
The de Bry diagram shown above is almost self-explanatory. Outside the circle of the
starry heavens are the three fiery rings of the empyreum--the triple fire of the Supreme
Creator--in which dwell the celestial creatures. Within he, of the stars are the circles of
the planets and elements. After the element of air comes the circle of the world (earth).
The circle of animals is followed by the circle of plants, which, in turn is followed by
the circle of he minerals. Then come various industries and in the center is a terrestrial
globe with an ape-man sitting upon it, measuring a sphere with a pair of compasses.
This little figure represents the animal creation. In the outer ring of fire, above is the
sacred name of Jehovah surrounded by clouds. From these clouds issues a hand hold-
ing a chain. Between the divine sphere and the lower world personified by the ape is
the figure of a woman. It is to be specially noted that the female figure is merely hold-
ing the chain connecting her with the lower world, but the chain connecting her with
the higher world ends in a shackle about her wrist. This female figure is capable of
several interpretations: she may represent humanity suspended between divinity and
the beast; she may represent Nature as the link between God and the lower world; or
she may represent the human soul--the common denominator between the superior
and the inferior.

Chapter XIII. Now that we have made our position clear that we sincerely con-
fess Christ; disavow the Papacy; devote our lives to true philosophy and worthy
living; and daily invite and admit into our Fraternity the worthy of all nations,
who thereafter share with us the Light of God: will you not join yourselves with
us to the perfection of yourselves, the development of all the arts, and the ser-
vice of the world? If you will take this step, the treasures of every part of the
earth shall be at one time given unto you, and the darkness which envelopes
human knowledge and which results in the vanities of material arts and
sciences shall be forever dispelled.
Chapter XIV. Again we warn those who are dazzled by the glitter of gold or
those who, now upright, might be turned by great riches to a life of idleness
and pomp, not to disturb our sacred silence with their clamorings; for though
there be a medicine which will cure all diseases and give unto all men wisdom,

483
yet it is against the will of God that men should attain to understanding by any
means other than virtue, labor, and integrity. We are not permitted to manifest
ourselves to any man except it be by the will of God. Those who believe that
they can partake of our spiritual wealth against the will of God or without His
sanction will find that they shall sooner lose their lives in seeking us than attain
happiness by finding us.

FRATERNITAS R.C.

Johann Valentin Andre is generally reputed to be the author of the Confes-

sio. It is a much-mooted question, however, whether Andre did not permit
his name to be used as a pseudonym by Sir Francis Bacon. Apropos of this
subject are two extremely significant references occurring in the introduction to
that remarkable potpourri, The Anatomy of Melancholy. This volume first
appeared in 1621 from the pen of Democritus junior, who was afterwards iden-
tified as Robert Burton, who, in turn, was a suspected intimate of Sir Francis
Bacon. One reference archly suggests that at the time of publishing The Anat-
omy of Melancholy in 1621 the founder of the Fraternity of R.C. was still alive.
This statement--concealed from general recognition by its textual involvement--
has escaped the notice of most students of Rosicrucianism. In the same work
there also appears a short footnote of stupendous import. It contains merely
the words: "Job. Valent. Andreas, Lord Verulam." This single line definitely
relates Johann Valentin Andre to Sir Francis Bacon, who was Lord Verulam,
and by its punctuation intimates that they are one and the same individual.
Prominent among Rosicrucian apologists was John Heydon, who inscribes
himself "A Servant of God, and a Secretary of Nature." In his curious work,
The Rosie Cross Uncovered, he gives an enigmatic but valuable description of
the Fraternity of R.C. in the following language:
"Now there are a kind of men, as they themselves report, named Rosie Cru-
cians, a divine fraternity that inhabit the suburbs of heaven, and these are the
officers of the Generalissimo of the world, that are as the eyes and ears of the
great King, seeing and hearing all things: they say these Rosie Crucians are
seraphically illuminated, as Moses was, according to this order of the elements,
earth refin'd to water, water to air, air to fire." He further declares that these
mysterious Brethren possessed polymorphous powers, appearing in any de-
sired form at will. In the preface of the same work, he enumerates the strange
powers of the Rosicrucian adepts:
"I shall here tell you what Rosie Crucians are, and that Moses was their Fa-
ther, and he was ; some say they were of the order of Elias, some say

484
the Disciples of Ezekiel; * * * For it should seem Rosie Crucians were not only
initiated into the Mosaical Theory, but have arrived also to the power of work-
ing miracles, as Moses, Elias, Ezekiel, and the succeeding Prophets did, as
being transported where they please, as Habakkuk was from Jewry to Babylon,
or as Philip, after he had baptized the Eunuch to Azorus, and one of these
went from me to a friend of mine in Devonshire, and came and brought me an
answer to London the some day, which is four days journey; they caught me
excellent predictions of Astrology and Earthquakes; they slack the Plague in
Cities; they silence the violent Winds and Tempests; they calm the rage of the
Sea and Rivers; they walk in the Air, they frustrate the malicious aspects of
Witches; they cure all Diseases."
The writings of John Heydon are considered a most important contribution
to Rosicrucian literature. John Heydon was probably related to Sir Christopher
Heydon, "a Seraphically Illuminated Rosie Crucian, " whom the late F. Leigh
Gardner, Hon. Secretary Sec. Ros. in Anglia, believes to have been the source
of his Rosicrucian knowledge. In his Bibliotheca Rosicruciana he makes the
following statement concerning John Heydon: "On the whole, from the internal
evidence of his writings, he appears to have gone through the lower grade of
the R. C. Order and to have given out much of this to the world." John Heydon
traveled extensively, visiting Arabia, Egypt, Persia, and various parts of Europe,
as related in a biographical introduction to his work, The Wise-Mans Crown,
Set with Angels, Planets, Metals, etc., or The Glory of the Rosie Cross--a work
declared by him to be a translation into English of the mysterious book M
brought from Arabia by Christian Rosencreutz.
Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), another champion of the Order,
corroborates the statement of John Heydon concerning the ability of the Rosi-
crucian initiates to make themselves invisible at will: "The Fraternity of R.C.
can move in this white mist. 'Whosoever would communicate with us must be
able to see in this light, or us he will never see unless by our own will.'"
The Fraternity of R.C. is an august and sovereign body, arbitrarily manipu-
lating the symbols of alchemy, Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to the attain-
ment of its own peculiar purposes, but entirely independent of the cults whose
terminology it employs. The three major objects of the Fraternity are:

1 The abolition of all monarchical forms of government and the substitution

therefor of the rulership of the philosophic elect. The present democracies are
the direct outgrowth of Rosicrucian efforts to liberate the maws from the do-
mination of despotism. In the early part of the eighteenth century the Rosicru-
cians turned their attention to the new American Colonies, then forming the
nucleus of a great nation in the New World. The American War of Indepen-
dence represents their first great political experiment and resulted in the estab-

485
lishment of a national government founded upon the fundamental principles of
divine and natural law. As an imperishable reminder of their sub rosa activities,
the Rosicrucians left the Great Seal of the United States. The Rosicrucians
were also the instigators of the French Revolution, but in this instance were not
wholly successful, owing to the fact that the fanaticism of the revolutionists
could not be controlled and the Reign of Terror ensued.

Click to enlarge
THE ALCHEMICAL ANDROGYNE
From the Turb Philosophorum.
The Turb Philosophorum is one of the earliest known documents on alchemy in the
Latin tongue. Its exact origin is unknown. It is sometimes referred to as The Third
Pythagorical Synod. As its name implies, it is an assembly of the sages and sets forth
the alchemical viewpoints of many of the early Greek philosophers. The symbol re-
produced above is from a rare edition of the Turb Philosophorum published in
Germany in 1750, and represents by a hermaphroditic figure the accomplishment of
the magnum opus. The active and passive principles of Nature were often depicted by
male and female figures, and when these two principle, were harmoniously conjoined
in any one nature or body it was customary to symbolize this state of perfect equili-
brium by the composite figure above shown.

486
Click to enlarge
A ROSICRUCIAN TITLE PAGE.
From Maier's Viatorium.
Count Michael Maier, physician to Rudolph II., was an outstanding figure in the Rosi-
crucian controversy. There is little doubt that he was an initiated member of the Rosi-
crucian Fraternity, empowered by the Order to promulgate its secrets among the phi-
losophic elect of Europe. The above title page shows the seven planets represented by
appropriate figures. Behind the central figure in each case is a smaller emblem, signify-
ing the zodiacal sign in which the planet is enthroned. In the arch over the title itself is
a portrait of the learned Maier. The volume of which this is the title page is devoted to
an analysis of the nature and effect of the seven planets, and is couched in alchemical
terminology throughout. Michael Maier concealed his knowledge so cunningly that it is
exceedingly difficult to tract from his writings the secrets which he possessed. He was
profuse in his use of emblems and the greater part of his philosophical lore is con-
cealed in the engravings which illustrate his books.

2. The reformation of science, philosophy, and ethics. The Rosicrucians de-

clared that the material arts and sciences were but shadows of the divine wis-
dom, and that only by penetrating the innermost recesses of Nature could man
attain to reality and understanding. Though calling themselves Christians, the
Rosicrucians were evidently Platonists and also profoundly versed in the deep-
est mysteries of early Hebrew and Hindu theology. There is undeniable evi-
dence that the Rosicrucians desired to reestablish the institutions of the ancient
Mysteries as the foremost method of instructing humanity in the secret and
eternal doctrine. Indeed, being in all probability the perpetuators of the ancient
Mysteries, the Rosicrucians were able to maintain themselves against the oblite-
rating forces of dogmatic Christianity only by absolute secrecy and the subtlety
of their subterfuges. They so carefully guarded and preserved the Supreme
Mystery--the identity and interrelationship of the Three Selves--that no one to
whom they did not of their own accord reveal themselves has ever secured any
satisfactory information regarding either the existence or the purpose of the
487
Order. The Fraternity of R.C., through its outer organization, is gradually creat-
ing an environment or body in which the Illustrious Brother C.R.C. may ulti-
mately incarnate and consummate for humanity the vast spiritual and material
labors of the Fraternity.
3. The discovery of the Universal Medicine, or panacea, for all forms of
disease. There is ample evidence that the Rosicrucians were successful in their
quest for the Elixir of Life. In his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, Elias
Ashmole states that the Rosicrucians were not appreciated in England, but
were welcomed on the Continent. He also states that Queen Elizabeth was
twice cured of the smallpox by the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, and that the
Earl of Norfolk was healed of leprosy by a Rosicrucian physician. In the quota-
tions that follow it is .hinted by John Heydon that the Brothers of the Fraterni-
ty possessed the secret of prolonging human existence indefinitely, but not
beyond the time appointed by the will of God:
"And at last they could restore by the same course every Brother that died to
life again, and so continue many ages; the rules you find in the fourth book. * *
* After this manner began the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, first by four per-
sons, who died and rose again until Christ, and then they came to worship as
the Star guided them to Bethlehem of Judea, where lay our Saviour in his
mother's arms; and then they opened their treasure and presented unto him
gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and by the commandment of God went
home to their habitation. These four waxing young again successively many
hundreds of years, made a magical language and writing, with a large dictio-
nary, which we yet daily use to God's praise and glory, and do find great wis-
dom therein. * * * Now whilst Brother C.R. was in a proper womb quickening,
they concluded to draw and receive yet others more into their Fraternity."
The womb herein referred to was apparently the glass casket, or container,
in which the Brothers were buried. This was also called the philosophical egg.
After a certain period of time the philosopher, breaking the shell of his egg,
came forth and functioned for a prescribed period, after which he retired again
into his shell of glass, The Rosicrucian medicine for the healing of all human
infirmities may be interpreted either as a chemical substance which produces
the physical effects described or as spiritual understanding--the true healing
power which, whet a man has partaken of it, reveals truth to him. Ignorance is
the worst form of disease, and that: which heals ignorance is therefore the most
potent of all medicines. The perfect Rosicrucian medicine was for the healing
of nations, races, and individuals.
In an early unpublished manuscript, an unknown philosopher declares alc-
hemy, Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to have been divine sciences originally,
but that through perversion they had become false doctrines, leading seekers
after wisdom ever farther from their goal. The same author gives a valuable key

488
to esoteric Rosicrucianism by dividing the path of spiritual attainment into
three steps, or schools, which he calls mountains. The first and lowest of these
mountains is Mount Sophia; the second, Mount Qabbalah; and the third,
Mount Magia. These three mountains are sequential stages of spiritual growth.
The unknown author then states:
"By philosophy is to be understood the knowledge of the workings of Na-
ture, by which knowledge man learns to climb to those higher mountains above
the limitations of sense. By Qabbalism is to be understood the language of the
angelic or celestial beings, and he who masters it is able to converse with the
messengers of God. On the highest of the mountains is the School of Magia
(Divine Magic, which is the language of God) wherein man is taught the true
nature of all things by God Himself."
There is a growing conviction that if the true nature of Rosicrucianism were
divulged, it would cause consternation, to say the least. Rosicrucian symbols
have many meanings, but the Rosicrucian meaning has not yet been revealed.
The mount upon which stands the House of the Rosy Cross is still concealed
by clouds, in which the Brethren hide both themselves and their secrets. Mi-
chael Maier writes: "What is contained in the Fama and Confessio is true. It is
a very childish objection that the brotherhood have promised so much and
performed so little. With them, as elsewhere, many are called but few are cho-
sen. The masters of the order hold out the rose as the remote prize, but they
impose the cross on those who are entering." (See Silentium post Clamores, by
Maier, and The Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, by De Quincey.)
The rose and the cross appear upon the stained glass windows of Lichfield
Chapter House, where Walter Conrad Arensberg believes Lord Bacon and his
mother to have been buried. A crucified rose within a heart is watermarked
into the dedication page of the 1628 edition of Robert Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy.
The fundamental symbols of the Rosicrucians were the rose and the cross;
the rose female and the cross male, both universal phallic emblems. While
such learned gentlemen as Thomas Inman, Hargrave Jennings, and Richard
Payne Knight have truly observed that the rose and the cross typify the genera-
tive processes, these scholars seem unable to pierce the veil of symbolism; they
do not realize that the creative mystery in the material world is merely a sha-
dow of the divine creative mystery in the spiritual world. Because of the phallic
significance of their symbols, both the Rosicrucians and the Templars have
been falsely accused of practicing obscene rites in their secret ceremonials.
While it is quite true that the alchemical retort symbolizes the womb, it also
has a far more significant meaning concealed under the allegory of the second
birth. As generation is the key to material existence, it is natural that the Fra-
ternity of R.C. should adopt as its characteristic symbols those exemplifying the

489
reproductive processes. As regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, they
therefore founded their symbolism upon the rose and the cross, which typify
the redemption of man through the union of his lower temporal nature with his
higher eternal nature. The rosy cross is also a hieroglyphic figure representing
the formula of the Universal Medicine.

Click to enlarge
THE ELEMENTARY WORLD.
From Musum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.
The outer circle contains the figures of the Zodiac; the second, their signs and that part
of the human body which they rule; the third, the months of the year, with brief notes
concerning temperaments, etc. The fourth circle contains the elements accompanied
by their appropriate symbols, and the following seven circles mark the orbits of the
planets; also the planetary angels, the seven major members of the Universal Man, and
the seven metals, each division appearing under its appropriate element according to
the elemental names in the fourth circle. In the twelfth circle appear the words: "There
are Three Principles, Three Worlds, Three Ages, and Three Kingdoms." In the thir-
teenth circle appear the names of the twelve arts and sciences which are considered
essential to spiritual growth. In the fourteenth circle is the word Nature. The fifteenth
circle contains the following words. "It is the great honour of faithful souls, that from
their very birth an angel is appointed to preserve and keep each of them." (See first
English translation, London, 1893.)

490
 Fifteen Rosicrucian and Qabbalistic Diagrams

IN his well-known work, The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, Har-
grave Jennings reproduces five Qabbalistic charts which he declares to be ge-
nuine Rosicrucian drawings. He gives no information concerning their origin
nor does he attempt an elucidation of their symbolism. A recent writer who
reproduced one of these charts correlated it to the emblematic tomb of Father
C.R.C., thus exposing the true nature of Christian Rosencreutz.
The five plates reproduced in Hargrave Jennings' book are part of a series of
fifteen diagrams which appear in The Magical, Qabbalistical, and Theosophical
Writings of Georgius von Welling, on the Subject of Salt, Sulphur, and Mer-
cury. This extremely rare volume was published at Frankfort and Leipzig in
1735 and 1760. The numbers and figures on the charts refer to the chapters
and sections of the Writings. These fifteen charts constitute a remarkable and
invaluable addition to the few other known admittedly authentic Qabbalistic
and Rosicrucian diagrams.
Lucifer is the greatest mystery of symbolism. The secret knowledge of the
Rosicrucians concerning Lucifer is nowhere so plainly set forth as in these
plates, which virtually reveal his true identity, a carefully guarded secret about
which little has been written. Lucifer is represented by the number 741.
Von Welling does not give a complete exposition of the fifteen charts; to have
done so would have been contrary to the principles of Qabbalistic philosophy.
The deeper significance of the symbols is revealed only by profound study and
contemplation.
TABLE I, Figures 1-11. Figure 1 is a Ptolemaic chart showing the true rela-
tionship existing between the primordial elements. Its secret significance is as
follows: The outer ring enclosed by the lines A and B is the region of Scha-
mayim, a Qabbalistic name for the Supreme Deity, signifying the expanse of
the heavens, or a spiritual fiery water. Schamayim is "The Ocean of Spirit, "
within which all created and uncreated things exist and by the life of which they
are animated. In the lower worlds Schamayim becomes the astral light.
The space between B and C marks the orbits or planes of the seven Spiritual
Intelligences called the Divine Planets (not the visible planets). According to
the Mysteries, the souls of men enter the lower worlds through ring B, the
fixed stars. All creation reflects the glory of Schamayim, the energy that filters
into the spheres of the elements through the windows of the stars and planets.
Between C and D lies the region of the subtle, spiritual air, a subdivision of
ether. D to E marks the surface of the earth and sea, by which are also meant
grades of ether. E to F marks the lower region, called "The Gathering of the

491
Waters and the Production of the Virgin Earth, " or "Ares. " The alchemists
called this "quicksand," the true mystic foundation of the solid earth. F to G
marks the circle of the subterranean air, which is more dense and coarse than
that in the outer space, C to D. In this denser atmosphere the stellar influences
and celestial impulses are crystallized into corporeal spirits, thus forming the
multitude of forms which exist without knowledge of their own fiery source. G
is the region of the central fire of the element earth, a coarse fire in contradis-
tinction to the divine fiery Schamayim. The sphere of the starry heavens like-
wise has its opposite in the sphere of the subterranean air; and the sphere of
the upper air (or subtle vaporous water) has its opposite in the sphere E to F.
The focal point, D to E, between the three higher and the three lower spheres,
is called "The Reservoir." It receives impressions from both the superior and
the inferior regions and is common to both.
Figure 2 is the Qabbalistic symbol of elemental water; Figure 9 represents
the spiritual invisible water. Figure 3 is the Qabbalistic symbol of elemental air;
Figure 7 represents the spiritual and invisible air. Figure 4 is the Qabbalistic
sign of the elemental earth; Figure 8 represents the spiritual and invisible earth.
Figure 5 is the Qabbalistic sign of the elemental fire; Figure 6 represents the
spiritual and invisible fire. Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9 symbolize the four elements
before the descent of Lucifer. They are the four rivers spoken of in Genesis,
having their source in the one river, Figure W, which represents the elements
superimposed on one another. The golden ball in the center is Schamayim, the
fiery source of all elements. Figure 11 is the emblem of the beginning and the
end of all creatures. From it all things proceed and to it all must return again,
to become one with the fiery water of divine understanding.
TABLE II, Figures 12-51. Figures 12, 13, 14 demonstrate the sphere as a
symbol of motion to be emblematic of fire, water, and air; and the cube as a
symbol of weight to be emblematic of earth. The sphere rests upon a point, the
cube upon a surface; the sphere is therefore used to symbolize spirit, and the
cube, matter. Figure 14 demonstrates that atmosphere rushing in behind a
falling object increases its velocity and apparently adds to its weight. The essen-
tial nature of each element is occultly signified by the peculiar symbol and cha-
racter assigned to it.
Of Figure 15, the symbol of salt, von Welling writes, in substance: The cube
has six sides, corresponding to the six days of creation, with the point of rest
(the seventh day) in the center of the cube. On each surface of the cube appear
the signs of the four elements [triangles]. The alchemists declared that salt was
the first created substance produced by the fire (Schamayim) which flowed out
of God. In salt all creation is concentrated; in salt are the beginning and end of
all things. The cube, furthermore, is composed of twelve bodies, each of which
has six sides. These bodies are the twelve fundamental pillars of the true invisi-

492
ble church, and when these twelve bodies are multiplied by their six sides the
magical number 72 results. The wise have said that nothing is perfect until it
has been dissolved, separated, and again united so that it becomes a body
composed of twelve bodies, like the cube. The cube also consists of six pyra-
mids with the six surfaces of the cube as their bases. The points of these six
pyramids meet at the center of the cube. These six pyramids, each consisting of
four triangles, signify the elements, and produce the magical number 24, which
refers to the Elders before the Throne. The six surfaces and the point consti-
tute the magical number 7. If 7 be multiplied by 7 again, and so on 7 times, the
answer will reveal the method used by the ancients for measuring the periods
of eternity; thus: (1) 7 X 7 = 49; (2) 49 X 7 = 343; (3) 343 X 7 = 2,401; (4)
2,401 X 7 = 16,807; (5):16,807 X 7 = 117,649; (6) 117,649 X 7 = 823,543; (7)
823,543 X 7 = 5,764,801. (This is not to be taken as earth years or times.) The
5,000, 000 represents the great hall year; the 700,000 the great Sabbath year,
wherein all human beings gradually gain true understanding and become heirs
to their original and eternal inheritance, which was lost when they were en-
meshed in the lower elements. The 64,800 is the number of the fallen angels,
and the last one year signifies the liberation of Lucifer and return to his original
estate.
Figure 16 is another symbol of salt, while Figure 17 (the dot) is the sign of
spirit, gold, the sun, or the germ of life. If the dot be moved before itself it
becomes a line, Figure 18. This motion of the dot is the first motion. The be-
ginning and end of every line is a dot. Figure 19 is the circle. It is the second
motion and the most perfect of all lines. Out of it are formed all figures and
bodies imaginable. Figure 20 represents the outpouring of the upper and spiri-
tual life into manifestation. Figure 21 represents darkness, for it is the loosen-
ing of the subterrene destructive principle. Figure 20 is also the symbol of day,
and Figure 21 of night.

Click to enlarge
TABLE I, Figures 1-11.

493
Click to enlarge
TABLE II, Figures 12-51.

Figure 22 is a symbol of water; Figure 23 is the complete universal character of

light and darkness. The upright triangle represents Schamayim; the inverted
triangle the dark earth which imprisons the infernal subterranean fire. It is
"The First Day of Creation," or the time of the separation of Schamayim and
Ares. Figure 24 represents the six days of creation and proves that the elements
are an outflow of the Divine Fire which, breaking up, becomes the substances
of the tangible universe, as signified in Figure 25.
Figure 26 is the character of the air, showing that air is born out of the Eter-
nal Light and the ethereal water. Figure 27 is the character of water. It is the
inversion of Figure 26, indicating that its origin is from the lower fire and not
the higher. Its upper part signifies that water does not lack the Divine element,
but as a universal mirror reflects the heavenly influences. Figures 28 and 29 are
symbols of salt, showing that it is both fire and water in one. Figure 30 is the
character of fire in all its attributes, and Figure M (the same inverted), water in
all its powers. Figure 32 is the character of salt in all its attributes. Figure 33
represents both gold and the sun. Their essential natures are identical, being
formed from the first fire out of Schamayim. They are perfect, as can be seen
from their symbol, for no more perfect form can be produced out of the dot
than the circle.
Figure 34 is the character of the greater and lesser worlds; as the dot is sur-
rounded by its circumference, this world is surrounded by Schamayim. Man
(the Little World) is included in this symbol because his inner nature is poten-
tial gold (Aphar Min Haadamah), which gold is his eternal indestructible spiri-
tual body. Gold is the masculine principle of the universe.
Figure 35 is the character of silver and the moon. It signifies that silver (like
gold) is a perfect metal, except that the red part of its nature is turned inward.
Silver is the feminine principle of the universe.
Figure 36 is the character of copper and Venus; Figure 37, of iron and Mars;
Figure 38, of tin and Jupiter; Figure 39, of lead and Saturn; Figure 40, of Mer-
cury (both the planet and the element); Figure 41, of antimony, the key metal

494
of the earth itself; Figure 42, of arsenic; Figure 43, of sulphur; Figure 44, of
cinnabar; Figure 45, of quicklime; Figure 46, of nitre; and Figure 47, of vitriol.
Figure 48 is the character of sal ammoniac, which element derives its name
from the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in an Egyptian desert, where it was found.
Figure 49 is the character of alum; Figure 50, of alkali, a name of Arabian ori-
gin; and Figure 51, of sal tartar, a substance possessing great occult virtue.
TABLE Ill, Figure 52. The eight globes and the central square represent the
seven days of creation. The three worlds wherein creation occurs are symbo-
lized by three concentric rings. The German words in the outer ring are ex-
tracts from the first chapter of Genesis. The words around the outside of the
outer ring are The First Day. The four small globes inside the outer ring deal
with the abstract phases of creation. The upper globe containing the triangle
encloses the words Heaven and Earth. The globe to the right contains the word
Light, and the one to the left, Jehovah Elohim in the upper part and Darkness
in the lower part. The globe at the bottom contains the word Day in the upper
half and Night in the lower.
The four globes within the second ring depict the second, third, fourth, and
fifth days of creation. The white globe above divided by a dotted line is desig-
nated The Second Day; the globe to the left with the mountains, The Third
Day; the globe to the right with the planetary rings, The Fourth Day; and the
globe below bisected by a dotted line, The Fifth Day. The square in the central
ring containing the human form is marked The Sixth Day. This chart is a dia-
grammatic exposition of the three layers of the macrocosmic and microcosmic
auric eggs, showing the forces active within them.
TABLE IV, Figure. 53. Figure 53 has been designated the symbolic tomb of
Christian Rosencreutz. The upper circle is the first world--the Divine Sphere of
God. The triangle in the center is the throne of God. The small circles at the
points of the star symbolize the seven great Spirits before the throne, men-
tioned in the Book of Revelation, in the midst of which walks the Alpha and
Omega--the Son of God. The central triangle contains three flames--the Divine
Trinity. From the lowest of these flames proceeds the first divine outflow,
shown by two parallel lines descending through the throne of Saturn (the Spirit
Orifelis, through whom God manifested Himself). Passing through the boun-
dary of the celestial universe and the 22 spheres of the lower system, the lines
end at point B, the throne of Lucifer, in whom the divine outpouring is con-
centrated and reflected. From him the divine light irradiates in succession to d
(Capricorn), e (Gemini), f (Libra), g (Taurus), h (Pisces), i (Aquarius), k (Can-
cer), l (Virgo), m (Aries), n (Leo), o (Scorpio), p (Sagittarius), thence back to d.
The zodiacal circles represent twelve orders of great and beneficent Spirits, and
the smaller circles within the ring of fixed stars mark the orbits of the sacred
planets.

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 TABLE V, Figure 54. Figure 54 is similar to Figure 53, but represents the
universe at the time God manifested Himself through the character of Jupiter,
the Spirit Sachasiel. Von Welling gives no reason for the change in the order of
influx into the twelve orders of spirits, for the third world, for the adding of
another circle and the interlaced triangles in the upper world, or for the letters
Y and Z. In the upper triangle, A represents the Father Principle, F the divine
outflow, G the point of influx into the twelve orders of spirits (probably Sagitta-
rius). The letters H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, S, and T denote the sequential
points of irradiations to each other; W and X, the World of the Sons of God;
and B, C, D, and E, the World of Lucifer. This plate shows the universe after
the descent of Lucifer into matter. According to von Welling, when Lucifer
wanted to control power, the influx of the divine light instantly ceased. Lucifer's
world (which later became the solar system), with all its legions of spirits (who
in their essence were Schamayim) reflecting his ideas and inverting the divine
light, was turned into darkness. Lucifer's Schamayim thereupon became a con-
tracted disc, a tangible substance; and Chaos came into existence.

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Table III, Figure 52

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Table IV, Figure 53

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Click to enlarge
Table V, Figure 54

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Table VII, Figures 1-5, 7 and 8

TABLE VI, Figures 55-59. Figure 55 symbolizes the Chaos of Lucifer; Figure
56, the separation of light from darkness; Figure 57, the light in the midst of
the darkness; and Figure 58, the regions of the elements and their inhabitants.
The four A's signify the Abyss surrounding all things. The A B is the fiery
throne of Lucifer. The plane of g is the subterranean air; f, the subterranean
water; c, the earth region; d, the outer water; e, the outer air, W and X the
region of Schamayim. The elemental inhabitants of the planes differ in good-
ness according to their proximity to the center of wickedness (A B). The earth's
surface (c) divides the subterranean elementals from those of the outer water,
air, and fire (d, c, and X). The elementals of the upper strata (the upper half of
c, and all of d, e, and X) represent an ascending scale of virtue, while those of
the lower strata (the lower half of c, and all of f, g, and A B) represent a des-
cending scale of depravity.
The region of air (e) is a partial exception to this order. While air is close to
the light and filled with beautiful spirits, it is also the habitation of Beelzebub,
the Evil Spirit of the air, with his legion of elemental demons. Upon the subtle
element of air are impressed the influences of the stars; the thoughts, words,
and deeds of man; and a myriad of mysterious influences from the various
planes of Nature. Man inhales these impressions, and they produce diverse
497
effects upon his mind. In air are suspended also the seed germs by which water
is impregnated and made capable of bringing forth forms of organic and inor-
ganic life. The grotesque figures seen in crystal caves and frost pictures upon
windows are caused by these aerial impressions. While the air elementals are
great and wise, they are treacherous and confused because amenable to both
good and evil impressions. The mighty elemental beings who inhabit the wa-
tery light fire of the region X cannot be deceived by the spirits of darkness.
They love the creatures of the waters, for the watery element (d) proceeded
from the fiery water (X). Mortal man cannot endure the society of these fiery
spirits, but gains wisdom from them through the creatures of the waters in
which they continually mirror themselves. Figure 59 represents this solar sys-
tem, with W and X as the locality of the Garden of Eden.
TABLE VII, Figures 1-5, 7, 8. (Table VIII has Figure 6.) Figure 1 is the
triune divine sulphur, the All-Perfect out of the All-Perfect, the Soul of crea-
tures. The threefold Divine One is symbolized by three interlaced circles des-
ignated alchemically salt, sulphur, and mercury. In the central triangle is the
divine name Ehieh. Geist means spirit. The other words require no translation.
Figure 2 is common destructive sulphur. A bar placed in the triangle makes it
the character of earth. Figure 3 is true oil of vitriol, composed of a circle with
two diameters and two reversed half-circles hanging below. In this are hidden
the characters of all metals. Tin is symbolized by Figure 4 and iron by Figure 5.
Figure 7 is the solar system according to Copernicus. Figure 8 is the last judg-
ment. The sun is removed from the center of the solar system and replaced by
the earth. This changes the respective positions of all the other planets except
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which retain their respective circles. The letter a
signifies the circle of the sun; b, that of Mercury; c, that of Venus; d, (sic) that
of the moon; and E, that of the earth. Inward from the sphere h are the great
circles of damnation.
TABLE VII., Figure 6. In Figure 6 the letter a marks the center of eternity.
The motion of the rays toward b, d, and c was the first divine manifestation and
is symbolized by the equilateral triangle, b, d, c. The eternal world within the
inner circle became manifest in the water (salt), the light (mercury), and the fire
(sulphur) of the archetypal world, represented by the three circles (f, e, g) with-
in the triangle of complete equality (h, i, k), which is in turn surrounded by the
circle of the high throne. The circle f is named understanding; e, wisdom; g,
reason. In circle i is the word Father; in circle h, Son; in circle k, Spirit. The
seven outer circles are the seven spirits before the throne. The lower part of
the figure is similar to Figures 53 and 54. The outer circles are the angelic
world ending in the cognizable world of the Sons of God. Then comes the
circle of the visible constellations and fixed stars; within this is the solar system
with the sun as the center (l). Ungrund means the Abyss.

498
 TABLE IX, Figure 9. Figure 9 is a synthesis of the Old and New Testa-
ments and represents the interblending planes of being. In the right margin the
seven outer circles contain the names of the planetary angels. The words in the
graduated circles from the top triangle downward read: (1) Abyss of Compas-
sion; (2) Zion; (3) The New Heaven and the New Earth; (4) The New Jerusa-
lem; (5) Paradise; (6) The Bosom of Abraham; (7) The Outer Courts of the
Lord. From below the circles of darkness reach upward, each divine principle
being opposed by an infernal opposite. The small circle on the left containing a
triangle and cross is named The Tree of Life, and that on the right The Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the center of the diagram is the Trinity,
joined with the superior and inferior planes by lines of activity.
TABLE X, Figures 10-15. Figure 10 shows the New Jerusalem in form of a
cube, with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written on the twelve lines of
the cube. In the center is the eye of God. The words round the outer circle are
from the Book of Revelation. Figures 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 possibly are cipher
symbols of the angels of the plagues, the name of the Antichrist, the signature
of the beast of Babylon, and the name of the woman riding on the beast of
blasphemy.

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Table VIII, Figure 6.

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Click to enlarge
Table X, Figures 10-15.

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Table IX, Figure 9.

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Table XI, Figures 1-11

TABLE XI, Figures 1.-11. Figure 1 is the solar system according to Genesis.
The o on top of the radius of the circle is the dot of Eternity--the Beginning of
Beginnings. The whole diameter is the outflow of God, manifesting first in the
heaven of heavens--the Schamayim, in which region human understanding
cannot function. The space from k to i contains the heavens of Saturn, Jupiter,
and Mars; l to m, the heavens of Venus and Mercury; m to h, the heavens of
the sun. The letter e is the moon, the circle of the earth.
Figure 2 is the globe of the earth, showing the houses and signs of the zo-

500
diac. Figure 3 is the character of the Universal Mercury (Divine Life) in its
triune aspect of mercury, sulphur, and salt. Figure 4 is true saltpetre purified
with quicklime and alkali. Figure 5 shows the exact degree or angle of the pla-
nets' places as well as the individual fixed stars in the zodiac. The letter a is the
sun and b is the earth. From k to i are the circles of Mercury and Venus; g to h,
the circles of earth and moon; f to e and e to c, of Jupiter and Saturn; c to d,
the starry belt or zodiac. Figure 6 is the Microcosm, with the planets and signs
of the zodiac corresponding to the different parts of its form. The words upon
the figure read: Know thyself. In words, herbs, and stones lies a great power.
Figure 7 is the universal character from which all characters have been taken.
Figures 8, 9, and 10 are left to the solution of the reader. Figure 11 is the ra-
diating Universal Mercury.
TABLE XII, Figures 12-19. Figure 12 is called A Mirror of Astrological
Aspects. Below it is an astrologer's wheel. Figure 13 is similar to Figure 12.
Figure 14 is a secret alchemical formula. The words around the circle read:
Out of one in all is all. Figure 15 is an unsatisfactory attempt to show the com-
parative sizes of the suns and planets and their distances from each other. Fig-
ure 16 is the solar system with its internal and spiritual heavens. A B is the
solar system; C is the sphere of fixed stars; D, E, F, G are the systems of the
spiritual worlds; H is the throne of the living God; J, K, L, M, and N are the
Great Beyond, unmeasurable.
Figure 17 shows the creation of the solar system out of the ring of the Divine
Eternity. The four A's are the Abyss, B is the first revelation of God out of the
Abyss, and from this revelation C, D, E, F, and G were created. C and D
represent the spiritual hierarchies; D and E, the upper worlds, or constella-
tions; E and F, the distance from Jupiter to the upper worlds; F and G, the
solar system with its planets and their heavens; B and C the throne of Christ.
Figure 18 describes the division according to Genesis of the waters above the
heavens (D) from the waters below (A, B, and C). Figure 19 is the mercury of
the philosophers, essential to material existence.
TABLE XIII, Figures 1-4. Figure 1 is Ain Soph, the Incomprehensible Ab-
yss of Divine Majesty, an endless welling up, limitless in time and space. Figure
2 symbolizes the three Divine Principles--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Around the triangle is written: I Shall Be That I Shall Be. At the apex of the
triangle is the word Crown; in the left point, Wisdom; in the right point, Un-
derstanding. Figure 3 represents the Trinity with its outflow. The words above
the upper sphere are Revelation of the Divine Majesty in Jehovah Elohim. The
lower circles contain the names of the Hierarchies controlling the lower worlds.
The words within the circle of stars read: Lucifer the Son of the Aurora of the
morning. The letter C represents the Universal Mercury. The words within the
circle read: The first beginning of all creatures. Figure 4 represents the abode

501
of Lucifer and his angels, the Chaos spoken of in Genesis.
TABLE XIV, Figures 5, 7, 8. Figure 5 shows the triangle of triune Divinity
in the midst of a cross. At the left is a small triangle containing the words The
Secrets of Elohim, and at the right is another inscribed The Secrets of Nature.
On the horizontal arms of the cross are the words The Tree of Life and The
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The plate explains the interblending
of the spiritual and infernal powers in the creation of the universe. Figure 7 is
called The Road to Paradise. It probably indicates the positions of the sun,
moon, and planets at the moment of their genesis. Figure 8 is the earth before
the flood, when it was watered by a mist or vapor. The words at the left are
The Tree of Life; those at the right, The Tree of the Knowledge of good and
Evil. The diagram with the symbol of Mars is devoted to a consideration of the
rainbow.
TABLE XV, Figures 6, 9, 10. Figure 6 is similar to Figure 5 and is called
The Secret of Nature. An interesting diagram is shown on either side of the
central figure, each consisting of a triangle with circles radiating from its points.
The diagram on the left is called The Secrets of the Upper World, and the one
on right The Secrets of the Underworld.
Figure 9 is the solar system. Around the central part are the words The
Place of the Damned. Figure 10 shows the dot, or point of rest, surrounded by
a triangle enclosing a circle containing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
It represents completion of the process of regeneration and the consummation
of the Great Work.

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Table XII, Figures 12-19

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Click to enlarge
Table XIII, Figures 1-4

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Table XIV, Figures 5, 7, and 8

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Table XV, Figures 6, 9, and 10

503
 Alchemy and Its Exponents

IS the transmutation of base metals into gold possible? Is the idea one at which
the learned of the modern world can afford to scoff? Alchemy was more than a
speculative art: it was also an operative art. Since the time of the immortal
Hermes, alchemists have asserted (and not without substantiating evidence)
that they could manufacture gold from tin, silver, lead, and mercury. That the
galaxy of brilliant philosophic and scientific minds who, over a period of two
thousand years, affirmed the actuality of metallic transmutation and multiplica-
tion, could be completely sane and rational on all other problems of philoso-
phy and science, yet hopelessly mistaken on this one point, is untenable. Nor is
it reasonable that the hundreds declaring to have seen and performed transmu-
tations of metals could all have been dupes, imbeciles, or liars.
Those assuming that all alchemists were of unsound mentality would be
forced to put in this category nearly all the philosophers and scientists of the
ancient and medival worlds. Emperors, princes, priests, and common
townsfolk have witnessed the apparent miracle of metallic metamorphosis. In
the face of existing testimony, anyone is privileged to remain unconvinced, but
the scoffer elects to ignore evidence worthy of respectful consideration. Many
great alchemists and Hermetic philosophers occupy an honored niche in the
Hall of Fame, while their multitudinous critics remain obscure. To list all these
sincere seekers after Nature's great arcanum is impossible, but a few will suffice
to acquaint the reader with the superior types of intellect who interested them-
selves in this abstruse subject.
Among the more prominent names are those of Thomas Norton, Isaac of
Holland, Basil Valentine (the supposed discoverer of antimony), Jean de
Meung, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Quercetanus Gerber (the Arabian
who brought the knowledge of alchemy to Europe through his writings), Para-
celsus, Nicholas Flarnmel, John Frederick Helvetius, Raymond Lully, Alexan-
der Sethon, Michael Sendivogius, Count Bernard of Treviso, Sir George Rip-
ley, Picus de Mirandola, John Dee, Henry Khunrath, Michael Maier, Thomas
Vaughan, J. B. von Helmont, John Heydon, Lascaris, Thomas Charnock, Syn-
esius (Bishop of Ptolemais), Morieu, the Comte di Cagliostro, and the Comte
de St.-Germain. There are legends to the effect that King Solomon and Pytha-
goras were alchemists and that the former manufactured by alchemical means
the gold used in his temple.
Albert Pike takes sides with the alchemical philosophers by declaring that
the gold of the Hermetists was a reality. He says: "The Hermetic science, like
all the real sciences, is mathematically demonstrable. Its results, even material,

504
are as rigorous as that of a correct equation. The Hermetic Gold is not only a
true dogma, a light without Shadow, a Truth without alloy of falsehood; it is
also a material gold, real, pure, the most precious that can be found in the
mines of the earth." So much for the Masonic angle.
William and Mary jointly ascended the throne of England in 1689, at which
time alchemists must have abounded in the kingdom, for during the first year
of their reign they repealed an Act made by King Henry IV in which that sove-
reign declared the multiplying of metals to be a crime against the crown. In Dr.
Sigismund Bacstrom's Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts is a handwritten
copy of the Act passed by William and Mary, copied from Chapter 30 of Sta-
tutes at Large for the first year of their reign. The Act reads as follows: "An Act
to repeal the Statute made in the 5th year of King Henry IV, late king of Eng-
land, [wherein] it was enacted, among other things, in these words, or to this
effect, namely: 'that none from henceforth should use to multiply Gold or Sil-
ver or use the craft of multiplication, and if any the same do they shall incur
the pain of felony.' And whereas, since the making of the said statute, divers
persons have by their study, industry and learning, arrived to great skill & per-
fection in the art of melting and refining of metals, and otherwise improving
and multiplying them and their ores, which very much abound in this realm,
and extracting gold and silver our of the same, but dare not to exercise their
said skill within this realm, for fear of falling under the penalty of the said sta-
tute, but exercise the said art in foreign parts, to the great loss and detriment of
this realm: Be it therefore enacted by the King's and Queen's most excellent
Majesties, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and tem-
poral and Commons in this present parliament assembled, that from hence-
forth the aforesaid branch, article, or sentence, contained in the said act, and
every word, matter and thing contained in the said branch or sentence, shall be
repealed, annulled, revoked, and for ever made void, any thing in the said act
to the contrary in any wise whatsoever notwithstanding. Provided always, and
be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the gold and silver that shall be
extracted by the aforesaid art of melting or refining of metals, and otherwise
improving and multiplying of them and their ores, as before set forth, be from
henceforth employed for no other use or uses whatsoever but for the increase
of monies; and that the place hereby appointed for the disposal thereof shall
be their Majesties mint, within the Tower of London, at which place they are to
receive the full and true value of their gold and silver, so procured, from time
to time, according to the assay and fineness thereof, and so for any greater or
less weight, and that none of that metal of gold and silver so refined and pro-
cured be permitted to be used or disposed of in any other place or places with-
in their Majesties dominions." After this repealing measure had become effec-
tive, William and Mary encouraged the further study of alchemy.

505
 Dr. Franz Hartmann has collected reliable evidence concerning four differ-
ent: alchemists who transmuted base metals into gold not once but many times.
One of these accounts concerns a monk of the Order of St. Augustine named
Wenzel Seiler, who discovered a small amount of mysterious red powder in his
convent. In the presence of Emperor Leopold I, King of Germany, Hungary,
and Bohemia, he transmuted quantities of tin into gold. Among other things
which he dipped into his mysterious essence was a large silver medal. That part
of the medal which came in contact with the gold-producing substance was
transmuted into the purest quality of the more precious metal. The rest re-
mained silver. With regard to this medal, Dr. Hartmann writes:
"The most indisputable proof (if appearances can prove anything) of the
possibility of transmuting base metals into gold, may be seen by everyone who
visits Vienna; it being a medal preserved in the Imperial treasury chamber, and
it is stated that this medal, consisting originally of silver, has been partly trans-
formed into gold, by alchemical means, by the same Wenzel Seiler who was
afterwards made a knight by the Emperor Leopold I. and given the title Wen-
zeslaus Ritter von Reinburg. "(In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.)
Space limitations preclude a lengthy discussion of the alchemists. A brief
sketch of the lives of four should serve to show the general principles on which
they worked, the method by which they obtained their knowledge, and the use
which they made of it. These four were Grand Masters of this secret science;
and the stories of their wanderings and strivings, as recorded by their own pens
and by contemporaneous disciples of the Hermetic art, are as fascinating as any
romance of fiction.

Click to enlarge
PARACELSUS.
From The Complete Writings of Paracelsus, of Hohenheim.
In his Biographia Antiqua, Francis Barrett appends to the name of Paracelsus the
following titles of distinction: "The Prince of Physicians and Philosophers by Fire;

506
Grand Paradoxical Physician; The Trismegistus of Switzerland; First Reformer of
Chymical Philosophy; Adept in Alchymy, Cabala, and Magic; Nature's Faithful Secre-
tary; Master of the Elixir of Life and The Philosopher's Stone," and the "Great Mo-
narch of Chymical Secrets"

PARACELSUS OF HOHENHEIM

The most famous of alchemical and Hermetic philosophers was Philippus

Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. This man, who called
himself Paracelsus, declared that some day all the doctors of Europe would
turn from the other schools and, following him, revere him above every other
physician. The accepted date of the birth of Paracelsus is December 17, 1493.
He was an only child. Both his father and mother were interested in medicine
and chemistry. His father was a physician and his mother the superintendent of
a hospital. While still a youth, Paracelsus became greatly interested in the writ-
ings of Isaac of Holland, and determined to reform the medical science of his
day.
When twenty years old he began a series of travels which continued for
about twelve years. He visited many European countries, including Russia. It is
possible that he penetrated into Asia. It was in Constantinople that the great
secret of the Hermetic arts was bestowed upon him by Arabian adepts. His
knowledge of the Nature spirits and the inhabitants of the invisible worlds he
probably secured from the Brahmins of India with whom he came in contact
either directly or through their disciples. He became an army physician, and
his understanding and skill brought him great success.
Upon his return to Germany, he began his long-dreamed-of reformation of
the medical arts and sciences. He was opposed on every hand and criticized
unmercifully. His violent temper and tremendously strong personality undoub-
tedly precipitated many storms upon his head which might have been avoided
had he been of a less caustic disposition. He flayed the apothecaries, asserting
that they did not use the proper ingredients in their prescriptions and did not
consider the needs of their patients, desiring only to collect exorbitant fees for
their concoctions.
The remarkable cures which Paracelsus effected only made his enemies hate
him more bitterly, for they could not duplicate the apparent miracles which he
wrought. He not only treated the more common diseases of his day but is said
to have actually cured leprosy, cholera, and cancer. His friends claimed for
him that he all but raised the dead. His systems of healing were so heterodox,
however, that slowly but surely his enemies overwhelmed him and again and

507
again forced him to leave the fields of his labors and seek refuge where he was
not known.
There is much controversy concerning the personality of Paracelsus. That
he had an irascible disposition there is no doubt. His barred for physicians and
for women amounted to a mania; for them he had nothing but abuse. As far as
can be learned, there was never a love affair in his life. His peculiar appearance
and immoderate system of living were always held against him by his adversa-
ries. It is believed that his physical abnormalities may have been responsible
for much of the bitterness against society which he carried with him throughout
all his intolerant and tempestuous life.
His reputed intemperance brought upon him still more persecution, for it
was asserted that even during the time of his professorship in the University of
Basel he was seldom sober. Such an accusation is difficult to understand in
view of the marvelous mental clarity for which he was noted at all times. The
vast amount of writing which he accomplished (the Strassburg Edition of his
collected works is in three large volumes, each containing several hundred
pages) is a monumental contradiction of the tales regarding his excessive use of
alcoholics.
No doubt many of the vices of which he is accused were sheer inventions by
his enemies, who, not satisfied with hiring assassins to murder him, sought to
besmirch his memory after they had revengefully ended his life. The manner
in which Paracelsus met his death is uncertain, but: the most credible account
is that he died as the indirect result of a scuffle with a number of assassins who
had been hired by some of his professional enemies to make away with the one
who had exposed their chicanery.
Few manuscripts are extant in the handwriting of Paracelsus, for he dictated
the majority of his works to his disciples, who wrote them down. Professor
John Maxson Stillman, of Stanford University, pays the following tribute to his
memory: "Whatever be the final judgment as to the relative importance of Pa-
racelsus in the upbuilding of medical science and practice, it must be recog-
nized that he entered upon his career at Basel with the zeal and the self-
assurance of one who believed himself inspired with a great truth, and destined
to effect a great advance in the science and practice of medicine. By nature he
was a keen and open-minded observer of whatever came under his observa-
tion, though probably also not a very critical analyst of the observed phenome-
na. He was evidently an unusually self-reliant and independent thinker, though
the degree of originality in his thought may be a matter of legitimate differences
of opinion. Certainly once having, from whatever combination of influences,
made up his mind to reject the sacredness of the authority of Aristotle, Galen
and Avicenna, and having found what to his mind was a satisfactory substitute
for the ancient dogmas in his own modification of the neo-Platonic philosophy,

508
he did not hesitate to burn his ships behind him.
"Having cut loose from the dominant Galenism of his time, he determined
to preach and teach that the basis of the medical science of the future should
be the study of nature, observation of the patient, experiment and experience,
and not the infallible dogmas of authors long dead. Doubtless in the pride and
self-confidence of his youthful enthusiasm he did not rightly estimate the tre-
mendous force of conservatism against which he directed his assaults. If so, his
experience in Basel surely undeceived him. From that time on he was to be a
wanderer again, sometimes in great poverty, sometimes in moderate comfort,
but manifestly disillusioned as to the immediate success of his campaign
though never in doubt as to its ultimate success--for to his mind his new theo-
ries and practice of medicine were at one with the forces of nature, which were
the expression of God's will, and eventually they must prevail."
This strange man, his nature a mass of contradictions, his stupendous genius
shining like a star through the philosophic and scientific darkness of medival
Europe, struggling against the jealousy of his colleagues as well as against the
irascibility of his own nature, fought for the good of the many against the do-
mination of the few. He was the first man to write scientific books in the lan-
guage of the common people so that all could read them.
Even in death Paracelsus found no rest. Again and again his bones were dug
up and reinterred in another place. The slab of marble over his grave bears the
following inscription: "Here lies buried Philip Theophrastus the famous Doctor
of Medicine who cured Wounds, Leprosy, Gout, Dropsy and other incurable
Maladies of the Body, with wonderful Knowledge and gave his Goods to be
divided and distributed to the Poor. In the Year 1541 on the 24th day of Sep-
tember he exchanged Life for Death. To the Living Peace, to the Sepulchred
Eternal Rest."
A. M. Stoddart, in her Life of Paracelsus, gives a remarkable testimonial of
the love which the masses had for the great physician. Referring to his tomb,
she writes: "To this day the poor pray there. Hohenheim's memory has
'blossomed in the dust' to sainthood, for the poor have canonized him. When
cholera threatened Salzburg in 1830, the people made a pilgrimage to his mo-
nument and prayed him to avert it from their homes. The dreaded scourge
passed away from them and raged in Germany and the rest of Austria."

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Click to enlarge
ALBERTUS MAGNUS.
From Jovius' Vitae Illustrium Virorum.
Albert de Groot was born about 1206 and died at the age of 74. It has been said of
him that he was "magnus in magia, major in philosophia, maximus in theologia." He
was a member of the Dominican order and the mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas in
alchemy and philosophy. Among other positions of dignity occupied by Albertus Mag-
nus was that of Bishop of Regensburg. He was beatified in 1622. Albertus was an Aris-
totelian philosopher, an astrologer, and a profound student of medicine and physics.
During his youth, he was considered of deficient mentality, but his since service and
devotion were rewarded by a vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and
bestowed upon him great philosophical and intellectual powers. Having become mas-
ter of the magical sciences, Albertus began the construction of a curious automaton,
which he invested with the powers of speech and thought. The Android, as it was
called, was composed of metals and unknown substances chosen according to the stars
and endued with spiritual qualities by magical formul and invocations, and the labor
upon it consumed over thirty years. St. Thomas Aquinas, thinking the device to be a
diabolical mechanism, destroyed it, thus frustrating the labor of a lifetime. In spite of
this act, Albertus Magnus left to St. Thomas Aquinas his alchemical formul, includ-
ing (according to legend) the secret of the Philosopher's Stone.
On one occasion Albertus Magnus invited William II, Count of Holland and King
of the Romans, to a garden party in midwinter. The ground was covered with snow,
but Albertus, had prepare a sumptuous banquet in the open grounds of his monastery
at Cologne. The guests were amazed at the imprudence of the philosopher, but as they
sat down to eat Albertus, uttered a few words, the snow disappeared, the garden was
filled with flowers and singing birds, and the air was warm with the breezes of summer.
As soon as the feast was over, the snow returned, much to the amazement of the as-
sembled nobles. (For details, see The Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers.)

It was supposed that one early teacher of Paracelsus was a mysterious alchemist
who called himself Solomon Trismosin. Concerning this person nothing is
known save that after some years of wandering he secured the formula of
transmutation and claimed to have made vast amounts of gold. A beautifully
illuminated manuscript of this author, dated 1582 and called Splendor Solis, is
in the British Museum. Trismosin claimed to have lived to the age of 150 as
510
the result of his knowledge of alchemy. One very significant statement appears
in his Alchemical Wanderings, which work is supposed to narrate his search
for the Philosopher's Scone: "Study what thou art, whereof thou art a part, what
thou knowest of this art, this is really what thou art. All that is without thee also
is within, thus wrote Trismosin."

RAYMOND LULLY

This most famous of all the Spanish alchemists was born about the year 1235.
His father was seneschal to James the First of Aragon, and young Raymond was
brought up in the court surrounded by the temptations and profligacy abound-
ing in such places. He was later appointed to the position which his father had
occupied. A wealthy marriage ensured Raymond's financial position, and he
lived the life of a grandee.
One of the most beautiful women at: the court of Aragon was Donna Am-
brosia Eleanora Di Castello, whose virtue and beauty had brought her great
renown. She was at that time married and was not particularly pleased to dis-
cover that young Lully was rapidly developing a passion for her. Wherever she
went Raymond followed, and at last over a trivial incident he wrote some very
amorous verses to her, which produced an effect quite different from what he
had expected. He received a message inviting him to visit the lady. He re-
sponded with alacrity. She told him that it was only fair that he should behold
more of the beauty concerning which he wrote such appealing poems and,
drawing aside part of her garments, disclosed that one side of her body was
nearly eaten away by a cancer. Raymond never recovered from the shock. It
turned the entire course of his life. He renounced the frivolities of the court
and became a recluse.
Sometime afterwards while doing penance for his worldly sins a vision ap-
peared to him in which Christ told him to follow in the direction in which He
should lead. Later the vision was repeated. Hesitating no longer, Raymond
divided his property among his family and retired to a hut on the side of a hill,
where he devoted himself to the study of Arabic, that he might go forth and
convert the infidels. After six years in this retreat he set out with a Mohamme-
dan servant, who, when he learned that Raymond was about to attack the faith
of his people, buried his knife in his master's back. Raymond refused to allow
his would-be assassin to be executed, but later the man strangled himself in
prison.
When Raymond regained his health he became a teacher of the Arabic lan-
guage to those who intended traveling in the Holy Land. It was while so en-

511
gaged that he came in contact: with Arnold of Villa Nova, who taught him the
principles or alchemy. As a result of this training, Raymond learned the secret
of the transmutation and multiplication of metals. His life of wandering contin-
ued, and during the course of it he arrived at Tunis, where he began to debate
with the Mohammedan teachers, and nearly lost his life as the result of his
fanatical attacks upon their religion. He was ordered to leave the country and
never to return again upon pain of death. Notwithstanding their threats he
made a second visit to Tunis, but the inhabitants instead of killing him merely
deported him to Italy.
An unsigned article appearing in Household Words, No. 273, a magazine
conducted by Charles Dickens, throws considerable light on Lully's alchemical
ability. "Whilst at Vienna he [Lully] received flattering letters from Edward the
Second, King of England, and from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, entreating
him to visit them. He had also, in the course of his travels, met with John Cre-
mer, Abbot of Westminster, with whom he formed a strong friendship; and it
was more to please him than the king, that Raymond consented to go to Eng-
land. [A tract by John Cremer appears in the Hermetic Museum, but there is
no record in the annals of Westminster of anyone by that name.] Cremer had
an intense desire to learn the last great secret of alchemy--to make the powder
of transmutation--and Raymond, with all his friendship, had never disclosed it.
Cremer, however, set to work very cunningly; he was not long in discovering
the object that was nearest to Raymond's heart--the conversion of the infidels.
He told the king wonderful stories of the gold Lully had the art to make; and
he worked upon Raymond by the hope that King Edward would be easily in-
duced to raise a crusade against the Mahommedans, if he had the means.
"Raymond had appealed so often to popes and kings that he had lost all faith
in them; nevertheless, as a last hope, he accompanied his friend Cremer to
England. Cremer lodged him in his abbey, treating him with distinction; and
there Lully at last instructed him in the powder, the secret of which Cremer
had so long desired to know. When the powder was perfected, Cremer pre-
sented him to the king, who received him as a man may be supposed to receive
one who could give him boundless riches. Raymond made only one condition;
that the gold he made should not be expended upon the luxuries of the court
or upon a war with any Christian king; and that Edward himself should go in
person with an army against the infidels. Edward promised everything and any-
thing.
"Raymond had apartments assigned him in the Tower, and there he tells us
he transmuted fifty thousand pounds weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into
pure gold, which was coined at the mint into six million of nobles, each worth
about three pounds sterling at the present day. Some of the pieces said to have
been coined out of this gold are still to be found in antiquarian collections.

512
[While desperate attempts have been made to disprove these statements, the
evidence is still about equally divided.] To Robert Bruce he sent a little work
entitled Of the Art of Transmuting Metals. Dr. Edmund Dickenson relates that
when the cloister which Raymond occupied at Westminster was removed, the
workmen found some of the powder, with which they enriched themselves.
"During Lully's residence in England, he became the friend of Roger Bacon.
Nothing, of course, could be further from King Edward's thoughts than to go
on a crusade. Raymond's apartments in the Tower were only an honorable
prison; and he soon perceived how matters were. He declared that Edward
would meet with nothing but misfortune and misery for his breach of faith. He
made his escape from England in 1315, and set off once more to preach to the
infidels. He was now a very old man, and none of his friends could ever hope
to see his face again.
"He went first to Egypt, then to Jerusalem, and thence to Tunis a third time.
There he at last met with the martyrdom he had so often braved. The people
fell upon him and stoned him. Some Genoese merchants carried away his
body, in which they discerned some feeble signs of life. They carried him on
board their vessel; but, though he lingered awhile, he died as they came in sight
of Majorca, on the 28th of June, 1315, at the age of eighty-one. He was buried
with great honour in his family chapel at St. Ulma, the viceroy and all the prin-
cipal nobility attending."

NICHOLAS FLAMMEL

In the latter part of the fourteenth century there lived in Paris one whose busi-
ness was that of illuminating manuscripts and preparing deeds and documents.
To Nicholas Flammel the world is indebted for its knowledge of a most re-
markable volume, which he bought for a paltry sum from some bookdealer
with whom his profession of scrivener brought him in contact. The story of this
curious document, called the Book of Abraham the Jew, is best narrated in his
own words as preserved in his Hieroglyphical Figures: "Whilst therefore, I
Nicholas Flammel, Notary, after the decease of my parents, got my living at our
art of writing, by making inventories, dressing accounts, and summing up the
expenses of tutors and pupils, there fell into my hands for the sum of two flo-
rins, a guilded book, very old and large. It was not of paper, nor of parchment,
as other books be, but was only made of delicate rinds (as it seemed to me) of
tender young trees. The cover of it was of brass, well bound, all engraven with
letters, or strange figures; and for my part I think they might well be Greek
characters, or some such like ancient language. Sure I am. I could not read

513
them, and I know well they were not notes nor letters of the Latin nor of the
Gaul, for of them we understand a little.

