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MYSTIC MASONRY: Hidden Wisdom, Symbols & Spiritual Science of Freemasonry - J. D. Buck · SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success

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  Mystic Masonry, Chapter one, Principles of Education and Ethics, And this to
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  fill us with regard for man, with apprehension of his passing worth, desire
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  to work his proper nature out and ascertain his rank and final place. For
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  these things tend still upward. Progress is the law of life. Man is
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  not man as yet, nor shall I deem his objects served, his end
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  attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth. While only here and there a
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  star dispels the darkness here, and their towering mind erlukes its prostrate fellows.
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  When the host is out at once to the despair of night. When all
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  mankind alike is perfected, equal in full blown powers, then not till then,
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  I say, begins men's general infancy Browning's Paracelsus. So long as the
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  struggle for bare existence involves, as it does today the greater part of the
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  energy, time, and opportunities of man, he will never discover the real
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  meaning of manhood or the purpose of human existence. Even this much may be
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  discerned from physical evolution alone, from the study of the human brain, in
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  which there is a continually increasing portion of gray substance set free from the function's
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  incident to the preservation of the physical structure, and evidently designed to be appropriated
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  to separate and higher uses. Mere intellectual activities alone, connected with the physical
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  plane, with the maintenance and enjoyment of life, will not explain the philosophy
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  of cerebral development. It is largely for this reason that the offices of the
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  encephalon are so little known today. There are latent powers, in almost infinite
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  capabilities in man, the meaning of which he has hardly yet dreamed of possessing.
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  Nor will leisure and intellectual cultivation alone reveal these powers. It is only
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  through a complete philosophy of the entire nature of man and the capacities and destiny
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  of the human soul, supplemented by the use of such knowledge, that man
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  will eventually come into the possess of his birthright, and from this general infancy,
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  as Browning puts it, begin the journey from real manhood to perfection.
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  Two conditions at the present time stand squarely in the way of such achievements.
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  First, anarchy and confusion, the result of selfishness in all social relations.
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  This condition can be overcome in but one way, viz. By the recognition
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  of the unqualified brotherhood of man, not as a theory or religious duty,
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  or a mere matter of sentiment, but as a fact in nature, a
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  universal and divine law, the penalty for the violation of which is precisely the
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  conditions under which humanity now suffers. The second condition, which has given rise
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  to confusion among the workmen in building the social temple and the individual habitation of
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  man, is false ideals, inefficient methods of education, and almost total ignorance
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  of the existence and the nature of the soul. The result of this ignorance
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  may be seen in the fact that not one individual in a million who,
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  as both leisure and opportunity, makes any real advancement in the evolution of the
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  higher powers, or is even cognizant of the fact that he is a living
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  soul. Old age is filled not only with infirmities, but with miseries without
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  number. Not one in a million can say, with the poet tis the
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  sunset of life gives me mystical lore, as coming events cast their shadows before.
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  In the great majority of cases, with the aged death is looked upon
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  with uncertainty or fear, or as a blessed release from suffering in sorrow.
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  Life is thus endured as a necessary evil and is more often voted by the
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  individual to be a failure than a success. What life ought to be is
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  often conceived from our many failures. What it might be is dimly perceived from
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  the intuitions of the soul, which the struggles and selfishness of existence have failed
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  to entirely obliterate. These things ought not so to be, nor need they
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  longer be, if earnest men and women would seek diligently, first for the
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  cause of all our ills, and secondly for a sufficient remedy. This remedy
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  is to be found first in knowledge, second in service of the truth.
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  Let us now examine a little more in detail some of the conditions under which
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  we suffer. The present is proudly designated as the age of science. The
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  art of printing, the power of steam and electricity in applied science, the
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  conservation correlation of energy, and the theory of evolution in speculative science, with
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  the resulting details, constitute the greater part of our real discoveries. One machine
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  is made t do O do the work of a score or more of men,
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  While the laborers who have been thus displaced have no adequate share in the
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  profits of mechanical invention. Those who work with their hands are no longer artisans,
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  but generally machines a necessity as to different details for which no machine has
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  yet been invented. The work of the labouring class is thus reduced to the
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  routine of drudgery, without the hope of advancement, and therefore with no other
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  incentive than to keep the wolf from the door. A manufactured article, which
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  when completed, serves more often to foster extravagance and luxury than to supply a
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  necessity, passes through many hands before it is completed. The laborer is glad
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  even thus to serve, because idleness means starvation. And still the army of
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  the unemployed is an ever increasing host. The occupation of the common laborer is
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  even more precarious than that of the mechanic or the artisan. Is it any
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  wonder, then, that, in times of financial uncertainty, when thousands of
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  laborers are out of employment and threatened with starvation, unable to apprehend the real
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  causes of their suffering, naturally envious of those who are supplied with all the
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  luxuries of life, and knowing that something is radically wrong somewhere to produce all
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  of this inequality and injustice, ban together to secure what they conceive to be
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  their rights by force. But all this concerns mere physical existence, though the
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  effects are seen on every plane of life. With regard to the science of
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  man and all that concerns his origin, nature, and destiny, individually or
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  collectively, neither science nor religion has taught us anything. Science has given us
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  the slogan the survival of the fittest, a mere scientific phrasing of the motto
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  of the robber barons, that he may seize who hath the power, and
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  he may hold who can. In the industries of life, the result may
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  be reduced to one word. Competition in manufacture, in trade, in all
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  professions, even the clerical profession, in schools everywhere, competition, strife,
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  and the survival of the fittest. And this to fill us with regard for
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  man, with apprehension of his passing worth, desire to work his proper nature
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  out and ascertain his rank and final place. So far, our boasted civilization
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  is on a gigantic scale a car of jugarmatha, and it crushes heads and
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  hearts as relentlessly as the wooden idol of our heathen brothers. Only American like
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  we do the killing by wholesale are not nearly the whole of the energies and
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  activities of life directed to and expended upon the physical plane alone, And has
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  not the struggle for existence increased with the great majority. In spite of all
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  our boasted progress, our boasted science, and our Christian civilization, we have
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  neither the time, the energy, nor the disposition to discover the real meaning
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  and aim of life, because all our energies are absorbed in the bare maintenance
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  of existence. Ah small as the pleasure existence can give, when the fear
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  we shall die only proves that we live. If real knowledge of the nature
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  of the soul and the destiny of man had never existed, our present condition
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  would be pitiable in the extreme. But when it is demonstrated that this knowledge
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  once existed, that it was first degraded by selfishness and then lost by design,
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  and that for centuries, designing priests, many of whom would have disgraced
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  a scaffold, but who have been canonized as ci Dornis, have done their
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  utmost to deprive humanity of this knowledge. What shall the humanitarian say? Shall
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  he preach universal brotherhood and toleration and yet seek revenge on the priesthood a thousand
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  times no, but rather leave priest and proletariat to settle their own affairs and
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  go their own way, and go to work ourselves to recover the lost knowledge,
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  and, when recovered, devoted absolutely to humanity. The most hopeful sign
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  of the times is the humanitarian work being done by thousands of well disposed persons
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  who appreciate existing evils and desire to get rid of them. In very many
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  instances, however, the results attained are by no means commensurate with the energy
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  or the sacrifice employed. For self sacrifice is a virtue not altogether unknown to
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  Christendom, but in very many instances these humanitarians in efforts resemble an attempt to
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  destroy a upus tree, which, being cut down every day, grows again
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  before morning. We imprison and execute criminals, and crime nowhere decreases. We
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  sequestrate and doctor the insane, and insanity continually increases. We build hospitals for
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  orphans, the sick, and the aged, and we do well. But
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  orphanage, sickness, and the distress and poverty of age grow. In no
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  wise less, it ought sometime to occur to us that society is all wrong.
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  Or that something is radically wrong with all our methods. In the aggregate,
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  all the profits derived from scientific discoveries and from labor saving machines has to
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  be returned to the criminal or indigen classes. The only thing that we can
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  boast of as a result is an increase in the number of millionaires. And
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  these as a class, instead of being the fruition of a higher evolution,
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  are almost without exception, the very flower of a civilization of competition and selfishness.
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  They have created an aristocracy of wealth, very often by gambling or stealing,
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  and determine the criterion of what is callied good society viz. Extravagant display
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  in vulgar pretentiousness. What then, is really the matter with our boasted civilization.
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  The answer is ignorance and selfishness. It is the result of the sin
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  of separateness. If in our social and political affairs the foregoing are the results
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  in spite of all scientific progress and in the face of our boasted Christian civilization,
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  in the intellectual realm or in educational matters, are we any better off?
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  Let us see one of the first lessons the child is taught in school
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  is competition. It is instilled into every child at an early age that he
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  should aim to be at the head of his class, and his exertions are
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  continually incited to get ahead of his fellows. Many a young man or young
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  woman graduating from literary institutions and carrying off the prizes for proficiency or scholarship are
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  mental wrecks all the rest of their lives. Nor are the subjects taught or
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  the branches of learning mastered such in a great majority of instances as are of
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  any great practical value to the student in after life. The amount of technical
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  formation acquired is often useful in the so called learned professions, but in the
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  ordinary walks of life more often fall into disuse, and seldom serve the purpose
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  of opening the higher avenues of knowledge or putting the individual in possession of a
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  real knowledge of himself. Herbert Spencer mentions five objects to be attained in the
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  education of children, That education which prepares for direct self preservation, that which
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  prepares for indirect self preservation, that which prepares for parenthood, that which prepares
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  for citizenship, and that which prepares for the miscellaneous refinements of life. These
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  objects set forth by one of the most profound writers of the present time may
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  be seen to pertain to self preservation and getting on in life. The last
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  object may, by implication, have a social bearing. But any higher knowledge
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  designed to put man in possession of his real powers and to promote the evolution
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  of the soul are not even mentioned. In all our religious instruction from childhood,
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  and through all the ministrations of religion. In after life, we are
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  taught to look very sharp after the salvation of our own souls, and this
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  in the face of the statement that a very large proportion of the human race
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  will eventually be utterly lost or damned for all eternity. Science completes the picture
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  by trying to demonstrate that the struggle for existence is a necessary condition of all
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  improvement, and that only the sharpest tooth and the longest claw can survive.
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  The ideal thus held aloft by both religion and science is selfishness. Self preservation
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  is regarded as the first law of life. The result is materialism in the
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  strictest and broadest sense, and this has paralyzed, where it has not utterly
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  destroyed, all higher ideals. Is it not reasonable to suppose that if we
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  were possessed of real knowledge, we might so govern our actions and so shape
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  our lives as to avoid the pitfalls of ignorance and set our feet on the
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  line of the higher evolution. Religion offers faith with a system of rewards and
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  punishments, and inculcates charity, which is more often interpreted as the giving of
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  alms. But religion does not give us knowledge. Science offers a theory or
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  a working hypothesis, but still does not give us knowledge. So long as
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  it requires all of our energies to barely maintain existence on the physical plane,
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  and to help those who cannot do even that unaided, we have little opportunity
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  to seek for higher things. The complicated system under which we are working is
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  the result of many centuries of ignorance and superstition, and of many generations of
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  evil doing, and these results cannot be changed in a day. Many of
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  our modern institutions, covered over as they are with abuses and injustice, are
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  nevertheless so deep rooted that they will have to work themselves out to the bitter
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  end of pain, sorrow, and probably through lawlessness and bloodshed. This need
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  not be yet, it would be impossible to convince all at once a sufficient
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  number of individuals who are involved in these institutions of the real cause of all
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  our misery, and at the same time to induce them to cooperate at once
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  to remove the cause. Such a thing is not to be expected because of
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  universal unbelief as to the existence of the remedy proposed. Hence, retributive justice
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  will have to work out its own results. Is it really necessary that mankind
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  should forever remain in ignorance and forever repeat the same follies and invite the retribution
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  that we have invoked In the following pages. Two sources of knowledge have been
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  pointed out viz. Masonry and philosophy, and these have been shown to take
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  their rise, either directly or indirectly, from the mysteries of antiquity. The
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  unqualified brotherhood of man is the basis of all ethics, and the Great Republic
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  is the ideal state. If these concepts were accepted and acted upon, there
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  would result time, opportunity, and the power to apprehend the deeper problems of
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  the origin, nature, and destiny of man. Man is not man as
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  yet. What he may be and what he might do under favorable conditions is
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  very seldom even dreamed of. We never build beyond our ideals we habitually fall
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  below them. There are a few persons in nearly every community with whom the
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  struggle for existence is reduced to the minimum, and undoubtedly the majority of these
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  are women. Having a competency against want or being amply provided for. They
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  really have leisure for study and self improvement, and many of these engage more
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  or less in charitable work. But possessing no high ideal beyond the meritoriousness of
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  charity and the self approbation which it brings, and having no real knowledge as
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  to the nature of the soul and the laws of its higher evolution, they
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  fritter away their opportunity in luxury and self indulgence, which they feel is justified
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  by the tribute they have already paid to charity. The result is that they
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  are habitually consumed with ONWY, and they are as unstable as water in the
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  search for a new sensation or a new excitement. If the majority of these
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  are women who determine the standards and usages in what is called society, the
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  ideals of their male associates are far lower than theirs, and the men are
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  saved from ANWY by the diversity of club life or the necessities of business.
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  The common laborer who finds continued employment is really less miserable oftentimes than these sons
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  and daughters of fortune, who generally lose all zest in life, whose old
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  age is filled with misery over their vanished youth, and whose lives are frequently
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  cut short by paresis. Where they do not degenerate into imbecility. It is
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  one of the most hopeful signs of the time that among this favor class,
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  an increasing number are found devoting themselves, their time, energy, and money
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  to the betterment of the condition of the masses. Reincarnation being true, these
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  servants of humanity are laying by a store of good karma, which is literally
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  treasure in heaven, and which must inevitably secure for them still broader opportunities and
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  greater power for good in another life. And best of all, they are
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  unfolding the higher spiritual perceptions. Nothing so shrouds the higher self in man as
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  selfishness, and this is the reason why so few persons are possessed of the
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  direct perception that what is true is true, and that what is false is
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  false. There has been for a long time a very widespread and increasing conviction
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  that education would prove a panacea for all our evils, and that if we
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  could begin with the young and have the training of children, we could eventually
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  reform society, even though these children might be the offspring of vicious parentage.
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  That we must educate or we must perish contains, no doubt, a great
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  truth, but it is offset by another saying education cannot repair the defects of
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  birth. What real education is, how and when it should begin, and
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  what under the asterisk most favorable circumstances it may be expected to accomplish. We
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  do not yet perceive. The saying that it takes at least three generations to
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  make a gentleman contains a truth, even if the criterion as to what constitutes
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  a real gentleman may be uncertain or defective. And again, the saying that
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  the education of a child should begin at least nine months before it is born
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  shows that prenatal conditions and influences are at least recognized as existing. But in
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  this last direction viz. As to tile environment of the mother during gestation.
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  The ancient Greeks knew far more than we and enacted laws to prevent physical deformity
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  from being propagated or even seen, the result was physical symmetry such as the
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  world has seldom seen. Now, when all these prop problems are studied in
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  the light of reincarnation, the greater part of all obscurity disappears. Such study
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  teaches us what the ego is, and exactly what is determined by heredity,
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  and what are the individual and inalienable possessions of the ego itself. It teaches,
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  how by a law as blind as that of gravitation, because it is
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  always absolutely just and as inflexible as fate. The karma of the child associates
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  it with the karma of the parents, whether on the score of virtue or
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  of vice. If both vice and virtue adhere to the ego as the result
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  of all former living, and are manifest in the tendencies of the individual one
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  way or the other, then the parentage in any case can only furnish the
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  necessary conditions of expression the opportunity to work out the innate tendencies. Now,
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  the thing that education can and ought to change is these innate tendencies. This
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  is the only genuine reformation, and a great step toward this is gained by
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  imp movement in individual environment. If, however, it be considered that all
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  environment is the result of karma. Under natural law, it will be seen
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  that the most unfortunate and hopeless environment might sometimes afford the very conditions of reformation.
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  It can be imagined that a really intelligent and aspiring ego, brought by
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  karma into these unfavorable conditions as the result of its own acts in a former
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  life, would not only put forth all of its energies to rise, but
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  would be forever more repelled by such degrading influences as now surround him, and
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  flee from them as from a pestilence. Here we come face to face with
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  the real problem of education. How shall we educate with the children of the
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  poor, and even with many of those of the middle classes. The ordinary
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  curriculum of school and college often serves to inculcate ideas of luxury and contempt for
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  labor, and results in many instances in idleness and dissipation. Many parents are
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  ambitious that their children should be edged in order that they may escape from hard
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  work and have an easier time in life than they have had themselves. In
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  morality or ethics, the children are taught certain precepts or are required to recite
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  certain religious formula such as the Creed or the Catechism. They are very seldom,
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  however, taught unselfishness or self conquest. The result is that the innate
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  perceptions of the child, which are naturally far keener than most people are aware
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  of, and which invariably, unless cultivated, become blunted with age and worldly
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  experience, are utterly disregarded, or they are blunted by the very system of
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  competition in education to which reference has already been made. It may thus be
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  seen that it makes all the difference in the world how we educate, and
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  that ideals here are of more importance than almost anywhere else. It is true
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  that in some of the newer colleges methods are being introduced which foster individuality and
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  which cultivate the natural perceptions to an extent hitherto almost unknown. This method must
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  necessarily result in putting those students who are so fortunate as to come under its
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  influence in possession of their own faculties, and in making them aware of their
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  own capabilities. This method must necessarily favor a strong individuality in the student.
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  Now, if this can be supplemented by a further knowledge of the latent powers
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  of the soul, and with the true ideals of the higher evolution, the
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  result will be something not yet apprehended by the majority of educators. In discussing
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  the question as to what kind of knowledge is of the most use, Herbert
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  Spencer places scientific knowledge in the first category, not alone for its practical results,
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  but on account of the ideals to which it may give rise and the
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  broader apprehension to which it may lead. Only the sincere man of science,
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  he says, and not the mere calculator of distances, or analyzer of compounds,
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  or labler of species, but him who, through lower truths, seeks
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  higher and eventually the highest can truly know, how utterly beyond not only human
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  knowledge, but human conception is the universal power of which nature and life and
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  thought are manifestations. In like manner, Professor Huxley makes the consummation of science
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  to be the discernment of the rational order pervading the universe. It is then,
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  our methods that are most at fault, in our ignorance that holds us
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  down. It is this higher knowledge toward which all useful and rational acquirement tends,
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  And why should our efforts cease short of the very highest All education that
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  does not tend in this direction, with the final goal consistently and continually in
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  view is false and is necessarily a failure. Now, this higher knowledge is
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  a knowledge of the soul, of its origin, nature, powers, and
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  the laws that govern its evolution. And this is precisely the knowledge which modern
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  science fails to afford, but which ancient science taught in the mysteries of antiquity.
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  All preliminary study in training led up to this dash the real measure of
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  a man. Just as all life is an evolution, so is all real
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  knowledge and initiation, and it proceeds in a natural order and advances by specific
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  degrees. The candidate must always be worthy and well qualified, duly and truly
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  prepared. That is, he must perceive that such knowledge exists, must desire
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  to possess it, and must be willing to make whatever personal sacrifice is necessary
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  for its acquirement. He must have passed beyond the stage of blind belief or
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  superstition, the bondage of fear, the age of fable, and the dominion
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  of appetite and sense. This is the meaning of being duly and truly prepared.
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  He must have proved his fitness in these directions. No less than the
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  absence in him of that subtler form of intellectual selfishness, which comes from the
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  possession of knowledge, and the desire for dominion threw it over others less highly
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  endowed for selfish purposes of his own. His motive therefore alone can determine that
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  he is worthy in well qualified. It is true on every plane of life
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  that in the process by which knowledge is acquired, always by experience, man
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  becomes the thing which he knows. That is, knowing is a progressive becoming.
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  There results, therefore a continual transformation of the motives, ideals, and
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  perceptions of the individual, whenever in his daily experience in life he is placed
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  on the lines of least resistance or the natural order of evolution. This is
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  the really scientific and philosophical meaning of all initiation. By referring to the chapter
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  in which the principles and planes of life are considered, it will be seen
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  that the principle just stated is the logical deduction from the idea of microcosm and
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  macrocosm, or the philosophical concept that man is involved from divinity and evolves with
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  universal nature, and that therefore his evolution runs pari passu with that of the
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  earth he inhabits. There is so much of the commonplace that passes with us
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  for knowledge, and that is so utterly void of comprehension, that unless one
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  is familiar with this line of thought, he will not readily see the truth
• 26:07
  and bearing of the statement that man always becomes that which he really knows.
• 26:11
  Here lies the reason why the mere inculcation of moral precepts so often fails entirely
• 26:17
  in transforming character, and why there is so much lip service. In his
• 26:22
  travels through China and Phibet, Abbe Hutt gives a graphic account of the traveling
• 26:26
  traders whom he encountered. He depicts their shrewdness in trade and their general air
• 26:32
  of friendliness, and dot declaxes that the slogan forever on their lips was that
• 26:36
  all men are brothers, but this did not prevent them from taking every possible
• 26:40
  advantage of their customers. So easy is it for a moral precept to degenerate
• 26:45
  into mere slang. Conscience is the struggle of the understanding and assimilating experience.
• 26:49
  It is the effort of the individual to adjust precept with practice, or in
• 26:53
  other words, conscience is that living, active process resulting in the growth of
• 26:59
  the soul and in the increase of man's power to apprehend truth. In the
• 27:03
  ancient mysteries, life presented itself to the candidate as a problem to be solved,
• 27:07
  and not as certain propositions to be memorized and as easily forgotten. The
• 27:12
  solution of this problem constituted all genuine initiation, and at every step or degree,
• 27:18
  the problem expanded. As the vision of the candidate enlarged in relation to
• 27:23
  the problems and meaning of life, his powers of apprehension and assimilation also increased
• 27:29
  proportionately. This was also an evolution. It may reasonably be supposed that the
• 27:34
  lower degrees of such initiation concerned the ordinary affairs of life, viz. A
• 27:40
  knowledge of the laws and processes of external nature, the candidate's relation to these
• 27:45
  through his physical body, and his relations on a physical plane through his animal
• 27:49
  senses and social instincts to his fellow men. These matters being learned, adjusted,
• 27:56
  mastered, the candidate passed to the next degree, where he learned theoretically,
• 28:00
  at first the nature of the soul the process of its evolution, and
• 28:04
  began to unfold those finer instincts that have been so often referred to in certain
• 28:10
  sections of this work. If he was found capable of apprehending these and kept
• 28:15
  his vow in the preceding degree, he presently discovered the evolution within him of
• 28:19
  senses and faculties pertaining to the soul plane, his progress would be instantly arrested,
• 28:26
  and his teachers would refuse all further instruction. If he was found negligent
• 28:30
  of the ordinary duties of life, those to his family, his neighbors,
• 28:33
  or his country, all these must have been fully discharged before he could stand
• 28:38
  upon the threshold as a candidate for the greater mysteries, For in these he
• 28:42
  became an unselfish servant of humanity as a whole, and had no longer the
• 28:47
  right to bestow the gifts of knowledge or power that he possessed upon his own
• 28:51
  kinsmen, or friends, in preference to strangers. In the higher degrees,
• 28:56
  he might be precluded from using these powers, even to presus of his own
• 29:00
  life. Both the Master and his powers belong to humanity. If the reader
• 29:06
  will but reflect a moment how the tantalizing Jews called upon Jesus to save himself
• 29:11
  and come down from the cross. If he were the Christ, it may
• 29:14
  be seen that this doctrine of supreme selflessness ought long ago to have been better
• 29:18
  apprehended by the Christian world. For while it is a divine attribute, the
• 29:22
  synonym of the Christ, it is latent in all humanity, and must be
• 29:26
  evolved, as herein described. That which makes such an evolution seem to modern
• 29:32
  readers impossible is that it cannot be conceived as being accomplished in a single life,
• 29:37
  nor can it be. It is the result of persistent effort, guided
• 29:41
  by high ideals, through many lives. Those who deny pre existence may logically
• 29:47
  deny all such evolution. There must, however, come a time when the
• 29:52
  consummation is reached in one life, and this is the logical meaning of the
• 29:56
  saying of Jesus I t is finished. Two. The genius of freemasonry.
• 30:03
  The whole world is but one republic, of which each nation is a family
• 30:07
  and every individual a child. Masonry, not in any wise derogating from the
• 30:11
  differing duties which the diversity of states requires, tends to create a new people,
• 30:17
  which, composed of men of many nations and tongues, shall all be
• 30:21
  bound together by the bonds of science, morality, and virtue. Pike's morals
• 30:25
  and Dogma, page two twenty. In fine, the real object of this
• 30:30
  association Freemasonry may be summed up in these words, to efface from among men
• 30:36
  the prejudices of caste, the conventional distinctions of color, origin, opinion,
• 30:40
  nationality, to annihilate fanaticism and superstition, extirpate national discord, and with it,
• 30:45
  extinguish the firebrand of war. In a word, to arrive, by
• 30:49
  free and pacific progress, at one formula or model of eternal and universal right,
• 30:55
  according to which each individual human being shall be free to develop every faculty
• 31:00
  with which he may be endowed, and to concur heartily and with all the
• 31:03
  fullness of his strength in the bestowment of happiness upon all, and thus to
• 31:08
  make of the whole human race one family of brothers, united by affection,
• 31:12
  wisdom, and labor. Rebold's History of Masonry, page sixty two. The
• 31:18
  above quotations from two of the most prominent modern writers on freemasonry, the one
• 31:22
  dealing with the philosophical and the other with the historical aspect of the subject,
• 31:26
  may fairly represent the genius or the ideals and aims of masonry. How far
• 31:33
  short of this ideal, masonry may fall today. It is no part of
• 31:36
  the object of this book to show no one, however, at all familiar
• 31:41
  with the subject, will, for a moment undertake to maintain that nothing is
• 31:45
  left to be accomplished. It is indeed something grand and sublime to have conceived
• 31:51
  such an ideal and to have striven in any measure toward its realization, And
• 31:55
  this masonry has done from its earliest history. There is a thread of traduation
• 32:00
  tion connecting modern masonry with the most ancient mysteries of antiquity. The ancient landmarks
• 32:06
  may be discovered in every nation and time. Notwithstanding the connection that so evidently
• 32:10
  exists, says doctor Rebold, between the ancient mysteries and the freemasonry of our
• 32:15
  day, the latter should be considered an imitation, rather than a continuation of
• 32:20
  those ancient mysteries. For initiation into them was the entering of a school wherein
• 32:24
  were taught art, science, morals, jaw philosophy, philanthropy, and the
• 32:30
  wonders and worship of Nature Rebold's History, page sixty two. The Universal science
• 32:37
  and the sublime philosophy once taught in the greater mysteries of Egypt, Chaldea,
• 32:42
  Persia, and India and among many other nations of antiquity is a dead letter
• 32:46
  in modern freemasonry. The intelligent mason, however, should be the last person
• 32:52
  in the world to deny that such wisdom once existed, for the simple reason
• 32:55
  that the whole superstructure of masonry is built upon the trade nitions of its existence,
• 33:00
  and its ritual serves as its living monument. Proficiency in the preceding degree
• 33:06
  is everywhere made a reason for advancement in masonry. This proficiency is made to
• 33:10
  consist in the ability of the candidate to repeat word for word certain rituals and
• 33:15
  obligations already passed, the meaning or explanations of which constitute the lectures in the
• 33:22
  various degrees. The usage at this point in the United States at least,
• 33:27
  serves rather to secure the rights and benefits of the lodge to those entitled to
• 33:30
  them, and to withhold them from all others, than to advance the candidate
• 33:35
  in real knowledge. In other Masonic jurisdictions, however, a different custom prevails
• 33:42
  of the Belgium lodges. For example, a brother rights as follows our lodge
• 33:46
  called Fleucharite at Orient Charlevoi is under obedience of the Great orient at Brussels,
• 33:52
  and has the Scottish Rite. No mason is supposed to know any thing of
• 33:58
  the ritual by heart. Questions and answers are read out, especially at initiation.
• 34:04
  The work of the mason is supposed to be interior work in himself before
• 34:07
  it can become exterior labor. So in order to obtain his degrees, he
• 34:13
  has to do some work of his own. And no one is supposed to
• 34:15
  learn anything by heart except words, signs and passwords. Now I have to
• 34:21
  tell you that every mason is supposed to do some literary work on general subjects
• 34:25
  concerning the welfare of man, human institutions, sociology, history, philosophy,
• 34:31
  philanthropy, et cetera, et cetera. And it is such work that a
• 34:36
  young mason is supposed to do. Then, after reading these papers, they
• 34:40
  are discussed by all the members of the lodge, present, perhaps for three
• 34:45
  or four meetings, until the subject seems to be exhausted. This develops in
• 34:50
  the young mason his intelligence and his moral feeling, as will be shown in
• 34:54
  a later section. This method conforms to that pursued in the lesser Mysteries of
• 35:00
  Antiquity, which were preparatory for the greater mysteries. It should be borne in
• 35:05
  mind that in modern freemasonry, in the ancient mysteries, and in all of
• 35:08
  the great religions, there was always an exoteric portion given out to the world
• 35:13
  to the uninitiated, and an esoteric portion reserved for the initiate, and revealed
• 35:17
  by degrees, according as the candidate demonstrated his fitness to receive, conceal,
• 35:22
  and rightly use the knowledge so imparted. Few professed Christians are perhaps aware that
• 35:29
  such was the case with Christianity during the first two or three centuries. The
• 35:35
  following quotations from Albert Pike's great work may therefore be of interest. On page
• 35:39
  five hundred forty one d seek he says, this, in its purity,
• 35:45
  as taught by Christ himself, was the true primitive religion, as communicated by
• 35:51
  God to the pat riarchs. It was no new religion, but the reproduction
• 35:55
  of the oldest of all, and its true and perfect morality is the moral
• 36:00
  of masonry, as it is the morality of every creed of antiquity. Saint
• 36:05
  Augustine says, what is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients,
• 36:10
  and was not absent from the human race until Christ came, from which time
• 36:15
  the true religion which existed already began to be called Christian. Saint Augustine was
• 36:21
  Bishop of Hippo, born in three forty seven a d. And lived near
• 36:24
  enough the time of Christ to know whereof he wrote, but to continue our
• 36:29
  quotations from morals and dogma. In the early days of Christianity, there was
• 36:35
  an initiation, like those of the Pagans. Persons were admitted on special conditions.
• 36:39
  Only to arrive at a complete knowledge of the doctrine, they had to
• 36:45
  pass three degrees of instruction. The initiates were consequently divided into three classes,
• 36:51
  the first auditors, the second catechumens, and the third the faithful. These
• 36:57
  doctrines and the celebration of the Holy See sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, were
• 37:01
  kept with profound secrecy. These mysteries were divided into three parts, the first
• 37:07
  styled the Mass of the Catechumans, the second the Mass of the Faithful.
• 37:13
  The celebration of the Mysteries of Mithras was also styled a mass, and the
• 37:16
  ceremonies used were the same. There were found all the sacraments of the Catholic
• 37:22
  Church, even the breath of confirmation. L The Basilidians, a sect of
• 37:27
  Christians that arose soon after the time of the Apostles, practiced the mysteries with
• 37:31
  the old Egyptian legend. They symbolized Osiris by the sun, Isis by the
• 37:37
  moon, and Typhon by scorpio, and wore crystals bearing these emblems as amulets
• 37:42
  or talismans to protect them from danger, upon which were also a brilliant star
• 37:46
  and the serpent. They were copied from the talismans of Persia and Arabia and
• 37:52
  given to every candidate at his initiation. They all claimed gnostics, Marquosians,
• 37:58
  aphites, et cetera, to possess a secret doctrine coming to them directly from
• 38:02
  Jesus Christ, different from that of the Gospels and Epistles, and superior to
• 38:07
  those communications, which in their eyes were merely exoteric. This secret doctrine they
• 38:14
  did not communicate to every one, and among the extensive sects of the Basilidians,
• 38:17
  hardly one in a thousand knew it. As we learn from Urinaeus,
• 38:22
  we know the name of only the highest class of their initiates. They were
• 38:27
  styled elect or, elews and strangers to the world. They had at least
• 38:31
  three degrees, the material, the intellectual, and the spiritual, and the
• 38:36
  lesser and greater mysteries, and the number of those who attained the highest degree
• 38:39
  was quite small. In the hierarchy I attributed to Saint Dionysus the Areopagite,
• 38:46
  the first Bishop of Athens, the tradition of the sacrament is said to have
• 38:51
  been divided into three degrees of grades purification, initiation, and accomplishment or perfection
• 38:57
  and it mentions also as part of the ceremony the bringing to sight. The
• 39:01
  Apostolic Constitutions attributed to Clemens, Bishop of Rome, described the early Church and
• 39:07
  say these regulations must on no account be communicated to all sorts of persons,
• 39:13
  because of the mysteries contained in them. It is interesting to contrast the utterances
• 39:17
  of early bishops of the Christian Church with the bulls and anathemas of excommunication of
• 39:22
  later popes hurled against the Masons for entertaining the same doctrines and practicing the same
• 39:28
  rites. But this was after the idea of dominion had seized. The modern
• 39:31
  Church, which tolerates no rival and would destroy all opposition. Papal supremacy must
• 39:37
  be maintained at any cost. Tertullian, who died about d. Two hundred
• 39:43
  and sixteen, says in his apology none are admitted to the religious mysteries without
• 39:47
  an oath of secrecy. We appeal to your Thracian and Eleusinian mysteries, and
• 39:53
  we are specially bound to this caution, because if we prove faithless, we
• 39:58
  should not only provoke heaven, but draw upon our heads the utmost rigor of
• 40:01
  human displeasure. Clemens, Bishop of Alexandria born A d. One hundred ninety
• 40:07
  one, says in his Stramata that he cannot explain the mysteries because he should
• 40:13
  thereby, according to the old proverb, put a sword into the hands of
• 40:16
  a child. He frequently compares the discipline of the secret with the heathen mysteries,
• 40:22
  as to their internal and recondite wisdom. Origen born a d. One
• 40:28
  hundred thirty four or one hundred thirty five, answering Celsus, who had objected
• 40:31
  that the Christians had a concealed doctrine, said, inasmuch as the essential and
• 40:37
  important doctrines and principles of Christianity are openly taught, it is foolish to object
• 40:43
  that there are other things that are recondite. For this is common discipline with
• 40:45
  that of those philosophers in whose teachings some things were exoteric and some esoteric.
• 40:51
  And it is enough to say that it was so with some of the disciples
• 40:53
  of Pythagoras. The formula which the primitive church pronounced at the moment of celebrating
• 41:00
  its mysteries was this toparchy profane. Let the catchumans and those who have not
• 41:06
  been admitted or initiated go forth. Archilaeus, bishop of Cascaera in Mesopotamia,
• 41:13
  who in the year two feet seventy eight inches conducted a controversy with the Manicheans,
• 41:19
  said, these mysteries the church now communicates to him who has passed through
• 41:23
  the introductory degree. These are not explained to the gentiles at all, nor
• 41:28
  are they taught in the hearing of catechumens. But much that is spoken is
• 41:31
  in disguised terms. That the faithful, who possessed the knowledge may be still
• 41:37
  more informed, and those who are not acquainted with it may suffer no disadvantage.
• 41:42
  Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem was born in the year three sixteen and died
• 41:45
  in three eighty six. In his catchisis. He says, the Lord spake
• 41:52
  in parables to his hearers in general, but to his disciples he explained in
• 41:55
  private the parables and allegories which he spoke in public. Just so the Church
• 42:00
  discovers its mysteries to those who have advanced beyond the class of catechumens, we
• 42:06
  employ obscure terms with others. Saint Basil, the Great Sishop of Cesarea,
• 42:10
  born in the year three twenty six and dying in the year three seventy six,
• 42:15
  says, we receive the dogmas transmitted to us by writing, and those
• 42:21
  which have descended to us from the apostles beneath the mystery of oral tradition.
• 42:24
  For several things have been handed to us without writing. Lest the vulgar,
• 42:29
  too familiar with our dogmas, should lays a due respect for them. This
• 42:34
  is what the uninitiated are not permitted to contemplate, and how should it ever
• 42:37
  be proper to write and circulate among the people on account of them. Saint
• 42:42
  Gregory Nasiens, Bishop of Constantinople d. Three seventy nine, says, you
• 42:49
  have heard as much of the mystery as we are allowed to speak openly.
• 42:52
  In the years of all the rest will be communicated to you in private,
• 42:55
  and that you must retain within yourself. Our mysteries are not to be made
• 43:00
  known to strangers. The foregoing quotations are from Pike's Morals and Dogma, pages
• 43:06
  one hundred forty one, one hundred forty two, one hundred forty three,
• 43:10
  one hundred forty four, and one hundred forty five. To this list of
• 43:15
  witnesses are also added Saint Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan eighty three forty, Saint
• 43:21
  Chrisostom of Constantinople three fifty four for seventeen, Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop in
• 43:28
  four twelve, Theaterret Bishop of Syropolis in Syria in four twenty, and others
• 43:32
  to the same effect. It is beyond controversy that there was an exoteric and
• 43:37
  an esoteric doctrine with the early Christians, that the esoteric doctrines were communicated orally
• 43:44
  in the mysteries of initiation, and that these mysteries conformed to and were originally
• 43:47
  derived from, those of the so called pagan world. The mystery of Christ
• 43:52
  received a new interpretation after the First Nicene Council, and as the Church sought
• 43:58
  dominion, it lost the Great seaks, and since then has denied that it
• 44:01
  ever existed, and done all in its power to obliterate all its records and
• 44:06
  monuments. While we are concerned with Masonry rather than Christianity, it is nevertheless
• 44:13
  necessary to show the connecting links in order that the ancient landmarks may not only
• 44:17
  be discerned, but correctly interpreted. Neither Christianity nor Freemasonry is the direct and
• 44:23
  lineal descendant of the greater mysteries of antiquity, but both are imitators, and
• 44:29
  both have failed to preserve the key of interpretation and are generally unaware that such
• 44:34
  a key ever existed. My contention is not against either Masonry or Christianity,
• 44:38
  but for the rejuvenation of both through the restoration of the secret doctrine to each.
• 44:45
  Modern Masonry never possessed the key, whie many of the early Christian sects
• 44:50
  had it in their possession, but in time lost it through worldliness, the
• 44:53
  greed for earthly dominion, and the decay of spirituality. Something further may be
• 45:00
  shown as to the origin of the Christian mysteries. In the year five twenty
• 45:04
  five b c. Canvases called the mad led an army into Egypt overran the
• 45:09
  country, destroyed its cities, palaces and temples, scattered its priests initiates,
• 45:15
  and reduced the country to a Persian province. Many of its priests took refuge
• 45:20
  in Greece and conveyed thither the Egyptian mysteries which Pythagoras had journeyed to Egypt to
• 45:25
  obtain half a century earlier, in the time of Plato. A century later,
• 45:30
  the mysteries were in a flourishing condition, and in them he learned his
• 45:34
  sublime philosophy. At the beginning of our era, the mysteries had declined.
• 45:39
  There remained, however, the Gnostics, the Essenes, and the Therapeuchee of
• 45:45
  Alexandria, and from these the Christian mysteries were undoubtedly derived. The Neoplatonists,
• 45:51
  headed by Ammonious Saccus, undertook to preserve the primitive revelation, and the utterances
• 45:55
  of the Christian bishops to which I have referred show how the Sea Secret doctrine
• 46:00
  was adopted from the earlier mysteries by the primitive Christians. During the first three
• 46:04
  centuries of our era, after the first Council of Nice d. Three hundred
• 46:09
  and twenty five, littlemore was heard of the earlier doctrines, and with the
• 46:14
  burning of the Great Library of Alexandria, Catholic supremacy and the Dark Ages obliterated
• 46:19
  the primitive wisdom in Western Europe, as it was also overrun by hordes of
• 46:22
  barbarians from the north. The principal seats of learning were the convents. Coming
• 46:29
  now to the dawn of the sixteenth century and the great Protestant Reformation, we
• 46:34
  find Johann Trithemius, abbot of Saint Jacob at Wurtzburg, celebrated as one of
• 46:38
  the greatest of alchemists in Adepts, and Cornelius Agrippi and Paracelsus were his pupils.
• 46:45
  John Reuchlan, a famous cabalist of that time and counted as one of
• 46:49
  the most learned men in his day in Europe, was the friend and perceptor
• 46:52
  of Luther, and Luther's first public utterances were a course of lectures on the
• 46:57
  philosophy of Aristotle. A strong effort was made to revive the ancient wisdom,
• 47:01
  but the age was too gross and superstitious, and the Reformation resulted in centuries
• 47:07
  of blind belief and the suppression of the secret doctrine. Modern Freemasonry honors as
• 47:13
  its ancient great teachers Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, and many others, and
• 47:17
  in some of its degrees gives a brief summary of their doctrines. Masonry in
• 47:22
  a certain sense includes them all and has adopted their precepts. They were all
• 47:29
  initiates in the mysteries, and fundamentally their doctrines were the same. All taught
• 47:34
  the existence of the g A O U, the immortality of the soul,
• 47:38
  and the unqualified brotherhood of man. And with these primitive and fundamental truths,
• 47:44
  Masonry is in full accord. The guilds of masons or builders with which modern
• 47:50
  freemasonry claims connection. Doubtless suggested the name of Mason, the symbolism of a
• 47:54
  builder, and perhaps the form of organization or advancement by degrees as a print
• 48:00
  fellowcraft and Master, representing the three degrees of the ancient mysteries. The past
• 48:06
  two or three centuries at most will include the whole of the history of modern
• 48:09
  Freemasonry. The organization is recent, but its principles, when clearly defined and
• 48:15
  intelligently interpreted, are eternal and are in full accord with the greater mysteries of
• 48:21
  antiquity. The foregoing running comment on some of the ancient landmarks will enable us
• 48:27
  to draw comparisons and derive interpretations of Masonic symbols and glyphics from ancient mysteries,
• 48:31
  and so to discover the science and philosophy that constitute the genius of masonry.
• 48:37
  Instead of being an imitation of them mysteries of antiquity, Masonry should become their
• 48:42
  restoration and perpetuation through the coming centuries, not by relaxing its discipline or changing
• 48:47
  its ritual, but by deepening the learning, intensifying the zeal and elevating the
• 48:52
  aim of dot every brother throughout the world. Chapter three, The Genius of
• 48:57
  Freemasonry continued the traditions, glyphics, and ritual of Freemasonry cluster around the building
• 49:04
  of the temple, the legend of the widow's son Hiramabif, who lost his
• 49:07
  life in the defense of his integrity, and the search for the lost word
• 49:10
  of the Master. As the candidate progresses degree after degree, he is furnished
• 49:16
  with the working tools suited to his degree of knowledge and proficiency, given instruction
• 49:21
  as to their use. The lesser and greater lights are revealed and explained,
• 49:25
  and through all, each outer form or material thing is shown to be a
• 49:30
  symbol of a deeper mystery, a concealed potency. This is, in brief,
• 49:35
  the language and the philosophy of symbolism, or the exoteric and the esoteric
• 49:39
  garb of truth. The method itself, outside of all details or applications,
• 49:45
  has a deeper scientific significance than most persons are aware of. This method of
• 49:51
  instruction is not fanciful or arbitrary, but conforms to the process of eternal nature.
• 49:55
  In building an atom or a world, a daisy or a man cosmos
• 50:00
  has evolved from chaos, and yet chaos remains the eternal potency what Plato called
• 50:06
  the world of divine ideas. This will be more fully explained in a subsequent
• 50:10
  chapter. For the present, it may suffice to say that from primitive space,
• 50:15
  primordial ether, or what modern science might call the matrix or origin of
• 50:21
  the nebulous mass, the Earth and all that it contains has evolved the essential
• 50:25
  form or idea of all things, the potency or force, and the matter
• 50:30
  as we now discern it must have existed in primordial space. Therefore, these
• 50:36
  two always exist, viz. The inner potency and the outer act. The
• 50:40
  concealed idea and the outer form, the inner meaning and the outer event,
• 50:45
  each is in its turn a symbol of the other. Hence the saying on
• 50:50
  this Smeragdin tablet, as above so below. All outward things are therefore symbols
• 50:55
  or embodiments of pre existing ideas, and out of this objective ideal realm,
• 51:00
  all visible things have emanated. This doctrine of emanations is the key to the
• 51:06
  philosophy of Plato and that of the Gnostic sects from which the early Christians derive
• 51:10
  their mysteries. This fact is mentioned here in order to show the deep foundations
• 51:15
  of the glyphics of masonry. In the Ritual of Masonry, King Solomon's Temple
• 51:20
  is taken as a symbol. The building and the restoration of the Temple at
• 51:24
  Jerusalem are dramatically represented in the work of the Lodge and in the ceremony of
• 51:29
  Initiation, by a play upon words and parody of events, and applied to
• 51:32
  the candidate with admonition, warning, or encouragement. As the drama unfolds,
• 51:38
  the measurements and proportion of the temple are dwelt upon in order to bring in
• 51:43
  the science of numbers, form and proportion so manifest in architecture, and to
• 51:47
  connect them with the spiritual temple, with which they all have the same,
• 51:52
  though less obvious relations. The symbolism is fitted to ideal relations rather than to
• 51:59
  actual existence or historical events. So O l o Amon represents the name of
• 52:04
  Deity in three languages, and the biblical history is doubtless an allegory or myth
• 52:08
  of the Sun God. There is no reliable history of the construction of any
• 52:14
  such temple at Jerusalem, and recent explorations and measurements have greatly altered the dimensions
• 52:19
  as heretoforegiven. Hiram Abyff is dramatically represented to have lost his life when the
• 52:24
  temple was near completion, and yet it is recorded that after the completion of
• 52:29
  the temple he labored for years to construct an ornament a palace for the king.
• 52:34
  Add to these facts the statement that the temple was constructed without the sound
• 52:37
  of hammer or any tool of iron, and it is thus likened more nearly
• 52:40
  to that other spiritual temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens, and
• 52:45
  the literal and historical features disappear, and the symbolism stands out in bold relief.
• 52:52
  Masonic lodges are dedicated to the sts. John, one of whom the
• 52:57
  evangelist opens his Gnostic Gospel with the Grit Greek philosophy of the logos the principle
• 53:01
  of emanation already referred to, and the other the Seer of Patmos writes a
• 53:07
  book symbolical of ancient initiations, which many a non initiate has tried in vain
• 53:10
  to interpret. It may thus be seen that there is a deep significance in
• 53:15
  the dedication of lodges to the S. T. S. John. Take
• 53:20
  for example Revelation sixteen sixteen. And the city leath for square, and the
• 53:25
  length is as large as the breadth, And he measured the city with the
• 53:29
  read twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it
• 53:34
  are equal a perfect cube. And he measured the wall thereof a hundred forty
• 53:38
  and four cubits. According to the measure of a man, that is an
• 53:43
  angel. The language is evidently a veil designed to conceal the real meaning from
• 53:47
  the uninitiated. As the measure of man, that is a perfect man or
• 53:53
  angel, we have the cube as a symbol of perfect proportion. Hence a
• 53:58
  square man, the temple of solo Amon, the cubical city, which unfolded
• 54:04
  becomes a toss, and hence the measure of a man. All these refer
• 54:07
  to the work of regeneration or initiation. The rebuilding of dot the temple after
• 54:13
  the plan drawn upon the trestle board, by which it shall be like that
• 54:15
  spiritual temple not made with hands, plainly refers to initiation, from which results
• 54:22
  perfect proportion and perfect harmony. In a later section of this work, this
• 54:25
  mathematical and geometrical basis of virtue and wisdom or knowledge and power will be further
• 54:31
  explained. It is unknown to the craft of masonry, except in its bare
• 54:37
  outline and cruder symbolism. It is nowhere hinted that there is an inherent relation
• 54:40
  and full equivalent between absolute mathematics and spiritual power. A very limited knowledge of
• 54:47
  the history of primitive worship and mysteries is necessary to enable any person to recognize
• 54:52
  in the master mason Hiram, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mythras of
• 54:57
  the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the eighties of the Phrygians,
• 55:00
  of which these people celebrated, the passion death and resurrection, as Christians celebrate
• 55:06
  today that of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, this is the eternal and unvarying type
• 55:12
  of all the religions which have succeeded each other upon the earth. In an
• 55:15
  astronomical connection, Hiram is the representative of the Sun, the symbol of his
• 55:21
  apparent progress, which, appearing at the south gate, so to speak,
• 55:24
  is smote downward and more downward as he advances toward the west, which passing
• 55:30
  he is immediately vanquished and put to death by darkness, represented in following the
• 55:35
  same allegory by the spirit of evil. But returning he rises again conqueror and
• 55:39
  resurrected. After a long and very learned discussion of the phonetic and philological meaning
• 55:45
  use and derivation of certain God names, Albert Pike says, page seventy nine,
• 55:52
  Kuram, therefore, improperly called Hiram is cage ro m, the same
• 55:57
  as her arae, Hermes and Hurraci please, the personification of light in the
• 56:01
  sun, the mediator, redeemer, and savior. And again pay j eight
• 56:07
  one. He says it is merely absurd to add the word a biff or
• 56:13
  a biff as part of the name of the artificer aubin which we read a
• 56:17
  biff means of my father's formerly one of my father's servants or slaves. As
• 56:23
  to the fellow crafts concerned in a conspiracy, they are shown to have more
• 56:28
  than one meaning. Astronomically, this relates to the signs of the zodiac,
• 56:32
  the three wicked ones representing the winter solstice or death of the year and consequent
• 56:38
  subjugation of the sun god. Other meanings will be shown further on. Is
• 56:44
  it an accidental coincidence? Asks bro Pike in Moral and Dogma page eighty two,
• 56:50
  that in the name of each murderer are the two names of the good
• 56:52
  and evil deities of the Hebrews, for Yu bel is but jehubal r yehobal,
• 56:58
  and that the three final syllables of the names A O M make a
• 57:02
  u m, the sacred word of the Hindus, meaning the triune god life
• 57:07
  giving, life preserving, life destroying Brahma Vishnu Shiva, represented by the mystic
• 57:14
  character y. And again on page six hundred and twenty, bro Pike says
• 57:21
  this word could not be pronounced except by the letters for its pronunciation, as
• 57:24
  one word was said to make Earth tremble, and even the angels of heaven
• 57:29
  elementals to quake with fear. The aim of the writer at this time is
• 57:35
  to show the general connection of Masonic glyphics with those of ancient times. The
• 57:39
  real meaning will appear further on, As already declared modern Masonry being but an
• 57:45
  imitation of ancient, genuine mysteries, the writer has no design of reading into
• 57:50
  it meaning which cannot be fully verified. For the greater part, modern Masons
• 57:55
  are dealing with symbols the key for the real interpretation of which they never possessed
• 58:00
  or even suspected that it existed. It remains for the future to determine whether
• 58:06
  any considerable number of our Masonic brethren really desire to possess in fuller measure the
• 58:10
  living truth which the Dead Letter text conceals. That living truth exists and is
• 58:15
  as accessible to every Mason as is the Dead Letter or the dumb show under
• 58:20
  which it masquerades in every lodge. As to the sprig of Acacia, bro
• 58:25
  Pike says, the genuine acacia also is the thorny tamarisk, the same tree
• 58:30
  which grew up around the body of Osiris. It is a sacred tree among
• 58:35
  the Arabs who made of it the idle Alaza, which Mohammed destroyed. It
• 58:39
  is abundant as a bush in the desert of Thursday, and of it the
• 58:43
  crown of thorns was composed, which was set on the forehead of Jesus of
• 58:46
  Nazareth. It is a fit type of immortality on account of its tenacity of
• 58:52
  life, for it has been known, when planted as a door post,
• 58:54
  to take root and shoot out budding boughs above the threshold. Here again we
• 59:00
  see as symbol ages old revived and adopted in many forms. And further that
• 59:06
  immortality was not brought to light for the first and only time by the man
• 59:09
  of sorrows of the Christians. Yet in every case is the symbol none the
• 59:15
  less true. Whether any of these sun gods or redeemers where historical characters or
• 59:20
  not. The symbolism teaches everywhere the same eternal truths, the resurrection and the
• 59:24
  life, redemption and immortality. After being obligated and brought to light, the
• 59:30
  candidate in a third degree is bantered with the statement that undoubtedly he now imagines
• 59:35
  himself a master mason. He is informed not only that such is not the
• 59:39
  case, but that there is no certainty that he ever will become such.
• 59:45
  He subsequently starts on his journey for the discovery of the Lost Word. The
• 59:49
  method by which he undertakes to obtain it, and the names of the three
• 59:52
  fellow Crafts already referred to as brothers, have a very deep significance. After
• 59:59
  many trials, he receives a substitute, which he is to conceal with great
• 1:00:02
  fidelity till future generations shall discover the Lost Word. The method by which he
• 1:00:07
  receives and is ever to transmit or use even the substitute is made exact and
• 1:00:13
  definite, and guarded by solemn obligations. The meaning of both the great secrecy
• 1:00:19
  in the use of the word are left entirely to conjecture beyond the statement that
• 1:00:22
  it is a sacred name and must never be profaned or taken in vain or
• 1:00:29
  carelessly used. And I venture the opinion that not one Mason among ten thousand
• 1:00:34
  has ever been able to discover why. The force of the obligation is therefore
• 1:00:37
  in the oath and not in the reason. As a matter of fact,
• 1:00:42
  the real reason is scientific to the last analysis, scientific to a degree beyond
• 1:00:46
  the penetration up to the present time of the radiant matter or the Renkin ray
• 1:00:52
  of modern science. The word concerns the science of rhythmic vibrations, and is
• 1:00:57
  the key to the equilibrium of all forces and to the harmony of eternal nature.
• 1:01:02
  This tradition of the ineffable name is brought into masonry from the Hebrew kabbala
• 1:01:07
  and how it became lost is partly historical. At least, the ancient Hebrew
• 1:01:12
  priests evidently undertook to fit to the names of their tribal deities the symbolism and
• 1:01:16
  traditions of the far East. If the Master's word were really a word at
• 1:01:21
  all, the deity of the Hebrews might perhaps represent it as well as any
• 1:01:24
  other. It is a question of phonetics. However, rather than mere orthography.
• 1:01:30
  Beneath the Hebrew text of the Penteituke lies concealed the science of the Kabbalah,
• 1:01:37
  the anathemas threatened for him who should alter by a single letter of Yod.
• 1:01:40
  The outer text had therefore a deeper meaning. The priests of many nations
• 1:01:45
  of antiquity were initiates in the mysteries, and as such they were monotheists.
• 1:01:50
  While the ignorant masses were idolaters. The monotheism of the Jews was of a
• 1:01:54
  robust character, and their priests and prophets had hard time to preserve their people
• 1:02:00
  from the seductive polytheism and abominations of surrounding nations. The ineffable name was not
• 1:02:07
  only concealed, but terrible. As an army with banners, Jehovah was jealous,
• 1:02:13
  revengeful, vindictive toward the evildoer, and tolerated no rival in the broad
• 1:02:17
  expanse of cosmos. In no religion of antiquity is the anthropomorphic image of Deity
• 1:02:23
  so strongly defined, and the creator of man and worlds made so exceedingly human.
• 1:02:29
  The Kabbalah, on the contrary, embodying considerable of the true and ancient
• 1:02:34
  secret doctrine, held a different idea of divinity. While carrying the tradition therefore
• 1:02:39
  of the lost word as the ineffable name of deity, the symbolism was taken
• 1:02:44
  as literal fact, and the people who were commanded to make no graven image
• 1:02:47
  ended by making a gigantic idol half Moloch and half man. Amid such contradictions,
• 1:02:53
  the symbolism adopted from the pure and gentler arians was ill at ease and
• 1:02:59
  far from home. Reverend Doctor Garrison claims, in a contribution to the History
• 1:03:04
  of the Lost Word appended to Foot's early history in Antiquities of Freemasonry, that
• 1:03:08
  the foresyllabled name Jehovah was held by the Hebrews as the ineffable, and that
• 1:03:13
  Ottonai was used as a substitute. The High Priest once every year, at
• 1:03:19
  the time of the Atonement, entered alone into the Holy of Holies, and
• 1:03:22
  there repeated the name. The name was thus withdrawn from and finally lost by
• 1:03:27
  the common people. This is ingenious and too literal to cover the case.
• 1:03:32
  The old query what is in a name? Is after all not so easy
• 1:03:37
  of answer, or the answer might be everything or nothing, according as you
• 1:03:42
  understand it or look at it. Before the introduction of the massoretic points or
• 1:03:46
  indices of vowel sounds, the consonants were read by metrically intoning the text.
• 1:03:52
  The principle of the mantrum was therefore known to the High priest at least,
• 1:03:55
  and therefore the word the name that known in all its plenitude, and used
• 1:04:00
  with power cause the whole world to shake, may have been used or invoked
• 1:04:04
  in the Holy of Holies by the cabalistic hierophant. Some who read this may
• 1:04:10
  be even yet so ignorant of the potency of sound as to smile at the
• 1:04:14
  credulity and gullibility that indetes it, and yet so superstitious over the letters of
• 1:04:18
  a name as to believe them more sacred in one form than another. Notwithstanding,
• 1:04:24
  it is the letter that killeth, and the spirit the breath that mocketh
• 1:04:28
  alive. The consonants composing the Hebrew alphabet are about as sacred as so many
• 1:04:32
  wooden blocks. If one knows how to arrange the blocks and endow them with
• 1:04:38
  life, so that they may bud and blossom like Aaron's rod. That,
• 1:04:42
  of course, is a very different matter. There are dangers inseparable from symbolism,
• 1:04:46
  which afford an impressive lesson in regard to similar risks attendant on the use
• 1:04:51
  of language. The imagination, called in to assist the reason, usurps its
• 1:04:56
  place or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its names, which stand for things,
• 1:05:01
  are confounded with them. The means are mistaken for the ends, the
• 1:05:05
  instrument of interpretation for the object, and thus symbols come to usurp an independent
• 1:05:11
  character as truths and persons. Though perhaps a necessary path, they are a
• 1:05:15
  dangerous one by which to approach the deity, in which many, says Plutarch,
• 1:05:20
  mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a ridiculous superstition,
• 1:05:26
  while others, in avoiding one extreme, plunge into the no less hideous gulf
• 1:05:30
  of irreligion and impiety. It is through the mysteries, Cicero says, that
• 1:05:34
  we have learned the first principles of life. Wherefore the term initiation is used
• 1:05:40
  with good reason. To employing Nature's universal symbolism instead of the technicalities of language,
• 1:05:46
  rewards the humblest inquirer, and discloses its secrets to every one in proportion
• 1:05:50
  to his preparatory training to comprehend them. If their philosophical meaning was above the
• 1:05:56
  comprehension of some, their moral and political meanings are well within the reach of
• 1:06:00
  all. These mystic shows and performances were not the reading of a lecture,
• 1:06:04
  but the opening of a problem requiring research. They were calculated to arouse the
• 1:06:11
  dormant intellect. They implied no hostility to philosophy, because philosophy is the great
• 1:06:16
  expounder of symbolism. There is a grand science known as magic, and every
• 1:06:21
  real master is a magician, feared by the ignorant and ridiculed by the learned.
• 1:06:27
  The divine science and its masters have nevertheless existed in all ages and exist
• 1:06:32
  today. Masonry, in its deeper meaning and recondite mysteries, constitutes and possesses
• 1:06:38
  this science, and all genuine initiation consists in an orderly unfolding of the natural
• 1:06:44
  powers of the neophyte, so that he shall become the very thing he desires
• 1:06:46
  to possess. In seeking magic, he finally becomes the magis. All genuine
• 1:06:54
  initiation is like evolution and regeneration from within. Devoid of this inner meaning and
• 1:07:00
  power, all rituals are but foolish jargon, and all ceremonies and empty farce.
• 1:07:05
  Even such the rituals of Masonry have become to many that the christ life
• 1:07:11
  and the power that made Jesus to be called Christos Master, whereby he healed
• 1:07:15
  the sick, cast out devils, and foretold future events, is the same
• 1:07:19
  life revealed and attained by initiation. In the greater mysteries of antiquity is perfectly
• 1:07:25
  plain. The disrepute into which the divine science has fallen, has arisen from
• 1:07:30
  its abuse and degradation. In the Middle Ages, and in fact in every
• 1:07:35
  age, there have been dabblers in magic, sorcerers and necromancers, who,
• 1:07:40
  possessing some of the secrets and imbued with none of its beneficence, have used
• 1:07:45
  their knowledge and power for purely personal and selfish ends. Hypnotism and phenomenal spiritualism
• 1:07:50
  are sufficient illustrations of the power to which I refer and the abuse to which
• 1:07:55
  it may be put. Magic per se is always a science, and up
• 1:08:00
  to a certain point, it may be cultivated without regard to its use or
• 1:08:03
  the well being of man, although any abuse of it is fatal to the
• 1:08:08
  magician. The popular idea is that education consists largely in the cultivation of the
• 1:08:14
  intellectual powers. An average standard of morals is always recommended by educators, and
• 1:08:19
  its outer form is illustrated by religious ceremonies. I three ut intellectual cultivation alone,
• 1:08:27
  no matter to what extent it may be carried, and the further it
• 1:08:30
  goes in this one sided way, the worse for all concerned. Is in
• 1:08:32
  no sense in evolution, perfect intellectual development without spiritual discernment and moral obligation is
• 1:08:41
  the sign manual of satan. Intelligence without goodness lies athwart the divine plan in
• 1:08:46
  the evolution of cosmos, Intellect and altruism, by no means necessarily go hand
• 1:08:53
  in hand. One may have a very clear intellect, have quick perceptions,
• 1:08:58
  and be a good reasoner, and yet be very wicked. On the other
• 1:09:01
  hand, one may be very dull intellectually, and yet be kind, brotherly,
• 1:09:05
  and sympathetic to the last degree. A world made up of the former
• 1:09:10
  would be a bad place to live in, if of the latter a thousand
• 1:09:14
  times to be preferred. Magic contemplates that all around development, which liberating the
• 1:09:19
  intellect from the dominion of the senses and illuminating the spiritual perceptions, places the
• 1:09:25
  individual on the lines of least resistance with the inflexible laws of nature, and
• 1:09:29
  he becomes nature's coworker or handmaid to all such nature makes obeisance and delegates her
• 1:09:35
  powers, and they become masters. The real master conceals his power and uses
• 1:09:41
  it only for the good of others. He works without the hope of fee
• 1:09:45
  or reward. Discerning that knowledge is power, designing an evil Men desire to
• 1:09:50
  possess both knowledge and power for entirely selfish purposes. It may be readily discerned
• 1:09:57
  that the more knowledge and power a purely selfish man possess, the more inimical
• 1:10:00
  to humanity he becomes, he can do less harm if kept in ignorance.
• 1:10:06
  This is especially the case in regard to those deeper sciences which deal with mind
• 1:10:12
  and influence the thoughts and actions of others. Suppose one were able to hypnotize
• 1:10:16
  large numbers of persons at once and compel them to do his bidding, and
• 1:10:20
  that his motives were not only selfish, but all results injurious to his agents.
• 1:10:26
  Such a person would be a magician, and as his motive would be
• 1:10:30
  purely selfish, a black magician. Modern science, purely materialistic in its aims
• 1:10:35
  and conclusions, has always till very recently, ridiculed the idea embodied in magic.
• 1:10:42
  And were it not for the fact that it has been compelled to recognize
• 1:10:45
  under the name hypnotism since the time of Braid, the very force which it
• 1:10:49
  denied and condemned in the days of Mesmer, it might be difficult to find
• 1:10:53
  a palpable and undeniable illustration of what kind of power is involved in magic.
• 1:10:59
  But hypnotism is not even the alphabet of the vocabulary known to the real master
• 1:11:03
  or magician. It is but an empirical dabbling in a power of gigantic proportions,
• 1:11:09
  the key to which makes of its possessor either a savior or a destroyer
• 1:11:13
  of his fellow men. We have only to reflect on the use already made
• 1:11:16
  of hypnotism for public exhibitions for personal greed by its professors. God save the
• 1:11:23
  Mark to determine whether any larger output of occult knowledge would be desirable or beneficial
• 1:11:28
  to mankind at large. The traditional lost word of the Master is a key
• 1:11:32
  to all the science of magic. The knowledge of the Master is not empirical.