Click to enlarge
TITLE PAGE OF ALCHEMICAL TRACT ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN CREMER.
From Musum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.
John Cremer, the mythical Abbot of Westminster, is an interesting personality in the
alchemical imbroglio of the fourteenth century. As it is not reasonably certain that m
abbot by such a name ever occupied the See of Westminster, the question naturally
arises, "Who was the person concealing his identity under the Pseudonym of John
Cremer?" Fictitious characters such as John Cremer illustrate two important practices
of medival alchemists: (1) many persons of high political or religious rank were se-
cretly engaged in Hermetic chemical research but, fearing persecution and ridicule,
published their findings under various pseudonyms; (2) for thousands of years it was
the practice of those initiates who possessed the true key to the great Hermetic arca-
num to perpetuate their wisdom by creating imaginary persons, involving them in epi-
sodes of contemporaneous history and thus establishing these beings as prominent
members of society--in some cases even fabricating complete genealogies to attain that
end. The names by which these fictitious characters were known revealed nothing to
the uniformed. To the initiated, however, they signified that the personality to which
they were assigned had no existence other than a symbolic one. These initiated chro-
niclers carefully concealed their arcanum in the lives, thoughts, words. and acts as-
cribed to these imaginary persons and thus safely transmitted through the ages the
deepest secrets of occultism as writings which to the unconversant were nothing more
than biographies.

"As for that which was within it, the leaves of bark or rind, were engraven and
with admirable diligence written, with a point of iron, in fair and neat Latin
letters colored. It contained thrice seven leaves, for so were they counted in the
top of the leaves, and always every seventh leaf there was painted a virgin and
serpent swallowing her up. In the second seventh, a cross where a serpent was
crucified; and the last seventh, there were painted deserts, or wildernesse, in
514
the midst whereof ran many fair fountains, from whence there issued out a
number of serpents, which ran up and down here and there. Upon the first of
the leaves, was written in great capital letters of gold, Abraham the Jew, Prince,
Priest, Levite, Astrologer, and Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, by the
Wrath of God dispersed among the Gauls, sendeth Health. After this it was
filled with great execrations and curses (with this word Maranatha, which was
often repeated there) against every person that should cast his eyes upon it, if
he were not Sacrificer or Scribe.
"He that sold me this book knew not what it was worth nor more than I
when I bought it; I believe it had been stolen or taken from the miserable Jews,
or found in some part of the ancient place of their abode. Within the book, in
the second leaf, he comforted his nation, counselling them to fly vices, and
above all idolatry, attending with sweet patience the coming of the Messias,
Who should vanquish all the kings of the earth and should reign with His
people in glory eternally. Without doubt this had been some very wise and
understanding man.
"In the third leaf, and in all the other writings that followed, to help his cap-
tive nation to pay their tributes unto the Roman emperors, and to do other
things, which I will not speak of, he taught them in common words the trans-
mutation of metals; he painted the vessels by the sides, and he advertised them
of the colors, and of all the rest, saving of the first agent, of the which he spake
not a word, but only (as he said) in the fourth and fifth leaves entire he painted
it, and figured it with very great cunning and workman ship: for although it was
well and intelligibly figured and painted, yet no man could ever have been able
to understand it, without being well skilled in their Cabala, which goeth by tra-
dition, and without having well studied their books.
"The fourth and fifth leaves therefore, were without any writing, all full of fair
figures enlightened, or as it were enlightened, for the work was very exquisite.
First he painted a young man with wings at his ancles, having in his hand a Ca-
ducean rod, writhen about with two serpents, wherewith he struck upon a hel-
met which covered his head. He seemed to my small judgment, to be the God
Mercury of the pagans: against him there came running and flying with open
wings, a great old man, who upon his head had an hour glass fastened, and in
his hand a book (or syrhe) like death, with the which, in terrible and furious
manner, he would have cut off the feet of Mercury. On the other side of the
fourth leaf, he painted a fair flower on the top of a very high mountain which
was sore shaken with the North wind; it had the foot blue, the flowers white
and red, the leaves shining like fine gold: and round about it the dragons and
griffons of the North made their nests and abode.
"On the fifth leaf there was a fair rose tree flowered in the midst of a sweet
garden, climbing up against a hollow oak; at the foot whereof boiled a fountain

515
of most white water, which ran headlong down into the depths, notwithstanding
it first passed among the hands of infinite people, who digged in the earth seek-
ing for it; but because they were blind, none of them knew it, except here and
there one who considered the weight. On the last side of the fifth leaf there was
a king with a great fauchion, who made to be killed in his presence by some
soldiers a great multitude of little infants, whose mothers wept at the feet of the
unpitiful soldiers: the blood of which infants was afterwards by other soldiers
gathered up, and put in a great vessel, wherein the sun and the moon came to
bathe themselves.
"And because that this history did represent the more part of that of the in-
nocents slain by Herod, and that in this book I learned the greatest part of the
art, this was one of the causes why I placed in their church-yard these Hierog-
lyphic Symbols of this secret science. And thus you see that which was in the
first five leaves.
"I will not represent unto you that which was written in good and intelligible
Latin in all the other written leaves, for God would punish me, because I
should commit a greater wickedness, than he who (as it is said) wished that all
the men of the World had but one head that he might cut it off with one blow.
Having with me therefore this fair book, I did nothing else day nor night, but
study upon it, understanding very well all the operations that it showed, but not
knowing with what matter I should begin, which made me very heavy and soli-
tary, and caused me to fetch many a sigh. My wife Perrenella, whom I loved as
myself, and had lately married was much astonished at this, comforting me,
and earnestly demanding, if she could by any means deliver me from this
trouble. I could not possibly hold my tongue, but told her all, and showed this
fair book, whereof at the same instant that she saw it, she became as much
enamoured as myself, taking extreme pleasure to behold the fair cover, grav-
ings, images, and portraits, whereof notwithstanding she understood as little as
I: yet it was a great comfort to me to talk with her, and to entertain myself, what
we should do to have the interpretation of them."
Nicholas Flammel spent many years studying the mysterious book. He even
painted the pictures from it all over the walls of his house and made numerous
copies which he showed to the learned men with whom he came in contact,
but none could explain their secret significance. At last he determined to go
forth in quest of an adept, or wise man, and after many wanderings he met a
physician--by name Master Canches--who was immediately interested in the
diagrams and asked to see the original book. They started forth together for
Paris, and or, the way the physician adept explained many of the principles of
the hieroglyphics to Flammel, but before they reached their journey's end Mas-
ter Canches was taken ill and died. Flammel buried him at Orleans, but having
meditated deeply on the information he had secured during their brief ac-

516
quaintance, he was able, with the assistance of his wife, to work out the formula
for transmuting base metals into gold. He performed the experiment several
times with perfect success, and before his death caused a number of hierog-
lyphic figures to be painted upon an arch of St. Innocent's churchyard in Paris,
wherein he concealed the entire formula as it had been revealed to him from
the Book of Abraham the Jew.

COUNT BERNARD OF TREVISO

Of all those who sought for the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Scone, few
passed through the chain of disappointments that beset Count Bernard of Tre-
viso, who was born in Padua in 1406 and died in 1490. His search for the Phi-
losopher's Stone and the secret of the transmutation of metals began when he
was but fourteen years of age. He spent not only a lifetime but also a fortune in
his quest. Count Bernard went from one alchemist and philosopher to another,
each of whom unfolded some pet theorem which he eagerly accepted and ex-
perimented with but always without the desired result. His family believed him
to be mad and declared that he was disgracing his house by his experiments,
which were rapidly reducing him to a state of penury. He traveled in many
countries, hoping that in distant places he would find wise men capable of as-
sisting him. At last as he was approaching his seventy-sixth year, he was re-
warded with success. The great secrets of the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's
Stone, and the transmutation of metals were revealed to him. He wrote a little
book describing the results of his labors, and while he lived only a few years to
enjoy the fruitage of his discovery he was thoroughly satisfied that the treasure
he had found was worth the lifetime spent in search of it. An example of the
industry and perseverance displayed by him is to be found in one of the
processes which some foolish pretender coaxed him to attempt and which
resulted in his spending twenty years calcining egg shells and nearly an equal
period distilling alcohol and other substances. In the history of alchemical re-
search there never was a more patient and persevering disciple of the Great
Arcanum.
Bernard declared the process of dissolution, accomplished not with fire but
with mercury, to be the supreme secret of alchemy.

517
Click to enlarge
THE SYMBOLS OF ABRAHAM THE JEW.
From Flammel's Hieroglyphical Figures.
Robert H. Fryar, in a footnote to his reprint of the Hieroglyphical Figures by Nicholas
Flammel, says: "One thing which seems to prove the reality of this story beyond dis-
pute, is, that this very book of Abraham the Jew, with the annotations of 'Flammel,'
who wrote from the instructions he received from this physician, was actually in the
hands of Cardinal Richelieu, as Borel was told by the Count de Cabrines, who saw and
examined it."

518
 The Theory and Practice of Alchemy
Part I

ALCHEMY, the secret art of the land of Khem, is one of the two oldest
sciences known to the world. The other is astrology. The beginnings of both
extend back into the obscurity of prehistoric times. According to the earliest
records extant, alchemy and astrology were considered as divinely revealed to
man so that by their aid he might regain his lost estate. According to old le-
gends preserved by the Rabbins, the angel at the gate of Eden instructed Adam
in the mysteries of Qabbalah and of alchemy, promising that when the human
race had thoroughly mastered the secret wisdom concealed within these in-
spired arts, the curse of the forbidden fruit would be removed and man might
again enter into the Garden of the Lord. As man took upon himself "coats of
skins" (physical bodies) at the time of his fall, so these sacred sciences were
brought by him into the lower worlds incarnated in dense vehicles, through
which their spiritual transcendental natures could no longer manifest them-
selves. Therefore they were considered as being dead or lost.
The earthly body of alchemy is chemistry, for chemists do not realize that
half of The Book of Torah is forever concealed behind the veil of Isis (see the
Tarot), and that so long as they study only material elements they can at best
discover but half of the mystery. Astrology has crystallized into astronomy,
whose votaries ridicule the dreams of ancient seers and sages, deriding their
symbols as meaningless products of superstition. Nevertheless, the intelligentsia
of the modern world can never pass behind the veil which divides the seen
from the unseen except in the way appointed--the Mysteries.
What is life? What is intelligence? What is force? These are the problems
to the solution of which the ancients consecrated their temples of learning.
Who shall say that they did not answer those questions? Who would recognize
the answers if given? Is it possible that under the symbols of alchemy and as-
trology lies concealed a wisdom so abstruse that the mind of this race is not
qualified to conceive its principles?
The Chaldeans, Phnicians, and Babylonians were familiar with the prin-
ciples of alchemy, as were many early Oriental races. It was practiced in
Greece and Rome; was the master science of the Egyptians. Khem was an an-
cient name for the land of Egypt; and both the words alchemy and chemistry
are a perpetual reminder of the priority of Egypt's scientific knowledge. Ac-
cording to the fragmentary writings of those early peoples, alchemy was to
them no speculative art. They implicitly believed in the multiplication of met-

519
als; and in the face of their reiterations both the scholar and the materialist
should be more kindly in their consideration of alchemical theorems. Evolu-
tionists trace the unfoldment of the arts and sciences up through the growing
intelligence of the prehistoric man, while others, of a transcendental point of
view, like to consider them as being direct revelations from God.
Many interesting solutions to the riddle of alchemy's origin have been ad-
vanced. One is that alchemy was revealed to man by the mysterious Egyptian
demigod Hermes Trismegistus. This sublime figure, looming through the mists
of time and bearing in his hand the immortal Emerald, is credited by the Egyp-
tians as being the author of all the arts and sciences. In honor of him all scien-
tific knowledge was gathered under the general title of The Hermetic Arts.
When the body of Hermes was interred in the Valley of Ebron (or Hebron),
the divine Emerald was buried with it. Many centuries afterward the Emerald
was discovered--according to one version, by an Arabian initiate; according to
another, by Alexander the Great, King of Macedon. By means of the power of
this Emerald, upon which were the mysterious inscriptions of the Thrice Great
Hermes--thirteen sentences in all--Alexander conquered all the then known
world. Not having conquered himself, however, he ultimately failed. Regardless
of his glory and power, the prophecies of the talking trees were fulfilled, and
Alexander was cut down in the midst of his triumph. (There are persistent
rumors to the effect that Alexander was an initiate of high order who failed
because of his inability to withstand the temptations of power.)
E. Y. Kenealy, quoting from the Cosmodromium of Doctor Gobelin Perso-
na, describes the incident of Alexander and the talking trees, into the presence
of which the King of Macedon is said to have been brought while on his cam-
paign in India: "And now Alexander marched into other quarters equally dan-
gerous; at one time over the tops of mountains, at another through dark valleys,
in which his army was attacked by serpents and wild beasts, until after three
hundred days he came into a most pleasant mountain, on whose sides hung
chains or ropes of gold. This mountain had two thousand and fifty steps all of
purest sapphire, by which one could ascend to the summit, and near this Alex-
ander encamped. And on a day, Alexander with his Twelve Princes, ascended
by the aforenamed steps to the top of the Mountain, and found there a Palace
marvellously beautiful, having Twelve Gates, and seventy windows of the purest
gold, and it was called the Palace of the Sun, and there was in it a Temple all of
gold, before whose gates were vine trees bearing bunches of carbuncles and
pearls, and Alexander and his Princes having entered the Palace, found there a
Man lying on a golden bedstead; he was very stately and beautiful in appear-
ance, and his head and beard were white as snow. Then Alexander and his
princes bent the knee to the Sage who spake thus: 'Alexander, thou shalt now
see what no earthly man hath ever before seen or heard.' To whom Alexander

520
made answer: 'O, Sage, most happy, how dost thou know me?' He replied:
'Before the wave of the Deluge covered the face of the earth I knew thy works.'
He added: 'Wouldst thou behold the most hallowed Trees of the Sun and
Moon, which announce all future things?' Alexander made answer: 'It is well,
my lord; greatly do we long to see them.' * * *
"Then the Sage said: 'Put away your rings and ornaments, and take off your
shoes, and follow me.' And Alexander did so, and choosing out three from the
Princes, and leaving the rest to await his return, he followed the Sage, and came
to the Trees of the Sun and Moon. The Tree of the Sun has leaves of red gold,
the Tree of the Moon has leaves of silver, and they are very great, and Alexan-
der, at the suggestion of the Sage questioned the Trees, asking if he should
return in triumph to Macedon? to which the Trees gave answer, No, but that
he should live yet another year and eight months, after which he should die by
a poisoned cup. And when he inquired, Who was he who should give him that
poison? he received no reply, and the Tree of the Moon said to him, that his
Mother, after a most shameful and unhappy death, should lie long unburied,
but that happiness was in store for his sisters." (See The Book of Enoch, The
Second Messenger of God.)
In all probability, the so-called talking trees were merely strips of wood with
tables of letters upon them, by means of which oracles were evoked. At one
time books written upon wood were called "talking trees." The difficulty in de-
ciding the origin of alchemy is directly due to ignoring the lost continent of
Atlantis. The Great Arcanum was the most prized of the secrets of the Atlan-
tean priestcraft. When the land of Atlas sank, hierophants of the Fire Mystery
brought the formula to Egypt, where it remained for centuries in the possession
of the sages and philosophers. It gradually moved into Europe, where its se-
crets are still preserved intact.

Click to enlarge
THE LEAVES OF HERMES' SACRED TREE.
Redrawn from an original manuscript dated 1577.
In his Key to Alchemy, Samuel Norton divides into fourteen parts the processes or
521
states through which the alchemical substances pass from the time they are first placed
in the test tube until ready as medicine for plants, minerals, or men:
1. Solution, the act of passing from a gaseous or solid condition, into one of liquidity.
2. Filtration, the mechanical separation of a liquid from the undissolved particles sus-
pended in it.
3. Evaporation, the changing or converting from a liquid or solid state into a vaporous
state with the aid of heat.
4. Distillation, an operation by which a volatile liquid may be separated from sub-
stances which it holds in solution.
5. Separation, the operation of disuniting or decomposing substances.
6. Rectification, the process of refining or purifying any substance by repeated distilla-
tion.
7. Calcination, the conversion into a powder or calx by the action of heat; expulsion of
the volatile substance from a matter.
8. Commixtion, the blending of different ingredients into new compounds or mass.
9. Purification (through putrefaction), disintegration by spontaneous decomposition;
decay by artificial means.
10. Inhibition, the process of holding back or restraining.
11. Fermentation, the conversion of organic substances into new compounds in the
presence of a ferment.
12. Fixation, the act or process of ceasing to be a fluid and becoming firm; state of
being fixed.
13. Multiplication, the act or process of multiplying or increasing in number, the state
of being multiplied.
14. Projection, the process of turning the base Metals into gold.

Those disagreeing with the legend of Hermes and his Emerald Tablet see in
the two hundred angels who descended upon the mountains, as described by
the Prophet: Enoch, the first instructors in the alchemical art. Regardless of its
originator, it was left to the Egyptian priests to preserve alchemy for the mod-
ern world. Egypt, because of the color of its earth, was called "the black empire"
and is referred to in the Old Testament as "the land of darkness." By reason of
its possible origin there, alchemy has long been known as "the black art, " not in
the sense of evil but in the sense of that darkness which has always enshrouded
its secret processes.
During the Middle Ages, alchemy was not only a philosophy and a science
but also a religion. Those who rebelled against the religious limitations of their
day concealed their philosophic teachings under the allegory of gold-making.
In this way they preserved their personal liberty and were ridiculed rather than
persecuted. Alchemy is a threefold art, its mystery well symbolized by a trian-
gle. Its symbol is 3 times 3--three elements or processes in three worlds or

522
spheres. The 3 times 3 is part of the mystery of the 33rd degree of Freemaso-
nry, for 33 is 3 times 3, which is 9, the number of esoteric man and the num-
ber of emanations from the root of the Divine Tree. It is the number of worlds
nourished by the four rivers that pour out of the Divine Mouth as the verbum
fiat. Beneath the so-called symbolism of alchemy is concealed a magnificent
concept, for this ridiculed and despised craft still preserves intact the triple key
to the gates of eternal life. Realizing, therefore, that alchemy is a mystery in
three worlds--the divine, the human, and the elemental--it can easily be appre-
ciated why the sages and philosophers created and evolved an intricate allegory
to conceal their wisdom.
Alchemy is the science of multiplication and is based upon the natural phe-
nomenon of growth. "Nothing from nothing comes," is an extremely ancient
adage. Alchemy is not the process of making something from nothing; it is the
process of increasing and improving that which already exists. If a philosopher
were to state that a living man could be made from a stone, the unenlightened
would probably exclaim, "Impossible!" Thus would they reveal their ignorance,
for to the wise it is known that in every stone is the seed of man. A philosopher
might declare that a universe could be made out of a man, but the foolish
would regard this as an impossibility, not realizing that a man is a seed from
which a universe may be brought forth.
God is the "within" and the "without" of all things. The Supreme One mani-
fests Himself through growth, which is an urge from within outward, a struggle
for expression and manifestation. There is no greater miracle in the growing
and multiplication of gold by the alchemist than in a tiny mustard seed produc-
ing a bush many thousands of times the size of the seed. If a mustard seed
produces a hundred thousand times its own size and weight when planted in an
entirely different substance (the earth), why should not the seed of gold be
multiplied a hundred thousand times by art when that seed is planted in its
earth (the base metals) and nourished artificially by the secret process of alc-
hemy?
Alchemy teaches that God is in everything; that He is One Universal Spirit,
manifesting through an infinity of forms. God, therefore, is the spiritual seed
planted in the dark earth (the material universe). By arc it is possible so to grow
and expand this seed that the entire universe of substance is tinctured thereby
and becomes like unto the seed--pure gold. In the spiritual nature of man this
is termed regeneration; in the material body of the elements it is called trans-
mutation. As it is in the spiritual and material universes, so it is in the intellec-
tual world. Wisdom cannot be imparted to an idiot because the seed of wis-
dom is not within him, but wisdom may be imparted to an ignorant person,
however ignorant he may be, because the seed of wisdom exists in him and can
be developed by art and culture. Hence a philosopher is only an ignorant man

523
within whose nature a projection has taken place.
Through art (the process of learning) the whole mass of base metals (the
mental body of ignorance) was transmuted into pure gold (wisdom), for it was
tinctured with understanding. If, then, through faith and proximity to God the
consciousness of man may be transmuted from base animal desires
(represented by the masses of the planetary metals) into a pure, golden, and
godly consciousness, illumined and redeemed, and the manifesting God within
that one increased from a tiny spark to a great and glorious Being; if also the
base metals of mental ignorance can, through proper endeavor and training, be
transmuted into transcendent genius and wisdom, why is the process in two
worlds or spheres of application not equally true in the third? If both the spiri-
tual and mental elements of the universe can be multiplied in their expression,
then by the law of analogy the material elements of the universe can also be
multiplied, if the necessary process can be ascertained.
That which is true in the superior is true in the inferior. If alchemy be a
great spiritual fact, then it is also a great material fact. If it can take place in the
universe, it can take place in man; if it can take place in man, it can take place
in the plants and minerals. If one thing in the universe grows, then everything
in the universe grows. If one thing can be multiplied, then all things can be
multiplied, "for the superior agrees with the inferior and the inferior agrees with
the superior." But as the way for the redemption of the soul is concealed by the
Mysteries, so the secrets for the redemption of the metals are also concealed,
that they may not fall into the hands of the profane and thereby become per-
verted.
If any would grow metals, he must first learn the secrets of the metals: he
must realize that all metals--like all stones, plants, animals, and universes--grow
from seeds, and that these seeds are already in the body of Substance (the
womb of the World Virgin); for the seed of man is in the universe before he is
born (or grows), and as the seed of the plant exists for all time though the plant
live but a part of that time, so the seeds of spiritual gold and material gold are
ever present in all things. The metals grow throughout the ages, because life is
imparted to them from the sun. They grow imperceptibly, in form like tiny
shrubs, for everything grows in some way. Only the methods of growth differ,
according to kind and magnitude.
One of the great axioms is, "Within everything is the seed of everything,"
although by the simple processes of Nature it may remain latent for many cen-
turies, or its growth may be exceedingly slow. Therefore, every grain of sand
contains not only the seed of the precious metals as well as the seed of the
priceless gems, but also the seeds of sun, moon, and stars. As within the nature
of man is reflected the entire universe in miniature, so in each grain of sand,
each drop of water, each tiny particle of cosmic dust, are concealed all the parts

524
and elements of cosmos in the form of tiny seed germs so minute that even the
most powerful microscope cannot detect them. Trillions of times smaller than
the ion or electron, these seeds--unrecognizable and incomprehensible--await
the time assigned them for growth and expression. (Consider the monads of
Leibnitz.)
There are two methods whereby growth may be accomplished. The first is
by Nature, for Nature is an alchemist forever achieving the apparently impossi-
ble. The second is by art, and through art is produced in a comparatively short
time that which requires Nature almost endless periods to duplicate. The true
philosopher, desiring to accomplish the Magnum Opus, patterns his conduct
according to the laws of Nature, recognizing that the art of alchemy is merely a
method copied from Nature but with the aid of certain secret formul greatly
shortened by being correspondingly intensified. Nature, in order to achieve her
miracles, must work through either extensiveness; or intensiveness. The exten-
sive processes of Nature are such as are used in the transmutation of the pitch
of black carbon into diamonds, requiring millions of years of natural harden-
ing. The intensive process is art, which is ever the faithful servant of Nature (as
Dr. A. Dee says), supplementing her every step and cooperating with her in all
her ways. "So, in this philosophical work, Nature and Art ought so lovingly to
embrace each other, as that Art may not require what Nature denies, nor Na-
ture deny what may be perfected by Art. For Nature assenting, she demeans
herself obediently to every artist, whilst by their industry she is helped, not
hindered. " (Dr. A. Dee in his Chemical Collections.)
By means of this art the seed which is within the soul of a stone may be
made to germinate so intensively that in a few moments a diamond is grown
from the seed of itself. If the seed of the diamond were not in the marble, gra-
nite, and sand, a diamond could not be grown therefrom. But as the seed is
within all these things, a diamond may be grown out of any other substance in
the universe. In some substances, however, it is easier to perform this miracle
because in them these germs have already been long fertilized and are thus
more nearly prepared for the vivifying process of the art. Likewise, to teach
some men wisdom is easier than to teach others, for some already have a
foundation upon which to work, while in others the thinking faculties are en-
tirely dormant. Alchemy, therefore, should be regarded as the art of increasing
and bringing into perfect flower with the greatest possible expedition. Nature
may accomplish her desired end or, because of the destructiveness exercised
by one element over another, she may not; but with the aid of the true art,
Nature always accomplishes her end, for this art is not subject either to the
wastings of time or to the vandalism of elemental reactions.
In his History of Chemistry, James Campbell Brown, late professor of che-
mistry in the University of Liverpool, sums up the ends which alchemists

525
sought to achieve, in the following paragraphs:
"This, therefore, was the general aim of the alchemists--to carry out in the
laboratory, as far as possible, the processes which Nature carried out in the
interior of the earth. Seven leading problems occupied their attention:--
"1. The preparation of a compound named elixir, magisterium medicine, or
philosopher's stone, which possessed the property of transmuting the baser
metals into gold and silver, and of performing many other marvelous opera-
tions. * * *
"2. The creation of homunculi, or living. beings, of which many wonderful but
incredible tales are told.
"3. The preparation of the alcahest or universal solvent, which dissolved every
substance which was immersed in it. * * *
"4. Palingenesis, or the restoration of a plant from its ashes. Had they suc-
ceeded in this, they would have hoped to be able to raise the dead. [Professor
Brown takes a great deal for granted.]
"5. The preparation of spiritus mundi, a mystic substance possessing many
powers, the principal of which was its capacity of dissolving gold.
"6. The extraction of the quintessence or active principle of all substances.
"7. The preparation of aurum potabile, liquid gold, a sovereign remedy, be-
cause gold being itself perfect could produce perfection in the human frame."

ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

In alchemy there are three symbolic substances: mercury, sulphur, and salt. To
these was added a fourth mysterious life principle called Azoth. Concerning
the first three, Herr von Welling has written: "There are three basic chemical
substances which are called by the philosophers salt, sulphur, and mercury, but
which are not to be confounded in any way with the crude salt, sulphur, and
mercury taken from the earth or secured from the apothecary. Salt, sulphur,
and mercury each has a triune nature, for each of these substances contains, in
reality, also the other two substances, according to the secret arcanum of the
wise. The body of salt is, therefore, threefold, namely salt, sulphur, and mer-
cury; but in the body of salt one of the three (salt) predominates. Mercury is
likewise composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury with the latter element pre-
dominating. Sulphur, similarly, is actually salt, sulphur, and mercury, with sul-
phur predominating. These nine divisions--3 times 3, plus Azoth (the myste-
rious universal life force), equals 10, the sacred decad of Pythagoras. Concern-
ing the nature of Azoth there is much controversy. Some view it as the invisi-
ble, eternal fire; others as electricity; still others as magnetism. Transcendental-

526
ism refer to it as the astral light.
"The universe is surrounded by the sphere of the stars. Beyond that sphere
is the sphere of Schamayim, which is the Divine fiery water, the first outflow of
the Word of God, the flaming river pouring from the presence of the Eternal.
Schamayim, the fiery androgynous water, divides. The fire becomes the solar
fire and the water becomes the lunar water. Schamayim is the universal mer-
cury--sometimes called Azoth--the measureless spirit of life. The spiritual fiery
original water--Schamayim--comes through Eden (in Hebrew, vapor) and pours
itself into four main rivers [the elements]. This is the river of living water--
Azoth [the fiery mercurial essence] that flows out from the throne of God and
the Lamb. In this Eden [vaporous essence or mist] is the spiritual earth [in-
comprehensible and intangible], or the dust Aphar, out of which God formed
Adam min Haadamah, the spiritual body of man, which body must sometime
become revealed."
In another part of his writings von Welling also says that there was no ma-
terial universe until Lucifer, attempting to perform the cosmic alchemy, mi-
sused the Schamayim, or the Divine Fire. In order to reestablish the Scha-
mayim which Lucifer had perverted, this universe was formed as a means of
liberating it from the dark cloud within which it was locked by the failure of
Lucifer's attempt to control it. These statements clearly emphasize the fact that
the early philosophers recognized in the Bible a book of chemical and alchem-
ical formul. It is essential that this point be kept in mind at all times. Woe to
that seeker who accepts as literal the rambling allegories of the alchemists.
Such a one can never enter the inner sanctuary of truth. Elias Ashmole in his
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum thus describes the methods employed by
the alchemists to conceal their true doctrines: "Their chiefest study was to wrap
up their Secrets in Fables, and spin out their Fancies in Vailes and shadows,
whose Radii seems to extend every way, yet so, that they meet in a Common
Center, and point onely at One thing."
The fact that the Scriptures reveal a hidden knowledge, if considered alle-
gorically, is clearly demonstrated by a parable describing King Solomon, his
wives, concubines, and virgins, which parable occurs in Geheime Figuren der
Rosenkreuzer, published in Ultona in 1785. Dr. Hartmann, who translated
part of this work into English, declared that the wives of Solomon represented
the arts, the concubines the sciences, and the virgins the still unrevealed secrets
of Nature. By order of the King the virgins were forced to remove their veils,
thus signifying that by means of wisdom (Solomon) the mystic arts were forced
to disclose their hidden parts to the philosopher, while to the uninitiated world
only the outside garments were visible. (Such is the mystery of the veil of Isis.)
As the alchemist must do his work in four worlds simultaneously if he would
achieve the Magnum Opus, a table showing the analogies of the three prin-

527
ciples in the four worlds may clarify the relationship which the various parts
bear to each other. The early masters of the art of alchemical symbolism did
not standardize either their symbols or their terms. Thus it required great fami-
liarity with the subject combined with considerable intuitive power to unravel
some of their enigmatical statements. The third and fourth divisions of the
following table are given alternative renderings, owing to the fact that some
authors did not draw a clear line between spirit and soul. According to the
Scriptures, spirit is indestructible, but soul is destructible. Obviously, then, they
are not synonymous. It is clearly stated that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die,"
but "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." The table of analogies, as
nearly as they can be established, is as follows:

The Triune Power in Four Worlds

WORLD OF Father Son Mother
1. God Father Son Holy Ghost
2. Man Spirit Soul Body
3. Elements Air Fire Water
4. Chemicals Mercury Sulphur Salt
The alternative renderings of 3 and 4 are:
WORLD OF Father Son Mother
3. Elements Fire Air Water
4. Chemicals Sulphur Mercury Salt
Paracelsus made a different arrangement, somewhat Aristotelian, in which the
three phases of the Triune God are omitted, combining only the elements of
the second, third, and fourth worlds:
WORLD OF Father Son Mother
2. Man Spirit Soul Body
3. Elements Air Water Earth
4. Chemicals Sulphur Mercury Salt

The main point, however, is proved: the alchemical philosophers used the
symbols of salt, sulphur, and mercury to represent not only chemicals but the
spiritual and invisible principles of God, man, and the universe. The three
substances (salt, sulphur, and mercury) existing in four worlds, as shown in the
table, sum up to the sacred number 12. As these 12 are the foundations of the
Great Work, they are called in Revelation the twelve foundation stones of the
sacred city. In line with the same idea Pythagoras asserted that the dodecahe-
dron, or twelve-faced symmetrical geometric solid, was the foundation of the
528
universe. May there not be a relation also between this mysterious 3 times 4
and the four parties of three which in the legend of the third degree of Freema-
sonry go forth to the four angles of the cherubim, the composite creature of
four parts?

Click to enlarge
A TABLE OF MEDIVAL ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS.
From Valentine's The Last Will and Testament.
Hermetists used the curious symbols shown in this rare table to represent various
chemical elements and alchemical processes. The full meaning of these strange charac-
ters has never been revealed, the characters concealing effectually within their own
forms the occult secrets regarding the spiritual nature of the metals and elements which
they represent.
In their allegories the alchemists also wed human, animal, and plant emblems;
sometimes weird composite figures, such as the dragon, the winged serpent, the un-
icorn, and the phnix. In almost every case they symbolized gold as a king with a
crown on his head and often with a scepter in his hand. Sometimes they depicted him
with the ace of the solar disc surrounded by rays. Silver was personified as a woman
who they called the queen. She wore no crown but often stood upon a lunar crescent:
much after the fashion of the Madonna. Mercury was typified as a youth with wings,
often with two heads, carrying serpents or sometimes the caduceus. Lead they symbo-
lized by an old man with a scythe in his hand; iron by a soldier dressed in armor. To
aqua fortis was given the curious name "the ostrich's stomach," and to the attainment of
the "Great Work" they assigned the symbol of the phnix sitting upon a nest of fire.
The union of elements they symbolized by a marriage, the Process of putrefaction by a
skull, antimony by a dragon.

529
The following table shows the angles to which the parties of three (salt, sul-
phur, and mercury) go in search of CHiram:

The Four "Corners"

East South West North
of Creation
The Fixed Signs
Aquarius Leo Scorpio Taurus
of the Zodiac
The Parts of the
Man Lion Eagle Bull
Cherubim
The Four Seasons Spring Summer Autumn Winter
The Ages of Man Childhood Youth Maturity Age
The Stages
Birth Growth Maturity Decay
of Existence
The Parts of
Spirit Soul Mind Body
Man's Constitution
The Four Elements Air Fire Water Earth

One more table should prove of interest to Masonic scholars: one showing the
relationship existing between the three substances, salt, sulphur, and mercury,
and certain symbols with which Masons are familiar. This table also has an
alternative rendering, based on the interblending of philosophic principles,
which are difficult--if not impossible--to separate into chronological order.

1. The Three Lights Stellar Fire Solar Fire Lunar Fire

2. The Three
Hiram Solomon Hiram of Tyre
Grand Masters
3. The Geometric
Sphere Pyramid Cube
Solids
4. Alchemical
Mercury Sulphur Salt
Substances
The alternative rendering of No. 2 is:
2. The Three Grand
Solomon Hiram Hiram of Tyre
Masters

In alchemy is found again the perpetuation of the Universal Mystery; for as

surely as Jesus died upon the cross, Hiram (CHiram) at the west gate of the
Temple, Orpheus on the banks of the river Hebros, Christna on the banks of
the Ganges, and Osiris in the coffin prepared by Typhon, so in alchemy, un-
530
less the elements first die, the Great Work cannot be achieved. The stages of
the alchemical processes can be traced in the lives and activities of nearly all
the world Saviors and teachers, and also among the mythologies of several
nations. It is said in the Bible that "except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." In alchemy it is declared that without putrefaction the
Great Work cannot be accomplished. What is it that dies on the cross, is bu-
ried in the tomb of the Mysteries, and that dies also in the retort and becomes
black with putrefaction? Also, what is it that does this same thing in the nature
of man, that he may rise again, phnix-like, from his own ashes (caput mor-
tuum)?
The solution in the alchemical retort, if digested a certain length of time, will
turn into a red elixir, which is called the universal medicine. It resembles a
fiery water and is luminous in the dark. During the process of digestion it
passes through many colors which has given rise to its being called the peacock
because of its iridescence during one of the periods of its digestion. If the aug-
mentations of its power be carried too far, the test tube containing the sub-
stance will explode and vanish as dust. This commonly occurs and is the great-
est danger involved in the preparation of the medicine for men and metals. If
developed too far, it will also seep through the glass, for there is no physical
container sufficiently strong to hold it, The reason for this is that it is no longer
a substance but a divine essence partaking of the interpenetrative power of
Divinity. When it is properly developed, this universal solvent in liquid form
will dissolve into itself all other metals. In this high state the universal salt is a
liquid fire. This salt dissolved with the proper amount of any metal and run
through the different stages of digestion and rotations; of augmentations will
eventually become a medicine for the transmuting of inferior metals.
The True Way of Nature by Hermes Trismegistus, given out by a genuine
Freemason, I.C.H., describes the danger of over-augmenting the universal salt:
"But this multiplication cannot be carried on ad infinitum but it attains com-
pleteness in the ninth rotation. For when this tincture has been rotated nine
times it cannot be exalted any further because it will not permit any further
separation. For as soon as it perceives only the smallest degree of material fire
it goes instantly into a flux and passes through the glass like hot oil through
paper."
In classifying the processes through which the chemical elements must pass
before the Hermetic medicine is produced, lack of uniformity in terminology is
evidenced, for in The True Way of Nature seven stages are given, while in the
Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermtique twelve are noted. These twelve are linked
with the signs of the zodiac in a manner worthy of consideration.

531
1. Aries, Calcination 5. Leo, Digestion 9. Sagittarius, Incineration
10. Capricorn,
2. Taurus, Congelation 6. Virgo, Distillation
Fermentation
11. Aquarius,
3. Gemini, Fixation 7. Libra, Sublimation
Multiplication
4. Cancer, Dissolution 8. Scorpio, Separation 12. Pisces, Projection

This arrangement opens an interesting field of speculation which may be of

great service if intelligently carried out. These twelve "steps" leading up to the
accomplishment of the Magnum Opus are a reminder of the twelve degrees of
the ancient Rosicrucian Mysteries. To a certain degree, Rosicrucianism was
chemistry theologized and alchemy philosophized. According to the Mysteries,
man was redeemed as the result of his passage in rotation through the twelve
mansions of the heavens. The twelve processes by means of which the "secret
essence" may be discovered remind the student forcibly of the twelve Fellow
Craftsmen who are sent forth in search of the murdered Builder of the Un-
iverse, the Universal Mercury.
According to Solomon Trismosin, the stages through which matter passes in
its journey towards perfection are divided into twenty-two parts, each of which
is represented by an appropriate drawing. There is an important connection
between the twenty-two emblems of Trismosin, the twenty-two major cards of
the Tarot, and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These mysterious
Tarot cards are themselves an alchemical formula, if properly interpreted. As if
to substantiate the claims of medival philosophers that King Solomon was a
master of alchemy, Dr. Franz Hartmann has noted that the much-abused and
misunderstood Song of Solomon is in reality an alchemical formula. The stu-
dent of natural philosophy will immediately recognize the "dark maid of Jerusa-
lem," not as a person but as a material sacred to the sages. Dr. Hartmann
writes: "The 'Song of Solomon,' in the Old Testament, is a description of the
processes of Alchemy. In this Song the Subjectum is described in Cant. i., 5;
the Lilium artis in C. ii., 1; the Preparation and Purification in C. ii., 4; the Fire
in C. ii., 7, and C. iv., 16, the Putrefaction in C. iii., 1; Sublimation and Distilla-
tion in C. iii., 6, Coagulation and Change of Colors, C. v., 9 to 14; Fixation, C.
ii., 12, and C. viii., 4; Multiplication, C. vi., 7; Augmentation and Projection, C.
viii., 8, etc., etc."
A tiny particle of the Philosopher's Scone, if cast upon the surface of water,
will, according to an appendix to the work on the universal salt by Herr von
Welling, immediately begin a process of recapitulating in miniature the history
of the universe, for instantly the tincture--like the Spirits of Elohim--moves
upon the face of the waters. A miniature universe is formed which the philoso-

532
phers have affirmed actually rises out of the water and floats in the air, where it
passes through all the stages of cosmic unfoldment and finally disintegrates into
dust again. Not only is it possible to prepare a medicine for metals; it is also
possible to prepare a tincture for minerals by means of which pieces of granite
and marble can be turned into precious stones; also stones of inferior quality
may be improved.
As one of the great alchemists fittingly observed, man's quest for gold is of-
ten his undoing, for he mistakes the alchemical processes, believing them to be
purely material. He does not realize that the Philosopher's Gold, the Philoso-
pher's Stone, and the Philosopher's Medicine exist in each of the four worlds
and that the consummation of the experiment cannot be realized until it is
successfully carried on in four worlds simultaneously according to one formula.
Furthermore, one of the constituents of the alchemical formula exists only
within the nature of man himself, without which his chemicals will not com-
bine, and though he spend his life and fortune in chemical experimentation, he
will not produce the desired end. The paramount reason why the material
scientist is incapable of duplicating the achievements of the medival alchem-
ists--although he follow every step carefully and accurately--is that the subtle
element which comes out of the nature of the illuminated and regenerated
alchemical philosopher is missing in his experimentation.
On this subject Dr. Franz Hartmann in a footnote to his translation of ex-
tracts from Paracelsus clearly expresses the conclusions of a modern investiga-
tor of alchemical lore: "I wish to warn the reader, who might be inclined to try
any of the alchemical prescriptions * * *, not to do so unless he is an alchem-
ist, because, although I know from personal experience that these prescriptions
are not only allegorically but literally true, and will prove successful in the
hands of an alchemist, they would only cause a waste of time and money in the
hands of one who has not the necessary qualifications. A person who wants to
be an alchemist must have in himself the 'magnesia', which means, the magnet-
ic power to attract and 'coagulate' invisible astral elements."
In considering the formul on the following pages, it must be recognized
that the experiments cannot be successfully conducted unless the one who
performs them be himself a Magus. If two persons, one an initiate and the
other unilluminated in the supreme art, were to set to work, side by side, using
the same vessels, the same substances, and exactly the same modus operandi,
the initiate would produce his "gold" and the uninitiated would not. Unless the
greater alchemy has first taken place within the soul of man, he cannot perform
the lesser alchemy in the retort. This is an invariable rule, although it is cun-
ningly hidden in the allegories and emblems of Hermetic philosophy. Unless a
man be "born again" he cannot accomplish the Great Work, and if the student
of alchemical formul will remember this, it will save him much sorrow and

533
disappointment. To speak of that part of the mystery which is concerned with
the secret life principle within the actual nature of man, is forbidden, for it is
decreed by the Masters of the art that each shall discover that for himself and
on this subject it is unlawful to speak at greater length.

534
 The Theory and Practice of Alchemy
Part II

All true Philosophers of the natural or Hermetic sciences begin their labors
with a prayer to the Supreme Alchemist of the Universe, beseeching His assis-
tance in the consummation of the Magnum Opus. The prayer that follows,
written in a provincial German centuries ago by an adept now unknown, is
representative: "O holy and hallowed Trinity, Thou undivided and triple Unity!
Cause me to sink into the abyss of Thy limitless eternal Fire, for only in that
Fire can the mortal nature of man be changed into humble dust, while the new
body of the salt union lies in the light. Oh, melt me and transmute me in this
Thy holy Fire, so that on the day at Thy command the fiery waters of the Holy
Spirit draw me out from the dark dust, giving me new birth and making me
alive with His breath. May I also be exalted through the humble humility of
Thy Son, rising through His assistance out of the dust and ashes and changing
into a pure spiritual body of rainbow colors like unto the transparent, crystal-
like, paradisiacal gold, that my own nature may be redeemed and purified like
the elements before me in these glasses and bottles. Diffuse me in the waters of
life as though I were in the wine cellar of the eternal Solomon. Here the fire of
Thy love will receive new fuel and will blaze forth so that no streams can extin-
guish it. Through the aid of this divine fire, may I in the end be found worthy
to be called into the illumination of the righteous. May I then be sealed up with
the light of the new world that I may also attain unto the immortality and glory
where there shall be no more alternation of light and darkness. Amen."

THE ORIGIN OF ALCHEMICAL FORMUL

Apparently but few of the medival alchemists discovered the Great Arcanum
without aid, some authors declaring that none of them attained the desired end
without the assistance of a Master or Teacher. In every instance the identity of
these Masters has been carefully concealed, and even during the Middle Ages
speculation ran rife concerning them. It was customary to call such illuminated
sages adepts, a title which indicated that they possessed the true secrets of
transmutation and multiplication. These adepts were polyonymous individuals
who unexpectedly appeared and disappeared again, leaving no trace of their
whereabouts. There are indications that a certain degree of organization existed

535
among them. The most powerful of the alchemical organizations were the Ro-
sicrucians, the Illuminati, and certain Arabian and Syrian sects.
In the documents which follow, references are made to the "Brethren "or
"Brothers. " These are to signify that those who had actually accomplished the
Magnum Opus were banded together and known to each other by cipher
codes and secret signs or symbols. Apparently a number of these illuminated
adepts dwelt in Arabia, for several of the great European alchemists were in-
itiated in Asia Minor. When a disciple of the alchemical arts had learned the
supreme secret, he guarded it jealously, revealing to no man his priceless trea-
sure. He was not permitted to disclose it even to the members of his imme-
diate family.
As the years passed, one who had discovered the secret--or, more properly,
one to whom it had been revealed--sought for some younger man worthy to be
entrusted with the formul. To this one, and to this one only, as a rule, the
philosopher was permitted to disclose the arcanum. The younger man then
became the "philosophical son" of the old sage, and to him the latter be-
queathed his secrets. Occasionally, however, an adept, on finding a sincere and
earnest seeker, would instruct him in the fundamental principles of the art, and
if the disciple persisted, he was quietly initiated into the august fraternity of the
Brethren. In such manner the alchemical processes were preserved, but the
number of those who knew them did not increase rapidly.
During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries a considerable
number of alchemical adepts made their way from place to place throughout
Europe, appearing and disappearing apparently at will. According to popular
tradition, these adepts were immortal, and kept themselves alive by means of
the mysterious medicine that was one of the goals of alchemical aspiration. It is
asserted that some lived hundreds of years, taking no food except this elixir, a
few drops of which would preserve their youth for a long period of time. That
such mysterious men did exist there can be little doubt, as their presence is
attested by scores of reliable witnesses.
It is further asserted that they are still to be found by those who have quali-
fied themselves to contact them. The philosophers taught that like attracts like,
and that when the disciple has developed a virtue and integrity acceptable to
the adepts they will appear to him and reveal those parts of the secret processes
which cannot be discovered without such help. "Wisdom is as a flower from
which the bee its honey makes and the spider poison, each according to its
own nature." (By an unknown adept.)
The reader must bear in mind at all times that the formul and emblems of
alchemy are to be taken primarily as allegorical symbols; for until their esoteric
significance has been comprehended, their literal interpretation is valueless.
Nearly every alchemical formula has one element purposely omitted, it being

536
decided by the medival philosophers that those who could not with their own
intelligence discover that missing substance or process were not qualified to be
entrusted with secrets which could give them control over great masses of hu-
manity and likewise subject to their will the elemental forces of Nature.

THE EMERALD TABLE OF HERMES

The oldest and most revered of all the alchemical formul is the sacred Eme-
rald Tablet of Hermes. Authorities do not agree as to the genuineness of this
Table, some declaring it to be a post-Christian fraud, but there is much evi-
dence that, regardless of its author, the Table is of great antiquity. While the
symbol of the Emerald Table is of special Masonic import--relating as it does
to the personality of CHiram (Hiram)--it is first and fundamentally an alchemi-
cal formula, relating both to the alchemy of the base metals and the divine
alchemy of human regeneration.
In Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom's collection of alchemical manuscripts is a sec-
tion devoted to the translations and interpretations of this remarkable Tablet,
which was known to the ancients as the Tabula Smaragdina. Dr. Bacstrom was
initiated into the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross on the island of Mauritius by
one of those unknown adepts who at that time called himself Comte de Chazal.
Dr. Bacstrom's translations and notes on the Emerald Tablet are, in part, as
follows, the actual text being reproduced in capital letters:
"The Emerald Table, the Most Ancient Monument of the Chaldeans con-
cerning the Lapis Philosophorum (the stone of the philosophers).
"The Emerald Table furnishes the origin of the allegorical history of King Hi-
ram (rather Chiram). The Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Hebrews in what con-
cerns Chiram have taken their knowledge from one and the same fountain;
Homerus, who relates this history in a different manner, followed that original,
and Virgil followed Homerus, as Hesiodus took the subject for his Theogony
likewise from thence, which Ovidius took afterwards for a pattern for his Me-
tamorphosis. The knowledge of Nature's secret operations constitutes the prin-
cipal sense of all these ancient writings, but ignorance framed out of it that
external or veiled mythology and the lower class of people turned it into idola-
try.

537
Click to enlarge
THE KEY TO ALCHEMY ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS.
From Kircher's dipus gyptiacus.
The priests of Egypt not only used the scarab as a symbol of regeneration but also
discovered in its habits many analogies to the secret process whereby base metals could
be transmuted into gold. They saw in the egg of the scarab the seed of the metals, and
the above figure shows the path of this seed through the various planetary bodies until,
finally reaching the center, it is perfected and then returns again to its source. The
words in the mall spiral at the top read: "The spiral Progress of the mundane spirit."
After the scarab has wound its way around the spiral to the center of the lower part of
the figure, it returns to the upper world along the path bearing the words: "Return of
the spirit to the center of unity."

"The Genuine Translation from the Original Very Ancient Chaldee is as Fol-
lows:
"THE SECRET WORKS OF CHIRAM ONE IN ESSENCE, BUT THREE
IN ASPECT.
"(The two first large words mean the Secret Work.)
"(The second line in large letters, reads: Chiram Telat Machasot, i.e. Chiram
the Universal Agent, One in Essence but three in aspect.)
'IT IS TRUE, NO LIE, CERTAIN, AND TO BE DEPENDED UPON,
THE SUPERIOR AGREES WITH THE INFERIOR, AND THE INFE-
RIOR WITH THE SUPERIOR, TO EFFECT THAT ONE TRULY
WONDERFUL WORK. AS ALL THINGS OWE THEIR EXISTENCE
TO THE WILL OF THE ONLY ONE, SO ALL THINGS OWE THEIR
ORIGIN TO THE ONE ONLY THING, THE MOST HIDDEN, BY THE
ARRANGEMENT OF THE ONLY GOD. THE FATHER OF THAT ONE
ONLY THING IS THE SUN, ITS MOTHER IS THE MOON, THE
WIND CARRIES IT IN ITS BELLY; BUT ITS NOURSE IS A SPIRI-
TUOUS EARTH. THAT ONE ONLY THING (after God) IS THE FA-
THER OF ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE. ITS POWER IS PER-
FECT, AFTER IT HAS BEEN UNITED TO A SPIRITUOUS EARTH.
"(Process--First Distillation.) SEPARATE THAT SPIRITUOUS EARTH

538
FROM THE DENSE OR CRUDE BY MEANS OF A GENTLE HEAT,
WITH MUCH ATTENTION.
"(Last Digestion.) IN GREAT MEASURE IT ASCENDS FROM THE
EARTH UP TO HEAVEN, AND DESCENDS AGAIN, NEWBORN, ON
THE EARTH, AND THE SUPERIOR AND THE INFERIOR ARE IN-
CREASED IN POWER. The Azoth ascends from the Earth, from the bottom
of the Glass, and redescends in Veins and drops into the Earth and by this
continual circulation the Azoth is more and more subtilized, Volatilizes Sol
and carries the volatilized Solar atoms along with it and thereby becomes a
Solar Azoth, i.e. our third, and genuine Sophic Mercury, and this circulation of
the Solar Azoth must continue until it ceases of itself, and the Earth has sucked
it all in, when it muse become the black pitchy matter, the Toad [the sub-
stances in the alchemical retort and also the lower elements in the body of
man], which denotes complete putrefaction or Death of the Compound.
"BY THIS THOU WILT PARTAKE OF THE HONOURS OF THE
WHOLE WORLD. Without doubt as the black, pitchy matter will and must
of necessity become White and Red, and the Red having been carried to per-
fection, medicinally and for Metals, is then fully capable to preserve mentem
sanam in corpore sano until the natural period of Life and promise us ample
means, in infinitum multipliable, to be benevolent and charitable without any
diminution of our inexhaustible resources, therefore well may it be called the
Glory [Honours] of the Whole World, as truly the study and contemplation of
the L. P. [Lapis Philosophorum], harmonising with Divine Truths, elevates the
mind to God our Creator and merciful Father, and if He should permit us to
possess it practically must eradicate the very principle of Avarice, Envy, and
Evil Inclinations, and cause our hearts to melt in gratitude toward Him that has
been so kind to us! Therefore the Philosophers say with great Truth, that the
L. P. either finds a good man or makes one.
"AND DARKNESS WILL FLY FROM THEE. By invigorating the Organs
the Soul makes use of for communicating with exterior objects, the Soul must
acquire greater powers not only for conception but also for retention, and
therefore if we wish to obtain still more knowledge, the organs and secret
springs of physical life being wonderfully strengthened and invigorated, the
Soul must acquire new powers for conceiving and retaining, especially if we
pray to God for knowledge, and confirm our prayers by faith, all Obscurity
must vanish of course. That this has not been the case with all possessors, was
their own fault, as they contented themselves merely with the Transmutation of
Metals.
"(Use.) THIS IS THE STRENGTH OF ALL POWERS. This is a very
strong figure, to indicate that the L. P. positively does possess all the Powers
concealed in Nature, not for destruction but for exaltation and regeneration of

539
matter, in the three Departments of Nature.
"WITH THIS THOU WILT BE ABLE TO OVERCOME ALL THINGS,
AND TO TRANSMUTE ALL WHAT IS FINE () AND WHAT IS

COARSE ( ). It will conquer every subtil Thing, of course,

as it refixes the most subtil Oxygen into its own fiery Nature and that with more
power, penetration and virtue, in a tenfold ratio, at every multiplication, and
each time in a much shorter period, until its power becomes incalculable,
which multiplied power also penetrates [overcomes] every Solid Thing, such as
unconquerable Gold and Silver, the otherwise unalterable Mercury, Crystals
and Glass Fluxes, to which it is able to give natural hardness and fixity, as Phila-
letha does attest, and is proved by an artificial Diamond, in my father's time, in
possession of Prince Lichtenstein in Vienna, valued at Five Hundred Thou-
sand Ducats, fixed by the Lapis [Philosopher's Stone].
"IN THIS MANNER THE WORLD WAS CREATED; THE ARRAN-
GEMENTS TO FOLLOW THIS ROAD ARE HIDDEN. FOR THIS
REASON I AM CALLED CHIRAM TELAT MECHASOT, ONE IN ES-
SENCE, BUT THREE IN ASPECT. IN THIS TRINITY IS HIDDEN THE
WISDOM OF THE WHOLE WORLD (i.e., in Chiram and its Use). It is
thought that Hermes was Moses or Zoroaster, otherwise Hermes signifies a
Serpent, and the Serpent used to be an Emblem of Knowledge or Wisdom.
The Serpent is met with everywhere amongst the Hieroglyphics of the ancient
Egyptians, so is the Globe with Wings, the Sun and Moon, Dragons and Grif-
fins, whereby the Egyptians denoted their sublime knowledge of the Lapis Phi-
losophorum, according to Suidas, the hints in the Scriptures, and even De Non
where he speaks of the sanctuaries of the ancient Egyptian Temples.
"IT IS ENDED NOW, WHAT I HAVE SAID CONCERNING THE
EFFECTS OF THE SUN. FINISH OF THE TABULA SMARAGDINA.
What I have said or taught of the Solar Work, is now finished. The perfect
Seed, fit for multiplication.
"This I know is acknowledged to be the genuine Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis."

A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS OF R. C. (ROSE CROSS)

Although Eugenius Philalethes disclaimed membership in the Rosicrucian

Fraternity, it is believed that for a number of years he was the head of that Or-
der. In a little work called Lumen de Lumine, or A New Magical Light Discov-
ered and Communicated to the World, published in London in 1651, Euge-
nius Philalethes gives a remarkable letter, presumably from the Rosicrucian
540
Order. Accompanying the letter is an emblematic figure setting forth in sym-
bolic form the processes and formul of the Philosopher's Stone. This epistle
is an excellent example of the Rosicrucian system of combining abstract theo-
logical speculations with concrete chemical formul. With the aid of the ma-
terial contained in various parts of this present book the student would do well
to set himself the task of solving the riddle contained in this hieroglyph.
"A Letter from the Brothers of R. C. Concerning the Invisible, Magical
Mountain, And the Treasure therein Contained.
"Every man naturally desires a superiority, to have treasures of Gold and
Silver [intellect and soul], and to seem great in the eyes of the world. God in-
deed created all things for the use of man, that he might rule over them, and
acknowledge therein the singular goodness and omnipotence of God, give Him
thanks for His benefits, honor Him and praise Him. But there is no man looks
after these things, otherwise than by spending his days idly; they would enjoy
them without any previous labor and danger; neither do they look them out of
that place where God hath treasured them up, Who expects also that man
should seek for them there, and to those that seek will He give them. But there
is not any that labors for a possession in that place, and therefore these riches
are not found: For the way to this place, and the place itself hath been un-
known for a long time, and it is hidden from the greatest part of the world. But
notwithstanding it be difficult and laborious to find Out this way and place, yet
the place should be sought after.
"But it is not the will of God to conceal anything from those that are His, and
therefore in this last age, before the final judgment comes, all these things shall
be manifested to those that are worthy: As He Himself (though obscurely, lest
it should be manifested to, the unworthy) hath spoken in a certain place: There
is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hidden that shall not be
known. We therefore being moved by the Spirit of God, do declare the will of
God to the world, which we have also already performed and published in
several languages. But most men either revile, or contemne that, our Manifes-
to, (the Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis) or else waiving the Spirit of God,
they expect the proposals thereof from us, supposing we will straightway teach
them how to make gold by Art, or furnish them with ample treasures, whereby
they may live pompously in the face of the world, swagger, and make wars, turn
usurers, gluttons, and drunkards, live unchastely, and defile their whole life
With several other sins, all which things are contrary to the blessed will of God.
These men should have learnt from those Ten Virgins (whereof five that were
foolish demanded oil for their lamps, from those five that were wise) how that
the case is much otherwise.
"It is expedient that every man should labor for this treasure by the assis-
tance of God, and his own particular search and industry. But the perverse

541
intentions of these fellows we understand out of their own writings, by the sin-
gular grace and revelation of God. We do stop our ears, and wrap ourselves as
it were in clouds, to avoid the bellowings and howlings of those men, who in
vain cry out for gold. And hence indeed it comes to pass that they brand us
with infinite calumnies and slanders, which notwithstanding we do not resent
but God in His good time will judge them for it. But after that we had well
known (though unknown to you) and perceived also by your writing how dili-
gently you are to peruse the Holy Scripture, and seek the true knowledge of
God: we have also above many thousands, thought you worthy of some answer,
and we signify this much to you by the will of God and the admonition of the
Holy Ghost.
"There is a mountain situated in the midst of the earth, or center of the
world, which is both small and great. It is soft, also above measure hard and
stony. It is far off, and near at hand, but by the providence of God, invisible. In
it are hidden most ample treasures, which the world is not able to value. This
mountain by envy of the devil, who always opposeth the glory of God and the
happiness of man, is compassed about with very cruel beasts and other [sic]
ravenous birds, which make the way thither both difficult and dangerous; and
therefore hitherto, because the time is not yet come, the way thither could not
be sought after nor found out. But now at last the way is to be found by those
that are worthy, but notwithstanding by every man's self-labor and endeavors.
"To this mountain you shall go in a certain night (when it: comes) most long
and most dark, and see that you prepare yourselves by prayer. Insist upon the
way that: leads to the mountain, but ask not of any man where the way lies:
only follow your Guide, who will offer himself to you, and will meet you in the
way but you shall not know him. This Guide will bring you to the mountain at
midnight, when all things are silent and dark. It is necessary that you arm your-
selves with a resolute heroic courage, lest you fear those things that will hap-
pen, and so fall back. You need no sword, nor any other bodily weapons, only
call upon God sincerely and heartily.
"When you have discovered the mountain, the first miracle that will appear
is this. A most vehement and very great wind, that will shake the mountain and
shatter the rocks to pieces. You shall be encountered also by lions and dragons
and other terrible beasts, but fear not any of these things. Be resolute and rake
heed that you return not, for your Guide who brought you thither will not suf-
fer any evil to befall you. As for the treasure, it is not yet discovered but it is
very near. After this wind will come an earthquake, that will overthrow those
things which the wind hath left and make all flat. But be sure that you fall not
off.
"The earthquake being past, there shall follow afire, that will consume the
earthly rubbish, and discover the treasure, but as yet you cannot see it. After all

542
these things and near the daybreak there shall be a great calm, and you shall
see the Day-Star arise and the dawning will appear, and you shall perceive a
great treasure. The chiefest thing in it, and the most perfect, is a certain exalted
tincture, with which the world (if it served God and were worthy of such gifts)
might be tinged and turned into most pure gold.
"This tincture being used, as your Guide shall reach you, will make you
young when you are old, and you shall perceive no disease in any part of your
bodies. By means of this tincture also you shall find pearls of that excellency
which cannot be imagined. But do not you arrogate anything to yourselves
because of your present power, but be contented with that which your Guide
shall communicate to you. Praise God perpetually for this His gift, and have a
special care that you use it not for worldly pride, but employ it in such works
which are contrary to the world. Use it rightly and enjoy it so, as if you had it
not. Live a temperate life, and beware of all sin, otherwise your Guide will for-
sake you, and you shall be deprived of this happiness. For know this of a truth,
whosoever abuseth this tincture and lives not exemplarly, purely, and devoutly
before men he shall lose this benefit, and scarce any hope will there be left
ever to recover it afterwards."
If, as transcendentalists believe, the initiations into the Fraternity of the Rose
Cross were given in the invisible worlds which surround and interpenetrate the
visible universe, it is not beyond the range of possibility that this allegory is to
be considered in the light of an initiatory ritual as well as an alchemical formu-
la.
As has been noted, it is difficult to secure a complete formula for any of the
alchemical operations. The one presented here is the most nearly complete of
any available. The collecting of the rays and energies of the celestial bodies as
precipitated in dew is a process which Paracelsus used with great success. Bear
constantly in mind that these processes are only for those who have been
properly instructed in the secret art.
"A TRUE REVELATION OF THE MANUAL OPERATION FOR THE
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE COMMONLY CALLED 'THE PHILOSO-
PHER'S STONE.' By the celebrated philosopher of Leyden, as attested upon
his deathbed with his own Blood, Anno Domini 1662. To my Loving Cousin
and Son, the True Hermetic Philosopher--
"Dear Loving Cousin and Son:
"Although I had resolved never to give in writing to any person the secret of
the Ancient Sages, yet notwithstanding out of peculiar affection and love to
you, I have taken it upon me, to which the nearness of our relation obliges
me, and especially because this temporal life is short, and Art is very dark
and you may therefore not attain the wished for end;--but my Son because
so precious a jewel belongs not to swine; and also this so great a gift of God

543
 may be treated carefully and Christianlike, in consideration thereof I do so
largely declare myself to thee.
"I conjure thee with hand and mouth sacredly;
"1st. That most especially thou faithfully keep the same from all wicked, lust-
ful and criminal persons.
"2dly. That thou exalt not thyself in any way.
"3dly. That thou seek to advance the honor of thy Creator of all things and
the good of thy neighbor, preserve it sacredly that thy Lord may not have
cause to complain of thee at the last day. I have written here in this treatise
such a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, just as I myself have worked this
treasure and finished it with my fingers, therefore I have subscribed all this
work with my blood, lying on my deathbed in Leyden.
"THE PROCESS--In the Name of God, take of the purest and cleanest salt,
sea salt, so as it is made by the sun itself, such as is brought by shipping from
Spain, (I used salt that came from St. Uber) let it be dried in a warm stove,
grind it in a stone mortar, as fine as possible to a powder that it may be so
much the easier dissolve and taken up by our Dew-water, which is thus to be
had in the months of May or June: When the Moon is at the full, observe
when the dew falls with an East or South East wind. Then you must have
sticks about one and a half feet high above the ground when driven in the
Earth. Upon two or three such sticks, lay some four square plates of glass,
and as the dew falls it easily fastens on the glass like a vapour, then have glass
Vessels in readiness, let the dew drain from the sides of the glasses into your
vessels. Do this until you have enough. The full of the Moon is a good sea-
son, afterwards it will be hard."

The solar rays descending from the sun carry with them solar sulphur--the Di-
vine Fire. These rays are crystallized by contact with the lunar rays. The solar
rays are also met by the emanations pouring upward from the earth's surface
and are thus still further crystallized into a partly tangible substance, which is
soluble in pure water. This substance is the "Magical Mountain of the Moon"
referred to in the R. C. letter. The crystallization of the solar and lunar rays in
water (dew) produces the virgin earth--a pure, invisible substance, uncontami-
nated by material matter. When the virgin earth crystals are wet, they appear
green; when dry, white.

544
Click to enlarge
THE INVISIBLE MAGICAL MOUNTAIN.
From Phililethales' Lumen de Lumine.
On Page 24 of Lumen de Lumine, Eugenius Philalethes describes the magical moun-
tain as follows:
"This is that emblematical magical type, which Thalia delivered to me in the invisible
Guiana. The first and superior Part of it represents the Mountains of the Moon. The
philosophers commonly call them the Mountains of India, on whose tops grows their
secret and famous Lunaria. It is an Herb easy to be found, but [for the fact] that men
are blind discovers itself and shines after night like pearl. The earth of these mountains
is very red and soft beyond all expression. It is full of crystalline rocks, which the phi-
losophers call their glass and their stone: birds and fish (say they) bring it to them. Of
these mountains speaks Hali the Arabian, a most excellent judicious author: 'Go, my
son, to the Mountains of India, and to their quarries or caverns, and take thence our
precious stones which dissolve or melt in water, when they are mingled therewith.
Much indeed might be spoken of these mountains, if it were lawful to publish their
mysteries, but one thing I shall not forbear to tell you. They are very dangerous places
after night, for they are haunted with fires and other strange apparitions, (as a I am told
by the Magi) by certain spirits, which dabble lasciviously with the sperm of the world
and imprint their imaginations in, producing many times fantastic and monstrous gen-
erations. The access and pilgrimage to this place, with the difficulties which attend
them, are faithfully and magisterially described by the Brothers of R.C." (Set accompa-
nying letter.)

Von Welling makes a suggestion for the extraction of the solar life from stag-
nant water, but is reticent both as to naming the essence extracted and also as
to the various processes through which it must pass to be refined and increased
in power. His hint, however, is both valuable and unusual:
"Take sweet clean water and seal it in a large bottle, leaving about one-fourth
empty. Place the bottle in the sun for some weeks until it rots, showing a preci-

545
pitation in the bottom. This precipitation, when properly manipulated by distil-
lation, will produce a clear, fiery, burning oil, the constituents and use of which
are only known to the wise."
The philosopher of Leyden continues: "Now when you have enough of your
dew close your glasses exactly, and keep it till you use it, that none of its spirits
may evaporate, which may easily happen. Set it therefore in a cool place, that
no warmth may come to it, or else the subtle spirit will rise and be gone; which
will not so happen if after you have filled your glasses with Dew quite full, you
close them very well with wax.
"Now in the Name of God, take of this Dew-water as much as thou wilt, put
in a clean dissolving glass, then cast a little of your forementioned powdered
salt into it to be dissolved, and continue to put it in till your Dew-water will
dissolve no more or till the salt lies in it four days without being dissolved, then
it has enough, and unto your Dew is given its proper powder. Of this com-
pounded water, take as much as thou wilt, I took about a pound and a half,
and put it into a round vial with a short neck, fill it with out water and lute it
with a good lute, a cover and stopple that fits it well, that the subtle and living
spirit of the dew may not fume away, for if they should the soul of the salt will
never be stirred up, nor the work ever brought to a right end. Let the lute dry
very well of itself, and set it in the furnace of B. M. to putrefy. Make a slow fire
and let it digest for forty days or fifty, and that the fume of the water be conti-
nually round about it, and you will see your matter grow black, which is a token
of its putrefaction.
"As soon as you have taken it out, have your dry furnace ready. Set your
glass with the matter into an inner globe to coagulate, give it a slow degree of
fire, continue it equally for twelve or fifteen days, and your matter will begin to
coagulate and to fasten round about your glass like a gray salt, which as soon as
you see and before it be two days, slacken the fire that it may cool leisurely.
Then have in readiness your putrefying furnace as before. Set your glass there-
in and give the same degree of fire as before. Let it stand twelve days, and again
you will see the matter resolve and open as before, and open itself, but you
must every time see that the lute and your glass is not hurt. When you set your
glass in the putrefying furnace, take care that the neck of your glass is covered
with a wooden or glass stopper that fits it exactly, that the moisture of the water
may not come at it.
"When you see it black set your glass as before to coagulate and when it
begins to be of a grayish color and whitish, set it in a third time to putrefy, and
coagulate to the fifth time, until you see that your water in its dissolution is
clean, pellucid and clear, and that it appears in its Calcination of a fine white
like Snow. Then it is prepared and becomes a Salt fixed which will melt on hot
Silver plate like wax; but before you set this your Salt out, set it again [in] the

546
furnace of putrefaction that it may dissolve of itself, then let it cool, open your
Glass and you will find your Matter lessened a third part. But instead of your
former Salt Water you will have a fine Sweet and very penetrating Water which
the Philosophers have hid under very wonderful Names--It is the Mercury of
all true Philosophers, the Water out of which comes Gold and Silver, for they
say its Father is Gold and its Mother is Silver. Thus hast thou the strength of
both these Luminaries conjoined in this Water, most true, in its right Pondus.
"Prescription. 5 Drops of this Water taken inwardly strengthens the under-
standing and memory, and opens to us most wonderful and sweet things, of
which no man hath heard, and of which I dare not further write, because of the
Oath I made God to the contrary. Time and the holy use of this blessed Water
will teach us, as soon as you have taken it inwardly such influence will happen
to thee as if the whole heavens and all the stars with their powers are working
in thee. All Knowledge and secret Arts will be opened to thee as in a dream,
but the most excellent of all is, you will perfectly learn rightly to know all crea-
tures in their Nature, and by means thereof, the true understanding of God,
the Creator of us, Heaven and Earth, like David and Moses and all the Saints
of God, for the wisdom of our fountain of living Water will instruct thee as it
did Solomon and the Brethren of our fraternity."
In his rare treatise on Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, von Welling discloses a
secret: not generally revealed in alchemical writings, namely, that the alchemists
were concerned not only with the transmutation of metals but had a complete
cosmological and philosophical system based upon the Qabbalah.
According to von Welling, the universal salt (in watery form) is a positive
cure for all the physical ailments of mankind; it is in every living thing, but
from some things it is more easily secured than from others: especially is this
true of virgin earth; it is the universal solvent, the alkahest. The same writer
also states that in the first stages of its preparation this salt will cure any and all
diseases of the heart. The anonymous philosopher of Leyden continues:
"Would you now proceed further with our blessed Water to the foremen-
tioned intention of preparing a Tincture for Metals, hearken my Son--
"Take in the NAME of the Lord, of thy Paradisiacal Water, of heavenly
Water of Mercury, as much as thou wilt, put it into a glass to dissolve, and set it
in a slow heat of Ashes, that it may just feel the warmth, then have ready well
purified Gold for the Red, or Silver for the White Elixir, for in both the
Processes are the same. Let your Gold or Silver be beaten as thin as leaf Gold,
cast it by degrees into your dissolving Glass, that contains your blessed Water,
as you did in the beginning with your Salt, and it will melt like Ice in Warm
Water, and continue so to do till your Gold or Silver lie therein four days
without dissolving, then it has received its due Pondus. Then put this dissolu-
tion as before into a round Glass, fill it two thirds parts full, seal it hermetically

547
as before, let your Sigillum be well dried. Set it in the furnace of Balneum Va-
pori, make a fire and let it remain forty days, as before, then will the Gold or
Silver be dissolved radically and will turn of the deepest black in the world,
which as soon as you see, have your other drying furnace in readiness."
Continuing: "Philosophers say there is no true solution of the body without a
proceeding coagulation of the spirit, for they are interchangeably mixed in a
due proportion, whereby the bodily essence becomes of a spiritual penetrating
nature. On the other hand, the incomprehensible spiritual essential virtue is
also made corporeal by the fire, because there is made between them so near a
relation or friendship, like as the heavens operate to the very Depth of Earth,
and producing from thence all the treasures and riches of the whole World.
"Admirandum Natur Operationem in Archidoxes Cognitam.
"With this Powder--You may as follows project on metals. Take five parts of
fine Gold or Silver according as you work, and melt it in a Crucible. Wrap up
your Medicine in Wax, cast it therein, give a strong fire for an hour, then take
the Crucible out, as it were, calcined, then cast one part on ten parts of imper-
fect metals, be it what it will, and the same will be immediately changed into
purer Metal, than what is brought out of the Mines and produced by Melting;
and when you augment it in strength and virtue by resolving and coagulating,
the fifth time it will resolve itself in three days and be coagulated in twenty-four
hours time, to an incredible and most highly pellucid Stone or Red Shining
burning Coal. For the white work it will become like a white stream of
Lightning.
"Of this last coagulation take one part, cast it upon five thousand of melted
Gold or Silver as before. It changes the same into perfect Medicine, one part
whereof will tinge one hundred thousand parts of melted imperfect Metals into
the very finest Gold or Silver. So far I have brought and further I would not
come, for as I would set in the matter [to distill] six times in twelve hours, it
subtilized so highly that the most part (like somewhat most wonderful to be-
hold) past through the Glass causing an inexpressible odoriferous Smell. Take
heed that it happens not to you.
"Many more wonders of this holy Art might be added, namely how to pre-
pare therewith all sorts of precious Stones, and other most admirable things,
but it would require too great a book to express the whole as it ought to be,
especially as the Art is endless and not to be apprehended with one view, and
my purpose has been, Loving Cousin and Son, devoutly to lead thee into the
Mysteries of Nature and this holy Science, and I have faithfully performed it."
In conclusion, the letter states: "Go thou to work as I have done before thee,
fear God, Love thy neighbour from the bottom of thy Soul sincerely. So will in
the Manual operation, everything to thee, and when thou art at work therein
many of our brethren will reveal themselves to thee, of our holy order, private-

548
ly; For I have on my part by the Eternal God wrote the truth which I found out
by prayer and searching into Nature, which work I have seen with my eyes, and
with my hands extracted. Therefore also I have subscribed this Testament with
my own blood, the last day of my Life on my deathbed. Actum Leyden, 27
March 1662."

THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL FIGURES OF CLAUDIUS DE

DOMINICO CELENTANO VALLIS NOVI FROM A MANUSCRIPT
WRITTEN AND ILLUMINATED AT NAPLES A.D. 1606

No better way can be found of introducing to the "Royal Art" a seeker after the
mysteries of symbolical philosophy than to place at his disposal an actual ex-
ample of alchemical writing. The text of this manuscript is as enigmatic as are
its diagrams; but to him who will meditate upon the profound significance of
both, the deeper issues of mysticism in due time will be made clear. An un-
known person through whose hands this manuscript passed wrote thus of it:
"Because of its drawings and illustrated expositions, the manuscript is of
preeminent importance to the Rosicrucians and the contemporary order of
Freemasons. The first, and larger, part of the illustrations deals with the
Hermetic philosophy, explaining its teachings and doctrines. Interspersed
among these are portraits of great teachers and satirical representations of
bunglers and their mistaken views. The systematically arranged part shows
with wonderful clearness the color development of the alchemical processes
from blue-gold over black to white and rose. Throughout it treats of the
change in human beings and not of the making of gold. Ever upon the
Grade of Black (the return into Chaos from which new creations are possi-
ble) follows the Grade of the Neophytes, the New Birth, which is often re-
peated with impressive lucidity. The black stage occurs as usual through fire.
This unopened and unpublished manuscript belongs to the order of the
most important Precepts and Documents of the Rosicrucians, and Freema-
sons. A search through the museums and library collections of Germany has
failed to reveal any item of even a similar character."

In addition to the 26 leaves here reproduced there are ten bottles or retorts,
each half filled with varicolored substances. These bottles can be so easily de-
scribed that it is unnecessary to reproduce them. The first bottle (from the
mouth of which issues a golden shrub with three blossoms) contains a bluish-
gray liquid, the entire figure being called "Our Quicksilver." Under the vessel is
a verse containing the significant words: "He will have white garments for black

549
and then red." The second bottle (from the neck of which rise four golden
flowers) also contains the bluish-gray substance termed quicksilver. Below the
bottle is the admonition to "make spirit of the body and grace of the gross, that
the corporeal may become incorporeal."
The third bottle is entirely black save for a golden tree trunk having six
lopped-off branches and terminating in five branches which end in knobs and
protrude from the neck of the bottle. The state of the substance is termed
"Blackness showing through the Head of the Raven." Under the bottle occurs
the statement that "the tincture of the Philosophers is hidden in the air like the
soul in the human body." The fourth bottle is of the deepest blackness and is
called "The Head of the Raven." Nothing rises from the neck of the vessel, for
the earth (its contents) is described as "submerged in Chaos." The bottom of
the fifth bottle contains a bluish-gray, spotted liquid, the upper part being filled
with a brick-colored substance. Above are the words: "Sixth Raven's Head";
below is added: "At the bottom of the vessel worms are born."
The lower half of the sixth bottle is of a bluish-gray, the u per half black, the
entire figure being termed "Seventh Raven's Head." A child is seated beside the
bottle, concerning whom it is written: "This newly-born, black son is called
Elixir and will be made perfectly white." The seventh bottle is black below and
black spotted with red above. The process is thus described: "Black blacker
than black, for many divers colors will appear. Those black clouds will [des-
cend] to the body whence they came, and the junction of body, soul, and spirit
has been completed and turned to ashes."
The eighth bottle is divided horizontally by a golden band, from which rises
a golden stem ending in five leaves protruding from the neck of the bottle. The
contents of the vessel are transparent, and it is written that "the black clouds are
past and the great whiteness has been completed." The ninth bottle (from the
neck of which rises a golden white rose) is also partly filled with a transparent
liquid. The rose is made to say: "He who blanches me makes me red." The
tenth and last bottle represents the consummation of the Great Work. The
lower half of the vessel is filled with the blood-red Elixir and from the neck
rises a red rose with many petals and of extreme beauty. After declaring all the
planets to have been present at the consummation of the Great Work, the
author of the document concludes: "I gave to the Master [spirit] so much silver
and gold that be can never be poor."
In his dedication the author and illustrator of the manuscript declares that
he has set forth all the operations of the Great Work. He prays to the Holy
Spirit that he may be included in the number of those who have pursued this
most noble of the sciences and that he may be set always in the path of righ-
teousness. Exclusive of his own researches, the main sources of his information
are said to be the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Raymond Lully, and Arnold

550
of Villa Nova.
To protect themselves from the persecution of despotic theology the me-
dival alchemists couched their philosophy in Christian terminology, although
the great secrets of the Art were derived largely from Egyptian or Arabian
adepts. The Mohammedans were masters of the Hermetic secrets and even the
great Paracelsus secured from them the major part of his knowledge. In their
manifestoes the Rosicrucians also disclose the Arabian source of their secret
doctrine. Hence it should be borne in mind that the relating of the alchemical
teachings to Biblical symbolism was a gesture of expediency. In their search of
the Scriptures for the arcana of Israel, the Qabbalists substantiated in great
measure the alchemical interpretations of the Bible, for the soul of alchemy is
one with that of Qabbalism. Both schools have a common end, being who
concerned with the mystery of human regeneration, despite apparent discre-
pancies in their symbolism.
The publication of this manuscript places at the student's disposal the most
profound secrets of the Hermetic Art. At first the task of decipherment may
seem hopeless and the superficially-minded will be tempted to scoff at the pos-
sibility of real knowledge being perpetuated in such unconventional fashion.
The scoffer will not realize that one of the purposes of the document is to awa-
ken ridicule and thus preserve more effectually its arcana from the profane. A
few sheets (such as those here reproduced) represent the life work of one who
has consecrated himself to the task of tearing aside the veil of the World Vir-
gin. Years of research and experimentation, days of incessant labor, nights of
prayer and meditation, and at last comes the realization of accomplishment!
This is the real story told by the grotesque figures drawn so painstakingly upon
the faded, worm-eaten pages. Those who have glimpsed the greater realities of
being realize that the fundamental verities of life find at best only imperfect
expression through physical symbols. Only those who have passed through the
travail of spiritual birth can adequately comprehend and properly reverence
the pathetic efforts to portray for others that knowledge necessarily locked
within the heart of the one who knows.

551
Click to enlarge
Leaf 1. The top line reads: "Our earliest medicine was made of natural objects."
About the king and queen appears the statement that to them a son shall be
born "in two trees of the vine," resembling his father and without equal in all
the world. About the vase is written: "Green and white." "The vase flame color,
the flowers green." "Our water, our silver." The lines below read: "The material
of the Philosopher's Stone is that thick, viscous water, which either heat or cold
congeals. It is Mercury boiled down and thickened, cooked in neutral earth
with sulphurous heat and is called the Prime Material of the metals. In caverns
yet dark, and forbidding mountains, if a Stone be found which a thousand
years ago Nature made out of her fruits, it will bring him that has it out of
trouble. * * * Listen carefully to all my verses; I speak them without veil and
without deception.

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Leaf 2. At the top is a quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas concerning the

552
composition of the Philosopher's Stone, which is described as of the purest
transparency; in it all the forms of the elements and their contrarieties were
visible. Beneath the figure of St. Thomas Aquinas is a short paragraph praising
the excellence of the Philosophic Stone, declaring that from the one substance
can be derived three and from the three, two. To the right of St. Thomas
Aquinas is a likeness of Raymond Lully seated in the door of his hermitage.
Under his feet appears a quotation from this celebrated alchemist, beginning
with the question, "What is the Philosopher's Stone?" After declaring it to be a
reddish, fixed mercury, Lully swears to the Almighty that he has told the truth
and that it is not permissible to say more. (The original manuscript is mutilated
at this point.)

Click to enlarge
Leaf 3. The writing at the top of the page reads: "Death of Saturn; life of Mer-
cury." After describing the use of the saturnine substances, the key to the
process is declared to be depicted below. The verse reads "This [the stone] is
made of four elements. This is the truth in all Nature. Take it in hand, bright
and shining, with all diligence and great care and then try to bind all securely
together side by side, so the fire may cause alarm." Above the human figure is
written: "Saturn is almost dead." To the right if the devouring serpent is a
statement of Albertus Magnus that Saturn and Mercury are the first principles
of the Stone. It also declares that Nature wisely provided a mixture of elements
so that earth can communicate its dryness to fire, fire its heat to air, air its mois-
ture to water, and water its coldness to earth. (Text about the vase is illegible in
original.)

553
Click to enlarge
Leaf 4. At the top: "Let them believe that . everything is possible. The art is
fleeting, bright and rare, and not believed by the foolish." The words between
the sun and crescent read "It is hidden," and on the panel across the body "The
Book of life and true Treasury of the World." The panel to the left of the fig-
ure says "Moving almost all, and the soul of its body returns to the place from
which it had fled, and ripens seven months or nine, and the King crowned with
his diadem appears." The right panel states: "There are three Mercuries: ani-
mal, vegetable, and mineral." The text below is of such a cryptic nature that to
translate it is well nigh impossible. It declares that by putting fire beneath the
feet of the symbolic figure it is possible to extract therefrom the sun and the
moon which the human body is shown elevating to a position of dignity above
its head.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 5. In the upper panel it is declared that the sun-bird battles with the earth-
554
serpent, who, tearing out his own entrails, gives them to the bird. The spirit is
vivified and Lazarus with joy is raised from the dead. Above the bird is written:
"This is the sun in the form of a bird," and above the dragon "This is the dragon
devouring the bird. The first operation." The panel of text at the lower left
reads in substance: "When our sperm (quicksilver) is mixed with the mother of
elements (earth), the action is called coitus. The detention by the earth of a bit
of quicksilver is called conception. The earth grows and multiplies and the
operation is called impregnation. When earth is whitened with water and made
of uniform color and appearance, it is called birth and the King is born out of
fire." The text at lower right was deliberately mutilated to conceal a too evident
secret.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 6. This plate shows all the secrets of the great Stone. In the center stands
the Paschal Virgin, in her hair the prime virtue which is described as an herb
flourishing in wells. The hands hold the symbols of the spiritual and material
elements. The statement at the upper left is to the effect that there are four
spirits with two faces, which are called the elements. At the upper right it is
written that fire lives on air, air on water, water on earth, and thus the Stone
lives Peacefully on all the pure elements. Under the sun appears the word
Summer; under the moon, Autumn. About the tree on the left with its atten-
dant eyes are the words: "Turn away your eyes to [from?] the fire. There is
space [?]." About the tree to the right. "Open your eyes to the fire. There is
time." The lower panel opens with this sentence "I am exalted above the circles
of world."

555
Click to enlarge
Leaf 7. The verse at the top reads:," This Stone is so noble and worthy that
Nature has hidden it in her recesses. Its soul is all fair, and pure, for it is the
true sun. I inform you of this. Keep it removed, apart and separated. Whatever
boon you crave, it will come to you bounteously. without sin, with pleasure and
delight." The seated figure on the left holding aloft the hammer is described as
breaking hard stone, while the words beside the man with the retort read:
"Breaking of stone our replenishment." Between the standing figures below is
the exclamation; "O Sages, seek and ye shall find my Stone!" Under the out-
stretched hand of the man with a basket appear the words: "Draw out sorerem
[?] in the bottom." Below the pool which the man on the left is stirring appears
the simple statement: "Our healing water." The faces of the four men are ex-
tremely well drawn.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 8. Under the sun, moon, and Mercury are the words Three and One, an
556
inference that the three are one. The words under the flower stems read:
"Whiteness forty days after ashes." Under the blossoms is written: (left) "Minor
time of the Stone"; (right) "The selected red." Between the arms of the central
figure appears: "Let one pound of Mercury be placed." To the left is written: "If
you who read shall have known this figure, you will possess the whole science
of the Stone"; to the right: "And if you do not acknowledge it, you will be stiff-
necked and dull." Above the sun is the word Father; above the satyr, "Ferment
of the work." Beside the child is the sentence: "The son of the moon would
threw the Stone into the fire--his mother." Above the flaming basket is written:
"I am the true Stone." Under the central figure are the words: "A moderate fire
is the master of the work."

Click to enlarge
Leaf 9. In the upper left it is written that without the light of the Moon the Sun
does not heat the earth and that into the Moon the Sun emits its fruits. In the
upper right the true herb of the philosophers is described, and it is declared
that whoever believes in and it shall be [spiritually] rich. The panel concludes
thus: "Understand thoroughly what it is that the man has in either hand if you
wish to be enlightened." The text to the left above the sun reads: "Entirely with-
out the Sun and Moon, make dye; dissolve, congeal, and like produces for
itself like." The words to the right of the man holding the Philosopher's herb
declare sublimation to be the beginning, the middle and the end of the Great
Work. The last sentence reads: "Out of the Sun and Moon make a thing of
equal parts, and by their union, God willing, let the Philosopher's Stone be
made."

557
Click to enlarge
Leaf 10. The two short lines of text at upper left read: "Some take a recent
stone." The lines to the right of the symbol of Mars (iron) admonish the stu-
dent to control his appetites and apply his mind to the accumulation of know-
ledge. No satisfactory translation can be found for the words under the out-
stretched arm of the man holding the upper part of the tree. The lower panel
reads thus: "After the Stone has been well refined it will appear to penetrate
thoroughly. It should be put into its vessel with its water. Close it well with a
little fire, and await the wonders of Nature." The large red oval filling the lower
half of the leaf is evidently the egg or vessel of the Sages. The tree is a symbol
of the growth of the sacred metals, for the alchemists affirmed that the metals
are like plants and grow in the rocks, spreading their branches (veins) through
the interstices.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 11. The fount is described as that from which the two Mercuries of the

558
Philosophers are extracted. At the upper left is described the white Mercury
and at the right the red Mercury. The text about the fountain declares that
Saturn collects the white Mercury, which is called the Water of Earth; and the
Earth collects the red Mercury, which is called the Water of Heaven. The text
to the left of the frog reads: "Through Him who created the Heavens and the
Earth I am the Philosopher's Stone, and in my body I carry something the wise
seek. If such a charm be extracted from me, it will be a sweet refreshment for
you. I am an animal having father and mother, and father and mother were
created; and in my body are contained the four elements, and I am before
father and mother and I am a poisonous animal." The lines at the right de-
scribe distilling and calcining processes.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 12. The three words at the top read: "This is Nature." The lines above the
donkey read: "This is the Philosophers' donkey who wished to rise to the prac-
tice of the Philosopher's Some." The three lines below the animal are trans-
lated: "Frogs gather in multitudes but science consists of clear water made from
the Sun and Moon." The text under the symbolic bird is as follows: "This is
fortune with two wings. Whosoever has it knows that fruit will in such away be
produced. A great philosopher has shown that the stone is a certain white sun,
to see which needs a telescope. To dissolve it in water requires the Sun and
Moon, and here one must open 200 telescopes, putting body and soul in one
mass. And here is lost the mass; other sages cook the frogs and add nothing, if
the juice of the Wise you wish to enjoy." To the Greeks the frog symbolized
both metempsychosis and earthly humidity.

559
Click to enlarge
Leaf 13. This Page contains but two figures. At the left stands Morienus, the
philosopher, pointing towards the salamander who "lives and grows in fire."
Morienus, who was born in the twelfth century, became the disciple of the
great Arabian alchemist Adfar, from whom he learned the Hermetic arts. Mo-
rienus prepared the Philosophical Elixir for the Sultan of Egypt, inscribing
upon the vase in which he placed the precious substance the words: "He who
possesses all has no need of others." He spent many years as a hermit near
Jerusalem. The lines below the salamander are: "Let the fire be of a perfect red
color; the earth white, the water clear. Then compound them by philosophical
means and calcine them as many times with the water which the body had as to
turn it white by its kindness. Having done this, you will have the greatest trea-
sure in the world."

Click to enlarge
Leaf 14. The three words at the top of the left page are translated: "The man
560
that digs." Above the birds it is declared that none but the cocks of Hermes, the
two Mercuries, shall put hand to the plow, and only after irrigation will the
earth bring forth her fruits. The seated man is Count Bernard of Treviso, who
says: "Work the earth with Mercury." (See chapter on Alchemy and Its Expo-
nents.) The three sentences to the Count's left read: "Go to the fire and with
Mercury, thy brother, await me for a month. Crumble the stone I gave thee
and I shall go to the fire. Thy death, my life. I shall net die but, living, tell of
the works of this, my master." Bernard of Treviso in his alchemical speculation
emphasized the necessity of meditation upon the philosophical writings of the
great adepts rather than chemical experimentation. He ultimately discovered
the "Stone."

Click to enlarge
Leaf 15. The first sentence reads: "The fruit of plants by virtue of the Sun, our
Stone." The boy holding the dish is made to say: "Drink here all ye that are
athirst. Come unto me, run to the waters. Here drink, without price, and drink
your fill. Open your eyes and see the wonders of the earth. They learn, my
thirsty twenty and four." Beneath the boy are the words: "In the beginning God
created the Heavens and the Earth, and divided the waters from the waters.
Bless the waters which are above the Heavens." The circle contains this state-
ment: "The earth without form and void. Out of the stars come the rains." The
lower left panel continues the alchemical process, ending with admonition to
renounce the misery of worldly existence. Above is a prayer to the Virgin Mary
which opens thus: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with thee. Blessed
thou among women."

561
Click to enlarge
Leaf 16. The first sentence reads: "The dead bodies remain; the spirits are
freed by the death in the bodies. You will ride with that death with a scythe,
and the light of the Sun, the Moon, and the fixed stars." Over the scythe is writ-
ten: "Subject to the Sun, the Moon and Azoth, complete the Work." The four
words in the curve of the scythe blade say: "Man's head, head of raven." The
three lines to the right are interpreted thus: "This figure is called Laton, for it
looks black in a vessel, and is the beginning of corruption." The text below the
ladder states: "This is the ladder of primitive matter which when placed in a
vessel turns black, the gradually changes to white by the scale [ladder] of diges-
tion, according to the degree of heat." Here a ladder is used to signify the natu-
ral steps up which matter must ascend before it can attain to a truly spiritual
state.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 17. The verse at the top of the page reads: "Not only must this material be
562
fixed, but it must be allowed to enter into everything so that this material may
be well completed and have infinite virtue. Then by making it thick, it becomes
at once all white, sublimation from white it becomes shining." Above the sun
are the words: "God and Nature do nothing in vain." The man on the left is a
medival conception of Hermes, the great Egyptian philosopher; the one on
the right is Christopher, the philosopher of Paris. Above the latter is written: "If
the Stone is black, it is not useless." The words over the retort are: "There is
air, fire, water, and earth." Below is added: "A dissolution of the body is the
first step. " The curious chemical apparatus must be considered purely symbol-
ic in this work and, as its author himself says, is intended to give only a hint of
the "Art."

Click to enlarge
Leaf 18. At the left holding a book stands Aristotle, who is described as the
most learned of all the Greeks. The tree surmounted by the Sun and Mon. is
accompanied by the wards: "When the Stone is dead, that is changed to water,
in this it will produce flowers." Beneath Aristotle and the prostrate human fig-
ure from which rises the flowering tree are these statements: "He who makes
everything descend from heaven to earth, and then ascend from earth to hea-
ven, has information about the Stone. For in Mercury there is something the
wise seek, not invoked except by white or red ferment." The first part of this
quotation is based upon the Emerald Tablet of Hermes (which see). In ordi-
nary man, the spirit is figuratively absorbed by the body; but in the true philo-
sopher, the spirit is so greatly increased in power that it absorbs into itself and
is nourished by man's corporeal body.

563
Click to enlarge
Leaf 19. At the top it reads: "He that comes to know this figure will have know-
ledge of the Stone." The seated man probably represents Paracelsus. To his
right are the words: "I am neither tree nor animal, nor stone nor vegetable, but
the Philosopher's Stone, trampled on by men, cast into the fire by my father,
and in fire I rejoice." The four words to the left say "In dryness is the Stone."
Below the man is the Philosophic Egg containing the words: "It is the end in
which the beginning rests." The capital T stands for "Tincture." The text to the
right states: "In Stone it is formed, as Gerber writes in his book very learnedly,
and possessing so much of its nature that it changes into clear, living water; and
it has the power to make folks rich, satisfied, and free from all cares, so they
will be always happy if they attain by their wit to the secret."

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Leaf 20. At the top is written: "Rains are made by six stars." Under the inverted
man it reads: "Receive new spirit. Arise, for you are asleep." The two sentences
564
about the large figure read: "Remember Mercury, for ashes thou art and unto
ashes thou shalt return. I thirst and am dead." Above the seven globes at the
left is the admonition: "If he thirst, give him a drink and he shall live." Over the
small man is written: "Hermes, the father of philosophers." The curved line of
writing to which Hermes points says: "The measure of the drink." Under the
central pedestal appears: "The light of my eyes is a lantern to my feet." Below is
added: "If the beginning is unknown, the rest is unknown." Above the figure
rising from the flames on the right is the statement: "He was resurrected after
new Moon," and under the eagle: "Thou shalt not fly further with me."

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Leaf 21. The upper line reads: "Two things and double, but finally one is dis-
solved into the first and they make sperm." The four capitals. I A A T, are the
initial letters of the names of the elements: Ignis, Aer, Aqua, and Terra. The
writing under them reads: "Our fire is water; if you can give fire to fire, fire and
Mercury will suffice." Along the arm appear the words: "The Art of the Stone
is," and on the ribbon: "Swift, brief, bright, and rare." The two lines under the
ribbon read: "Every hand is a key, because it was called the herb celandine";
under the Sun: "I am the gift of God " The verse reads: "So that you remain
contented in all matters, I must listen attentively. My body [is] naked, clean,
and shining, and I run like oil ready to drop, resplendent like bright gold, and
then succumb to the plague in its bright and cheerful little chamber [retort]."

565
Click to enlarge
Leaf 22. The verse in the upper left is as follows: "This group is composed of
three stones: lunar, solar, and mercurial. In the lunar is white sulphur; in the
solar, red sulphur, in the mercurial, both; i.e. white and red, and this is the
strength of all instruction." In the bottle at the left are the words: "Dissolving,
calcination, sublimation complete the instruction"; and at the base: "Wash,
congeal, and coagulate. " Under the central tower is written: "Metallic salts,
however, are hidden by one letter"; around the bottom of the red circle: "Dry-
ness, coldness, humidity, heat, and dryness." On the points below are the
names of the four elements. The initial, I A A T appear four times with the
same meaning as that already given. The three powers of the Philosopher's
Stone are symbolized by the heads of the cherubs in the circle in the upper left
corner.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 23. The writing at the upper left is, in substance, the Lord's Prayer, with
566
the addition of the words Jesus and Mary at the end. The inverted words in the
banner read: "Ye can do nothing without me, for God has so promised, saying
'So be it.'" The text under the angel reads: "By this plague he will be damned
who knows he is dead, all cold in a black body. And let this be thy first com-
fort: then he will burn unto calcination. When I have reduced him within this
door, know for certain that I shall be blessed if I shall know how to cultivate
the garden." The main part of the leaf is devoted to an elaborate symbolic
drawing of alchemical equipment, under which are the words: "The furnace of
distillation, congealing, rectification, perfection, fixation: quintessence of the
Philosophers." By "quintessence" should be understood the "fifth essence" of
the most wise.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 24. The words at the top read: "I, the bird [the adept], speak into thine
ears from the Sun, Moon and Azoth. The work is perfected with little labor."
The panel to the left describes the nature of primordial matter and the drink of
the Philosophers. The text to the right reads: "This is my beloved Son whom I
saw and loved. If he be resurrected, He will remain at home, and in that house
the spirit will be the soul and the body; for Mercury may be called the son of
the Sun and the Moon." Under the child's figure is added: "If he were not dead,
I should not have been his mother. I bore him after death before he was born
in the world; under my feet I have what was his, and out of me and my Son
and the foundation of my feet the Philosopher's Stone is made." At the lower
left the three constituents of the Stone are shown elevated upon a pedestal to
signify their dignity.

567
Click to enlarge
Leaf 25. Above the figure of the Queen are three lines stating, in substance,
that in the beginning of the book it was written of her that from her maternal
breasts she nourished the Sun, and that he who was capable of converting her
into Primal matter possessed rare skill. Opposite the Queen's head are the
words: "In the highest mountains this water" and "I am the light of the Philoso-
phers." To the left of the Queen is an admonition to strike the sons whom she
bears. She calls herself "The mother of the Sun, the sister of the Moon, and the
servant and spouse of Mercury." On the right she is made to exclaim: "I cannot
be crowned unless these sons of mine become ashes. " The sons are shown
directly below. The verse under the Queen continues the alchemical processes,
describing the method in which the exudations from the substance should be
preserved.

Click to enlarge
Leaf 26. This page, which concludes that part of the Hermetic manuscript
568
bearing the symbols of the Secret Work, contains a number of emblems not
directly correlated. At the top is the head of the King--the most common of
alchemical figures. To the right of the King is an alchemical vessel designated
the Hermetic Seal. Below is the head of a ferocious bird, here designated a
griffon. To the left of the King is a headless figure elevating a Sun, or spiritual
face. This figure is the world, which must be headless, since its spiritual and
rational part is not material and consequently, is invisible. Below is a circle
unaccompanied by descriptive matter. Directly under the King's head is a vase
of flowers, in which rises the golden plant of the Philosophers. At the bottom
of the page is additional alchemical equipment, this also being termed a Her-
metic Seal.

569
 The Chemical Marriage

THE self-admitted author of The Chemical Marriage, Johann Valentin An-

dre, born in Wrttemberg in 1586, was twenty-eight years of age when that
work was first published. It was presumably written about twelve years prior to
its publication--or when the author was fifteen or sixteen years old. The fact is
almost incredible that one so young could produce a volume containing the
wealth of symbolic thought and philosophy hidden between the lines of The
Chemical Marriage. This book makes the earliest known reference to Christian
Rosencreutz, and is generally regarded as the third of the series of original
Rosicrucian manifestoes. As a symbolic work, the book itself is hopelessly irre-
concilable with the statements made by Andre concerning it. The story of
The Chemical Marriage relates in detail a series of incidents occurring to an
aged man, presumably the Father C.R.C. of the Fama and Confessio. If Father
C.R.C. was born in 1378, as stated in the Confessio, and is identical with the
Christian Rosencreutz of The Chemical Marriage, he was elevated to the digni-
ty of a Knight of the Golden Stone in the eighty-first year of his life (1459). In
the light of his own statements, it is inconceivable that Andre could have been
Father Rosy Cross.
Many figures found in the various books on symbolism published in the
early part of the seventeenth century bear a striking resemblance to the charac-
ters and episodes in The Chemical Marriage. The alchemical wedding may
prove to be the key to the riddle of Baconian Rosicrucianism. The presence in
the German text of The Chemical Marriage of some words in English indicates
its author to have been conversant also with that language. The following sum-
mary of the main episodes of the seven days of The Chemical Marriage will
give the reader a fairly comprehensive idea of the profundity of its symbolism.

THE FIRST DAY

Christian Rosencreutz, having prepared in his heart the Paschal Lamb together
with a small unleavened loaf, was disturbed while at prayer one evening before
Easter by a violent storm which threatened to demolish not only his little house
but the very hill on which it stood. In the midst of the tempest he was touched
on the back and, turning, he beheld a glorious woman with wings filled with
eyes, and robed in sky-colored garments spangled with stars. In one hand she
held a trumpet and in the other a bundle of letters in every language. Handing
a letter to C.R.C., she immediately ascended into the air, at the same time
blowing upon her trumpet a blast which shook the house. Upon the seal of the
letter was a curious cross and the words In hoc signo vinces. Within, traced in

570
letters of gold on an azure field, was an invitation to a royal wedding.
C.R.C. was deeply moved by the invitation because it was the fulfillment of a
prophecy which he had received seven years before, but so unworthy did he
feel that he was paralyzed with fear. At length, after resorting to prayer, he
sought sleep. In his dreams he found himself in a loathsome dungeon with a
multitude of other men, all bound and fettered with great chains. The griev-
ousness of their sufferings was increased as they stumbled over each other in
the darkness. Suddenly from above came the sound of trumpets; the cover of
the dungeon was lifted, and a ray of light pierced the gloom. Framed in the
light stood a hoary-headed man who announced that a rope would be lowered
seven times and whoever could cling to the rope would be drawn up to free-
dom.
Great confusion ensued. All sought to grasp the rope and many were pulled
away from it by others. C.R.C. despaired of being saved, but suddenly the rope
swung towards him and, grasping it, he was raised from the dungeon. An aged
woman called the "Ancient Matron" wrote in a golden yellow book the names
of those drawn forth, and each of the redeemed was given for remembrance a
piece of gold bearing the symbol of the sun and the letters D L S. C.R.C., who
had been injured while clinging to the rope, found it difficult to walk. The aged
woman bade him not to worry, but to thank God who had permitted him to
come into so high a light. Thereupon trumpets sounded and C.R.C. awoke,
but so vivid was the dream that he was still sensible of the wounds received
while asleep.
With renewed faith C. R. C. arose and prepared himself for the Hermetic
Marriage. He donned a white linen coat and bound a red ribbon crosswise
over his shoulders. In his hat he stuck four roses and for food he carried
bread, water, and salt. Before leaving his cottage, he knelt and vowed that
whatever knowledge was revealed to him he would devote to the service of his
neighbor. He then departed from his house with joy.

THE SECOND DAY

As he entered the forest surrounding his little house, it seemed to C.R.C. that
all Nature had joyously prepared for the wedding. As he proceeded singing
merrily, he came to a green heath in which stood three great cedars, one bear-
ing a tablet with an inscription describing the four paths that led to the palace
of the King: the first short and dangerous, the second circuitous, the third a
pleasant and royal road, and the fourth suitable only for incorruptible bodies.
Weary and perplexed, C.R.C. decided to rest and, cutting a slice of bread, was
about to partake thereof when a white dove begged it from him. The dove was
at once attacked by a raven, and in his efforts to separate the birds C.R.C. un-
knowingly ran a considerable distance along one of the four paths--that leading

571
southward. A terrific wind preventing him from retracing his steps, the wedding
guest resigned himself to the loss of his bread and continued along the road
until he espied in the distance a great gate. The sun being low, he hastened
towards the portal, upon which, among other figures, was a tablet bearing the
words Procul hinc procul ite profani.
A gatekeeper in sky-colored habit immediately asked C.R.C. for his letter of
invitation and, on receiving it, bade him enter and requested that he purchase a
token. After describing himself as a Brother of the Red Rosie Cross, C.R.C.
received in exchange for his water bottle a golden disk bearing the letters S C.
Night drawing near, the wanderer hastened on to a second gate, guarded by a
lion, and to which was affixed a tablet with the words Date et dabitur volis,
where he presented a letter given him by the first gatekeeper. Being urged to
purchase a token bearing the letters S M, he gave his little package of salt and
then hastened on to reach the palace gates before they were locked for the
night.
A beautiful virgin called Virgo Lucifera was extinguishing the castle lights as
C.R.C. approached, and he was barely able to squeeze through the closing
gates. As they closed they caught part of his coat, which he was forced to leave
behind. Here his name was written in the Lord Bridegroom's little vellum book
and he was presented with a new pair of shoes and also a token bearing the
letters S P N. He was then conducted by pages to a small chamber where the
"ice-grey locks" were cut from the crown of his head by invisible barbers, after
which he was ushered into a spacious hall where a goodly number of kings,
princes, and commoners were assembled. At the sound of trumpets each
seated himself at the table, taking a position corresponding to his dignity, so
that C.R.C. received a very humble seat. Most of the pseudo-philosophers
present being vain pretenders, the banquet became an orgy, which, however,
suddenly ceased at the sound of stately and inspired music. For nearly half an
hour no one spoke. Then amidst a great sound the door of the dining hall
swung open and thousands of lighted tapers held by invisible hands entered.
These were followed by the two pages lighting the beautiful Virgo Lucifera
seated on a self-moving throne. The white-and-gold-robed Virgin then rose and
announced that to prevent the admission of unworthy persons to the mystical
wedding a set of scales would be erected the following day upon which each
guest would be weighed to determine his integrity. Those unwilling to undergo
this ordeal she stated should remain in the dining hall. She then withdrew, but
many of the tapers stayed to accompany the guests to their quarters for the
night.

572
Click to enlarge
TITLE PAGE OF 1616 EDITION OF CHYMISCHE HOCHZEIT: CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUTZ.
From Rosencreutz' Chemical Marriage.
The most remarkable of all the publications involved in the Rosicrucian controversy is
that of The Chemical Marriage, published in Strasbourg. This work, which is very rare,
should be reproduced in exact facsimile to provide students with the opportunity of
examining the actual text for the various forms of cipher employed. Probably no other
volume in the history or literature created such a profound disturbance as this unpre-
tentious little book. Immediately following its publication the purpose for which the
volume was intended became the subject of popular speculation. It was both attacked
and defended by theologians and philosophers alike, but when the various contending
elements are simmered down the mysteries surrounding the book remain unsolved.
That its author was a man of exceptional learning was admitted, and it is noteworthy
that those minds which possessed the deepest understanding of Nature's mysteries
were among those profoundly impressed by the contents of The Chemical Marriage.

Most of those present were presumptuous enough to believe that they could be
safety weighed, but nine--including C.R.C.--felt their shortcomings so deeply
that they feared the outcome and remained in the hall while the others were
led away to their sleeping chambers. These nine were bound with ropes and
left alone in darkness. C.R.C. then dreamed that he saw many men suspended
over the earth by threads, and among them flew an aged man who, cutting here
and there a thread, caused many to fall to earth. Those who in arrogance had
soared to lofty heights accordingly fell a greater distance and sustained more
serious injury than the more humble ones who, falling but a short distance,
often landed without mishap. Considering this dream to be a good omen,
C.R.C. related it to a companion, continuing in discourse with him until dawn.

THE THIRD DAY

Soon after dawn the trumpets sounded and the Virgo Lucifera, arrayed in red
velvet, girded with a white sash, and crowned with a laurel wreath, entered ac-
573
companied by two hundred men in red-and-white livery. She intimated to
C.R.C. and his eight companions that they might fare better than the other,
self-satisfied guests. Golden scales were then hung in the midst of the hall and
near them were placed seven weights, one good-sized, four small, and two very
large. The men in livery, each carrying a naked sword and a strong rope, were
divided into seven groups and from each group was chosen a captain, who was
given charge of one of the weights. Having remounted her high throne, Virgo
Lucifera ordered the ceremony to begin. The first to step on the scales was an
emperor so virtuous that the balances did not tip until six weights had been
placed upon the opposite end. He was therefore turned over to the sixth
group. The rich and poor alike stood upon the scales, but only a few passed
the test successfully. To these were given velvet robes and wreaths of laurel,
after which they were seated upon the steps of Virgo Lucifera's throne. Those
who failed were ridiculed and scourged.
The "inquisition" being finished, one of the captains begged Virgo Lucifera
to permit the nine men who had declared themselves unworthy also to be
weighed, and this caused C.R.C. anguish and fear. Of the first seven one suc-
ceeded and was greeted with joy. C.R.C. was the eighth and he not only with-
stood all the weights but even when three men hung on the opposite end of the
beam he could not be moved. A page cried out: "THAT IS HE!" C.R.C. was
quickly set at liberty and permitted to release one of the captives. He chose the
first emperor. Virgo Lucifera then requested the red roses that C.R.C. carried,
which he immediately gave her. The ceremony of the scales ended about ten
o'clock in the forenoon.
After agreeing upon the penalties to be imposed upon those whose short-
comings had been thus exposed, a dinner was served to all. The few successful
"artists," including C.R.C., were given the chief seats, after which the Golden
Fleece and a Flying Lion were bestowed upon them in the name of the Bride-
groom. Virgo Lucifera then presented a magnificent goblet to the guests, stating
that the King had requested all to share its contents, Following this, C.R.C. and
his companions were taken out upon a scaffolding where they beheld the vari-
ous penalties suffered by those who failed. Before leaving the palace, each of
the rejected guests was given a draught of forgetfulness. The elect then returned
to the castle, where to each was assigned a learned page, who conducted them
through the various parts of the edifice. C.R.C. saw many things his compa-
nions were not privileged to behold, including the Royal Sepulcher, where he
learned "more than is extant in all books." He also visited a magnificent library
and an observatory containing a great globe thirty feet in diameter and with all
the countries of the world marked upon it.
At supper the various guests propounded enigmas and C.R.C. solved the
riddle which Virgo Lucifera asked concerning her own identity. Then entered

574
the dining hall two youths and six virgins beautifully robed, followed by a se-
venth virgin wearing a coronet. The latter was called the Duchess, and was
mistaken for the Hermetic Bride. The Duchess told C.R.C. that he had re-
ceived more than the others, therefore should make a greater return. The Du-
chess then asked each of the virgins to pick up one of the seven weights which
still remained in the great room. To Virgo Lucifera was given the heaviest
weight, which was hung in the Queen's chamber during the singing of a hymn.
In the second chamber the first virgin hung her weight during a similar cere-
mony; thus they proceeded from room to room until the weights had been
disposed of. The Duchess then presented her hand to C. R. C. and his com-
panions and, followed by her virgins, withdrew. Pages then conducted the
guests to their sleeping chambers. The one assigned to C.R.C. was hung with
rare tapestries and with beautiful paintings.

THE FOURTH DAY

After washing and drinking in the garden from a fountain which bore several
inscriptions--among them one reading, "Drink, brothers, and live"--the guests,
led by Virgo Lucifera, ascended the 365 steps of the royal winding stairs. The
guests were given wreaths of laurel and, a curtain being raised, found them-
selves in the presence of the King and Queen. C.R.C. was awestruck by the
glory of the throne room and especially by the magnificence of the Queen's
robes, which were so dazzling that he could not gaze upon them. Each guest
was presented to the King by one of the virgins and after this ceremony the
Virgo Lucifera made a short speech in which she recited the achievements of
the honest "artists" and begged that each be questioned as to whether she had
properly fulfilled her duty. Old Atlas then stepped forward and in the name of
their Royal Majesties greeted the intrepid band of philosophers and assured
Virgo Lucifera that she should receive a royal reward.
The length of the throne room was five times its width. To the west was a
great porch in which stood three thrones, the central one elevated. On each
throne sat two persons: on the first an ancient king with a young consort; on the
third a black king with a veiled matron beside him; and on the central throne
two young persons over whose heads hung a large and costly crown, about
which hovered a little Cupid who shot his arrows first at the two lovers and
then about the hall. Before the Queen a book bound in black velvet lay on a
small altar, on which were golden decorations. Beside this were a burning can-
dle, a celestial globe, a small striking-watch, a little crystal pipe from which ran
a stream of clear blood-red liquor, and a skull with a white serpent crawling in
and out of the orbits. After their presentations, the guests retired down the
winding stairs to the great hall.

575
Click to enlarge
KEY TO THE GREAT PHILOSOPHICAL SECRET.
From Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum.
This plate, which is the key to mystic Christian alchemy, is missing from almost every
copy of the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, a work compiled by Elias Ashmole
and containing about a score of pieces by English poets treating of the Philosopher's
Stone and the Hermetic mysteries. In view of the consistent manner in which the plate
disappeared, it is possible that the diagram was purposely removed because it revealed
too plainly the Rosicrucian arcana. Worthy of notice also is the care with which own-
ers' names have been effaced from early books pertaining to alchemy and Hermetic-
ism. The original names are usually rendered illegible being covered with heavy ink
lines, the procedure often seriously defacing the volume, While an occasional excep-
tion is found, in practically every instance the mutilated books either deal with Rosi-
crucianism or contain cryptic writings of suspected Rosicrucian origin. It is presumed
that this Practice of obliterating the owners names was to prevent the early Rosicru-
cians and Hermetists from being discovered through the volumes composing their
libraries. Elias Ashmole's plate shows the analogies between the life of Christ and the
four grand divisions of the alchemical process. Herein is also revealed the teaching that
the Philosopher's Stone itself is a macrocosm and a microcosm, embodying the prin-
ciples of astronomy and cosmogony, both universal and human.

Later the Virgo Lucifera announced that a comedy was to be performed for the
benefit of the six royal guests in a building called the House of the Sun. C.R.C.
and his companions formed part of the royal procession, which after a consi-
derable walk arrived at the theater. The play was in seven acts, and after its
happy ending all returned through the garden and up the winding stairs to the
throne room. C.R.C. noticed the young King was very sad and that at the ban-
quet following he often sent meat to the white serpent in the skull. The feast
over, the young King, holding in his hand the little black book from the altar,
asked the guests if they would all be true to him through prosperity and adver-
sity, and when they tremblingly agreed he asked that each should sign his name
in the little black book as proof of his fealty. The royal persons then drank
from the little crystal fountain, the others afterwards doing likewise. This was

576
called the "Draught of Silence." The royal persons then sadly shook hands with
all present. Suddenly a little bell tinkled and immediately the kings and queens
took off their white garments and donned black ones, the room was hung in
sable draperies, and the tables were removed. The eyes of the royal persons
were bound with six black taffeta scarfs and six coffins were placed in the cen-
ter of the room. An executioner, a Moor, robed in black and bearing an axe,
entered, and beheaded in turn each of the six royal persons. The blood of each
was caught in a golden goblet, which was placed in the coffins with the body.
The executioner was also decapitated and his head placed in a small chest.
The Virgo Lucifera, after assuring C.R.C. and his companions that all
should be well if they were faithful and true, ordered the pages to conduct
them to their rooms for the night while she remained to watch with the dead.
About midnight C.R.C. awakened suddenly and, looking from his window,
beheld seven ships sailing upon a lake. Above each hovered a flame; these he
believed to be the spirits of the beheaded. When the ships reached shore, the
Virgo Lucifera met them and on each of six of the vessels was placed a covered
coffin. As soon as the coffins had been thus disposed of, the lights were extin-
guished and the flames passed back over the lake so that there remained but
one light for a watch in each ship. After beholding this strange ceremony,
C.R.C. returned to his bed and slept till morning.

THE FIFTH DAY

Rising at daybreak and entreating his page to show him other treasures of the
palace, C.R.C. was conducted down many steps to a great iron door bearing a
curious inscription, which he carefully copied. Passing through, he found him-
self in the royal treasury, the light in which came entirely from some huge car-
buncles. In the center stood the triangular sepulcher of Lady Venus. Lifting a
copper door in the pavement, the page ushered C.R.C. into a crypt where
stood a great bed upon which, when his guide had raised the coverlets, C.R.C.
beheld the body of Venus. Led by his page, C.R.C. then rejoined his compa-
nions, saying nothing to them of his experience.
Virgo Lucifera, robed in black velvet and accompanied by her virgins, then
led the guests out into the courtyard where stood six coffins, each with eight
pallbearers. C.R.C. was the only one of the group of "artists" who suspected the
royal bodies were no longer in these coffins. The coffins were lowered into
graves and great stones rolled over them. The Virgo Lucifera then made a
short oration in which she exhorted each to assist in restoring the royal persons
to life, declaring that they should journey with her to the Tower of Olympus,
where the medicines necessary to the resurrection of the six royal persons
could alone be found. C.R.C. and his companions followed Virgo Lucifera to
the seashore, where all embarked on seven ships disposed according to a cer-

577
tain strange order. As the ships sailed across the lake and through a narrow
channel into the open sea, they were attended by sirens, nymphs, and sea god-
desses, who in honor of the wedding presented a great and beautiful pearl to
the royal couple. When the ships came in sight of the Tower of Olympus, Vir-
go Lucifera ordered the discharge of cannon to signal their approach. Imme-
diately a white flag appeared upon the tower and a small gilded pinnace, con-
taining an ancient man--the warden of the tower--with his white-clad guards
came out to meet the ships.
The Tower of Olympus stood upon an island which was exactly square and
was surrounded by a great wall. Entering the gate, the group was led to the
bottom of the central tower, which contained an excellent laboratory where the
guests were fain to beat and wash plants, precious stones, and all sorts of things,
extract their juice and essence, and put these latter into glasses. Virgo Lucifera
set the "artists" to work so arduously that they felt they were mere drudges.
When the day's work was finished, each was assigned a mattress on the stone
floor. Being unable to sleep, C.R.C. wandered about contemplating the stars.
Chancing upon a flight of steps leading to the top of the wall, he climbed up
and looked out upon the sea. Remaining here for some time, about midnight
he beheld seven flames which, passing over the sea towards him, gathered
themselves on the top of the spire of the central tower. Simultaneously the
winds arose, the sea became tempestuous, and the moon was covered with
clouds. With some fear C.R.C. ran down the stairs and returned to the tower
and, lying down on his mattress, was lulled to sleep by the sound of a gently
flowing fountain in the laboratory.

THE SIXTH DAY

The next morning the aged warden of the tower, after examining the work
performed by the wedding guests in the laboratory and finding it satisfactory,
caused ladders, ropes, and large wings to be brought forth, and addressed the
assembled "artists" thus: "My dear sons, one of these three things must each of
you this day constantly bear about with him." Lots were cast and to C.R.C.,
much to his chagrin, fell a heavy ladder. Those who secured wings had them
fastened to their backs so cunningly that it was impossible to detect that they
were artificial. The aged warden then locked the "artists" in the lower room of
the tower, but in a short time a round hole was uncovered in the ceiling and
Virgo Lucifera invited all to ascend. Those with wings flew at once through the
opening, those with ropes had many difficulties, while C.R.C. with his ladder
made reasonable speed. On the second floor the wedding guests, musicians,
and Virgo Lucifera gathered about a fountain-like contrivance containing the
bodies of the six royal persons.
Virgo Lucifera then placed the if Moor's head in a kettle-like receptacle in
578
the upper part of the fountain and poured upon it the substances prepared on
the previous day in the laboratory. The virgins placed lamps beneath. These
substances when they boiled passed out through holes in the sides of the kettle
and, falling upon the bodies in the fountain below, dissolved them. The six
royal bodies having been reduced thus to a liquid state, a tap was opened in the
lower end of the fountain and the fluid drained into an immense golden globe,
which, when filled, was of great weight. All but the wedding guests then retired
and shortly a hole in the ceiling opened as before and the guests ascended pell-
mell to the third floor. Here the globe were suspended by a strong chain. The
walls of the apartment were of glass, and mirrors were so arranged that the
sun's rays were concentrated upon the central globe, thus causing it to become
very hot. Later the sun's rays were deflected and the globe permitted to cool,
after which it was cut open with a diamond, revealing a beautiful white egg.
Carrying this with her, Virgo Lucifera departed.
The guests, having ascended through another trap door, found themselves
upon the fourth floor, where stood a square kettle filled with silver sand
warmed by a gentle fire. The great white egg was placed upon the warm sand to
mature. In a short time it cracked and there emerged an ugly, ill-tempered
bird, which was fed with the blood of the beheaded royal persons diluted with
prepared water. At each feeding its feathers changed color; from black they
turned to white and at last they became varicolored, the disposition of the bird
improving the while. Dinner was then served, after which Virgo Lucifera de-
parted with the bird. The guests ascended with ropes, ladders, and wings to the
fifth floor, where a bath colored with fine white powder had been prepared for
the bird, which enjoyed bathing in it until the lamps placed beneath the bath
caused the water to become uncomfortably warm. When the heat had re-
moved all the bird's feathers it was taken out, but the fire continued until noth-
ing remained in the bath save a sediment in the form of a blue stone. This was
later pounded up and made into a pigment; with this, all of the bird except the
head was painted.