• 1:11:39
  It does not consist of a few isolated formula by which certain startling or
• 1:11:43
  unusual effects can be produced. The magician's art is based on a science far
• 1:11:48
  more deep and exact than modern physical science has yet dreamed of. And back
• 1:11:53
  of this science lies a philosophy as boundless as cosmos, as inexhaustible as time,
• 1:11:59
  and as beneficit and as the Father in heaven. If the masonic meaning
• 1:12:02
  of Master, perfect and Sublime, Master, Prince, adept et cetera is
• 1:12:08
  less than I have indicated, then it is a roaring farce or a stupendous
• 1:12:12
  humbug. The conception of masonry is true, but it has adopted or imitated
• 1:12:16
  the ritual and glyphics of a science, the key to which not one mason
• 1:12:20
  in ten thousand possesses. And hence the tradition of the lost Word has a
• 1:12:25
  literal no less than a symbolical meaning. The substitute is given to the neophyte
• 1:12:30
  till future generations shall find the true word. The question now propounded to every
• 1:12:36
  obligated or so called master Mason, is is the present the generation in which
• 1:12:42
  that which was lost shall be found? And each must answer for himself singly,
• 1:12:46
  just as he entered his lodge, first saw the light and took his
• 1:12:49
  obligation, just as every real master or white adept has done since the beginning
• 1:12:55
  of time. There exists in Masonic literature many learned as on the history,
• 1:13:00
  orthography, and philology of the Lost Word. But I am acquainted with no
• 1:13:04
  treatise that apprehends the nature of the real secret, like that of Brother Albert
• 1:13:09
  Pike in his great work. And yet if he knew the whole secret,
• 1:13:13
  he concealed it at last. The more immediate source from which the legend is
• 1:13:16
  imported into Masonry is the Jewish Kabbala, derived doubtless from the Chaldean and Zoroastrian
• 1:13:23
  form of the Secret Doctrine, the principles and methods of which were unfolded by
• 1:13:27
  the late lamented bro j Ralston Skinner a Na. Sr. Thirty two.
• 1:13:32
  Bro Skinner's greater works, however, aside from his source of measures and a
• 1:13:36
  large number of pamphlets, exist only in manuscript and are of so abstruse a
• 1:13:42
  character as to be of little use except to profound scholars. Running all through
• 1:13:46
  the Talmud are found references t dot O the Secret Wisdom, while the Sohar,
• 1:13:51
  the Kabbala de Nudda, and other Kabbalistic works are all written with a
• 1:13:56
  veiled design to conceal the secret from the uninitiated and to be meaningless without the
• 1:14:00
  key. Bro Skinner's discoveries were the reward of genius, made as the result
• 1:14:05
  of stumbling on one of the keys that unlock the golden gates of the Palace
• 1:14:10
  of the King. His discoveries lay the foundation for a systematic and scientific study
• 1:14:15
  of the Kabbalistic form of the Secret Doctrine, which lies concealed beneath the Hebrew
• 1:14:19
  text of the Pentethuke, and which no commentary has ever revealed or intended to
• 1:14:24
  reveal. Perhaps another generation of Biblical Hebrew scholars may discard their preconceptions, prejudices,
• 1:14:30
  and superstitions of the mere verbiage of the text sufficiently to desire to discover
• 1:14:34
  the real meaning of the Pentethuke as to the creation of men and worlds.
• 1:14:40
  Copies of bro Skinner's unpublished researches have been so placed by his special desire and
• 1:14:45
  act that they may be preserved for such future investigators and not again be lost
• 1:14:49
  to the world. But the Hebrew Kabbalah is but one of many sources from
• 1:14:55
  which the secret science may be derived, and it is not the one which,
• 1:14:58
  in its form of symbolism and method of interpretation, is best fitted to
• 1:15:01
  the present age. When the symbolism of the Kabbalah is read by the key
• 1:15:06
  furnished by bro Skinner, it requires to be again translated into modern ideas or
• 1:15:11
  forms of thought. The basis of it was the Chaldean Book of Numbers,
• 1:15:15
  no genuine copy of which, if in existence, is accessible to modern students.
• 1:15:21
  Several spurious copies are known to exist, and it is possible that a
• 1:15:26
  genuine copy may be produced at the proper time. For it be remembered that
• 1:15:30
  genuine masters, prince adept Masons have always existed, and no book or record
• 1:15:35
  worth preserving or necessary for the good of man is ever lost in secret crypts
• 1:15:41
  alike, inaccessible to the vandal hand of man and the corrosion of time and
• 1:15:45
  decay, these treasures are said to be preserved. All human progress runs in
• 1:15:50
  cycles. Modern materialistic science has had its brief day, and philosophy has already
• 1:15:57
  undermined its foundations. The new Age will show a genuine revival of philosophy.
• 1:16:03
  The immortal principles enunciated by Plato, clothed in modern garb of thought less involved
• 1:16:09
  in dialectical will again command the attention of the thinking world. Everyone is aware
• 1:16:15
  that the source of Plato's knowledge was the mysteries. He was an initiate,
• 1:16:18
  and on almost every page reveals the obligation he is under not to betray to
• 1:16:23
  the common people. T asterisk he secrets, taught only to initiates under the
• 1:16:27
  pledge of secrecy. The foregoing digression seemed necessary in order to show the real
• 1:16:32
  basis for the traditions of the lost word, and to put beyond Cavil,
• 1:16:36
  at least with the more rational the idea that the Master's word is a real
• 1:16:41
  thing, the genuineness and power of which is not overdrawn in the parables and
• 1:16:45
  glyphics of freemasonry. The true word of a Mason is to be found in
• 1:16:48
  the concealed and profound meaning of the ineffable name of Deity, communicated by God
• 1:16:54
  to Moses rather by the priests of Egypt, and which meaning was long lost
• 1:16:59
  by the very very precautions taken to conceal it. The true pronunciation of that
• 1:17:03
  name was, in truth a secret, in which, however, was involved
• 1:17:08
  the far more profound secret of its meaning. Thus the ineffable name not only
• 1:17:13
  embodies the great philosophical idea that the deity is the e use the tuan,
• 1:17:17
  the absolute existence, that of which the essence is to exist, the only
• 1:17:21
  substance of Spinoza, the being that never could not have existed, as contradistinguished
• 1:17:27
  from that which only becomes not nature or the soul of nature, but that
• 1:17:31
  which created nature. But also the idea of the male and female principles in
• 1:17:36
  its highest and most profound sense, to wit, that God originally comprehended in
• 1:17:42
  himself all that is, that matter, was not coexistent with him or independent
• 1:17:46
  of him, That He did not merely fashion in shape a pre existing chaos
• 1:17:50
  into a universe, but that this thought manifested itself outwardly in that universe which
• 1:17:56
  so became and before was not except as comprehended in him. That the generative
• 1:18:00
  power or spirit, and the productive matter, ever among the ancients deemed the
• 1:18:04
  female, originally were in God. And that He was and is all that
• 1:18:10
  was, that is and that shall be, in whom all else lives,
• 1:18:14
  moves, and has its being. This was the great mystery of the ineffable
• 1:18:18
  dot name l and of course its true pronunciation and its meaning became lost to
• 1:18:25
  all except the select few to whom it was confided, it being concealed from
• 1:18:29
  the common people because the deity, thus metaphysically named, was not that personal
• 1:18:33
  and capricious, and as it were, tangible God in whom they believed,
• 1:18:38
  and who alone was within reach of their route capacities. This was the profound
• 1:18:43
  truth hidden in the ancient allegory, and covered from the general view with a
• 1:18:46
  double veil. This was the exoteric meaning of the generation and production of the
• 1:18:51
  Indian, Chaldean, and Phoenician cosmogonies of the active and passive powers of the
• 1:18:58
  male and female principles of Heaven and its luminaries generating, and the earth producing,
• 1:19:02
  all hidden from vulgar view. As above its comprehension the doctrine that matter
• 1:19:08
  is not eternal, but that God was the only original existence, the absolute,
• 1:19:13
  from whom every thing has preceded, and to whom all returns. And
• 1:19:16
  this true word is with entire accuracy said to have been lost, because its
• 1:19:20
  meaning was lost even among the Hebrews, although we still find the name its
• 1:19:26
  real meaning unsuspected in the Who of the Druids and e fo Hi of the
• 1:19:30
  Chinese. There is in nature one most potent force by means whereof a single
• 1:19:34
  man, who could possess himself of it and should know how to direct it,
• 1:19:39
  could revolutionize and change the face of the world. This force was known
• 1:19:44
  to the ancients. It is a universal agent whose supreme law is equilibrium,
• 1:19:48
  and whereby if science can but learn how to control it, it will be
• 1:19:53
  possible to change the order of the seasons, to produce in knight the phenomena
• 1:19:57
  of day, to send a thought in an instant round the world world to
• 1:20:00
  heal or slay at a distance, to give our words universal success and make
• 1:20:04
  them reverberate everywhere. This agent, partially revealed by the blind guesses of Mesmer,
• 1:20:11
  is precisely what the adepts of the Middle Ages called elementary matter of the
• 1:20:15
  great word asterisk. And this is the force of the Keiley motor and the
• 1:20:19
  fro hat of the secret doctrine. But to continue our quotations, there is
• 1:20:25
  a life principle of the world, a universal agent wherein are two natures in
• 1:20:30
  a double current of love and wrath. This ambient fluid pervades everything. It
• 1:20:35
  is a ray detached from the glory of the sun and fixed by the weight
• 1:20:39
  of the atmosphere and the central attraction. It is the body of the Holy
• 1:20:44
  Spirit, the universal Agent, the serpent devouring his own tail. See the
• 1:20:48
  seal of the t s with this electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric.
• 1:20:56
  The ancients and the alchemists were familiar of this age. That phase of
• 1:21:00
  modern ignorance termed physical science talks incoherently, knowing not of it save its effects,
• 1:21:06
  and theology might apply to it. All its pretended definitions of spirit quiescent,
• 1:21:12
  it is appreciable by no human sense, disturbed or in movement. None
• 1:21:16
  can explain its mode of action except a real master, and to term it
• 1:21:20
  a fluid and under a cloud of words asterisk. The Kabbalah alone consecrates the
• 1:21:27
  alliance of the universal reason and divine word. It establishes, by the counterpoise
• 1:21:31
  of two forces apparently opposite, the eternal balance of being. It alone reconciles
• 1:21:36
  reason with faith, power with liberty, science with mystery. It has the
• 1:21:41
  keys of the present, the past, and the future. The Bible,
• 1:21:45
  with all the allegories it contains, expresses in an incomplete and veiled manner.
• 1:21:50
  Only the religious science of the Hebrews, the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets,
• 1:21:56
  identical at bottom with that of the ancient Egyptians, also had its outward
• 1:22:00
  meaning and its veils. The Hebrew books were written only to recall to memory
• 1:22:04
  the traditions, and they were written in symbols unintelligible to the profane. The
• 1:22:11
  Pentituke and the prophetic poems were merely elementary books of doctrine, morals or liturgy,
• 1:22:15
  and the true secret and traditional philosophy was only written afterward under a veil
• 1:22:20
  still less transparent. Thus was a second Bible born, unknown to or rather
• 1:22:26
  uncomprehended by the Christians of later times. A collection, they say, of
• 1:22:31
  monstrous absurdities. A monument, the adept says, wherein is everything that the
• 1:22:36
  genius of philosophy and that of religion have ever formed or imagined. Of the
• 1:22:41
  sublime, a treasure surrounded by thorns, A diamond concealed in a rough dark
• 1:22:45
  stone. One is filed with admiration on penetrating into the sanctuary of the Kabbalah,
• 1:22:51
  at seeing a doctrine so logical, so simple, and at the same
• 1:22:55
  time so absolute, the necessary union of ideas and science, the consecration of
• 1:23:00
  the most fundamental realities by the primitive characters. The trinity of words, letters,
• 1:23:05
  and numbers. A philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as
• 1:23:11
  the world. Theorems more complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras. A theology
• 1:23:15
  summed up by counting on one's fingers, an infinite which can be held in
• 1:23:18
  the hollow of an infant's hand, ten ciphers and twenty two letters. A
• 1:23:23
  triangle, a square and a circle. These are all the elements of Kabbalah.
• 1:23:30
  These are the elementary principles of the written word, reflection of that spoken
• 1:23:33
  word that created the world. And so we might go on quoting from this
• 1:23:38
  real master of the veils, this genuine prince Adept among masons, whose great
• 1:23:43
  work, even as a compilation, is a monument more enduring than brass,
• 1:23:47
  and more honorable than the crown of kings. If he did not comprehend to
• 1:23:51
  the last veil all that he transcribed in, he too used veils he discerned
• 1:23:56
  enough to teach him how to find the whole. It may thus be seen
• 1:24:00
  that the Holy Bible, as one of the great lights in masonry, has
• 1:24:02
  a very profound meaning. When coupled with the tradition of the ineffable name or
• 1:24:06
  lost word. The object set before the neophyte in his search for the lost
• 1:24:12
  word is that he may travel in foreign countries and receive master's wages. This
• 1:24:17
  glyphic, in its outer form is taken from the Guilds of Practical Reasons of
• 1:24:20
  two or three centuries ago. The laws then governing the mark of a fellow
• 1:24:26
  craft or a master builder were very strict, and the mark was never bestowed
• 1:24:30
  unworthily, and when received, was a passport among builders over a wide domain.
• 1:24:35
  But in a deeper or cabalistic sense, the master's word, which entitled
• 1:24:41
  its possessor to master's wages, was a very different thing. Indeed, the
• 1:24:45
  wages of the real Master were the satisfaction and the power that flow from the
• 1:24:48
  possession of real knowledge. Knowledge is power only when one comprehends that which he
• 1:24:55
  possesses, and is therefore enabled to use it for the purposes that life nearest
• 1:25:00
  his heart. Brother Pike shows conclusively that the power of the word lies in
• 1:25:04
  the knowledge of the philosophy, which is its perfect synthesis. This is,
• 1:25:10
  in part the meaning of knowing how to pronounce the word. As already stated,
• 1:25:15
  the Kabbala of the ancient Hebrews, which Moses derived by initiation into the
• 1:25:19
  mysteries of Egypt and Persia, and which Pike and many others declare was identical
• 1:25:24
  among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, Hindus, and other nations of antiquity,
• 1:25:29
  was known as the Secret Doctrine. The reason for such a name is fully
• 1:25:33
  revealed in what has been shown hitherto what Pike says regarding The relation of the
• 1:25:39
  Pentateuke to the Kabbala is true of the exoteric scriptures of every nation of antiquity.
• 1:25:45
  How many generations of imbeciles or materialists, think you, my brother,
• 1:25:48
  would it require to recover it? The great majority of mankind in every age
• 1:25:55
  not only do not possess the secret and the power of the Master's word,
• 1:25:59
  but are incapable of comprehending it. We do not know a thing because we
• 1:26:02
  are told that it is so. Let the gods shout the truth of all
• 1:26:06
  the ages into the years of a fool, forever, and still forever the
• 1:26:11
  fool would be joined to his folly. Here lies the conception and the principle
• 1:26:15
  of all initiations. It is knowledge unfolded by degrees in an orderly systematic manner,
• 1:26:21
  step by step. As the capacity to apprehend opens in the neophyte.
• 1:26:27
  The result is not a possession, but a growth, an evolution. Knowledge
• 1:26:31
  is not a mere sum in addition, something added to something that already exists,
• 1:26:36
  but rather such a progressive change or transformation of the original structure as to
• 1:26:41
  make of it at every step a new being. Real knowledge, or the
• 1:26:45
  growth of wisdom in man is an eternal becoming a progressive transformation into the likeness
• 1:26:50
  of the supernal goodness and the supreme power. Initiation and regeneration are synonymous terms.
• 1:26:57
  The ritual of freemasonry is based on the natural law, and the ceremony
• 1:27:01
  of initiation illustrates at every step this principle, And if the result attained is
• 1:27:06
  a possession rather than a regeneration, in the great majority of cases, the
• 1:27:11
  principle remains none the less true. The mere inculcation of moral principles or lessons
• 1:27:17
  in ethics, and their symbolic illustration dramatic representation are by no means in vain.
• 1:27:24
  These appeal to the conscience and moral sense in every man, and no
• 1:27:28
  man has ever been made worse by the lessons of the lodge. By these
• 1:27:31
  rights and benefits, the freemason is, above all men in our so called
• 1:27:36
  modern civilization, the nearest to the ancient wisdom. He has possession of the
• 1:27:42
  territory in which lie concealed the crown jewels of wisdom. He may content himself
• 1:27:47
  if he will, by merely turning over the sod and gathering only a crop
• 1:27:51
  of husks or stubble. He may dig deeper and find not only the keystone
• 1:27:57
  of the arch, the ark of t look covenant, the scroll, or
• 1:28:00
  the Law. But using the spirit concealed in the wings of the Cherubim,
• 1:28:04
  he may rise untrammeled by the rubbish of the temple, and meeting of him
• 1:28:08
  face to face. Learn also to say iron that I am. Does this
• 1:28:13
  read like a rhapsody? And are the land marks, traditions, and glyphics
• 1:28:16
  of freemasonry nothing more. The real temple, referred to from first to last
• 1:28:21
  in masonry, as in all ancient initiations, is the tabernacle of the human
• 1:28:27
  soul. It is built indeed, without the sound of hammer or any tool
• 1:28:31
  of iron. It is like made in the likeness of that other spiritual temple,
• 1:28:36
  not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For the old philosophy,
• 1:28:42
  Kabbalah teaches that the immortal spirit of man is the artificer of the body
• 1:28:45
  and its source of life, that it does not so much enter in as
• 1:28:48
  overshadow man. While the soul, the immediate vehicle of the spirit, inhabits
• 1:28:54
  the body and is dissipated at death. The spirit is immortal, pure and
• 1:29:00
  forever undefiled. It is Christos or Hiram, the mediator between the soul or
• 1:29:05
  physical man, and the universal spirit, the father in heaven. The poor
• 1:29:11
  blind candidate, that is, the man of sense immersed in matter, would
• 1:29:15
  learn the leffable name and obtain the lost word, and, seeking a short
• 1:29:19
  cut, climbs up some other way. He would have wisdom without self conquest,
• 1:29:25
  power without sacrifice. He will not listen to the voice of pleading.
• 1:29:30
  Be patient, my brother, and when the temple is completed, if found
• 1:29:33
  worthy, you shall receive that for which you have so long wrought. No,
• 1:29:39
  he will have it now, and he silences the pleading voice, and,
• 1:29:43
  defeating only himself, flees into the deserts of remorse and calls upon the
• 1:29:47
  rocks to hide him from the pursuit of his accusing conscience. Hiram Christos is
• 1:29:53
  resurrected, Being immortal, he cannot really die. No sin of man is
• 1:29:59
  fine, realizing his error and purified by suffering, the spirit in man being
• 1:30:04
  again lifted up. Even defeat gives promise of victory, and he receives a
• 1:30:09
  substitute for the lost word. He hears, however faint or dim, the
• 1:30:14
  divine harmony future generations, that is, further trials and more sincere endeavor promise
• 1:30:20
  greater reward. He yearns to know, to will, to dare, and
• 1:30:26
  to keep silent brotherly love, relief and truth, prudence, fortitude, justice,
• 1:30:32
  and mercy. All the virtues and all the beatitudes are inculcated. The
• 1:30:38
  candidate is taught not merely to tolerate another's religion, but to respect it as
• 1:30:42
  his own, though still adhering to that into which he was born. To
• 1:30:45
  make reasonable this obligation, he is shown through the Kabbalah or secret doctrine,
• 1:30:50
  that at the heart of every great religion lie the same eternal truths. Forms
• 1:30:56
  and observances only differ. The ineffable name is spelled in many ways, yet
• 1:31:00
  the word is one an eternal Masonry is not only a universal science, but
• 1:31:06
  a worldwide religion, and owes allegiance to no one creed, and can adopt
• 1:31:11
  no sectarian dogma as such without ceasing thereby to be Masonic. Drawn from the
• 1:31:16
  Kabwah and taking the Jewish or Christian verbiage or symbols, it but discerns in
• 1:31:21
  them universal truths which it recognizes. In all other religions. Many degrees have
• 1:31:28
  been Christianized, only to perish as every degree eventually will have circumscribed by narrow
• 1:31:32
  creeds and dwarf to the bigoted apprehension so as to exclude good men of any
• 1:31:38
  other communion? Is Jesus any the less Christos? Because Christna was called the
• 1:31:43
  good Shepherd? Or because the Mexican Christ was crucified between two thieves, or
• 1:31:48
  because Hiram was three days in a grave before he was resurrected. Are we
• 1:31:54
  not as selfish in our religion as in our other possessions? Then why is
• 1:31:58
  man, while cherish, wishing as his most sacred possession the religion of his
• 1:32:01
  father's, eternally seeking to degrade and destroy that of his brother The great Republic
• 1:32:08
  to which bro Pike refers is the ideal of Masonry. The genius that hovers
• 1:32:13
  like a protecting angel over the lodge make it impossible for a Jew or Parsi,
• 1:32:18
  Buddhist or Brahmin to enter any lodge without witnessing the profanation of his sacred
• 1:32:23
  altars or contempt for his religion, and the angel hides her face and retreats
• 1:32:28
  from altars already profaned by unbrotherliness. Masonry is the universal religion only because,
• 1:32:33
  and only so long as it embraces all religions. For this reason, and
• 1:32:40
  this alone, it is universal and eternal. Neither persecution nor misrepresentation can ever
• 1:32:45
  destroy it. It may find no place in a generation of bigots. It
• 1:32:50
  may retire for a century, But again comes a master builder with the key
• 1:32:55
  to the shut palace of the King, throws open the blinds, lets an
• 1:32:59
  a light kindles anew, the fire on the sacred altar clears away the rubbish.
• 1:33:02
  When behold the tessellated pavement is as bright as when it first came from
• 1:33:09
  the quarries of truth. The jewels are of pure gold and brighten at the
• 1:33:13
  touch, and the great lights are undimmed and undecayed. When the candidate is
• 1:33:17
  ready, the master appears. And yet men are so foolish and so vile
• 1:33:23
  as to imagine that they can destroy this heirloom of the ages, this heritage
• 1:33:27
  from the immortals. No age is so dark as to quench entirely the light
• 1:33:31
  of the lodge. No persecution so bloody as to blot out its votaries,
• 1:33:36
  No anathemas of pope, so lasting as to count one second on its dial
• 1:33:41
  of time. These one and all serve only to keep the people in darkness
• 1:33:45
  and retard the reign of universal brotherhood. Therefore, for humanity, the great
• 1:33:50
  orphan, the real Master laments. He smiles at the passions of popes or
• 1:33:56
  kings, and pities the folly of man. He only indifferent as to results,
• 1:34:00
  knowing these to be under eternal law, but ready and willing whenever and
• 1:34:04
  wherever the instruction entering the listening ear may find lodgment in a faithful breast.
• 1:34:11
  For ages, kings, popes, and synots have done their best to kill
• 1:34:15
  this secret doctrine by anathematizing or burning its masters. The Jesuits got possession of
• 1:34:20
  its lodges, transformed out of all recognition many of its degrees, and made
• 1:34:25
  of them an abject tool of the Sacerdotal hierarchy. But at last the Jesuits
• 1:34:30
  became glutted with gold and impudent with power, and the Church became frightened and
• 1:34:34
  destroyed or banished. The destroyers will power in high places ever desist or relax
• 1:34:40
  its warfare. Never. It can, however, be forever ignored or defied.
• 1:34:46
  But it will never allow its secrets to be laid bare, and a
• 1:34:49
  greater to stand in its place. He who anticipates such beneficence, has read
• 1:34:55
  history in vain. The kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, But but
• 1:35:00
  it is moral force or moral courage. And the first great battle is for
• 1:35:03
  the conquest of self, the subjugation of that time serving spirit, which joined
• 1:35:08
  to the idols of the flesh, is blind to the truths of the eternal
• 1:35:12
  spirit. He who conquers here may at last become master. Chapter four,
• 1:35:17
  The Secret Doctrine. The true Mason is a practical philosopher who, under religious
• 1:35:23
  emblems in all ages adopted by wisdom, builds upon plans traced by nature and
• 1:35:29
  reason, the moral edifice of knowledge. Asterisk, As Grand Master of all
• 1:35:33
  symbolic lodges, it is your especial duty to aid in restoring Masonry to its
• 1:35:39
  primitive purity. Among all the ancient nations, there was one faith and one
• 1:35:44
  idea of deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated, and another for
• 1:35:48
  the common people. To this rule, the Hebrews were no exception it.
• 1:35:55
  Masonry is philosophical because it teaches the great truths concerning the nature sure in existence
• 1:36:00
  of one supreme Deity and the existence and immortality of the soul the universe.
• 1:36:05
  Which is the uttered word of God, is infinite in extent. There is
• 1:36:11
  no empty space beyond creation on any side. The universe, which is the
• 1:36:15
  thought of God pronounced, never was not, since God never was inert.
• 1:36:20
  I myself never was not, nor Thou, nor all the princes of the
• 1:36:25
  earth, nor shall we ever hereafter cease to be. Everything emanates from a
• 1:36:30
  single principle and a primitive love, which is the moving power of all,
• 1:36:33
  and governs all masonry teaches, and has preserved in its purity the cardinal tenets
• 1:36:40
  of the old primitive faith, and are the foundation of all religions. There
• 1:36:45
  is no fact in history more easily which underlie and completely demonstrable than the existence
• 1:36:49
  of the Secret Doctrine in all ages, among all people, and of adepts
• 1:36:54
  or masters who were familiar with its teachings and were more or less capable of
• 1:36:58
  expounding its principles. It is equally demonstrable that this secret Doctrine was the real
• 1:37:02
  foundation of every great religion known to man, that only the initiated priest or
• 1:37:08
  Hierophant knew the real doctrines in any case, and only these as a rule,
• 1:37:13
  in the earliest history of each religion, Furthermore, the sacred books of
• 1:37:17
  all religions, including those of the Jews and the Christians, wherein are no
• 1:37:23
  more than parables and allegories of the real secret doctrine transcribed for the ignorant and
• 1:37:27
  superstitious masses. All commentaries written on these sacred books, whether on those of
• 1:37:32
  Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets of Judaism, the Gospels of the Gnostics
• 1:37:38
  and Christians, or those written on the sacred books of the East, the
• 1:37:42
  Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads, all either make confusion more confounded when written
• 1:37:46
  by one ignorant of the secret doctrine, or when written by initiates but wring
• 1:37:51
  the changes on or further elaborate the parables and allegories. It is furthermore easily
• 1:37:59
  demonstrable that the Secret Doctrine came originally from the far East and is the primitive
• 1:38:02
  wisdom religion. Its earlier records are now found in India and Phibet. Thence
• 1:38:08
  it seems to have traveled to Ethiopia, thence to Egypt and Chaldea. This
• 1:38:14
  route or order of transmission, however, is not to be easily ascertained with
• 1:38:17
  accuracy, nor is it a matter of any consequence to us at the present
• 1:38:21
  time, it is everywhere and at all times, essentially the same. Only
• 1:38:27
  the outer gloss, the parables and allegories concealing it, differ among different people.
• 1:38:32
  Underlying this secret doctrine was a profound philosophy of the creation or evolution of
• 1:38:36
  worlds and of man. The present humanity in many quarters of the globe has
• 1:38:43
  evolved on the intellectual plane so far that there now exist a very large number
• 1:38:46
  of persons capable of apprehending this old philosophy, and at the same time capable
• 1:38:51
  of understanding the responsibility incurred in misusing or misinterpreting it. A large number of
• 1:38:58
  persons have reached on the intellectual plane the state of manhood, and are capable
• 1:39:02
  of partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• 1:39:06
  There is therefore no reason why this old philosophy should be longer concealed. On
• 1:39:13
  the other hand, there are reasons why it should be known. Empirical knowledge
• 1:39:17
  has advanced in certain directions into the realm of psychism and the arts anciently designated
• 1:39:23
  by the term magic, and it is imperative that the dangers that attend these
• 1:39:27
  pursuits should be pointed out and demonstrated, in order that they may be avoided
• 1:39:30
  by the beneficent, and that the ignorant or innocent may be afforded protection.
• 1:39:35
  How far these mad doddern inroads into occultism or ancient magic extended, very few
• 1:39:41
  persons seem to realize. It is therefore high time that the philosophy of the
• 1:39:45
  East should illumine the science of the West, and thus give the death blow
• 1:39:49
  to that intellectual diabolism and spiritual nihilism known as materialism. And this only the
• 1:39:56
  secret doctrine can accomplish. Grave responsibility, however, is incurred by such a
• 1:40:01
  revelation. Those who, like the professional hypnotists and the vivisectionists, have sinned,
• 1:40:08
  perhaps ignorantly, and thus have been unconsciously black magicians, will eventually find
• 1:40:13
  no avenue of escape. Ignorance can no longer cover their inhuman or cruel practices.
• 1:40:19
  The hypnotist cannot reduce the mind of a trusting but ignorant brother to the
• 1:40:24
  condition of imbecility without facing the law that counts such a crime as no less
• 1:40:28
  than murder. The new science resulting from the union to which I have referred,
• 1:40:33
  and which I believe mister J. M. Rusk proposes to call psychophysics
• 1:40:38
  will be well understood before the close of the twentieth century, and many an
• 1:40:42
  old score in the intellectual arena will be settled. They know little of the
• 1:40:46
  forces at work or the principles involved. Who imagine that there is sufficient force
• 1:40:51
  in dissolving creeds, or in the dying throes of materialism to greatly retard the
• 1:40:56
  progress of these truths by sneers or ridicule, or to prevent their triumph by
• 1:41:00
  any opposition they can bring to bear against them. They have waited for millenniums,
• 1:41:05
  and their time has come to recapitulate. The Secret Doctrine was the universally
• 1:41:12
  diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world. Proof of its diffusion, authentic
• 1:41:16
  records of its history, a complete chain of documents showing its character and presence
• 1:41:21
  in every land, together with the teaching of all its great adepts, exists
• 1:41:26
  to this day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to the occult fraternity.
• 1:41:30
  As to the danger of revealing these doctrines to the profane, the danger was
• 1:41:35
  this doctrines such as the Planetary Chain or the Seven Races at once give a
• 1:41:41
  clue to the sevenfold nature of man. For each principle is correlated to a
• 1:41:45
  plane, a planet, and a race, and the human principles are,
• 1:41:49
  on every plane correlated to sevenfold occult forces, those of the highest Plains being
• 1:41:55
  of tremendous power. No one styling himself a scholar in whatever department of exact
• 1:42:00
  science will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously. They will be derided and
• 1:42:06
  rejected a priori in this century, but only in this one, For in
• 1:42:12
  the twentieth century of our era, scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret
• 1:42:15
  Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but on the contrary, simply outlined,
• 1:42:21
  and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas. And in a footnote
• 1:42:26
  it is said, this is no pretension to prophesy, but simply a statement
• 1:42:30
  based on the knowledge of facts. In speaking of the source from which the
• 1:42:34
  present version of the Secret Doctrine is derived, our author says regarding an bold
• 1:42:40
  book so very old that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its pages an indefinite
• 1:42:45
  time, and still not quite agree as to the nature of the fabric upon
• 1:42:48
  which it is written, the most ancient Hebrew document of occult learning, the
• 1:42:53
  cipherd Zenyuda, was compiled from it, and that at a time when the
• 1:42:57
  former was already considered in the light of a literary relic. The days of
• 1:43:01
  Constantine were the last turning point in history, the period of the supreme struggle
• 1:43:06
  that ended in the Western world, throttling the old religions in favor of the
• 1:43:11
  new ones built on their bodies. From thence, the vista into the far
• 1:43:15
  distant past, beyond the Deluge and the garden of Eden, began to be
• 1:43:19
  forcibly and relentlessly closed by every fair and unfair means against the indiscreet gaze of
• 1:43:25
  posterity. Every issue was blocked up, every record that Hans could be laid
• 1:43:30
  upon destroyed. This same Constantine, who with his soldiers environed the bishops at
• 1:43:36
  the First Council of Nice d. Three hundred and twenty five and dictated terms
• 1:43:42
  to their deliberations, applied for initiation into the mysteries, and was told by
• 1:43:45
  the officiating priest that no purgation could free him from the crime of putting his
• 1:43:49
  wife to death, or from as many perjuries and murders Every careful and unbiased
• 1:43:56
  student of history knows why the Secret Doctrine has been heard of so little since
• 1:44:00
  the days of Constantine. An exoteric religion and belief in a personal god blotted
• 1:44:05
  it out for self protection. And yet oh irony of history, the very
• 1:44:11
  pentateuke conceals it, and for many a student of Kabbala of the coming century,
• 1:44:15
  the seals will be broken in trying to apprehend an outline at least of
• 1:44:20
  the Secret Doctrine. Two ideas should be kept constantly in mind, viz.