Click to enlarge
THE UNIVERSE CREATED BY THE DUAL PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS.
From Fludd's Philosophia Mosaica.
579
The Supreme Deity is symbolized by the small globe at the top, which is divided into
two hemispheres, the dark half representing the divine darkness with which the Deity
surround Himself and which serves as His hiding place. The radiant hemisphere signi-
fies the divine light which is in God and which, pouring forth, manifests as the objec-
tive creative power. The large dark globe to the left and beneath the dark half of the
upper sphere signifies the potential darkness which was upon the face of the primordi-
al deep and within which moved the Spirit of God. The light globe to the right is the
Deity who is revealed out of the darkness. Here the shining Word has dissipated the
shadows and a glorious universe has been formed. The divine power of this radiant
globe is cognizable to man as the sun. The large light and a dark section represents the
created universes partaking of the light and darkness which are in the nature of the
Creator. The dark half represents the Deep, or Chaos, the Eternal Waters pouring
forth out of the Deity; the light half-circle containing the figure of Apollo represents
the diurnal hemisphere of the world, which in the ancient Mysteries was ruled over by
Apollo. The dark half-circle is the nocturnal hemisphere ruled over by Dionysius
(Dionysos), whose figure is faintly visible in the gloom.

The guests thereupon ascended to the sixth floor, where stood a small altar
resembling that in the King's throne room. The bird drank from the little foun-
tain and was fed with the blood of the white serpent which crawled through the
openings in the skull. The sphere by the altar revolved continuously. The
watch struck one, two, and then three, at which time the bird, laying its neck
upon the book, suffered itself to be decapitated. Its body was burned to ashes,
which were placed in a box of cypress wood. Virgo Lucifera told C.R.C. and
three of his comrades that they were lazy and sluggish "labourators" and would
therefore be excluded from the seventh room. Musicians were sent for, who
with cornets were to "blow" the four in ridicule from the chamber. C.R.C. and
his three companions were disheartened until the musicians told them to be of
good cheer and led them up a winding stair to the eighth floor of the tower
directly beneath the roof. Here the old warden, standing upon a little round
furnace, welcomed them and congratulated them upon being chosen by Virgo
Lucifera, for this greater work. Virgo Lucifera then entered, and after laughing
at the perplexity of her guests, emptied the ashes of the bird into another ves-
sel, filling the cypress box with useless matter. She thereupon returned to the
seventh floor, presumably to mislead those assembled there by setting them to
work upon the false ashes in the box.
C.R.C. and his three friends were set to work moistening the bird's ashes
with specially prepared water until the mixture became of doughlike consisten-
cy, after which it was heated and molded into two miniature forms. Later these
were opened, disclosing two bright and almost transparent human images
about four inches high (homunculi), one male and the other female. These tiny
580
forms were laid upon satin cushions and fed drop by drop with the blood of
the bird until they grew to normal size and of great beauty. Though the bodies
had the consistency of flesh, they showed no signs of life, for the soul was not
in them. The bodies were next surrounded with torches and their faces cov-
ered with silk. Virgo Lucifera then appeared, bearing two curious white gar-
ments. The virgins also entered, among them six bearing great trumpets. A
trumpet was placed upon the mouth of one of the two figures and C.R.C. saw a
tiny hole open in the dome of the tower and a ray of light descend through the
tube of the trumpet and enter the body. This process was repeated three times
on each body. The two newly ensouled forms were then removed upon a trav-
eling couch. In about half an hour the young King and Queen awakened and
the Virgo Lucifera presented them with the white garments. These they
donned and the King in his own person most graciously returned thanks to
C.R.C. and his companions, after which the royal persons departed upon a
ship. C.R.C. and his three privileged friends then rejoined the other "artists,"
making no mention of that which they had seen. Later the entire party were
assigned handsome chambers, where they rested till morning.

THE SEVENTH DAY

In the morning Virgo Lucifera announced that each of the wedding guests had
become a "Knight of the Golden Stone. " The aged warden then presented
each man with a gold medal, bearing on one side the inscription "At. Nat. Mi. "
and on the other, "Tem. Na. F." The entire company returned in twelve ships
to the King's palace. The flags on the vessels bore the signs of the zodiac, and
C.R.C. sat under that of Libra. As they entered the lake, many ships met them
and the King and Queen, together with their lords, ladies, and virgins, rode
forth on a golden barge to greet the returning guests. Atlas then made a short
oration in the King's behalf, also asking for the royal presents. In reply the aged
warden delivered to Cupid, who hovered about the royal pair, a small, curious-
shaped casket. C.R.C. and the old lord, each bearing a snow-white ensign with
a red cross on it, rode in the carriage with the King. At the first gate stood the
porter with blue clothes, who, upon seeing C.R.C., begged him to intercede
with the King to release him from that post of servitude. The King replied that
the porter was a famous astrologer who was forced to keep the gate as a pu-
nishment for the crime of having gazed upon Lady Venus reposing upon her
couch. The King further declared that the porter could be released only when
another was found who had committed the same crime. Upon hearing this,
C.R.C.'s heart sank, for he realized himself to be the culprit, but he remained
silent at that time.
The newly created Knights of the Golden Stone were obliged to subscribe to
five articles drawn up by His Royal Highness: (1) That they would ascribe their

581
Order only to God and His handmaid, Nature. (2) That they should abomi-
nate all uncleanness and vice. (3) That they should always be ready to assist the
worthy and needy. (4) That they should not use their knowledge and power for
the attainment of worldly dignity. (5) That they should not desire to live longer
than God had decreed. They were then duly installed as Knights, which cere-
mony was ratified in a little chapel where C. R. C. hung up his Golden Fleece
and his hat for an eternal memorial, and here he inscribed the following:
Summa Scientia nihil Scire, Fr. Christianus Rosencreutz. Eques aurei Lapidis.
Anno 1459.
After the ceremony, C.R.C. admitted that he was the one who had beheld
Venus and consequently must become the porter of the gate. The King em-
braced him fondly and he was assigned to a great room containing three beds--
one for himself, one for the aged lord of the tower, and the third for old Atlas.
The Chemical Marriage here comes to an abrupt end, leaving the impres-
sion that C.R.C. was to assume his duties as porter on the following morning.
The book ends in the middle of a sentence, with a note in italics presumably
by the editor.
Under the symbolism of an alchemical marriage, medival philosophers
concealed the secret system of spiritual culture whereby they hoped to coordi-
nate the disjecta membra of both the human and social organisms. Society,
they maintained, was a threefold structure and had its analogy in the triune
constitution of man, for as man consists of spirit, mind, and body, so society is
made up of the church, the state, and the populace. The bigotry of the church,
the tyranny of the state, and the fury of the mob are the three murderous agen-
cies of society which seek to destroy Truth as recounted in the Masonic legend
of Hiram Abiff. The first six days of The Chemical Marriage set forth the
processes of philosophical "creation" through which every organism must pass.
The three kings are the threefold spirit of man and their consorts the corres-
ponding vehicles of their expression in the lower world. The executioner is the
mind, the higher part of which--symbolized by the head--is necessary to the
achievement of the philosophical labor. Thus the parts of man--by the alchem-
ists symbolized as planets and elements--when blended together according to a
certain Divine formula result in the creation of two philosophic "babes" which,
fed upon the blood of the alchemical bird, become rulers of the world.
From an ethical standpoint, the young King and Queen resurrected at the
summit of the tower and ensouled by Divine Life represent the forces of Intel-
ligence and Love which must ultimately guide society. Intelligence and Love
are the two great ethical luminaries of the world and correspond to enlightened
spirit and regenerated body. The bridegroom is reality and the bride the rege-
nerated being who attains perfection by becoming one with reality through a
cosmic marriage wherein the mortal part attains immortality by being united

582
with its own immortal Source. In the Hermetic Marriage divine and human
consciousness are united in holy wedlock and he in whom this sacred ceremo-
ny takes place is designated as "Knight of the Golden Stone"; he thereby be-
comes a divine philosophic diamond composed of the quintessence of his own
sevenfold constitution.
Such is the true interpretation of the mystical process of becoming "a bride
of the Lamb." The Lamb of God is signified by the Golden Fleece that Jason
was forced to win before he could assume his kingship. The Flying Lion is
illumined will, an absolute prerequisite to the achievement of the Great Work.
The episode of weighing the souls of men has its parallel in the ceremony de-
scribed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The walled city entered by C.R.C.
represents the sanctuary of wisdom wherein dwell the real rulers of the world--
the initiated philosophers.
Like the ancient Mysteries after which it was patterned, the Order of the
Rose Cross possessed a secret ritual which was lived by the candidate for a
prescribed number of years before he was eligible to the inner degrees of the
society. The various floors of the Tower of Olympus represent the orbits of the
planets. The ascent of the philosophers from one floor to another also parallels
certain rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the rites of Mithras wherein the
candidate ascended the seven rungs of a ladder or climbed the seven steps of a
pyramid in order to signify release from the influences of the Planetary Gover-
nors. Man becomes master of the seven spheres only when he transmutes the
impulses received from them. He who masters the seven worlds and is reu-
nited with the Divine Source of his own nature consummates the Hermetic
Marriage.

583
 Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians

THE present consideration of the Bacon--Shakspere--Rosicrucian controversy

is undertaken not for the vain purpose of digging up dead men's bones but
rather in the hope that a critical analysis will aid in the rediscovery of that
knowledge lost to the world since the oracles were silenced. It was W. F. C.
Wigston who called the Bard of Avon "phantom Captain Shakespeare, the
Rosicrucian mask." This constitutes one of the most significant statements relat-
ing to the Bacon-Shakspere controversy.
It is quite evident that William Shakspere could not, unaided, have pro-
duced the immortal writings bearing his name. He did not possess the neces-
sary literary culture, for the town of Stratford where he was reared contained
no school capable of imparting the higher forms of learning reflected in the
writings ascribed to him. His parents were illiterate, and in his early life he
evinced a total disregard for study. There are in existence but six known exam-
ples of Shakspere's handwriting. All are signatures, and three of them are in his
will. The scrawling, uncertain method of their execution stamps Shakspere as
unfamiliar with the use of a pen, and it is obvious either that he copied a signa-
ture prepared for him or that his hand was guided while he wrote. No auto-
graph manuscripts of the "Shakespearian" plays or sonnets have been discov-
ered, nor is there even a tradition concerning them other than the fantastic and
impossible statement appearing in the foreword of the Great Folio.
A well-stocked library would be an essential part of the equipment of an
author whose literary productions demonstrate him to be familiar with the
literature of all ages, yet there is no record that Shakspere ever possessed a
library, nor does he make any mention of books in his will. Commenting on
the known illiteracy of Shakspere's daughter Judith, who at twenty-seven could
only make her mark, Ignatius Donnelly declares it to be unbelievable that Wil-
liam Shakspere if he wrote the plays bearing his name would have permitted
his own daughter to reach womanhood and marry without being able to read
one line of the writings that made her father wealthy and locally famous.
The query also has been raised, "Where did William Shakspere secure his
knowledge of modern French, Italian, Spanish, and Danish, to say nothing of
classical Latin and Greek?" For, in spite of the rare discrimination with which
Latin is used by the author of the Shakespearian plays, Ben Jonson, who knew
Shakspere intimately, declared that the Stratford actor understood "small Latin
and less Greek"! Is it not also more than strange that no record exists of Wil-
liam Shakspere's having ever played a leading rle in the famous dramas he is
supposed to have written or in others produced by the company of which he

584
was a member? True, he may have owned a small interest in the Globe Thea-
tre or Blackfriars, but apparently the height of his thespian achievements was
the Ghost in Hamlet!
In spite of his admitted avarice, Shakspere seemingly made no effort during
his lifetime to control or secure remuneration from the plays bearing his name,
many of which were first published anonymously. As far as can be ascertained,
none of his heirs were involved in any manner whatsoever in the printing of the
First Folio after his death, nor did they benefit financially therefrom. Had he
been their author, Shakspere's manuscripts and unpublished plays would cer-
tainly have constituted his most valued possessions, yet his will--while making
special disposition of his second-best bed and his "broad silver gilt bowl" nei-
ther mentions nor intimates that he possessed any literary productions what-
soever.
While the Folios and Quartos usually are signed "William Shakespeare," all
the known autographs of the Stratford actor read "William Shakspere." Does
this change in spelling contain any significance heretofore generally over-
looked? Furthermore, if the publishers of the First Shakespearian Folio re-
vered their fellow actor as much as their claims in that volume would indicate,
why did they, as if in ironical allusion to a hoax which they were perpetrating,
place an evident caricature of him on the title page?
Certain absurdities also in Shakspere's private life are irreconcilable. While
supposedly at the zenith of his literary career, he was actually engaged in buying
malt, presumably for a brewing business! Also picture the immortal Shakspere-
-the reputed author of The Merchant of Venice--as a moneylender! Yet among
those against whom Shakspere brought action to collect petty sums was a fellow
townsman--one Philip Rogers--whom he sued for an unpaid loan of two shil-
lings, or about forty-eight cents! In short, there is nothing known in the life of
Shakspere that would justify the literary excellence imputed to him.
The philosophic ideals promulgated throughout the Shakespearian plays
distinctly demonstrate their author to have been thoroughly familiar with cer-
tain doctrines and tenets peculiar to Rosicrucianism; in fact the profundity of
the Shakespearian productions stamps their creator as one of the illuminati of
the ages. Most of those seeking a solution for the Bacon-Shakspere controversy
have been intellectualists. Notwithstanding their scholarly attainments, they
have overlooked the important part played by transcendentalism in the philo-
sophic achievements of the ages. The mysteries of superphysics are inexplica-
ble to the materialist, whose training does not equip him to estimate the extent
of their ramifications and complexities. Yet who but a Platonist, a Qabbalist, or
a Pythagorean could have written The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet, or The
Tragedy of Cymbeline? Who but one deeply versed in Paracelsian lore could
have conceived, A Midsummer Night's Dream?

585
Father of modern science, remodeler of modern law, editor of the modem
Bible, patron of modem democracy, and one of the founders of modern
Freemasonry, Sir Francis Bacon was a man of many aims and purposes. He
was a Rosicrucian, some have intimated the Rosicrucian. If not actually the
Illustrious Father C.R.C. referred to in the Rosicrucian manifestoes, he was
certainly a high initiate of the Rosicrucian Order, and it is his activities in con-
nection with this secret body that are of prime importance to students of sym-
bolism, philosophy, and literature.

Click to enlarge
HEADPIECE SHOWING LIGHT AND SHADED A's.
From Shakespeare's King Richard The Second, Quarto of 1597.
The ornamental headpiece shown above has long been considered a Baconian or
Rosicrucian signature. The light and the dark A's appear in several volumes published
by emissaries of the Rosicrucians. If the above figure be compared with that from the
Alciati Emblemata on the following pages, the cryptic use of the two A's will be further
demonstrated.

Click to enlarge
THE TITLE PAGE OF BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.
From Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.
Baconian experts declare Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy to be in reality Francis
Bacon's scrapbook in which he gathered strange and rare bits of knowledge during the
many years of eventful life. This title page has long been supposed to contain a cryptic
message. The key to this cipher is the pointing figure of the maniac in the lower right-
hand corner of the design. According to Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup, the celestial
globe at which the maniac is pointing is a cryptic symbol of Sir Francis Bacon. The
planetary signs which appear in the clouds opposite the marginal figures 4, 5;, 6, and 7

586
signify the planetary configurations, which produce the forms of mania depicted. The
seated man, with his head resting upon his hand. is declared by Baconian enthusiasts
to represent Sir Francis Bacon.

Scores of volumes have been written to establish Sir Francis Bacon as the real
author of the plays and sonnets popularly ascribed to William Shakspere. An
impartial consideration of these documents cannot but convince the open-
minded of the verisimilitude of the Baconian theory. In fact those enthusiasts
who for years have struggled to identify Sir Francis Bacon as the true "Bard of
Avon" might long since have won their case had they emphasized its most im-
portant angle, namely, that Sir Francis Bacon, the Rosicrucian initiate, wrote
into the Shakespearian plays the secret teachings of the Fraternity of R.C. and
the true rituals of the Freemasonic Order, of which order it may yet be discov-
ered that he was the actual founder. A sentimental world, however, dislikes to
give up a traditional hero, either to solve a controversy or to right a wrong.
Nevertheless, if it can be proved that by raveling out the riddle there can be
discovered information of practical value to mankind, then the best minds of
the world will cooperate in the enterprise. The Bacon-Shakspere controversy,
as its most able advocates realize, involves the most profound aspects of
science, religion, and ethics; he who solves its mystery may yet find therein the
key to the supposedly lost wisdom of antiquity.
It was in recognition of Bacon's intellectual accomplishments that King
James turned over to him the translators' manuscripts of what is now known as
the King James Bible for the presumable purpose of checking, editing, and
revising them. The documents remained in his hands for nearly a year, but no
information is to be had concerning what occurred in that time. Regarding this
work, William T. Smedley writes: " It will eventually be proved that the whole
scheme of the Authorised Version of the Bible was Francis Bacon's." (See The
Mystery of Francis Bacon.) The first edition of the King James Bible contains a
cryptic Baconian headpiece. Did Bacon cryptographically conceal in the Au-
thorized Bible that which he dared not literally reveal in the text--the secret
Rosicrucian key to mystic and Masonic Christianity?
Sir Francis Bacon unquestionably possessed the range of general and philo-
sophical knowledge necessary to write the Shakespearian plays and sonnets, for
it is usually conceded that he was a composer, lawyer, and linguist. His chap-
lain, Doctor William Rawley, and Ben Jonson both attest his philosophic and
poetic accomplishments. The former pays Bacon this remarkable tribute: "I
have been enduced to think that if there were a beame of knowledge derived
from God upon any man in these modern times, it was upon him. For though
he was a great reader of books; yet he had not his knowledge from books but

587
from some grounds and notions from within himself. " (See Introduction to the
Resuscitado.)
Sir Francis Bacon, being not only an able barrister but also a polished cour-
tier, also possessed that intimate knowledge of parliamentary law and the eti-
quette of the royal court revealed in the Shakespearian plays which could
scarcely have been acquired by a man in the humble station of the Stratford
actor. Lord Verulam furthermore visited many of the foreign countries forming
the background for the plays and was therefore in a position to create the au-
thentic local atmosphere contained therein, but there is no record of William
Shakspere's ever having traveled outside of England.
The magnificent library amassed by Sir Francis Bacon contained the very
volumes necessary to supply the quotations and anecdotes incorporated into
the Shakespearian plays. Many of the plays, in fact, were taken from plots in
earlier writings of which there was no English translation at that time. Because
of his scholastic acquirements, Lord Verulam could have read the original
books; it is most unlikely that William Shakspere could have done so.
Abundant cryptographic proof exists that Bacon was concerned in the pro-
duction of the Shakespearian plays. Sir Francis Bacon's cipher number was 33.
In the First Part of King Henry the Fourth, the word "Francis" appears 33 times
upon one page. To attain this end, obviously awkward sentences were re-
quired, as: "Anon Francis? No Francis, but tomorrow Francis: or Francis, on
Thursday: or indeed Francis when thou wilt. But Francis."
Throughout the Shakespearian Folios and Quartos occur scores of acrostic
signatures. The simplest form of the acrostic is that whereby a name--in these
instances Bacon's--was hidden in the first few letters of lines. In The Tempest,
Act I, Scene 2, appears a striking example of the Baconian acrostic:

"Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt

And left me to a bootelesse Inquisition,
Concluding, stay: not yet.

The first letters of the first and second lines together with the first three letters
of the third line form the word BACon. Similar acrostics appear frequently in
Bacon's acknowledged writings.
The tenor of the Shakespearian dramas politically is in harmony with the
recognized viewpoints of Sir Francis Bacon, whose enemies are frequently
caricatured in the plays. Likewise their religious, philosophic, and educational
undercurrents all reflect his personal opinions. Not only do these marked simi-
larities of style and terminology exist in Bacon's writings and the Shakespearian
plays, but there are also certain historical and philosophical inaccuracies com-
mon to both, such as identical misquotations from Aristotle.

588
 "Evidently realizing that futurity would unveil his full genius, Lord Verulam
in his will bequeathed his soul to God above by the oblations of his Savior, his
body to be buried obscurely, his name and memory to men's charitable
speeches, to foreign nations, to succeeding ages, and to his own countrymen
after some time had elapsed. That portion appearing in italics Bacon deleted
from his will, apparently fearing that he had said too much.
That Sir Francis Bacon's subterfuge was known to a limited few during his
lifetime is quite evident. Accordingly, stray hints regarding the true author of
the Shakespearian plays may be found in many seventeenth century volumes.
On page 33 (Bacon's cipher number) of the 1609 edition of Robert Cawdry's
Treasurie or Storehouse of Similes appears the following significant allusion:
"Like as men would laugh at a poore man, if having precious garments lent him
to act and play the part of some honourable personage upon a stage, when the
play were at an ende he should keepe them as his owne, and bragge up and
downe in them."

Click to enlarge
A BACONIAN SIGNATURE.
From Alciati Emblemata.
The curious volume from which this figure is taken was published in Paris in r618.
The attention of the Baconian student is immediately attracted by the form of the hog
in the foreground. Bacon often used this animal as a play upon his own name, espe-
cially because the name Bacon was derived from he word beech and the nut of this
tree was used to fatten hogs. The two pillars in the background have considerable Ma-
sonic interest. The two A's nearly in the center of the picture--one light and one
shaded--are alone almost conclusive proof of Baconian influence. The most convincing
evidence, however, is the fact that 17 is the numerical equivalent of the letters of the
Latin farm of Bacon's name (F. Baco) and there are 17 letters in the three words ap-
pearing in the illustration.

589
Click to enlarge
FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS.
From Bacon's Advancement of Learning.
Lord Bacon was born in 1561 and history records his death in 1626. There are
records in existence, however, which would indicate the probability that his funeral was
a mock funeral and that, leaving England, he lived for many years under another name
in Germany, there faithfully serving the secret society to the promulgation of whose
doctrines he had consecrate his life. Little doubt seems to exist in the minds of impar-
tial investigators that Lord Bacon was the legitimate son of Queen Elizabeth and the
Earl of Leicester.

Repeated references to the word hog and the presence of cryptographic state-
ments on page 33 of various contemporary writings demonstrate that the keys
to Bacon's ciphers were his own name, words playing upon it, or its numerical
equivalent. Notable examples are the famous statement of Mistress Quickly in
The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Hang-hog is latten for Bacon, I warrant you";
the title pages of The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and Edmund Spenser's
Faerie Queene; and the emblems appearing in the works of Alciatus and
Wither. Furthermore, the word honorificabilitudinitatibus appearing in the
fifth act of Love's Labour's Lost is a Rosicrucian signature, as its numerical
equivalent (287) indicates.
Again, on the title page of the first edition of Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlan-
tis, Father Time is depicted bringing a female figure out of the darkness of a
cave. Around the device is a Latin inscription: "In time the secret truth shall be
revealed." The catchwords and printer's devices appearing in volumes pub-
lished especially during the first half of the seventeenth century were designed,
arranged, and in some cases mutilated according to a definite plan.
It is evident also that the mispaginations in the Shakespearian Folios and
other volumes are keys to Baconian ciphers, for re-editions--often from new
type and by different printers--contain the same mistakes. For example, the
First and Second Folios of Shakespeare are printed from entirely different type
590
and by different printers nine years apart, but in both editions page 153 of the
Comedies is numbered 151, and pages 249 and 250 are numbered 250 and
251 respectively. Also in the 1640 edition of Bacon's The Advancement and
Proficience of Learning, pages 353 and 354 are numbered 351 and 352 respec-
tively, and in the 1641 edition of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks pages 346 to 350
inclusive are entirely missing, while page 450 is numbered 442. The frequency
with which pages ending in numbers 50, 51, 52,53, and 54 are involved will he
noted.
The requirements of Lord Verulam's biliteral cipher are fully met in scores
of volumes printed between 1590 and 1650 and in some printed at other times.
An examination of the verses by L. Digges, dedicated to the memory of the
deceased "Authour Maister W. Shakespeare," reveals the use of two fonts of
type for both capital and small letters, the differences being most marked in the
capital T's, N's, and A's, (Seethe First Folio.) The cipher has been deleted from
subsequent editions.
The presence of hidden material in the text is often indicated by needless
involvement of words. On the sixteenth unnumbered page of the 1641 edition
of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks is a boar surmounting a pyramidal text. The text is
meaningless jargon, evidently inserted for cryptographic reasons and marked
with Bacon's signature--the hog. The year following publication of the First
Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623, there was printed in "Lunburg" a re-
markable volume on cryptography, avowedly by Gustavus Selenus. It is consi-
dered extremely probable that this volume constitutes the cryptographic key to
the Great Shakespearian Folio.
Peculiar symbolical head- and tail-pieces also mark the presence of crypto-
grams. While such ornaments are found in many early printed books, certain
emblems are peculiar to volumes containing Baconian Rosicrucian ciphers.
The light and dark shaded A is an interesting example. Bearing in mind the
frequent recurrence in Baconian symbolism of the light and dark shaded A
and the hog, the following statement by Bacon in his Interpretation of Nature
is highly significant: "If the sow with her snout should happen to imprint the
letter A upon the ground, wouldst thou therefore imagine that she could write
out a whole tragedy as one letter?"
The Rosicrucians and other secret societies of the seventeenth century used
watermarks as mediums for the conveyance of cryptographic references, and
books presumably containing Baconian ciphers are usually printed upon paper
bearing Rosicrucian or Masonic watermarks; often there are several symbols in
one book, such as the Rose Cross, urns, bunches of grapes, and others.
At hand is a document which may prove a remarkable key to a cipher be-
ginning in The Tragedy of Cymbeline. So far as known it has never been pub-
lished and is applicable only to the 1623 Folio of the Shakespearian plays. The

591
cipher is a line-and-word count involving punctuation, especially the long and
short exclamation points and the straight and slanting interrogation points. This
code was discovered by Henry William Bearse in 1900, and after it has been
thoroughly checked its exact nature will be made public.
No reasonable doubt remains that the Masonic Order is the direct out-
growth of the secret societies of the Middle Ages, nor can it be denied that
Freemasonry is permeated by the symbolism and mysticism of the ancient and
medival worlds. Sir Francis Bacon knew the true secret of Masonic origin and
there is reason to suspect that he concealed this knowledge in cipher and cryp-
togram. Bacon is not to be regarded solely as a man but rather as the focal
point between an invisible institution and a world which was never able to dis-
tinguish between the messenger and the message which he promulgated. This
secret society, having rediscovered the lost wisdom of the ages and fearing that
the knowledge might be lost again, perpetuated it in two ways: (1) by an organi-
zation (Freemasonry) to the initiates of which it revealed its wisdom in the form
of symbols; (2) by embodying its arcana in the literature of the day by means of
cunningly contrived ciphers and enigmas.

Click to enlarge
A CRYPTIC HEADPIECE.
From Ralegh's History of the World.
Many documents influenced by Baconian philosophy--or intended m conceal Baco-
nian or Rosicrucian cryptograms--use certain conventional designs at the beginning and
end of chapters, which reveal to the initiated the presence of concealed information.
The above ornamental has long been accepted as of the presence of Baconian influ-
ence and is to be found only in a certain number of rare volumes, all of which contain
Baconian cryptograms. These cipher messages were placed in the books either by
Bacon himself or by contemporaneous and subsequent authors belonging to the same
secret society which Bacon served with his remarkable knowledge of ciphers and
enigmas. Variants of this headpiece adorn the Great Shakespearian Folio (1623); Ba-
con's Novum Organum (1620); the St. James Bible (1611); Spencer's Faerie Queene
(1611); and Sir Walter Ralegh's History of the World (1614) (See American Baconia-
na.)

592
Click to enlarge
THE DROESHOUT PORTRAIT OF SHAKSPERE.
From Shakespeare's Great Folio of 1623.
There are no authentic portraits of Shakspere in existence. The dissimilarities the
Droeshout, Chandos, Janssen, Hunt, Ashbourne, Soest, and Dunford portraits prove
conclusively that the artists were unaware of Shakspere's actual features. An examina-
tion of the Droeshout portrait discloses several peculiarities. Baconian enthusiasts are
convinced that the face is only a caricature, possibly the death mask of Francis Bacon.
A comparison of the Droeshout Shakspere with portraits and engravings of Francis
Bacon demonstrates the identity of the structure of the two faces, the difference in
expression being caused by lines of shading. Not also the peculiar line running from
the ear down to the chin. Does this line subtly signify that the face itself a mask, ending
at the ear? Notice also that the head is not connected with the body, but is resting on
the collar. Most strange of all is the coat: one-half is on backwards. In drawing the
jacket, the artist has made the left arm correctly, but the right arm has the back of the
shoulder to the front. Frank Woodward has noted that there are 157 letters on the title
page. This is a Rosicrucian signature of first importance. The date, 1623, Plus the two
letters "ON" from the word "LONDON," gives the cryptic signature of Francis Bacon,
by a simple numerical cipher. By merely exchanging the 26 letters of the alphabet for
numbers, 1 became A, 6 becomes F, 2 becomes B, and 3 becomes C, giving AFBC.
To this is added the ON from LONDON, resulting in AFBCON, which rearranged
forms F. BACON.

Evidence points to the existence of a group of wise and illustrious Fratres who
assumed the responsibility of publishing and preserving for future generations
the choicest of the secret books of the ancients, together with certain other
documents which they themselves had prepared. That future members of their
fraternity might not only identify these volumes bur also immediately note the
significant passages, words, chapters, or sections therein, they created a symbol-
ic alphabet of hieroglyphic designs. By means of a certain key and order, the
discerning few were thus enabled to find that wisdom by which a man is "raised"
593
to an illumined life.
The tremendous import of the Baconian mystery is daily becoming more
apparent. Sir Francis Bacon was a link in that great chain of minds which has
perpetuated the secret doctrine of antiquity from its beginning. This secret
doctrine is concealed in his cryptic writings. The search for this divine wisdom
is the only legitimate motive for the effort to decode his cryptograms.
Masonic research might discover much of value if it would turn its attention
to certain volumes published during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
which bear the stamp and signet of that secret society whose members first
established modern Freemasonry but themselves remained as an intangible
group controlling and directing the activities of the outer body. The unknown
history and lost rituals of Freemasonry may be rediscovered in the symbolism
and cryptograms of the Middle Ages. Freemasonry is the bright and glorious
son of a mysterious and hidden father. It cannot trace its parentage because
that origin is obscured by the veil of the superphysical and the mystical. The
Great Folio of 1623 is a veritable treasure house of Masonic lore and symbol-
ism, and the time is at hand when that Great Work should be accorded the
consideration which is its due.
Though Christianity shattered the material organization of the pagan Myste-
ries, it could not destroy the knowledge of supernatural power which the pa-
gans possessed. Therefore it is known that the Mysteries of Greece and Egypt
were secretly perpetuated through the early centuries of the church, and later,
by being clothed in the symbolism of Christianity, were accepted as elements of
that faith. Sir Francis Bacon was one of those who had been entrusted with the
perpetuation and dissemination of s the arcana of the superphysical originally
in the possession of the pagan hierophants, and to attain that end either formu-
lated the Fraternity of R.C. or was admitted into an organization already exist-
ing under that name and became one of its principal representatives.
For some reason not apparent to the uninitiated there has been a continued
and consistent effort to prevent the unraveling of the Baconian skein. Whatev-
er the power may be which continually blocks the efforts of investigators, it is
as unremitting now as it was immediately following Bacon's death, and those
attempting to solve the enigma still feel the weight of its resentment.
A misunderstanding world has ever persecuted those who understood the
secret workings of Nature, seeking in every conceivable manner to exterminate
the custodians of this divine wisdom. Sir Francis Bacon's political prestige was
finally undermined and Sir Walter Ralegh met a shameful fate because their
transcendental knowledge was considered dangerous.
The forging of Shakspere's handwriting; the foisting of fraudulent portraits
and death masks upon a gullible public; the fabrication of spurious biogra-
phies; the mutilation of books and documents; the destruction or rendering

594
illegible of tablets and inscriptions containing cryptographic messages, have all
compounded the difficulties attendant upon the solution of the Bacon-
Shakspere-Rosicrucian riddle. The Ireland forgeries deceived experts for years.
According to material available, the supreme council of the Fraternity of R.C.
was composed of a certain number of individuals who had died what is known
as the "philosophic death." When the time came for an initiate to enter upon
his labors for the Order, he conveniently "died" under somewhat mysterious
circumstances. In reality he changed his name and place of residence, and a
box of rocks or a body secured for the purpose was buried in his stead. It is
believed that this happened in the case of Sir Francis Bacon who, like all ser-
vants of the Mysteries, renounced all personal credit and permitted others to
be considered as the authors of the documents which he wrote or inspired.
The cryptic writings of Francis Bacon constitute one of the most powerful
tangible elements in the mysteries of transcendentalism and symbolic philoso-
phy. Apparently many years must yet pass before an uncomprehending world
will appreciate the transcending genius of that mysterious man who wrote the
Novum Organum, who sailed his little ship far out into the unexplored sea of
learning through the Pillars of Hercules, and whose ideals for a new civilization
are magnificently expressed in the Utopian dream of The New Atlantis. Was
Sir Francis Bacon a second Prometheus? Did his great love for the people of
the world and his pity for their ignorance cause him to bring the divine fire
from heaven concealed within the contents of a printed page?
In all probability, the keys to the Baconian riddle will be found in classical
mythology. He who understands the secret of the Seven-Rayed God will com-
prehend the method employed by Bacon to accomplish his monumental labor.
Aliases were assumed by him in accordance with the attributes and order of the
members of the planetary system. One of the least known--but most important-
-keys to the Baconian enigma is the Third, or 1637, Edition, published in Par-
is, of Les Images ou Tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates so-
phistes grecs et les statues de Callistrate, by Blaise de Vigenere. The title page
of this volume--which, as the name of the author when properly deciphered
indicates, was written by or under the direction of Bacon or his secret society--
is one mass of important Masonic or Rosicrucian symbols. On page 486 ap-
pears a plate entitled "Hercules Furieux," showing a gigantic figure shaking a
spear, the ground before him strewn with curious emblems. In his curious
work, Das Bild des Speershttlers die Lsung des Shakespeare-Rtsels, Alfred
Freund attempts to explain the Baconian symbolism in the Philostrates. Bacon
he reveals as the philosophical Hercules, whom time will establish as the true
"Spear-Shaker" (Shakespeare).

595
Click to enlarge
TITLE PAGE OF THE FAMOUS FIRST EDITION OF SIR WALTER RALEGH'S HISTORY OF THE
WORLD.
From Ralegh's History of the World.
What was the mysterious knowledge which Sir Walter Ralegh possessed and which
was declared to be detrimental to the British government? Why was he executed when
the charges against him could not be proved? Was he a member of me of those feared
and hated secret societies which nearly overthrew political and religious Europe during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Was Sir Walter Ralegh an important factor in
the Bacon-Shakspere-Rosicrucian-Masonic enigma? By those seeking the keys to this
great controversy, he seems to have been almost entirely overlooked. His contempora-
ries are unanimous in their praise of his remarkable intellect, and he has long been
considered me of Britain's most brilliant sons.
Sir Walter Ralegh--soldier, courtier, statesman, writer, poet, philosopher, and ex-
plorer--was a scintillating figure at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Upon this same man,
King James--after the death of Elizabeth--heaped every indignity within his power. The
cowardly James, who shuddered at the mention of weapons and cried like a child when
he was crossed, was insanely jealous of the brilliant courtier. Ralegh's enemies, Playing
upon the king's weakness, did not cease their relentless persecution until Ralegh had
been hanged and his decapitated, quartered, and disemboweled body lay at their feet.
The title page reproduced above was used by Ralegh's political foes as a powerful wea-
pon against him. They convinced James I that the face of the central figure upholding
the globe was a caricature of his own, and the enraged king ordered every copy of the
engraving destroyed. But a few copies escaped the royal wrath; consequently the plate
is extremely rare. The engraving is a mass Rosicrucian and Masonic symbols, and the
figures on the columns in all probability conceal a cryptogram. More significant still is
the fact that the page facing this plate is a headpiece identical with that used in the 1623
Folio of "Shakespeare" and also in Bacon's Novum Organum.

596
 The Cryptogram as a factor
in Symbolic Philosophy

NO treatise which deals with symbolism would be complete without a section

devoted to the consideration of cryptograms. The use of ciphers has long been
recognized as indispensable in military and diplomatic circles, but the modern
world has overlooked the important rle played by cryptography in literature
and philosophy. If the art of deciphering cryptograms could be made popular,
it would result in the discovery of much hitherto unsuspected wisdom pos-
sessed by both ancient and medival philosophers. It would prove that many
apparently verbose and rambling authors were wordy for the sake of concealing
words. Ciphers are hidden in the most subtle manner: they may be concealed
in the watermark of the paper upon which a book is printed; they may be
bound into the covers of ancient books; they may be hidden under imperfect
pagination; they may be extracted from the first letters of words or the first
words of sentences; they may be artfully concealed in mathematical equations
or in apparently unintelligible characters; they may be extracted from the jar-
gon of clowns or revealed by heat as having been written in sympathetic ink;
they may be word ciphers, letter ciphers, or apparently ambiguous statements
whose meaning could be understood only by repeated careful readings; they
may he discovered in the elaborately illuminated initial letters of early books or
they may be revealed by a process of counting words or letters. If those inter-
ested in Freemasonic research would give serious consideration to this subject,
they might find in books and manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries the information necessary to bridge the gap in Masonic history that
now exists between the Mysteries of the ancient world and the Craft Masonry
of the last three centuries.
The arcana of the ancient Mysteries were never revealed to the profane ex-
cept through the media of symbols. Symbolism fulfilled the dual office of con-
cealing the sacred truths from the uninitiated and revealing them to those quali-
fied to understand the symbols. Forms are the symbols of formless divine prin-
ciples; symbolism is the language of Nature. With reverence the wise pierce the
veil and with clearer vision contemplate the reality; but the ignorant, unable to
distinguish between the false and the true, behold a universe of symbols. It may
well be said of Nature--the Great Mother--that she is ever tracing strange cha-
racters upon the surface of things, but only to her eldest and wisest sons as a
reward for their faith and devotion does she reveal the cryptic alphabet which
is the key to the import of these tracings.
The temples of the ancient Mysteries evolved their own sacred languages,
597
known only to their initiates and never spoken save in the sanctuary. The illu-
mined priests considered it sacrilege to discuss the sacred truths of the higher
worlds or the divine verities of eternal Nature in the same tongue as that used
by the vulgar for wrangling and dissension. A sacred science must needs be
couched in a sacred language. Secret alphabets also were invented, and when-
ever the secrets of the wise were committed to writing, characters meaningless
to the uninformed were employed. Such forms of writing were called sacred or
Hermetic alphabets. Some--such as the famous angelic writing--are still retained
in the higher degrees of Masonry.
Secret alphabets were not entirely satisfactory, however, for although they
rendered unintelligible the true nature of the writings, their very presence dis-
closed the fact of concealed information--which the priests also sought to con-
ceal. Through patience or persecution, the keys to these alphabets were even-
tually acquired and the contents of the documents revealed to the unworthy.
This necessitated employment of more subtle methods for concealing the di-
vine truths. The result was the appearance of cryptic systems of writing de-
signed to conceal the presence of both the message and the cryptogram. Hav-
ing thus devised a method of transmitting their secrets to posterity, the illumi-
nati encouraged the circulation of certain documents specially prepared
through incorporating into them ciphers containing the deepest secrets of mys-
ticism and philosophy. Thus medival philosophers disseminated their theo-
ries throughout Europe without evoking suspicion, since volumes containing
these cryptograms could be subjected to the closest scrutiny without revealing
the presence of the hidden message.
During the Middle Ages scores of writers--members of secret political or
religious organizations--published books containing ciphers. Secret writing be-
came a fad; every European court had its own diplomatic cipher, and the intel-
ligentsia vied with one another in devising curious and complicated crypto-
grams. The literature of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries is
permeated with ciphers, few of which have ever been decoded. Many of the
magnificent scientific and philosophic intellects of this period dared not pub-
lish their findings, because of the religious intolerance of their day. In order to
preserve the fruitage of their intellectual labors for mankind, these pioneers of
progress concealed their discoveries in ciphers, trusting that future generations,
more kindly than their own, would discover and appreciate their learning.
Many churchmen, it is interesting to note, used cryptograms, fearing ex-
communication or a worse fate should their scientific researches be suspected.
Only recently an intricate cipher of Roger Bacon's has been unraveled, reveal-
ing the fact that this early scientist was well versed in the cellular theory. Lectur-
ing before the American Philosophical Society, Dr. William Romaine New-
bold, who translated the cipher manuscript of the friar, declared: "There are

598
drawings which so accurately portray the actual appearance of certain objects
that it is difficult to resist the inference that Bacon had seen them with the mi-
croscope. * * * These are spermatozoa, the body cells and the seminiferous
tubes, the ova, with their nuclei distinctly indicated. There are nine large draw-
ings, of which one at least bears considerable resemblance to a certain stage of
development of a fertilized cell." (See Review of Reviews, July, 1921.) Had
Roger Bacon failed to conceal this discovery under a complicated cipher, he
would have been persecuted as a heretic and would probably have met the fate
of other early liberal thinkers. In spite of the rapid progress made by science in
the last two hundred and fifty years, it still remains ignorant concerning many
of the original discoveries made by medival investigators. The only record of
these important findings is that contained in the cryptograms of the volumes
which they published. While many authors have written on the subject of cryp-
tography, the books most valuable to students of philosophy and religion are:
Polygraphia and Steganographia, by Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim; Mercury,
or The Secret and Swift Messenger, by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester;
dipus gyptiacus and other works by Athanasius Kircher, Society of Jesus;
and Cryptomenytices et Cryptographi, by Gustavus Selenus.

Click to enlarge
A FAMOUS CRYPTIC TITLE PAGE.
From Selenus' Cryptomenytices et Cryptographi.
One year after the publication of the first Great "Shakespearian" Folio, a remarkable
volume on cryptogram, and ciphers was published. The title page of the work is repro-
duced above. The year of its publication (1624) was during the Rosicrucian controver-
sy. The translation of the title page is as follows:
"The Cryptomenysis and Cryptography of Gustavus Selenus in nine books, to which
is added a clear explanation of the System of Steganography of John Trithemius, Ab-
bot of Spanheim and Herbipolis, a man of admirable genius. Interspersed with worthy
inventions of the Author and others, 1624." The author of this volume was believed to

599
be Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. The symbols and emblems ornamenting the title
page, however, are conclusive evidence that the fine hand of the Rosicrucians was
behind its publication. At the bottom of the picture is a nobleman (Bacon?) placing his
hat on another man's head. In the oval at the top of the plate, it is possible that the
lights are beacons, or a play upon the name Bacon. In the two side panels are striking
and subtle "Shakespearian" allusions. On the left is a nobleman (possibly Bacon) hand-
ing a paper to another man of mean appearance who carries in his hand a spear. At the
right, the man who previously carried the spear is shown in the costume of an actor,
wearing spurs and blowing a horn. The allusion to the actor blowing his horn and the
figure carrying the spear suggest much, especially as spear is the last syllable of the
name "Shakespeare."

To illustrate the basic differences in their construction and use, the various
forms of ciphers are here grouped under seven general headings:
1. The literal cipher. The most famous of all literal cryptograms is the fam-
ous biliteral cipher described by Sir Francis Bacon in his De Augmentis Scien-
tiarum. Lord Bacon originated the system while still a young man residing in
Paris. The biliteral cipher requires the use of two styles of type, one an ordi-
nary face and the other specially cut. The differences between the two fonts are
in many case so minute that it requires a powerful magnifying glass to detect
them. Originally, the cipher messages were concealed only in the italicized
words, sentences, or paragraphs, because the italic letters, being more ornate
than the Roman letters, offered greater opportunity for concealing the slight
but necessary variations. Sometimes the letters vary a trifle in size; at other
times in thickness or in their ornamental flourishes. Later, Lord Bacon is be-
lieved to have had two Roman alphabets specially prepared in which the differ-
ences were so trivial that it is almost impossible for experts to distinguish them.
A careful inspection of the first four "Shakespeare" folios discloses the use
throughout the volumes of several styles of type differing in minute but distin-
guishable details. It is possible that all the "Shakespeare" folios contain ciphers
running through the text. These ciphers may have been added to the original
plays, which are much longer in the folios than in the original quartos, full
scenes having been added in some instances.
The biliteral cipher was not confined to the writings of Bacon and "Shakes-
peare," however, but appears in many books published during Lord Bacon's
lifetime and for nearly a century after his b death. In referring to the biliteral
cipher, Lord Bacon terms it omnia per omnia. The cipher may run through an
entire book and be placed therein at the time of printing without the know-
ledge of the original author, for it does not necessitate the changing of either
words or punctuation. It is possible that this cipher was inserted for political
purposes into many documents and volumes published during the seventeenth
600
century. It is well known that ciphers were used for the same reason as early as
the Council of Nica.
The Baconian biliteral cipher is difficult to use today, owing to the present
exact standardization of type and the fact that so few books are now hand set.
Accompanying this chapter are facsimiles of Lord Bacon's biliteral alphabet as
it appeared in the 1640 English translation of De Augmentis Scientiarum.
There are four alphabets, two for the capital and two for the small letters. Con-
sider carefully the differences between these four and note that each alphabet
has the power of either the letter a or the letter b, and that when reading a
word its letters are divisible into one of two groups: those which correspond to
the letter a and those which correspond to the letter b. In order to employ the
biliteral cipher, a document must contain five times as many letters as there are
in the cipher message to be concealed, for it requires five letters to conceal
one. The biliteral cipher somewhat resembles a telegraph code in which letters
are changed into dots and dashes; according to the biliteral system, however,
the dots and dashes are represented respectively by a's and b's. The word bili-
teral is derived from the fact that all letters of the alphabet may be reduced to
either a or b. An example of biliteral writing is shown in one of the accompany-
ing diagrams. In order to demonstrate the working of this cipher, the message
concealed within the words "Wisdom and understanding are more to be de-
sired than riches" will now be deciphered.
The first step is to discover [he letters of each alphabet and replace them by
their equivalent a or b in accordance with the key given by Lord Bacon in his
biliteral alphabet (q.v.). In the word wisdom, the W is from the b alphabet;
therefore it is replaced by a b. The i is from the a alphabet; therefore an a is
put in its place. The s is also from the a alphabet, but the d belongs to the b
alphabet. The o and the m both belong to the a alphabet is replaced by a. By
this process the word WISDOM become baabaa. Treating the remaining
words of the sentence in a similar manner, AND becomes aba; UNDER-
STANDING, aaabaaaaaabab; ARE, aba; MORE, abbb; TO, ab; BE, ab; DE-
SIRED, abaabaa; THAN, aaba; RICHES, aaaaaa.
The next step is to run all the letters together; thus: baabaaabaaaabaaaaaaba-
babaabbbabababaabaaaabaaaaaaa. All the combinations used in the Baconian
biliteral cipher consist of groups containing five letters each. Therefore the
solid line of letters must be broken into groups of five in the following manner:
baaba aabaa aabaa aaaab ababa abbba babab aabaa aabaa aaaaa. Each of these
groups of five letters now represents one letter of the cipher, and the actual
letter can now be determined by comparing the groups with the alphabetical
table, The Key to the Biliteral Cipher, from De Augmentis Scientiarum (q.v.):
baaba = T, aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaab = B; ababa = L; abbba = P; babab = X;
aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaaa = A; but the last five letters of the word riches be-
601
ing set off by a period from the initial r, the last five a's do not count in the
cipher. The letters thus extracted are now brought together in order, resulting
in TEEBLPXEE.
At this point the inquirer might reasonably expect the letters to make intel-
ligible words; but he will very likely be disappointed, for, as in the case above,
the letters thus extracted are themselves a cryptogram, doubly involved to dis-
courage those who might have a casual acquaintance with the biliteral system.
The next step is to apply the nine letters to what is commonly called a wheel
(or disc) cipher (q.v.), which consists of two alphabets, one revolving around
the other in such a manner that numerous transpositions of letters are possible.
In the accompanying cut the A of the inner alphabet is opposite the H of the
outer alphabet, so that for cipher purposes these letters are interchangeable.
The F and M, the P, and Y, the W and D, in fact all the letters, may be trans-
posed as shown by the two circles. The nine letters extracted by the biliteral
cipher may thus be exchanged for nine others by the wheel cipher. The nine
letters are considered as being on the inner circle of the wheel and are ex-
changed for the nine letters on the outer circle which are opposite the inner
letters. By this process the T becomes A; the two E's become two L's; the B
becomes I, the L becomes S; the P becomes W; the X becomes E; and the two
E's become two L's. The result is ALLISWELL, which, broken up into words,
reads: "All is well."

Click to enlarge
AN EXAMPLE OF BILITERAL WRITING.
In the above sentence note carefully the formation of the letters. Compare each letter
with the two types of letters in the biliteral alphabet table reproduced from Lord Ba-
con's De Augmentis Scientiarum. A comparison of the "d" in "wisdom" with the "d" in
"and" discloses a large loop at the top of the first, while the second shows practically no
loop at all. Contrast the "i" in "wisdom" with the "i" in "understanding." In the former,
the lines are curved and in the latter angular. A similar analysis of the two "r's" in "de-
sired" reveals obvious differences. The "o" in "more" differs only from the "o" in "wis-
dom" in that it a tiny line continues from the top over towards the "r." The "a" in "than"
is thinner and more angular than the "a" in "are," while the "r" in "riches" differs from
that in "desired" in that the final upright stroke terminates in a ball instead of a sharp
point. These minor differences disclose the presence of the two alphabets employed in
writing the sentence.

602
Click to enlarge
THE KEY TO THE BILITERAL CIPHER.
From Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum.
After the document to be deciphered has been reduced to its "a" and "b" equivalents, it
is then broken up into five-letter groups and the message read with the aid of the above
table.

Click to enlarge
A MODERN WHEEL, OR DISC, CIPHER.
The above diagram shows a wheel cipher. The smaller, or inner, alphabet moves
around so that any one of its letters may be brought opposite any me of he letters on
the larger, or outer, alphabet. In some, cases the inner alphabet is written backwards,
but in the present example, both alphabets read the same way.

Click to enlarge
THE BILITERAL ALPHABET.
From Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum.
This Plate is reproduced from Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum, and shows the two
alphabets as designed by him for the purpose of his cipher. Each capital and small
letter has two distinct forms which are designated "a" and "b". The biliteral system did
not in every instance make use of two alphabets in which the differences were as per-
ceptible as in the example here given, but the two alphabets were always used; some-

603
times variations are so minute that it requires a powerful magnifying glass to distinguish
the difference between the "a" and "b" types of letters.

Of course, by moving the inner disc of the wheel cipher, many different com-
binations in addition to the one given above can be made of the letters, but this
is the only one which will produce sense, and the cryptogrammatist must keep
on experimenting until he discovers a logical and intelligible message. He may
then feel reasonably sure that he has deciphered the system. Lord Bacon in-
volved the biliteral cipher in many different ways. There are probably a score
of different systems used in the "Shakespeare" folio alone, some so intricate
that they may forever baffle all attempts at their decipherment. In those sus-
ceptible of solution, sometimes the a's and b's have to be exchanged; at other
times the concealed message is written backwards; again only every other letter
is counted; and so on.
There are several other forms of the literal cipher in which letters are substi-
tuted for each other by a prearranged sequence. The simplest form is that in
which two alphabets are written thus:
A B C D E F G H I K L M N
Z Y X W U T S R Q P O N M
O P Q R S T U W X Y Z
L K I H G F E D C B A

By substituting the letters of the lower alphabet for their equivalents in the up-
per one, a meaningless conglomeration results, the hidden message being de-
coded by reversing the process. There is also a form of the literal cipher in
which the actual cryptogram is written in the body of the document, but unim-
portant words are inserted between important ones according to a prearranged
order. The literal cipher also includes what are called acrostic signatures--that
is, words written down the column by the use of the first letter of each line and
also more complicated acrostics in which the important letters are scattered
through entire paragraphs or chapters. The two accompanying alchemical cryp-
tograms illustrate another form of the literal cipher involving the first letter of
each word. Every cryptogram based upon the arrangement or combination of
the letters of the alphabet is called a literal cipher.
2. The pictorial cipher. Any picture or drawing with other than its obvious
meaning may be considered a pictorial cryptogram. Instances of pictorial ci-
pher are frequently found in Egyptian symbolism and early religious art. The
diagrams of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers are invariably pictorial ci-
phers. In addition to the simple pictorial cipher, there is a more technical form
604
in which words or letters are concealed by the number of stones in a wall, by
the spread of birds' wings in flight, by ripples on the surface of water, or by the
length and order of lines used in shading. Such cryptograms are not obvious,
and must be decoded with the aid of an arbitrary measuring scale, the length of
the lines determining the letter or word concealed. The shape and proportion
of a building, the height of a tower, the number of bars in a window, the folds
of a man's garments--even the proportions or attitude of the human body--were
used to conceal definite figures or characters which could be exchanged for
letters or words by a person acquainted with the code.
Initial letters of names were secreted in architectural arches and spans. A
notable example of this practice is found on the title page of Montaigue's Es-
says, third edition, where an initial B is formed by two arches and an F by a
broken arch. Pictorial cryptograms are sometimes accompanied by the key
necessary for their decipherment. A figure may point toward the starting point
of the cipher or carry in its hand some implement disclosing the system of
measurement used. There are also frequent instances in which the crypto-
grapher purposely distorted or improperly clothed some figure in his drawing
by placing the hat on backwards, the sword on the wrong side, or the shield on
the wrong arm, or by employing some similar artifice. The much-discussed
fifth finger on the Pope's hand in Raphael's Sistine Madonna and the sixth toe
on Joseph's foot in the same artist's Marriage of the Virgin are cunningly con-
cealed cryptograms.
3. The acroamatic cipher. The religious and philosophical writings of all
nations abound with acroamatic cryptograms, that is, parables and allegories.
The acroamatic is unique in that the document containing it may be translated
or reprinted without affecting the cryptogram. Parables and allegories have
been used since remote antiquity to present moral truths in an attractive and
understandable manner. The acroamatic cryptogram is a pictorial cipher drawn
in words and its symbolism must be so interpreted. The Old and New Testa-
ments of the Jews, the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Homer's Odyssey and
Iliad, Virgil's neid, The Metamorphosis of Apuleius, and sop's Fables are
outstanding examples of acroamatic cryptography in which are concealed the
deepest and most sublime truths of ancient mystical philosophy.
The acroamatic cipher is the most subtle of all, for the parable or allegory is
susceptible of several interpretations. Bible students for centuries have been
confronted by this difficultly. They are satisfied with the moral interpretation of
the parable and forget that each parable and allegory is capable of seven inter-
pretations, of which the seventh--the highest--is complete and all-inclusive, whe-
reas the other six (and lesser) interpretations are fragmentary, revealing but part
of the mystery. The creation myths of the world are acroamatic cryptograms,
and the deities of the various pantheons are only cryptic characters which, if

605
properly understood, become the constituents of a divine alphabet. The in-
itiated few comprehend the true nature of this alphabet, but the uninitiated
many worship the letters of it as gods.

Click to enlarge
AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.
From Brown's History of Chemistry.
James Campbell Brown reprints a curious cipher from Kircher. The capital letters of
the seven words in the outer circle read clockwise, form the word SVLPHVR. From
the words in the second circle, when read in a similar manner, is derived FIXVM. The
capitals of the six words in the inner circle, when properly arranged, also read EST-
SOL. The following cipher is thus extracted: "Sulphur Fixum Est Sol," which when
translated is: "Fixed sulphur is gold."

Click to enlarge
AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.
From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.
Beginning with the word VISITA and reading clockwise, the seven initial letters of the
seven words inscribed in the outer circle read: VITRIOL. This is a very simple alc-
hemical enigma, but is a reminder that those studying works on Hermeticism, Rosicru-
cianism, alchemy, and Freemasonry should always be on the lookout for concealed
meanings hidden either in Parables and allegories or in cryptic arrangements of num-
bers, letters, and words.

606
Click to enlarge
A CRYPTIC DEPICTION OF DIVINE AND NATURAL JUSTICE.
From Selenus' Cryptomenytices et Cryptographi.
The first circle portrays the divine antecedents of justice, the second the universal
scope of justice, and the third the results of human application of justice. Hence, the
first circle deals with divine principles, the second circle with mundane affairs, and the
third circle with man. On the at the top of the picture sits Themis, the presiding spirit
of law, and at her feet three other queens--Juno, Minerva, and Venus--their robes or-
namented with geometric figures. The axis of law connects the throne, of divine justice
above with the throne of human judgment at the bottom of the picture. Upon the latter
throne is seated a queen with a scepter in her hand, before whom stands the winged
goddess Nemesis--the angel of judgment.
The second Circle is divided into three parts by two sets of two horizontal lines.
The upper and light section is called the Supreme Region and is the abode of the gods,
the good spirits, and the heroes. The lower and dark section is the abode of lust, sin,
and ignorance. Between these two extremes is the larger section in which are blended
the powers and impulses of both the superior and the inferior regions.
In the third or inner circle is man, a tenfold creature, consisting of nine parts--three
of spirit, three of intellect, and three of soul--enclosed within one constitution. Accord-
ing to Selenus, man's three spiritual qualities are thought, speech, and action; his three
intellectual qualities are memory, intelligence, and will; and his three qualities of soul
are understanding, courage, and desire. The third circle is further divided into three
parts called ages: the Golden Age of spiritual truth in the upper right section, the Iron
Age of spiritual darkness in the lower right section and the Bronze Age--a composite of
the two occupying the entire left half of the inner circle and itself divided into three
parts. The lowest division of the Bronze Age depicts ignorant man controlled by force,
the central the partly awakened man controlled by jurisprudence, and the upper the
spiritually illuminated man controlled by love. Both the second and third circles re-
volve upon the axis of law, but the divine source, of law--Heavenly Justice--is concealed
by clouds. All of the symbols and figures ornamenting the plate are devoted to a de-
tailed amplification of the principles here outlined.