• 1:44:25
  Space and consciousness, the former in relation to all that is either thought or
• 1:44:30
  asserted regarding nature and deity, and the latter in regard to deity, nature
• 1:44:34
  and man. In the last analysis, both space and consciousness elude us what
• 1:44:42
  they are per se we shall never know. We may as well take them
• 1:44:45
  as facts in our experience, and in analyzing that experience, both consciousness and
• 1:44:50
  knowledge will expand. What is that which was is and will be? Whether
• 1:44:56
  there is a universe or not, whether there be gods or none? Asks
• 1:45:00
  the Censor catechism, and the answer made is space. Now space is not
• 1:45:06
  nature, nor is it deity. Space may be said to contain nature or
• 1:45:12
  creation, and to conceal divinity. It is therefore the point of emanation and
• 1:45:16
  the vanishing point. The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers. What
• 1:45:24
  is it that ever is space? The eternal annipatica parentless? What is it
• 1:45:30
  that ever was the germ in the root? What is it that is ever
• 1:45:34
  coming and going the great breath? Then there are three eternals. No,
• 1:45:42
  the three are one. That whichever is is one, That whichever was is
• 1:45:47
  one, That which is ever being and becoming is also one. And this
• 1:45:51
  is space. For clearer understanding on the part of the general reader, it
• 1:45:57
  must be stated that the occult science recognize is seven cosmical elements, for entirely
• 1:46:01
  physical, and the fifth ether semi material, as it will become visible in
• 1:46:06
  the air toward the end of the fourth round to reign supreme over the others
• 1:46:11
  during the whole of the fifth. The remaining two are as yet absolutely beyond
• 1:46:15
  the range of human perception. These latter, will, however, appear as
• 1:46:19
  presentiments during the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively. These seven elements, with
• 1:46:26
  their numberless sub elements, far more numerous than those known to science, are
• 1:46:30
  simply conditional modifications and aspects of the one and only element. This latter is
• 1:46:35
  not ether, nor even a causa, but the source of these. The
• 1:46:40
  fifth element, now advocated quite freely by science, is not the ether hypothesized
• 1:46:45
  by Sir Isaac Newton, although he calls it by that name, having associated
• 1:46:48
  it in his mind probably with the ether Father Mather of Antiquity. As Newton
• 1:46:55
  intuition ally says, nature is a perfect circulatory word, generating fluids out of
• 1:47:00
  solids, fixed things out of volatile, and volatile out of fixed, subtle
• 1:47:05
  out of gross, and gross out of subtle. Thus, perhaps may all
• 1:47:12
  things be originated from ether. It is interesting to notice in this connection that
• 1:47:16
  Newton was familiar with the writings of Jacob Baymen, that Teutonic Theosopher, and
• 1:47:21
  that among Newton's posthumous papers were found copious notes and translations from his works.
• 1:47:28
  As to the races referred to in the above quotation, it need only be
• 1:47:32
  said, in passing that the Secret Doctrine declares that in the evolution of humanity
• 1:47:36
  there are to be seven races, of which ours is now the fifth,
• 1:47:40
  and that each race makes seven rounds on our planetary chain, of which rounds.
• 1:47:45
  The present race is now in the fourth, with here and there a
• 1:47:47
  fifth rounder appearing. The Secret Doctrine teaches not only the immortality of the soul,
• 1:47:54
  but the perfectibility of humanity by orderly evolution on this earth. This doctrine
• 1:48:00
  concerns the general evolution, which the present work touches only incidentally, it is
• 1:48:05
  complicated, and necessarily so. There are three fundamental propositions that underlie the Secret
• 1:48:12
  Doctrine. A an on the present, eternal, boundless and immutable principle,
• 1:48:17
  on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception
• 1:48:23
  and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. It is beyond
• 1:48:28
  the range and reach of human thought. In the words of Menduccia, unthinkable
• 1:48:31
  and unspeakable. This infinite and eternal cause, dimly formulated in the unconscious and
• 1:48:38
  unknowable of current European philosophy, is the rootless root of all that was,
• 1:48:43
  is, or ever shall be. In Sanskrit, it is Saturday. This
• 1:48:47
  Nus is symbolized in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand,
• 1:48:54
  absolute abstract space representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind
• 1:48:59
  can can either exclude from any conception or conceive of by itself. On the
• 1:49:03
  other, absolute abstract motion representing unconditioned consciousness. Spirit or consciousness and matter are
• 1:49:12
  however, to be regarded not as independent realities, but as the two facets
• 1:49:16
  or aspects of the absolute, which constitutes the basis of condition being, whether
• 1:49:21
  subjective or objective. Considering this metaphysical triad, the one reality spirit and matter
• 1:49:29
  as the root from which precedes all manifestation, that a greater wreath assumes the
• 1:49:33
  character of precosmic ideation Plato's world of divine ideas. It is the fawn zidi
• 1:49:41
  oorgo of force and of all individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence in
• 1:49:45
  the vast scheme of cosmic evolution. On the other hand, precosmic root substance
• 1:49:50
  muloprocriti is that aspect of the absolute which underlies all the objective planes in nature.
• 1:49:58
  B. The second of the th three postulates of the Secret Doctrine is
• 1:50:01
  the eternity of the universe in Toto as a boundless plane. Periodically the playground
• 1:50:08
  of numberless universes incessantly manifesting in disappearing, called the manifesting stars. And the
• 1:50:14
  sparks of eternity. The eternity of the pilgrim, the monad or self in
• 1:50:17
  man is like a wink of the eye of self existence. The appearance and
• 1:50:23
  disappearance of worlds is like a regular title ebb of flux and reflux. The
• 1:50:28
  third postulate is see the fundamental identity of all souls with the universal over soul,
• 1:50:34
  the latter being itself an aspect of the unknown route and the obligatory pilgrimage
• 1:50:40
  for every sole spark of the former thru the cycle of incarnation or necessity in
• 1:50:45
  accordance with cyclic and karmic law during the whole term. The pivotal doctrine of
• 1:50:49
  the Eastern philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won
• 1:50:55
  by his own ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metamine,
• 1:51:00
  psychosis and reincarnations. Every soul must work out its own salvation and take
• 1:51:05
  the kingdom of heaven by force. Salvation by faith and the vicarious atonement were
• 1:51:11
  not taught as now interpreted by Jesus, nor are these doctrines taught in the
• 1:51:15
  exoteric scriptures. They are later and ignorant perversions of the original doctrines. In
• 1:51:23
  the early Church, as in the Secret Doctrine, there was not one Christ
• 1:51:27
  for the whole world, but a potential Christ in every man. Theologians first
• 1:51:31
  made a fetish of the impersonal, omnipresent divinity, and then tore the Christos
• 1:51:35
  from the hearts of all humanity in order to deify Jesus that they might have
• 1:51:40
  a god man peculiarly their own. All the ancient mysteries had the true doctrine,
• 1:51:45
  and the early Christians had it. Masonry, uncontaminated by the disciples of
• 1:51:50
  loyala had and has it also. The one immutable principle referred to in the
• 1:51:56
  first proposition A is called in the Kabbalah n soff the word hind meaning nothing.
• 1:52:02
  This is not Jehovah or Edonia or the g A o U, for
• 1:52:06
  it is not itself creative, but the cause of creation, causeless cause.
• 1:52:12
  The Jewish creators plural are the aloheim, the principalities and powers. In this
• 1:52:18
  conception of divinity lies the secret of the ineffable name, i e. The
• 1:52:23
  nameless. The lost word is to the master who possesses it and knows how
• 1:52:28
  to pronounce it what the logos or creative power is to the nameless. Hence,
• 1:52:32
  the real master creates, and in this sense is a God. This
• 1:52:38
  will be further shown in connection with the Seven Principles and the nature of man.
• 1:52:43
  The second proposition, the eternity of the universe in Toto, reveals the
• 1:52:46
  law of cycles and the incessant work of creation. In other words, the
• 1:52:51
  creative process never had a beginning and will never have an end. There is
• 1:52:57
  one endless succession of universes, worlds, and solar systems continually appear and disappear.
• 1:53:03
  Each sun star or solar system has a period of activity, in a
• 1:53:09
  period of repose, emanates from and is drawn back into the all and the
• 1:53:13
  one. These periods are called the nights and days of Brahm. The idea
• 1:53:18
  that a God with human qualities and human passions made the earth out of nothing
• 1:53:23
  in six days of twenty four hours each is sufficiently miraculous and sufficiently childish for
• 1:53:29
  those who are ready to burn all who do not accept their interpretation. To
• 1:53:33
  endow a God with the power of performing the impossible and the inconceivable was considered
• 1:53:38
  sufficient honor bestowed. The law of periodicity is a necessary corollary of the order
• 1:53:44
  of events and the flight of time. Rhythmical, orderly harmonious movements in space
• 1:53:49
  give us our conception of time as how fast, how often, how slow,
• 1:53:55
  how regular, et cetera. The ear is a time organ, and
• 1:53:59
  the basic property of the ether is sound. This idea of periodicity or law
• 1:54:04
  of cycles is symbolized in Freemasonry in many ways, in the three, five
• 1:54:11
  or seven years of pilgrimage or penance, in the seven years of plenty and
• 1:54:15
  seven of famine, in the low twelve inch and the high twelve, in
• 1:54:20
  calling the craft from labor to refreshment, and many others. In the third
• 1:54:26
  postulate, we have the fundamental identity of all souls with the one which gives
• 1:54:30
  the basis of the eternal and universal brotherhood of man, and the basis of
• 1:54:34
  the entire scheme of human evolution. When these doctrines are clearly understood, they
• 1:54:40
  will be seen to go far beyond any modern scheme of evolution, though running
• 1:54:44
  on somewhat similar lines. In them, the entire scheme of cosmic and human
• 1:54:48
  evolution will be found to have been worked out ages ago. Pythagoras and Plato
• 1:54:54
  found these doctrines completely unfolded in the Mysteries. Brother Pike says repeatedly that they
• 1:55:00
  have been far oftener disfigured than apprehended, and never transcended. In modern times,
• 1:55:05
  Masonry derives its genius, its inspiration, its glyphics, and its traditions
• 1:55:11
  from this philosophy as taught in the Mysteries. How short sighted and time serving,
• 1:55:15
  then must it be for masonry to allow its grand traditions, its priceless
• 1:55:20
  inheritance, to be dwarfed and overlaid biological interpretations derived from records that were,
• 1:55:26
  in the beginning and before being disfigured by ignorance or cupidity, only an allegory
• 1:55:30
  of the true doctrines, prepared by those who knew, for the ignorant masses
• 1:55:35
  who demanded a sign and could never rise above a fetish. This is like
• 1:55:40
  bartering a magnificent diamond for a lump of common clay. Shall Masons now complete
• 1:55:45
  the folly by trying to convince themselves and oft dot airrs that the clay is
• 1:55:49
  the only diamond. How much one's idea of God colors all his thoughts and
• 1:55:55
  deeds is seldom realized. The ordinary crude and ignorant conception of a personal God
• 1:56:00
  more often results in slavish fear on the one hand, and atheism on the
• 1:56:04
  other. It is what Carlyle calls an absent to God, doing nothing since
• 1:56:11
  the six days of creation, but sitting on the outside and seeing it go.
• 1:56:15
  This idea of God carries with it, of course, the idea of
• 1:56:18
  creation as something already completed in time, when the fact is that creation is
• 1:56:24
  a process without beginning or end. The world all worlds are being created today
• 1:56:30
  as much as at any period in the past. Even the apparent destruction of
• 1:56:33
  worlds is a creative or evolutionary process, emanating from the bosom of the all,
• 1:56:40
  and running their cyclic course, day alternating with night on the outer physical
• 1:56:45
  plane. They are again in drawn to the invisible plane, only to re
• 1:56:47
  emerge after a longer night and start again on a higher cycle of evolution.
• 1:56:53
  Theologians have tried in vain to attach the idea of imminence to that of personality,
• 1:56:58
  and end it in a jargon of words and utter confusion of ideas.
• 1:57:02
  A personal absolute is not except in potency. God does not think, but
• 1:57:08
  is the cause of thought. God does not love, He is love.
• 1:57:13
  In the perfect or absolute sense. And so with all the divine attributes.
• 1:57:17
  God is thus the concealed logos, the causeless cause, the rootless root.
• 1:57:23
  God never manifests himself to be seen of men. Creation is his manifestation.
• 1:57:29
  And as creation is not complete and never will be, and as it never
• 1:57:33
  had a beginning, there is a concealed or unrevealed potency back of and beyond
• 1:57:38
  all creation, which is still God. Now. Space is the most perfect
• 1:57:43
  symbol of this idea of divinity, for it enters into all our concepts and
• 1:57:46
  is the basis of all our experiences. We cannot fathom it or define it,
• 1:57:53
  or exclude it from a single thought or experience. Space is boundless,
• 1:57:58
  infinite, unfathomable, unknowable, in all overall, through all, we know
• 1:58:03
  that it is, and that is all we know about it. But are
• 1:58:08
  not these just the attributes that are assigned to the absolute and infinite deity?
• 1:58:13
  And they are all negations? God says the Kabbalah is no thing. But
• 1:58:18
  the theologian will hasten to say that this is pure pantheism. It is no
• 1:58:24
  more pantheism than it is atheism, For as already shown, the hindsoft is
• 1:58:29
  before and beyond creation or cosmos. It is not God deduced or derived from
• 1:58:33
  nature, but precisely the reverse nature derived from God. And yet God remains
• 1:58:40
  the same, yesterday, today and forever, the changeless. The stability of
• 1:58:45
  nature is derived from the unchangeableness of God. God never tires, is not
• 1:58:50
  exhausted at his work, needing rest that were so human as to be childish,
• 1:58:56
  and the idea perhaps originated from the cyclic law law found in the Kabbalah
• 1:59:00
  of the Doves and Knights of Brahm, that manventaris and pelias, or periods
• 1:59:04
  of outbreathing and of in breathing in the cycles of evolution. Hence the parable
• 1:59:11
  given to the ignorant for the profane of God's working in then resting. If
• 1:59:15
  the reader will but reflect a moment on his own process of breathing, he
• 1:59:19
  will find that the in breathing inhalation and the outbreathing exhalation are equal and equally
• 1:59:26
  active processes, although so different, each being the opposite of the other,
• 1:59:30
  each in its turn the cause of the other stop one and the other ceases.
• 1:59:34
  Also. The more one reflects on this symbol of the great breath which
• 1:59:40
  creation is. The more will he understand of both eternal nature and his own
• 1:59:44
  being. But it may be asked, is man to be deprived of all
• 1:59:47
  idea of personality except his own? By no means, God, as the
• 1:59:54
  author of being, is the author of personality. He personifies himself. I
• 2:00:00
  III expresses that potency of himself, which personality is through man. The hand
• 2:00:05
  of providence is always a human hand. Humanity is both the vehicle and the
• 2:00:11
  agent of what man has called the providence of God. Humanity in Toto,
• 2:00:15
  then is the only personal God, and Christos is the realization or perfection of
• 2:00:20
  this divine persona in individual conscious experience. When this perfection is realized, the
• 2:00:28
  state is called Christos with the Greeks and bud Exay with the Hindus. Hence,
• 2:00:33
  the christ is at one with the Father, be ye perfect, even
• 2:00:38
  as your Father in heaven is perfect. Humanity in Toto, what is it?
• 2:00:45
  Is it the generations of the present age, or of any age in
• 2:00:48
  the past, or of the future. And these alone. Justice rules the
• 2:00:55
  universe and is the foundation of all law. Justice is the kingdom the permanency
• 2:01:00
  of deity. Humanity therefore means every human being ever born in any age,
• 2:01:06
  or to be born in coming ages. On this planet. All are in
• 2:01:11
  the hollow of His hand, one God, one law for all. Else
• 2:01:16
  there is no justice. And if it shall be done unto each according to
• 2:01:20
  the deeds done in the body, if as a man saureth, so shall
• 2:01:25
  he reap. The only logical deduction is law governing action, determining results according
• 2:01:30
  to absolute justice. And this the Kabbalah, the Secret Doctrine, and masonry,
• 2:01:33
  and all sacred books, and all religions everywhere teach. By taking the
• 2:01:40
  symbols for the thing symbolized. Men have made contradictions out of details, and
• 2:01:44
  then built up a system of final rewards and punishments, attaching to acts in
• 2:01:48
  time and claim their unreason and injustice as binding to all eternity. The result
• 2:01:54
  is atheism and materialism. For there is an instinct in man as part of
• 2:01:59
  his divine innas inheritance, and that instinct is an innate sense of justice.
• 2:02:03
  Destroy this and the result is atheism. Pure and simple destruction of the sense
• 2:02:10
  of justice has honeycombed the churches and been the parent of modern materialism. It
• 2:02:15
  is true that materialism is not the logical but the actual result. The issue
• 2:02:20
  is not logically between an unjust God and no God, but between a God
• 2:02:25
  that is inconceivable because unjust, and a God that is conceivable because just,
• 2:02:30
  and therefore the issue of the supreme reason. But this philosophical concept of divinity
• 2:02:35
  has another and still wider bearing. It concerns not only man's personal life,
• 2:02:41
  but determines his relations to his fellow men. It is the basis of ethics,
• 2:02:45
  and furthermore, coordinates all his experience and all his knowledge, and this
• 2:02:49
  leads to true wisdom. To know God is the supreme wisdom. It will
• 2:02:55
  be urged by modern theologians that this view dethrones Christ. To this objection,
• 2:03:00
  the answer is that any other view orphans humanity. It is far more important
• 2:03:05
  that men should strive to become Christ's than that they should believe that Jesus was
• 2:03:10
  Christ. If the Christ's state can be attained by but one human being during
• 2:03:15
  the whole evolution of the race, then the evolution of man is a farce
• 2:03:18
  and human perfection and impossibility. Jesus is no less divine because all men may
• 2:03:24
  reach the same divine perfection. Again, it will be urged there is no
• 2:03:29
  other name given under heaven or amongst men, whereby ye can be saved.
• 2:03:33
  But this is the ineffable name which every master is to possess and become,
• 2:03:39
  and salvation and perfection are synonymous. It has also been shown that every act
• 2:03:44
  in the drama of the life of Jesus, and every quality assigned to Christ,
• 2:03:48
  is to be found in the life of Christna and in the legend of
• 2:03:50
  a point eleven the sun gods from the remotest antiquity. That which the orthodox
• 2:03:57
  Christian will find to oppose to this view is not that it diffave thrones or
• 2:04:00
  degrades Christ, but that it disproves the idea of Christ as their exclusive possession,
• 2:04:04
  and denies that all other religions are less divine than their own. We
• 2:04:10
  have brought the same selfishness into our religions that we indulge in regard to our
• 2:04:14
  other possessions, such as wife and children, and houses and land and country,
• 2:04:18
  and the same partisan spirit as in our politics. And this, more
• 2:04:21
  than anything else, appears to justify selfishness in general, militates against the brotherhood
• 2:04:27
  of man and prevents the founding of the great republic composed of many nations.
• 2:04:31
  In all people, this idea of universal brotherhood, which was a cardinal doctrine
• 2:04:36
  in the ancient mysteries, as it is involved in the first postulate of the
• 2:04:41
  Secret Doctrine and openly declared in the third, and which is equally given the
• 2:04:45
  very first rank in Masonry, is the logical deduction from our idea of divinity
• 2:04:49
  and of the essential nature meaning of Christos. Humanity in Toto, as already
• 2:04:56
  explained, is the personification of the divine in creation, and the idea of
• 2:05:00
  exact and universal justice regards each individual of all the myriads, constituting humanity with
• 2:05:05
  equal favor. There are no favorites in the divine conception. Justice of God
• 2:05:12
  toward all implies justice toward each other amongst men. This principle of justice is
• 2:05:16
  law universal, and this principle of brotherhood and the perfectibility of man's nature through
• 2:05:21
  evolution necessitate reincarnation. The number of souls constituting humanity, though practically innumerable,
• 2:05:30
  is nevertheless definite. Hence, the doctrine of pre existence taught in all the
• 2:05:34
  mysteries, applies to every child of woman born, all conditions in each life
• 2:05:40
  being determined by previous living. This will be further elaborated in another section of
• 2:05:45
  this work. Thus, the fatherhood of God in the personification of divinity in
• 2:05:49
  humanity includes the universal and unqualified brotherhood of man. The real masters in all
• 2:05:56
  ages, knowing this from the lessons taught in the Mysteries of Initiation, have
• 2:06:00
  ever been the foes of autocrats, oligarchies, and oppression. In every form,
• 2:06:04
  whether ecclesiastical or political. Masons are taught to obey the laws of the
• 2:06:11
  country in which they reside. They are not agents of revolution, but of
• 2:06:15
  evolution by enlightenment and persuasion. They may strive to reform a nation or a
• 2:06:20
  church, the true republic is the outgrowth of brotherhood, and a jealous monarch
• 2:06:26
  in church or state will naturally oppose the diffusion of doctrines that tend to the
• 2:06:30
  liberation and the enlightenment of the people. It is true, however, that
• 2:06:35
  all the masters or adepts may not be equally enlightened or equally prudent. Mystics
• 2:06:41
  like Jacob Baymen, or adepts like Saint Germain, or Masons like Desmie,
• 2:06:45
  or philosophers like Bruno, or other agents of the Great Lodge sought only to
• 2:06:50
  instruct an enlighten mankind. The rabble were deaf to their doctrines and appeals,
• 2:06:56
  and turned like ravenous wolves upon them. Because true masonry, unemasculated, bore
• 2:07:01
  the banners of freedom and equal right, and was in rebellion against spiritual tyranny,
• 2:07:06
  its lodges were proscribed in seventeen thirty eight by an edict of the States
• 2:07:11
  of Holland. In seventeen thirty seven, Louis the fifteenth forbade them in France.
• 2:07:17
  In seventeen thirty eight, Pope Clement the twelfth issued against them his famous
• 2:07:23
  bull of Excommunication, which was renewed by Benedict the fourteenth, and in seventeen
• 2:07:28
  forty three the Council of Berne also proscribed them. Masonry has ever the most
• 2:07:32
  vivid remembrance of the terrible and artificial torments that were used to put down new
• 2:07:36
  forms of religion or extinguish the old. It sees with the eye of memory,
• 2:07:42
  the ruthless extermination of all the people of all ages and both sexes,
• 2:07:46
  because it was their misfortune not to know the God of the Hebrews, or
• 2:07:49
  to worship him under the wrong name, by the savage troops of Moses and
• 2:07:54
  Joshua, It sees the thumbscrews and the racks, the whip, the gallows
• 2:07:59
  and the stake, the victims of Diocletian in Alva, the miserable Covenanters,
• 2:08:03
  the nonconformists Servetus burned, and the unoffending Quaker hung. It sees the persecutions
• 2:08:09
  of Peter and Paul, the martyrdom of Stephen, the trials of Ignatius,
• 2:08:15
  Polycarp, Justin and Irenius, and then in turn the sufferings of wretched pagans
• 2:08:20
  under the Christian emperors, as of papists in Ireland under Elizabeth, and the
• 2:08:24
  bloated Henry. The Roman Virgin naked before the hungry lions, young Margaret Graham,
• 2:08:31
  tied to a stake at low water mark, and their left to drown,
• 2:08:33
  singing hymns to God until the savage waters broke over her head. And
• 2:08:37
  all that in all ages have suffered by hunger and nakedness, peril and prison,
• 2:08:43
  the rack, the stake, the sword. It sees them all and
• 2:08:46
  shudders at the long roll of human atrocities. And it sees the oppression still
• 2:08:50
  practiced in the name of religion. Men shot in a Christian jail in Christian
• 2:08:54
  Italy, for reading the Christian Bible in almost every Christian state, laws forbidding
• 2:08:58
  freedom of speech on matters relating to Christianity, and the gallows reaching its arm
• 2:09:03
  over the pulpit, The fires of Moloch in Syria, the harsh mutilations in
• 2:09:09
  the name of a Start and Sibylly Jehovah, the barbarities of imperial pagan tortures,
• 2:09:15
  the still grosser torments which Roman Gothic Christians in Italy and Spain heaped on
• 2:09:18
  their brother men. The fiendish cruelties to which Switzerland and France, the Netherlands,
• 2:09:24
  England, Scotland, Ireland, America have been witness are none too powerful
• 2:09:30
  to warn man of the unspeakable evils which follow from mistakes and errors in the
• 2:09:33
  matter of religion, and especially from investing the God of Love with the cruel
• 2:09:39
  and vindictive passions of erring humanity and making blood to have a sweet savor in
• 2:09:43
  his nostrils, and groans of agony to be delicious in his ears. Man
• 2:09:48
  never had the right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God and condemn and punish
• 2:09:54
  another for his belief. All men are brothers by all the laws of nature
• 2:09:58
  and by the very being of God. But so long as religion defines heresy
• 2:10:03
  as a crime or imagines a God with human attributes, Man's inhumanity to man
• 2:10:09
  will continue to make countless millions mourn and find vent for all evil passions justified
• 2:10:13
  by their idea of God. But some will say this is all a thing
• 2:10:18
  of the past. Mankind, especially in Christian countries, have outgrown these relics
• 2:10:24
  of barbarism alas if it were only true. We do not drown or burn
• 2:10:31
  or torture physically, but quite as subtle torture to the sensitive is found in
• 2:10:35
  scorn, contempt, ridicule, and ostracism, in slander and defamation of character.
• 2:10:41
  Are we any nearer genuine brotherhood today than we were a century ago?
• 2:10:46
  Or have we but refined our cruelties and merely disguised the claw of the tiger?
• 2:10:52
  Do not supreme selfishness and relentless greed lie at the heart of competition?
• 2:10:56
  Are not the trade unions and the syndicates glowering at each other like cages of
• 2:11:01
  wild beasts? Ah, my brother removed from barbarism after all? And the
• 2:11:07
  difference in the world, what idea God, and what is our basis of
• 2:11:09
  ethics, we are but little. It does make all we entertain of.
• 2:11:15
  The one idea of the modern scheme of salvation is self preservation. We must
• 2:11:20
  be saved if all the rest are damned, and competition and egotism and selfishness
• 2:11:24
  in every form are the legitimate result. Masonry does not preach a new religion.
• 2:11:30
  It but reiterates the new commandment announced by Jesus, which was also announced
• 2:11:35
  by every great reformer of religion since history began. Drop the theological barnacles from
• 2:11:41
  the religion of Jesus as taught by him and by the Essenes and Gnostics of
• 2:11:46
  the first centuries, and it becomes masonry. Masonry and its purity, derived
• 2:11:50
  as it is from the Old Hebrew Kabbalah, as part of the great universal
• 2:11:54
  wisdom religion of remotest antiquity, stands squarely for the unqualified and universal brotherhood of
• 2:12:00
  man in all time and in every age. To christianize masonry, or to
• 2:12:05
  narrow it to the sectarian bounds of any creed, is not only to dwarf
• 2:12:09
  and belittle it, but must inevitably result, as among warring sects has always
• 2:12:13
  resulted with religions in setting brother against brother and lodge against lodge, and result
• 2:12:18
  in final dissolution. This is one of the plainest meanings of the legend of
• 2:12:24
  the Lost Word. The thinnest veil over the sublime mystery of the ineffable name
• 2:12:28
  is brotherhood and love. This is the light of the logos. The gross
• 2:12:33
  darkness that hangs like a black veil over the shikina is selfishness and hate.
• 2:12:39
  Even so hath it ever been, and so will it ever be till brotherly
• 2:12:43
  love, relief, and truth reign universally in the hearts of all humanity.
• 2:12:48
  The refinements of so called civilization do not change the essential nature of man.
• 2:12:54
  Beneath all these their sleeps or wakes a demon or an angel, And one
• 2:12:58
  of these is ever ins For no man can serve two masters. J.
• 2:13:03
  D. Buck, Mystic Masonry, Chapter five, The Secret Doctrine continued.
• 2:13:11
  Science and religion. The science and the religion theology of the West, are
• 2:13:16
  in perpetual conflict. The genius of this religion discerns faith and miracle as its
• 2:13:22
  foundation, science holds as its ideals, fact and law. This religion is
• 2:13:28
  necessarily illogical, while science is materialistic and thanks to both mankind is as far
• 2:13:35
  from any real knowledge of the nature and destiny of the soul as it was
• 2:13:37
  a thousand years ago. This conflict has long been maintained. It is a
• 2:13:43
  war to the death. Both religion and science are being reformed, and long
• 2:13:46
  before the battle ceases, neither of the original champions will be found to exist,
• 2:13:52
  except in their progeny of doubtful extraction or foreign parentage. A reconciliation has
• 2:13:58
  sometimes been dreamed of, but placed a long way off. The theory or
• 2:14:03
  working hypothesis of science is mechanical to the last degree matter, force, motion,
• 2:14:09
  and law. Without an underlying intelligence, Matter is said to be essentially
• 2:14:13
  dead and inert, and mind is regarded as the fortuitous result of combination and
• 2:14:18
  aggregation known as organization. Evolution is regarded as the result of modification and improvement
• 2:14:24
  by us e and selection, and the increment carried forward by heredity. In
• 2:14:30
  other words, of autonomy. The theory of religion is that of a personal
• 2:14:35
  God and an arbitrary and equally mechanical, though miraculous creation of a revelation,
• 2:14:41
  equally miraculous of souls created as by arbitrary caprice of deity with the accidental cooperation
• 2:14:48
  of man even in violation of divine law. It talks of laws but admits
• 2:14:52
  their abrogation through the will caprice of God. It is true that neither science
• 2:14:58
  nor religion has openly formulated the foregoing creeds, but they are fair deductions from
• 2:15:03
  the postulates assumed the logical results of a nature without intelligence and a God who
• 2:15:09
  creates laws only to annul them at his own good pleasure. Reconciliation between science
• 2:15:15
  and religion thus becomes impossible, because each is a contradiction to itself. But
• 2:15:20
  a reconciliation was reached in a secret doctrine ages ago. The old universal wisdom
• 2:15:26
  religion was scientific to the last degree. For beneath both science and religion was
• 2:15:31
  the philosophy which discerned the orderly processes of eternal nature, with no missing links
• 2:15:35
  in evolution, and no caprice or contradictions anywhere in cosmos. The first postulate
• 2:15:43
  of the secret Doctrine, already referred to, lays the sure foundation of this
• 2:15:46
  old philosophy, an omnipotent, external, boundless, and immutable principle, coeval
• 2:15:52
  and coextensive with space in all, through all, and over all divinity imminent
• 2:15:58
  in nature alike, the eternal cause and result, each without beginning or end,
• 2:16:03
  and each alternating forever. Law in nature is the permanency, the unchangeableness
• 2:16:09
  of the divine being. Intelligence in nature is the harmony of the divine order.
• 2:16:16
  Hence the kingdom, the foundation, the crown, the beauty, et
• 2:16:20
  cetera of the Kabbalistic sephirah, or divine attributes of vinesoff the boundless. The
• 2:16:26
  doctrine of emanation, taught by Plato and held by the Gnostics and the early
• 2:16:31
  Christians, gave the key to cosmic and human evolution. Plotinus said, God
• 2:16:37
  is not the principle of beings, but the principle of principles. Universal substance,
• 2:16:43
  universal energy, universal law, universal life, universal intelligence are all emanations
• 2:16:48
  or manifestations of the one principle. This is not pantheism, but pure and
• 2:16:54
  unadulterated theism the all is one, and that one is Divinity. Spinoza came,
• 2:17:01
  perhaps as near the truth as any one since the days of the Old
• 2:17:05
  initiates every atom of matter, as every spot in space is full of divinity.
• 2:17:11
  There is neither time nor place where he it is not. The priests
• 2:17:16
  initiats among the Hebrews knew this doctrine as they had it from Old Egypt.
• 2:17:20
  Moses was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and neither Jehovah nor
• 2:17:24
  Adonai was the nameless or the boundless. Here in the first postulate lies the
• 2:17:31
  complete reconciliation of science and religion. Through the divine eminence in nature and within
• 2:17:37
  all space concealed, every atom of matter is endowed with life and intelligence,
• 2:17:43
  and bound by law. Evolution is a formation, transformation and reformation in endless
• 2:17:50
  succession, with the outposts of creation continually drawn upward towards the center. In
• 2:17:54
  divinity or space involves divinity and evolves cosmos. At the center of every atom
• 2:18:01
  or sun lies divinity. Unity at the circumference unfolds nature diversity, and these
• 2:18:07
  two are forever one and a one. How any rational mind can fail to
• 2:18:13
  see in this philosophy a complete reconciliation of religion and science, It is difficult
• 2:18:18
  to understand. In the beginning. When a world emanates or begins to manifest
• 2:18:24
  visibly, space becomes turgid called kurds in the old Hindu cosmology. With substance,
• 2:18:31
  the invisible becomes visible. This is the first matter, and it is
• 2:18:35
  called a casa on the fourth side. Coincident with this turgescence prior to nebula
• 2:18:41
  absolute abstract motion representing unconditioned consciousness. One of the two aspects of venus latent
• 2:18:48
  potential energy becomes active latent consciousness becomes cosmic ideation. This primal energy is called
• 2:18:56
  fohat, the mysterious link between mind and matter, the animating principle, electrifying
• 2:19:01
  every atom into life. We have now matter, force and motion, with
• 2:19:07
  law as the guiding intelligence, active and consciousness latent as cosmic ideation, unfolding
• 2:19:13
  the plan, and all these in perfect concord, evolving the symphony of creation.