4. The numerical cipher. Many cryptograms have been produced in which

numbers in various sequences are substituted for letters, words, or even com-
plete thoughts. The reading of numerical ciphers usually depends upon the

607
possession of specially arranged tables of correspondences. The numerical
cryptograms of the Old Testament are so complicated that only a few scholars
versed in rabbinical lore have ever sought to unravel their mysteries. In his
dipus gyptiacus, Athanasius Kircher describes several Arabian Qabbalistic
theorems, and a great part of the Pythagorean mystery was concealed in a se-
cret method in vogue among Greek mystics of substituting letters for numbers.
The most simple numerical cipher is that in which the letters of the alphabet
are exchanged for numbers in ordinary sequence. Thus A becomes 1, B 2, C
3, and so on, counting both I and J as 9 and both U and V as 20. The word yes
by this system would be written 23-5-18. This cipher can be made more diffi-
cult by reversing the alphabet so that Z becomes 1, Y 2, X 3, and so on. By
inserting a non-significant, or uncounted, number after each of the significant
numbers the cipher is still more effectively concealed, thus: 23-16-5-9-18. The
word yes is found by eliminating the second and fourth numbers. By adding
23, 5, and 18 together the sum 46 results. Therefore 46 is the numerical equiv-
alent of the word yes. According to the simple numerical cipher, the sum 138
is equal to the words Note carefully. Therefore in a book using this method,
line 138, page 138, or paragraph 138 may contain the concealed message. In
addition to this simple numerical cipher there are scores of others so compli-
cated that no one without the key can hope to solve them.
Authors sometimes based their cryptograms upon the numerical value of their
own names; for example, Sir Francis Bacon repeatedly used the cryptic num-
ber 33--the numerical equivalent of his name. Numerical ciphers often involve
the pagination of a book. Imperfect pagination, though generally attributed to
carelessness, often conceals important secrets. The mispaginations found in the
1623 folio of "Shakespeare" and the consistent recurrence of similar errors in
various volumes printed about the same period have occasioned considerable
thought among scholars and cryptogrammatists. In Baconian cryptograms, all
page numbers ending in 89 seem to have a special significance. The 89th page
of the Comedies in the 1623 folio of "Shakespeare" shows an error of type in
the pagination, the "9" being from a considerably smaller font than the "8." The
189th page is entirely missing, there being two pages numbered 187; and page
188 shows the second " 8 " scarcely more than half the size of the first one.
Page 289 is correctly numbered and has no unusual features, but page 89 of
the Histories is missing. Several volumes published by Bacon show similar
errors, page 89 being often involved.
There are also numerical ciphers from which the cryptic message may be
extracted by counting every tenth word, every twentieth word, or every fiftieth
word. In some cases the count is irregular. The first important word may be
found by counting 100, the second by counting 90, the third by counting 80,
and so on until the count of 10 is reached. The count then returns to 100 and

608
the process is repeated.
5. The musical cipher. John Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester, in 1641
circulated an anonymous essay entitled Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Mes-
senger. In this little volume, which was largely derived from the more volumin-
ous treatises of Trithemius and Selenus, the author sets forth a method where-
by musicians can converse with each other by substituting musical notes for the
letters of the alphabet. Two persons understanding the code could converse
with each other by merely playing certain notes upon a piano or other instru-
ment. Musical cryptograms can be involved to an inconceivable point; by cer-
tain systems it is possible to take an already existing musical theme and conceal
in it a cryptogram without actually changing the composition in any way. The
pennants upon the notes may conceal the cipher, or the actual sounds of the
notes may be exchanged for syllables of similar sound. This latter method is
effective but its scope is somewhat limited. Several musical compositions by Sir
Francis Bacon are still in existence. An examination of them might reveal mus-
ical cryptograms, for it is quite certain that Lord Bacon was well acquainted
with the manner of their construction.
6. The arbitrary cipher. The system of exchanging letters of the alphabet for
hieroglyphic figures is too easily decoded to be popular. Albert: Pike describes
an arbitrary cipher based upon the various parts of the Knights Templars'
cross, each angle representing a letter. The many curious alphabets that have
been devised are rendered worthless, however, by the table of recurrence. Ac-
cording to Edgar Allan Poe, a great cryptogrammatist, the most common letter
of the English language is E, the other letters in their order of frequency are as
follows: A, O, I, D, H, N, R, S, T, V, Y, C, F, Q L, M, W, B, K, P, Q, X, Z.
Other authorities declare the table of frequency to be: E, T, A, O, N, I, R, S,
H, D, L, C, W, U, M, F, Y, G, P, B, V, K, X, Q, J, Z. By merely counting the
number of times each character appears in the message, the law of recurrence
discloses the English letter for which the arbitrary character stands. Further
help is also rendered by the fact that if the cryptogram be split up into words
there are only three single letters which may form words: A, I, O. Thus any
single character set off from the rest of the text must be one of these three let-
ters. For details of this System see The Gold Bug, by Edgar Allan Poe.
To render more difficult the decoding of arbitrary ciphers, however, the
characters are seldom broken up into words, and, further, the table of recur-
rence is partly nullified by assigning two or more different characters to each
letter, thereby making it impossible to estimate accurately the frequency of
recurrence. Therefore, the greater the number of arbitrary characters used to
represent any single letter of the alphabet, the more difficult it is to decipher an
arbitrary cryptogram. The secret alphabets of the ancients are comparatively
easy to decode, the only requisites being a table of frequency, a knowledge of

609
the language in which the cryptogram was originally written, a moderate
amount of patience, and a little ingenuity.
7. The code cipher. The most modem form of cryptogram is the code sys-
tem. Its most familiar form is the Morse code for use in telegraphic and wire-
less communication. This form of cipher may be complicated somewhat by
embodying dots and dashes into a document in which periods and colons are
dots, while commas and semicolons are dashes. There are also codes used by
the business world which can be solved only by the use of a private code book.
Because they furnish an economical and efficient method of transmitting con-
fidential information, the use of such codes is far more prevalent than the aver-
age person has any suspicion.
In addition to the foregoing classifications there are a number of miscellane-
ous systems of secret writing, some employing mechanical devices, others col-
ors. A few make use of sundry miscellaneous objects to represent words and
even complete thoughts. But as these more elaborate devices were seldom
employed by the ancients or by the medival philosophers and alchemists,
they have no direct bearing upon religion and philosophy. The mystics of the
Middle Ages, borrowing the terminology of the various arts and sciences,
evolved a system of cryptography which concealed the secrets of the human
soul under terms generally applied to chemistry, biology, astronomy, botany,
and physiology. Ciphers of this nature can only be decoded by individuals
versed in the deep philosophic principles upon which these medival mystics
based their theories of life. Much information relating to the invisible nature of
man is concealed under what seem to be chemical experiments or scientific
speculations. Every student of symbolism and philosophy, therefore, should be
reasonably well acquainted with the underlying principles of cryptography; in
addition to serving him well in his researches, this art furnishes a fascinating
method of developing the acuteness of the mental faculties. Discrimination and
observation are indispensable to the seeker after knowledge, and no study is
equal to cryptography as a means of stimulating these powers.

Click to enlarge
QABBALISTIC AND MAGIC ALPHABETS.

610
From Barrett's Magus.
Curious alphabets were invented by the early and medival philosophers to conceal
their doctrines and tenets from the profane. Some of these alphabets are still used to a
limited extent in the higher degrees of Freemasonry. Probably the most famous is the
angelic writing, termed in the above plate "The Writing called Malachim." Its figures
are supposedly derived from the constellations. Advanced students of occult philoso-
phy will come upon many valuable documents in which these figures are used. Under
each letter of the first alphabet above is its equivalent in English. Above each letter of
the other three alphabets is its Hebrew letter equivalent.

611
 Freemasonic Symbolism

IN several early Masonic manuscripts--for example, the Harleian, Sloane,

Lansdowne, and Edinburgh-Kilwinning--it is stated that the craft of initiated
builders existed before the Deluge, and that its members were employed in the
building of the Tower of Babel. A Masonic Constitution dated 1701 gives the
following naive account of the origin of the sciences, arts, and crafts from which
the major part of Masonic symbolism is derived:
"How this worthy Science was first begunne, I shall tell. Before Noah's
Flood, there was a man called Lameck as it is written in the 4 Chap. of Gen.:
and this Lameck had two Wives. The one was called Adah, and the other Zil-
lah; by the first wife Adah he gott two Sons, the one called Jaball, and the other
Juball, and by the other wife Zillah he got a Son and Daughter, and the four
children found the beginning of all Crafts in the world. This Jaball was the
elder Son, and he found the Craft of Geometric, and he parted flocks, as of
Sheep and Lambs in the fields, and first wrought Houses of Stone and Tree, as
it is noted in the Chap, aforesaid, and his Brother Juball found the crafte of
Musick, of Songs, Organs and Harp. The Third Brother [Tubal-cain] found
out Smith's craft to work Iron and steel, and their sister Naamah found out the
art of Weaving. These children did know thatt God would take Vengeance for
Sinne, either by fire or water, wherefor they wrote these Sciences which they
had found in Two Pillars of stone, thatt they might be found after the Flood.
The one stone was called Marbell--cannott burn with Fire, and the other was
called Laturus [brass?], thatt cannott drown in the Water." The author of this
Constitution there upon declares that one of these pillars was later discovered
by Hermes, who communicated to mankind the secrets thereon inscribed.
In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus writes that Adam had forewarned his
descendants that sinful humanity would be destroyed by a deluge. In order to
preserve their science and philosophy, the children of Seth there fore raised
two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, on which were inscribed the
keys to their knowledge. The Patriarch Enoch--whose name means the Initia-
tor--is evidently a personification of the sun, since he lived 365 years. He also
constructed an underground temple consisting of nine vaults, one beneath the
other, placing in the deepest vault a triangular tablet of gold bearing upon it the
absolute and ineffable Name of Deity. According to some accounts, Enoch
made two golden deltas. The larger he placed upon the white cubical altar in
the lowest vault and the smaller he gave into the keeping of his son, Methuse-
leh, who did the actual construction work of the brick chambers according to
the pattern revealed to his father by the Most High. In the form and arrange-

612
ment of these vaults Enoch epitomized the nine spheres of the ancient Myste-
ries and the nine sacred strata of the earth through which the initiate must pass
to reach the flaming Spirit dwelling in its central core.
According to Freemasonic symbolism, Enoch, fearing that all knowledge of
the sacred Mysteries would be lost at the time of the Deluge, erected the two
columns mentioned in the quotation. Upon the metal column in appropriate
allegorical symbols he engraved the secret reaching and upon the marble col-
umn placed an inscription stating that a short distance away a priceless treasure
would be discovered in a subterranean vault. After having thus faithfully com-
pleted his labors, Enoch was translated from the brow Of Mount Moriah. In
time the location of the secret vaults was lost, but after the lapse of ages there
came another builder--an initiate after the order of Enoch--and he, while laying
the foundations for another temple to the Great Architect of the Universe,
discovered the long-lost vaults and the secrets contained within.
John Leylande was appointed by King Henry VIII to go through the archives
of the various religious institutions dissolved by the king and remove for pre-
servation any books or manuscripts of an important character. Among the
documents copied by Leylande was a series of questions and answers concern-
ing the mystery of Masonry written by King Henry VI. In answer to the ques-
tion, "How came Masonry into England?" the document States that Peter Gow-
er, a Grecian, traveled for knowledge in Egypt, Syria, and every land where the
Phnicians had planted Masonry; winning entrance in all lodges of Masons, he
learned much, and returning, dwelt in Greater Greece. He became renowned
for his wisdom, formed a great lodge at Groton, and made many Masons,
some of whom journeyed in France, spreading Masonry there; from France in
the course of time the order passed into England.
To even the superficial student of the subject it must be evident that the
name of Peter Gower, the Grecian, is merely an Anglicized form of Pythago-
ras; consequently Groton, where he formed his lodge, is easily identified with
Crotona. A link is thus established between the philosophic Mysteries of
Greece and medival Freemasonry. In his notes on King Henry's questions
and answers, William Preston enlarges upon the vow of secrecy as it was prac-
ticed by the ancient initiates. On the authority of Pliny he describes how Anax-
archus, having been imprisoned in order to extort from him some of the se-
crets with which he had been entrusted, bit out his own tongue and threw it in
the face of Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus. Preston adds that the Athenians
revered a brazen statue that was represented without a tongue to denote the
sanctity with which they regarded their oath-bound secrets. It is also noteworthy
that, according to King Henry's manuscript, Masonry had its origin in the East
and was the carrier of the arts and sciences of civilization to the primitive hu-
manity of the western nations.

613
 Conspicuous among the symbols of Freemasonry are the seven liberal arts
and sciences. By grammar man is taught to express in noble and adequate lan-
guage his innermost thoughts and ideals; by rhetoric he is enabled to conceal
his ideals under the protecting cover of ambiguous language and figures of
speech; by logic he is trained in the organization of the intellectual faculties
with which he has been endowed; by arithmetic he not only is instructed in the
mystery of universal order but also gains the key to multitude, magnitude, and
proportion; by geometry he is inducted into the mathematics of form, the har-
mony and rhythm of angles, and the philosophy of organization; by music he is
reminded that the universe is founded upon the laws of celestial harmonics and
that harmony and rhythm are all-pervading; by astronomy he gains an under-
standing of the immensities of time and space, of the proper relationship be-
tween himself and the universe, and of the awesomeness of that Unknown
Power which is driving the countless stars of the firmament through illimitable
space. Equipped with the knowledge conferred by familiarity with the liberal
arts and sciences, the studious Freemason therefore finds himself confronted
by few problems with which he cannot cope.

Click to enlarge
THE MYSTERY OF THE MACROCOSM.
Redrawn from Cesariano's Edition of Vitruvius.
Summarizing the relationship between the human body and the theory of architecton-
ics, Vitruvius writes:
"Since nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned
to the frame as a whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that
in perfect building the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the
whole general scheme. Hence, while transmitting to us the proper arrangements for
buildings of all kinds, they were particularly careful to do so in the case of temples of
the gods, buildings in which merits and faults usually last forever. * * * Therefore, if it
is agreed that number was found out from the human fingers, and that there is a sym-
metrical correspondent between the members separately and the entire form of the
body, in accordance with a certain part selected as standard, we can have nothing but
respect for those who, in constructing temples of the immortal gods, have so arranged
614
the members of the works that both the separate parts and the whole design may har-
monize in their proportions and symmetry." (See The Ten Books on Architecture)
By some it is believed that St. Paul was initiated into the Dionysiac Mysteries, for in the
tenth verse of the third chapter of First Corinthians he calls himself a "master-builder"
or adept: "According to the grace of God which is given into me, as a wise master-
builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. " As survivals of the
ancient Dionysiac rites, the two diagrams of Cesariano, accompanying this chapter are
of incalculable value to the modern mystic architect.

THE DIONYSIAC ARCHITECTS

The most celebrated of the ancient fraternities of artisans was that of the Dio-
nysiac Architects. This organization was composed exclusively of initiates of
the Bacchus-Dionysos cult and was peculiarly consecrated to the science of
building and the art of decoration. Acclaimed as being the custodians of a se-
cret and sacred knowledge of architectonics, its members were entrusted with
the design and erection of public buildings and monuments. The superlative
excellence of their handiwork elevated the members of the guild to a position
of surpassing dignity; they were regarded as the master craftsmen of the earth.
Because of the first dances held in honor of Dionysos, he was considered the
founder and patron of the theater, and the Dionysians specialized in the con-
struction of buildings adapted for the presentation of dramatic performances.
In the circular or semicircular orchestra they invariably erected an altar to
schylus, the famous Greek poet, that while appearing in one of his own plays
he was suspected by a mob of angry spectators of revealing one of the pro-
found secrets of the Mysteries and was forced to seek refuge at the altar of
Dionysos.
So carefully did the Dionysiac Architects safeguard the secrets of their craft
that only fragmentary records exist of their esoteric teachings. John A. Weisse
thus sums up the meager data available concerning the order:
"They made their appearance certainly not later than 1000 B.C., and appear
to have enjoyed particular privileges and immunities. They also possessed se-
cret means of recognition, and were bound together by special ties only known
to themselves. The richer of this fraternity were bound to provide for their
poorer brethren. They were divided into communities, governed by a Master
and Wardens, and called (connected houses). They held a grand
festival annually, and were held in high esteem. Their ceremonials were re-
garded as sacred. It has been claimed that Solomon, at the instance of Hiram,
King of Tyre, employed them at his temple and palaces. They were also em-

615
ployed at the construction of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. They had
means of intercommunication all over the then known world, and from them,
doubtless, sprang the guilds of the Traveling Masons known in the Middle
Ages." (See The Obelisk and Freemasonry.)
The fraternity of the Dionysiac Architects spread throughout all of Asia Mi-
nor, even reaching Egypt and India. They established themselves in nearly all
the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and with the rise of the Roman
Empire found their way into Central Europe and even into England. The most
stately and enduring buildings in Constantinople, Rhodes, Athens, and Rome
were erected by these inspired craftsmen. One of the most illustrious of their
number was Vitruvius, the great architect, renowned as the author of De Archi-
tectura Libri Decem. In the various sections of his book Vitruvius gives several
hints as to the philosophy underlying the Dionysiac concept of the principle of
symmetry applied to the science of architecture, as derived from a considera-
tion of the proportions established by Nature between the parts and members
of the human body. The following extract from Vitruvius on the subject of
symmetry is representative:
"The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must
be most carefully observed by the architect. They are due to proportion, in
. Proportion is a correspondence among the measures of the mem-
bers of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as standard.
From this result the principles of symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion
there can be no principles in the design of any temple; that is, if there is no
precise relation between its members, as in the case of those of a well shaped
man. For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin
to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the
whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is
just the same; the head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the
neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a
sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If
we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to
the under side of the nostrils [and from that point] to a line between the eye-
brows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third,
comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the
body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one
fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and
it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity
attained to great and endless renown."
The edifices raised by the Dionysiac Builders were indeed "sermons in
stone." Though unable to comprehend fully the cosmic principles thus embo-
died in these masterpieces of human ingenuity and industry, even the unini-

616
tiated were invariably overwhelmed by the sense of majesty and symmetry re-
sulting from the perfect coordination of pillars, spans, arches, and domes. By
variations in the details of size, material, type, arrangement, ornamentation,
and color, these inspired builders believed it possible to provoke in the nature
of the onlooker certain distinct mental or emotional reactions. Vitruvius, for
example, describes the disposition of bronze vases about a room so as to pro-
duce certain definite changes in the tone and quality of the human voice. In
like manner, each chamber in the Mysteries through which the candidate
passed had its own peculiar acoustics. Thus in one chamber the voice of the
priest was amplified until his words caused the very room to vibrate, while in
another the voice was diminished and softened to such a degree that it sounded
like the distant tinkling of silver bells. Again, in some of the underground pas-
sageways the candidate was apparently bereft of the power of speech, for
though he shouted at the top of his voice not even a whisper was audible to his
ears. After progressing a few feet, however, he would discover that his softest
sigh would be reechoed a hundred times.
The supreme ambition of the Dionysiac Architects was the construction of
buildings which would create distinct impressions consistent with the purpose
for which the structure itself was designed. In common with the Pythagoreans,
they believed it possible by combinations of straight lines and curves to induce
any desired mental attitude or emotion. They labored, therefore, to the end of
producing a building perfectly harmonious with the structure of the universe
itself. They may have even believed that an edifice so constructed because it
was in no respect at variance with any existing reality would not be subject to
dissolution but would endure throughout the span of mortal time. As a logical
deduction from their philosophic trend of thought, such a building--en rapport
with Cosmos--would also have become an oracle. Certain early works on magi-
cal philosophy hint that the Ark of the Covenant was oracular in character be-
cause of specially prepared chambers in its interior. These by their shape and
arrangement were so attuned to the vibrations of the invisible world that they
caught and amplified the voices of the ages imprinted upon and eternally exis-
tent in the substance of the astral light.
Unskilled in these ancient subtleties of their profession, modern architects
often create architectural absurdities which would cause their creators to blush
with shame did they comprehend their actual symbolic import. Thus, phallic
emblems are strewn in profusion among the adornments of banks, office build-
ings, and department stores. Christian churches also may be surmounted with
Brahmin or Mohammedan domes or be designed in a style suitable for a Jew-
ish synagogue or a Greek temple to Pluto. These incongruities may be consi-
dered trivial in importance by the modern designer, but to the trained psychol-
ogist the purpose for which a building was erected is frustrated in large meas-

617
ure by the presence of such architectural discordances. Vitruvius thus defines
the principle of propriety as conceived and applied by the Dionysians:
"Propriety is that: perfection of style which comes when a work is authorita-
tively constructed on approved principles. It arises from prescription (Greek
), from usage, or from nature. From prescription, in the case of
hypthral edifices, open to the sky, in honour of Jupiter Lightning, the Hea-
ven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these are gods whose semblances and manife-
stations we behold before our very eyes in the sky when it is cloudless and
bright. The temples of Minerva, Mars, and Hercules will be Doric, since the
virile strength of these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their
houses. In temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the
Nymphs, the Corinthian order will be found to have peculiar significance, be-
cause these are delicate divinities and so its rather slender outlines, its flowers,
leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety where it is due. The con-
struction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father Bacchus, and the
other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle position which they
hold; for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the severi-
ty of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian."
In describing the societies of Ionian artificers, Joseph Da Costa declares the
Dionysiac rites to have been founded upon the science of astronomy, which by
the initiates of this order was correlated to the builder's art. In various docu-
ments dealing with the origin of architecture are found hints to the effect that
the great buildings erected by these initiated craftsmen were based upon geo-
metrical patterns derived from the constellations. Thus, a temple might be
planned according to the constellation of Pegasus or a court of judgment mod-
eled after the constellation of the Scales. The Dionysians evolved a peculiar
code by which they were able to communicate with one another in the dark
and both the symbols and the terminology of their guild were derived, in the
main, from the elements of architecture.
While stigmatized as pagans by reason of their philosophic principles, it is
noteworthy that these Dionysiac craftsmen were almost universally employed
in the erection of early Christian abbeys and cathedrals, whose stones even to
this very day bear distinguishing marks and symbols cut into their surfaces by
these illustrious builders. Among the ornate carvings upon the fronts of great
churches of the Old World are frequently found representations of compasses,
squares, rules, mallets, and clusters of builders' tools skillfully incorporated into
mural decorations and even placed in the hands of the effigies of saints and
prophets standing in exalted niches. A great mystery was contained in the an-
cient portals of the Cathedral Of Notre Dame which were destroyed during the
French Revolution, for among their carvings were numerous Rosicrucian and
Masonic emblems; and according to the records preserved by alchemists who

618
studied their bas-reliefs, the secret processes for metallic transmutation were
set forth in their grotesque yet most significant figures.
The checkerboard floor upon which the modern Freemasonic lodge stands
is the old tracing board of the Dionysiac Architects, and while the modern
organization is no longer limited to workmen's guilds it still preserves in its
symbols the metaphysical doctrines of the ancient society of which it is pre-
sumably the outgrowth. The investigator of the origin of Freemasonic symbol-
ism who desires to trace the development of the order through the ages will
find a practical suggestion in the following statement of Charles W. Hecke-
thorn:
"But considering that Freemasonry is a tree the roots of which spread
through so many soils, it follows that traces thereof must be found in its fruit;
that its language and ritual should retain much of the various sects and institu-
tions it has passed through before arriving at their present state, and in Maso-
nry we meet with Indian, Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian ideas, terms there-
from the supreme ambition of their craft and symbols." (See The Secret Socie-
ties of All Ages and Countries.)
The Roman Collegia of skilled architects were apparently a subdivision of
the greater Ionian body, their principles and organization being practically
identical with the older Ionian institution. It has been suspected that the Dio-
nysians also profoundly influenced early Islamic culture, for part of their sym-
bolism found its way into the Mysteries of the dervishes. At one time the Dio-
nysians referred to themselves as Sons of Solomon, and one of the most im-
portant of their symbols was the Seal of Solomon--two interlaced triangles. This
motif is frequently seen in conspicuous parts of Mohammedan mosques. The
Knights Templars--who were suspected of anything and everything--are be-
lieved to have contacted these Dionysiac artificers and to have introduced
many of their symbols and doctrines into medival Europe. But Freemasonry
most of all owes to the Dionysiac cult the great mass of its symbols and rituals
which are related to the science of architecture. From these ancient and illu-
strious artisans it also received the legacy of the unfinished Temple of Civiliza-
tion-that vast, invisible structure upon which these initiated builders have la-
bored continuously since the inception of their fraternity. This mighty edifice,
which has fallen and been rebuilt time after time but whose foundations remain
unmoved, is the true Everlasting House of which the temple on the brow of
Mount Moriah was but an impermanent symbol.
Aside from the operative aspect of their order, the Dionysiac Architects had
a speculative philosophic code. Human society they considered as a rough and
untrued ashlar but lately chiseled from the quarry of elemental Nature. This
crude block was the true object upon which these skilled craftsmen labored--
polishing it, squaring it, and with the aid of fine carvings transforming it into a

619
miracle of beauty. While mystics released their souls from the bondage of mat-
ter by meditation and philosophers found their keenest joy in the profundities
of thought, these master workmen achieved liberation from the Wheel of Life
and Death by learning to swing their hammers with the same rhythm that
moves the swirling forces of Cosmos. They venerated the Deity under the guise
of a Great Architect and Master Craftsman who was ever gouging rough ashlars
from the fields of space and truing them into universes. The Dionysians af-
firmed constructiveness to be the supreme expression of the soul, and attuning
themselves with the ever-visible constructive natural processes going on around
them, believed immortality could be achieved by thus becoming a part of the
creative agencies of Nature.

SOLOMON, THE PERSONIFICATION OF UNIVERSAL WISDOM

The name Solomon may be divided into three syllables, SOL-OM-ON, sym-
bolizing light, glory, and truth collectively and respectively. The Temple of
Solomon is, therefore, first of all "the House of Everlasting Light," its earthly
symbol being the temple of stone on the brow of Mount Moriah. According to
the Mystery teachings, there are three Temples of Solomon--as there are three
Grand Masters, three Witnesses, and three Tabernacles of the Transfiguration.
The first temple is the Grand House of the Universe, in the midst of which sits
the sun (SOL) upon his golden throne. The twelve signs of the zodiac as Fel-
low-Craftsmen gather around their shining lord. Three lights--the stellar, the
solar, and the lunar--illuminate this Cosmic Temple. Accompanied by his reti-
nue of planets, moons, and asteroids, this Divine King (SOLomon), whose
glory no earthly monarch shall ever equal, passes in stately pomp down the
avenues of space. Whereas CHiram represents the active physical light of the
sun, SOLomon signifies its invisible but all-powerful, spiritual and intellectual
effulgency.
The second symbolic temple is the human body-the Little House made in
the image of the Great Universal House. "Know ye not," asked the Apostle
Paul, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?" Freemasonry within a temple of stone cannot be other than speculative,
but Freemasonry within the living temple of the body is operative. The third
symbolic temple is the Soular House, an invisible structure, the comprehen-
sion of which is a supreme Freemasonic arcanum. The mystery of this intangi-
ble edifice is concealed under the allegory of the Soma Psuchicon, or Wedding
Garment described by St. Paul, the Robes of Glory of the High Priest of Israel,
the Yellow Robe of the Buddhist monk, and the Robe of Blue and Gold to

620
which Albert Pike refers in his Symbolism. The soul, constructed from an in-
visible fiery substance, a flaming golden metal, is cast by the Master Workman,
CHiram Abiff, into the mold of clay (the physical body) and is called the Mol-
ten Sea. The temple of the human soul is built by three Master Masons perso-
nifying Wisdom, Love, and Service, and when constructed according to the
Law of Life the spirit of God dwells in the Holy Place thereof. The Soular
Temple is the true Everlasting House, and he who can raise or cast it is a Mas-
ter Mason indeed! The best-informed Masonic writers have realized that So-
lomon's Temple is a representation in miniature of the Universal Temple.
Concerning this point, A. E. Waite, in A New Encyclopdia of Freemasonry,
writes: "It is macrocosmic in character, so that the Temple is a symbol of the
universe, a type of manifestation itself."

Click to enlarge
THE MYSTERY OF THE MICROCOSM.
Redrawn from Cesariano's Edition of Vitruvius.
Herein is depicted the mysterious Word of Plato which was crucified in space before
the foundation of the world. The anonymous author of The Canon writes:
"The Logos or soul of the world, according to Plato, the Greek Hermes, and the Chr-
ist, according to the Christian Gnostics, are all one and the same as the Hebrew Adam
Kadmon, who is the second person of the cabalistic triad. The Cyllenian Hermes,
described by Hippolytus, so exactly resembles the lesser man found in Cesariano's
edition of Vitruvius, that they may be justifiably considered to be identical."
After relating the figure to Dionysus because of the vine leaves wound in the hair, the
same writer concludes: "Here we have clearly and distinctly a curious survival of the
cosmic deity of Greece, copied and disfigured by the crude draughtsmen of the Middle
Ages, but faithfully preserved, and recognizable to the last." Similar figures are to be
found in Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia. Like Cesariano's diagrams, however, the
key given for their interpretation is most inadequate. Agrippa declares that, being a
type of the lesser world, man contains in himself all numbers, measures, weights, mo-
tions, and elements. The secret doctrine of Freemasonry, like that of the Dionysiac
Architects, is concerned primarily with the effort to measure or estimate philosophical-
ly the parts and proportions of the microcosm, so that by the knowledge derived there-
from the supreme ambition of their craft might be realized--the creation of a perfect
man.
621
Solomon, the Spirit of Universal Illumination--mental, spiritual, moral, and
physical--is personified in the king of an earthly nation. While a great ruler by
that name may have built a temple, he who considers the story solely from its
historical angle will never clear away the rubbish that covers the secret vaults.
The rubbish is interpolated matter in the form of superficial symbols, allego-
ries, and degrees which have no legitimate part in the original Freemasonic
Mysteries. Concerning the loss of the true esoteric key to Masonic secrets,
Albert Pike writes:
"No one journeys now 'from the high place of Cabaon to the threshing floor
of Oman the Yebusite,' nor has seen, 'his Master, clothed in blue and gold;' nor
are apprentices and Fellow-crafts any longer paid at their respective Columns;
nor is the Master's working tool the Tracing Board, nor does he use in his
work 'Chalk, Charcoal, and an Earthen Vessel,' nor does the Apprentice, be-
coming a Fellow Craft, pass from the square to the compass; for the meanings
of these phrases as symbols have long been lost."
According to the ancient Rabbins, Solomon was an initiate of the Mystery
schools and the temple which he built was actually a house of initiation contain-
ing amass of pagan philosophic and phallic emblems. The pomegranates, the
palm-headed columns, the Pillars before the door, the Babylonian cherubim,
and the arrangement of the chambers and draperies all indicate the temple to
have been patterned after the sanctuaries of Egypt and Atlantis. Isaac Myer, in
The Qabbalah, makes the following observation:
"The pseudo-Clement of Rome, writes: 'God made man male and female.
The male is Christ: the female, the Church.' The Qabbalists called the Holy
Spirit, the mother, and the Church of Israel, the Daughter. Solomon engraved
on the walls of his Temple, likenesses of the male and female principles, to
adumbrate this mystery; such, it is said, were the figures of the cherubim. This
was, however, not in obedience to the words of the Thorah. They were sym-
bolical of the Upper, the spiritual, the former or maker, positive or male, and
the Lower, the passive, the negative or female, formed or made by the first."
Masonry came to Northern Africa and Asia Minor from the lost continent of
Atlantis, not under its present name but rather under the general designation
Sun and Fire Worship. The ancient Mysteries did not cease to exist when
Christianity became the world's most powerful religion. Great Pan did not die!
Freemasonry is the proof of his survival. The pre-Christian Mysteries simply
assumed the symbolism of the new faith, perpetuating through its emblems and
allegories the same truths which had been the property of the wise since the
beginning of the world. There is no true explanation, therefore, for Christian
symbols save that which is concealed within pagan philosophy. Without the
mysterious keys carried by the hierophants of the Egyptian, Brahmin, and Per-
sian cults the gates of Wisdom cannot be opened. Consider with reverent spi-

622
rit, therefore, the sublime allegory of the Temple and its Builders, realizing
that beneath its literal interpretation lies hidden a Royal Secret.
According to the Talmudic legends, Solomon understood the mysteries of
the Qabbalah. He was also an alchemist and a necromancer, being able to con-
trol the dmons, and from them and other inhabitants of the invisible worlds
he secured much of his wisdom. In his translation of Clavicula Salomonis, or
The Key of Solomon the King, a work presumably setting forth the magical
secrets gathered by Solomon and used by him in the conjuration of spirits and
which, according to Frank C. Higgins, contains many sidelights on Masonic
initiatory rituals, S. L. MacGregor-Mathers recognizes the probability that King
Solomon was a magician in the fullest sense of that word. "I see no reason to
doubt," he affirms, "the tradition which assigns the authorship of the 'Key' to
King Solomon, for among others Josephus, the Jewish historian, especially
mentions the magical works attributed to that monarch; this is confirmed by
many Eastern traditions, and his magical skill is frequently mentioned in the
Arabian Nights."
Concerning Solomon's supernatural powers, Josephus writes in his Eighth
Book of the Antiquities of the Jews:
"Now the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was so
great that he exceeded the ancients, in so much that he was no way inferior to
the Egyptians, who are said to have been beyond all men in understanding; * *
* God also enabled him to learn that skill which expelled demons, which is a
science useful and sanative to him. He composed such incantations also by
which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using
exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and
this method of cure is of great force unto this day."
The medival alchemists were convinced that King Solomon understood
the secret processes of Hermes by means of which it was possible to multiply
metals. Dr. Bacstrom writes that the Universal Spirit (CHiram) assisted King
Solomon to build his temple, because Solomon being wise in the wisdom of
alchemy knew how to control this incorporeal essence and, setting it to work
for him, caused the invisible universe to supply him with vast amounts of gold
and silver which most people believed were mined by natural methods.
The mysteries of the Islamic faith are now in the keeping of the dervishes--
men who, renouncing worldliness, have withstood the test of a thousand and
one days of temptation. Jelal-ud-din, the great Persian Sufic poet and philoso-
pher, is accredited with having founded the Order of Mevlevi, or the "dancing
dervishes," whose movements exoterically signify the motions of the celestial
bodies and esoterically result in the establishment of a rhythm which stimulates
the centers of spiritual consciousness within the dancer's body.
"According to the mystical canon, there are always on earth a certain number

623
of holy men who are admitted to intimate communion with the Deity. The one
who occupies the highest position among his contemporaries is called the 'Axis'
(Qtb) or 'Pole' of his time. * * * Subordinate to the Qtb are two holy beings
who bear the title of 'The Faithful Ones,' and are assigned places on his right
and left respectively. Below these is a quartette of 'Intermediate Ones' (Evtd);
and on successively lower planes ate five 'Lights' (Envr), and seven 'Very
Good' (Akhyr). The next rank is filled by forty 'Absent Ones' (Rijal-i-ghaib),
also termed 'Martyrs' (Shuheda). When an 'Axis' quits this earthly existence, he
is succeeded by the 'Faithful One' who has occupied the place at his right hand.
* * * For to these holy men, who also bear the collective titles of 'Lords of
Souls,' and 'Directors,' is committed a spiritual supremacy over mankind far
exceeding the temporal authority of earthly rulers." (See Mysticism and Magic
in Turkey, by L. M. J. Garnett.)
The Axis is a mysterious individual who, unknown and unsuspected, min-
gles with mankind and who, according to tradition, has his favorite seat upon
the roof of the Caaba. J. P. Brown, in The Dervishes, gives a description of
these "Master Souls."

FREEMASONRY'S PRICELESS HERITAGE

The sanctum sanctorum of Freemasonry is ornamented with the gnostic jewels

of a thousand ages; its rituals ring with the divinely inspired words of seers and
sages. A hundred religious have brought their gifts of wisdom to its altar; arts
and sciences unnumbered have contributed to its symbolism. Freemasonry is a
world-wide university, teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all
who will hearken to its words. Its chairs are seats of learning and its pillars
uphold an arch of universal education. Its trestleboards are inscribed with the
eternal verities of all ages and upon those who comprehend its sacred depths
has dawned the realization that within the Freemasonic Mysteries lie hidden
the long-lost arcana sought by all peoples since the genesis of human reason.
The philosophic power of Freemasonry lies in its symbols--its priceless heritage
from the Mystery schools of antiquity. In a letter to Robert Freke Gould, Al-
bert Pike writes:
"It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something more impos-
ing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the
Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hid-
den, for the enlightenment of coming generations, the sacred books of the
Egyptians, so long lost to the world; like the Sphynx half buried in the desert.
In its symbolism, which and its spirit of brotherhood are its essence, Freema-
624
sonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions. It has the symbols
and doctrines which, older than himself, Zarathustra inculcated; and ii seemed
to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful--the ancient Faith of our ancestors holding
out to the world its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely and in vain asking
for an interpreter. And so I came at last to see that the true greatness and ma-
jesty of Freemasonry consist in its proprietorship of these and its other sym-
bols; and that its symbolism is its soul."
Though the temples of Thebes and Karnak be now but majestic heaps of
broken and time-battered stone, the spirit: of Egyptian philosophy still marches
triumphant through the centuries. Though the rock-hewn sanctuaries of the
ancient Brahmins be now deserted and their carvings crumbled into dust, still
the wisdom of the Vedas endures. Though the oracles be silenced and the
House of the Mysteries be now but rows of ghostly columns, still shines the
spiritual glory of Hellas with luster undiminished. Though Zoroaster, Hermes,
Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle are now but dim memories in a world once
rocked by the transcendency of their intellectual genius, still in the mystic tem-
ple of Freemasonry these god-men live again in their words and symbols; and
the candidate, passing through the initiations, feels himself face to face with
these illumined hierophants of days long past.

625
 Mystic Christianity

THE true story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth has never been unfolded to the
world, either in the accepted Gospels or in the Apocrypha, although a few stray
hints may be found in some of the commentaries written by the ante-Nicene
Fathers. The facts concerning His identity and mission are among the priceless
mysteries preserved to this day in the secret vaults beneath the "Houses of the
Brethren." To a few of the Knights Templars, who were initiated into the arca-
na of the Druses, Nazarenes, Essenes, Johannites, and other sects still inhabit-
ing the remote and inaccessible fastnesses of the Holy Land, part of the strange
story was told. The knowledge of the Templars concerning the early history of
Christianity was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for their persecution and
final annihilation. The discrepancies in the writings of the early Church Fathers
not only are irreconcilable, but demonstrate beyond question that even during
the first five centuries after Christ these learned men had for the basis of their
writings little more substantial than folklore and hearsay. To the easy believer
everything is possible and there are no problems. The unemotional person in
search of facts, however, is confronted by a host of problems with uncertain
factors, of which the following are typical:
According to popular conception, Jesus was crucified during the thirty-third
year of His life and in the third year of His ministry following His baptism.
About A.D. 180, St. Irenus, Bishop of Lyons, one of the most eminent of the
ante-Nicene theologians, wrote Against Heresies, an attack on the doctrines of
the Gnostics. In this work Irenus declared upon the authority of the Apostles
themselves that Jesus lived to old age. To quote: "They, however, that they may
establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, 'to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord,' maintain that He preached for one year only, and
then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful of
their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that
age which is both more necessary and more honourable than any other; that
more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all
others. For how could He have had His disciples, if He did not teach? And
how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For
when He came to be baptised, He had not yet completed His thirtieth year,
but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has men-
tioned His years, has expressed it: 'Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be
thirty years old,' when He came to receive baptism); and, (according to these
men,) He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing
His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by

626
no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first stage of early life em-
braces thirty years, and that this extends onward to the fortieth year, every one
will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline to-
wards old age, which Our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a
Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conver-
sant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, (affirming) that John conveyed
to them that information. And he remained among them up to the time of
Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles
also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to
the'(validity of) the statement. Whom then should we rather believe? Whether
such men as these, or Ptolemus, who never saw the apostles, and who never
even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?"
Commenting on the foregoing passage, Godfrey Higgins remarks that it has
fortunately escaped the hands of those destroyers who have attempted to rend-
er the Gospel narratives consistent by deleting all such statements. He also
notes that the doctrine of the crucifixion was a vexata questio among Christians
even during the second century. "The evidence of Irenus," he says, "cannot be
touched. On every principle of sound criticism, and of the doctrine of proba-
bilities, it is unimpeachable."
It should further be noted that Irenus prepared this statement to contradict
another apparently current in his time to the effect that the ministry of Jesus
lasted but one year. Of all the early Fathers, Irenus, writing within eighty
years after the death of St. John the Evangelist, should have had reasonably
accurate information. If the disciples themselves related that Jesus lived to ad-
vanced age in the body, why has the mysterious number 33 been arbitrarily
chosen to symbolize the duration of His life? Were the incidents in the life of
Jesus purposely altered so that His actions would fit more closely into the pat-
tern established by the numerous Savior-Gods who preceded Him? That these
analogies were recognized and used as a leverage in converting the Greeks and
Romans is evident from a perusal of the writings of Justin Martyr, another
second-century authority. In his Apology, Justin addresses the pagans thus:
"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was
produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, Our Teacher, was
crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound
nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem
sons of Jupiter. * * * And if we assert that the Word of God was born of God
in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation, let this, as said above,
be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is the angelic word of
God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a par
with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now enu-
merated."

627
 From this it is evident that the first missionaries of the Christian Church
were far more willing to admit the similarities between their faith and the faiths
of the pagans than were their successors in later centuries.
In an effort to solve some of the problems arising from any attempt to
chronicle accurately the life of Jesus, it has been suggested that there may have
lived in Syria at that time two or more religious teachers bearing the name Je-
sus, Jehoshua or Joshua, and that the lives of these men may have been con-
fused in the Gospel stories. In his Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon, Ber-
nard H. Springett, a Masonic author, quotes from an early book, the name of
which he was not at liberty to disclose because of its connection with the ritual
of a sect. The last part of his quotation is germane to the subject at hand:
"But Jehovah prospered the seed of the Essenians, in holiness and love, for
many generations. Then came the chief of the angels, according to the com-
mandment of GOD, to raise up an heir to the Voice of Jehovah. And, in four
generations more, an heir was born, and named Joshua, and he was the child
of Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers of Jehovah, who stood aloof from all
other people save the Essenians. And this Joshua, in Nazareth, reestablished
Jehovah, and restored many of the lost rites and ceremonies. In the thirty-sixth
year of his age he was stoned to death in Jerusalem * * *"

Click to enlarge
THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR.
From Jennings' The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries.
According to tradition, Arthur, when a boy of fifteen, was crowned King of Britain, in
A.D. 516. Soon after his ascension to the throne he founded the Order of the Knights
of the Round Table at Windsor. Thereafter the Knights met annually at Carleon,
Winchester, or at Camelot, to celebrate Pentecost. From all parts of Europe came the
brave and the bold, seeking admission into this noble order of British knighthood.
Nobility, virtue, and valor were its requirements, and those possessing these qualities to
a marked degree were welcomed to King Arthur's court at Camelot. Having gathered
the bravest and noblest Knights of Europe about him, King Arthur chose twenty-four
who excelled all the others in daring and integrity and formed of them his Circle of the
Round Table. According to legend, each of these Knights was so great in dignity and
power that none could occupy a more exalted seat than another, so when they ga-
thered at the table to celebrate the anniversary of their foundation it was necessary to
628
use a round table that all might occupy chairs of equal importance.
While it is probable that the Order of the Round Table had its distinctive rituals
and symbols, the knowledge of them has not survived the ages. Elias Ashmole, in his
volume on the Order of the Garter, inserted a double-page plate showing the insignia
of all the orders of knighthood, the block set aside for the symbol of the Round Table
being left blank. The chief reason for the loss of the symbolism of the Round Table
was the untimely death of King Arthur upon the field of Kamblan (A.D. 542) in the
forty-first year of his life. While he destroyed his bitter enemy, Mordred, in this fam-
ous battle, it cast him not only his own life but the lives of nearly all his Knights of the
Round Table, who died defending their commander.

Within the last century several books have been published to supplement the
meager descriptions in the Gospels of Jesus and His ministry. In some in-
stances these narratives claim to be founded upon early manuscripts recently
discovered; in others, upon direct spiritual revelation. Some of these writings
are highly plausible, while others are incredible. There are persistent rumors
that Jesus visited and studied in both Greece and India, and that a coin struck
in His honor in India during the first century has been discovered. Early Chris-
tian records are known to exist in Tibet, and the monks of a Buddhist monas-
tery in Ceylon still preserve a record which indicates that Jesus sojourned with
them and became conversant with their philosophy.
Although early Christianity shows every evidence of Oriental influence, this
is a subject the modern church declines to discuss. If it is ever established
beyond question that Jesus was an initiate of the pagan Greek or Asiatic Myste-
ries, the effect upon the more conservative members of the Christian faith is
likely to be cataclysmic. If Jesus was God incarnate, as the solemn councils of
the church discovered, why is He referred to in the New Testament as "called
of God an high prim after the order of Melchizedek"? The words "after the
order" make Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been others
of equal or even superior dignity. If the "Melchizedeks" were the divine or
priestly rulers of the nations of the earth before the inauguration of the system
of temporal rulers, then the statements attributed to St. Paul would indicate
that Jesus either was one of these "philosophic elect" or was attempting to rees-
tablish their system of government. It will be remembered that Melchizedek
also performed the same ceremony of the drinking of wine and the breaking of
bread as did Jesus at the Last Supper.
George Faber declares the original name of Jesus was Jescua Hammassiah.
Godfrey Higgins has discovered two references, one in the Midrashjoholeth
and the other in the Abodazara (early Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures),
to the effect that the surname of Joseph's family was Panther, for in both of
these works it is stated that a man was healed "in the name of Jesus ben Panth-
629
er." The name Panther establishes a direct connection between Jesus and Bac-
chus--who was nursed by panthers and is sometimes depicted riding either on
one of these animals or in a chariot drawn by them. The skin of the panther
was also sacred in certain of the Egyptian initiatory ceremonials. The mono-
gram IHS, now interpreted to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus Savior of
Men), is another direct link between the Christian and the Bacchic rites. IHS is
derived from the Greek , which, as its numerical value (608) signifies, is
emblematic of the sun and constituted the sacred and concealed name of Bac-
chus. (See The Celtic Druids by Godfrey Higgins.) The question arises, Was
early Roman Christianity confused with the worship of Bacchus because of the
numerous parallelisms in the two faiths? If the affirmative can be proved, many
hitherto incomprehensible enigmas of the New Testament will be solved.
It is by no means improbable that Jesus Himself originally propounded as
allegories the cosmic activities which were later con fused with His own life.
That the , Christos, represents the solar power reverenced by every
nation of antiquity cannot be controverted. If Jesus revealed the nature and
purpose of this solar power under the name and personality of Christos, there-
by giving to this abstract power the attributes of a god-man, He but followed a
precedent set by all previous World-Teachers. This god-man, thus endowed
with all the qualities of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every man. Mortal
man achieves deification only through at-one-ment with this divine Self. Union
with the immortal Self constitutes immortality, and he who finds his true Self is
therefore "saved." This Christos, or divine man in man, is man's real hope of
salvation--the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal humankind.
As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and Orpheus in all likelihood were originally illu-
mined men who later were confused with the symbolic personages whom they
created as personifications of this divine power, so Jesus has been confused
with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He preached. Since the Chris-
tos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the
initiate to liberate, or "resurrect, " this Eternal One within himself. He who
attained reunion with his Christos was consequently termed a Christian, or
Christened, man.
One of the most profound doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned
the Universal Savior-God who lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven
through His own nature. This concept was unquestionably the inspiration for
the words attributed to Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father but by me." In an effort to make a single person out of
Jesus and His Christos, Christian writers have patched together a doctrine
which must be resolved back into its original constituents if the true meaning of
Christianity is to be rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos
represents the perfect man who, having passed through the various stages of
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the "World Mystery" symbolized by the thirty-three years, ascends to the hea-
ven sphere where he is reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of Jesus as
now preserved is--like the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff--part of a secret initia-
tory ritualism belonging to the early Christian and pagan Mysteries.
During the centuries just prior to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan
Mysteries had gradually fallen into the hands of the profane. To the student of
comparative religion it is evident that these secrets, gathered by a small group
of faithful philosophers and mystics, were reclothed in new symbolical gar-
ments and thus preserved for several centuries under the name of Mystic
Christianity. It is generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of
this knowledge and also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus was
undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where Pythagoras
had studied six centuries before.
The Essenes--the most prominent of the early Syrian sects--were an order of
pious men and women who lived lives of asceticism, spending their days in
simple labor and their evenings in prayer. Josephus, the great Jewish historian,
speaks of them in the highest terms. "They teach the immortality of the soul,"
he says, "and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly stri-
ven for." In another place he adds, "Yet is their course of life better than that of
other men and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry. " The name Es-
senes is supposed to be derived from an ancient Syrian word meaning "physi-
cian," and these kindly folk are believed to have held as their purpose of exis-
tence the healing of the sick in mind, soul, and body. According to Edouard
Schur, they had two principal communities, or centers, one in Egypt on the
banks of Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea.
Some authorities trace the Essenes back to the schools of Samuel the Prophet,
but most agree on either an Egyptian or Oriental origin. Their methods of
prayer, meditation, and fasting were not unlike those of the holy men of the
Far East. Membership in the Essene Order was possible only after a year of
probation. This Mystery school, like so many others, had three degrees, and
only a few candidates passed successfully through all. The Essenes were di-
vided into two distinct communities, one consisting of celibates and the other
of members who were married.
The Essenes never became merchants or entered into the commercial life of
cities, but maintained themselves by agriculture and the raising of sheep for
wool; also by such crafts as pottery and carpentry. In the Gospels and Apocry-
pha, Joseph, the father of Jesus, is referred to as both a carpenter and a potter.
In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas and also that of Pseudo-Matthew, the
child Jesus is described as making sparrows out of clay which came to life and
flew away when he clapped his hands. The Essenes were regarded as among
the better educated class of Jews and there are accounts of their having been

631
chosen as tutors for the children of Roman officers stationed in Syria. The fact
that so many artificers were listed among their number is responsible for the
order's being considered as a progenitor of modern Freemasonry. The symbols
of the Essenes include a number of builders' tools, and they were secretly en-
gaged in the erection of a spiritual and philosophical temple to serve as a dwel-
ling place for the living God.

Click to enlarge
THE GREAT GEORGE AND COLLAR OF THE GARTER.
From Ashmole's Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Garter was probably formed by Edward III in imitation of King
Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, which institution was hopelessly scattered after
the battle of Kamblan. The popular story to the effect that the Countess of Salisbury's
garter was the original inspiration for the foundation of the order is untenable. The
motto of the Order of the Carter is "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Shamed be he who
thinks evil of it). St. George is looked upon as the Patron of the order, for he typifies
the higher nature of man overcoming the dragon of his own lower nature. While St.
George is supposed to have lived during the third century, it is probable that he was a
mythological personage borrowed from pagan mythology.

Like the Gnostics, the Essenes were emanationists. One of their chief objects
was the reinterpretation of the Mosaic Law according to certain secret spiritual
keys preserved by them from the time of the founding of their order. It would
thus follow that the Essenes were Qabbalists and, like several other contempo-
rary sects flourishing in Syria, were awaiting the advent of the Messiah prom-
ised in the early Biblical writings. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, are
believed to have been members of the Essene Order. Joseph was many years
the senior of Mary. According to The Protevangelium, he was a widower with
grown sons, and in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew he refers to Mary as a little
child less in age than his own grandchildren. In her infancy Mary was dedicated
to the Lord, and the Apocryphal writings contain many accounts of miracles
associated with her early childhood. When she was twelve years old, the priests
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held counsel as to the future of this child who had dedicated herself to the
Lord, and the Jewish high priest, bearing the breastplate, entered into the Holy
of Holies, where an angel appeared to him, saying, "Zacharias, go forth and
summon the widowers of the people and let them take a rod apiece and she
shall be the wife of him to whom the Lord shall show a sign." Going forth to
meet the priests at the head of the widowers, Joseph collected the rods of all
the other men and gave them into the keeping of the priests. Now Joseph's rod
was but half as long as the others, and the priests on returning the rods to the
widowers paid no attention to Joseph's but left it behind in the Holy of Holies.
When all the other widowers had received back their wands, the priests
awaited a sign from heaven, but none came. Joseph, because of his advanced
age, did not: ask for the return of his rod, for to him it was inconceivable that
he should be chosen. But an angel appeared to the high priest, ordering him to
give back the short rod which lay unnoticed in the Holy of Holies. As the high
priest handed the rod to Joseph, a white dove flew from the end of it and
rested upon the head of the aged carpenter, and to him was given the child.
The editor of The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East calls atten-
tion to the peculiar spirit with which the childhood of Jesus is treated in most
of the Apocryphal books of the New Testament, particularly in one work attri-
buted to the doubting Thomas, the earliest known Greek version of which
dates from about A.D. 200: "The child Christ is represented almost as an imp,
cursing and destroying those who annoy him." This Apocryphal work, calcu-
lated to inspire its readers with fear and trembling, was popular during the
Middle Ages because it was in full accord with the cruel and persecuting spirit
of medival Christianity. Like many other early sacred books, the book of
Thomas was fabricated for two closely allied purposes: first, to outshine the
pagans in miracle working; second, to inspire all unbelievers with the "fear of
the Lord." Apocryphal writings of this sort have no possible basis in fact. At
one time an asset, the "miracles" of Christianity have become its greatest liabili-
ty. Supernatural phenomena, in a credulous age interpolated to impress the
ignorant, in this century have only achieved the alienation of the intelligent.
In The Greek Gospel of Nicodemus it is declared that when Jesus was
brought into the presence of Pilate the standards borne by the Roman guards
bowed their tops in homage to him in spite of every effort made by the soldiers
to prevent it. In The Letters of Pilate the statement also appears that Csar,
being wroth at Pilate for executing a just man, ordered him to be decapitated.
Praying for forgiveness, Pilate was visited by an angel of the Lord, who reas-
sured the Roman governor by promising him that all Christendom should re-
member his name and that when Christ came the second time to judge His
people he (Pilate) should come before Him as His witness.
Stories like the foregoing represent the incrustations that have attached

633
themselves to the body of Christianity during the centuries. The popular mind
itself has been the self-appointed guardian and perpetuator of these legends,
bitterly opposing every effort to divest the faith of these questionable accumula-
tions. While popular tradition often contains certain basic elements of truth,
these elements are usually distorted out of all proportion. Thus, while the ge-
neralities of the story may be fundamentally true, the details are hopelessly
erroneous. Of truth as of beauty it may be said that it is most adorned when
unadorned. Through the mist of fantastic accounts which obscure the true
foundation of the Christian faith is faintly visible to the discerning few a great
and noble doctrine communicated to the world by a great and noble soul. Jo-
seph and Mary, two devout and holy-minded souls, consecrated to the service
of God and dreaming of the coming of a Messiah to serve Israel, obeyed the
injunctions of the high priest of the Essenes to prepare a body for the coming
of a great soul. Thus of an immaculate conception Jesus was born. By immacu-
late is meant clean, rather than supernatural.
Jesus was reared and educated by the Essenes and later initiated into the
most profound of their Mysteries. Like all great initiates, He must travel in an
easterly direction, and the silent years of His life no doubt were spent in fami-
liarizing Himself with that secret teaching later to be communicated by Him to
the world. Having consummated the ascetic practices of His order, He attained
to the Christening. Having thus reunited Himself with His own spiritual source,
He then went forth in the name of the One who has been crucified since be-
fore the worlds were and, gathering about Him disciples and apostles, He in-
structed them in that secret teaching which had been lost--in part, at least--from
the doctrines of Israel. His fate is unknown, but in all probability He suffered
that persecution which is the lot of those who seek to reconstruct the ethical,
philosophical, or religious systems of their day.
To the multitudes Jesus spoke in parables; to His disciples He also spoke in
parables, though of a more exalted and philosophic nature. Voltaire said that
Plato should have been canonized by the Christian Church, for, being the first
propounder of the Christos mystery, he contributed more to its fundamental
doctrines than any other single individual. Jesus disclosed to His disciples that
the lower world is under the control of a great spiritual being which had fa-
shioned it according to the will of the Eternal Father. The mind of this great
angel was both the mind of the world and also the worldly mind. So that men
should not die of worldliness the Eternal Father sent unto creation the eldest
and most exalted of His powers--the Divine Mind. This Divine Mind offered
Itself as a living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having
given Its spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners
of rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every living thing. Man
was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across which he might pass

634
and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this Divine Mind and
served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness, liberated this Divine
Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine source. And
because He had brought to them this knowledge, the disciples said one to
another: "Lo, He is Himself this Mind personified!"

THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE AND LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL

According to legend, the body of the Christos (the Spiritual Law) was given into
the keeping of two men, of whom the Gospels make but brief mention. These
were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both devout men who, though not
listed among the disciples or apostles of the Christos, were of all men chosen
to be custodians of His sacred remains. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the
initiated brethren and is called by A. E. Waite, in his A New Encyclopdia of
Freemasonry, "the first bishop of Christendom." just as the temporal (or visible)
power of the Holy See was established by St. Peter(?), so the spiritual (or invis-
ible) body of the faith was entrusted to the "Secret Church of the Holy Grail"
through apostolic succession from Joseph of Arimathea, into whose keeping
had been given the perpetual symbols of the covenant--the ever-flowing cup
and the bleeding spear.

Click to enlarge
JAKOB BHME, THE TEUTONIC THEOSOPHER.
From William Law's Translation of The Works of Jakob Bhme.
Jakob Bhme was born in the year 1575 in a village near Gorlitz, and died in Silesia in
1624. He had but little schooling and was apprenticed at an early age to a shoemaker.
He later became a journeyman shoemaker, married and had four children One day
while tending his master's shoe shop, a mysterious stranger entered who while he
seemed to possess but little of this world's goods, appeared to be most wise and noble
in spiritual attainment. The stranger asked the price of a pair of shoes, but young
Bhme did not dare to name a figure, for fear that he would displease his master. The

635
stranger insisted and Bhme finally placed a valuation which he was all that his master
possibly could hope to secure for the shoes. The stranger immediately bought them
and departed. A short distance down the street the mysterious stranger stopped and
cried out in a loud voice, "Jakob, Jakob come forth." In amazement and fright, Bhme
ran out of the house. The strange man fixed his yes upon the youth--great eyes which
sparkled and seemed filled with divine light. He took the boy's right hand and ad-
dressed him as follows--"Jakob, thou art little, but shalt be great, and become another
Man, such a one as at whom the World shall wonder. Therefore be pious, fear God,
and reverence His Word. Read diligently the Holy Scriptures, wherein you have Com-
fort and Instruction. For thou ust endure much Misery and Poverty, and suffer Perse-
cution, but be courageous and persevere, far God loves, and is gracious to thee." Deep-
ly impressed by the prediction, Bhme became ever more intense in his search for
truth. At last his labors were reworded. For seven days he remained in a mysterious
condition during which time the mysteries of the invisible world were revealed to him.
It has been said of Jakob Bhme that he revealed to all mankind the deepest secrets of
alchemy. He died surrounded by his family, his last words being "Now I go hence into
Paradise."

Presumably obeying instructions of St. Philip, Joseph of Arimathea, carrying

the sacred relics, reached Britain after passing through many and varied hard-
ships. Here a site was allotted to him for the erection of a church, and in this
manner Glastonbury Abbey was founded. Joseph planted his staff in the earth
and it took root, becoming a miraculous thorn bush which blossomed twice a
year and which is now called the Glastonbury thorn. The end of the life of
Joseph of Arimathea is unknown. By some it is believed that, like Enoch, he
was translated; by others, that he was buried in Glastonbury Abbey. Repeated
attempts have been made to find the Holy Grail, which many believe to have
been hidden in a crypt beneath the ancient abbey. The Glastonbury chalice
recently discovered and by the devout supposed to be the original Sangreal can
scarcely be accepted as genuine by the critical investigator. Beyond its inherent
interest as a relic, like the famous Antioch chalice it actually proves nothing
when it is realized that practically little more was known about the Christian
Mysteries eighteen centuries ago than can be discovered today.
The origin of the Grail myth, as of nearly every other element in the great
drama, is curiously elusive. Sufficient foundation for it may be found in the
folklore of the British Isles, which contains many accounts of magic cauldrons,
kettles, cups, and drinking horns. The earliest Grail legends describe the cup
as a veritable horn of plenty. Its contents were inexhaustible and those who
served it never hungered or thirsted. One account states that no matter how
desperately ill a person might be he could not die within eight days of behold-
ing the cup. Some authorities believe the Holy Grail to be the perpetuation of
636
the holy cup used in the rites of Adonis and Atys. A communion cup or cha-
lice was used in several of the ancient Mysteries, and the god Bacchus is fre-
quently symbolized in the form of a vase, cup, or urn. In Nature worship the
ever-flowing Grail signifies the bounty of the harvest by which the life of man is
sustained; like Mercury's bottomless pitcher, it is the inexhaustible fountain of
natural re source. From the evidence at hand it would indeed be erroneous to
ascribe a purely Christian origin to the Grail symbolism.
In the Arthurian Cycle appears a strange and mysterious figure--Merlin, the
magician. In one of the legends concerning him it is declared that when Jesus
was sent to liberate the world from the bondage of evil, the Adversary deter-
mined to send an Antichrist to undo His labors. The Devil therefore in the
form of a horrible dragon overshadowed a young woman who had taken refuge
in sanctuary to escape the evil which had dcstroyed her family. When Merlin,
her child, was born he partook of the characteristics of his human mother and
demon father. Merlin, however, did not serve the powers of darkness but, be-
ing converted to the true light, retained only two of the supernatural powers
inherited from his father: prophecy and miracle working. The story of Merlin's
infernal father must really be considered as an allegorical allusion to the fact
that he was a "philosophical son" of the serpent or dragon, a title applied to all
initiates of the Mysteries, who thus acknowledge Nature as their mortal mother
and wisdom in the form of the serpent or dragon as their immortal Father.
Confusion of the dragon and serpent with the powers of evil has resulted as an
inevitable consequence from misinterpretation of the early chapters of Genesis.
Arthur while an infant was given into the keeping of Merlin, the Mage, and in
his youth instructed by him in the secret doctrine and probably initiated into
the deepest secrets of natural magic. With Merlin's assistance, Arthur became
the leading general of Britain, a degree of dignity which has been confused with
kingship. After Arthur had drawn the sword of Branstock from the anvil and
thus established his divine right to leadership, Merlin further assisted him to
secure from the Lady of the Lake the sacred sword Excalibur. After the estab-
lishment of the Round Table, having fulfilled his duty, Merlin disappeared,
according to one account vanishing into the air, where he still exists as a sha-
dow communicating at will with mortals; according to another, retiring of his
own accord into a great stone vault which he sealed from within.
It is reasonably certain that many legends regarding Charlemagne were later
associated with Arthur, who is most famous for establishing the Order of the
Round Table at Winchester. Reliable information is not to be had concerning
the ceremonies and initiatory rituals of the "Table Round." In one story the
Table was endowed with the powers of expansion and contraction so that fif-
teen or fifteen hundred could be seated around it, according to whatever need
might arise. The most common accounts fix the number of knights who could

637
be seated at one time at the Round Table at either twelve or twenty-four. The
twelve signified the signs of the zodiac and also the apostles of Jesus. The
knights' names and also their heraldic arms were emblazoned upon their
chairs. When twenty-four are shown seated at the Table, each of the twelve
signs of the zodiac is divided into two parts--a light and a dark half--to signify
the nocturnal and diurnal phases of each sign. As each sign of the zodiac is
ascending for two hours every day, so the twenty-four knights represent the
hours, the twenty-four elders before the throne in Revelation, and twenty-four
Persian deities who represent the spirits of the divisions of the day. In the cen-
ter of the Table was the symbolic rose of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the symbol of resurrection in that He "rose" from the dead. There was also a
mysterious empty seat called the Siege Perilous in which none might sit except
he who was successful in his quest for the Holy Grad.
In the personality of Arthur is to be found a new form of the ever-recurrent
cosmic myth. The prince of Britain is the sun, his knights are the zodiac, and
his flashing sword may be the sun's ray with which he fights and vanquishes the
dragons of darkness or it may represent the earth's axis. Arthur's Round Table
is the universe; the Siege Perilous the throne of the perfect man. In its terre-
strial sense, Arthur was the Grand Master of a secret Christian-Masonic bro-
therhood of philosophic mystics who termed themselves Knights. Arthur re-
ceived the exalted position of Grand Master of these Knights because he had
faithfully accomplished the withdrawal of the sword (spirit) from the anvil of
the base metals (his lower nature). As invariably happens, the historical Arthur
soon was confused with the allegories and myths of his order until now the two
are inseparable. After Arthur's death on the field of Kamblan his Mysteries
ceased, and esoterically he was borne away on a black barge, as is so beautifully
described by Tennyson in his Morte d'Arthur. The great sword Excalibur was
also cast back into the waters of eternity--all of which is a vivid portrayal of the
descent of cosmic night at the end of the Day of Universal Manifestation. The
body of the historical Arthur was probably interred at Glastonbury Abbey, a
building closely identified with the mystic rites of both the Grail and the Arthu-
rian Cycle.
The medival Rosicrucians were undoubtedly in possession of the true se-
cret of the Arthurian Cycle and the Grail legend, much of their symbolism
having been incorporated into that order. Though the most obvious of all keys
to the Christos mystery, the Grail legend has received the least consideration.

638
Click to enlarge
THE NIMBUS AND AUREOLE IN SYMBOLISM.
From Audsley's Handbook of Christian Symbolism.
The golden halos around the heads of pagan gods and Christian saints refer both to
their being bathed in the glory of the sun and also to the fact that a spiritual sun within
their own natures is radiating its glow-ray and surrounding them with celestial splendor.
Whenever the nimbus is composed of straight radiant lines, it is solar in significance;
whenever curved lines are used for beams, it partakes lunar nature; whenever they are
united, it symbolizes a, harmonious blending of both principles. The circular nimbus is
solar and masculine, while the lozenge-shaped nimbus, or vesica piscis, is lunar and
feminine. The same symbolism is preserved in the circular and lozenge-shaped win-
dows of cathedrals. There is a complete science contained in the shape, color, and
adornments of the halos of saints and martyrs. A plain golden ring usually surrounds
the head of a canonized saint, while God the Father and God the Son have a far more
ornate aureole, usually adorned with a St. George Cross, a flowered cross, or a lilied
cross, with only three of the arms visible.

639
 The Cross and the Crucifixion

ONE of the most interesting legends concerning the cross is that preserved in
Aurea Legenda, by Jacobus de Vorgaine. The Story is to the effect that Adam,
feeling the end of his life was near, entreated his son Seth to make a pilgrimage
to the Garden of Eden and secure from the angel on guard at the entrance the
Oil of Mercy which God had promised mankind. Seth did not know the way;
but his father told him it was in an eastward direction, and the path would be
easy to follow, for when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of the
Lord, upon the path which their feet had trod the grass had never grown.
Seth, following the directions of his father, discovered the Garden of Eden
without difficulty. The angel who guarded the gate permitted him to enter, and
in the midst of the garden Seth beheld a great tree, the branches of which
reached up to heaven. The tree was in the form of a cross, and stood on the
brink of a precipice which led downward into the depths of hell. Among the
roots of the tree he saw the body of his brother Cain, held prisoner by the ent-
wining limbs. The angel refused to give Seth the Oil of Mercy, but presented
him instead with three seeds from the Tree of Life (some say the Tree of
Knowledge). With these Seth returned to his father, who was so overjoyed that
he did not desire to live longer. Three days later he died, and the three seeds
were buried in his mouth, as the angel had instructed. The seeds became a
sapling with three trunks in one, which absorbed into itself the blood of Adam,
so that the life of Adam was in the tree. Noah dug up this tree by the roots and
took it with him into the Ark. After the waters subsided, he buried the skull of
Adam under Mount Calvary, and planted the tree on the summit of Mount
Lebanon.
Moses beheld a visionary being in the midst of this tree (the burning bush)
and from it cut the magical rod with which he was able to bring water out of a
stone. But because he failed to call upon the Lord the second time he struck
the rock, he was not permitted to carry the sacred staff into the Promised
Land; so he planted it in the hills of Moab. After much searching, King David
discovered the tree; and his son, Solomon, tried to use it for a pillar in his
Temple, but his carpenters could not cut it so that it would fit; it was always
either too long or too short. At last, disgusted, they cast it aside and used it for
a bridge to connect Jerusalem with the surrounding hills. When the Queen of
Sheba came to visit King Solomon she was expected to walk across this bridge.
Instead, when she beheld the tree, she refused to put her foot upon it, but,
after kneeling and praying, removed her sandals and forded the stream. This
so impressed King Solomon that he ordered the log to be overlaid with golden

640
places and placed above the door of his Temple. There it remained until his
covetous grandson stole the gold, and buried the tree so that the crime would
not be discovered.
From the ground where the tree was buried there immediately bubbled forth
a spring of water, which became known as Bethesda. To it the sick from all
Syria came to be healed. The angel of the pool became the guardian of the
tree, and it remained undisturbed for many years. Eventually the log floated to
the surface and was used as a bridge again, this time between Calvary and Jeru-
salem; and over it Jesus passed to be crucified. There was no wood on Calvary;
so the tree was cut into two parts to serve as the cross upon which the Son of
Man was crucified. The cross was set up at the very spot where the skull of
Adam had been buried. Later, when the cross was discovered by the Empress
Helena, the wood was found to be of four different varieties contained in one
tree (representing the elements), and thereafter the cross continued to heal all
the sick who were permitted to touch it.
The prevalent idea that the reverence for the cross is limited to the Christian
world is disproved by even the most superficial investigation of its place in reli-
gious symbolism. The early Christians used every means possible to conceal
the pagan origin of their symbols, doctrines, and rituals. They either destroyed
the sacred books of other peoples among whom they settled, or made them
inaccessible to students of comparative philosophy, apparently believing that in
this way they could stamp out all record of the pre-Christian origin of their
doctrines. In some cases the writings of various ancient authors were tampered
with, passages of a compromising nature being removed or foreign material
interpolated. The supposedly spurious passage in Josephus concerning Jesus is
an example adduced to illustrate this proclivity.

THE LOST LIBRARIES OF ALEXANDRIA

Prior to the Christian Era seven hundred thousand of the most valuable books,
written upon parchment, papyrus, vellum, and wax, and also tablets of stone,
terra cotta, and wood, were gathered from all parts of the ancient world and
housed in Alexandria, in buildings specially prepared for the purpose. This
magnificent repository of knowledge was destroyed by a series of three fires.
The parts that escaped the conflagration lighted by Csar to destroy the fleet in
the harbor were destroyed about A.D. 389 by the Christians in obedience to
the edict of Theodosius, who had ordered the destruction of the Serapeum, a
building sacred to Serapis in which the volumes were kept. This conflagration
is supposed to have destroyed the library that Marcus Antonius had presented

641
to Cleopatra to compensate in part for that burned in the fire of the year 51.
Concerning this, H. P. Blavatsky, in Isis Unveiled, has written: "They [the
Rabbis of Palestine and the wise men] say that not all the rolls and manu-
scripts, reported in history to have been burned by Csar, by the Christian
mob, in 389, and by the Arab General Amru, perished as it is commonly be-
lieved; and the story they tell is the following: At the time of the contest for the
throne, in 51 B. C., between Cleopatra and her brother Dionysius Ptolemy, the
Bruckion, which contained over seven hundred thousand rolls all bound in
wood and fire-proof parchment, was undergoing repairs and a great portion of
the original manuscripts, considered among the most precious, and which were
not duplicated, were stored away in the house of one of the librarians. * *
*Several hours passed between the burning of the fleet, set on fire by Csar's
order, and the moment when the first buildings situated near the harbor caught
fire in their turn; and * * * the librarians, aided by several hundred slaves at-
tached to the museum, succeeded in saving the most precious of the rolls." In
all probability, the books which were saved lie buried either in Egypt or in In-
dia, and until they are discovered the modern world must remain in ignorance
concerning many great philosophical and mystical truths. The ancient world
more clearly understood these missing links--the continuity of the pagan Myste-
ries in Christianity.

THE CROSS IN PAGAN SYMBOLISM

In his article on the Cross and Crucifixion in the Encyclopdia Britannica,

Thomas Macall Fallow casts much light on the antiquity of this ideograph. "The
use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among non-
Christian peoples, may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very
many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship."

642
Click to enlarge
HISTORY OF THE HOLY CROSS.
From Berjeau's History of the Holy Cross.
(1) Adam directing Seth how to reach the Garden of Eden. (2) Seth placing the three
seeds from the Tree of Life under the tongue of the dead Adam. (3) The Queen of
Sheba, refusing to place her feet upon the sacred tree, forded the stream. (4) Placing
the sacred tree over the door of Solomon's Temple. (5) The crucifixion of Christ upon
a cross made from the wood of the holy tree. (6) Distinguishing the true cross from the
other two by testing its power to raise a corpse to life.

Not only is the cross itself a familiar object in the art of all nations, but the ve-
neration for it is an essential part of the religious life of the greater part of hu-
manity. It is a common symbol among the American Indians--North, Central,
and South. William W. Seymour states: "The Aztec goddess of rain bore a
cross in her hand, and the Toltecs claimed that their deity, Quetzalcoatl, taught
them the sign and ritual of the cross, hence his staff, or sceptre of power, re-
sembled a crosier, and his mantle was covered with red crosses." (The Cross in
Tradition, History and Art.)
The cross is also highly revered by the Japanese and Chinese. To the Pytha-
goreans the most sacred of all numbers was the 10, the symbol of which is an
X, or cross. In both the Japanese and Chinese languages the character of the
number 10 is a cross. The Buddhist wheel of life is composed of two crosses
superimposed, and its eight points are still preserved to Christendom in the
peculiarly formed cross of the Knights Templars, which is essentially Buddhis-
tic. India has preserved the cross, not only in its carvings and paintings, but also
in its architectonics; a great number of its temples--like the churches and ca-
thedrals of Christendom--are raised from cruciform foundations.
On the mandalas of the Tibetans, heaven is laid out in the form of a cross,
with a demon king at each of the four gates. A remarkable cross of great antiq-
uity was discovered in the island caves of Elephanta in the harbor of Bombay.
Crosses of various kinds were favorite motifs in the art of Chaldea, Phnicia,
Egypt, and Assyria. The initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece were
643
given a cross which they suspended about their necks on a chain, or cord, at
the time of initiation. To the Rosicrucians, Alchemists, and Illuminati, the
cross was the symbol of light, because each of the three letters L V X is derived
from some part of the cross.

THE TAU CROSS

There are three distinct forms of the cross. The first is called the TAU (more
correctly the TAV). It closely resembles the modern letter T, consisting of a
horizontal bar resting on a vertical column, the two arms being of equal length.
An oak tree cut off some feet above the ground and its upper part laid across
the lower in this form was the symbol of the Druid god Hu. It is suspected that
this symbol originated among the Egyptians from the spread of the horns of a
bull or ram (Taurus or Aries) and the vertical line of its face. This is sometimes
designated as the hammer cross, because if held by its vertical base it is not
unlike a mallet or gavel. In one of the Qabbalistic Masonic legends, CHiram
Abiff is given a hammer in the form of a TAU by his ancestor, Tubal-cain. The
TAU cross is preserved to modern Masonry under the symbol of the T square.
This appears to be the oldest form of the cross extant.
The TAU cross was inscribed on the forehead of every person admitted into
the Mysteries of Mithras. When a king was initiated into the Egyptian Myste-
ries, the TAU was placed against his lips. It was tattooed upon the bodies of
the candidates in some of the American Indian Mysteries. To the Qabbalist,
the TAU stood for heaven and the Pythagorean tetractys. The Caduceus of
Hermes was an outgrowth of the TAU cross. (See Albert Pike.)

THE CRUX ANSATA

The second type was that of a T, or TAU, cross surmounted by a circle, often
foreshortened to the form of an upright oval. This was called by the ancients
the Crux Ansata, or the cross of life . It was the key to the Mysteries of antiqui-
ty and it probably gave rise to the more modern story of St. Peter's golden key
to heaven. In the Mysteries of Egypt the candidate passed through all forms of
actual and imaginary dangers, holding above his head the Crux Ansata, before
which the powers of darkness fell back abashed. The student is reminded of
the words In hoc signo vinces. The TAU form of the cross is not unlike the
seal of Venus, as Richard Payne Knight has noted. He states: "The cross in this

644
form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of them were found in a
temple of Serapis [the Serapeum], demolished at the general destruction of
those edifices by the Emperor Theodosius, and were said by the Christian
antiquaries of that time to signify the future life."
Augustus Le Plongeon, in his Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and
Quiches, notes that the Crux Ansata, which he calls The Key to the Nile and
the Symbol of Symbols, either in its complete form or as a simple TAU, was to
be seen adorning the breasts of statues and bas-reliefs at Palenque, Copan, and
throughout Central America. He notes that it was always associated with water;
that among the Babylonians it was the emblem of the water gods; among the
Scandinavians, of heaven and immortality; and among the Mayas, of rejuvena-
tion and freedom from physical suffering.
Concerning the association of this symbol with the waters of life, Count
Goblet d'Alviella, in his Migration of Symbols, calls attention to the fact that an
instrument resembling the Crux Ansata and called the Nilometer was used by
the ancient Egyptians for measuring and regulating the inundations of the river
Nile. It is probable that this relationship to the Nile caused it to be considered
the symbol of life, for Egypt depended entirely upon the inundations of this
river for the irrigation necessary to insure sufficient crops. In the papyrus
scrolls the Crux Ansata is shown issuing from the mouths of Egyptian kings
when they pardoned enemies, and it was buried with them to signify the im-
mortality of the soul. It was carried by many of the gods and goddesses and
apparently signified their divine benevolence and life-giving power. The Cairo
Museum contains a magnificent collection of crosses of many shapes, sizes,
and designs, proving that they were a common symbol among the Egyptians.

THE ROMAN AND GREEK CATHOLIC CROSSES

The third form of the cross is the familiar Roman or Greek type, which is
closely associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, although it is improbable
that the cross used resembled its more familiar modern form. There are unli-
mited sub-varieties of crosses, differing in the relative proportions of their ver-
tical and horizontal sections. Among the secret orders of different generations
we find compounded crosses, such as the triple TAU in the Royal Arch of
Freemasonry and the double and triple crosses of both Masonic and Roman
Catholic symbolism.
To the Christian the cross has a twofold significance. First, it is the symbol of
the death of his Redeemer, through whose martyrdom he feels that he partakes
of the glory of God; secondly, it is the symbol of humility, patience, and the

645
burden of life. It is interesting that the cross should be both a symbol of life
and a symbol of death. Many nations deeply considered the astronomical as-
pect of religion, and it is probable that the Persians, Greeks, and Hindus
looked upon the cross as a symbol of the equinoxes and the solstices, in the
belief that at certain seasons of the year the sun was symbolically crucified
upon these imaginary celestial angles.
The fact that so many nations have regarded their Savior as a personification
of the sun globe is convincing evidence that the cross must exist as an astro-
nomical element in pagan allegory. Augustus Le Plongeon believed that the
veneration for the cross was partly due to the rising of a constellation called the
Southern Cross, which immediately preceded the annual rains, and as the na-
tives of those latitudes relied wholly upon these rains to raise their crops, they
viewed the cross as an annual promise of the approaching storms, which to
them meant life.
There are four basic elements (according to both ancient philosophy and
modern science), and the ancients represented them by the four arms of the
cross, placing at the end of each arm a mysterious Qabbalistic creature to sym-
bolize the power of one of these elements. Thus, they symbolized the element
of earth by a bull; water by a scorpion, a serpent, or an eagle; fire by a lion; and
air by a human head surrounded by wings. It is significant that the four letters
inscribed upon parchment (some say wood) and fastened to the top of the
cross at the time of the crucifixion should be the first letters of four Hebrew
words which stand for the four elements: "Iammin, the sea or water; Nour, fire;
Rouach, the air; and Iebeschah, the dry earth." (See Morals and Dogma, by
Albeit Pike.)
That a cross can be formed by opening or unfolding the surfaces of a cube
has caused that symbol to be associated with the earth. Though a cross within a
circle has long been regarded as a sign of the planet Earth, it should really be
considered as the symbol of the composite element earth, since it is composed
of the four triangles of the elements. For thousands of years the cross has been
identified with the plan of salvation for humanity. The elements--salt, sulphur,
mercury, and Azoth--used in making the Philosopher's Scone in Alchemy,
were often symbolized by a cross. The cross of the four cardinal angles also
had its secret significance, and Masonic parties of three still go forth to the four
cardinal points of the compass in search of the Lost Word.
The material of which the cross was formed was looked upon as being an es-
sential element in its symbolism. Thus, a golden cross symbolized illumination;
a silver cross, purification; a cross of base metals, humiliation; a cross of wood,
aspiration. The fact that among many nations it was customary to spread the
arms in prayer has influenced the symbolism of the cross, which, because of its
shape, has come to be regarded as emblematic of the human body. The four

646
major divisions of the human structure--bones, muscles, nerves, and arteries--
are considered to have contributed to the symbolism of the cross. This is espe-
cially due to the fact that the spinal nerves cross at the base of the spine, and is
a reminder that "Our Lord was crucified also in Egypt."

Click to enlarge
THE EASTER ISLAND FIGURE SHOWING CRUX ANSATA ON REVERSE
That the Crux Ansata migrated to many parts of the earth is proved by the fact that it
was sculptured upon the back of at least one of the mysterious stone figures found on
Easter Island in the south Pacific. The statue in question--one of the smallest in the
group--was brought to London by a sailing ship, and is now in the British Museum; the
Crux Ansata on the reverse side is plainly visible.

Man has four vehicles (or mediums) of expression by means of which the spiri-
tual Ego contacts the external universe: the physical nature, the vital nature, the
emotional nature, and the mental nature. Each of these partakes in principle of
one of the primary elements, and the four creatures assigned to them by the
Qabbalists caused the cross to be symbolic of the compound nature of man.

THE CRUCIFIXION--A COSMIC ALLEGORY

Saviors unnumbered have died for the sins of man and by the hands of man,
and through their deaths have interceded in heaven for the souls of their ex-
ecutioners. The martyrdom of the God-Man and the redemption of the world
through His blood has been an essential tenet of many great religions. Nearly
all these stories can be traced to sun worship, for the glorious orb of day is the
Savior who dies annually for every creature within his universe, but year after
year rises again victorious from the tomb of winter. Without doubt the doctrine
of the crucifixion is based upon the secret traditions of the Ancient Wisdom; it
is a constant reminder that the divine nature of man is perpetually crucified
647
upon the animal organism. Certain of the pagan Mysteries included in the cer-
emony of initiation the crucifixion of the candidate upon a cross, or the laying
of his body upon a cruciform altar. It has been claimed that Apollonius of
Tyana (the Antichrist) was initiated into the Arcanum of Egypt in the Great
Pyramid, where he hung upon a cross until unconscious and was then laid in
the tomb (the coffer) for three days. While his body was unconscious, his soul
was thought to pass into the realms of the immortals (the place of death) After
it had vanquished death (by recognizing that life is eternal) it returned again to
the body, which then rose from the coffer, after which he was hailed as a
brother by the priests, who believed that he had returned from the land of the
dead. This concept was, in substance, the teaching of the Mysteries.

THE CRUCIFIED SAVIORS

The list of the deathless mortals who suffered for man that he might receive
the boon of eternal life is an imposing one. Among those connected historical-
ly or allegorically with a crucifixion are Prometheus, Adonis, Apollo, Arys,
Bacchus, Buddha, Christna, Horus, Indra, Ixion, Mithras, Osiris, Pythagoras,
Quetzalcoatl, Semiramis, and Jupiter. According to the fragmentary accounts
extant, all these heroes gave their lives to the service of humanity and, with one
or two exceptions, died as martyrs for the cause of human progress. In many
mysterious ways the manner of their death has been designedly concealed, but
it is possible that most of them were crucified upon a cross or tree. The first
friend of man, the immortal Prometheus, was crucified on the pinnacle of
Mount Caucasus, and a vulture was placed over his liver to torment him
throughout eternity by clawing and rending his flesh with its talons. Prometheus
disobeyed the edict of Zeus by bringing fire and immortality to man, so for
man he suffered until the coming of Hercules released him from his ages of
torment.
Concerning the crucifixion of the Persian Mithras, J. P. Lundy has written:
"Dupuis tells us that Mithra was put to death by crucifixion, and rose again on
the 25th of March. In the Persian Mysteries the body of a young man, appar-
ently dead, was exhibited, which was feigned to be restored to life. By his suf-
ferings he was believed to have worked their salvation, and on this account he
was called their Savior. His priests watched his tomb to the midnight of the
vigil of the 25th of March, with loud cries, and in darkness; when all at once
the light burst forth from all parts, the priest cried, Rejoice, O sacred initiated,
your God is risen. His death, his pains, and sufferings, have worked your salva-
tion." (See Monumental Christianity.)

648
 In some cases, as in that of the Buddha, the crucifixion mythos must be
taken in an allegorical rather than a literal sense, for the manner of his death
has been recorded by his own disciples in the Book of the Great Decease.
However, the mere fact that the symbolic reference to death upon a tree has
been associated with these heroes is sufficient to prove the universality of the
crucifixion story.
The East Indian equivalent of Christ is the immortal Christna, who, sitting in
the forest playing his flute, charmed the birds and beasts by his music. It is
supposed that this divinely inspired Savior of humanity was crucified upon a
tree by his enemies, but great care has been taken to destroy any evidence
pointing in that direction. Louis Jacolliot, in his book The Bible in India, thus
describes the death of Christna: "Christna understood that the hour had come
for him to quit the earth, and return to the bosom of him who had sent him.
Forbidding his disciples to follow him, he went, one day, to make his ablutions
on the banks of the Ganges * * *. Arriving at the sacred river, he plunged him-
self three times therein, then, kneeling, and looking to heaven, he prayed, ex-
pecting death. In this position he was pierced with arrows by one of those
whose crimes he had unveiled, and who, hearing of his journey to the Ganges,
had, with generation. a strong troop, followed with the design of assassinating
him * * *. The body of the God-man was suspended to the branches of a tree
by his murderer, that it might become the prey of vultures. News of the death
having spread, the people came in a crowd conducted by Ardjouna, the dearest
of the disciples of Christna, to recover his sacred remains. But the mortal
frame of the redeemer had disappeared--no doubt it had regained the celestial
abodes * * * and the tree to which it had been attached had become suddenly
covered with great red flowers and diffused around it the sweetest perfume."
Other accounts of the death of Christna declare that he was tied to a cross-
shaped tree before the arrows were aimed at him.
The existence in Moor's The Hindu Pantheon of a plate of Christna with
nail wounds in his hands and feet, and a plate in Inman's Ancient Faiths show-
ing an Oriental deity with what might well be a nail hole in one of his feet,
should be sufficient motive for further investigation of this subject by those of
unbiased minds. Concerning the startling discoveries which can be made along
these lines, J. P. Lundy in his Monumental Christianity presents the following
information: "Where did the Persians get their notion of this prophecy as thus
interpreted respecting Christ, and His saving mercy and love displayed on the
cross? Both by symbol and actual crucifix we see it on all their monuments. If
it came from India, how did it get there, except from the one common and
original centre of all primitive and pure religion? There is a most extraordinary
plate, illustrative of the whole subject, which representation I believe to be
anterior to Christianity. It is copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, not as a

649
curiosity, but as a most singular monument of the crucifixion. I do not venture
to give it a name, other than that of a crucifixion in space. * * * Can it be the
Victim-Man, or the Priest and Victim both in one, of the Hindu mythology,
who offered himself a sacrifice before the worlds were? Can it be Plato's
second God who impressed himself on the universe in the form of the cross?
Or is it his divine man who would be scourged, tormented, fettered, have his
eyes burnt out; and lastly, having suffered all manner of evils, would be cruci-
fied? Plato learned his theology in Egypt and the East, and must have known of
the crucifixion of Krishna, Buddha, Mithra [et al]. At any rate, the religion of
India had its mythical crucified victim long anterior to Christianity, as a type of
the real one [Pro Deo et Ecclesia!], and I am inclined to think that we have it
in this remarkable plate."

Click to enlarge
THE TAU CROSS.
The TAU Cross was the sign which the Lord told the people of Jerusalem to mark on
their foreheads, as related by the Prophet Ezekiel. It was also placed as a symbol of
liberation upon those charged with crimes but acquitted.

650
Click to enlarge
THE CRUX ANSATA.
Both the cross and the circle were phallic symbols, for the ancient world venerated the
generative powers of Nature as being expressive of the creative attributes of the Deity.
The Crux Ansata, by combining the masculine TAU with the feminine oval, exempli-
fied the principles of generation.

Click to enlarge
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.
From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.
Concerning Apollonius and his remarkable Powers, Francis Barrett, in his Biographia
Antiqua, after describing how Apollonius quelled a riot without speaking a word, con-
tinues: "He traveled much, professed himself a legislator; understood all languages,
without having learned them; he had the surprising faculty of knowing what was trans-
acted at an immense distance, and at the time the Emperor Domitian was stabbed,
Apollonius being at a vast distance and standing in the market-place of the city, ex-
claimed, 'Strike! strike!--'tis time, the tyrant is no more.' He understood the language of
birds; he condemned dancing and other diversions of that sort. he recommended
charity and piety; he traveled over almost all the countries of the world; and he died at
a very great age."

The modern world has been misled in its attitude towards the so-called pagan
deities, and has come to view them in a light entirely different from their true

651
characters and meanings. The ridicule and slander heaped by Christendom
upon Christna and Bacchus are excellent examples of the persecution of im-
mortal principles by those who have utterly failed to sense the secret meaning
of the allegories. Who was the crucified man of Greece, concerning whom
vague rumors have been afloat? Higgins thinks it was Pythagoras, the true story
of whose death was suppressed by early Christian authors because it conflicted
with their teachings. Was it true also that the Roman legionaries carried on the
field of battle standards upon which were crosses bearing the crucified Sun
Man?

THE CRUCIFIXION OF QUETZALCOATL

One of the most remarkable of the crucified World Saviors is the Central
American god of the winds, or the Sun, Quetzalcoatl, concerning whose activi-
ties great secrecy was maintained by the Indian priests of Mexico and Central
America. This strange immortal, whose name means feathered snake, appears
to have come out of the sea, bringing with him a mysterious cross. On his gar-
ments were embellished clouds and red crosses. In his honor, great serpents
carved from stone were placed in different parts of Mexico.
The cross of Quetzalcoatl became a sacred symbol among the Mayas, and
according to available records the Maya Indian angels had crosses of various
pigments painted on their foreheads. Similar crosses were placed over the eyes
of those initiated into their Mysteries. When Cortez arrived in Mexico, he
brought with him the cross. Recognizing this, the natives believed that he was
Quetzalcoatl returned, for the latter had promised to come back in the infinite
future and redeem his people.
In Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins throws some light on the cross and its sym-
bolism in America: "The Incas had a cross of very fine marble, or beautiful
jasper, highly polished, of one piece, three-fourths of an ell in length, and three
fingers in width and thickness. It was kept in a sacred chamber of a palace, and
held in great veneration. The Spaniards enriched this cross with gold and je-
wels, and placed it in the cathedral of Cuzco. Mexican temples are in the form
of a cross, and face the four cardinal points. Quexalcoatl is represented in the
paintings of the Codex Borgianus nailed to the cross. Sometimes even the two
thieves are there crucified with him. In Vol. II. plate 75, the God is crucified in
the Heavens, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of the Metonic cycle.
A serpent is depriving him of the organs of generation. In the Codex Borgia-
nus, (pp. 4, 72, 73, 75,) the Mexican God is represented crucified and nailed to
the cross, and in another place hanging to it, with a cross in his hands. And in

652
one instance, where the figure is not merely outlined, the cross is red, the
clothes are coloured, and the face and hands quite black. If this was the Chris-
tianity of the German Nestorius, how came he to teach that the crucified Savior
was black? The name of the God who was crucified was Quexalcoatl.
The crucifixion of the Word in space, the crucifixion of the dove often seen
in religious symbolism--both of these are reminders of pagan overshadowing.
The fact that a cross is formed by the spread wings of a bird in relation to its
body is no doubt one of the reasons why the Egyptians used a bird to symbol-
ize the immortal nature of man, and often show it hovering over the mummi-
fied body of the dead and carrying in one of its claws the sign of life and in the
other the sign of breath.

THE NAILS OF THE PASSION

The three nails of the Passion have found their way into the symbolism of
many races and faiths. There are many legends concerning these nails. One of
these is to the effect that originally there were four nails, but one was demate-
rialized by a Hebrew Qabbalist and magician just as they were about to drive it
through the foot of the Master. Hence it was necessary to cross the feet.
Another legend relates that one of the nails was hammered into a crown and
that it still exists as the imperial diadem of a European house. Still another
story has it that the bit on the bridle of Constantine's horse was a Passion nail.
It is improbable, however, that the nails were made of iron, for at that time it
was customary to use sharpened wooden pegs. Hargrave Jennings, in his Rosi-
crucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, calls attention to the fact that the mark or
sign used in England to designate royal property and called the broad arrow is
nothing more nor less than the three nails of the crucifixion grouped together,
and that by placing them point to point the ancient symbol of the Egyptian
TAU cross is formed.
In his Ancient Freemasonry, Frank C. Higgins reproduces the Masonic
apron of a colossal stone figure at Quirigua, Guatemala. The central ornament
of the apron is the three Passion nails, arranged exactly like the British broad
arrow. That three nails should be used to crucify the Christ, three murderers to
kill CHiram Abiff, and three wounds to slay Prince Coh, the Mexican Indian
Osiris, is significant.
C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, thus describes a Gnostic
gem: "The Gnostic Pleroma, or combination of all the ons [is] expressed by
the outline of a man holding a scroll * * *. The left hand is formed like three
bent spikes or nails; unmistakably the same symbol that Belus often holds in

653
his extended hand on the Babylonian cylinders, afterwards discovered by the
Jewish Cabalists in the points of the letter Shin, and by the medival mystics in
o the Three Nails of the Cross." From this point Hargrave Jennings continues
King's speculations, noting the resemblance of the nail to an obelisk, or pillar,
and that the Qabbalistic value of the Hebrew letter Shin, or Sin, is 300, name-
ly, 100 for each spike.
The Passion nails are highly important symbols, especially when it is realized
that, according to the esoteric systems of culture, there are certain secret cen-
ters of force in the palms of the hands and in the soles of the feet.
The driving of the nails and the flow of blood and water from the wounds
were symbolic of certain secret philosophic practices of the Temple. Many of
the Oriental deities have mysterious symbols on the hands and feet. The so-
called footprints of Buddha are usually embellished with a magnificent sun-
burst at the point where the nail pierced the foot of Christ.
In his notes on the theology of Jakob Bhme, Dr. Franz Hartmann thus
sums up the mystic symbolism of the crucifixion: "The cross represents terre-
strial life, and the crown of thorns the sufferings of the soul within the elemen-
tary body, but also the victory of the spirit over the elements of darkness. The
body is naked, to indicate that the candidate for immortality must divest him-
self of all desires for terrestrial things. The figure is nailed to the cross, which
symbolizes the death and surrender of the self-will, and that it should not at-
tempt to accomplish anything by its own power, but merely serve as an instru-
ment wherein the Divine will is executed. Above the head are inscribed the
letters: I. N. R. J. whose most important meaning is: In Nobis Regnat Jesus
(Within ourselves reigns Jesus). But this signification of this inscription can be
practically known only to those who have actually died relatively to the world of
desires, and risen above the temptation for personal existence; or, to express it
in other words, those who have become alive in Christ, and in whom thus the
kingdom of Jesus (the holy love-will issuing from the heart of God) has been
established." One of the most interesting interpretations of the crucifixion alle-
gory is that which identifies the man Jesus with the personal consciousness of
the individual. It is this personal consciousness that conceives of and dwells in
the sense of separateness, and before the aspiring soul can be reunited with the
ever-present and all-pervading Father this personality must be sacrificed that
the Universal Consciousness may be liberated.

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Click to enlarge
THE CRUCIFIXION OF QUETZALCOATL.
(From the Codex Borgianus.)
From Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico.
Lord Kingsborough writes: "May we not refer to the seventy-third page of the Borgian
MS., which represents Quexalcoatl both crucified, and as it were cut in pieces for the
cauldron, and with equal reason demand, whether anyone can help thinking that the
Jews of the New World (Lord Kingsborough sought to prove that the Mexicans were
descendants of the Jews] applied to their Messiah not only all the prophecies contained
in the Old Testament relating to Christ, but likewise many of the incidents recorded of
him in the Gospels."

Click to enlarge
THE CRUCIFIXION IN SPACE.
From Higgins' Anacalypsis.
Of this remarkable Oriental drawing, J. P. Lundy has written:----It looks like a Chris-
tian crucifix in many respects, and in some others it does not. The drawing, attitude,
and the nail-marks in hands and feet, indicate a Christian origin; while the Parthian
coronet of seven points, the absence of the wood and of the usual inscription, and the
rays of glory above seem to point to some Christian origin. Can it be the Victim, Man,
or the Priest and Victim both in one, of the Hindu mythology, who offered himself a
sacrifice before the worlds were?"

655
 The Mystery of the Apocalypse

THE presence of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus marked that city as sacred
to the Mystery religion, for the Seven Wonders of the ancient world were
erected to indicate the repositories of recondite knowledge. Of Ephesus, H. P.
Blavatsky writes:
"It was a focus of the universal 'secret' doctrines; the weird laboratory
whence, fashioned in elegant Grecian phraseology, sprang the quintessence of
Buddhistic, Zoroastrian, and Chaldean philosophy. Artemis, the gigantic con-
crete symbol of theosophico-pantheistic abstractions, the great mother Multi-
mamma, androgyne and patroness of the 'Ephesian writings,' was conquered by
Paul; but although the zealous converts of the apostles pretended to burn all
their books on 'curious arts, , enough of these remained for them
to study when their first zeal had cooled off." (See Isis Unveiled.)
Being a great center of pagan learning, Ephesus has been the locale for
many early Christian myths. The assertion has been made that it was the last
domicile of the Virgin Mary; also that the tomb of St. John the Divine was lo-
cated there. According to legend, St. John did not depart from this life in the
usual manner but, selecting his vault, entered it while still alive, and closing the
entrance behind him, vanished forever from mortal sight. A rumor was current
in ancient Ephesus that St. John would sleep in his tomb until the return of the
Savior, and that when the apostle turned over on his sepulchral couch the earth
above moved like the coverlets of a bed.
Subjected to more criticism than any other book now incorporated in the
New Testament, the Apocalypse--popularly accredited to St. John the Divine--
is by far the most important but least understood of the Gnostic Christian writ-
ings. Though Justin Martyr declared the Book of Revelation to have been writ-
ten by "John, one of Christ's apostles," its authorship was disputed as early as
the second century after Christ. In the third century these contentions became
acute and even Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius attacked the Johannine
theory, declaring that both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel according to
St. John were written by one Cerinthus, who borrowed the name of the great
apostle the better to foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome
questioned the authorship of the Apocalypse and during the Reformation his
objections were revived by Luther and Erasmus. The once generally accepted
notion that the Book of Revelation was the actual record of a "mystical expe-
rience" occurring to St. John while that seer was an exile in the Isle of Parmos
is now regarded with disfavor by more critical scholars. Other explanations
have therefore been advanced to account for the symbolism permeating the

656
volume and the original motive for its writing. The more reasonable of these
theories may be summed up as follows:
First, upon the weight of evidence furnished by its own contents the Book of
Revelation may well be pronounced a pagan writing--one of the sacred books
of the Eleusinian or Phrygian Mysteries. As a corollary, the real author of a
work setting forth the profundities of Egyptian and Greek mysticism must have
been an initiate himself and consequently obligated to write only in the symbol-
ic language of the Mysteries.
Second, it is possible that the Book of Revelation was written to reconcile
the seeming discrepancies between the early Christian and pagan religious phi-
losophies. When the zealots of the primitive Christian Church sought to Chris-
tianize pagandom, the pagan initiates retorted with a powerful effort to pagan-
ize Christianity. The Christians failed but the pagans succeeded. With the de-
cline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants transferred their base of op-
erations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting the symbols of
the new cult to conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless pos-
session of the wise. The Apocalypse shows clearly the resultant fusion of pagan
and Christian symbolism and thus bears irrefutable evidence of the activities of
these initiated minds operating through early Christianity.
Third, the theory has been advanced that the Book of Revelation represents
the attempt made by the unscrupulous members of a certain religious order to
undermine the Christian Mysteries by satirizing their philosophy. This nefa-
rious end they hoped to attain by showing the new faith to be merely a restate-
ment of the ancient pagan doctrines, by heaping ridicule upon Christianity, and
by using its own symbols toward its disparagement. For example, the star which
fell to earth (Rev. viii. 10-11) could be construed to mean the Star of Bethle-
hem, and the bitterness of that star (called Wormwood and which poisoned
mankind) could signify the "false" teachings of the Christian Church. While the
last theory has gained a certain measure of popularity, the profundity of the
Apocalypse leads the discerning reader to the inevitable conclusion that this is
the least plausible of the three hypotheses. To those able to pierce the veil of
its symbolism, the inspired source of the document requires no further corro-
borative evidence.
In the final analysis, true philosophy can be limited by neither creed nor
faction; in fact it is incompatible with every artificial limitation of human
thought. The question of the pagan or Christian origin of the Book of Revela-
tion is, consequently, of little importance. The intrinsic value of the book lies
in its magnificent epitome of the Universal Mystery--an observation which led
St. Jerome to declare that it is susceptible of seven entirely different interpreta-
tions. Untrained in the reaches of ancient thought, the modem theologian can-
not possibly cope with the complexities of the Apocalypse, for to him this mys-

657
tic writing is but a phantasmagoria the divine inspiration of which he is sorely
tempted to question. In the limited space here available it is possible to sketch
but briefly a few of the salient features of the vision of the seer of Patmos. A
careful consideration of the various pagan Mysteries will assist materially also in
filling the inevitable gaps in this abridgment.
In the opening chapter of the Apocalypse, St. John describes the Alpha and
Omega who stood in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Surrounded
by his flaming planetary regents, this Sublime One thus epitomizes in one im-
pressive and mysterious figure the entire sweep of humanity's evolutionary
growth--past, present, and future.
"The first stages of man's earthly development," writes Dr. Rudolph Steiner,
"ran their course at a period when the earth was still 'fiery'; and the first human
incarnations were formed out of the element of fire; at the end of his earthly
career man will himself radiate his inner being outwards creatively by the force
of the element of fire. This continuous development from the beginning to the
end of the earth reveals itself to the 'seer,' when he sees on the astral plane the
archetype of evolving man. * * * The beginning of earthly evolution stands
forth in the fiery feet, its end in the fiery countenance, and the complete power
of the 'creative word,' to be finally won, is seen in the fiery source coming out
of the mouth." (See Occult Seals and Columns.)
In his Restored New Testament, James Morgan Pryse traces the relationship of
the various parts of the Alpha and Omega to the seven sacred planets of the
ancients. To quote:
"The Logos-figure described is a composite picture of the seven sacred planets:
he has the snowy-white hair of Kronos ('Father Time'), the blazing eyes of
'wide-seeing' Zeus, the sword of Arcs, the shining face of Helios, and the chiton
and girdle of Aphrodite; his feet are of mercury, the metal sacred to Hermes,
and his voice is like the murmur of the ocean's waves (the 'many waters'), allud-
ing to Selene, the Moon-Goddess of the four seasons and of the waters."

Click to enlarge
THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.
From Jacob Behmen's Works.
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Before the throne of God was the crystal sea representing the Schamayim, or the living
waters which are above the heavens. Before the throne also were four creatures--a bull,
a lion, an eagle, and a man. These represented the four corners of creation and the
multitude of eyes with which they were covered are the stars of the firmament. The
twenty-four elders have the same significance as the priests gathered around the statue
of Ceres in the Greater Eleusinian Rite and also the Persian Genii, or gods of the
hours of the day, who, casting away their crowns, glorify the Holy One. As symbolic of
the divisions of time, the elders adore the timeless and enduring Spirit in the midst of
them.

The seven stars carried by this immense Being in his right hand are the Gover-
nors of the world; the flaming sword issuing from his mouth is the Creative
Fiat, or Word of Power, by which the illusion of material permanence is slain.
Here also is represented, in all his symbolic splendor, the hierophant of the
Phrygian Mysteries, his various insignia emblematic of his divine attributes.
Seven priests bearing lamps are his attendants and the stars carried in his hand
are the seven schools of the Mysteries whose power he administers. As one
born again out of spiritual darkness, into perfect wisdom, this archimagus is
made to say: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever
more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
In the second and third chapters St. John delivers to the "seven churches
which are in Asia" the injunctions received by him from the Alpha and Omega.
The churches are here analogous to the rungs of a Mithraic ladder, and John,
being "in the spirit," ascended through the orbits of the seven sacred planets
until he reached the inner surface of the Empyrean.
"After the soul of the prophet," writes the anonymous author of Mankind:
Their Origin and Destiny, "in his ecstatic state has passed in its rapid flight
through the seven spheres, from the sphere of the moon to that of Saturn, or
from the planet which corresponds to Cancer, the gate of men, to that of Ca-
pricorn, which is the gate of the gods, a new gate opens to him in the highest
heaven, and in the zodiac, beneath which the seven planets revolve; in a word,
in the firmament, or that which the ancients called crystallinum primum, or the
crystal heaven."
When related to the Eastern system of metaphysics, these churches
represent the chakras, or nerve ganglia, along the human spine, the "door in
heaven" being the brahmarandra, or point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha),
through which the spinal spirit fire passes to liberation. The church of Ephesus
corresponds to the muladhara, or sacral ganglion, and the other churches to
the higher ganglia according to the order given in Revelation. Dr. Steiner dis-
covers a relationship between the seven churches and the divisions of the

659
Aryan race. Thus, the church of Ephesus stands for the Arch-Indian branch;
the church of Smyrna, the Arch-Persians; the church of Pergamos, the Chal-
dean-Egyptian-Semitic; the church of Thyatira, the Grecian-Latin-Roman; the
church of Sardis, the Teuton-Anglo-Saxon; the church of Philadelphia, the
Slavic; and the church of Laodicea, the Manichan. The seven churches also
signify the Greek vowels, of which Alpha and Omega are the first and the last.
A difference of opinion exists as to the order in which the seven planers should
be related to the churches. Some proceed from the hypothesis that Saturn
represents the church of Ephesus; but from the fact that this city was sacred to
the moon goddess and also that the sphere of the moon is the first above that
of the earth, the planets obviously should ascend in their ancient order from
the moon to Saturn. From Saturn the soul would naturally ascend through the
door in the Empyrean.
In the fourth and fifth chapters St. John describes the throne of God upon
which sat the Holy One "which was and is, and is to come." About the throne
were twenty-four lesser seats upon which sat twenty-four elders arrayed in white
garments and wearing crowns of gold. "And out of the throne proceeded
lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burn-
ing before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." He who sat upon
the throne held in His right hand a book sealed with seven seals which no man
in heaven or earth had been found worthy to open. Then appeared a Lamb
(Aries, the first and chief of the zodiacal signs) which had been slain, having
seven horns (rays) and seven eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from the
right hand of Him that sat upon the throne and the four beasts and all the eld-
ers fell down and worshiped God and the Lamb. During the early centuries of
the Christian Church the lamb was universally recognized as the symbol of
Christ, and not until after the fifth synod of Constantinople (the "Quinisext
Synod," A.D. 692) was the figure of the crucified man substituted for that of
Agnus Dei. As shrewdly noted by one writer on the subject, the use of a lamb
is indicative of the Persian origin of Christianity, for the Persians were the only
people to symbolize the first sign of the zodiac by a lamb.
Because a lamb was the sin offering of the ancient pagans, the early mystic
Christians considered this animal as an appropriate emblem of Christ, whom
they regarded as the sin offering of the world. The Greeks and the Egyptians
highly venerated the lamb or ram, often placing its horns upon the foreheads
of their gods. The Scandinavian god Thor carried a hammer made from a pair
of ram's horns. The lamb is used in preference to the ram apparently because
of its purity and gentleness; also, since the Creator Himself was symbolized by
Aries, His Son would consequently be the little Ram or Lamb. The lambskin
apron worn by the Freemasons over that part of the body symbolized by Ty-
phon or Judas represents that purification of the generative processes which is

660
a prerequisite to true spirituality. In this allegory the Lamb signifies the purified
candidate, its seven horns representing the divisions of illuminated reason and
its seven eyes the chakras, or perfected sense-perceptions.

Click to enlarge
EPISODES FROM THE MYSTERIES OF THE APOCALYPSE.
From Klauber's Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the central foreground, St. John the Divine is kneeling before the apparition of the
Alpha and Omega standing in the midst of the seven lights and surrounded by an
aureole of flames and smoke. In the heavens above the twenty-four elders with their
harps and censers bow before the throne of the Ancient One, from whose hand the
Lamb is taking the book sealed with seven seals. The seven spirit, of God, in the form
of cups from which issue tongues of fire, surround the head of the Ancient One, and
the four beasts (the cherubim) kneel at the corners of His throne. In the upper left-
hand corner are shown the seven angels bearing the trumpets and also the altar of God
and the angel with the censer. In the upper right are the spirits of the winds; below
them is the virgin clothed wit h the sun, to whom wings were given that she might fly
into the wilderness. To her right is a scene representing the spirits of God hurling the
evil serpent into the bottomless pit. At the lower left St. John is shown receiving from
the angelic figure, whose legs are pillars of fire and whose face is a shining sun, the little
book which he is told to eat if he would understand the mysteries of the spiritual life.
The plate also contains a number of other symbols, including episodes from the de-
struction of the world and the crystal sea pouring forth from the throne of God. By the
presentation of such symbolic conceptions in the form of rituals and dramatic episodes
the secrets of the Phrygian Mysteries were perpetuated. When these sacred pageantries
were thus revealed to all mankind indiscriminately and each human soul was ap-
pointed it own initiator into the holy rite, of the philosophic life, a boon was conferred
upon humanity which cannot be fully appreciated until men and women have grown
more responsive to those mysteries which are of the spirit.

The sixth to eleventh chapters inclusive are devoted to an account of the open-
ing of the seven seals on the book held by the Lamb. When the first seal was
broken, there rode forth a man on a white horse wearing a crown and holding
in his hand a bow. When the second seal was broken, there rode forth a man
661
upon a red horse and in his hand was a great sword. When the third seal was
broken there rode forth a man upon a black horse and with a pair of balances
in his hand. And when the fourth seal was broken there rode forth Death upon
a pale horse and hell followed after him. The four horsemen of the Apoca-
lypse may be interpreted to signify the four main divisions of human life. Birth
is represented by the rider on the white horse who comes forth conquering and
to conquer; the impetuosity of youth by the rider on the red horse who took
peace from the earth; maturity by the rider on the black horse who weighs all
things in the scales of reason; and death by the rider on the pale horse who was
given power over a fourth part of the earth. In the Eastern philosophy these
horsemen signify the four yugas, or ages, of the world which, riding forth at:
their appointed times, become for a certain span the rulers of creation.
Commenting on the twenty-fourth allocution of Chrysostom, in The Origin
of all Religious Worship, Dupuis notes that each of the four elements was
represented by a horse bearing the name of the god "who is set over the ele-
ment." The first horse, signifying the fire ether, was called Jupiter and occupied
the highest place in the order of the elements. This horse was winged, very
fleet, and, describing the largest circle, encompassed all the others. It shone
with the purest light, and on its body were the images of the sun, the moon, the
stars, and all the bodies in the ethereal regions. The second horse, signifying
the element of air, was Juno. It was inferior to the horse of Jupiter and de-
scribed a smaller circle; its color was black but that part exposed to the sun
became luminous, thus signifying the diurnal and nocturnal conditions of air.
The third horse, symbolizing the element of water, was sacred to Neptune. It
was of heavy gait and described a very small circle. The fourth horse, signifying
the static element of earth, described as immovable and champing its bit, was
the steed of Vesta. Despite their differences in temperature, these four horses
lived harmoniously together, which is in accord with the principles of the phi-
losophers, who declared the world to be preserved by the concord and harmo-
ny of its elements. In time, however, the racing horse of Jupiter burned the
mane of the horse of earth; the thundering steed of Neptune also became cov-
ered with sweat, which overflowed the immovable horse of Vesta and resulted
in the deluge of Deucalion. At last the fiery horse of Jupiter will consume the
rest, when the three inferior elements--purified by reabsorption in the fiery
ether--will come forth renewed, constituting "a new heaven and a new earth."
When the fifth seal was opened St. John beheld those who had died for the
word of God. When the sixth seal was broken there was a great earthquake,
the sun being darkened and the moon becoming like blood. The angels of the
winds came forth and also another angel, who sealed upon their foreheads
144,000 of the children of Israel that they should be preserved against the aw-
ful day of tribulation. By adding the digits together according to the Pythago-

662
rean system of numerical philosophy, the number 144,000 is reduced to 9, the
mystic symbol of man and also the number of initiation, for he who passes
through the nine degrees of the Mysteries receives the sign of the cross as em-
blematic of his regeneration and liberation from the bondage of his own infer-
nal, or inferior, nature. The addition of the three ciphers to the original sacred
number 1.44 indicates the elevation of the mystery to the third sphere.
When the seventh seal was broken there was silence for the space of half an
hour. Then came forth seven angels and to each was given a trumpet. When
the seven angels sounded their trumpets--intoned the seven-lettered Name of
the Logos--great catastrophes ensued. A star, which was called Wormwood, fell
from heaven, thereby signifying that the secret doctrine of the ancients had
been given to men who had profaned it and caused the wisdom of God to be-
come a destructive agency. And another star--symbolizing the false light of hu-
man reason as distinguished from the divine reason of the initiate--fell from
heaven and to it (materialistic reason) was given the key to the bottomless pit
(Nature), which it opened, causing all manner of evil creatures to issue forth.
And there came also a mighty angel who was clothed in a cloud, whose face
was as the sun and his feet and legs as pillars of fire, and one foot was upon the
waters and the other upon the land (the Hermetic Anthropos). This celestial
being gave St. John a little book, bidding him eat it, which the seer did. The
book is representative of the secret doctrine--that spiritual food which is the
nourishment of the spirit. And St. John, being "in the spirit," ate his fill of the
wisdom of God and the hunger of his soul was appeased.
The twelfth chapter treats of a great wonder appearing in the heavens: a
woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
crown of twelve stars. This woman represents the constellation of Virgo and
also the Egyptian Isis, who, about to be delivered of her son Horus, is attacked
by Typhon, the latter attempting to destroy the child predestined by the gods to
slay the Spirit of Evil. The war in heaven relates to the destruction of the planet
Ragnarok and to the fall of the angels. The virgin can be interpreted to signify
the secret doctrine itself and her son the initiate born out of the "womb of the
Mysteries." The Spirit of Evil thus personified in the great dragon attempted to
control mankind by destroying the mother of those illumined souls who have
labored unceasingly for the salvation of the world. Wings were given to the
Mysteries (the virgin) and they flew into the wilderness; and the evil dragon
tried to destroy them with a flood (of false doctrine) but the earth (oblivion)
swallowed up the false doctrines and the Mysteries endured.

663
Click to enlarge
JOHN'S VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
From Klauber's Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.
In the upper left-hand corner is shown the destruction of Babylon, also the angel
which cast the great millstone into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence shall that great
city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all." Below is the horse-
man, called Faithful and True, casting the beast into the bottomless pit. At the lower
right is the angel with the key to the bottomless pit, who with a great chain binds Satan
for a thousand years. In the heavens above is represented one like unto the Son of
Man, who carries a great sickle with which he reaps the harvest of the world. In the
center is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates and the mountain of
the Lamb rising in the midst thereof. From the throne of the Lamb pours the great
river of crystal, or living water, signifying the spiritual doctrine: upon all who discover
and drink of its waters are conferred immortality. Kneeling upon a high cliff, St. John
gazes down upon the mystic city, the archetype of the perfect civilization yet to be.
Above the New Jerusalem, in a great sunburst of glory, is the throne of the Ancient
One, which is the light of those who dwell in the matchless empire of the spirit.
Beyond the recognition of the uninitiated world is an ever-increasing aggregation com-
posed of the spiritual elect. Though they walk the earth as ordinary mortals, they are of
a world apart and through their ceaseless efforts the kingdom of God is being slowly
but surely established upon earth. These illumined souls are the builders of the New
Jerusalem, and their bodies are the living stones in its walls. Lighted by the torch of
truth they carry on their work, through their activities the golden age will return to the
earth and the power of sin and death will be destroyed. For this reason the declare that
virtuous and illumined men, instead of ascending to heaven, will bring heaven down
and establish it in the midst of earth itself.

The thirteenth chapter describes a great beast which rose out of the sea, having
seven heads and ten horns. Faber sees in this amphibious monster the De-
miurgus, or Creator of the world, rising out of the Ocean of Chaos. While
most interpreters of the Apocalypse consider the various beasts described
therein as typical of evil agencies, this viewpoint is the inevitable result of un-
familiarity with the ancient doctrines from which the symbolism of the book is
derived. Astronomically, the great monster rising out of the sea is the constella-
tion of Cetus (the whale). Because religious ascetics looked upon the universe
664
itself as an evil and ensnaring fabrication, they also came to regard its very
Creator as a weaver of delusions. Thus the great sea monster (the world) and
its Maker (the Demiurgus), whose strength is derived from the Dragon of
Cosmic Power, came to be personified as a beast of horror and destruction,
seeking to swallow up the immortal part: of human nature. The seven heads of
the monster represent the seven stars (spirits) composing the constellation of
the Great Dipper, called by the Hindus Rishis, or Cosmic Creative Spirits. The
ten horns Faber relates to the ten primordial patriarchs. These may also de-
note the ancient zodiac of ten signs.
The number of the beast (666) is an interesting example of the use of Qab-
balism in the New Testament and among early Christian mystics. In the follow-
ing table Kircher shows that the names of Antichrist as given by Iranus all
have 666 as their numerical equivalent.

300 30 1 30
5 1 50 1
10 40 300 300
300 80 5 5
1 5 40 10
50 300 70 50
10 200 70
200 200
666 666 666 666

James Morgan Pryse also notes that according to this method of figuring, the
Greek term , which signifies the lower mind, has 666 as its numerical
equivalent. It is also well known to Qabbalists that , Jesus, has for its
numerical value another sacred and secret number--888. Adding the digits of
the number 666 and again adding the digits of the sum gives the sacred num-
ber--9 the symbol of man in his unregenerate state and also the path of his
resurrection.
The fourteenth chapter opens with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion (the
eastern horizon), about Him gathered the 144,000 with the name of God writ-
ten in their foreheads. An angel thereupon announces the fall of Babylon--the
city of confusion or worldliness. Those perish who do not overcome worldli-
ness and enter into the realization that spirit--and not matter--is enduring; for,
having no interests other than those which are material, they are swept to de-
struction with the material world. And St. John beheld One like unto the Son
of Man (Perseus) riding upon a cloud (the substances of the invisible world)
665
and bearing in his hand a sharp sickle, and with the sickle the Shining One
reaped the earth. This is a symbol of the Initiator releasing into the sphere of
reality the higher natures of those who, symbolized by ripened grain, have
reached the point of liberation. And there came another angel (Botes)--
Death--also with a sickle (Karma), who reaped the vines of the earth (those who
have lived by the false light) and cast them into the winepress of the wrath of
God (the purgatorial spheres).
The fifteenth to eighteenth chapters inclusive contain an account of seven
angels (the Pleiades) who pour their vials upon the earth. The contents of their
vials (the loosened energy of the Cosmic Bull) are called the seven last plagues.
Here also is introduced a symbolic figure, termed "the harlot of Babylon,
"which is described as a woman seated upon a scarlet-colored beast having sev-
en heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and
bedecked with gold, precious stones, and pearls, having in her hand a golden
cup full of abominations. This figure may be an effort (probably interpolated)
to vilify Cybele, or Artemis, the Great Mother goddess of antiquity. Because
the pagans venerated the Mater Deorum through symbols appropriate to the
feminine generative principle they were accused by the early Christians of wor-
shiping a courtesan. As nearly all the ancient Mysteries included a test of the
neophyte's moral character, the temptress (the animal soul) is here portrayed as
a pagan goddess.
In the nineteenth and twentieth chapters is set forth the preparation of that
mystical sacrament called the marriage of the Lamb. The bride is the soul of
the neophyte, which attains conscious immortality by uniting itself to its own
spiritual source. The heavens opened once more and St. John saw a white
horse, and the rider (the illumined mind) which sat upon it was called Faithful
and True. Out of his mouth issued a sharp sword and the armies of heaven
followed after him. Upon the plains of heaven was fought the mystic Armaged-
don--the last great war between light and darkness. The forces of evil under the
Persian Ahriman battled against the forces of good under Ahura-Mazda. Evil
was vanquished and the beast and the false prophet cast into a lake of fiery
brimstone. Satan was bound for a thousand years. Then followed the last
judgment; the books were opened, including the book of life. The dead were
judged according to their works and those whose names were not in the book
of life were cast into a sea of fire. To the neophyte, Armageddon represents
the last struggle between the flesh and the spirit when, finally overcoming the
world, the illumined soul rises to union with its spiritual Self. The judgment
signifies the weighing of the soul and was borrowed from the Mysteries of Osi-
ris. The rising of the dead from their graves and from the sea of illusion
represents the consummation of the process of human regeneration. The sea
of fire into which those are cast who fail in the ordeal of initiation signifies the

666
fiery sphere of the animal world.
In the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters are pictured the new heaven
and the new earth to be established at the close of Ahriman's reign. St. John,
carried in the spirit to a great and high mountain (the brain), beheld the New
Jerusalem descending as a bride adorned for her husband. The Holy City
represents the regenerated and perfected world, the trued ashlar of the Mason,
for the city was a perfect cube, it being written, "the length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal." The foundation of the Holy City consisted of a hun-
dred and forty-four stones in twelve rows, from which it is evident that the New
Jerusalem represents the microcosm, patterned after the greater universe in
which it: stands. The twelve gates of this symbolic dodecahedron are the signs
of the zodiac through which the celestial impulses descend into the inferior
world; the jewels are the precious stones of the zodiacal signs; and the transpa-
rent golden streets are the streams of spiritual light along which the initiate
passes on his path towards the sun. There is no material temple in that city, for
God and the Lamb are the temple; and there is neither sun nor moon, for God
and the Lamb are the light. The glorified and spiritualized initiate is here de-
picted as a city. This city will ultimately be united with the spirit of God and
absorbed into the Divine Effulgency.
And St. John beheld a river, the Water of Life, which proceeded out of the
throne of the Lamb. The river represents the stream pouring from the First
Logos, which is the life of all things and the active cause of all creation. There
also was the Tree of Life (the spirit) bearing twelve manner of fruit, whose
leaves were for the healing of the nations. By the tree is also represented the
year, which every month yields some good for the maintenance of existing
creatures. Jesus then tells St. John that He is the root and the offspring of Da-
vid and the bright and morning star (Venus). St. John concludes with the
words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

Click to enlarge
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.
From Solis' Biblische Figuren.
In the allegory of the four horsemen--according to the mysteries of philosophy--is set
forth the condition of man during the stages of his existence. In his first and spiritual
state he is crowed. As he descend into the realm of experience he carries the sword.
Reaching physical expression--which is his least spiritual state--he carries the scales, and
667
by the "philosophic death" is released again into the highest spheres. In the ancient
Roman games the chariot of the sun was drawn by four horses of different colors and
the horsemen of the Apocalypse may be interpreted to represent the solar energy
riding upon the four elements which serve as media for its expression.