• 2:19:18
  Of course, this cosmogenesis can be here but roughly outlined. We have
• 2:19:24
  then a causa as the universal substance, and fox hat as the universal energy,
• 2:19:28
  with intelligence guiding them, consciousness back of them, and the roots of
• 2:19:33
  all in the concealed ainsoft the unknowable. Professor Crooks has taken a long stride
• 2:19:37
  in this direction in his metaphysical excursion in search of the origin of the elements,
• 2:19:43
  and in his postulation of protyle he has further touched the septenary key in
• 2:19:48
  the order of the emanation of the so called elements known to modern science.
• 2:19:52
  It would be impossible in a work such as this, and equally out of
• 2:19:56
  place, to undertake to trace the process running through my mint millions of years
• 2:20:00
  by which a planet is evolved, How the tragescence gives rise to denser substance
• 2:20:05
  set on fire by friction fue hat, and how the fire mist cools and
• 2:20:09
  hardens into matter. On our plane. Though apparent chaos here is cosmos,
• 2:20:15
  order and formation, as much as now may be discerned in this present state
• 2:20:18
  of our Earth, the real chaos is space, which is but latent potential
• 2:20:24
  cosmos or creation asleep. Tracing this process of world building from the beginning the
• 2:20:30
  one negative abstract space and absolute abstract motion. The ineffable name or deity lying
• 2:20:37
  still back of these nameless and never manifesting now become active, and here lies
• 2:20:41
  the first manifestation, a duality father, mother, spirit and matter, consciousness
• 2:20:48
  and intelligence. From a latent or potential duality space and motion, there arises
• 2:20:54
  an active manifested duality, taking latency as the one the first logo we have
• 2:21:00
  thus the first triad or the second logos. As differentiation goes on the first
• 2:21:05
  triad becomes the modulus. Full hat lights the fires, sets the wheels,
• 2:21:11
  atoms in motion, and cosmic ideation. Latent consciousness becoming active now gives form
• 2:21:18
  to evolving substance. Symbolize this, and we have the first triad reflecting itself
• 2:21:24
  in matter, a double triangle or a perfect square, with the ineffable name
• 2:21:28
  inscribed in the first triangle, which with the three reflected making six, and
• 2:21:33
  the name added, making the first septenary. This is the keynote of all
• 2:21:37
  that follows the pitch, the rhythm, and the harmony of creation, the
• 2:21:41
  first octave in the song of the morning stars, the first septenary in the
• 2:21:46
  universal spectrum of color, and the first expression of the form into which matter
• 2:21:50
  is molded. To synthesize all these movements in one word, we have faux
• 2:21:54
  hat as the agent and vibration as the manifestation. The master who knows the
• 2:22:01
  pitch, quality and amplitude of this first vibration, who can produce this first
• 2:22:05
  septenary of sound, color, and form, can by so doing raise his
• 2:22:09
  consciousness to that first or seventh, according as we count from above downward,
• 2:22:13
  or the reverse plain. Such a one knows how to pronounce the ineffable name.
• 2:22:20
  It is not only a matter of pure science dealing with laws of rhythm,
• 2:22:24
  a fact, and not a tradition or a sentiment. But it implies
• 2:22:26
  absolute at one meant in knowledge and power, between all that goes to make
• 2:22:31
  up what we call man and all that we call nature. It is the
• 2:22:35
  consummation of human evolution. Hence said the Christ, it is finished in giving
• 2:22:41
  himself to the world. The perfect that one meant was attained. In the
• 2:22:45
  ethical sense, that is, on the plane of relations of man to man,
• 2:22:50
  the word is renunciation or self sacrifice. In the Hindu tradition regarding the
• 2:22:54
  Master's word, there are seven ways of pronouncing it, each involving a different
• 2:22:58
  posty and a different result. The voice of the silence says, before thou
• 2:23:05
  sets thy foot upon the latter's upper run, the latter of the mystic sounds,
• 2:23:09
  thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner God, the Higher Self,
• 2:23:13
  in seven manners. The first is like the nightingale's sweet voice chanting a
• 2:23:18
  song of parting to its mate. The second comes as the sound of a
• 2:23:22
  silver symbol of the ynnies awakening the twinkling stars. The next is as the
• 2:23:28
  plate melodious of the ocean sprite imprisoned in a shell, and this is followed
• 2:23:33
  by the chant of vena. The fifth, like the sound of bamboo flute,
• 2:23:37
  shrills in thine ear. It changes next into a trumpet blast. The
• 2:23:43
  last vibrates like the dull thundercloud. The seventh swallows all the other, and
• 2:23:48
  then are heard no more. When the six are slain and at the laid,
• 2:23:52
  then is the pupil merged into the One and lives therein rumbling of a
• 2:23:56
  sounds they die master's feet are one becomes the one and lives therein. While
• 2:24:03
  these descriptions are of symbols of sounds, they nevertheless represent definite vibrations in the
• 2:24:07
  ether or a casa, And he who can induce them in himself can raise
• 2:24:11
  his consciousness plane after plane to the seventh and become at one with the all.
• 2:24:18
  If one has ever fainted or taken an ansesthetic and remembers the rushing sound
• 2:24:22
  that precedes the silence when consciousness ceases on the outer plane, he has a
• 2:24:26
  fact in his own experience, giving him the key to Samadhi. If he
• 2:24:31
  can produce the same condition in himself without fainting, or chloroform, for example.
• 2:24:35
  But by a knowledge of the laws of vibration, then is he an
• 2:24:39
  adept and has and knows how to pronounce the Master's word. The designs on
• 2:24:45
  the trestle board for the building of the temple are the laws that determine the
• 2:24:48
  evolution of the higher self in man. While the execution of the plan or
• 2:24:52
  the construction of the temple in accordance with the Plan, means a transformation of
• 2:24:56
  the earthly tabernacle the lower nature, into to a likeness with that other spiritual
• 2:25:01
  temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens. This is again symbolized by
• 2:25:07
  the triangle within the square. The triangle in the square symbolizes potential being before
• 2:25:13
  evolution man in the garden of Eden. The square in the triangle symbolizes regeneration,
• 2:25:20
  the purification of the lower earthly nature, so that it may ascend to
• 2:25:24
  the Father return to Paradise. This is symbolized by the careful position of the
• 2:25:28
  compass and square in relation to the Holy Bible. While the three grate and
• 2:25:33
  lights and three lesser lights again make a double triangle, one greater because above,
• 2:25:39
  one lesser because below, which every mason will understand. A few years
• 2:25:45
  ago these explanations would have seemed to the great majority of persons purely fanciful.
• 2:25:50
  But since the recent progress in electricity and photography, since thought and emotion,
• 2:25:56
  like light and shade, have been photographed by light emanating from the human body,
• 2:26:00
  directed by the human will, the philosophical synthesis of the forces in man
• 2:26:03
  is the next step in the search of science for the mystery of man.
• 2:26:07
  It is precisely this synthesis which masonry possesses in its symbolism, and we can
• 2:26:13
  only read the one by the light of the other, and check both by
• 2:26:16
  facts derived by experiments as science advances. Passing now from these broader metaphysical aspects
• 2:26:22
  to the complex nature of man, and we have also the key to his
• 2:26:26
  entire nature and evolution. We begin with the fact of consciousness. Man is
• 2:26:33
  not merely a bundle of organs or faculties. He is essentially one. What
• 2:26:37
  else can be the meaning of the phrase made in the image of God.
• 2:26:41
  Man is the image God. The reality Divinity deposits a center of consciousness,
• 2:26:48
  and this evolves into man, just as in cosmogenesis, latent consciousness as abstract
• 2:26:54
  absolute motion became with abstract spaced the cosmic duality. We speak of this set
• 2:27:00
  unter of consciousness in man as a spark of divinity. What divinity is to
• 2:27:05
  cosmos, this spark is to man, concealed, never manifesting itself, but
• 2:27:09
  giving rise to all manifestations. In man. It is the apex of the
• 2:27:13
  triangle, while life and thought are the other two angles. Starting then with
• 2:27:20
  this metaphysical concept, we have the divine ego, the higher self, a
• 2:27:24
  metaphysical abstraction. It is true, like the zero in mathematics, or like
• 2:27:30
  motion and space, yet the cause lying back of all phenomena, the potency
• 2:27:33
  of all actuality. This is the ego, the thinker, the I am
• 2:27:39
  I in man so far it is not conscious, but consciousness, or the
• 2:27:45
  cause of it. In man's complex nature, it is the all seeing eye.
• 2:27:50
  It is Christos. Potentially, it is conscious, the son of righteousness.
• 2:27:54
  In man's world of being. It attaches to the body in the lower
• 2:27:58
  life, through mind, of which it is the potency, but not the
• 2:28:03
  act the thinker, but not the thought. Mind is the immediate vehicle of
• 2:28:07
  consciousness, as matter is called the vehicle of force. Thus, from the
• 2:28:13
  three postulates of the Secret doctrine. We have, first divinity and nature at
• 2:28:18
  one. Second, we have spirit and substance as the dual principle from which
• 2:28:22
  all force in all matter procede. Third, religion and science are consistent,
• 2:28:28
  each with itself and in perfect harmony with each other. Fourth, we have
• 2:28:31
  a philosophy of the origin, nature, and destiny of man, agreeing with
• 2:28:37
  and fortified by all previous concepts. The first postulate teaches the origin and essential
• 2:28:43
  nature of all things. The second postulate teaches the law of cycles and the
• 2:28:48
  process of world building. The third postulate teaches, in harmony with the first
• 2:28:54
  and second, the fundamental identity of all souls, with the universal over soul
• 2:28:58
  brotherhood, and the laws of karma and reincarnation, which are the factors in
• 2:29:03
  human evolution. Going back now to the first postulate, we find one principle.
• 2:29:09
  With whatever aspects or of manifestations the human mind may conceive, and all
• 2:29:15
  things, all principles, potencies, powers derived from more manifestations of this one,
• 2:29:20
  whether it be matter or spirit, man or beast, angel or worm.
• 2:29:24
  Everything from the one, and after all manifestation, as before the One,
• 2:29:30
  is concealed, inexhaustible, unknowable. We know and can know only its
• 2:29:35
  garment, its manifestations. Man is called the microcosm or little world. The
• 2:29:41
  one is in him, as in nature, the cause of his being,
• 2:29:45
  and as in a macrocosm or great world, the one manifests as the many
• 2:29:48
  by an orderly descent for differentiation. So in Man, from the one principle
• 2:29:54
  we have first a triad, and then a quaternary, the three of all
• 2:29:58
  four, making seven, then from the first seven seven times seven, making
• 2:30:03
  the forty nine fires of the older Hindu philosophy. Before the reader declares this
• 2:30:09
  conception to be altogether fanciful, let him turn to the investigations of modern physical
• 2:30:13
  science. Regarding color and sound. Helmholtz estimated that between the highest rate of
• 2:30:20
  vibrations giving rise to sound waves apprehensible to the human ear, and the lowest
• 2:30:24
  vibration of light, giving rise to the red of the solar spectrum, there
• 2:30:28
  would intervene about thirty four octaves of consonant or dissonant vibrations. And unless there
• 2:30:33
  are great gaps in nature, these thirty four octaves are concerned in producing the
• 2:30:37
  phenomena of nature. It has furthermore been demonstrated that there is an exact equation
• 2:30:43
  between color and sound vibrations, and that colors have their complementary tones and tones
• 2:30:50
  their complementary colors. In other words, we may see sounds in hear colors.
• 2:30:56
  The modern theory very old of the correlation in concertvation of force, designates
• 2:31:01
  the various forces as special modes of motion. That is, definite vibrations.
• 2:31:07
  All colors, sounds, and forms in nature are the result of definite vibrations.
• 2:31:13
  Matter exists on different planes, having different densities, different atomic or molecular
• 2:31:18
  structure, and hence different vibrations. Change the plane, or rather transfer matter
• 2:31:24
  from one plane to another, and you change the inherent or normal vibration.
• 2:31:30
  Reverse the process and change by any means the vibration, and you transfer the
• 2:31:33
  matter involved to another plane. We must go further. Observation and experiment have
• 2:31:41
  shown that as to these various planes, we have not a single form of
• 2:31:43
  matter with a single form of vibration. But every plane is complex and compound.
• 2:31:50
  All the colors of the spectrum and all the tones in a musical scale
• 2:31:54
  are resolvable into consonant series of octaves septenaries. Hence, on all the planes
• 2:32:00
  above referred to, there is an interpenetration of planes and vibrations. On each
• 2:32:05
  plane, there is a dominant chord to which all vibrations can form, just
• 2:32:09
  as we may have in an octave or throughout a symphony, a dominant chord.
• 2:32:13
  The order of this interpenetration, however, is from above downward. The
• 2:32:18
  higher penetrate the lower, while the lower are only latent in the higher.
• 2:32:24
  Take, for example, seven planes, of which the highest seventh represents spirit
• 2:32:30
  and the lowest matter or physical substance. The first or lowest plane is altogether
• 2:32:35
  illusory. It has no permanent or real existence. It is not only in
• 2:32:39
  continual motion and continual change, formation, dissolution, and reformation, but these
• 2:32:46
  are its characteristics. Under certain conditions, it disappears, dissolves from the first
• 2:32:52
  plane entirely, and passes to the two D, and to the three D,
• 2:32:56
  the fourth, and so on. The greatest activity is on the higher
• 2:33:00
  planes, and is greatest on the highest till all merge in or return to
• 2:33:05
  the one and changeless from which they emanated. All known phenomena in nature testify
• 2:33:11
  to the existence of such a law. Hence the saying in the old philosophy
• 2:33:16
  nature prefers that matter shall be eternal on the higher planes only The grossest physical
• 2:33:22
  substance therefore is penetrated or saturated with all the higher substances and energies. These
• 2:33:28
  are held to subordinate positions by the dominant chord, which is say F,
• 2:33:33
  and so are latent or active as the theme unfolds, or as the combination
• 2:33:37
  varies. Can anyone imagine such a complicated condition in such coordinate results as all
• 2:33:43
  the time occur, and yet believe that there is no absolute law governing the
• 2:33:48
  whole process. It is not difficult in a general way to formulate the law.
• 2:33:54
  Take the first or lowest plane, it is penetrated by matter of plane
• 2:33:58
  number two, the next higher. Let us say that each plane represents mattern
• 2:34:03
  force the cosmic duality. The so called force of plane one is the so
• 2:34:09
  called substance of plane two. Put plane two is in its turn saturated by
• 2:34:15
  the substance and energy of plane three. Hence, the force or energy of
• 2:34:20
  plane two is the substance of plane three, while the force side of plane
• 2:34:24
  three is latent on plane two but active on plane three. The law therefore
• 2:34:30
  may be thus formulated from highest to lowest. The lower is the vehicle yupity
• 2:34:35
  of the higher, and each plane in the ascending order derives its force or
• 2:34:39
  energy from the soupstead ncee of the next higher. In the last analysis,
• 2:34:45
  where all are merged in the one, substance and energy are seen to be
• 2:34:48
  but two aspects of the one eternal principle, the father mother of the old
• 2:34:52
  philosophy. Passing now from these general considerations to the organic nature of man and
• 2:34:58
  apply ying these universal laws to his physical, sensuous, intellectual, moral,
• 2:35:03
  and spirit of twenty one nature, we shall find that they shed a flood
• 2:35:07
  of light on the problem of his nature, origin, and destiny. It
• 2:35:11
  is well to bear in mind that our idea of God and our theory of
• 2:35:15
  religion theology were the starting points in this philosophy. To deny the existence of
• 2:35:22
  God, or to conceive one as illogical, unjust, capricious, personal,
• 2:35:26
  and endowed with all human infirmities, equally lead to confusion, ignorance, and
• 2:35:31
  discouragement, if not to despair. This philosophy, here but crudely outlined,
• 2:35:37
  is not only the foundation of all the sacred books of all religions, but
• 2:35:41
  while it was in them, concealed beneath parable and allegory, in the mysteries
• 2:35:45
  of each religion, it was taught openly and constituted the theoretical part of the
• 2:35:50
  genuine initiations before undertaking. To show how far this philosophy is embodied in the
• 2:35:56
  symbols of masonry, though the building of the temple and the legend of High
• 2:36:00
  Iram, it will be necessary to further unfold the teaching. In regard to
• 2:36:03
  the complex nature of man, Man may be viewed from two standpoints, as
• 2:36:09
  a concrete whole, an individual, a conscious unit, and as an aggregate
• 2:36:13
  of organs and faculties. Anatomically, man is composed of fluids, tissues,
• 2:36:18
  and organs. The fluids are resolvable into inorganic and organic compounds, and resolvable
• 2:36:24
  again into elements. The tissues and organs originate from cells, these from molecules,
• 2:36:31
  and these again are supposed to be composed of atoms or so called elements.
• 2:36:37
  Physiology classifies the functions of man as organic mirror association of tissues endowed with
• 2:36:41
  life like the plant, hence sometimes called vegetative functions, as animal viewed from
• 2:36:46
  the sensuous plane and common to all animal life, as intellectual in which are
• 2:36:52
  generally included the moral and the spiritual. Consciousness is usually regarded as incidental according
• 2:36:58
  as it appear years or disappears on the physical plane. It has already been
• 2:37:03
  shown that in the Secret doctrine, consciousness is regarded as the permanent or basic
• 2:37:07
  factor in man's being. It is never destroyed, never suspended, but may
• 2:37:13
  retire from one plane to another. In this sense, it may be withdrawn
• 2:37:18
  from the physical plane. This old theory of the ego or thinker and its
• 2:37:22
  planes of consciousness, on any of which it may be latent or active during
• 2:37:26
  its connection with the body, makes it possible or thinkable that the ego may,
• 2:37:31
  in its states of consciousness, transcend the limits of the physical body altogether
• 2:37:35
  and furnishes a conception of the nature and existence of the human soul. These
• 2:37:41
  elements of truth, be it observed, are derived from the phenomena and experiences
• 2:37:45
  of the ego in the physical body, and the key to the problem lies
• 2:37:48
  in the planes of consciousness. It is because modern materialistic science has overlooked the
• 2:37:54
  importance and failed to understand the philosophy of consciousness that it denies or is a
• 2:38:00
  is agnostic regarding the existence of the soul. It should also be observed that
• 2:38:05
  we do not put forth a theory of consciousness as a working hypothesis, but
• 2:38:09
  start with consciousness as an empirical fact in all human experience. Regarding the nature
• 2:38:15
  of consciousness itself, we are agnostic enough to suit the spencers in Huxleys of
• 2:38:18
  science, for we have posited it as the highest point in the nature of
• 2:38:22
  man, spark from the unknowable the forever concealed, as to changes in states
• 2:38:28
  and extension of the bounds of consciousness. This has already been proved empirically in
• 2:38:33
  the experiments in hypnotism beyond the field of touch, outside the range of sight
• 2:38:39
  or sound. As applied to the ordinary functions of the senses, hypnotic subjects
• 2:38:43
  have been influenced by the silent will and become conscious of the unexpressed thought of
• 2:38:48
  the hypnotizer. Thus, even modern materialism, with its mechanical working hypothesis,
• 2:38:54
  has worked up to the problem of consciousness. Had anything been wanting in this
• 2:38:58
  direction, the clues at least have been furnished by the experiments in psychic photography
• 2:39:03
  of doctor Bearreduc reported in the French Academy of Medicine, and many other experimenters
• 2:39:09
  are working on the same lines. If the reports are true, doctor Bearreduc
• 2:39:13
  has proved by photography the existence of the Mayavirupa, the thought body known to
• 2:39:18
  many adepts of antiquity. Long before this, mister J. M. Rusk
• 2:39:24
  of Mcconnellsville, Ohio, photographed a thought form by the light resulting from a
• 2:39:28
  strong concentration of the will. Instances might be multiplied, but enough evidence has
• 2:39:35
  already been adduced to give the death blow to mechanical materialistic hypotheses of modern science
• 2:39:41
  and to open the door for the psychic science of the East. Now,
• 2:39:45
  the anatomy and physiology to which I have referred offer a certain method of investigating
• 2:39:50
  man. And while this method has given rise to magnificent results, it is
• 2:39:54
  not, by any means the only one, nor the most fruitful for all
• 2:39:58
  purposes. The planes in nature and in man to which I have referred,
• 2:40:03
  and the septenary principle in their divisions and relations, offer another method of investigation.
• 2:40:09
  J. D. Buck Mystic Masonry, Chapter six. The Secret Doctrine
• 2:40:16
  continued, the septenary nature of man. We may speak of life, of
• 2:40:20
  will, of desire, and of love as principles manifesting in nature and recognized
• 2:40:26
  by results in themselves. They may have no definite form. Yet are they
• 2:40:31
  none the less potent. These principles may take the form of the body of
• 2:40:35
  man, as water takes the form of the vessel that contains it, which,
• 2:40:39
  if congealed, retains the form of the vessel. Still, is it
• 2:40:43
  true that water as a body has no definite form of its own. So
• 2:40:48
  it is with the principles we are considering. They are metaphysical concepts, not
• 2:40:54
  tangible things, but they are causes that lead to tangible results. It has
• 2:40:58
  already been stated that each principle is correlated to a plane, a planet,
• 2:41:03
  and a race, and that the human principles are on every plane correlated to
• 2:41:07
  seven fold occult forces. It has already been shown how the substances of different
• 2:41:13
  planes interpenetrate with the dominant cord, determining the vibration on any plane. As
• 2:41:18
  to the general method of evolution in man, or the relation of anthropogenesis to
• 2:41:22
  cosmogenesis, it may here be noted that in the various processes of cooling and
• 2:41:28
  hardening by which the Earth has reached its present state from the firemist or nebulous
• 2:41:33
  mass recognized by modern science, long ages are consumed, and various definite stages
• 2:41:39
  are reached. The secret doctrine teaches that man, like the Earth, existed
• 2:41:43
  potentially in the fire mist, and that he has evolved downward into matter pari
• 2:41:48
  passu with the earth he inhabits and of which he is an integral part.
• 2:41:52
  Each human being is therefore a miniature Earth microcosm, evolving within the greater Earth
• 2:42:00
  acrocosm. This is one of the meanings of ezekiels wheels within wheels. In
• 2:42:05
  a metaphysical sense, every so called atom of matter is composed in the same
• 2:42:09
  way and is going through a similar process. It may thus be seen that
• 2:42:15
  the key to the whole process of evolution is analogy. It must naturally result
• 2:42:20
  from such a process, and from man's intimate relation to every principle process and
• 2:42:24
  plain that he epitomizes the whole, and that through expansion of consciousness and differentiation
• 2:42:31
  throughout his long experience, when the consummation of evolution is reached, man will
• 2:42:35
  be at one with the all knowing and being will be one in him.
• 2:42:39
  Hence he will be a god in the platonic sense. This is precisely the
• 2:42:45
  view set forth by Herbert Spencer as the consummation of human evolution, where absolute
• 2:42:50
  power and supreme knowledge result place over against this view of the infinite possibilities and
• 2:42:56
  transcendent destiny of man, those of any of the exoteric religions or of materialistic
• 2:43:01
  science, and the Old Wisdom religion stands alone as the divinest revelation ever made
• 2:43:05
  to humanity. During the life of man in the animal body on the physical
• 2:43:11
  plane, he is composed of the seven principles. These are Atma, budy
• 2:43:16
  Monus, Comma, astro body, life principle, and physical body. The
• 2:43:22
  order in which they are here named is from highest to lowest, or from
• 2:43:24
  spirit to matter. The first three, namely Atma, budy Manus, are
• 2:43:31
  symbolized by a triangle. This is the oldest trinity known to man and is
• 2:43:37
  the origin of all the t trinities in all the exoteric religions of the world.
• 2:43:41
  As already shown, the ineffable name written in the triangle refers to the
• 2:43:46
  one universal principle antedating creation and lying back of all evolution. Christos is called
• 2:43:52
  the word, but is not Ai in soft. Atma in man represents ainsof
• 2:43:56
  in cosmos, hence it is called a spark of divinity. They are one
• 2:44:01
  in essence. Atma Manus, and body represent Father, Son, and Holy
• 2:44:07
  Ghost. When Christ ascended to the Father, he raised his consciousness to the
• 2:44:13
  seventh or atmic plane, and became in fact no longer in essence, only
• 2:44:18
  one with God. These three principles in man composed the spiritual soul, the
• 2:44:22
  immortal part of man, while atmabudi constitute the higher self, the latent or
• 2:44:28
  potential God. In man the lower quaternary body, life, principle, form,
• 2:44:33
  body, in comma, or desire are symbolized by a square. To
• 2:44:37
  make it plain, let us say that the triangle incarnates in the square,
• 2:44:41
  that is, the soul spiritual descends into matter. It has already been shown
• 2:44:48
  in a previous chapter. What is the orderly relation of the seven principles.
• 2:44:52
  The body is the vehicle of life. Life is the vehicle of the astral
• 2:44:56
  body. The astral body is the vehicle of comma. Comma is the vehicle
• 2:45:01
  of Manus, Manus is the vehicle of buddy, and body is the vehicle
• 2:45:05
  of Atma. This is the orderly relation or sequence of the principles. But
• 2:45:11
  as already shown, Man is not a mere aggregation of principles any more than
• 2:45:16
  he is a conglomerate aggregation of atoms, molecules or cells, just as atoms
• 2:45:20
  form molecules, molecules, cells, cells, tissues, tissues, organs,
• 2:45:26
  and organs the whole body. So the principles, while preserving a similar orderly
• 2:45:31
  sequence in relation to each other, are at the same time organized in relation
• 2:45:37
  to the whole, that is, the ego the thinker unites with its vehicle,
• 2:45:41
  the body. Physiology has determined that certain functions are performed by certain organs,
• 2:45:48
  and that certain tracts are sensory and others motor, that there are coordinating
• 2:45:52
  centers of motion or of sensation, like the cerebellum, the medulla, or
• 2:45:56
  the sensory ganglia, and has a sign, thought, memory, reason,
• 2:46:01
  and volition to the cerebrum. But neither physiology nor modern science has been able
• 2:46:05
  to arrive at the slightest conception as to what mind or soul really are beyond
• 2:46:11
  functions of organs or results of organization. Empirical facts in hypnotism show processes actually
• 2:46:20
  taking place that cannot be classified under any known physiological law. The point at
• 2:46:24
  which the triangle touches the square, that is, where the spiritual soul forms
• 2:46:30
  its connecting link with the physical body is through mind comma. The fourth principle,
• 2:46:35
  appetite, desire, passion, et cetera, is not found in the
• 2:46:39
  upper triangle, but is the first in the square or lower quaternary, and
• 2:46:43
  comma has been called the vehicle of manas we have thus resulting from this association
• 2:46:50
  common monus, and the central organ of this conjoined or dual principle is the
• 2:46:54
  human brain. Here is the union of thought and sensation, or knowing and
• 2:46:58
  feeling, the union of the desire to know with the desire to feel.
• 2:47:03
  Here is, furthermore, the origin, seat, and nature of self consciousness
• 2:47:07
  in man. On the upper side of the point of union we have the
• 2:47:11
  will, on the lower side desire. This union of manus with comma,
• 2:47:16
  or mind with desire, is called the lower mind lower manus, because it
• 2:47:22
  always involves the personal equation. Let the union exist, but the desire be
• 2:47:26
  entirely subordinate and impersonal, and the higher mind becomes free. The terms of
• 2:47:33
  the personal equation are united with or merged in the next higher This is at
• 2:47:37
  one meant of the lower man with the divine or Christ, at one with
• 2:47:41
  the Father. So long as the lower mind is held in bondage by desire,
• 2:47:46
  man cannot seek or discern the good or the true. He inquires what
• 2:47:52
  is good for me. Freed from desire or the personal bias, he inquires
• 2:47:56
  after and seeks for that which is good or true in itself. When this
• 2:48:01
  condition is reached and habitually maintained, the square is said to be enclosed in
• 2:48:05
  the triangle. The whole lower nature is said to be at one with the
• 2:48:09
  divine or spiritual soul. Man's knowledge and power are no longer confined to or
• 2:48:16
  circumscribed by the lower plane or the physical body, but transcending these by regeneration,
• 2:48:22
  self conquest, and becoming perfect in humanity, man attains divinity. In
• 2:48:28
  other words, he becomes christos This is the process, by meaning, aim
• 2:48:33
  and consummation of human evolution, and this philosophy defines the one only seven which
• 2:48:39
  it may be attained. The perfect man is Christ, and Christ is God.
• 2:48:45
  This is the birthright and destiny of every human soul. It was taught
• 2:48:48
  in all the greater mysteries of antiquity, but the exoteric creeds of Christendom derived
• 2:48:54
  from the parables and allegories in which this doctrine was concealed from the ignorant and
• 2:48:58
  the profane have orded this supreme consummation to Jesus alone, and made it obscure
• 2:49:03
  or impossible for all the rest of humanity. In place of this, the
• 2:49:07
  grandest doctrine ever revealed to man, Theologians have set up salvation by faith in
• 2:49:13
  a man made creed, and the authority of the Church to bind or lose
• 2:49:16
  on earth or in heaven. Law is annulled, justice dethroned, merit ignored,
• 2:49:22
  effort discouraged, and sectarianism, atheism, and materialism are the results.
• 2:49:30
  All real initiation is an internal, not an external process. The outer ceremony
• 2:49:35
  is dead and useless only so far as it symbolizes and illustrates, and thereby
• 2:49:39
  makes clear the inward change The ceremony instructs, but it cannot transform. To
• 2:49:46
  transform means to regenerate, and this comes by trial, by effort, by
• 2:49:50
  self, conquest, by sorrow, disappointment, failure, and a daily renewal
• 2:49:54
  of the conflict. It is thus that man must work out his own self.
• 2:50:01
  The consummation of initiation is the perfect master the Christos, for these are
• 2:50:05
  the same. They are the goal, the perfect consummation of human evolution.
• 2:50:11
  Now, with this idea of human evolution, and in the light of modern
• 2:50:15
  science. What is it to be a master? Not a mythical master,
• 2:50:20
  Not one so holy, so divine, so incomprehensible as to be the object
• 2:50:26
  of blind worship alone, and impossible to be imitated, an idol, a
• 2:50:30
  fetish, But one indeed to reverence, to love, and above all,
• 2:50:33
  to approach and imitate, an elder brother, a compassionate teacher, a helper
• 2:50:39
  of the human race. By constant struggle and daily conflict, the Master has
• 2:50:43
  conquered self life after life. He has gathered experience. Truly hath he been
• 2:50:50
  a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has assailed all problems,
• 2:50:56
  studied all sciences, exhausted all litanies, apprehended all philosophies, practiced all arts.
• 2:51:03
  At every step he has loved and helped humanity more and more, and
• 2:51:07
  sought his own desires less and less, grown familiar. Thus with all the
• 2:51:11
  lower plains of life. By sore trial, by bitter conflict, by frequent
• 2:51:15
  defeat, by hope deferred, almost despairing, he has at last renounced self
• 2:51:20
  utterly, and so become dead to the world. This is the great renunciation,
• 2:51:26
  an infinite compassion for all that lives, takes possession of his soul,
• 2:51:30
  and an infinite peace settles within his spirit. Relieve thou not that sitting in
• 2:51:35
  dark forests, in proud seclusion and apart from man. Believe thou not that
• 2:51:39
  life on roots and plants, that thirst assuaged with snow from the great range.
• 2:51:43
  Believe thou not, o devotee, that this will lead thee to the
• 2:51:46
  goal of final liberation. Step out from sunlight into shade to make more room
• 2:51:52
  for others. Tis from the bud of renunciation of the self that springs the
• 2:51:56
  sweet fruit of final liberation. The selfish devotee lives to no purpose. The
• 2:52:03
  man who does not go through his appointed work in life has lived in vain.