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 The Faith of Islam

REPRESENTATIVE of the attitude of Christendom toward Islam, till recent

years at least, is Alexander Ross's postscript to the Anglicized version, pub-
lished in 1649, of Sieur Du Ryer's French translation of the Koran. The author
of the postscript directs the following invective against Mohammed and the
Koran:
"Good Reader, the great Arabian Impostor now at last after a thousand
years, is by the way of France arrived in England, and his Alcoran, or gallimau-
fry of errors, (a brat as deformed as the parent, and as full of heresies as his
scald head was of scurvy) hath learned to speak English. * * * If you will take a
brief view of the Alcoran, you shall find it a hodgepodge made up of these four
ingredients: 1. Of Contradictions. 2. Of Blasphemy. 3. Of ridiculous Fables. 4.
Of Lies."
The accusation of blasphemy is emphasized against Mohammed because he
affirmed that God, being unmarried, was incapable of having a Son! The falla-
cious argument, however, is apparent from the Prophet's own views of the na-
ture of God as contained in the second sura of the Koran:
"To Allah [God] belongeth the east and the west; therefore, whithersoever ye
turn yourselves to pray, there is the face of Allah; for Allah is omnipresent and
omniscient. They say, Allah hath begotten children: Allah forbid! To him be-
longeth whatever is in heaven, and on earth; all is possessed by him, the Crea-
tor of heaven and earth; and when he decreeth a thing, he only saith unto it,
Be, and it is." In other words, the God of Islam has but to desire and the object
of that desire at once comes into being, whereas the God of Alexander Ross
must proceed in accord with the laws of human generation!
Mohammed, Prophet of Islam, "the desired of all nations," was born in Mec-
ca, A.D. 570 (?) and died in Medina, A.D. 632, or in the eleventh ),ear after
the Hegira. Washington Irving thus describes the signs and wonders accompa-
nying the birth of the Prophet:
"His mother suffered none of the pangs of travail. At the moment of his
coming into the world a celestial light illumined the surrounding country, and
the new born child, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed: 'God is great! There
is no God bur God, and I am his prophet!' Heaven and earth, we are assured,
were agitated at his advent. The Lake Sawa shrank back to its secret springs,
leaving its borders dry; while the Tigris, bursting its bounds, overflowed the
neighboring lands. The palace of Khosru the king of Persia shook t on its
foundations, and several of its towers were toppled to the earth. * * * In the
same eventful night the sacred fire of Zoroaster, which, guarded by the Magi,

669
had burned without interruption for upward of a thousand years, was suddenly
extinguished, and all the idols in the world fell down." (See Mahomet and His
Successors.)
While the Prophet was still but a toddling babe, the Angel Gabriel with se-
venty wings came to him, and cutting open the child, withdrew the heart. This
Gabriel cleansed of the black drop of original sin which is in every human
heart because of the perfidy of Adam and then returned the organ to its proper
place in the Prophet's body. (See footnote in E. H. Palmer's translation of the
Qur'an.)
In his youth Mohammed traveled with the Meccan caravans, on one occa-
sion acted as armor-bearer for his uncle, and spent a considerable time among
the Bedouins, from whom he learned many of the religious and philosophic
traditions of ancient Arabia. While traveling with his uncle, Abu Taleb, Mo-
hammed contacted the Nestorian Christians, having encamped on a certain
night near one of their monasteries. Here the young Prophet-to-be secured
much of his information concerning the origin and doctrines of the Christian
faith.
With the passing years Mohammed attained marked success in business and
when about twenty-six years old married one of his employers, a wealthy widow
nearly fifteen years his senior. The widow, Khadijah by name, was apparently
somewhat mercenary, for, finding her young business manager most efficient,
she resolved to retain him in that capacity for life! Khadijah was a woman of
exceptional mentality and to her integrity and devotion must be ascribed the
early success of the Islamic cause. By his marriage Mohammed was elevated
from a position of comparative poverty to one of great wealth and power, and
so exemplary was his conduct that he became known throughout Mecca as "the
faithful and true."
Mohammed would have lived and died an honored and respected Meccan
had he not unhesitatingly sacrificed both his wealth and social position in the
service of the God whose voice he heard while meditating in the cavern on
Mount Hira in the month of Ramadan. Year after year Mohammed climbed
the rocky and desolate slopes of Mount Hira (since called Jebel Nur, "the
Mountain of light") and here in his loneliness cried out to God to reveal anew
the pure religion of Adam, that spiritual doctrine lost to mankind through the
dissensions of religious factions. Khadijah, solicitous over her husband's ascetic
practices which were impairing his physical health, sometimes accompanied
him in his weary vigil, and with womanly intuition sensed the travail of his soul.
At last one night in his fortieth year as he lay upon the floor of the cavern, en-
veloped in his cloak, a great light burst upon him. Overcome with a sense of
perfect peace and understanding in the blessedness of the celestial presence,
he lost consciousness. When he came to himself again the Angel Gabriel stood

670
before him, exhibiting a silken shawl with mysterious characters traced upon it.
From these characters Mohammed gained the basic doctrines later embodied
in the Koran. Then Gabriel spoke in a clear and wonderful voice, declaring
Mohammed to be the Prophet of the living God.
In awe and trembling, Mohammed hastened to Khadijah, fearing the vision
to have been inspired by the same evil spirits who served the pagan magicians
so greatly despised by him, Khadijah assured him that his own virtuous life
would be his protection and that he need fear no evil. Thus reassured, the
Prophet awaited further visitations from Gabriel. When these did not come,
however, such a despair filled his soul that he attempted self-destruction, only
to be stopped in the very act of casting himself over a cliff by the sudden reap-
pearance of Gabriel, who again assured the Prophet that the revelations
needed by his people would be given to him as necessity arose.

Click to enlarge
MOHAMMED'S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN.
From D'Ohsson's Tableau Gnral de l'Empire Othoman.
In the seventeenth sura of the Koran it is written that upon a certain night Mohammed
was transported from the temple at Mecca to that of Jerusalem, but no details are given
of the strange journey. In the Mishkteu l-Masabih, Mohammed is made to describe
his ascent through the seven heavens into the icy presence of the may-veiled God and
his subsequent return to his own bed, all in a single night. Mohammed was awakened
in the night by the Angel Gabriel, who, after removing the Prophet's heart, washed the
cavity with Zamzam water, and filled the heart itself with faith and science. A strange
creature, called Alborak, or the lightning bolt, was brought for the conveyance of the
Prophet. Alborak is described as white animal of the shape and size of a mule, with the
head of a woman and the tail of a peacock. According to some versions, Mohammed
merely rode Alborak to Jerusalem, where, dismounting upon Mount Moriah, he
caught hold of the lower rung of a golden ladder lowered from heaven and, accompa-
nied by Gabriel, ascended through the seven spheres separating he earth from the
inner surface of the empyrean. At the gate of each sphere stood me of the Patriarchs,
whom Mohammed saluted as he entered the various planes. At the gate of the first
671
heaven stood Adam; at the gate of the second, John and Jesus (sisters' sons); at the
third, Joseph; at the fourth, Enoch; at the fifth, Aaron; at the sixth, Moses; and at the
seventh, Abraham. Another order of the Patriarchs and prophets is given which places
Jesus at the gate of the seventh heaven, and upon reaching this Point Mohammed is
said to have requested Jesus to intercede for him before the throne of God.

Possibly as a result of his lonely periods of meditation, Mohammed seemingly

was subject to ecstatic swoons. On the occasions when the various suras of the
Koran were dictated he is said to have fallen unconscious, and, regardless of
the chill of the surrounding air, to have been covered with beads of perspira-
tion. Often these attacks came without warning; at other times he would sit
wrapped in a blanket to prevent a chill from the copious perspiration, and
while apparently unconscious would dictate the various passages which a small
circle of trusted friends would either commit to memory or reduce to writing.
On one occasion in later life when Abu Bekr referred to the gray hairs in his
beard, Mohammed, lifting the end of his beard and looking at it, declared its
whiteness to be due to the physical agony attendant upon his periods of inspira-
tion.
If the writings attributed to Mohammed be considered as merely the hallu-
cinations of an epileptic--and for that reason discounted--his Christian detrac-
tors should beware lest with the doctrines of the Prophet they also undermine
the very teachings which they themselves affirm, for many of the disciples,
apostles, and saints of the early church are known to have been subject to
nervous disorders. Mohammed's first convert was his own wife, Khadijah, who
was followed by other members of his immediate family, a circumstance which
moved Sir William Muir to note:
"It is strongly corroborative of Mohammed's sincerity that the earliest con-
verts to Islam were not only of upright character, but his own bosom friends
and people of his household; who, intimately acquainted with his private life,
could not fail otherwise to have detected those discrepancies which ever more
or less exist between the professions of the hypocritical deceiver abroad and his
actions at: home." (See The Life of Mohammad.)
Among the first to accept the faith of Islam was Abu Bekr, who became
Mohammed's closest and most faithful friend, in fact his alter ego. Abu Bekr, a
man of brilliant attainments, contributed materially to the success of the
Prophet's enterprise, and in accord with the express wish of the Prophet be-
came the leader of the faithful after Mohammed's death. Aisha, the daughter
of Abu Bekr, later became the wife of Mohammed, thus still further cementing
the bond of fraternity between the two men. Quietly, but industriously, Mo-
hammed promulgated his doctrines among a small circle of powerful friends.

672
When the enthusiasm of his followers finally forced his hand and he publicly
announced his mission, he was already the leader of a strong and well-
organized faction. Fearing Mohammed's growing prestige, the people of Mec-
ca, waiving the time-honored tradition that blood could not be spilt within the
holy city, decided to exterminate Islam by assassinating the Prophet. All the
different groups combined in this undertaking so that the guilt for the crime
might thereby be more evenly distributed. Discovering the danger in time,
Mohammed left his friend Ali in his bed and fled with Abu Bekr from the city,
and after adroitly eluding the Meccans, joined the main body of his followers
that had preceded him to Yathrib (afterwards called Medina). Upon this inci-
dent-called the Hegira or "flight"--is based the Islamic chronological system.
Dating from the Hegira the power of the Prophet steadily grew until in the
eighth year Mohammed entered Mecca after practically a bloodless victory and
established it as the spiritual center of his faith. Planting his standard to the
north of Mecca, he rode into the city, and after circling seven times the sacred
Caaba, ordered the 360 images within its precincts to be hewn down. He then
entered the Caaba itself, cleansed it of its idolatrous associations, and rededi-
cated the structure to Allah, the monotheistic God of Islam. Mohammed next
granted amnesty to all his enemies for their attempts to destroy him. Under his
protection Mecca increased in power and glory, becoming the focal point of a
great annual pilgrimage, which even to this day winds across the desert in the
months of pilgrimage and numbers over threescore thousand in its train.
In the tenth year after the Hegira, Mohammed led the valedictory pilgrimage
and for the last time rode at the head of the faithful along the sacred way lead-
ing to Mecca and the Black Stone. As the premonition of death was strong
upon him, he desired this pilgrimage to be the perfect model for all the thou-
sands that would follow.
"Conscious that life was waning away within him," writes Washington Irving,
"Mahomet, during this last sojourn in the sacred city of his faith, sought to en-
grave his doctrines deeply in the minds and hearts of his followers. For this
purpose he preached frequently in the Caaba from the pulpit, or in the open
air from the back of his camel. 'Listen to my words,' would he say, 'for I know
not whether, after this year, we shall ever meet here again. Oh, my hearers, I
am but a man like yourselves; the angel of death may at any time appear, and I
must obey his summons."' While thus preaching, the very heavens are said to
have opened and the voice of God spoke, saying: "This day I have perfected
your religion, and accomplished in you my grace." When these words were
uttered the multitude fell down in adoration and even Mohammed's camel
knelt. (See Mahomet and His Successors.) Having completed the valedictory
pilgrimage, Mohammed returned to Medina.
In the seventh year after the Hegira (A.H. 7) an attempt was made at Khei-

673
bar to poison the Prophet. As Mohammed took the first mouthful of the poi-
soned food, the evil design was revealed to him either by the taste of the meat
or, as the faithful believe, by divine intercession. He had already swallowed a
small portion of the food, however, and for the remainder of his life he suf-
fered almost constantly from the effects of the poison. In A.H. 11, when his
final illness came upon him, Mohammed insisted that the subtle effects of the
poison were the indirect cause of his approaching end. It is related that during
his last sickness he rose one night and visited a burial ground on the outskirts
of Medina, evidently believing that he, too, would soon be numbered with the
dead. At this time he told an attendant that the choice had been offered him of
continuing his physical life or going to his Lord, and that he had chosen to
meet his Maker.
Mohammed suffered greatly with his head and side and also from fever, but
on June 8th seemed convalescent. He joined his followers in prayer and, seat-
ing himself in the courtyard, delivered a lecture to the faithful in a clear and
powerful voice. Apparently he overtaxed his strength, for it was necessary to
assist him into the house of Aisha, which opened into the court of the mos-
que. Here upon a tough pallet laid on the bare floor the prophet of Islam spent
his last two hours on earth. When she saw that her aged husband was suffering
intense pain, Aisha--then but a girl of twenty--lifting the gray head of the man
she had known from infancy and who must have seemed more like a father
than a husband, supported him in her arms until the end. Feeling that death
was upon him, Mohammed prayed: "O Lord, I beseech Thee, assist me in the
agonies of death." Then almost in a whisper he repeated three times: "Gabriel,
come close unto me." (For details consult The Life of Mohammad by Sir Wil-
liam Muir.) In The Hero as Prophet, Thomas Carlyle writes thus of the death
of Mohammed: "His last words were a prayer, broken ejaculations of a heart
struggling-up in trembling hope towards its Maker."
Mohammed was buried under the floor of the apartment in which he died.
The present condition of the grave is thus described:
"Above the Hujrah is a green dome, surmounted by a large gilt crescent,
springing from a series of globes. Within the building are the tombs of Mu-
hammad, Ab Bakr, and Umar, with a space reserved for the grave of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who Muslims say will again visit the earth, and die and be
buried at al-Madnah. The grave of Ftimah, the Prophet's daughter, is sup-
posed to be in a separate part of the building, although some say she was bu-
ried in Baq. The Prophet's body is said to be stretched full length on the right
side, with the right palm supporting the right check, the face fronting Makkah.
Close behind him is placed Ab Bakr, whose face fronts Muhammad's shoul-
der, and then Umar, who occupies the same position with respect to his pre-
decessor. Amongst Christian historians there is a popular story to the effect
674
that Muhammadans believed the coffin of their Prophet to be suspended in the
air, which has no foundation whatever in Muslim literature, and Niebuhr
thinks the story must have arisen from the rude pictures sold to strangers. (See
A Dictionary of Islam.)
Concerning the character of Mohammed there have been the grossest mis-
conceptions. No evidence exists to support the charges of extreme cruelty and
licentiousness laid at his door. On the other hand, the more closely the life of
Mohammed is scrutinized by dispassionate investigators, the more apparent
become the finer qualities of his nature. In the words of Carlyle:
"Mahomet himself, after all that can be said about him, was nor, a sensual
man. We so err widely if we consider this man as a common voluptuary, intent
mainly on base enjoyments--nay, on enjoyments of any kind. His household
was of the frugalest, his common diet barley bread and water. Sometimes for
months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth. * * * A poor, hard-
working, ill-provided man; careless of what vulgar man toiled for. * * * They
called him a Prophet, you say? Why, he stood there face to face with them;
there, not enshrined in any mystery, visibly clouting his own cloak, cobbling his
own shoes, fighting, counselling, ordering in the midst of them, they must have
seen what kind of a man he was, let him be called what you like! No emperor
with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting."
Confused by the apparently hopeless task of reconciling the life of the
Prophet with the absurd statements long accepted as authentic, Washington
Irving weighs him in the scales of fairness.
"His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vainglory, as they would have
done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest
power, he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearances as in
the days of his adversity. * * * It is this perfect abnegation of self, connected
with this apparent heartfelt piety, running throughout the various phases of his
fortune, which perplex one in forming a just estimate of Mahomet's character.
* * * When he hung over the death-bed of his infant son Ibrahim, resignation
to the will of God was exhibited in his conduct under this keenest of afflictions;
and the hope of soon rejoining his child in Paradise was his consolation." (See
Mahomet and His Successors.)
A'isha, questioned after the death of the Prophet concerning his habits, rep-
lied that he mended his own clothes, cobbled his own shoes, and helped her in
the household duties. How far removed from Western concepts of Mo-
hammed's sanguinary character is Aisha's simple admission that he loved most
of all to sew! He also accepted the invitations of slaves and sat at meals with
servants, declaring himself to be a servant. Of all vices he hated lying the most.
Before his death he freed all his slaves. He never permitted his family to use
for personal ends any of the alms or tithe money given by his people. He was

675
fond of sweetmeats and used rain water for drinking purposes. His time he
divided into three parts, namely: the first he gave to God, the second to his
family, and the third to himself. The latter portion, however, he later sacrificed
to the service of his people. He dressed chiefly in white but also wore red, yel-
low, and green. Mohammed entered Mecca wearing a black turban and bear-
ing a black standard. He wore only the plainest of garments, declaring that rich
and conspicuous raiment did not become the pious, and did not remove his
shoes at prayer. He was particularly concerned with the cleanliness of his teeth
and at the time of his death, when too weak to speak, indicated his desire for a
toothpick. When fearful of forgetting something, the Prophet tied a thread to
his ring. He once had a very fine gold ring but, noting that his followers had
taken to wearing similar rings in emulation of him, he removed his own and
threw it away lest his followers form an evil habit. (See The Life of Moham-
mad.)
The most frequent, and apparently the most damaging, accusation brought
against Mohammed is that of polygamy. Those who sincerely believe the ha-
rem to be irreconcilable with spirituality should with consistency move for the
expurgation of the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon from the list
of inspired writings, for the harem of Islam's Prophet was insignificant com-
pared with that maintained by Israel's wisest king and the reputed favorite of
the Most High! The popular conception that Mohammed taught that woman
had no soul and could attain heaven only through marriage is not substantiated
by the words and attitude of the Prophet during his lifetime. In a paper entitled
The Influence of Islam on Social Conditions, read at the World's Parliament
of Religions held in Chicago, in 1893, Mohammed Webb states the charge and
answers it thus:
"it has been said that Mohammed and the Koran denied a soul to woman
and ranked her with the animals. The Koran places her on a perfect and com-
plete equality with man, and the Prophet's teachings often place her in a posi-
tion superior to the male in some respects." Mr. Webb justifies his stand by
quoting from the thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third sura of the Koran:
"Verily the Moslems of either sex, and the true believers of either sex, and the
devout men, and the devout women, and the men of veracity, and the women
of veracity, and the patient men, and the patient women, and the humble men,
and the humble women, and the alms-givers of either sex, and the men who
fast, and the women who fast, and the chaste men, and the chaste women, and
those of either sex who remember Allah frequently: for them hath Allah pre-
pared forgiveness and a great reward." Here the attainment of heaven is clearly
set forth as a problem whose only solution is that of individual merit.
On the day of his death Mohammed told Fatima, his beloved daughter, and
Safiya, his aunt: "Work ye out that which shall gain acceptance for you with the

676
Lord: for I verily have no power with Him to save you in any wise." The
Prophet did not advise either woman to rely upon the virtues of her husband
nor in any manner did he indicate woman's salvation to be dependent upon the
human frailty of her spouse.

Click to enlarge
THE CAABA, THE HOLY PLACE OF ISLAM.
Section from panorama of Mecca in D'Ohsson's Tableau Gnral de l'Empire Oth-
man.
The Caaba, or cube-shaped building in the midst of the great court of the mosque at
Mecca, is the most holy spot in the Islamic world. Toward it the followers of the
Prophet must face five times a day at the appointed hours of prayer. Like the devotees
of nearly all other faiths, the Mussulman originally faced the East while in prayer, but
by a later decree he was ordered to turn his face toward Mecca.
Little is known of the history of the Caaba prior to its rededication as a Mohamme-
dan mosque, other than that the building was a pagan temple. At the time the Prophet
captured Mecca, the Caaba and surrounding court contained 360 idols, which were
destroyed by Mohammed before he actually gained access to the shrine itself. The
"Ancient House," as the Caaba is called, is an irregular cube measuring about 38 feet in
length, 35 feet in height, and 30 feet in width. The length of each side wall varies
slightly and that of the end walls over a foot. In the southeast corner of the wall at a
convenient distance above the ground (about five feet) is embedded the sacred and
mysterious black stone or aerolite of Abraham. When first given to that patriarch by
the Angel Gabriel this stone was of such strong whiteness as to be visible from every
part of the earth, but late, it became black because of the sins of man. This black
stone, oval in shape and about seven inches in diameter, was broken in the seventh
century and is now held together by a silver mounting.
According to tradition, 2,000 years before the creation of the world the Caaba was
first constructed in heaven, where a model of it still remains. Adam erected the Caaba
on earth exactly below the spot in heaven occupied by the original, and selected the
stones from the five sacred mountains Sinai, al-Jud, Hir, Olivet, and Lebanon. Ten
thousand angels were appointed to guard the structure. At the time of the Deluge the

677
sacred house was destroyed, but afterward was rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ish-
mael. (For details see A Dictionary of Islam). It is probable that the site of the Caaba
was originally occupied by a prehistoric stone altar or ring of uncut monoliths similar
to those of Stonehenge. Like the temple at Jerusalem, the Caaba has undergone many
vicissitudes, and the present structure does not antedate the seventeenth century of the
Christian Era. When Mecca was sacked in A.D. 930, the famous black stone was cap-
tured by the Carmathians, in whose possession it remained over twenty years and it is a
moot question whether the stone finally returned by them in exchange far a princely
ransom was actually the original block or a substitute.
The side of the Caaba are the supposed graves of Hagar and Ishmael, and near the
door (which is about seven feet above the ground) is the stone upon which Abraham
stood while rebuilding the Caaba. Various coverings have always been thrown over the
cube-shaped structure; the present drape, which is replaced annually, is a black bro-
cade embroidered in a gold. Small pieces a the old drape are cherished by pilgrims as
holy relics.
Entrance to the Caaba is effected by a movable flight of steps. The interior is lined
with varicolored marble, silver, and gilt. Although the building is generally conceived to
be windowless, this point is disputed. Access to the roof is had through a silver-plated
door. In addition to the sacred books the Caaba contains thirteen lamps. The great
courtyard around the building contains a number of holy objects, and is bounded by a
colonnade which originally consisted of 360 pillars. Opening into the courtyard are
nineteen gates, the sacred and significant number of the Metonic Cycle and also the
number of stones in the inner ring of Stonehenge. Seven great minarets tower above
the Caaba, and one of the sacred ceremonials in connection with the building includes
seven circumambulations about the central Caaba in an apparent effort to portray the
motion of the celestial bodies.

Everything to the contrary notwithstanding, Mohammed is not responsible for

the contradictions and inconsistencies in the Koran, for the volume was not
compiled and did not assume its present form until over twenty years after his
death. In its present state the Koran is, for the major part, a jumble of hearsay
through which occasionally shines forth an example of true inspiration. From
what is known of the man Mohammed, it is reasonable to suppose that these
nobler and finer portions represent the actual doctrines of the Prophet; the
remainder are obvious interpolations, some arising from misunderstanding and
others direct forgeries calculated to satisfy the temporal ambitions of conquer-
ing Islam. On this subject, Godfrey Higgins speaks with his usual perspicacity:
"Here we have the Koran of Mohammed and the first four sincere and zeal-
ous patriarchs, and the Koran of the conquering and magnificent Saracens--
puffed up with pride and vanity. The Koran of the eclectic philosopher was not
likely to suit the conquerors of Asia. A new one must be grafted on the old, to

678
find a justification for their enormities." (See Anacalypsis.)
To the discerning few it is evident that Mohammed had a knowledge of that
secret doctrine which must needs constitute the core of every great philosophi-
cal, religious, or ethical institution. Through one of four possible avenues Mo-
hammed may have contacted the ancient Mystery teachings: (1) through direct
contact with the Great School in the invisible world; (2) through the Nestorian
Christian monks; (3) through the mysterious holy man who appeared and dis-
appeared at frequent intervals during the period in which the suras of the Ko-
ran were revealed; (4) through a decadent school already existing in Arabia,
which school in spite of its lapse into idolatry still retained the secrets of the
Ancient Wisdom cult. The arcana of Islam may yet be demonstrated to have
been directly founded upon the ancient pagan Mysteries performed at the
Caaba centuries before the birth of the Prophet; in fact it is generally admitted
that many of the ceremonials now embodied in the Islamic Mysteries are sur-
vivals of pagan Arabia.
The feminine principle is repeatedly emphasized in Islamic symbolism. For
example, Friday, which is sacred to the planer Venus, is the Moslem's holy day;
green is the color of the Prophet and, being symbolic of verdure, is inevitably
associated with the World Mother; and both the Islamic crescent and the sci-
mitar may be interpreted to signify the crescent shape of either the moon or
Venus.
"The famous 'Stone of Cabar,' Kaaba, Cabir, or Kebir, at Mecca," says Jen-
nings, "which is so devoutly kissed by the Faithful, is a Talisman. It is said that
the figure of Venus is seen to this day engraved upon it with a crescent. This
very Caaba itself was at first an idolatrous temple, where the Arabians wor-
shipped Al-Uzza (God and Issa), that is Venus." (See Kenealy's Enoch, The
Second Messenger of God.)
"The Mussulmans," writes Sir William Jones, "are already a sort of heterodox
Christians: they are Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they firmly be-
lieve the immaculate conception, divine character, and miracles of the MES-
SIAH; but they are heterodox, in denying vehemently his character of Son, and
his equality, as God, with the Father, of whose unity and attributes they enter-
tain and express the most awful ideas; while they consider our doctrine as per-
fect blasphemy, and insist that our copies of the Scriptures have been cor-
rupted both by Jews and Christians."
The following lines are declared by the followers of the Prophet to have
been deleted from the Christian Gospels: "And when Jesus, the Son of Mary,
said, O children of Israel, verily I am the apostle of God sent unto you, con-
firming the law which was delivered before me, and bringing good tidings of an
apostle who shall come after me, and whose name shall be AHMED." In the
present text containing the prophecy of Jesus concerning a comforter to come

679
after Him, it is further claimed that the word comforter should be translated
illustrious and that it had a direct reference to Mohammed; also that the ton-
gues of flame that descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost in no
way could be interpreted as signifying the promised comforter. When asked,
however, for definite proof that the original Gospels contained these so-called
expurgated references to Mohammed, the Moslems make a counter-demand
for production of the original documents upon which Christianity is founded.
Until such writings are discovered, the point under dispute must remain a
source of controversy.
To ignore the heritage of culture received from Islam would be an unpar-
donable oversight, for when the crescent triumphed over the cross in Southern
Europe it was the harbinger of a civilization which had no equal in its day. In
Studies in a Mosque, Stanley Lane-Poole writes:
"For nearly eight centuries under her Mohammedan rulers Spain set to all
Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. * * * Art, litera-
ture and science prospered as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe.
Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the
fountains of learning which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surge-
ons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science; women were encour-
aged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not unknown
among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and botany, history,
philosophy and jurisprudence, were to he mastered in Spain and in Spain
alone."
The Library of Original Sources thus sums up the effects of Islam:
"The results of Mohammedism have been greatly underestimated. In the
century after Mohammed's death it wrested Asia Minor, Africa, and Spain
from Christianity, more than half of the civilized world, and established a civili-
zation, the highest in the world during the Dark Ages. It brought the Arabian
race to their highest development, raised the position of women in the East,
though it retained polygamy, was intensively monotheistic, and until the Turks
gained control for the most part encouraged progress."
In the same work, among the great Islamic scientists and philosophers who
have made substantial contributions to human knowledge are listed Gerber, or
Djafer, who in the ninth century laid the foundations for modern chemistry;
Ben Musa, who in the tenth century introduced the theory of algebra; Alhaze,
who in the eleventh century made a profound study of optics and discovered
the magnifying power of convex lenses; and in the eleventh century also, both
Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, whose medical encyclopedia was the standard of his
age, and the great Qabbalist Avicebron, or Ibn Gebirol.
"Looking back upon the science of the Mohammedans," resumes the author-
ity just quoted, "it will be seen that they laid the first foundations of chemistry,

680
and made important advances in mathematics and optics. Their discoveries
never had the influence they should have had upon the course of European
civilization, but this was because Europe itself was not enlightened enough to
grasp and make use of them. Gerber's observation that oxidized iron weighs
heavier than before oxidation had to be made over again. So had some of their
work in optics, and many of their geographical discoveries. They had rounded
Africa long before Vasco da Gama. The composition of gunpowder came into
Northern Europe from them. We must never forget that the dark ages in
Christian Europe were the bright ones of the Mohammedan world. In the field
of philosophy the Arabs started by adopting the neo-Platonism they found in
Europe, and gradually working back to Aristotle."
What means the subtle mystery of the phnix reborn every six hundred
years? Faintly from within the sanctuary of the World Mysteries is whispered
the answer. Six hundred years before Christ the phnix of wisdom (Pythago-
ras?) spread its wings and died upon the altar of humanity, consumed by the
sacrificial fire. In Nazareth the bird was again reborn from its own ashes, only
to die upon the tree which had its roots in Adam's skull. In A.D. 600 appeared
Ahmed (Mohammed). Again the phnix suffered, this time from the poison
of Kheibar, and from its charred ashes rose to spread its wings across the face
of Mongolia, where in the twelfth century Genghis Khan established the rule of
wisdom. Circling the mighty desert of Gobi, the phnix again gave up its form,
which now lies buried in a glass sarcophagus under a pyramid bearing upon it
the ineffable figures of the Mysteries. After the lapse of six hundred years from
the death of Genghis Khan, did Napoleon Bonaparte--who believed himself to
be the man of destiny--contact in his wanderings this strange legend of the con-
tinual periodic rebirth of wisdom? Did he feel the spreading wings of the
phnix within himself and did he believe the hope of the world had taken
flesh in him? The eagle on his standard may well have been the phnix. This
would explain why he was moved to believe himself predestined to establish
the kingdom of Christ on earth and is, perhaps, the clue to his little-understood
friendliness toward the Moslem.

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 American Indian Symbolism

THE North American Indian is by nature a symbolist, a mystic, and a philoso-

pher. Like most: aboriginal peoples, his soul was en rapport with the cosmic
agencies manifesting about him. Not only did his Manidos control creation
from their exalted seats above the clouds, but they also descended into the
world of men and mingled with their red children. The gray clouds hanging
over the horizon were the smoke from the calumets of the gods, who could
build fires of petrified wood and use a comet for a flame. The American In-
dian peopled the forests, rivers, and sky with myriads of superphysical and
invisible beings. There are legends of entire tribes of Indians who lived in lake
bottoms; of races who were never seen in the daytime but who, coming forth
from their hidden caves, roamed the earth at night and waylaid unwary travel-
ers; also of Bat Indians, with human bodies and batlike wings, who lived in
gloomy forests and inaccessible cliffs and who slept hanging head downward
from great branches and outcroppings of rock. The red man's philosophy of
elemental creatures is apparently the outcome of his intimate contact with Na-
ture, whose inexplicable wonders become the generating cause of such meta-
physical speculations.
In common with the early Scandinavians, the Indians of North America
considered the earth (the Great Mother) to be an intermediate plane, bounded
above by a heavenly sphere (the dwelling place of the Great Spirit) and below
by a dark and terrifying subterranean world (the abode of shadows and of
submundane powers). Like the Chaldeans, they divided the interval between
the surface of earth and heaven into various strata, one consisting of clouds,
another of the paths of the heavenly bodies, and so on. The underworld was
similarly divided and like the Greek system represented to the initiated the
House of the Lesser Mysteries. Those creatures capable of functioning in two
or more elements were considered as messengers between the spirits of these
various planes. The abode of the dead was presumed to be in a distant place:
in the heavens above, the earth below, the distant corners of the world, or
across wide seas. Sometimes a river flows between the world of the dead and
that of the living, in this respect paralleling Egyptian, Greek, and Christian the-
ology. To the Indian the number four has a peculiar sanctity, presumably be-
cause the Great Spirit created His universe in a square frame. This is suggestive
of the veneration accorded the tetrad by the Pythagoreans, who held it to be a
fitting symbol of the Creator. The legendary narratives of the strange adven-
tures of intrepid heroes who while in the physical body penetrated the realms
of the dead prove beyond question the presence of Mystery cults among the

682
North American red men. Wherever the Mysteries were established they were
recognized as the philosophic equivalents of death, for those passing through
the rituals experienced all after-death conditions while still in the physical body.
At the consummation of the ritual the initiate actually gained the ability to pass
in and out of his physical body at will. This is the philosophic foundation for
the allegories of adventures in the Indian Shadow Land, or World of Ghosts.
"From coast to coast," writes Hartley Burr Alexander, "the sacred Calumet is
the Indian's altar, and its smoke is the proper offering to Heaven." (See My-
thology of All Paces.) In the Notes on the same work is given the following
description of the pipe ceremony:
"The master of ceremonies, again rising to his feet, filled and lighted the pipe
of peace from his own fire. Drawing three whiffs, one after the other, he blew
the first towards the zenith, the second towards the ground, and the third to-
wards the Sun. By the first act he returned thanks to the Great Spirit for the
preservation of his life during the past year, and for being permitted to be
present at this council. By the second, he returned thanks to his Mother, the
Earth, for her various productions which had ministered to his sustenance.
And by the third, he returned thanks to the Sun for his never-failing light, ever
shining upon all."
It was necessary for the Indian to secure the red stone for his calumet from
the pipestone quarry where in some remote past the Great Spirit had come
and, after fashioning with His own hands a great pipe, had smoked it toward
the four corners of creation and thus instituted this most sacred ceremony.
Scores of Indian tribes--some of them traveling thousands of miles--secured the
sacred stone from this single quarry, where the mandate of the Great Spirit had
decreed that eternal peace should reign.
The Indian does not worship the sun; he rather regards this shining orb as
an appropriate symbol of the Great and Good Spirit who forever radiates life
to his red children. In Indian symbolism the serpent--especially the Great Ser-
pent--corroborates other evidence pointing to the presence of the Mysteries on
the North American Continent. The flying serpent is the Atlantean token of
the initiate; the seven-headed snake represents the seven great Atlantean isl-
ands (the cities of Chibola?) and also the seven great prehistoric schools of
esoteric philosophy. Moreover, who can doubt the presence of the secret doc-
trine in the Americas when he gazes upon the great serpent mound in Adams
County, Ohio, where the huge reptile is represented as disgorging the Egg of
Existence? Many American Indian tribes are reincarnationists, some are
transmigrationists. They even called their children by the names supposed to
have been borne by them in a former life. There is an account of an instance
where a parent by inadvertence had given his infant the wrong name, whereu-
pon the babe cried incessantly until the mistake had been rectified! The belief

683
in reincarnation is also prevalent among the Eskimos. Aged Eskimos not infre-
quently kill themselves in order to reincarnate in the family of some newly
married loved one.
The American Indians recognize the difference between the ghost and the
actual soul of a dead person, a knowledge restricted to initiates of the Myste-
ries. In common with the Platonists they also understood the principles of an
archetypal sphere wherein exist the patterns of all forms manifesting in the
earth plane, The theory of Group, or Elder, Souls having supervision over the
animal species is also shared by them. The red man's belief in guardian spirits
would have warmed the heart of Paracelsus. When they attain the importance
of being protectors of entire clans or tribes, these guardians are called totems.
In some tribes impressive ceremonies mark the occasion when the young men
are sent out into the forest to fast and pray and there remain until their guar-
dian spirit manifests to them. Whatever creature appears thereupon becomes
their peculiar genius, to whom they appeal in time of trouble.

Click to enlarge
NAVAHO SAND PAINTING.
From an original drawing by Hasteen Klah.
The Navaho dry or sand paintings are made by sprinkling varicolored ground pigment
upon a base of smooth sand. The one here reproduced is encircled by the rainbow
goddess, and portrays an episode from the Navaho cosmogony myth. According to
Hasteen Klah, the Navaho sand priest who designed this painting, the Navahos do not
believe in idolatry, hence they make no images of their gods, but perpetuate only the
mental concept of them. Just as the gods draw pictures upon the moving clouds, so the
priests make paintings on the sand, and when the purpose of the drawing has been
fulfilled it is effaced by a sweep of the hand. According to this informant, the Zuni,
Hopi, and Navaho nations had a common genesis; they all came out of the earth and
then separated into three nations.
The Navahos first emerged about 3,000 years ago at a point now called La Platte
Mountain in Colorado. The four mountains sacred to the Navahos are La Platte
Mountain, Mount Taylor, Navaho Mountain, and San Francisco Mountain. While
these three nations were under the earth four mountain ranges were below with them.
The eastern mountains were white, the southern blue, the western yellow, and the
northern black. The rise and fall of these mountains caused the alternation of day and
night. When the white mountains rose it was day under the earth; when the yellow
684
ones rose, twilight; the black mountains brought night, and the blue, dawn. Seven ma-
jor deities were recognized by the Navahos, but Hasteen Klah was unable to say
whether the Indians related these deities to the planets. Bakochiddy, one of these
seven major gods, was white in color with light reddish hair and gray eyes. His father
was the sun ray and his mother the daylight. He ascended to heaven and in some re-
spects his life parallels that of Christ. To avenge the kidnapping of his child, Kahoth-
sode, a fish god, caused a great flood to arise. To escape destruction, the Zunis, Hopis,
and Navahos ascended to the surface of the earth.
The sand painting here reproduced is part of the medicine series prepared far the
healing of disease. In the healing ceremony the patient is placed upon the drawing,
which is made in a consecrated hogan, and all outsiders excluded. The sacred swastika
in the center of the drawing is perhaps the most nearly universal of religious emblems
and represents the four corners of the world. The two hunchback god, at the right and
left assume their appearance by reason of the great clouds borne upon their backs. In
Navaho religious art, male divinities are always shown with circular heads and female
divinities with square heads.

The outstanding hero of North American Indian folklore is Hiawatha, a name

which, according to Lewis Spence, signifies "he who seeks the wampum-belt."
Hiawatha enjoys the distinction of anticipating by several centuries the late
Woodrow Wilson's cherished dream of a League of Nations. Following in the
footsteps of Schoolcraft, Longfellow confused the historical Hiawatha of the
Iroquois with Manabozho, a mythological hero of the Algonquins and Ojibwas.
Hiawatha, a chief of the Iroquois, after many reverses and disappointments,
succeeded in uniting the five great nations of the Iroquois into the "League of
the Five Nations." The original purpose of the league--to abolish war by substi-
tuting councils of arbitration--was not wholly successful, but the power of the
"Silver Chain" conferred upon the Iroquois a solidarity attained by no other
confederacy of North American Indians. Hiawatha, however, met the same
opposition which has confronted every great idealist, irrespective of time or
race. The shamans turned their magic against him and, according to one le-
gend, created an evil bird which, swooping down from heaven, tore his only
daughter to pieces before his eyes. When Hiawatha, after accomplishing his
mission, had sailed away in his self-propelled canoe along the path of the sun-
set, his people realized the true greatness of their benefactor and elevated him
to the dignity of a demigod. In Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha the poet has cast
the great Indian statesman in a charming setting of magic and enchantment; yet
through the maze of symbol and allegory is ever faintly visible the figure of
Hiawatha the initiate--the very personification of the red man and his philoso-
phy.

685
THE POPOL VUH

No other sacred book sets forth so completely as the Popol Vuh the initiatory
rituals of a great school of mystical philosophy. This volume alone is sufficient
to establish incontestably the philosophical excellence of the red race.
"The Red 'Children of the Sun,'" writes James Morgan Pryse, "do not worship
the One God. For them that One God is absolutely impersonal, and all the
Forces emanated from that One God are personal. This is the exact reverse of
the popular western conception of a personal God and impersonal working
forces in nature. Decide for yourself which of these beliefs is the more philo-
sophical. These Children of the Sun adore the Plumd Serpent, who is the
messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Gucumatz in
Quich; and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our
word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, 'Land of the Plumd Serpent.'
The priests of this God of Peace, from their chief centre in the Cordilleras,
once ruled both Americas. All the Red men who have remained true to the
ancient religion are still under their sway. One of their strong centres was in
Guatemala, and of their Order was the author of the book called Popol Vuh.
In the Quich tongue Gucumatz is the exact equivalent of Quetzalcoatl in the
Nahuatl language; quetzal, the bird of Paradise; coatl, serpent--'the Serpent
veiled in plumes of the paradise-bird'!"
The Popol Vuh was discovered by Father Ximinez in the seventeenth cen-
tury. It was translated into French by Brasseur de Bourbourg and published in
1861. The only complete English translation is that by Kenneth Sylvan Guth-
rie, which ran through the early files of The Word magazine and which is used
as the basis of this article. A portion of the Popol Vuh was translated into Eng-
lish, with extremely valuable commentaries, by James Morgan Pryse, but unfor-
tunately his translation was never completed. The second book of the Popol
Vuh is largely devoted to the initiatory rituals of the Quich nation. These ce-
remonials are of first importance to students of Masonic symbolism and mys-
tical philosophy, since they establish beyond doubt the existence of ancient and
divinely instituted Mystery schools on the American Continent.
Lewis Spence, in describing the Popol Vuh, gives a number of translations
of the title of the manuscript itself. Passing over the renditions, "The Book of
the Mat" and "The Record of the Community," he considers it likely that the
correct title is "The Collection of Written Leaves," Popol signifying the "pre-
pared bark" and Vuh, "paper" or "book" from the verb uoch, to write. Dr. Guth-
rie interprets the words Popol Vuh to mean "The Senate Book," or "The Book
of the Holy Assembly"; Brasseur de Bourbourg calls it "The Sacred Book"; and
Father Ximinez designates the volume "The National Book." In his articles on
the Popol Vuh appearing in the fifteenth volume of Lucifer, James Morgan

686
Pryse, approaching the subject from the standpoint of the mystic, calls this
work "The Book of the Azure Veil." In the Popol Vuh itself the ancient records
from which the Christianized Indian who compiled it derived his material are
referred to as "The Tale of Human Existence in the Land of Shadows, and,
How Man Saw Light and Life."
The meager available native records contain abundant evidence that the later
civilizations of Central and South America were hopelessly dominated by the
black arts of their priestcrafts. In the convexities of their magnetized mirrors
the Indian sorcerers captured the intelligences of elemental beings and, gazing
into the depths of these abominable devices, eventually made the scepter sub-
servient to the wand. Robed in garments of sable hue, the neophytes in their
search for truth were led by their sinister guides through the confused passage-
ways of necromancy. By the left-hand path they descended into the somber
depths of the infernal world, where they learned to endow stones with the
power of speech and to subtly ensnare the minds of men with their chants and
fetishes. As typical of the perversion which prevailed, none could achieve to
the greater Mysteries until a human being had suffered immolation at his hand
and the bleeding heart of the victim had been elevated before the leering face
of the stone idol fabricated by a priestcraft the members of which realized
more fully than they dared to admit the true nature of the man-made demon.
The sanguinary and indescribable rites practiced by many of the Central Amer-
ican Indians may represent remnants of the later Atlantean perversion of the
ancient sun Mysteries. According to the secret tradition, it was during the later
Atlantean epoch that black magic and sorcery dominated the esoteric schools,
resulting in the bloody sacrificial rites and gruesome idolatry which ultimately
overthrew the Atlantean empire and even penetrated the Aryan religious world.

THE MYSTERIES OF XIBALBA

The princes of Xibalba (so the Popol Vuh recounts) sent their four owl mes-
sengers to Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu, ordering them to come at
once to the place of initiation in the fastnesses of the Guatemalan mountains.
Failing in the tests imposed by the princes of Xibalba, the two brothers--
according to the ancient custom--paid with their lives for their shortcomings.
Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu were buried together, but the head of
Hunhun-ahpu was placed among the branches of the sacred calabash tree
which grew in the middle of the road leading to the awful Mysteries of Xibalba.
Immediately the calabash tree covered itself with fruit and the head of Hun-
hun-ahpu "showed itself no more; for it reunited itself with the other fruits of

687
the calabash tree." Now Xquiq was the virgin daughter of prince Cuchumaquiq.
From her father she had learned of the marvelous calabash tree, and desiring
to possess some of its fruit, she journeyed alone to the somber place where it
grew. When Xquiq put forth her hand to pick the fruit of the tree, some saliva
from the mouth of Hunhun-ahpu fell into it and the head spoke to Xquiq,
saying: "This saliva and froth is my posterity which I have just given you. Now
my head will cease to speak, for it is only the head of a corpse, which has no
more flesh."
Following the admonitions of Hunhun-ahpu, the young girl returned to her
home. Her father, Cuchumaquiq, later discovering that she was about to be-
come a mother, questioned her concerning the father of her child. Xquiq rep-
lied that the child was begotten while she was gazing upon the head of Hun-
hun-ahpu in the calabash tree and that she had known no man. Cuchumaquiq,
refusing to believe her story, at the instigation of the princes of Xibalba, de-
manded her heart in an urn. Led away by her executioners, Xquiq pleaded
with them to spare her life, which they agreed to do, substituting for her heart
the fruit of a certain tree (rubber) whose sap was red and of the consistency of
blood. When the princes of Xibalba placed the supposed heart upon the coals
of the altar to be consumed, they were all amazed by the perfume which rose
therefrom, for they did not know that they were burning the fruit of a fragrant
plant.
Xquiq gave birth to twin sons, who were named Hunahpu and Xbalanque
and whose lives were dedicated to avenging the deaths of Hunhun-ahpu and
Vukub-hunhun-ahpu. The years passed, and the two boys grew up to manhood
and great were their deeds. Especially did they excel in a certain game called
tennis but somewhat resembling hockey. Hearing of the prowess of the youths,
the princes of Xibalba asked: "Who, then, are those who now begin again to
play over our heads, and who do not scruple to shake (the earth)? Are not
Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu dead, who wished to exalt themselves
before our face?" So the princes of Xibalba sent for the two youths, Hunahpu
and Xbalanque, that they might destroy them also in the seven days of the Mys-
teries. Before departing, the two brothers bade farewell to their grandmother,
each planting in the midst of the house a cane plant, saying that as long as the
cane lived she would know that they were alive. "O, our grandmother, O, our
mother, do not weep; behold the sign of our word which remains with you. "
Hunahpu and Xbalanque then departed, each with his sabarcan (blowpipe),
and for many days they journeyed along the perilous trail, descending through
tortuous ravines and along precipitous cliffs, past strange birds and boiling
springs, cowards the sanctuary of Xibalba.

688
Click to enlarge
FRAGMENT OF INDIAN POTTERY.
Courtesy of Alice Palmer Henderson
This curious fragment was found four feet under the ground beneath a trash pile of
broken early Indian pottery not far from the Casa Grande ruins in Arizona. It is signif-
icant because of its striking to the Masonic compass and square. Indian baskets pot-
tery, and blankets frequently bear ornamental designs of especial Masonic and philo-
sophic interest.

The actual ordeals of the Xibalbian Mysteries were seven in number. As a

preliminary the two adventurers crossed a river of mud and then a stream of
blood, accomplishing these difficult feats by using their sabarcans as bridges.
Continuing on their way, they reached a point where four roads converged--a
black road, a white road, a red road, and a green road. Now Hunahpu and
Xbalanque knew that their first test would consist of being able to discriminate
between the princes of Xibalba and the wooden effigies robed to resemble
them; also that they must call each of the princes by his correct name without
having been given the information. To secure this information, Hunahpu
pulled a hair from his leg, which hair then became a strange insect called Xan;
buzzing along the black road, the Xan entered the council chamber of the
princes of Xibalba and stung the leg of the figure nearest the door, which it
discovered to be a manikin. By the same artifice the second figure was proved
to be of wood, but upon stinging the third, there was an immediate response.
By stinging each of the twelve assembled princes in turn the insect thus discov-
ered each one's name, for the princes called each other by name in discussing
the cause of the mysterious bites. Having secured the desired information in
this novel manner, the insect then flew back to Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who
thus fortified, fearlessly approached the threshold of Xibalba and presented
themselves to the twelve assembled princes.
When told to adore the king, Hunahpu and Xbalanque laughed, for they
knew that the figure pointed out to them was the lifeless manikin. The young
adventurers thereupon addressed the twelve princes by name thus: "Hail, Hun-
came; hail, Vukub-came; hail, Xiquiripat; hail, Cuchumaquiq; hail, Ahalpuh;
hail, Ahalcana; hail, Chamiabak; hail, Chamiaholona; hail, Quiqxic; hail, Pa-
tan; hail, Quiqre; hail, Quiqrixqaq." When invited by the Xibalbians to seat
themselves upon a great stone bench, Hunahpu and Xbalanque declined to do

689
so, declaring that they well knew the stone to be heated so that they would he
burned to death if they sat upon it. The princes of Xibalba then ordered Hu-
nahpu and Xbalanque to rest for the night in the House of Shadows. This
completed the first degree of the Xibalbian Mysteries.
The second trial was given in the House of Shadows, where to each of the
candidates was brought a pine torch and a cigar, with the injunction that both
must be kept alight throughout the entire night and yet each must be returned
the next morning unconsumed. Knowing that death was the alternative to fail-
ure in the test, the young men burnt aras-feathers in place of the pine splinters
(which they closely resemble) and also put fireflies on the tips of the cigars.
Seeing the lights, those who watched felt certain that Hunahpu and Xbalanque
had fallen into the trap, but when morning came the torches and cigars were
returned to the guards unconsumed and still burning. In amazement and awe,
the princes of Xibalba gazed upon the unconsumed splinters and cigars, for
never before had these been returned intact.
The third ordeal took place presumably in a cavern called the House of
Spears. Here hour after hour the youths were forced to defend themselves
against the strongest and most skillful warriors armed with spears. Hunahpu
and Xbalanque pacified the spearmen, who thereupon ceased attacking them.
They then turned their attention to the second and most difficult part of the
test: the production of four vases of the rarest flowers but which they were not
permitted to leave the temple to gather. Unable to pass the guards, the two
young men secured the assistance of the ants. These tiny creatures, crawling
into the gardens of the temple, brought back the blossoms so that by morning
the vases were filled. When Hunahpu and Xbalanque presented the flowers to
the twelve princes, the latter, in amazement, recognized the blossoms as having
been filched from their own private gardens. In consternation, the princes of
Xibalba then counseled together how they could destroy the intrepid neo-
phytes and forthwith prepared for them the next ordeal.
For their fourth test, the two brothers were made to enter the House of
Cold, where they remained for an entire night. The princes of Xibalba consi-
dered the chill of the icy cavern to be unbearable and it is described as "the
abode of the frozen winds of the North." Hunahpu and Xbalanque, however,
protected themselves from the deadening influence of the frozen air by build-
ing fires of pine cones, whose warmth caused the spirit of cold to leave the
cavern so that the youths were not dead but full of life when day dawned. Even
greater than before was the amazement of the princes of Xibalba when Hu-
nahpu and Xbalanque again entered the Hall of Assembly in the custody of
their guardians.
The fifth ordeal was also of a nocturnal nature. Hunahpu and Xbalanque
were ushered into a great chamber which was immediately filled with ferocious

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tigers. Here they were forced to remain throughout the night. The young men
tossed bones to the tigers, which they ground to pieces with their strong jaws.
Gazing into the House of the Tigers, the princes of Xibalba beheld the animals
chewing the bones and said one to the other: "They have at last learned (to
know the power of Xibalba), and they have given themselves up to the beasts. "
But when at dawn Hunahpu and Xbalanque emerged from the House of the
Tigers unharmed, the Xibalbians cried: "Of what race are those?" for they
could not understand how any man could escape the tigers' fury. Then the
princes of Xibalba prepared for the two brothers a new ordeal.

Click to enlarge
MIDEWIWIN RECORD ON BIRCH BARK.
Courtesy of Alice Palmer Henderson.
The birch-bark roll is one of the most sacred possessions of an initiate of the Midewi-
win, or Grand Medicine Society, of the Ojibwas. Concerning these rolls, Colonel Car-
rick Mallery writes: "To persons acquainted with secret societies, a good comparison
for the Midewiwin charts would be what is called a trestleboard of a Masonic order,
which is printed and published and publicly exposed without exhibiting any secrets of
the order; yet it is net only significant, but useful to the esoteric in assistance to their
memory as to the details of ceremony." A most complete and trustworthy account of
the Midewiwin is that given by W. J. Hoffman in the Seventh Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology. He writes:
The Midewiwin--Society of the Mide or Shaman--consists of an indefinite number
of Mide of both sexes. The society is graded into four separate and distinct degrees,
although there is a general impression prevailing even among certain members that any
degree beyond the first is practically a mere repetition. The greater power attained by
one in making advancement depends upon the fact of his having submitted to 'being
shot at with the medicine sacks' in the hands of the officiating priests. * * * It has al-
ways been customary for the Mide priests to preserve birch-bark records, bearing deli-
cate incised lines to represent pictorially the ground plan of the number of degrees to
which the owner is entitled. Such records or charts are sacred and are never exposed
to the public view."
The two rectangular diagrams represent two degrees of the Mide lodge and the
straight line through the center the spiritual path, or "straight and narrow way," running
through the degrees. The lines running tangent to the central Path signify temptations,

691
and the faces at the termini of the lines are manidos, or powerful spirits. Writing of the
Midewiwin, Schoolcraft, the great authority on the American Indian, says: "In the so-
ciety of the Midewiwin the object is to teach the higher doctrines of spiritual existence,
its nature and mode of existence, and the influence it exercises among men. It is an
association of men who profess the highest knowledge known to the tribes."
According to legend, Manabozho, the great Rabbit, who was a servant of Dzhe Ma-
nido, the Good Spirit, gazing down upon the progenitors of the Ojibwas and perceiving
them to be without spiritual knowledge, instructed an otter in the mysteries of Mide-
wiwin. Manabozho built a Midewigan and initiated the otter, shooting the sacred Migis
(a small shell, the sacred symbol of the Mide) into the body of the otter. He then con-
ferred immortality upon the animal, and entrusted to it the secrets of the Grand Medi-
cine Society. The ceremony of initiation is preceded by sweat baths and consists chiefly
of overcoming the influences of evil manidos. The initiate is also instructed in the art
of healing and (judging from Plate III of Mr. Hoffman's article) a knowledge of direc-
tionalizing the forces moving through the vital centers of the human body. Though the
cross is an important symbol in the Midewiwin rites, it is noteworthy that the Mide
Priests steadfastly refused to give up their religion and be converted to Christianity.

The sixth test consisted of remaining from sunset to sunrise in the House of
Fire. Hunahpu and Xbalanque entered a large apartment arranged like a fur-
nace. On every side the flames arose and the air was stifling; so great was the
heat that those who entered this chamber could survive only a few moments.
But at sunrise when the doors of the furnace were opened, Hunahpu and Xba-
lanque came forth unscorched by the fury of the flames. The princes of Xibal-
ba, perceiving how the two intrepid youths had survived every ordeal prepared
for their destruction, were filled with fear lest all the secrets of Xibalba should
fall into the hands of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. So they prepared the last or-
deal, an ordeal yet more terrible than any which had gone before, certain that
the youths could not withstand this crucial test.
The seventh ordeal took place in the House of the Bats. Here in a dark
subterranean labyrinth lurked many strange and odious creatures of destruc-
tion. Huge bars fluttered dismally through the corridors and hung with folded
wings from the carvings on the walls and ceilings. Here also dwelt Camazotz,
the God of Bats, a hideous monster with the body of a man and the wings and
head of a bat. Camazotz carried a great sword and, soaring through the gloom,
decapitated with a single sweep of his blade any unwary wanderers seeking to
find their way through the terror-filled chambers. Xbalanque passed successful-
ly through this horrifying test, but Hunahpu, caught off his guard, was be-
headed by Camazotz.
Later, Hunahpu was restored to life by magic, and the two brothers, having
thus foiled every attempt against their lives by the Xibalbians, in order to better
692
avenge the murder of Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu, permitted
themselves to be burned upon a funeral pyre. Their powdered bones were
then cast into a river and immediately became two great man-fishes. Later tak-
ing upon themselves the forms of aged wanderers, they danced for the Xibal-
bians and wrought strange miracles. Thus one would cut the other to pieces
and with a single word resurrect him, or they would burn houses by magic and
then instantly rebuild them. The fame of the two dancers--who were in reality
Hunahpu and Xbalanque--finally came to the notice of the twelve princes of
Xibalba, who thereupon desired these two miracle-workers to perform their
strange fears before them. After Hunahpu and Xbalanque had slain the dog of
the princes and restored it to life, had burned the royal palace and instantly
rebuilt it, and given other demonstrations of their magical powers, the monarch
of the Xibalbians asked the magicians to destroy him and restore him also to
life. So Hunahpu and Xbalanque slew the princes of Xibalba but did not re-
turn them to life, thereby avenging the murder of Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-
hunhun-ahpu. These heroes later ascended to heaven, where they became the
celestial lights.

KEYS TO THE MYSTERIES OF XIBALBA

"Do not these initiations," writes Le Plongeon, "vividly recall to mind what He-
noch said he saw in his visions? That blazing house of crystal, burning hot and
icy cold--that place where were the bow of fire, the quiver of arrows, the sword
of fire--that other where he had to cross the babbling stream, and the river of
fire-and those extremities of the Earth full of all kinds of huge beasts and birds-
-or the habitation where appeared one of great glory sitting upon the orb of the
sun--and, lastly, does not the tamarind tree in the midst of the earth, that he
was cold was the Tree of Knowledge, find its simile in the calabash tree, in the
middle of the road where those of Xibalba placed the head of Hunhun Ahpu,
after sacrificing him for having failed to support the first trial of the initiation? *
* * These were the awful ordeals that the candidates for initiation into the sa-
cred mysteries had to pass through in Xibalba. Do they not seem an exact
counterpart of what happened in a milder form at the initiation into the Eleu-
sinian mysteries? and also the greater mysteries of Egypt, from which these
were copied? Does not the recital of what the candidates to the mysteries in
Xibalba were required to know, before being admitted, * * * recall to mind the
wonderful similar feats said to be performed by the Mahatmas, the Brothers in
India, and of several of the passages of the book of Daniel, who had been in-
itiated to the mysteries of the Chaldeans or Magi which, according to Eubulus,

693
were divided into three classes or genera, the highest being the most learned?"
(See Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches.)
In his introductory notes to the Popol Vuh, Dr. Guthrie presents a number
of important parallelisms between this sacred book of the Quichs and the
sacred writings of other great civilizations. In the tests through which Hunahpu
and Xbalanque are forced to pass he finds the following analogy with the signs
of the zodiac as employed in the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and
Greeks:

"Aries, crossing the river of mud. Taurus, crossing the river of blood. Gemi-
ni, detecting the two dummy kings. Cancer, the House of Darkness. Leo,
the House of Spears. Virgo, the House of Cold (the usual trip to Hell). Li-
bra, the House of Tigers (feline poise). Scorpio, the House of Fire. Sagitta-
rius, the House of Bats, where the God Camazotz decapitates one of the he-
roes. Capricorn, the burning on the scaffold (the dual Phnix). Aquarius,
their ashes being scattered in a river. Pisces, their ashes turning into man-
fishes, and later back into human form."