• 2:52:09
  So shalt thou be in full accord with all that lives. Bear love
• 2:52:11
  to men as though they were thy brother, pupils, disciples of one teacher,
• 2:52:16
  the sons of one sweet mother. Compassion speaks and seth. Can there
• 2:52:20
  be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved? And
• 2:52:24
  hear the whole world cry asterisk? But says some modern agnostic, this is
• 2:52:31
  all beautiful, very fine, indeed, but mere sentiment with no foundation in
• 2:52:37
  fact and no possible realization in the life of man. It will do for
• 2:52:41
  sentimental women, for tramps or lunatics. What then, is the meaning and
• 2:52:46
  what the goal of human evolution is? Tantalus, the one divinity of the
• 2:52:52
  universe. Turning now from the ethical side of the problem to the scientific,
• 2:52:56
  let us see what happens as the consciousness of man remounts from the lower animal
• 2:53:01
  self towards the spiritual soul, from the physical towards the higher planes. We
• 2:53:05
  have shown mind manus to be the connecting link between the upper triad and the
• 2:53:11
  lower quaternary. When man has once passed the plus lane of savagery in his
• 2:53:16
  evolution, mind becomes more and more apparent as the battle ground of his evolution.
• 2:53:22
  He gradually relaxes tooth and claw, and first by instinct, then by
• 2:53:28
  cunning, and finally by reason and design, pursues the struggle for existence.
• 2:53:33
  He changes continually his code of ethics, for he is continually compelled to compromise,
• 2:53:39
  and he finds that he can retain more by relinquishing a part. His
• 2:53:43
  very selfishness leads him to combine and co operate with his fellows at last,
• 2:53:48
  his sympathies expand. By and by he learns that a fellow feeling makes us
• 2:53:54
  wondrous kind, he reciprocates, and at last becomes generous. During all this
• 2:54:00
  long and weary struggle, his mind is enlarging and his consciousness expanding. He
• 2:54:05
  creates for himself a world of thought. It is unreal and unsatisfying because so
• 2:54:11
  impermanent, And yet he struggles on. He reflects over his varied experience,
• 2:54:16
  seeks causes, and discerns principles. He realizes the saying, my mind to
• 2:54:22
  me, a kingdom is on earth. There is nothing great but man.
• 2:54:26
  In man, there is nothing great but mind, or the older saying,
• 2:54:31
  all that I am is the result of what I have thought. Mind is
• 2:54:35
  like an alembic in which are precipitated all experiences by evolution. Man is continually
• 2:54:41
  climbing upward to higher plains. His five senses are adjusted to observations and experiences
• 2:54:46
  of the physical plane, but he has other experiences. The senses are narrow
• 2:54:52
  and circumscribed, yet even these become refined. His tastes alter, his tendencies
• 2:54:58
  ascend. He is reaching outward as his sympathies expand and upward. As his
• 2:55:03
  ideals become higher, there is revealed to him a whole world of experience in
• 2:55:09
  which the lower senses play no part, a world of aspiration in which self
• 2:55:13
  is not the goal. The very physical bounds of self are loosening, expanding,
• 2:55:18
  disappearing. Hitherto he has been conscious of flashes of intuition, of knowing
• 2:55:24
  things he has seemingly never learned. He sees inner meanings and senses subtler powers,
• 2:55:31
  not only in visions and intuitions of the day, but in dreams of
• 2:55:35
  the night. He has experiences beyond the bounds of sense. He learns the
• 2:55:39
  power of thought. By conquering self, his will become strong. By subduing
• 2:55:46
  passion, his mind becomes clear. He has premonitions of coming events. For
• 2:55:50
  all events and thoughts and things exist first on higher planes and are precipitated,
• 2:55:56
  thence into matter. He becomes clarodient and c He has broken the bonds of
• 2:56:01
  self and now functions on higher planes. As his senses and organs on the
• 2:56:07
  physical plane made him master there of brutes and of physical nature. Even so
• 2:56:11
  on the higher plane, the senses and organs evolved by the same evolutionary law
• 2:56:16
  of experience and choice make him on the higher plane, master of men and
• 2:56:20
  of higher nature. All the time he is evolving organs and functions, and
• 2:56:26
  dealing with matter and force. Just as experience and reflection taught him the laws
• 2:56:31
  and processes of the physical plane, so has expanded and refined experiences and intuitions
• 2:56:37
  spiritual perceptions teach him the laws of the higher plane. But, says the
• 2:56:41
  physiologist, on the physical plane, man has evolved physical organs which bring him
• 2:56:46
  in contact with nature on that plane. Even so it is on all planes,
• 2:56:50
  for analogy is the key of interpretation. As below, so above.
• 2:56:56
  Deep within the recesses of the skull, lying at the base of the brain
• 2:57:01
  is a curious little structure known as the pineal gland, with the restiform bodies.
• 2:57:05
  Modern physiology assigns to it no function. Des Cartes called it the seat
• 2:57:11
  of the soul. In the average individual, it is small and apparently useless,
• 2:57:16
  though its focalized position and symmetrical relations to surrounding structures which seem to assign
• 2:57:22
  to it some very important office. It presents a different appearance in the very
• 2:57:26
  young, the very old, and in the idiotic from that found in the
• 2:57:30
  prime of life, health, and vigor. It has been called the third
• 2:57:35
  eye. The ancient Hindus called it the eye of Shiva, and it should
• 2:57:39
  be borne in mind that Shiva is the third person in the Hindu trinity,
• 2:57:43
  and is the renewer or regenerator, not simply the destroyer. The action of
• 2:57:48
  this little gland may be likened to the bridge of a violin. It renders
• 2:57:52
  the nerve cords more tense and thus raises the vibrations of the brain tissues.
• 2:57:58
  It is atrophied and therefore dormant and in the average individual, because the relaxed
• 2:58:01
  chords, using a symbol, correspond to the vibrations on the physical plane.
• 2:58:07
  And it is one of the well known laws of physiology that every organ will
• 2:58:09
  become atrophied from disuse. Going back to our problem of consciousness, we find
• 2:58:15
  mind to be the changes in our states of consciousness, orderly when governed by
• 2:58:20
  the will and guided by reason, disorderly when swayed by the passions or led
• 2:58:26
  by caprice. All the so called senses are differentiations of the one sense consciousness
• 2:58:31
  apperception. Reference has elsewhere been made to empirical proof that in the case of
• 2:58:37
  sight and hearing, or light color and sound. The vibrations are consonant and
• 2:58:43
  interchangeable. Now it can easily be seen that if the one sense consciousness has
• 2:58:48
  differentiated into several senses, so called in man's descent from higher to lower planes,
• 2:58:54
  on his ascent from lower to higher planes, the differentiations must gradually discar
• 2:59:00
  and one center may combine and synthesize two or more senses. This is precisely
• 2:59:05
  what happens in the case of hearing and seeing, or in the vibrations producing
• 2:59:09
  sound and color. Since empirical science has demonstrated the fact, the theory may
• 2:59:15
  now perhaps no longer excite only a sneer, for it must be borne in
• 2:59:20
  mind that the foregoing is one of the theories taught in the ancient mysteries.
• 2:59:24
  Here, then, is the physiological no less than the philosophical basis of clairvoyance
• 2:59:28
  and claire audience. The eye of Siva is in fact an all seeing eye,
• 2:59:35
  for it practically ennuls space and time as concepts on the physical plane.
• 2:59:39
  Whether or not modern masonry has any such tradition or any such metaphysical or scientific
• 2:59:45
  concept regarding the all seeing eye, so conspicuous in its symbolism, such at
• 2:59:50
  least is its meaning in the secret doctrine of antiquity. A real master then
• 2:59:56
  has the eye of Shiva. The pinial gland, dormant in others, is
• 3:00:00
  active in him, and the vibrations of his brain correspond to the synthesis of
• 3:00:03
  sound and light. Henceforth, for him, space and time are no low
• 3:00:09
  wiljure illusions, as he lives in the one and is master of all lower
• 3:00:13
  planes. Says the voice of the silence, Alas Alas, that men should
• 3:00:18
  possess Alaiya be one with the great soul, and that possessing it alaia should
• 3:00:22
  so little avail. Unless thou hearest, thou canst not see, unless thou
• 3:00:28
  sayest thou canst not hear, to hear and see. This is the second
• 3:00:33
  stage, so much as to the meaning of the word master and the methods
• 3:00:39
  by which adeptship is attained. Now as to the nature of the power he
• 3:00:43
  possesses, or the master's word. A man's words express his ideas and reveal
• 3:00:50
  his character. In this sense, the creative power of deity is called the
• 3:00:54
  word of God or the logos, and the whole process of creation, being
• 3:00:58
  an outward express of divinity, is called the logos. There is in nature
• 3:01:03
  one most potent force, by means whereof a single man, who could possess
• 3:01:07
  himself of it and should know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change
• 3:01:11
  the face of the world. This force was known to the ancients. It
• 3:01:16
  is a universal agent, whose supreme law is equilibrium, and whereby if science
• 3:01:22
  can but learn how to control it, it will be possible to change the
• 3:01:26
  O R D dot E R of the seasons, to produce in knight the
• 3:01:30
  phenomena of day, to send a thought in an instant around the world,
• 3:01:33
  to heal or slay at a distance, to give our words universal success and
• 3:01:37
  make them reverberate everywhere. This agent, partially revealed by the blind guesses of
• 3:01:43
  the Disciples of Mesmer, is precisely what the adepts of the Middle Ages called
• 3:01:48
  the elementary matter of the Great Work. The Gnostics held that it composed the
• 3:01:52
  igneous body of the Holy Spirit, and it was adored in the secret rights
• 3:01:56
  of the Sabbath or the temple under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the hermaphroditic
• 3:02:01
  goat of Mendees. Modern science is slowly rediscovering some of the secrets of antiquity,
• 3:02:07
  the radiant matter of Professor Crooks, the cathode ray of Renken, and
• 3:02:13
  other advancements in psychic photography, the mayev Arupa of Eriduc, and greatest of
• 3:02:18
  all, the discoveries of J. W. Keeley, trenched so closely on
• 3:02:22
  that elementary matter of the old alchemists, and the akaas of the more ancient
• 3:02:26
  adepts of old India, that a student of occultism need no longer be afraid
• 3:02:31
  to reveal himself. There is an old legend which declares that the ancient Atlanteans,
• 3:02:35
  not those of Plato's Island, which was a fragment of the great continent,
• 3:02:39
  but of the continent which sank, it is said, fifty thousand years
• 3:02:43
  ago, possessed the secret of this most potent force referred to by bro Pike,
• 3:02:48
  that they were great magicians, and that they did thus change the face
• 3:02:52
  of the earth, as bro Pike declares possible, and that the sinking of
• 3:02:56
  the continent was the result. Perhaps, if our rain makers succeed in solving
• 3:03:03
  a little further the problem of vibrations in their relations to atmospheric changes, this
• 3:03:07
  and many other ancient fables may seem less fabulous to modern scientific materialism. When
• 3:03:13
  it is stated that these terrible forces exist and may be known and utilized,
• 3:03:18
  people are not scandalized in this age of dynamite. But when it is also
• 3:03:24
  stated that the knowledge of these forces is concealed from all but trained adepts who
• 3:03:28
  have demonstrated their unqualified beneficence to man, and that in the hands of vicious,
• 3:03:33
  unqualified or ignorant persons they are capable of working untold misery to man,
• 3:03:37
  the statement usually excites derision. If this embargo were removed, doubtless mankind would
• 3:03:45
  not long remain in any uncertainty as to the existence of the terrible rill of
• 3:03:48
  bulwer Lytton. If it were revealed to the Spanish generals or the Cuban rebels
• 3:03:54
  at the present time, the contest would soon be ended on that unhappy island.
• 3:03:58
  This force is the universal life agent, as bro Pike says, wherein
• 3:04:03
  are two natures and a double current of love and wrath. This ambient fluid
• 3:04:07
  penetrates everything. Hence it is the first matter of the alchemists. It is
• 3:04:13
  concentrated in man as the magnetic living force, directed by the will he who
• 3:04:20
  knows its court of maw or the keynote of its vibrations, can by his
• 3:04:24
  will waken it from space and send it in mighty waves to do his bidding.
• 3:04:28
  The real word of the Master, therefore, in a scientific sense,
• 3:04:33
  is this tone key by which the principalities and powers of the air can be
• 3:04:37
  made to do his bidding. That anyone should possess such power and withhold its
• 3:04:41
  use is not easily conceived by the average man of today, and that such
• 3:04:46
  a master should also conceal his own existence seems altogether incredible to an age of
• 3:04:50
  syndicates and trades unionists. Such a power would indeed be a knock down argument
• 3:04:58
  in all competition, and furnish such a very ready way of settling all disputes.
• 3:05:03
  The ethical training to which reference has been made, and which began at
• 3:05:07
  the first step of initiation, preceded all scientific training in the ancient mysteries,
• 3:05:11
  and the masters are spoken of by Plato, Iamblicus, and many other writers
• 3:05:16
  as the immortal gods. But it must not be concluded that because the real
• 3:05:20
  Master does not enter into competition on the physical plane or parade his gifts for
• 3:05:26
  the applause of men, that he makes not use of his sublime wisdom and
• 3:05:30
  transcendent powers. It would be childish to use such powers for display, to
• 3:05:35
  awe the ignorant, or to amuse the curious, and such men have long
• 3:05:39
  since put away childish things from their secure retreat on the inner or higher planes
• 3:05:43
  of being. They influence, but do not dominate, the affairs of men
• 3:05:48
  and many. A beneficent movement is due to their timely aid. According to
• 3:05:52
  our conception of energy as correlative throughout nature's boundless domain, Fohat is the synthesis
• 3:05:58
  of all the soul so called forces of nature. It is cosmic electricity endowed
• 3:06:03
  with intelligence in the manifested universe. Fohat is that a cult electric vital power
• 3:06:11
  which, under the will of the creative logos, unites and brings together all
• 3:06:15
  forms, giving them the first impulse, which becomes in time law. It
• 3:06:20
  is the constructive force of cosmic electricity. Fou Haat has seven sons who are
• 3:06:24
  also his brothers. These are electricity, magnetism, sound, light, heat,
• 3:06:31
  cohesion, et cetera. What modern science calls the modes of motion can
• 3:06:35
  fairly be called definite vibrations. The forces just named all manifest in the lower
• 3:06:41
  physical plane that is we see their their effects. If back of all forces,
• 3:06:48
  there is one force, and if this one force differentiates first into seven,
• 3:06:52
  and these seven are in their turn to visible into other sevens, we
• 3:06:54
  get the idea that the solar spectrum and the musical scale reveal the universal mons
• 3:07:00
  modulus, and that what is known to exist in the realm of light and
• 3:07:03
  sound must also exist in the realm of electricity, chemism, and in short,
• 3:07:09
  with every force and on every plane in nature. If therefore, one
• 3:07:13
  can discover the rate of vibration, the quality and amplitude of the wavelength in
• 3:07:18
  any given case, he will hold the key to that plane. Fau Haat
• 3:07:22
  is not only the synthesis of all known forces and endowed with intelligences, but
• 3:07:28
  potentially, before differentiation begins, is the author of the law of all subsequent
• 3:07:33
  correlations, differentiations, or action whatsoever. If this view is considered carelessly,
• 3:07:39
  it might seem to involve materialism or pantheism, but such is not the case
• 3:07:46
  when one realizes that fau Haat is one of the highest of the yellowhem or
• 3:07:50
  builders, the creators spoken of in Genesis, the direct agent c f.
• 3:07:54
  Divinity through which the ancient of days or in soft creates. This view will
• 3:07:58
  be seen to be spiritual to the last degree. The first impulse of fohat
• 3:08:03
  becomes in time the law of all subsequent vibration. Fauhat is, moreover,
• 3:08:09
  in the secret doctrine likened to an intelligent force moved by will. As the
• 3:08:16
  various forces and plains in the constitution of man are derived from and correspond to
• 3:08:20
  similar forces and plains in nature, it can readily be seen what potencies are
• 3:08:24
  latent in man, and that the possession of the knowledge of these plains and
• 3:08:28
  forces, and a trained will to use and direct them, would naturally constitute
• 3:08:33
  one an adept or master. The mere power of thought or of the imagination,
• 3:08:37
  with a strong concentration of will power, would at all times enable a
• 3:08:43
  real master to say, take notice thereof, and let it be done.
• 3:08:48
  The ignorant would naturally say, what manner of man is this? That even
• 3:08:52
  the winds and the waves obey him? It is said of the word a
• 3:08:56
  u M that it has seven meanings applicable to seven plains, requiring therefore seven
• 3:09:01
  keys. And similar traditions exist with regard to the tetragrammatin of the Kabbalah,
• 3:09:07
  He who mocket, the earth to quake, and angels and men to tremble,
• 3:09:11
  even Jehovah. For the ignorant and superstitious, this has one meaning.
• 3:09:16
  For the intelligent student of Kabbala, it has many, in very different meanings.
• 3:09:22
  The physical plane, that of the body of man, is such by
• 3:09:24
  virtue of the co ordinate vibrations of all the principles that enter into its construction.
• 3:09:30
  The physical exists by virtue of the maintenance of the key or dominant cord
• 3:09:35
  of that plane. As long as this key can be maintained in perfect concord,
• 3:09:39
  health exists. Whenever the harmony is disturbed, disease results, and when
• 3:09:45
  the key can no longer exist, dissolution of the organism occurs and death is
• 3:09:50
  the result. The problem of genuine initiation or training in occultism consists in placing
• 3:09:56
  all the operations of the body under the dominion of the will, in freeing
• 3:10:00
  the ego from the dominion of the appetites, passions, and the whole lower
• 3:10:03
  nature. The idea is not to despise the body, but to purify it,
• 3:10:09
  not to destroy the appetites, but to elevate and control them absolutely.
• 3:10:15
  This mastery of the lower nature does not change the key of the physical nature
• 3:10:18
  as such, but subordinates it to that of a higher plane. Without this
• 3:10:22
  subordination, the clamorous lower animal nature drowns out all higher vibrations, as if
• 3:10:28
  in an orchestra the base vials and the drums only could be heard, and
• 3:10:33
  noise rather than harmony, would result. Hence the old saying, he that
• 3:10:37
  conquers himself is greater than he who taketh a city. From such mastery of
• 3:10:43
  the lower nature, by intelligent effort and will power, there results not only
• 3:10:46
  peace, the silencing of the clamorous lower nature, but clearness of vision and
• 3:10:52
  power of discernment. There results also a sense of freedom and of power,
• 3:10:56
  and a certainty of knowledge. In the bag Va Gida, this training is
• 3:11:01
  called yoga and is defined as equal mindedness and skill in the performance of actions.
• 3:11:07
  It is distinguished from hatha yoga, which is mere straining after special powers
• 3:11:11
  mediumship, and is called raja yoga. That of the kingly or divine sort,
• 3:11:16
  and is everywhere portrayed as a permanent subjugation of the whole lower nature.
• 3:11:20
  It is, in fact, in science and in a philosophical sense, the
• 3:11:24
  higher evolution of man. Whatever is gained in one life in this direction is
• 3:11:30
  carried over to the next incarnation, while all apparent gain of powers in hatha
• 3:11:35
  yoga mediumship is lost in future births or else is a detriment to evolution.
• 3:11:41
  The potency of the planes in man increases from the lower to the higher,
• 3:11:45
  and the whole process we have been considering consists symbolically in placing the square within
• 3:11:50
  the triangle. That is, of so purifying the whole lower nature as to
• 3:11:54
  make it at one with the higher. The mind that functions through the physical
• 3:11:58
  brain, governed by the senses and appetites, and that first gives man self
• 3:12:03
  consciousness, now moves one plain higher passion no longer rules the man and blinds
• 3:12:09
  him to universal laws and higher principles. The higher self in man, called
• 3:12:13
  his God or Christos, was formerly crucified between two thieves, namely the higher
• 3:12:20
  and lower manus. Hence the saying when I would do good, evil is
• 3:12:24
  present with me. As the body is crucified, a symbol of death and
• 3:12:30
  suffering. The Cristos says to one of the thieves, dash this day,
• 3:12:33
  shalt thou be with me in paradise. This refers to the higher manus now
• 3:12:37
  freed from the lower nature, the other thief or the brain mind is left
• 3:12:43
  to perish with the physical body of Christos on the cross of time. It
• 3:12:48
  may thus be seen how the battleground of man's lower nature with the higher is
• 3:12:52
  the mind, and that self conquest and the higher evolution are synonymous. The
• 3:12:56
  process of this evolution can be expressed in mathematics and terms of exact science.
• 3:13:03
  Hence the old saying in the Bible, I praise THEE with my lips.
• 3:13:05
  I know not the numbers, Silence the dominant chord of the lower animal nature,
• 3:13:11
  and change the vibration to that of the higher mind, and thou shalt
• 3:13:16
  become as God's knowing good and evil. This change of vibration, with a
• 3:13:20
  knowledge of the dominant chord and the combination of the keyboard directed by the will,
• 3:13:24
  is the discovery of J. W. Keeley. The Renkin ray is
• 3:13:28
  one of the seven forces into which light, sound, and electricity are divisible.
• 3:13:35
  The secret of the Crook's tubes has been clearly shown to consist in getting
• 3:13:39
  rid of a surplus of molecules or atoms, and thereby increasing the vibration bombardment
• 3:13:43
  of the remainder, and thus liberating, not creating new light. The trained
• 3:13:50
  will of the adept can do this and more. He has been seen to
• 3:13:54
  make his whole body luminous. Since the experiments of von Reichenbach have been verified
• 3:14:00
  and the illusion body photographed, such a result can no longer be declared to
• 3:14:05
  be a scientific impossibility. It should be borne in mind that our entire philosophy
• 3:14:09
  as related to man, proceeds from the empirical fact of consciousness, with appeal
• 3:14:13
  taken at every step to the facts of experience. Our theory does not consist
• 3:14:20
  in any speculation or assertion regarding the nature of consciousness itself, but rather in
• 3:14:24
  using both facts and experiences in the natural order of their relations. In the
• 3:14:30
  case of the master or adept, the same potencies and processes are involved as
• 3:14:35
  in ordinary evolution, and none others. The different results arise from the fact
• 3:14:39
  that, in the case of the adept, these ordinary processes are no longer
• 3:14:43
  trammeled or delayed. The wise ones tari not in pleasure grounds of senses.
• 3:14:50
  The wise ones heed not the sweet tongue voices of illusions. Thou shalt not
• 3:14:54
  let thy senses make a playground of thy mind. It may thus be seen
• 3:15:00
  that neither causes nor results are involved in an untried, working hypothesis. This
• 3:15:05
  philosophy not only explains the nature and origin of all the Christs of history as
• 3:15:11
  the result of evolution under natural law, but these all stand as landmarks pointing
• 3:15:16
  out the way, the life, and the truth in the journey of the
• 3:15:18
  soul and the immortal destiny of man. Furthermore, every point herein made is
• 3:15:24
  but a crude fragment derived from the ancient mysteries held by the Gnostics and early
• 3:15:31
  Christians, and embodied in or implied by the parables, allegories, and glyphics
• 3:15:35
  of freemasonry. Initiation therefore must be seen to be both evolutionary and regenerative,
• 3:15:43
  and not a mere empty farce or a dead ceremony. Taking now this evolutionary
• 3:15:46
  process as a fact, we may profitably consider further the change that occurs in
• 3:15:52
  the structure of man's complex organism as evolution proceeds. We have shown mind to
• 3:15:56
  be the active theater in which the real battle is fought for the supremacy of
• 3:16:01
  the higher or spiritual soul, as distinguished from the lower animal soul. Thou
• 3:16:07
  shalt not let thy senses make a playground of the mind. No doubt,
• 3:16:11
  many who have read this sentence have regarded it as a moral precept, only
• 3:16:16
  ignorant perhaps of the fact that there is not only a philosophical concept, but
• 3:16:20
  scientific facts and laws back of all moral truths. The mind is the realm
• 3:16:26
  of thought and the sum of all experience on both the physical senses and feelings
• 3:16:31
  and metaphysical reason, imagination, will, intuition, et cetera. Sides of
• 3:16:37
  consciousness. Experience may be called the moving panorama of events in the conscious life
• 3:16:43
  of man. Thought is, therefore the changes in our states of consciousness.
• 3:16:48
  Thought is the active movement, and consciousness the passive theater of the varied experiences
• 3:16:54
  of life. Consciousness is therefore to the life of man what space is to
• 3:16:58
  the existence and movements of cosmos. The all container. The ego is a
• 3:17:03
  self centered ray of focus, the mathematical point in consciousness, that which the
• 3:17:11
  nucleus is to the living cell, the point from which all forces and movements
• 3:17:15
  emanate, and to which all counter movements and forces tend, such as the
• 3:17:18
  ego the thinker in man. The first point to be made in real initiation
• 3:17:24
  is for the thinker to control the thought instead of passively in helplessly receiving all
• 3:17:28
  suggestions that come from the physical senses or appetites, or all that come from
• 3:17:33
  ambition, selfishness, and pride. He selects and chooses and wills what thoughts
• 3:17:39
  shall come. In this manner, he acquires mastery over his own mind and
• 3:17:43
  frees his will from the dominion of desire, or rather elevates and purifies desire.
• 3:17:50
  He is no longer hag ridden by vagrant thoughts, or a victim to
• 3:17:52
  the ghosts of a remorseful memory or a depraved imagination. That one can thus
• 3:17:58
  choose the subject of his own thoughts is really within the experience of everyone when
• 3:18:03
  he comes to reflect upon the subject. But few people are aware that the
• 3:18:07
  mind can be divested of all thought on the physical or brain side of experience.
• 3:18:13
  Yet what is revery or day dream or absent mindedness? We have only
• 3:18:18
  to analyze and reflect on our ordinary experiences in order to see how natural and
• 3:18:24
  really commonplace are the operations of these occult laws. When this process is intelligently
• 3:18:30
  conceived and persisted in, the mind grows clear and the will strong. And
• 3:18:33
  for this change there is a physical basis and a scientific law, and there
• 3:18:37
  must be corresponding changes in the physical structure. This change occurs on the chemic
• 3:18:43
  plane, which is now subordinated to reason and will, and also in the
• 3:18:48
  astral or form body, which is the vehicle of comma, passion, and
• 3:18:52
  desire. This astral body is the mold or pattern around which the physical structure
• 3:18:56
  is built, which it precedes and survives for a short time after death.
• 3:19:01
  In relation to the molecules and cells which constitute the tissues of the body,
• 3:19:05
  the astral structure is atomic. The astral body of each separate incarnation is the
• 3:19:11
  immediate result of the thoughts and experiences of the preceding life, modified however,
• 3:19:18
  by all previous lives. It is invisible to ordinary vision, but fortified by
• 3:19:22
  the strong dregs of karma. In a gross and passionate individual, it may
• 3:19:28
  appear as the ghost or wraith seen at times near cemeteries. It has also
• 3:19:33
  much to do with the ghosts and materializations of the seance rooms. This astral
• 3:19:39
  principle, like all the other seven really six exclusive of the highest, is
• 3:19:43
  sevenfold in its constitution in man, and it is the lowest of which we
• 3:19:48
  have been speaking. This astral is one of the principles of the square or
• 3:19:52
  lower quaternary, and is not therefore the real spiritual soul or immortal part in
• 3:19:58
  man. With this crude outline of the form body, we may now return
• 3:20:03
  to the process of regeneration. The change resulting from self mastery and the subjugation
• 3:20:09
  of the lower animal nature strengthens the form body and liberates it from the physical
• 3:20:13
  shell. Instead of this astral or form body saturated with the gross animal spirits
• 3:20:18
  comma being held to the vibrations of the mere animal and physical nature, and
• 3:20:22
  thus holding consciousness to the keynote of the physical plane involved in the lower animal
• 3:20:28
  life, the vibrations are now raised one plane higher. The action of the
• 3:20:33
  pineal, gland and restiform bodies heretofore described now come into play with the purified
• 3:20:39
  and liberated form body. The physical body is still the vehicle of the ego
• 3:20:43
  on the physical plane, but it is no longer a dark prison house with
• 3:20:46
  animal lust and pride as goolers. It is a common experience, and often
• 3:20:52
  consciously so that we journey. When we sleep. We go out of the
• 3:20:56
  body and visit scenes and gain experience during the sleep of the physical senses.
• 3:21:01
  But it is rare that we remember or really understand what happens, for the
• 3:21:05
  reason that all that we know as memory concerns the brain on the lower side.
• 3:21:09
  Now, in case of the growing Adept, these experiences become continually more
• 3:21:15
  frequent and lucid. He retains distinct recollection and understands more and more of what
• 3:21:20
  occurs. By and by he observes the process of going out and coming back,
• 3:21:26
  and at length learns to repeat the process at will, a perfectly natural
• 3:21:30
  evolution be it observed. The story of Peter Ibetsun gives an exceedingly graphic and
• 3:21:35
  philosophical description of this double consciousness, which is more than justified by the phenomena
• 3:21:41
  of hypnotism and somnambulism. The Adept, from the time he is able to
• 3:21:46
  change it will his habitat leads a double life and lives at once in two
• 3:21:50
  worlds. He has moreover put the last enemy under foot. He has by
• 3:21:56
  self conquest and will conquered death. These are they whom Plato and the old
• 3:22:01
  initiates call the immortals. At the death or dissolution of the physical body,
• 3:22:07
  such a one is not precipitated into a new world as a helpless infant is
• 3:22:11
  borne into the physical with organs undeveloped and functions untried, but already familiar with
• 3:22:16
  the inner realm from experience. He preserves consciousness on that plane, and is
• 3:22:20
  there like an adult on a physical plane. It is true that he cannot
• 3:22:26
  function or manifest on a physical plane as before, for he has now no
• 3:22:30
  longer the physical body. But he has learned to live so little on that
• 3:22:33
  plane, and found thereon so little of real enjoyment, that unless he has
• 3:22:37
  a special work to do for humanity, or an obligation to discharge to others,
• 3:22:43
  he finds nothing to regret in vain. He has fulfilled the law of
• 3:22:46
  necessity karma by obeying it. This is peace, to conquer love of self
• 3:22:52
  and lust of life, To tear deep rooted passion from the breast, to
• 3:22:56
  still the inward strife, for love to clasp eternal beauty close, for glory
• 3:23:03
  to be lord of self, for pleasure to live beyond the gods, for
• 3:23:07
  countless wealth to lay up lasting treasure. Then sorrow ends, for life and
• 3:23:11
  death have ceased. How should lamps flicker when their oil is spent? The
• 3:23:16
  old, sad count is clear, the new is clean. Thus hath a
• 3:23:20
  man content hark from the deep, unfathomable vortex of that golden light in which
• 3:23:26
  the victor bathes all Nature's wordless voice in thousand tones ariseth to proclaim joy unto
• 3:23:33
  ye, o men of my Elba. A pilgrim hath returned back from the
• 3:23:37
  other shore. A new arhund is born. Such in philosophy, in science,
• 3:23:45
  in fact, and in truth is a master as the natural product of
• 3:23:48
  self conquest and evolution, and not as a miraculous creation. The knowledge possessed
• 3:23:54
  by such a master and the power which he finds subject to his will,
• 3:23:58
  are derived, as in all ordinary eases, from the whole range of his
• 3:24:01
  experience. One has only to use good judgment and thoughtful observation in experimenting along
• 3:24:07
  the lines indicated, and to go but a little way to become convinced of
• 3:24:11
  the truth involved in the philosophy of self conquest, it is no go as
• 3:24:16
  you please evolution. It is rather using the will and subordinating the lower nature
• 3:24:22
  to accomplish the will of God concerning us in place of ringing the everlasting changes
• 3:24:28
  in sensation and honorary life after life upon earth. In comparison with the ordinary
• 3:24:33
  process of drifting with any tide. It is indeed a forcing process, but
• 3:24:39
  the force is derived from the higher nature, and the result is plainly within
• 3:24:43
  the law of man's moral and intellectual life. The term astral body has been
• 3:24:48
  used because it is somewhat familiar to Western students. The term is a very
• 3:24:52
  loose one at best, and the plane and structure to which it refers are
• 3:24:56
  so metaphysical and complex that it is difficult to find terms in which to describe
• 3:25:01
  it. The conception of what we ordinarily call matter and force is moreover,
• 3:25:07
  entirely inadequate in dealing with such problems. Electricity, for example, is not
• 3:25:13
  simply a mode of motion or a fluid, but a correlate involving life and
• 3:25:18
  intelligence with latent consciousness and moved by will, a duality in itself, according
• 3:25:24
  as it manifests as the substance of one plane or the energy of another.
• 3:25:28
  Furthermore, the problem of consciousness as related to space and time already pointed out,
• 3:25:33
  makes it difficult to put in exact terms the experience of the ego on
• 3:25:37
  the superphysical planes. In going out of the body, for example, there
• 3:25:43
  is a freeing of the centers of action always resident in the astral or the
• 3:25:46
  atomic body, from the physical organs and tissues, and a consequent change of
• 3:25:50
  the planes of consciousness. Synchronous vibrations now occur between the centers of consciousness in
• 3:25:56
  the astral body and the whole astral plane, just as before this synchronism existed
• 3:26:03
  between the physical body and the physical plane in relation to physical consciousness. The
• 3:26:07
  astral body therefore need not leave the vicinity of the physical or travel through space
• 3:26:13
  to take cognizance of events elsewhere transpiring. This furthermore remains true even in cases
• 3:26:20
  where the apparition of the individual is seen at great distances from where the physical
• 3:26:24
  body is at the time. Reposing thought is in every case a vibration molding
• 3:26:31
  substance into definite forms. Whenever we think of a person near or far,
• 3:26:37
  we create a thought image of that person. This form necessarily varies according to
• 3:26:41
  the clearness of memory or imagination and the strength of will. Furthermore, our
• 3:26:48
  thought is characteristic of ourselves, and in thinking intently of a distant object or
• 3:26:52
  person, a thought form of ourselves may appear at that place. This may
• 3:26:56
  occur and be visible to others, and an exist unconsciously to ourselves. With
• 3:27:03
  a person of trained habits of thought, who thinks clearly and connectedly, and
• 3:27:07
  who is possessed of a strong will, who knows also how to fix and
• 3:27:11
  hold the thought on an object or a person, the projection of the thought
• 3:27:15
  body, as above described, becomes a comparatively easy matter. Such an illusion
• 3:27:20
  might or might not be perceived by another, nor, except in the case
• 3:27:24
  of an adept, could the individual causing the illusion be certain himself whether his
• 3:27:28
  experiment had been successful or not. While these facts have been familiar to students
• 3:27:33
  of occultism for ages, they have seldom been discussed in print, for the
• 3:27:37
  reason that such discussion could do no good and would only excite ridicule. But
• 3:27:43
  now that modern scientific experiment trenches so closely on the subject, the discussion may
• 3:27:48
  not seem so unprofitable. In a communication from Paris dated June twenty seventh,
• 3:27:54
  eighteen ninety six, a description of psychic photography is given as presented to the
• 3:27:58
  Paris academic to Metic by doctor Bereduc. Doctor Bereduc explains in part his methods
• 3:28:03
  of psychic photography, which seems simple enough. The experimenter locks himself in a
• 3:28:09
  dark room where he has previously placed a sensitive plate. After seating himself and
• 3:28:15
  divesting his mind of vagrant thoughts and deliberations, and after studying his nerves,
• 3:28:20
  he concentrates all his ideas on a certain image, be it man, beast,
• 3:28:24
  or inanimate object, and it will be found that the accuracy of the
• 3:28:28
  image will be in proportion to the power of his will. If no other
• 3:28:31
  image has intruded, a perfect likeness will have been obtained. In conclusion,
• 3:28:37
  doctor Bereduc says that not everybody has this power to control his volition, and
• 3:28:41
  in order to succeed, a strong imagination is absolutely necessary and an energetic will
• 3:28:46
  indispensable. Mister James M. Rusk of Ohio reports the same result from a
• 3:28:52
  similar experiment made by himself and confirmed by Colonel de Rosius. The only new
• 3:28:58
  feature in these experiments is the introduction of photography and the consequent fixation of the
• 3:29:03
  images, and this result is of course of paramount importance to materialistic science.
• 3:29:09
  Ten thousand persons will be convinced by a fact or an ocular demonstration, where
• 3:29:15
  one will perceive the truth from reason, philosophy, or intuition. Let us
• 3:29:20
  have the ocular demonstration, then by all means experiment might be facilitated immensely by
• 3:29:26
  assistants derived from the old philosophy. But as this is usually ignored or derided,
• 3:29:31
  science will have a long and toilsome journey before it apprehends the real nature
• 3:29:35
  of these illusory images, or deduces from experiment the nature of the soul.
• 3:29:39
  The death knell of materialism is, however, already sounded. For this and
• 3:29:46
  that which we are about to receive, the Lord, make us truly thankful.
• 3:29:50
  J. D. Buck Mystic Masonry, Chapter seven. The Secret Doctrine
• 3:29:56
  continued, the sign of the Master. It must not be supposed that in
• 3:30:01
  the ancient mysteries every initiate became a master in the sense outlined in the preceding
• 3:30:05
  chapters. There were the lesser and the greater mysteries. To the lesser,
• 3:30:11
  all were eligible to the greater, very few, and of these few fewer
• 3:30:16
  still were ever exalted to the sublime and last degree. Some remained for a
• 3:30:20
  lifetime in the lower degrees, unable to progress further on account of constitutional defect
• 3:30:26
  or mental and spiritual incapacity. The mysteries unfolded the building of worlds, the
• 3:30:31
  religion of nature, the brotherhood of man, the immortality of the soul and
• 3:30:37
  the evolution of humanity. No ceremony was artificial and meaningless. No symbol,
• 3:30:43
  however, grotesque to the ignorant, was merely fanciful. It is not in
• 3:30:48
  the books of the philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the ancients,
• 3:30:52
  that we must look for the footprints of science and rediscover the mysteries of knowledge.
• 3:30:56
  The priests of Egypt knew better than we do the laws of movement and
• 3:31:01
  of life. Philosophy, however, may give us a key to symbolism,
• 3:31:05
  a universal modulus. True philosophy discerns the plans drawn by Divinity on the tracing
• 3:31:11
  board of time for the building of cosmos. The primary concepts of such a
• 3:31:16
  philosophy are few and simple, so indeed are the root forms in symbolism.
• 3:31:24
  The changes run on concept and symbol as the plan unfolds become more and more
• 3:31:28
  complex, even where they are wrought by those who know When from these the
• 3:31:33
  symbolism descends to parable and allegory, in order to clothe the primary concept in
• 3:31:37
  ethical language and make it apprehensible and binding to the ignorant masses. Its garment
• 3:31:43
  and fiat read thus set the lord. When, however, ignorance in high
• 3:31:48
  places, or cupidity and lust for power, interpret or wilfully suppress, disfigure,
• 3:31:54
  and distort the ancient symbols, as has been done for low these many
• 3:31:58
  centuries. The masses are not prepared to believe that the real truth, uncontaminated
• 3:32:03
  by man, has ever been discovered. The vandals have done their work better
• 3:32:07
  and more successfully, though thus blotting out all belief in the existence of the
• 3:32:11
  old wisdom, than in destroying the records of the truth itself. The real
• 3:32:16
  symbols are the modulus of nature, and man can never destroy these. Thales
• 3:32:20
  and Pythagoras learn in the sanctuaries of Egypt that the earth revolved around the sun,
• 3:32:26
  but they did not attempt to make this generally known, because to do
• 3:32:30
  so it would have been necessary to reveal one of the great secrets of the
• 3:32:33
  Temple, the double law of attraction and radiation, or of sympathy and antipathy,
• 3:32:37
  of fixedness and movement, which is the principle of creation and the perpetual
• 3:32:41
  cause of life. This truth was ridiculed by Lactanius, as it was long
• 3:32:46
  after sought to be proven a falsehood by persecution by papal rome. So the
• 3:32:52
  philosophers reasoned, while the priests, without replying to them or even smiling at
• 3:32:56
  their errors, wrote in those hieroglyphics that create al dogmas and all poetry the
• 3:33:01
  secrets of truth. To preserve its authority in its perquisites, Ecclesiasticism will today,
• 3:33:09
  as in all the past, answer such statements with neither facts, reason,
• 3:33:13
  nor arguments, but with a curse. And so long as men grovel
• 3:33:16
  with fear at the curse will the truth be concealed. When men are wise
• 3:33:22
  enough and brave enough to defy both the anathema and the anathematizer, the whole
• 3:33:26
  opposition to light and progress will fall to pieces, till then the ignorant masses,
• 3:33:31
  imitating their superiors, will scout, ridicule and slander all who speak the
• 3:33:37
  truth. Freedom and enlightenment are the only real saviors of mankind, while ignorance
• 3:33:43
  is the father of superstition and selfishness the parent of vice. The ideal in
• 3:33:48
  church and state, the motive for the ecclesiastical and political hierarchies has been in
• 3:33:52
  all ages to govern men professedly for their own good. The Secret Doctrine teaches
• 3:33:58
  man to govern himself health. So long as hierarchies subordinate all things to the
• 3:34:03
  real benefit of man, and give light and knowledge to all in such measure
• 3:34:07
  as they are capable of receiving, they are a blessing and not a curse.
• 3:34:11
  When, however, the potentate suppresses knowledge, claims power by divine right
• 3:34:16
  or by inheritance, rather than by proof of knowledge and by service done to
• 3:34:22
  man. When ignorance or disbelief is punished as a crime, and men torture
• 3:34:26
  the body or agonize the mind under that devil's plea dash to save the soul,
• 3:34:31
  then does the hierarchy become an enemy of both God and man. Neither
• 3:34:35
  political nor religious hierarchy has ever existed for any great length of time in the
• 3:34:41
  outer world without becoming corrupt. The continuance of power in such cases must always
• 3:34:46
  depend on the ignorance of the people. Therefore, the hierarchy will resist to
• 3:34:50
  the utmost the spread of true enlightenment. It is for this reason that for
• 3:34:54
  many centuries the Secret Doctrine, in all of its students or expounders, have
• 3:34:58
  been under bended of the Church and of the state. Whenever ecclesiasticism has been
• 3:35:03
  able to form an alliance. Therewith persecution in every form for opinion's sake,
• 3:35:09
  is ever the sign manual of worldliness and irreligion. It is the rule of
• 3:35:13
  might against right, and the trampling under foot of the weak and helpless by
• 3:35:18
  the strong and powerful. And to complete the blasphemy and monument the cruelty.
• 3:35:22
  Such persecution is generally enacted in the name of the Lord. The altars of
• 3:35:28
  masonry have ever been the beacon lights of liberty, and the lodge a city
• 3:35:31
  of refuge, a sanctuary of knowledge and protection to the wayfaring brother of all
• 3:35:35
  nations and tongues. Patterning after the sanctuaries of the ancient mysteries, and founded
• 3:35:41
  on the principle of the universal and unqualified brotherhood of man, they have held
• 3:35:46
  aloft the torch of liberty. If in later times, class distinctions and color
• 3:35:50
  lines have divided the craft, the Lodge has never resorted to persecution or been
• 3:35:56
  the agent of oppression. When these veils that have for the time of scured
• 3:36:00
  the true light are removed, and every man is regarded for his intrinsic worth
• 3:36:03
  alone, and masonry is indeed and in truth no respector of persons, then
• 3:36:09
  will this great organization enter on an era of prosperity, such as is its
• 3:36:13
  heritage from all the past, and its right by the simple power of brotherly
• 3:36:16
  love, relief, and truth. The traditions of Masonry in later times exclude
• 3:36:22
  woman from participating in the work of the lodge, but not from all the
• 3:36:26
  rights and benefits of the craft. The reasons that have led to the exclusion
• 3:36:31
  of woman need not here be discussed. A sufficient answer to all advocates of
• 3:36:35
  androgynoists masonry may be found in the history of all attempts to establish or to
• 3:36:39
  revive it. Each and all have failed, and have generally proved fruitful of
• 3:36:45
  discord and scandal. Nor is woman either the loser or the most to blame
• 3:36:50
  for this result. The ancient mysteries were organized schools of learning, and knowledge
• 3:36:56
  was the signal of progress and the basis of fellowship. In modern masonry,
• 3:37:00
  fraternity alone has usurped the place of wisdom and in the service of the lodge
• 3:37:05
  to mankind. Its great work has been to preserve, unaltered the ancient landmarks
• 3:37:09
  as a heritage to posterity. Every true Mason for centuries has thus been a
• 3:37:13
  soldier of the truth, fighting for its altars and its fires. In this
• 3:37:18
  work of the lodge, woman could have been of no service. While every
• 3:37:22
  true mason is the most loyal of men to every office of woman as mother,
• 3:37:26
  sister, daughter, and wife, as companion, friend, and inspirer
• 3:37:31
  of man, he would have been trammeled by her presence in the lodge,
• 3:37:35
  and she would have received no benefit by being admitted. When, however,
• 3:37:41
  the days of ritualism alone are ended, when from the one duty of guarding
• 3:37:45
  the altars and lighting the camp fires, masonry resumes its prerogative as teacher and
• 3:37:50
  enlightener of mankind, and the philosophy of nature and of life are unfolded in
• 3:37:54
  its schools and colleges, as with the Maggie of old, And when,
• 3:37:58
  with no fear of persecution from time serving potentate or creed written priest, the
• 3:38:03
  light may shine for all, then will the doors of real initiation be as
• 3:38:07
  open to woman as to man, as was the case in the schools of
• 3:38:11
  Pythagoras. As shown by Iamlicus, the ancient wisdom concerned itself largely with the
• 3:38:16
  souls of men, and undertook to elevate the earthly life by purifying the soul
• 3:38:22
  and exalting its ideals, It teaches that souls are sexless, and that the
• 3:38:26
  sex of the body is an incident of gestation. No civilization known to man
• 3:38:31
  has ever risen to any great heights or long maintained its supremacy that debased woman.
• 3:38:37
  Indeed, the Secret Doctrine demonstrates with unmistakable clearness that sexual debasement in any
• 3:38:43
  form is the highway to degeneracy and destruction of both man and woman, and
• 3:38:48
  of nations, quite as certainly as of individuals. The most debased and horrible
• 3:38:54
  chapters in human history are recorded in scientific works by medical experts. Ota of
• 3:38:58
  his Ama is here exemplified as nowhere else. Here, more than anywhere else,
• 3:39:03
  within the possible experience of man lies the sin against the holy ghost.
• 3:39:09
  For through this open door, through which rush the most unholy passions and the
• 3:39:13
  hellish fires of lust, is it possible for man to lose his human soul
• 3:39:16
  and descend to the animals. If any one doubts this, let him read,
• 3:39:22
  if he can, some of the scientific medical works on sex perverts,
• 3:39:26
  and then consult the attendant physicians of the insane and the symptoms and records of
• 3:39:30
  lunacy. The first lesson we are taught in masonry is to be good men
• 3:39:35
  and true. And the first declaration made by the neophyte in masonry is that
• 3:39:39
  he comes to the lodge to learn, to subdue his passions and improve himself
• 3:39:43
  in masonry, i e. To engage in the building of a fit temple
• 3:39:46
  for an indwelling soul. It may thus be seen that all the traditions and
• 3:39:52
  usages of masonry agree fully with the philosophy of the secret doctrine as to true
• 3:39:56
  initiation, and that both are justified by all the experience, by all history,
• 3:40:01
  and by all scientific discovery. In advancement up to date, these ancient
• 3:40:05
  institutions, derided, anathematized, misrepresented, persecuted, and suppressed as they have
• 3:40:13
  been for the last fifteen hundred years, will in the age that is now
• 3:40:16
  dawning, demonstrate their beneficence and their power. And the marvel will be that
• 3:40:20
  the ignorance and brutality of man could have so long succeeded in suppressing them.
• 3:40:26
  It is true even yet, that among otherwise intelligent persons, the majority do
• 3:40:31
  not believe that any such fountain of knowledge has ever existed. They are looking
• 3:40:35
  alone to the future and waiting, and they hail with delight every new discovery
• 3:40:41
  in science for the betterment of man. It will be for all such the
• 3:40:45
  greatest of all discoveries, that to go back to Plato is to make progress,
• 3:40:48
  And that the Egyptian, Chaldean and Hinda mysteries had ages ago exhausted all
• 3:40:54
  philosophies, apprehended all sciences, and recorded their priceless treasures of wisdom in c
• 3:40:58
  gloethic and allegory, for the benefit of the latest generations of the human race.
• 3:41:03
  By and by even our scientists will, like weary and disappointed children,
• 3:41:09
  become tired in trying to do it all over again by themselves, And then
• 3:41:13
  they will no longer turn a deaf ear to the immortal, though silent voices
• 3:41:16
  of the past. But how, some one may ask, were the ancients,
• 3:41:20
  even before the dawn of what we call history, enabled to make such
• 3:41:24
  transcendent discoveries. If in the preceding chapter the present author has succeeded in presenting
• 3:41:31
  even a faint outline of the meaning of the word master and what initiation really
• 3:41:35
  accomplishes, the inquirer will not have far to seek for an answer to his
• 3:41:39
  question. The secret doctrine declares that it is the result not of the vain
• 3:41:43
  guesses or the tortuous investigations of ignorant men, but of the recorded and carefully
• 3:41:48
  tested experiences of generation after generation of trained adepts and perfect masters, the advance
• 3:41:54
  guards of humanity. In every age, things are not true because they are
• 3:41:58
  old, but old because they are true. Immortality belongs to truth and not
• 3:42:05
  to error. A thing is not true because God hath said it, or
• 3:42:09
  is supposed to have said it. God said it because it is true.
• 3:42:11
  And the whole manifestation of nature is thus the uttered word of Divinity. The
• 3:42:16
  Master, who is at one with both nature and Divinity, discerns the truth
• 3:42:20
  and teaches and records it for all future generations of men. But it is
• 3:42:26
  only in an age of freedom and enlightenment that the voice of the Master can
• 3:42:30
  be heard. But it should be ever remembered that the sole authority of the
• 3:42:33
  Master is in the truth, and not the authority of truth in the Master.
• 3:42:37
  Just here lies the distinction between religion and superstition. The masses will ever
• 3:42:43
  seek a sign, but the one only sign of the Master is his service
• 3:42:46
  to humanity. He who can best work and best degree is called a master
• 3:42:52
  service and harmony. These are the sign manuals of the real initiate. The
• 3:42:58
  ignorant may worship as a god, him who who can produce signs and wonders,
• 3:43:01
  and when weary of worship, returned to wallow in the mayre, forgetful
• 3:43:05
  of the miracle. Hence, the real masters in all ages have avoided publicity,
• 3:43:09
  gone into a mountain apart, and shunned the applause of men, preferring
• 3:43:13
  to be despised and slandered, rather than have the truth ignored and be themselves
• 3:43:18
  glorified of men. J. D. Buck, Mystic Masonry, Chapter eight.
• 3:43:24
  The Great Lodge. The profound secrecy surrounding the ancient mysteries, and the
• 3:43:30
  obligation of secrecy imposed upon every initiate into the Masonic Fraternity, arise from many
• 3:43:35
  causes and varying conditions, some of which have already been pointed out. In
• 3:43:41
  times of political oppression and ecclesiastical persecution, it became necessary to conceal the identity
• 3:43:46
  of all members of secret fraternities, and as far as possible, th h
• 3:43:50
  three principles of the Order were also concealed from mutual protection. When to be
• 3:43:56
  known as a Mason or an occultist was to be hunted down like a criminal,
• 3:44:00
  to be imprisoned for life, or perhaps to be tortured and burned.
• 3:44:03
  Men naturally concealed their connection with the lodge or their interest in a secret doctrine.
• 3:44:09
  There is probably no degree in masonry to day that has not been invaded
• 3:44:13
  by members of religious orders like the Jesuits. Those who are familiar with the
• 3:44:18
  principles of these sodalities are well aware that under the plea that the end justifies
• 3:44:22
  the means, no member of these bodies would hesitate to take any obligation imposed
• 3:44:28
  in order to possess himself of a coveted secret that might support the power and
• 3:44:31
  maintain the prerogative of his sodality, knowing in advance that absolution for the crime
• 3:44:35
  of perjury in violating his sacred obligation would not only be assured him, but
• 3:44:41
  that he would be applauded and perhaps canonized for his zeal and his devotion to
• 3:44:46
  religion, as many a saint in the calendar has been canonized in the past
• 3:44:50
  upon far less saintly grounds. In the face of all so called exposures and
• 3:44:56
  all betrayal, Masonry pursues the even tenor of its way, and tiles its
• 3:45:00
  lodges as carefully and inculcates its obligation of secrecy, just as though apostasy were
• 3:45:05
  impossible and perjury a crime unknown to the code of civilized communities. Notwithstanding all
• 3:45:11
  so called exposures, it would be exceedingly hazardous for anyone except a regularly initiated
• 3:45:18
  brother to attempt to gain admission to the Lodge, And no possible motive can
• 3:45:22
  be assigned why any honest man should desire to receive the rights and benefits of
• 3:45:26
  the Lodge, except in the order and under the conditions prescribed. But after
• 3:45:31
  all other reasons assigned for the secrecy of the Lodge, probably the tradition that
• 3:45:35
  such was always the rule in the Mysteries has had more to do with concealment
• 3:45:39
  than anything else. And the real reason for concealment in the Mysteries has been
• 3:45:43
  herein previously shown to be on account of the power that attaches to the real
• 3:45:48
  knowledge possessed by the Master. The penalties imposed for violating the solemn obligations voluntarily
• 3:45:54
  taken may at times have been literally executed by the agents of the Lodge.
• 3:45:58
  In minsisdal or pre Christian times. But in modern times these awful penalties have
• 3:46:03
  undoubtedly been substituted by the execration of all honest men and masons in genuine initiations
• 3:46:11
  into the really occult mysteries. The penalties for unworthiness in any and all directions
• 3:46:16
  consisted in the apostate becoming the victim of the powers he had himself invoked.
• 3:46:20
  He had created of Frankenstein, which he was no longer able to control,
• 3:46:24
  and it destroyed him. Hence the warning was true and necessary, but the
• 3:46:30
  real method of its execution was disguised, except that it was portrayed as terrible.
• 3:46:35
  Too little is known as yet in the West of genuine occultism to make
• 3:46:39
  further explanation intelligible. All space and every plane of nature is full of life
• 3:46:45
  and intelligences, and Bulwer's demon of the threshold may be neither a joke nor
• 3:46:50
  a romance, as many cases of obsession recorded in the annals of medicine and
• 3:46:54
  spiritualism abundantly prove. The principalities and powers of the use of which the Apostai
• 3:47:01
  speaks and of which the Kabbalah treats very fully, are the elementals described though
• 3:47:07
  but blindly in ancient occult literature. When the real nature of obsession is understood,
• 3:47:13
  and the character of these depraved entities becomes known, it will be discerned
• 3:47:16
  how little is to be gained and how much is to be risked by invoking
• 3:47:20
  them. Here lies the reason why mediumship should be discouraged and regarded as a
• 3:47:24
  disease or at best a misfortune. Real seership is a very different thing,
• 3:47:31
  indeed, from obsession in any form. If seership be compared to the ecstasy
• 3:47:37
  of an innocent and happy child, obsession may be likened to the delirium of
• 3:47:41
  drunkenness or madness. Some idea may be gained, perhaps from the foregoing of
• 3:47:46
  the source and character of the penalty for the violation of obligations assumed by the
• 3:47:50
  neophyte in the mysteries. In the Mystery of clumber Conan Doyle portrays the idea,
• 3:47:58
  but makes the execution of the penalty at once fantastic, horrible, and
• 3:48:01
  impossible. No real master, even such as he portrays, could ever play
• 3:48:07
  the bungling part of executioner such as he depicts, but would leave the criminal
• 3:48:11
  to the snares and devices of his own creation. The imagination of the novelist
• 3:48:16
  can hardly supply the philosophy of true occultism. The stories that have come down
• 3:48:22
  to us of the magnificent pageantry and the almost superhuman trials attending initiation into the
• 3:48:28
  mysteries, from those of ancient Egypt down to Tom Moore's Epicurean, all pertained
• 3:48:31
  to the various degrees of the lesser mysteries. The secrets of the greater mysteries
• 3:48:37
  were never written or told what they can only be surmised from a complete philosophical
• 3:48:43
  knowledge of what initiation really means, and some idea as to what the last
• 3:48:46
  supreme revelation may be. This has probably never been betrayed in any individual case,
• 3:48:54
  nor is it likely that it will ever be revealed, because, as
• 3:48:56
  shown in the preceding chapters, it is the media face to face with one's
• 3:49:01
  own God, the higher Self, latent in every man, but now wholly
• 3:49:05
  revealed. It concerns the things impossible to utter of Saint Paul an initiate.
• 3:49:11
  The philosophy of the whole process may, however, be fairly apprehended as the
• 3:49:16
  consummation of the higher evolution of man. Thus philosophy for him who can understand
• 3:49:22
  it takes the place of the whole of the instruction of the lesser mysteries.
• 3:49:26
  Accept such practical experience and final training of the neophyte as enable him to enter
• 3:49:31
  the greater mysteries. So far as mere teaching is concerned, or the apprehension
• 3:49:35
  of what is to be done and how philosophy is the teacher and is better
• 3:49:41
  fitted to the present intellectual age than any other form of instruction. When a
• 3:49:46
  school for the revival of the lost mysteries of antiquity is established, worthy and
• 3:49:50
  well qualified neophytes will doubtless receive not only instruction, but practical training. Hitherto
• 3:49:56
  in this work, hints, outlines, suggestion, and running comments or relations
• 3:50:01
  only have been given, and every intelligent reader must have observed the difficulty of
• 3:50:05
  describing that which was never intended to be revealed. We may now undertake to
• 3:50:11
  give a diagram or a picture of an idea running through all history, like
• 3:50:15
  a theme in a musical composition. The idea crops out here and there in
• 3:50:18
  history, but it is not history, for reasons already made clear. The
• 3:50:24
  full page diagram c frontispiece is a symbol of the secret doctrine and some of
• 3:50:28
  its principal ramifications and seats. Like all symbols, it is not the thing
• 3:50:33
  symbolized, and as already declared, it is not a history of the Great
• 3:50:39
  Lodge and the Secret Doctrine. If it should by and by be shown that
• 3:50:43
  the Great Lodge historically had its first seat in Egypt or in Ethiopia, which
• 3:50:48
  is possible, instead of in Old India, or in Ireland, which is
• 3:50:52
  not impossible, or on the continent of Atlantis, which is more likely.
• 3:50:56
  Still, it would not make any difference with our diagram, which, as
• 3:51:00
  already repeatedly declared, is not designed to represent history, but the influence of
• 3:51:05
  an idea upon the civilizations and religions of the world. When the true and
• 3:51:09
  complete history of what are called the British Druids is written, the legends of
• 3:51:13
  the now unhappy Emerald Island will be deciphered, and the beautiful legend of Venus
• 3:51:18
  rising from the foam of the sea will not be the most grand or beautiful
• 3:51:22
  of Ireland's stories. On the scientific presumption that every effect must have had an
• 3:51:28
  adequate cause, we have the right to assume that the landmarks of masonry and
• 3:51:31
  the traditions of the Secret doctrine are not without foundation. In fact. Furthermore,
• 3:51:37
  the further back we go in history and beyond history, the grander become
• 3:51:41
  the monuments of the secret science. Pythagoras and Plato found all their knowledge ready
• 3:51:46
  made in the Egyptian and Babylonian mysteries. The deeper we delve into the past,
• 3:51:52
  the grander become these ancient monuments, the Zodiac and the pyramids alone by
• 3:51:58
  the knowledge they betray of as astronomy, mechanics, mathematics, and architecture demonstrate
• 3:52:03
  the existence of a science in prehistoric times, such as we moderns have not
• 3:52:07
  yet been able to imitate or even to read. We are like miners following
• 3:52:13
  a vein of gold in a crevass of the rocks precious or crops out here
• 3:52:16
  and there, and is again concealed. It grows richer as we proceed,
• 3:52:20
  till the conviction becomes irresistible that deep in the bowels of the earth, or
• 3:52:24
  beneath some mountain range, there must be a great pocket, the real source
• 3:52:30
  of all this buried treasure. The analogy is complete, and the reasoning scientific.
• 3:52:35
  But if the ancient monuments on the physical plane are unimpeachable, and those
• 3:52:39
  in the heavens unapproachable, they are still more transcendent in the intellectual and spiritual
• 3:52:45
  realms. There is not a religion, a science, or a philosophy known
• 3:52:50
  to man that cannot be traced back to Old India. With this difference,
• 3:52:54
  however, that we have only the fragments, the broken columns, or the
• 3:52:58
  disjointed images of a comp fleet and perfect structure as it once existed. The
• 3:53:03
  oldest books or written records known to us today, such as the Egyptian Ritual
• 3:53:07
  of the Dead and the hymns of the Vedas, have scarcely yet been spelled
• 3:53:11
  out by their letters. Such translations as have been given us are both superficial
• 3:53:16
  and literal, and the inner meaning always expressed in symbols, seldom appears at
• 3:53:20
  all. The interpretation that has heretofore been put upon them by philologists, few
• 3:53:26
  of whom can rank as symbologists, and not one of whom in Europe is
• 3:53:30
  a real occultist, is that they are the crude imaginings of a primitive people
• 3:53:33
  who knew nothing of science and who were devoted to superstition. These translators have
• 3:53:39
  achieved fame as asterisk great Orientalists, and they have undoubtedly done a great work
• 3:53:45
  in introducing ancient languages to modern times and in doing their best to interpret ancient
• 3:53:50
  belief. But in nearly all instances these orientalists have been biased by the traditions
• 3:53:54
  and false lights of modern Christendom. In another chapter of this work, it
• 3:53:58
  has been shown from what infinite pains have been taken by ignorant monks and by
• 3:54:03
  zealous ecclesiastics to obliterate these ancient records and to deface them by interpolations and forgeries,
• 3:54:09
  in order that the Christian records and traditions might stand unchallenged. The best
• 3:54:15
  of our Orientals are even unconsciously influenced by the results that have been thus achieved.
• 3:54:20
  When Western students are capable of apprehending and ready to receive the true interpretation
• 3:54:26
  of the ancient symbolism, it is possible that native scholars, who not only
• 3:54:30
  know Sanskrit, but who are thoroughly familiar with the secret doctrine may be found
• 3:54:33
  to enlighten them. Take a single instance, the atomic theory, known to
• 3:54:39
  have been more or less familiar to certain ancient Greek writers, has made great
• 3:54:43
  progress in modern science, but in no form conceived by modern science and the
• 3:54:48
  forms have been many in contradictory. Has this theory proved competent to account for
• 3:54:52
  all of the phenomena observed. It has remained for us therefore still in hypothesis
• 3:54:58
  and not a law. The atoms of modern science, whether conceive this solid,
• 3:55:03
  fluidic, gaseous, or etheric, for they have been imagined to be,
• 3:55:07
  all of these, are nevertheless regarded as dead atoms. Even when conceived
• 3:55:13
  as mere neutral centers or matematical points, they are still far removed from life
• 3:55:18
  or intelligence. Leibnitz conceived them as monads, each a living mirror of the
• 3:55:24
  universe, every monad reflecting every other. Compare these views, says a modern
• 3:55:30
  writer with that in certain Sanskrit slocus translated by Sir William Jones, in which
• 3:55:35
  it is said that the creative source of the divine mind, hidden in a
• 3:55:39
  veil of thick darkness, formed mirrors of the atoms of the world, and
• 3:55:43
  cast reflection from its own face on every atom. When we have learned more
• 3:55:48
  of radiant matter and the renk and ray, we shall have come far nearer
• 3:55:52
  this old atomic theory, and matter will no longer be regarded as dead and
• 3:55:56
  inert. The hymns of the Vedas were doubtless the area regional allegorical form of
• 3:56:01
  the secret doctrine, and the rishis called gods, but really sublime and perfect
• 3:56:05
  masters were their creators. Anti edating the Vedas then was the great lodge of
• 3:56:11
  adepts who created the religion, inspired the civilization, and taught the profound science
• 3:56:18
  that made Old India great. If only traditions and broken monuments remain, these
• 3:56:22
  still outrank all modern achievements of man. The ancient government was patriarchal. The
• 3:56:28
  ruler was also a master initiate, and the people were regarded as his children.