It would seem more appropriate to assign the river of blood to Aries and that
of mud to Taurus, and it is not at all improbable that in the ancient form of the
legend the order of the rivers was reversed. Dr. Guthrie's most astonishing
conclusion is his effort to identify Xibalba with the ancient continent of Atlan-
tis. He sees in the twelve princes of Xibalba the rulers of the Atlantean empire,
and in the destruction of these princes by the magic of Hunahpu and Xbalan-
que an allegorical depiction of the tragic end of Atlantis. To the initiated, how-
ever, it is evident that Atlantis is simply a symbolic figure in which is set forth
the mystery of origins.
Concerned primarily with the problems of mystical anatomy, Mr. Pryse re-
lates the various symbols described in the Popol Vuh to the occult centers of
consciousness in the human body. Accordingly, he sees in the elastic ball the
pineal gland and in Hunahpu and Xbalanque the dual electric current directed
along the spinal column. Unfortunately, Mr. Pryse did not translate that por-
tion of the Popol Vuh dealing directly with the initiatory ceremonial. Xibalba
he considers to be the shadowy or etheric sphere which, according to the Mys-
tery teachings, was located within the body of the planet itself. The fourth book
of the Popol Vuh concludes with an account of the erection of a majestic tem-
ple, all white, where was preserved a secret black divining stone, cubical in
shape. Gucumatz (or Quetzalcoatl) partakes of many of the attributes of King
Solomon: the account of the temple building in the Popol Vuh is a reminder of
the story of Solomon's Temple, and undoubtedly has a similar significance.
Brasseur de Bourbourg was first attracted to the study of religious parallelisms

694
in the Popol Vuh by the fact that the temple together with the black stone
which it contained, was named the Caabaha, a name astonishingly similar to
that of the Temple, or Caaba, which contains the sacred black stone of Islam.
The exploits of Hunahpu and Xbalanque take place before the actual crea-
tion of the human race and therefore are to be considered essentially as spiri-
tual mysteries. Xibalba doubtless signifies the inferior universe of Chaldean
and Pythagorean philosophy; the princes of Xibalba are the twelve Governors
of the lower universe; and the two dummies or manikins in their midst may be
interpreted as the two false signs of the ancient zodiac inserted in the heavens
to make the astronomical Mysteries incomprehensible to the profane. The
descent of Hunahpu and Xbalanque into the subterranean kingdom of Xibalba
by crossing over the rivers on bridges made from their blowguns has a subtle
analogy to the descent of the spiritual nature of man into the physical body
through certain superphysical channels that may be likened to the blowguns or
tubes. The sabarcan is also an appropriate emblem of the spinal cord and the
power resident within its tiny central opening. The two youths are invited to
play the "Game of Life" with the Gods of Death, and only with the aid of su-
pernatural power imparted to them by the "Sages" can they triumph over these
gloomy lords. The tests represent the soul wandering through the sub-zodiacal
realms of the created universe; their final victory over the Lords of Death
represents the ascension of the spiritual and illumined consciousness from the
tower nature which has been wholly consumed by the fire of spiritual purifica-
tion.
That the Quichs possessed the keys to the mystery of regeneration is evi-
dent from an analysis of the symbols appearing upon the images of their priests
and gods. In Vol. II of the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mxico is repro-
duced the head of an image generally considered to represent Quetzalcoatl.
The sculpturing is distinctly Oriental in character and on the crown of the head
appear both the thousand-petaled sunburst of spiritual illumination and the
serpent of the liberated spinal fire. The Hindu chakra is unmistakable and it
frequently appears in the religious art of the three Americas. One of the carved
monoliths of Central America is adorned with the heads of two elephants with
their drivers. No such animals have existed in the Western Hemisphere since
prehistoric times and it is evident that the carvings are the result of contact with
the distant continent of Asia. Among the Mysteries of the Central American
Indians is a remarkable doctrine concerning the consecrated mantles or, as
they were called in Europe, magic capes. Because their glory was fatal to mortal
vision, the gods, when appearing to the initiated priests, robed themselves in
these mantles, Allegory and fable likewise are the mantles with which the secret
doctrine is ever enveloped. Such a magic cape of concealment is the Popol
Vuh, and deep within its folds sits the god of Quich philosophy. The massive
695
pyramids, temples, and monoliths of Central America may be likened also to
the feet of gods, whose upper parts are enshrouded in magic mantles of invisi-
bility.

696
 The Mysteries and Their Emissaries

DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the
pagan priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples? Is it yet accessible to
mankind, or does it lie buried beneath the rubbish of ages, entombed within
the very sanctuaries that were once illuminated by its splendor? "In Egypt,"
writes Origen, "the philosophers have a sublime and secret knowledge respect-
ing the nature of God. What did Julian imply when he spoke of the secret init-
iations into the sacred Mysteries of the Seven-Rayed God who lifted souls to
salvation through His own nature? Who were the blessed theurgists who un-
derstood them profundities concerning which Julian dared not speak? If this
inner doctrine were always concealed from the masses, for whom a simpler
code had been devised, is it not highly probable that the exponents of every
aspect of modern civilization--philosophic, ethical, religious, and scientific-are
ignorant of the true meaning of the very theories and tenets on which their
beliefs are founded? Do the arts and sciences that the race has inherited from
older nations conceal beneath their fair exterior a mystery so great that only the
most illumined intellect can grasp its import? Such is undoubtedly the case.
Albert Pike, who has gathered ample evidence of the excellence of the doc-
trines promulgated by the Mysteries, supports his assertions by quoting from
the writings of Clement of Alexandria, Plato, Epictetus, Proclus, Aristophanes,
and Cicero, all of whom unite in lauding the high ideals of these institutions.
From the unqualified testimony of such reputable authorities no reasonable
doubt can exist that the initiates of Greece, Egypt, and other ancient countries
possessed the correct solution to those great cultural, intellectual, moral, and
social problems which in an unsolved state confront the humanity of the twen-
tieth century. The reader must not interpret this statement to mean that antiq-
uity had foreseen and analyzed every complexity of this generation, but rather
that the Mysteries had evolved a method whereby the mind was so trained in
the fundamental verities of life that it was able to cope intelligently with any
emergency which might arise. Thus the reasoning faculties were organized by a
simple process of mental culture, for it was asserted that where reason reigns
supreme, inconsistency cannot exist. Wisdom, it was maintained, lifts man to
the condition of Godhood, a fact which explains the enigmatical statement that
the Mysteries transformed "roaring beasts into divinities."
The preeminence of any philosophical system can be determined only by
the excellence of its products. The Mysteries have demonstrated the superiori-
ty of their culture by giving to the world minds of such overwhelming greatness,
souls of such beatific vision, and lives of such outstanding impeccability that

697
even after the lapse of ages the teachings of these individuals constitute the
present spiritual, intellectual, and ethical standards of the race. The initiates of
the various Mystery schools of past ages form a veritable golden chain of su-
permen and superwomen connecting heaven and earth. They are the links of
that Homeric "golden chain" with which Zeus boasted he could bind the several
parts of the universe to the pinnacle of Olympus. The sons and daughters of
Isis are indeed an illustrious line--founders of sciences and philosophies, pa-
trons of arts and crafts, supporting by the transcendency of their divinely given
power the structures of world religions erected to do them homage. Founders
of doctrines which have molded the lives of uncounted generations, these In-
itiate-Teachers bear witness to that spiritual culture which has always existed--
and always will exist--as a divine institution in the world of men.
Those who represent an ideal beyond the comprehension of the masses
must face the persecution of the unthinking multitude who are without that
divine idealism which inspires progress and those rational faculties which uner-
ringly sift truth from falsehood. The lot of the Initiate-Teacher is therefore
almost invariably an unhappy one. Pythagoras, crucified and his university
burned; Hypatia, torn from her chariot and rended limb from limb; Jacques de
Molay, whose memory survives the consuming flame; Savonarola, burned in
the square of Florence; Galileo, forced to recant upon bended knee; Giordano
Bruno, burned by the Inquisition; Roger Bacon, compelled to carry on his
experiments in the secrecy of his cell and leave his knowledge hidden under
cipher; Dante Alighieri, dying in exile from his beloved city; Francis Bacon,
patient. under the burden of persecution; Cagliostro, the most vilified man of
modern times--all this illustrious line bear unending witness of man's inhumani-
ty to man. The world has ever been prone to heap plaudits upon its fools and
calumny upon its thinkers. Here and there notable exceptions occur, as in the
case of the Comte de St.-Germain, a philosopher who survived his inquisitors
and through the sheer transcendency of his genius won a position of compara-
tive immunity. But even the illustrious Comte--whose illumined intellect me-
rited the homage of the world--could not escape being branded an impostor, a
charlatan, and an adventurer. From this long fist of immortal men and women
who have represented the Ancient Wisdom before the world, three have been
chosen as outstanding examples for more detailed consideration: the first the
most eminent woman philosopher of all ages; the second the most maligned
and persecuted man since the beginning of Christian Era; the third the most
brilliant and the most successful modern exponent of this Ancient Wisdom.

698
HYPATIA

Sitting in the chair of philosophy previously occupied by her father, Theon the
mathematician, the immortal Hypatia was for many years the central figure in
the Alexandrian School of Neo-Platonism. Famed alike for the depth of her
learning and the charm of her person, beloved by the citizens of Alexandria,
and frequently consulted by the magistrates of that city, this noble woman
stands out from the pages of history as the greatest of the pagan martyrs. A
personal disciple of the magician Plutarch, and versed in the profundities of
the Platonic School, Hypatia eclipsed in argument and public esteem every
proponent of the Christian doctrines in Northern Egypt. While her writings
perished at the time of the burning of the library of Alexandria by the Mo-
hammedans, some hint of their nature may be gleaned from the statements of
contemporaneous authors. Hypatia evidently wrote a commentary on the
Arithmetic of Diophantus, another on the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy,
and a third on the Conics of Apollonius of Perga. Synesius, Bishop of Ptole-
mais, her devoted friend, wrote to Hypatia for assistance in the construction of
an astrolabe and a hydroscope. Recognizing the transcendency of her intellect,
the learned of many nations flocked to the academy where she lectured.

Click to enlarge
THE TABLE OF CEBES.
From Vnius' Theatro Moral de la Vida Humana.
There is legend to the effect that the Tablet of Cebes, a dialogue between Cebes and
Gerundio, was based upon an ancient table set up in the Temple of Kronos at Athens
or Thebes which depicted the entire progress of human life. The author of the Tablet
of Cebes was a disciple of Socrates, and lived about 390 B.C. The world is represented
as a great mountain. Out of the earth at the base of it come he myriads of human crea-
tures who climb upward in search of truth and immortality. Above the clouds which
conceal the summit of the mountain is the goal of human attainment--true happiness.
The figures and groups are arranged as follows: (1) the door of the wall of life; (2) the
Genius or Intelligence; (3) deceit (4) opinions, desires, and pleasures; (5) fortune; (6)
the strong; (7) venery, insatiability, flattery; (8) sorrow; (9) sadness; (10) misery; (11)

699
grief, (12) rage or despair; (13) the house of misfortune; (14) penitence; (15) true opi-
nion; (16) false opinion; (17) false doctrine; (18) poets, orators, geometers, et. al.; (19)
incontinence, sexual indulgence, and opinion; (20) the road of the true doctrine (21)
continence and patience; (22) the true doctrine; (23) truth and persuasion; (24) science
and the virtues; (25) happiness, (26) the highest (first) pleasure of the wise man; (27)
the lazy and the strays.

A number of writers have credited the teachings of Hypatia with being Chris-
tian in spirit; in fact she removed the veil of mystery in which the new cult had
enshrouded itself, discoursing with such clarity upon its most involved prin-
ciples that many newly converted to the Christian faith deserted it to become
her disciples. Hypatia not only proved conclusively the pagan origin of the
Christian faith but also exposed the purported miracles then advanced by the
Christians as tokens of divine preference by demonstrating the natural laws
controlling the phenomena.
At this time Cyril--later to be renowned as the founder of the doctrine of the
Christian Trinity and canonized for his zeal--was Bishop of Alexandria. Seeing
in Hypatia a continual menace to the promulgation of the Christian faith, Cyril-
-indirectly at least--was the cause of her tragic end. Despite every later effort to
exonerate him from the stigma of her murder, the incontrovertible fact remains
that he made no effort to avert the foul and brutal crime. The only shred of
excuse which might be offered in his defense is that, blinded by the spell of
fanaticism, Cyril considered Hypatia to be a sorceress in league with the Devil.
In contrast to the otherwise general excellence of the literary works of Charles
Kingsley maybe noted his puerile delineation of character of Hypatia in his
book by that name. Without exception, the meager historical references to this
virgin philosopher attest her virtue, integrity, and absolute devotion to the prin-
ciples of Truth and Right.
While it is true that the best minds of the Christianity of that period may
readily be absolved from the charge of participes criminis, the implacable ha-
tred of Cyril unquestionably communicated itself to the more fanatical mem-
bers of his faith, particularly to a group of monks from the Nitrian desert. Led
by Peter the Reader, a savage and illiterate man, they attacked Hypatia on the
open street as she was passing from the academy to her home. Dragging the
defenseless woman from her chariot, they took her to the Csarean Church.
Tearing away her garments, they pounded her to death with clubs, after which
they scraped the flesh from her bones with oyster shells and carried the muti-
lated remains to a place called Cindron, where they burned them to ashes.
Thus perished in A.D. 415 the greatest woman initiate of the ancient world,
and with her fell also the Neo-Platonic School of Alexandria. The memory of

700
Hypatia has probably been perpetuated in the hagiolatry of the Roman Catho-
lic Church in the person of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

THE COMTE DI CAGLIOSTRO

The "divine" Cagliostro, one moment the idol of Paris, the next a lonely pris-
oner in a dungeon of the Inquisition, passed like a meteor across the face of
France. According to his memoirs written by him during his confinement in
the Bastille, Alessandro Cagliostro was born in Malta of a noble but unknown
family. He was reared and educated in Arabia under the tutelage of Altotas, a
man well versed in several branches of philosophy and science and also a mas-
ter of the transcendental arts. While Cagliostro's biographers generally ridicule
this account, they utterly fail to advance in its stead any logical solution for the
source of his magnificent store of arcane knowledge.
Branded as an impostor and a charlatan, his miracles declared to be leger-
demain, and his very generosity suspected of an ulterior motive, the Comte di
Cagliostro is undoubtedly the most calumniated man in modem history. "The
mistrust," writes W. H. K. Trowbridge, "that mystery and magic always inspire
made Cagliostro with his fantastic personality an easy target for calumny. After
having been riddled with abuse till he was unrecognizable, prejudice, the foster
child of calumny, proceeded to lynch him, so to speak. For over one hundred
years his character has dangled on the gibbet of infamy, upon which the sbirri
of tradition have inscribed a curse on any one who shall attempt to cut him
down. His fate has been his fame. He is remembered in history, not so much
for anything he did, as for what was done to him." (See Cagliostro, the Splen-
dour and Misery of a Master of Magic.)
According to popular belief Cagliostro's real name was Giuseppe Balsamo,
and he was a Sicilian by birth. Within recent years, however, doubts have ari-
sen as to whether this belief is in accord with the facts. It may yet be proved
that in part, at least, the tirades of abuse heaped upon the unfortunate Comte
have been directed against the wrong man. Giuseppe Balsamo was born in
1743 of honest but humble parentage. From boyhood he exhibited selfish,
worthless, and even criminal tendencies, and after a series of escapades disap-
peared. Trowbridge(loc. cit.) presents ample proof that Cagliostro was not Gi-
useppe Balsamo, thus disposing of the worst accusation against him. After six
months' imprisonment in the Bastille, on his trial Cagliostro was exonerated
from any implication in the theft of the famous "Queen's Necklace," and later
the fact was established that he had actually warned Cardinal de Rohan of the
intended crime. Despite the fact, however, that he was discharged as innocent

701
by the French trial court, a deliberate effort to vilify Cagliostro was made by an
artist--more talented than intelligent--who painted a picture showing him hold-
ing the fatal necklace in his hand. The trial of Cagliostro has been called the
prologue of the French Revolution. The smoldering animosity against Marie
Antoinette and Louis XVI engendered by this trial later burst forth as the ho-
locaust of the Reign of Terror. In his brochure, Cagliostro and His Egyptian
Rite of Freemasonry, Henry R. Evans also ably defends this much persecuted
man against the infamies so unjustly linked with his name.
Sincere investigators of the facts surrounding the life and mysterious "death"
of Cagliostro are of the opinion that the stories circulated against him may be
traced to the machinations of the Inquisition, which in this manner sought to
justify his persecution. The basic charge against Cagliostro was that he had
attempted to found a Masonic lodge in Rome--nothing more. All other accusa-
tions are of subsequent date. For some reason undisclosed, the Pope com-
muted Cagliostro's sentence of death to perpetual imprisonment. This act in
itself showed the regard in which Cagliostro was held even by his enemies.
While his death is believed to have occurred several years later in an Inquisi-
tional dungeon in the castle of San Leo, it is highly improbable that such was
the case. There are rumors that he escaped, and according to one very signifi-
cant story Cagliostro fled to India, where his talents received the appreciation
denied them in politics-ridden Europe.
After creating his Egyptian Rite, Cagliostro declared that since women had
been admitted into the ancient Mysteries there was no reason why they should
be excluded from the modem orders. The Princesse de Lamballe graciously
accepted the dignity of Mistress of Honor in his secret society, and on the
evening of her initiation the most important members of the French court were
present. The brilliance of the affair attracted the attention of the Masonic
lodges in Paris. Their representatives, in a sincere desire to understand the
Masonic Mysteries, chose the learned orientalist Court de Gbelin as their
spokesman, and invited Comte di Cagliostro to attend a conference to assist in
clearing up a number of important questions concerning Masonic philosophy.
The Comte accepted the invitation.
On May 10, 1785, Cagliostro attended the conference called for that pur-
pose, and his power and simplicity immediately won for him the favorable
opinion of the entire gathering. It took but a few words for the Court de Gbe-
lin to discover that he was talking nor only to a fellow scholar but to a man
infinitely his superior. Cagliostro immediately presented an address, which was
so unexpected, so totally different from anything ever heard before by those
assembled, that all were speechless with amazement. Cagliostro declared the
Rose-Cross to be the ancient and true symbol of the Mysteries and, after a brief
description of its original symbolism, branched out into a consideration of the

702
symbolic meaning of letters, predicting to the assembly the future of France in
a graphic manner that left no room for doubt that the speaker was a man of
insight and supernatural power. With a curious arrangement of the letters of
the alphabet, Cagliostro foretold in detail the horrors of the coming revolution
and the fall of the monarchy, describing minutely the fate of the various mem-
bers of the royal family. He also prophesied the advent of Napoleon and the
rise of the First Empire. All this he did to demonstrate that which can be ac-
complished by superior knowledge.
Later when arrested and sent to the Bastille, Cagliostro wrote on the wall of
his cell the following cryptic message which, when interpreted, reads: "In 1789
the besieged Bastille will on July 14th be pulled down by you from top to bot-
tom." Cagliostro was the mysterious agent of the Knights Templars, the Rosi-
crucian initiate whose magnificent store of learning is attested by the profundity
of the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry. Thus Comte di Cagliostro remains one of
the strangest characters in history--believed by his friends to have lived forever
and to have taken part in the marriage feast of Cana, and accused by his ene-
mies of being the Devil incarnate! His powers of prophecy are ably described
by Alexandre Dumas in The Queen's Necklace. The world he sought to serve
in his own strange way received him not, but has followed with relentless per-
secution down through the centuries even the very memory of this illustrious
adept who, unable to accomplish the great labor at hand, stepped aside in favor
of his more successful compatriot, the Comte de St-Germain.

THE COMTE DE ST.-GERMAIN

During the early part of the eighteenth century there appeared in the diplomat-
ic circles of Europe the most baffling personality of history--a man whose life
was so near a synonym of mystery that the enigma of his true identity was as
insolvable to his contemporaries as it has been to later investigators. The
Comte de St.-Germain was recognized as the outstanding scholar and linguist
of his day. His versatile accomplishments extended from chemistry and history
to poetry and music. He played several musical instruments with great skill and
among his numerous compositions was a short opera. He was also an artist of
rare ability and the remarkably luminous effects which he created on canvas
are believed to have been the result of his mixing powdered mother-of-pearl
with his pigments. He gained worldwide distinction for his ability to reproduce
in his paintings the original luster of the precious stones appearing upon the
costumes of his subjects. His linguistic proficiency verged on the supernatural.
He spoke German, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French with a Pied-

703
montese accent, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Chinese with such fluency
that in every land he visited he was accepted as a native. He was ambidextrous
to such a degree that: he could write the same article with both hands simulta-
neously. When the two pieces of paper were afterwards placed together with a
light behind them, the writing on one sheet exactly covered, letter for letter, the
writing on the other.
As a historian, the Comte de St.-Germain possessed uncanny knowledge of
every occurrence of the preceding two thousand years, and in his reminis-
cences he described in intimate detail events of previous centuries in which he
had played important rles. He assisted Mesmer in developing the theory of
mesmerism, and in all probability was the actual discoverer of that science. His
knowledge of chemistry was so profound that he could remove flaws from di-
amonds and other precious stones--a feat which he actually performed at the
request of Louis XV in 1757. He was also recognized as an art critic without a
peer and was often consulted regarding paintings accredited to the great mas-
ters. His claim to the possession of the fabled elixir of life was home witness to
by Madame de Pompadour, who discovered, she declared, that he had pre-
sented a lady of the court with a certain priceless liquid which had had the ef-
fect of preserving her youthful vivacity and beauty for over twenty-five years
beyond the normal term.
The startling accuracy of his prophetic utterances gained for him no small
degree of fame. To Marie Antoinette he predicted the fall of the French mo-
narchy, and he was also aware of the unhappy fate of the royal family years
before the Revolution actually took place. The crowning evidence, however, of
the Comte's genius was his penetrating grasp of the political situation of Europe
and the consummate skill with which he parried the thrusts of his diplomatic
adversaries. He was employed by a number of European governments, includ-
ing the French, as a secret agent, and at all times bore credentials which gave
him entre to the most exclusive circles.
In her excellent monograph, The Comte de St.-Germain, the Secret of
Kings, Mrs. Cooper-Oakley lists the most important names under which this
amazing person masqueraded between the years 1710 and 1822. "During this
time," she writes, "we have M. de St.-Germain as the Marquis de Montferrat,
Comte Bellamarre or Aymar at Venice, Chevalier Schoening at Pisa, Chevalier
Weldon at Milan and Leipzig, Comte Soltikoff at Genoa and Leghorn, Graf
Tzarogy at Schwalbach and Triesdorf, Prinz Ragoczy at Dresden, and Comte
de St.-Germain at Paris, The Hague, London, and St. Petersburg." It is evident
that M. de St.-Germain adopted these various names in the interests of the
political secret service work which historians have presumed to be the major
mission of his life.
The Comte de St.-Germain has been described as of medium height, well

704
proportioned in body, and of regular and pleasing features. His complexion
was somewhat swarthy and his hair dark, though often shown powdered. He
dressed simply, usually in black, but his clothes were well fitting and of the best
quality. He had apparently a mania for diamonds, which he wore not only in
rings but also in his watch and chain, his snuff box, and upon his buckles. A
jeweler once estimated the value of his shoe buckles at 200,000 francs. The
Comte is generally depicted as a man in middle life, entirely devoid of wrinkles
and free from any physical infirmity. He ate no meat and drank no wine, in fact
seldom dined in the presence of any second person. Although he was looked
upon as a charlatan and impostor by a few nobles at the French court, Louis
XV severely reprimanded a courtier who made a disparaging remark concern-
ing him. The grace and dignity that characterized his conduct, together with his
perfect control of every situation, attested the innate refinement and culture of
one "to the manner born." This remarkable person also had the surprising and
impressive ability to divine, even to the most minute details, the questions of
his inquisitors before they were asked. By something akin to telepathy he was
also able to feel when his presence was needed in some distant city or state,
and it has even been recorded of him that he had the astonishing habit not only
of appearing in his own apartment and in those of friends without resorting to
the conventionality of the door but also of departing therefrom in a similar
manner.
M. de St.-Germain's travels covered many countries. During the reign of
Peter III he was in Russia and between the years 1737 and 1742 in the court of
the Shah of Persia as an honored guest. On the subject: of his wanderings Una
Birch writes: "The travels of the Comte de Saint-Germain covered a long pe-
riod of years and a great range of countries. From Persia to France and from
Calcutta to Rome he was known and respected. Horace Walpole spoke with
him in London in 1745; Clive knew him in India in 1756; Madame d'Adhmar
alleges that she met him in Paris in 1789, five years after his supposed death;
while other persons pretend to have held conversations with him in the early
nineteenth century. He was on familiar and intimate terms with the crowned
heads of Europe and the honoured friend of many distinguished persons of all
nationalities. He is even mentioned in the memoirs and letters of the day, and
always as a man of mystery. Frederick the Great, Voltaire, Madame de Pom-
padour, Rousseau, Chatham, and Walpole, all of whom knew him personally,
rivalled each other in curiosity as to his origin. During the many decades in
which he was before the world, however, no one succeeded in discovering why
he appeared as a Jacobite agent in London, as a conspirator in Petersburg, as
an alchemist and connoisseur of pictures in Paris, or as a Russian general at
Naples. * * * Now and again the curtain which shrouds his actions is drawn
aside, and we are permitted to see him fiddling in the music room at Versailles,

705
gossiping with Horace Walpole in London, sitting in Frederick the Great's
library at Berlin, or conducting illuminist meetings in caverns by the Rhine."
(See The Nineteenth Century, January, 1908.)
The Comte de St.-Germain has been generally regarded as an important
figure in early activities of the Freemasons. Repeated efforts, however, proba-
bly with an ulterior motive, have been made to discredit his Masonic affilia-
tions. An example of this is the account appearing in The Secret Tradition in
Freemasonry, by Arthur Edward Waite. This author, after making several ra-
ther disparaging remarks on the subject, amplifies his article by reproducing an
engraving of the wrong Comte de St.-Germain, apparently being unable to
distinguish between the great illuminist and the French general. It will yet be
established beyond all doubt that the Comte de St.-Germain was both a Mason
and a Templar; in fact the memoirs of Cagliostro contain a direct statement of
his initiation into the order of the Knights Templars at the hands of St.-
Germain. Many of the illustrious personages with whom the Comte de St.-
Germain associated were high Masons, and sufficient memoranda have been
preserved concerning the discussions which they held to prove that he was a
master of Freemasonic lore. It is also reasonably certain that he was connected
with the Rosicrucians--possibly having been the actual head of that order.

Click to enlarge
THE ''DIVINE'' CAGLIOSTRO.
From Houdon's Bust of Cagliostro.
The Comte di Cagliostro is described as a man not overly tall, but square shouldered
and deep of chest. His head, which was large, was abundantly covered with black hair
combed back from his broad and noble forehead. His eyes were black and very bril-
liant, and when he spoke with great feeling upon some profound subject the pupils
dilated, his eyebrows rose, and he shook his head like a maned lion. His hands and
feet were small--an indication of noble birth--and his whole bearing was one of dignity
and studiousness. He was filled with energy, and could accomplish a prodigious
amount of work. He dressed somewhat fantastically, gave so freely from an inexhausti-
ble purse that he received the title of "Father of the Poor," accepted nothing from any-
706
one, and maintained himself in magnificence in a combined temple and palace in the
Rue d, la Sourdire. According to his own statement he was initiated into the Mysteries
by none other than the Comte de St.-Germain. He had traveled through all parts of the
world, and in the ruins of ancient Babylon and Nineveh had discovered wise men who
understood all the secrets of human life.

The Comte de St.-Germain was thoroughly conversant with the principles of

Oriental esotericism. He practiced the Eastern system of meditation and con-
centration, upon several occasions having been seen seated with his feet
crossed and hands folded in the posture of a Hindu Buddha. He had a retreat
in the heart of the Himalayas to which he retired periodically from the world.
On one occasion he declared that he would remain in India for eighty-five
years and then would return to the scene of his European labors. At various
times he admitted that he was obeying the orders of a power higher and greater
than himself. What he did not say was that this superior power was the Mystery
school which had sent him into the world to accomplish a definite mission.
The Comte de St.-Germain and Sir Francis Bacon are the two greatest emissa-
ries sent into the world by the Secret Brotherhood in the last thousand years.
E. Francis Udny, a Theosophical writer, is of the belief that the Comte de
St.-Germain was not the son of Prince Rkczy of Transylvania, but because of
his age could have been none other than the prince himself, who was known to
be of a deep philosophic and mystic nature. The same writer believes the
Comte de St.-Germain passed through the "philosophic death" as Francis Ba-
con in 1626, as Franois Rkczy in 1735, and as Comte de St.-Germain in
1784. He also feels that the Comte de St.-Germain was the famous Comte de
Gabalis, and as Count Hompesch was the last Grand Master of the Knights of
Malta. It is well known that many members of the European secret societies
have feigned death for various purposes. Marshal Ney, a member of the Socie-
ty of Unknown Philosophers, escaped the firing squad and under the name of
Peter Stuart Ney lived and taught school for over thirty years in North Caroli-
na. On his deathbed, P. S. Ney told Doctor Locke, the attending physician,
that he was Marshal Ney of France.
In concluding an article on the identity of the inscrutable Comte de St.-
Germain, Andrew Lang writes: "Did Saint-Germain really die in the palace of
Prince Charles of Hesse about 1780-85? Did he, on the other hand, escape
from the French prison where Grosley thought he saw him, during the French
Revolution? Was he known to Lord Lytton about 1860? * * * Is he the myste-
rious Muscovite adviser of the Dalai Lama? Who knows? He is a will-o'-the-
wisp of the memoir-writers of the eighteenth century. " (See Historical Myste-
ries.)

707
EPISODES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

Many times the question has been asked, Was Francis Bacon's vision of the
"New Atlantis" a prophetic dream of the great civilization which was so soon to
rise upon the soil of the New World? It cannot be doubted that the secret so-
cieties of Europe conspired to establish upon the American continent "a new
nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal." Two incidents in the early history of the United States evidence
the influence of that silent body which has so long guided the destinies of
peoples and religions. By them nations are created as vehicles for the promul-
gation of ideals, and while nations are true to these ideals they survive; when
they vary from them they vanish like the Atlantis of old which had ceased to
"know the gods."
In his admirable little treatise, Our Flag, Robert Allen Campbell revives the
details of an obscure, but most important, episode of American history--the
designing of the Colonial flag of 1775. The account involves a mysterious man
concerning whom no information is available other than that he was on familiar
terms with both General George Washington and Dr. Benjamin Franklin. The
following description of him is taken from Campbell's treatise:
"Little seems to have been known concerning this old gentleman; and in the
materials from which this account is compiled his name is not even once men-
tioned, for he is uniformly spoken of or referred to as 'the Professor.' He was
evidently far beyond his threescore and ten years; and he often referred to
historical events of more than a century previous just as if he had been a living
witness of their occurrence; still he was erect, vigorous and active--hale, hearty,
and clear-minded--as strong and energetic every way as in the prime of his life
He was tall, of fine figure, perfectly easy, and very dignified in his manners;
being at once courteous, gracious and commanding. He was, for those times
and considering the customs of the Colonists, very peculiar in his method of
living; for he ate no flesh, fowl or fish; he never used for food any 'green thing,'
any roots or anything unripe; he drank no liquor, wine or ale; but confined his
diet to cereals and their products, fruits that were ripened on the stem in the
sun, nuts, mild tea and the sweets of honey, sugar or molasses.
"He was well educated, highly cultivated, of extensive as well as varied in-
formation, and very studious. He spent considerable of his time in the patient
and persistent conning of a number of very rare old books and ancient manu-
scripts which he seemed to be deciphering, translating or rewriting. These
books and manuscripts, together with his own writings, he never showed to
anyone; and he did not even mention them in his conversations with the fami-
ly, except in the most casual way; and he always locked them up carefully in a
large, old-fashioned, cubically shaped, iron-bound, heavy, oaken chest, when-

708
ever he left his room, even for his meals. He took long and frequent walks
alone, sat on the brows of the neighboring hills, or mused in the midst of the
green and flower-gemmed meadows. He was fairly liberal--but in no way lavish-
-in spending his money, with which he was well supplied. He was a quiet,
though a very genial and very interesting, member of the family; and be was
seemingly at home upon any and every topic coming up in conversation. He
was, in short, one whom everyone would notice and respect, whom few would
feel well acquainted with, and whom no one would presume to question con-
cerning himself--as to whence he came, why he tarried, or whither he jour-
neyed. "
By something more than a mere coincidence the committee appointed by
the Colonial Congress to design a flag accepted an invitation to be guests, while
in Cambridge, of the same family with which the Professor was staying. It was
here that General Washington joined them for the purpose of deciding upon a
fitting emblem. By the signs which passed between them it was evident that
both General Washington and Doctor Franklin recognized the Professor, and
by unanimous approval he was invited to become an active member of the
committee. During the proceedings which followed, the Professor was treated
with the most profound respect and all of his suggestions immediately acted
upon. He submitted a pattern which he considered symbolically appropriate
for the new flag, and this was unhesitatingly accepted by the other six members
of the committee, who voted that the arrangement suggested by the Professor
be forthwith adopted. After the episode of the flag the Professor quietly va-
nished, and nothing further is known concerning him.
Did General Washington and Doctor Franklin recognize the Professor as an
emissary of the Mystery school which has so long controlled the political desti-
nies of this planet? Benjamin Franklin was a philosopher and a Freemason--
possibly a Rosicrucian initiate. He and the Marquis de Lafayette--also a man of
mystery--constitute two of the most important links in the chain of circums-
tance that culminated in the establishment of the original thirteen American
Colonies as a free and independent nation. Doctor Franklin's philosophic at-
tainments are well attested in Poor Richard's Almanac, published by him for
many years under the name of Richard Saunders. His interest in the cause of
Freemasonry is also shown by his republication of Anderson's Constitutions of
Freemasonry, a rare and much disputed work on the subject.
It was during the evening of July 4, 1776, that the second of these mysterious
episodes occurred. In the old State House in Philadelphia a group of men
were gathered for the momentous task of severing the last tie between the old
country and the new. It was a grave moment and not a few of those present
feared that their lives would be the forfeit for their audacity. In the midst of the
debate a fierce voice rang out. The debaters stopped and turned to look upon

709
the stranger. Who was this man who had suddenly appeared in their midst and
transfixed them with his oratory? They had never seen him before, none knew
when he had entered, but his tall form and pale face filled them with awe. His
voice ringing with a holy zeal, the stranger stirred them to their very souls. His
closing words rang through the building: "God has given America to be free!"
As the stranger sank into a chair exhausted, a wild enthusiasm burst forth.
Name after name was placed upon the parchment: the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was signed. But where was the man who had precipitated the ac-
complishment of this immortal task--who had lifted for a moment the veil from
the eyes of the assemblage and revealed to them a part at least of the great pur-
pose for which the new nation was conceived? He had disappeared, nor was he
ever seen again or his identity established. This episode parallels others of a
similar kind recorded by ancient historians attendant upon the founding of
every new nation. Are they coincidences, or do they demonstrate that the di-
vine wisdom of the ancient Mysteries still is present in the world, serving man-
kind as it did of old?

710
 Conclusion

PHILIP, King of Macedon, ambitious to obtain the teacher who would be

most capable of imparting the higher branches of learning to his fourteen-year-
old son, Alexander, and wishing the prince to have for his mentor the most
famous and learned of the great philosophers, decided to communicate with
Aristotle. He dispatched the following letter to the Greek sage: "PHILIP TO
ARISTOTLE, HEALTH: Know that I have a son. I render the gods many
thanks; not so much for his birth, as that he was born in your time, for I hope
that being educated and instructed by you, he will become worthy of us both
and the kingdom which he shall inherit." Accepting Philip's invitation, Aristotle
journeyed to Macedon in the fourth year of the 108th Olympiad, and re-
mained for eight years as the tutor of Alexander. The young prince's affection
for his instructor became as great as that which he felt for his father. He said
that his father had given him being, but that Aristotle had given him well-being.
The basic principles of the Ancient Wisdom were imparted to Alexander the
Great by Aristotle, and at the philosopher's feet the Macedonian youth came to
realize the transcendency of Greek learning as it was personified in Plato's im-
mortal disciple. Elevated by his illumined teacher to the threshold of the philo-
sophic sphere, he beheld the world of the sages--the world that fate and the
limitations of his own soul decreed he should not conquer.
Aristotle in his leisure hours edited and annotated the Iliad of Horner and
presented the finished volume to Alexander. This book the young conqueror
so highly prized that he carried it with him on all his campaigns. At the time of
his triumph over Darius, discovering among the spoils a magnificent, gem-
studded casket of unguents, he dumped its contents upon the ground, declar-
ing that at last he had found a case worthy of Aristotle's edition of the Iliad!
While on his Asiatic campaign, Alexander learned that Aristotle had pub-
lished one of his most prized discourses, an occurrence which deeply grieved
the young king. So to Aristotle, Conqueror of the Unknown, Alexander, Con-
queror of the Known, sent this reproachful and pathetic and admission of the
insufficiency of worldly pomp and power: "ALEXANDER TO ARISTOTLE,
HEALTH: You were wrong in publishing those branches of science hitherto
not to be acquired except from oral instruction. In what shall I excel others if
the more profound knowledge I gained from you be communicated to all? For
my part I had rather surpass the majority of mankind in the sublimer branches
of learning, than in extent of power and dominion. Farewell." The receipt of
this amazing letter caused no ripple in the placid life of Aristotle, who replied
that although the discourse had been communicated to the multitudes, none

711
who had not heard him deliver the lecture (who lacked spiritual comprehen-
sion) could understand its true import.
A few short years and Alexander the Great went the way of all flesh, and
with his body crumbled the structure of empire erected upon his personality.
One year later Aristotle also passed into that greater world concerning whose
mysteries he had so often discoursed with his disciples in the Lyceum. But, as
Aristotle excelled Alexander in life, so he excelled him in death; for though his
body moldered in an obscure tomb, the great philosopher continued to live in
his intellectual achievements. Age after age paid him grateful tribute, genera-
tion after generation pondered over his theorems until by the sheer transcen-
dency of his rational faculties Aristotle--"the master of those who know," as
Dante has called him--became the actual conqueror of the very world which
Alexander had sought to subdue with the sword.
Thus it is demonstrated that to capture a man it is not sufficient to enslave
his body--it is necessary to enlist his reason; that to free a man it is not enough
to strike the shackles from his limbs--his mind must be liberated from bondage
to his own ignorance. Physical conquest must ever fail, for, generating hatred
and dissension, it spurs the mind to the avenging of an outraged body; but all
men are bound whether willingly or unwillingly to obey that intellect in which
they recognize qualities and virtues superior to their own.
That the philosophic culture of ancient Greece, Egypt, and India excelled
that of the modern, world must be admitted by all, even by the most confirmed
of modernists. The golden era of Greek sthetics, intellectualism, and ethics
has never since been equaled. The true philosopher belongs to the most noble
order of men: the nation or race which is blessed by possession of illumined
thinkers is fortunate indeed, and its name shall be remembered for their sake.
In the famous Pythagorean school at Crotona, philosophy was regarded as
indispensable to the life of man. He who did not comprehend the dignity of
the reasoning power could not properly be said to live. Therefore, when
through innate perverseness a member either voluntarily withdrew or was forc-
ibly ejected from the philosophic fraternity, a headstone was set up for him in
the community graveyard; for he who had forsaken intellectual and ethical
pursuits to reenter the material sphere with its illusions of sense and false ambi-
tion was regarded as one dead to the sphere of Reality. The life represented by
the thraldom of the senses the Pythagoreans conceived to be spiritual death,
while they regarded death to the sense-world as spiritual life.
Philosophy bestows life in that it reveals the dignity and purpose of living.
Materiality bestows death in that it benumbs or clouds those faculties of the
human soul which should be responsive to the enlivening impulses of creative
thought and ennobling virtue. How inferior to these standards of remote days
are the laws by which men live in the twentieth century! Today man, a sublime

712
creature with infinite capacity for self-improvement, in an effort to be true to
false standards, turns from his birthright of understanding--without realizing the
consequences--and plunges into the maelstrom of material illusion. The pre-
cious span of his earthly years he devotes to the pathetically futile effort to es-
tablish himself as an enduring power in a realm of unenduring things. Gradual-
ly the memory of his life as a spiritual being vanishes from his objective mind
and he focuses all his partly awakened faculties upon the seething beehive of
industry which he has come to consider the sole actuality. From the lofty
heights of his Selfhood he slowly sinks into the gloomy depths of ephemerality.
He falls to the level of the beast, and in brutish fashion mumbles the problems
arising from his all too insufficient knowledge of the Divine Plan. Here in the
lurid turmoil of a great industrial, political, commercial inferno, men writhe in
self-inflicted agony and, reaching out into the swirling mists, strive to clutch and
hold the grotesque phantoms of success and power.

Click to enlarge
JOHN AND THE VISION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
From an engraving by Jean Duvet.
Jean Duvet of Langres (who was born in 1485 and presumably died sometime after
1561, the year in which his illustrations to the Apocalypse were printed in book form)
was the oldest and greatest of French Renaissance engravers. Little is known concern-
ing Duvet beyond the fact that he was the goldsmith to the King of France. His engrav-
ings for the Book of Revelation, executed after he had passed his seventieth year, were
his masterpiece. (For further information regarding this obscure master, consult article
by William M. Ivins, Jr., in The Arts, May, 1926.) The face of John is an actual por-
trait of Duvet. This plate, like many others cut by Duvet, is rich in philosophical sym-
bolism.

Ignorant of the cause of life, ignorant of the purpose of life, ignorant of what
lies beyond the mystery of death, yet possessing within himself the answer to it
all, man is willing to sacrifice the beautiful, the true, and the good within and
without upon the blood-stained altar of worldly ambition. The world of philos-
ophy--that beautiful garden of thought wherein the sages dwell in the bond of
fraternity--fades from view. In its place rises an empire of stone, steel, smoke,
713
and hate-a world in which millions of creatures potentially human scurry to and
fro in the desperate effort to exist and at the same time maintain the vast insti-
tution which they have erected and which, like some mighty, juggernaut, is
rumbling inevitably towards an unknown end. In this physical empire, which
man erects in the vain belief that he can outshine the kingdom of the celestials,
everything is changed to stone, Fascinated by the glitter of gain, man gazes at
the Medusa-like face of greed and stands petrified.
In this commercial age science is concerned solely with the classification of
physical knowledge and investigation of the temporal and illusionary parts of
Nature. Its so-called practical discoveries bind man but more tightly with the
bonds of physical limitation, Religion, too, has become materialistic: the beauty
and dignity of faith is measured by huge piles of masonry, by tracts of real es-
tate, or by the balance sheet. Philosophy which connects heaven and earth like
a mighty ladder, up the rungs of which the illumined of all ages have climbed
into the living presence of Reality--even philosophy has become a prosaic and
heterogeneous mass of conflicting notions. Its beauty, its dignity, its transcen-
dency are no more. Like other branches of human thought, it has been made
materialistic--"practical"--and its activities so directionalized that they may also
contribute their part to the erection of this modern world of stone and steel.
In the ranks of the so-called learned there is rising up a new order of think-
ers, which may best be termed the School of the Worldly Wise Men. After
arriving at the astounding conclusion that they are the intellectual salt of the
earth, these gentlemen of letters have appointed themselves the final judges of
all knowledge, both human and divine. This group affirms that all mystics must
have been epileptic and most of the saints neurotic! It declares God to be a
fabrication of primitive superstition; the universe to be intended for no particu-
lar purpose; immortality to be a figment of the imagination; and an outstanding
individuality to be but a fortuitous combination of cells! Pythagoras is asserted
to have suffered from a "bean complex"; Socrates was a notorious inebriate; St.
Paul was subject to fits; Paracelsus was an infamous quack, the Comte di Cagli-
ostro a mountebank, and the Comte de St.-Germain the outstanding crook of
history!
What do the lofty concepts of the world's illumined saviors and sages have in
common with these stunted, distorted products of the "realism" of this century?
All over the world men and women ground down by the soulless cultural sys-
tems of today are crying out for the return of the banished age of beauty and
enlightenment--for something practical in the highest sense of the word. A few
are beginning to realize that so-called civilization in its present form is at the
vanishing point; that coldness, heartlessness, commercialism, and material effi-
ciency are impractical, and only that which offers opportunity for the expres-
sion of love and ideality is truly worth while. All the world is seeking happiness,

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but knows not in what direction to search. Men must learn that happiness
crowns the soul's quest for understanding. Only through the realization of infi-
nite goodness and infinite accomplishment can the peace of the inner Self be
assured. In spite of man's geocentricism, there is something in the human mind
that is reaching out to philosophy--not to this or that philosophic code, but
simply to philosophy in the broadest and fullest sense.
The great philosophic institutions of the past must rise again, for these alone
can tend the veil which divides the world of causes from that of effects. Only
the Mysteries--those sacred Colleges of Wisdom--can reveal to struggling hu-
manity that greater and more glorious universe which is the true home of the
spiritual being called man. Modern philosophy has failed in that it has come to
regard thinking as simply an intellectual process. Materialistic thought is as
hopeless a code of life as commercialism itself. The power to think true is the
savior of humanity. The mythological and historical Redeemers of every age
were all personifications of that power. He who has a little more rationality
than his neighbor is a little better than his neighbor. He who functions on a
higher plane of rationality than the rest of the world is termed the greatest
thinker. He who functions on a lower plane is regarded as a barbarian. Thus
comparative rational development is the true gauge of the individual's evolutio-
nary status.
Briefly stated, the true purpose of ancient philosophy was to discover a me-
thod whereby development of the rational nature could be accelerated instead
of awaiting the slower processes of Nature, This supreme source of power, this
attainment of knowledge, this unfolding of the god within, is concealed under
the epigrammatic statement of the philosophic life. This was the key to the
Great Work, the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone, for it meant that alchemi-
cal transmutation had been accomplished. Thus ancient philosophy was pri-
marily the living of a life; secondarily, an intellectual method. He alone can
become a philosopher in the highest sense who lives the philosophic life. What
man lives he comes to know. Consequently, a great philosopher is one whose
threefold life--physical, mental, and spiritual--is wholly devoted to and com-
pletely permeated by his rationality.
Man's physical, emotional, and mental natures provide environments of
reciprocal benefit or detriment to each other. Since the physical nature is the
immediate environment of the mental, only that mind is capable of rational
thinking which is enthroned in a harmonious and highly refined material con-
stitution. Hence right action, right feeling, and right thinking are prerequisites
of right knowing, and the attainment of philosophic power is possible only to
such as have harmonized their thinking with their living. The wise have there-
fore declared that none can attain to the highest in the science of knowing until
first he has attained to the highest in the science of living. Philosophic power is

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the natural outgrowth of the philosophic life. Just as an intense physical exis-
tence emphasizes the importance of physical things, or just as the monastic
metaphysical asceticism establishes the desirability of the ecstatic state, so com-
plete philosophic absorption ushers the consciousness of the thinker into the
most elevated and noble of all spheres--the pure philosophic, or rational,
world.
In a civilization primarily concerned with the accomplishment of the ex-
tremes of temporal activity, the philosopher represents an equilibrating intellect
capable of estimating and guiding the cultural growth. The establishment of the
philosophic rhythm in the nature of an individual ordinarily requires from
fifteen to twenty years. During that entire period the disciples of old were con-
stantly subjected to the most severe discipline. Every activity of life was gradual-
ly disengaged from other interests and focalized upon the reasoning part. In
the ancient world there was another and most vital factor which entered into
the production of rational intellects and which is entirely beyond the compre-
hension of modern thinkers: namely, initiation into the philosophic Mysteries.
A man who had demonstrated his peculiar mental and spiritual fitness was
accepted into the body of the learned and to him was revealed that priceless
heritage of arcane lore preserved from generation to generation. This heritage
of philosophic truth is the matchless treasure of all ages, and each disciple ad-
mitted into these brotherhoods of the wise made, in turn, his individual contri-
bution to this store of classified knowledge.
The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life
result from the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in
part the dignity of life cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activi-
ties of this age. Well has it been said that no individual can succeed until he
has developed his philosophy of life. Neither can a race or nation attain true
greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy and has dedicated its
existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. During the World War,
when so-called civilization hurled one half of itself against the other in a frenzy
of hate, men ruthlessly destroyed something more precious even than human
life: they obliterated those records of human thought by which life can be intel-
ligently directionalized. Truly did Mohammed declare the ink of philosophers
to be more precious than the blood of martyrs. Priceless documents, invalua-
ble records of achievement, knowledge founded on ages of patient observation
and experimentation by the elect of the earth--all were destroyed with scarcely a
qualm of regret. What was knowledge, what was truth, beauty, love, idealism,
philosophy, or religion when compared to man's desire to control an infinite-
simal spot in the fields of Cosmos for an inestimably minute fragment of time?
Merely to satisfy some whim or urge of ambition man would uproot the un-
iverse, though well he knows that in a few short years he must depart, leaving

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all that he has seized to posterity as an old cause for fresh contention.
War--the irrefutable evidence of irrationality--still smolders in the hearts of
men; it cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifa-
rious inventions and destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal
strife through future ages, But upon the mind of man there is dawning a great
fear--the fear that eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclys-
mic struggle. Then must be reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out
of the ruins of the civilization which died when its idealism died, some primi-
tive people yet in the womb of destiny must build a new world. Foreseeing the
needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired that into the struc-
ture of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all that has
gone before. It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall
be the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures
of humanity must be preserved. That which is superficial may he allowed to
perish; that which is fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost.

Click to enlarge
THE ENTRANCE TO THE HOUSE OF THE MYSTERIES.
From Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapienti, etc.
This symbolic figure, representing the way to everlasting life, is described by Khunrath
in substance as follows: "This is the Portal of the amphitheatre of the only true and
eternal Wisdom--a narrow one, indeed, but sufficiently august, and consecrated to
Jehovah. To this portal ascent is made by a mystic, indisputably prologetic, flight of
steps, set before it as shown in the picture. It consists of seven theosophic, or, rather,
philosophic steps of the Doctrine of the Faithful Sons. After ascending the steps, the
path is along the way of God the Father, either directly by inspiration or by various
mediate means. According to the seven oracular laws shining at the portal, those who
are inspired divinely have the power to enter and with the eyes of the body and of the
mind, of seeing, contemplating and investigating in a Christiano-Kabalistic, divino-
magical, physico-chemical manner, the nature of the Wisdom: Goodness, and Power
of the Creator; to the end that they die not sophistically but live theosophically, and
that the orthodox philosophers so created may with sincere philosophy expound the
works of the Lord, and worthily praise God who has thus blessed these friend, of
God." The above figure and description constitute one of the most remarkable exposi-

717
tions ever made of the appearance of the Wise Man's House and the way by which it
must be entered.

Two fundamental forms of ignorance were recognized by the Platonists: simple

ignorance and complex ignorance. Simple ignorance is merely lack of know-
ledge and is common to all creatures existing posterior to the First Cause,
which alone has perfection of knowledge. Simple ignorance is an ever-active
agent, urging the soul onward to the acquisition of knowledge. From this vir-
ginal state of unawareness grows the desire to become aware with its resultant
improvement in the mental condition. The human intellect is ever surrounded
by forms of existence beyond the estimation of its partly developed faculties. In
this realm of objects not understood is a never-failing source of mental stimuli.
Thus wisdom eventually results from the effort to cope rationally with the
problem of the unknown.
In the last analysis, the Ultimate Cause alone can be denominated wise; in
simpler words, only God is good. Socrates declared knowledge, virtue, and
utility to be one with the innate nature of good. Knowledge is a condition of
knowing; virtue a condition of being; utility a condition of doing. Considering
wisdom as synonymous with mental completeness, it is evident that such a state
can exist only in the Whole, for that which is less than the Whole cannot pos-
sess the fullness of the All. No part of creation is complete; hence each part is
imperfect to the extent that it falls short of entirety. Where incompleteness is, it
also follows that ignorance must be coexistent; for every part, while capable of
knowing its own Self, cannot become aware of the Self in the other parts. Phi-
losophically considered, growth from the standpoint of human evolution is a
process proceeding from heterogeneity to homogeneity. In time, therefore, the
isolated consciousness of the individual fragments is reunited to become the
complete consciousness of the Whole. Then, and then only, is the condition of
all-knowing an absolute reality.
Thus all creatures are relatively ignorant yet relatively wise; comparatively
nothing yet comparatively all. The microscope reveals to man his significance;
the telescope, his insignificance. Through the eternities of existence man is
gradually increasing in both wisdom and understanding; his ever-expanding
consciousness is including more of the external within the area of itself. Even
in man's present state of imperfection it is dawning upon his realization that he
can never be truly happy until he is perfect, and that of all the faculties contri-
buting to his self-perfection none is equal in importance to the rational intel-
lect. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must,
lead the soul into the perfect light of unity.
In addition to the simple ignorance which is the most potent factor in mental

718
growth there exists another, which is of a far more dangerous and subtle type.
This second form, called twofold or complex ignorance, may be briefly defined
as ignorance of ignorance. Worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, and offering
sacrifices to the winds, the primitive savage sought with crude fetishes to propi-
tiate his unknown gods. He dwelt in a world filled with wonders which he did
not understand. Now great cities stand where once roamed the Crookboned
men. Humanity no longer regards itself as primitive or aboriginal. The spirit of
wonder and awe has been succeeded by one of sophistication. Today man
worships his own accomplishments, and either relegates the immensities of
time and space to the background of his consciousness or disregards them
entirely.
The twentieth century makes a fetish of civilization and is overwhelmed by
its own fabrications; its gods are of its own fashioning. Humanity has forgotten
how infinitesimal, how impermanent and how ignorant it actually is. Ptolemy
has been ridiculed for conceiving the earth to be the center of the universe, yet
modern civilization is seemingly founded upon the hypothesis that the planet
earth is the most permanent and important of all the heavenly spheres, and
that the gods from their starry thrones are fascinated by the monumental and
epochal events taking place upon this spherical ant-hill in Chaos.
From age to age men ceaselessly toil to build cities that they may rule over
them with pomp and power--as though a fillet of gold or ten million vassals
could elevate man above the dignity of his own thoughts and make the glitter of
his scepter visible to the distant stars. As this tiny planet rolls along its orbit in
space, it carries with it some two billion human beings who live and die obli-
vious to that immeasurable existence lying beyond the lump on which they
dwell. Measured by the infinities of time and space, what are the captains of
industry or the lords of finance? If one of these plutocrats should rise until he
ruled the earth itself, what would he be but a petty despot seated on a grain of
Cosmic dust?
Philosophy reveals to man his kinship with the All. It shows him that he is a
brother to the suns which dot the firmament; it lifts him from a taxpayer on a
whirling atom to a citizen of Cosmos. It teaches him that while physically
bound to earth (of which his blood and bones are part), there is nevertheless
within him a spiritual power, a diviner Self, through which he is one with the
symphony of the Whole. Ignorance of ignorance, then, is that self-satisfied
state of unawareness in which man, knowing nothing outside the limited area of
his physical senses, bumptiously declares there is nothing more to know! He
who knows no life save the physical is merely ignorant; but he who declares
physical life to be all-important and elevates it to the position of supreme reali-
ty--such a one is ignorant of his own ignorance.
If the Infinite had not desired man to become wise, He would not have bes-

719
towed upon him the faculty of knowing. If He had not intended man to be-
come virtuous, He would not have sown within the human heart the seeds of
virtue. If He had predestined man to be limited to his narrow physical life, He
would not have equipped him with perceptions and sensibilities capable of
grasping, in part at least, the immensity of the outer universe. The criers of
philosophy call all men to a comradeship of the spirit: to a fraternity of
thought: to a convocation of Selves. Philosophy invites man out of the vainness
of selfishness; out of the sorrow of ignorance and the despair of worldliness;
out of the travesty of ambition and the cruel clutches of greed; out of the red
hell of hate and the cold tomb of dead idealism.
Philosophy would lead all men into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the
world of philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up with-
in each human soul are given opportunity for expression. Here men are taught
the wonders of the blades of grass; each stick and stone is endowed with
speech and tells the secret of its being. All life, bathed in the radiance of un-
derstanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality. From the four corners
of creation swells a mighty anthem of rejoicing, for here in the light of philoso-
phy is revealed the purpose of existence; the wisdom and goodness permeating
the Whole become evident to even man's imperfect intellect. Here the yearn-
ing heart of humanity finds that companionship which draws forth from the
innermost recesses of the soul that great store of good which lies there like
precious metal in some deep hidden vein.
Following the path pointed out by the wise, the seeker after truth ultimately
attains to the summit of wisdom's mount, and gazing down, beholds the pano-
rama of life spread out before him. The cities of the plains are but tiny specks
and the horizon on every hand is obscured by the gray haze of the Unknown.
Then the soul realizes that wisdom lies in breadth of vision; that it increases in
comparison to the vista. Then as man's thoughts lift him heavenward, streets
are lost in cities, cities in nations, nations in continents, continents in the earth,
the earth in space, and space in an infinite eternity, until at last but two things
remain: the Self and the goodness of God.
While man's physical body resides with him and mingles with the heedless
throng, it is difficult to conceive of man as actually inhabiting a world of his
own-a world which he has discovered by lifting himself into communion with
the profundities of his own internal nature. Man may live two lives. One is a
struggle from the womb to the tomb. Its span is measured by man's own crea-
tion--time. Well may it be called the unheeding life. The other life is from rea-
lization to infinity. It begins with understanding, its duration is forever, and
upon the plane of eternity it is consummated. This is called the philosophic
life. Philosophers are nor born nor do they die; for once having achieved the
realization of immortality, they are immortal. Having once communed with

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Self, they realize that within there is an immortal foundation that will not pass
away. Upon this living, vibrant base--Self--they erect a civilization which will
endure after the sun, the moon, and the stars have ceased to be. The fool lives
but for today; the philosopher lives forever.
When once the rational consciousness of man rolls away the stone and
comes forth from its sepulcher, it dies no more; for to this second or philo-
sophic birth there is no dissolution. By this should not be inferred physical
immortality, but rather that the philosopher has learned that his physical body
is no more his true Self than the physical earth is his true world. In the realiza-
tion that he and his body are dissimilar--that though the form must perish the
life will not fail--he achieves conscious immortality. This was the immortality to
which Socrates referred when he said: "Anytus and Melitus may indeed put me
to death, but they cannot injure me." To the wise, physical existence is but the
outer room of the hall of life. Swinging open the doors of this antechamber,
the illumined pass into the greater and more perfect existence. The ignorant
dwell in a world bounded by time and space. To those, however, who grasp the
import and dignity of Being, these are but phantom shapes, illusions of the
senses-arbitrary limits imposed by man's ignorance upon the duration of Deity.
The philosopher lives and thrills with the realization of this duration, for to
him this infinite period has been designed by the All-Wise Cause as the time of
all accomplishment.
Man is not the insignificant creature that he appears to be; his physical body
is not the true measure of his real self. The invisible nature of man is as vast as
his comprehension and as measureless as his thoughts. The fingers of his mind
reach out and grasp the stars; his spirit mingles with the throbbing life of Cos-
mos itself. He who has attained to the state of understanding thereby has so
increased his capacity to know that he gradually incorporates within himself the
various elements of the universe. The unknown is merely that which is yet to
be included within the consciousness of the seeker. Philosophy assists man to
develop the sense of appreciation; for as it reveals the glory and the sufficiency
of knowledge, it also unfolds those latent powers and faculties whereby man is
enabled to master the secrets of the seven spheres.
From the world of physical pursuits the initiates of old called their disciples
into the life of the mind and the spirit. Throughout the ages, the Mysteries
have stood at the threshold of Reality--that hypothetical spot between noume-
non and phenomenon, the Substance and the shadow. The gates of the Myste-
ries stand ever ajar and those who will may pass through into the spacious do-
micile of spirit. The world of philosophy lies neither to the right nor to the left,
neither above nor below. Like a subtle essence permeating all space and all
substance, it is everywhere; it penetrates the innermost and the outermost parts
of all being. In every man and woman these two spheres are connected by a

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gate which leads from the not-self and its concerns to the Self and its realiza-
tions. In the mystic this gate is the heart, and through spiritualization of his
emotions he contacts that more elevated plane which, once felt and known,
becomes the sum of the worth-while. In the philosopher, reason is the gate
between the outer and the inner worlds, the illumined mind bridging the
chasm between the corporeal and the incorporeal. Thus godhood is born with-
in the one who sees, and from the concerns of men he rises to the concerns of
gods.
In this era of "practical" things men ridicule even the existence of God. They
scoff at goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria
of materiality. They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars. The
great mystical institutions of antiquity which invited man to enter into his divine
inheritance have crumbled, and institutions of human scheming now stand
where once the ancient houses of learning rose a mystery of fluted columns
and polished marble. The white-robed sages who gave to the world its ideals of
culture and beauty have gathered their robes about them and departed from
the sight of men. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight
of its Providential Generator. Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physi-
cal existence. Men continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still
dream of a nobler world, a fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the
heart and mind of man the gates which lead from mortality to immortality are
still ajar. Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the regenerators of humanity. God
continues to love and guide the destinies of His creation. The path still winds
upward to accomplishment. The soul of man has not been deprived of its
wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh. Philosophy is ever
that magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its
bondage to habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its
wings and soar to the very source of itself.
The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all men welcome to the
House of Light. The great institution of materiality has failed. The false civiliza-
tion built by man has turned, and like the monster of Frankenstein, is destroy-
ing its creator. Religion wanders aimlessly in the maze of theological specula-
tion. Science batters itself impotently against the barriers of the unknown. Only
transcendental philosophy knows the path. Only the illumined reason can car-
ry the understanding part of man upward to the light. Only philosophy can
teach man to be born well, to live well, to die well, and in perfect measure be
born again. Into this band of the elect--those who have chosen the life of know-
ledge, of virtue, and of utility--the philosophers of the ages invite YOU.

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