• 3:56:33
  In those ancient days, a reigning prince considered it not beneath his dignity
• 3:56:37
  to go into the desert alone and sit at the feet of some inspired recluse,
• 3:56:41
  in order that he might receive more light, which he would again dispense
• 3:56:45
  to his people instead of teaching superstition and idolatry. When the real meaning of
• 3:56:50
  the Vedic symbolism is revealed, it will perhaps be found to be the thinnest
• 3:56:54
  veil ever imposed between the sublime wisdom and the apprehension of men. The old
• 3:57:01
  gods were the symbolical or personified attributes of nature through which man was taught to
• 3:57:05
  apprehend the existence of the supreme Spirit. This was not polytheism nor idolatry,
• 3:57:11
  but a system of teaching that which could not be altogether defined, and of
• 3:57:15
  pointing to that which must forever remain unknown and unknowable, by the aid of
• 3:57:20
  symbol, parable and allegory. No word painting known to man seems half so
• 3:57:24
  beautiful as some of these ancient parables and allegories. Not only was every oblation
• 3:57:31
  of love and duty portrayed, and every joy of home and affection illustrated,
• 3:57:35
  and the most common duties of life, feats of valor, devotion, and
• 3:57:39
  self sacrifice depicted, but in a language so musical, and in rhythm and
• 3:57:43
  meter so perfect as to make the whole recital more like a symphony than a
• 3:57:46
  poem. The whole composition was a mantrum. On nearly every page of the
• 3:57:52
  Iniguta, it is said, in relation to this or that dash, They
• 3:57:56
  relate this ancient story in the form of a dialog which occurred so and so
• 3:58:01
  if India today is like an old woman in her dotage, and her priests
• 3:58:05
  have turned harpies to devour her, remaining spiritual life. The record of primeval
• 3:58:09
  greatness can never be dimmed or destroyed. In the olden time, the Brahmin
• 3:58:15
  was indeed wwise born, and it was the second birth alone that made him
• 3:58:18
  Brahmin. The parables, then, were not invented to conceal the truth from
• 3:58:24
  those who could apprehend it, or to keep the people in ignorance in order
• 3:58:26
  that the priests or ruler might preserve their power. Power came not from the
• 3:58:31
  people, but from the possession of supreme knowledge, and this knowledge, continually
• 3:58:35
  exercised and exemplified, was the badge of office and the sign of authority.
• 3:58:41
  To such a priesthood. The people rendered most willing obedience. The doors of
• 3:58:46
  initiation were open to all who had evolved the capacity to know, to dare
• 3:58:50
  to do, and to keep silent in regard to that which should not be
• 3:58:54
  prematurely revealed. With the light of the great lodge standing in the midst the
• 3:59:00
  religion of the people was a perfect representative of science and philosophy in which superstition
• 3:59:05
  and idolatry found no place. Hence the symmetry in our diagram of the Old
• 3:59:09
  Wisdom religion. The religion of India being thus inspired by the Great Lodge,
• 3:59:15
  was expressed in the hymns of the Vedas. This was the old Brahamanism,
• 3:59:18
  the religion of Brahm, the Father, mother of all. But in time
• 3:59:22
  the priesthood became corrupt, the people forsook the ancient worship. Then came Chrisna
• 3:59:28
  and later Buddha to restore that which was lost. The Brahmins, now no
• 3:59:33
  longer twise born, but a priestly caste, jealous of power since they were
• 3:59:39
  no longer real masters, arose in rebellion, and the mission of Buddha largely
• 3:59:43
  failed in India and found its principal converts in Ceylon. In distant lands and
• 3:59:48
  the isles of the Sea, the religions of Egypt and Chaldea had back of
• 3:59:52
  them the same secret doctrine or mysteries, and they were also both scientific and
• 3:59:58
  philosophical. But Egypt and Chaldea repeated the folly of India and perished with the
• 4:00:03
  degradation of their religions. Traditions of the secret doctrine still existed, and masters
• 4:00:09
  like Hermes, Zoroaster, Confucius, and Laotsey appeared in different lands from time
• 4:00:16
  to time to revive the old religion under new names and often under a different
• 4:00:20
  form of symbolism. Pythagoras and the schools of the Persian Mahji, for many
• 4:00:24
  centuries kept the true light burning. The conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, as
• 4:00:31
  already referred to, completed the ruin of the land of the Pharaohs, and
• 4:00:33
  Pythagoras and Plato became the links between the old philosophy in the Christian era,
• 4:00:39
  together with the Jewish Kabbala, derived jointly from the mysteries of Egypt and Chaldea,
• 4:00:43
  though more largely perhaps from the latter from the Esenes. The schools of
• 4:00:50
  Alexandria, then in all their glory, from the Kabbala and the philosophy of
• 4:00:54
  Plato. The Christian mysteries were derived. During the first three centuries of our
• 4:00:58
  era, these doctrines flourished, but were finally crushed by the conquests of Constantine,
• 4:01:03
  and then came the Dark Ages. The religion of Jesus was in every
• 4:01:09
  respect that of the mysteries. It was the same old Wisdom religion, though
• 4:01:13
  the ethical features were more pronounced as being most needed. Among what was called
• 4:01:16
  a generation of vipers and a stiff necked and rebellious people. The ethical teachings
• 4:01:22
  of Jesus in time gave place to priestcraft and sacerdotalism to worldly power and conquest,
• 4:01:28
  and the religion of Constantine was finally replaced by the Holy Inquisition, or
• 4:01:33
  religion of torture and bloodshed. The Sufis, among the conquering Mohammedans, knew
• 4:01:39
  the secret science, but their power paled in the presence of the sword of
• 4:01:43
  the Prophet. Freemasonry, though not a lineal descendant of the ancient mysteries,
• 4:01:48
  may justly be regarded as a connecting link between the ancient wisdom and modern times.
• 4:01:54
  While imitating many of the ancient rites and ceremonies, and preserving many of
• 4:01:58
  the ancient life landmarks, and transmitting to modern times a grand ideal, Masonry
• 4:02:03
  stands as one of the greatest benefactors of the present age. If it has
• 4:02:07
  preserved only the broken fragments of ancient grandeur, it has nevertheless cherished and honored
• 4:02:13
  these as a priceless inheritance. Will Masons really undertake the noble and glorious work
• 4:02:20
  of rebuilding the city and temple of the Lord? Will they unite to restore
• 4:02:24
  the primeval wisdom and glory. Will they search diligently among the rubbish for the
• 4:02:28
  stone that the builders rejected asterisk, and for the lost word of the Master.
• 4:02:33
  Alas who can say there is another link to our chain of evidence and
• 4:02:39
  line of transmission. The grips signs and passwords by which a mason recognizes a
• 4:02:46
  brother pertained to the lesser mysteries. The real Master knows his fellows by other
• 4:02:52
  signs. It has been elsewhere shown that the true adept is both clairvoyant and
• 4:02:56
  claire audient. There is a magnet atmosphere or radiation around every human being,
• 4:03:03
  and indeed something of the kind around every animal and every inanimate object. Every
• 4:03:09
  one feels this magnetic aura when coming in contact with others, even though they
• 4:03:13
  may see nothing and may often be unconscious of its effects. This atmosphere of
• 4:03:18
  the individual is the source of what is called sympathy and antipathy, or attraction
• 4:03:24
  and repulsion. It is not imaginary but real. It is the focalized result
• 4:03:31
  of individual character and contains all the potencies and qualities of the individual's life.
• 4:03:37
  It is composed of matter, is magnetic, has a definite mode of motion
• 4:03:41
  and definite color. It may be absorbed by or transmitted to another. The
• 4:03:46
  vibrations incident to it are the co ordinate result of the combined and varying activities
• 4:03:52
  of the principles in man. The keynote in every individual is thus determined as
• 4:03:56
  a scientific fact in matter. In the sensualist, and in all who are
• 4:04:01
  degraded by passion and selfishness, the color of this aura is red, like
• 4:04:05
  the comb of a cock, and the sensation which it produces upon the sensitive
• 4:04:09
  and pure is often described as hot and stifling. In an individual who is
• 4:04:15
  unselfish and pure minded, the color may alternate between a golden yellow and blue,
• 4:04:20
  and the effect described by the sensitive is that it is cool, RESTful,
• 4:04:24
  and inspiring. If the foregoing is true, and it is easily verified,
• 4:04:30
  and if a real master is able to see all of these conditions,
• 4:04:33
  which are usually invisible to others, he would hardly need to depend upon grips,
• 4:04:37
  signs, or passwords to recognize a fellow. Man betrays his character,
• 4:04:43
  his heredity, his ideals, and all his past life in every lineament of
• 4:04:48
  his face, in the conter and pose of his body, in his gait,
• 4:04:50
  in his handwriting, in the lines in his hand, in the tones
• 4:04:54
  of his voice in the expression of the eye. In short, no man
• 4:04:58
  possesses character. Character is that which he altogether is, and not something apart
• 4:05:03
  from himself. One need not be a master to discover all this. He
• 4:05:09
  needs only to observe, to think, and to reason on what he sees.
• 4:05:13
  In even the ordinary walks of life. The artist, the musician,
• 4:05:16
  the mechanic all recognize their fellows by signs that are familiar and unfailing. It
• 4:05:22
  can hardly be imagined that in a higher science, and in the ease of
• 4:05:26
  the deeper student or adept, the signs of character should be less pronounced or
• 4:05:31
  less plain, or that the adept, possessed of far finer senses in a
• 4:05:35
  wider range of knowledge, should fail in interpreting them. The individual who is
• 4:05:39
  really sincere and devout will not fail to recognize sincerity and true devotion in an
• 4:05:45
  acquaintance or in any character in history that possessed these virtues. Hence, it
• 4:05:50
  is that the student of the sacred science or occultism, though not himself an
• 4:05:54
  adept, learns to recognize by unfailing signs, those in the present or nine
• 4:05:58
  the past really know the true wisdom. Its signs and symbols are not the
• 4:06:03
  stolen shibolets by which the real student can be betrayed. Every mason knows enough
• 4:06:09
  of the picture, language or art speech to be able to speak of many
• 4:06:13
  things in the presence of others without revealing the secrets of the lodge. Even
• 4:06:16
  the criminal classes have their dialects or patois. History is full of pretenders in
• 4:06:22
  occultism. Pretension alone is a sign of ignorance, and the proposition to sell
• 4:06:28
  the truth is always a sign of fraud. There are, however, many
• 4:06:33
  names in history that have been covered with obloquy, and their possessors charged with
• 4:06:37
  fraud and imposition, who were nevertheless genuine adepts, if not perfect masters.
• 4:06:43
  We must distinguish between self conviction that comes from the pretender's own mouth and those
• 4:06:48
  accusations that come from others and are unsupported by evidence. The pretender is often
• 4:06:54
  loaded with honors and found rolling in wealth as the reward of deceit and lying
• 4:06:58
  of fraud and corruption which he is shrewd enough to conceal. On the other
• 4:07:03
  hand, the real master is often gibbeted by the populace and anathematized by the
• 4:07:07
  Church because he is neither time serving nor willing to barter the truth for gold.
• 4:07:13
  All along the line of history may be found those who possessed the true
• 4:07:16
  light, concealing both their wisdom and their own identity from vulgar notice and foolish
• 4:07:22
  praise. They have walked the earth unseen and unknown to the many, but
• 4:07:26
  always known to their fellows and to all real seekers after true wisdom. The
• 4:07:31
  ignorance of the rabble, the zeal of the superstitious, and the vice regent
• 4:07:35
  of God have often made sad inroads among the servants of the Great Lodge.
• 4:07:39
  Yet they have never been altogether exterminated. They have always existed to bear witness,
• 4:07:45
  and they exist today. If the reader is ready to deny all this,
• 4:07:50
  of course, it can make no difference to the real adept and it
• 4:07:52
  is certainly a matter of indifference to the present writer. One can do no
• 4:07:56
  more than to state candidly what he believes, and to set forth that which
• 4:08:01
  he knows to be true. These adepts or masters have in every age constituted
• 4:08:07
  the Great Lodge. Whether they congregate beneath vaulted domes or meet at stated times,
• 4:08:13
  no one would be likely to know unless he belonged to the same degree.
• 4:08:16
  But one thin is very certain, and that is that they bring help
• 4:08:20
  and knowledge to the world when most needed. And they are working thus to
• 4:08:24
  day in the West, as they have not done before for many weary centuries.
• 4:08:28
  They are enabled to work now because the ground has been prepared for them
• 4:08:33
  by any who knew, and who serve them to the death in the face
• 4:08:37
  of scorn and slander. They have been aided also by many ignorant but faithful
• 4:08:41
  believers in their existence and in their work, who have been rewarded at every
• 4:08:46
  step by morlight. Almost coincident with the close of the present century is the
• 4:08:52
  close of a great cycle, namely the first cycle of five thousand years of
• 4:08:56
  the Cali Yuga. Aside from unusual astronautomical conjunctions many perturbations in space, earthquakes,
• 4:09:03
  cyclones, and tidal waves, there are also predicted great social upheavals,
• 4:09:09
  political changes, and both mental and physical epidemics. In other words, as
• 4:09:13
  is already apparent to all who read the signs of the times, the present
• 4:09:18
  is a transition period, and whatever influences are to mold the coming century must
• 4:09:22
  begin their operations at the present time. This is therefore the seed time and
• 4:09:28
  the harvest will be by and by note. Many references in literature might be
• 4:09:33
  adduced giving accounts of the existence of the great lodge. Two of these may
• 4:09:39
  here be mentioned, viz. That given in the life of Apollonius Tyannoeus of
• 4:09:43
  his visit to the adepts of India, and the account of Flammel and the
• 4:09:46
  Adepts in an old book called Hermipus read of Ivus by Campbell. The present
• 4:09:52
  object is, however, rather to unfold a philosophy than to gather facts to
• 4:09:56
  explain what a master may be, rather than to point out their abodes.
• 4:10:01
  J. D. Buck, Mystic Masonry, Chapter nine. An outline of
• 4:10:07
  symbolism. A man standing by a horizontally revolving will might be taken as a
• 4:10:13
  symbol of every vessel made of clay, whether for honor or dishonor every detail
• 4:10:18
  of ornament or of shape might hold a legend, an allegory, or a
• 4:10:22
  parable, or indicate a use. But the potter at his wheel would be
• 4:10:24
  a universal and all including symbol, a pictorial expression of creative thought in man.
• 4:10:31
  The Chinese written language is nothing more than symbolical writing. Each of its
• 4:10:35
  several thousand letters, being a symbol, this pictorial expression of an idea or
• 4:10:41
  a thought, this art speech is symbolism. When the symbols are of familiar
• 4:10:46
  things and as various as human experience, the knowledge conveyed is common. When
• 4:10:52
  the symbols are few and simple, whether commonplace or grotesque, like a point,
• 4:10:56
  a circle, or a square, or a dragon, or or a
• 4:11:00
  man with horns, the knowledge conveyed is not for the masses, but for
• 4:11:03
  him alone who holds the key. Take the following simple series A point,
• 4:11:09
  a circle, a point within a circle, the circle horizontally divided, the
• 4:11:13
  lower half again divided, the upper half divided, a cross within the circle,
• 4:11:18
  the cross alone, and we have the series emanating from the point and
• 4:11:20
  the circle. If now any process in nature can be found to unfold in
• 4:11:26
  the same orderly manner, then any one of the series of symbols would be
• 4:11:30
  found to symbolize a definite stage in the process of nature. Hence the meaning
• 4:11:35
  of the symbol would expand just in proportion as one's knowledge of the natural process
• 4:11:39
  increased. If nature's planes are seven, and each plane sevenfold, there would
• 4:11:46
  come to be groups of symbols pertaining to each plane and a key to each
• 4:11:50
  group. Take, for example, the symbol the circle horizontally divided, aside
• 4:11:56
  from the philosophical meaning, as the third in the series a circle a point
• 4:12:01
  within a circle, the circle horizontally divided of mother Nature within infinitude, it
• 4:12:05
  represents a universal law of proportion and the exact mathematical ratio of the circumference to
• 4:12:11
  its diameter throughout nature, applicable alike to the circle of a pin head or
• 4:12:16
  a sun. Here then would be a symbol in mathematics or geometry, correlating
• 4:12:20
  space and time with form and proportion. Such a symbol would, however,
• 4:12:26
  have little meaning except to the philosopher or the mathematician. To the latter,
• 4:12:31
  the Greek pie or the proportion one three, one, four, five nine,
• 4:12:35
  or to the cabalistic one thirteen colon three fifty five would at once recall
• 4:12:39
  the original symbol and the whole series. If, in addition, our mathematician
• 4:12:46
  knew the different ratios of vibration incident to the three planes of evolution represented by
• 4:12:50
  a circle, a point within a circle, the circle horizontally divided, he
• 4:12:54
  would have the key to occult physics and could forecast results measure effects and induce
• 4:13:00
  changes beyond the ordinary plane of crude matter. The simple series to which I
• 4:13:05
  have referred will illustrate the whole science of symbolism. Added to this science of
• 4:13:09
  symbolism, there is an archaic art speech, by the use of which a
• 4:13:13
  double meaning is given to language, so that the most ordinary form of speech
• 4:13:18
  may be used to convey a deep, scientific or philosophical meaning. This gives
• 4:13:22
  rise to the allegory in parable, the outer form of which may convey to
• 4:13:26
  the ignorant a lesson in ethics, and to the learned of principle in science.
• 4:13:31
  The most complicated form of this symbolism an art speech known to modern times
• 4:13:37
  is perhaps the Jewish Kabbalah, from which most of the glyphics of freemasonry are
• 4:13:41
  derived. The object of the present work is not to explain all these symbols,
• 4:13:46
  for that would require a volume on symbolism, and have but little value
• 4:13:50
  when written except to the curious. Perhaps the most familiar symbol of a mason
• 4:13:56
  is the square and compass, found in every lodge and worn as a badge
• 4:14:01
  of fraternal recognition. We are told in the lodge that the square is an
• 4:14:05
  instrument with which the practical mason measures and lays out his work. But we,
• 4:14:09
  as free and accepted masons, are taught to make use of it for
• 4:14:13
  the more noble and glorious purpose of squaring our conduct with the golden rule,
• 4:14:16
  with principles of right and justice, et cetera. So also with the compass,
• 4:14:22
  the practical use is made symbolical of the higher moral obligation to circumscribe our
• 4:14:26
  desires and keep our passions within due bounds. But masonry is the system of
• 4:14:33
  morals illustrated by symbols and something more. And there is hence a science and
• 4:14:37
  a philosophy concealed in the symbolism of the square and compass. This may be
• 4:14:41
  outlined as follows. The square, with its one right angle and its scale
• 4:14:46
  of measurements, applies to surfaces and solids, and deals with the apparently fixed
• 4:14:52
  states of matter. It represents solidarity, symmetry, and proportion, and this
• 4:14:56
  involves the sciences of arithmetic and geeometry. The compass, with movable angles set
• 4:15:03
  in the lodge at an angle of sixty degrees, applies to the circle and
• 4:15:07
  the sphere, to movements and revolutions. In a general sense, the square
• 4:15:11
  is a symbol of matter and the earth, the compass of Spirit and the
• 4:15:16
  heavens. In the lodge, the square and compass cross each other, and
• 4:15:20
  this fact is made a symbol of progression from the degree of entered apprentice to
• 4:15:24
  that of Master. The compass is set at an angle of sixty degrees and
• 4:15:28
  is representative of the movements of Spirit, and if crossed at a certain distance
• 4:15:33
  from the angle, will produce an equilateral triangle. The three angles and the
• 4:15:37
  three sides equal. It now represents perfect equilibrium or proportion for the apprentice.
• 4:15:43
  The points of the compass are beneath the square for the fellow craft, one
• 4:15:48
  is above and one beneath for the Master. Both are dominant and have rule
• 4:15:54
  control an empire over the symbol of the earthly immaterial. If the reader now
• 4:16:00
  refers to what was said in a previous chapter concerning the descent of Spirit into
• 4:16:03
  matter, and the first Trinity represented by a triangle matter, force and Spirit,
• 4:16:08
  law, and in Man, monus body in Atma, he will readily
• 4:16:14
  see that the compass may fairly represent this primary trinity, concealed under the square
• 4:16:18
  of matter, till by progression it emerges, and finally, in the Master's
• 4:16:22
  hands gains dominion over matter. In the man of ignorance sin, the spirit
• 4:16:29
  is concealed and the body and its passions hold dominion. This is the state
• 4:16:33
  of the neophyte or entered apprentice. In the Fellowcraft's degree, the symbols are
• 4:16:37
  interlaced, and in the masters matter is subordinated to spirit. The lectures on
• 4:16:44
  the several degrees explain the method by which the compass spirit may gain dominion over
• 4:16:48
  the square, body and passion through the greater activity of spirit in circumscribing our
• 4:16:55
  desires and keeping our passions within due bounds. The perfect equal delibrium of spirit
• 4:17:00
  and matter is symbolized by the six pointed star, which is again only another
• 4:17:04
  form of the square in compass, each now having a baseline from which to
• 4:17:08
  form a triangle. Enclose the star in a circle, which symbolizes infinity,
• 4:17:15
  and you symbolize the harmony or at one meant of the spirit that descended,
• 4:17:18
  and the body now purified with divinity or the oversoul place within the star thus
• 4:17:25
  enclosed the Egyptian emblem of life, and we symbolize immortality as the result of
• 4:17:30
  regeneration. Transform the circle into a serpent, and it now symbolizes wisdom as
• 4:17:36
  the crown or result of equilibrium, and is also a double glyphic of the
• 4:17:40
  return of matter to its source in spirit, separate the tongue and tail of
• 4:17:45
  the serpent by a thor's hammer or spastica enclosed within a circle, and it
• 4:17:49
  symbolizes regeneration through conquest of animal sense, precisely as taught in the lodge under
• 4:17:56
  the spiritual meaning of the symbol of the compass free may is the subjugation of
• 4:18:00
  the human that is in man by the divine, the conquest of the appetites
• 4:18:04
  and passions by the moral sense and reason, a continual effort, struggle and
• 4:18:10
  warfare of the spiritual against the material and sensual, that victory when it has
• 4:18:15
  been achieved and secured, and the conqueror may rest upon his shield, and
• 4:18:18
  where the well earned laurels is the true holy empire. The Masonic apron,
• 4:18:23
  made of lamb skin, symbolizes innocence or purity, the condition required of candidates
• 4:18:29
  in all real initiation. The shape of the apron is that of a perfect
• 4:18:33
  square surmounted by a triangle. We have here the three in the four making
• 4:18:38
  seven, the triangle representing spirit, the square representing matter, the triangle representing
• 4:18:45
  the threefold attributes of the one, the square representing the four elements as spirit.
• 4:18:49
  The triangle represents or is symbolized by heat, light and flame. The
• 4:18:56
  entered apprentice starts on his career with the triangle surmounting the square. Spirit has
• 4:19:00
  not yet descended into matter. As he progresses, the descent takes place,
• 4:19:06
  and we have the triangle in the square. As heretofore illustrated, and finally,
• 4:19:11
  as a master, the ascent of the square into the triangle begins,
• 4:19:14
  which every master mason will understand. Masonry being a progressive science. The progress
• 4:19:19
  of the neophyte is thus made to conform to the process of evolution and the
• 4:19:23
  descent of spirit into matter, and this is illustrated by the manner in which
• 4:19:27
  he is taught to wear his apron in each degree. In the Blue Lodge,
• 4:19:32
  the entered apprentice is not only a hewer of wood and a drawer of
• 4:19:36
  water, but he is a novice taking his first instruction, and this is
• 4:19:40
  symbolized by his apron. The tradition of the Master's word, of the power
• 4:19:45
  which its possession gives to the master, the story of its loss and the
• 4:19:48
  search for its recovery, the tradition of the ineffable name in connection with the
• 4:19:52
  lost word, showing that it could not or should not be pronounced except with
• 4:19:56
  bated breath, or, as the Hindu tradition declares, with the hand covering
• 4:20:00
  the mouth, the symbolism of the three greater and three lesser lights, and
• 4:20:04
  the play made in many places on the word light itself in conjunction with the
• 4:20:10
  lost word. All these references and uses constitute a complicated symbolism working in and
• 4:20:15
  toward a common center or glyphic, which, taken in conjunction with the building
• 4:20:18
  and restoration of the temple, constitute the secret symbolism of masonry and illustrate the
• 4:20:23
  whole process of initiation. What real initiation is has been outlined in a previous
• 4:20:30
  chapter. These symbols, when correctly interpreted, serve two purposes. First,
• 4:20:37
  they reveal a complete philosophy of the creation of the universe and of man,
• 4:20:41
  unfolding all essences, powers, and potencies, and their mutual relations and correlations.
• 4:20:48
  Second, they unfold the process of initiation as synonymous with the uninterrupted evolution
• 4:20:53
  of man, guided by knowledge and design along the lines of least resistance.
• 4:20:59
  In the third deg greed. The candidate impersonates Hiram, who has been shown
• 4:21:03
  to be identical with the Christos of the Greeks and with the son gods of
• 4:21:06
  all other nations. The superiority of Masonry at this point over all exoteric religions
• 4:21:12
  consists. In this all these religions take the symbol for the thing symbolized.
• 4:21:18
  Christ was originally like the Father. Now he is made identical with the Father.
• 4:21:23
  In deifying Jesus, the whole of humanity is bereft of Christos as an
• 4:21:27
  eternal potency within every human soul, a latent Christ in every man. In
• 4:21:33
  thus deifying one man, they have orphaned the whole of humanity. On the
• 4:21:37
  other hand, Masonry, in making every candidate personify Hiram, has preserved the
• 4:21:44
  original teaching, which is a universal glyphic. Few candidates may be aware that
• 4:21:48
  Hiram, whom they have represented and personified, is ideally and precisely the same
• 4:21:53
  as Christ, yet such is undoubtedly the case. This old philosophy sh shows
• 4:22:00
  what Christ as a glyphic means and how the Christ's state results from real initiation
• 4:22:04
  or from the evolution of the human into the divine. Regeneration is thus given
• 4:22:10
  a meaning that is both apprehensible and attainable, both philosophical and scientific, and
• 4:22:15
  at once ideal and practical. In the tetragrammatin or four lettered name of Deity,
• 4:22:21
  the Greek followers of Pythagoras found a glyphic by which they both expressed and
• 4:22:25
  concealed their philosophy. And it is the Hebrew tetrad ihvh or yod Ha vowha
• 4:22:30
  that is introduced into masonry with the Pythagorean art speech. The devout Hebrew,
• 4:22:37
  in reading the sacred text, when he came to the tetrad ihvh, substituted
• 4:22:41
  the word Adonai Lord, and if the word was written with the points of
• 4:22:45
  allum, he called it Elohom. This custom is preserved in masonry by giving
• 4:22:49
  the candidate a substitute for the the master's word. The Hebrew tetrad yod Ha
• 4:22:56
  vov ha is produced by repeating the ha. The root word is a triad,
• 4:23:00
  and the quaternary is undoubtedly a blind. The sacred word is found in
• 4:23:06
  the mysteries as a binary, a trinary, and a quaternary. As with
• 4:23:10
  the Hindus, we have the om and the alum, indicating different methods of
• 4:23:14
  pronouncing the sacred name. The Pythagorean tetractys is represented by numbers one, two,
• 4:23:19
  three, for is equal to ten, and by points or yods in
• 4:23:23
  the form of a triangle. This is called the lesser tatractees, while a
• 4:23:27
  triangle composed of eight rows in the same form and containing thirty six yads or
• 4:23:33
  points is called the greater tatractees. This corresponds to the three lesser lights and
• 4:23:40
  three greater lights of the Blue Lodge, though the monitorial explanations in the lodge
• 4:23:44
  are, to say the least incomplete. In the Pythagorean philosophy, both the
• 4:23:49
  lesser and greater tatractees are represented by equilateral triangles, and the points in either
• 4:23:55
  case form the angles of a series of lesser triangles. In the lesser to
• 4:24:00
  tract these these triangles are altogether nine or three times three. In the greater
• 4:24:06
  they count forty nine or seven times seven, and in each case the series
• 4:24:10
  runs from apex to base one three, five for the lesser and one,
• 4:24:15
  three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen for the greater to
• 4:24:21
  tractees, or by a series of odd numbers, While the points before the
• 4:24:26
  triangles are formed run consecutively one, two, three, four, five,
• 4:24:32
  six, seven, eight. These symbols were thus used as odd and even
• 4:24:37
  to carry a philosophical meaning, and to illustrate the doctrine of emanation. In
• 4:24:42
  the Pythagorean system, Spirit is everywhere represented as the universal. All multitude must
• 4:24:48
  necessarily issue from one, and that one is Spirit. All emanations and subdivisions
• 4:24:55
  must therefore be related to the one by absolute geometry, perfect forms, and
• 4:25:00
  absolute mathematics perfect numbers and movements. In the forty seventh problem, so famous
• 4:25:07
  in ancient philosophy se Plate eleven, and far older than Pythagoras or Euclid,
• 4:25:11
  we have a symbol of the perfect proportions between number and forms, between spirit
• 4:25:15
  and matter, and between universals in particulars. And this is a constant symbol
• 4:25:21
  in dotmysonic lodges in the Pythagorean triangle or tetrad c Plate v. This same
• 4:25:27
  philosophy is symbolized proposition. Subdivide a regular figure in such a manner that the
• 4:25:34
  subdivisions shall be the same shape as the figure, and sixteen in number,
• 4:25:38
  and with four of the subdivisions bounding each side of the figure, sixteen is
• 4:25:44
  the square of four or the tetrachtys. The triangle series is of odd numbers.
• 4:25:48
  The square even the ten yards occupy all the upright triangle divisions. Quoted
• 4:25:56
  with plate from print by fred G. D. Plumber. This Pythagorean method
• 4:26:03
  of philosophizing according to numbers has not only fallen into disuse in modern times,
• 4:26:07
  but has often been deemed altogether fanciful and been subject to ridicule simply because the
• 4:26:12
  philosophy upon which it is based is lost. It originally constituted the art speech
• 4:26:18
  or glyphics, in which that philosophy was expressed, and to understand the one
• 4:26:23
  is to recover the other. This philosophy bridged the gap between mind and matter
• 4:26:29
  through apprehension of the one underlying law. It connected physics with metaphysics through the
• 4:26:34
  science of mathematics, or the relations of number to form or of equilibrium to
• 4:26:38
  motion. The adept knew that relations between the movements vibrations that produce thought,
• 4:26:45
  those that produce form, those that produce color, and those that produce light
• 4:26:49
  and sound, and the number of these in each case. The source of
• 4:26:53
  all these is a trinity, the form of emanation a septenary. Hence the
• 4:26:59
  play of the formula three times three and seven times seven. The first postulate
• 4:27:04
  of this philosophy has been shown in a previous chapter to be abstract space and
• 4:27:10
  abstract absolute motion. And this absolute motion is that of the primordial atoms,
• 4:27:15
  thus constituting the center, which is everywhere, and the circumference, which is
• 4:27:18
  nowhere i e. Fills all space. It is necessary, however, to
• 4:27:25
  remind the reader that these atoms are not those of modern science or those that
• 4:27:29
  compose what we call matter, for the reason that they are one and all
• 4:27:33
  endowed potentially with consciousness, life, and intelligence, and are equally world builders
• 4:27:38
  in man builders. They are the vehicles and the basis of all law.
• 4:27:44
  In nature, they form alike the moving panorama of thought and the tides of
• 4:27:48
  the restless sea, the beating of the human heart and the revolutions of suns
• 4:27:52
  and solar systems, the breath of an infant and the breath of Brahm.
• 4:27:57
  There is universal and eternal unity in equilibrium in the midst of universal diversity,
• 4:28:03
  perpetual involution of spirit or essence, and endless evolution of form and variety,
• 4:28:07
  and back of all the one eternal principle, unknown and forever unknowable, without
• 4:28:12
  beginning, without end, without change. Space is the mantle that forever conceals
• 4:28:18
  him. Abstract absolute motion is his fiat. Creation is his logos, word,
• 4:28:26
  speech, expression, will, thought, call it what you will.
• 4:28:30
  Man is a spark from this flame, and in the last analysis, as
• 4:28:34
  incomprehensible to himself as God, this spark of divinity in man is his consciousness.
• 4:28:41
  And this in a previous chapter we have postulated as a fact nothing more.
• 4:28:47
  This brings us to the origin of the tetractys, the origin of the
• 4:28:49
  ineffable name the lost word. The Hebrews seem to have derived their tatractees from
• 4:28:56
  the Caldo Egyptian mysteries, and these may be traced to the Zoroastrian fire philosophy.
• 4:29:00
  Till finally, the word is a u m in both Persian or Zend
• 4:29:04
  and in Sanskrit. The three letters are found in many names that designate fire,
• 4:29:10
  flame, spirit, essence, et cetera. This again, is a
• 4:29:14
  glyphic or form of expression. Every emanation is a trinity, and fire,
• 4:29:19
  flame, and light are the most perfect synthesis of this triunity. Consider the
• 4:29:25
  expressions the Lord is a consuming fire, since God is light and never but
• 4:29:30
  an unapproached light dwelt from eternity, et cetera. The symbol is found in
• 4:29:34
  all scriptures, but only in the mysteries was the meaning thus symbolized made known.
• 4:29:41
  Here, then, is the origin of all the trinities found in masonry,
• 4:29:45
  the plainest of which are the trinities of light, and the most superficial
• 4:29:48
  explanations are found connected with the three lesser lights of the lodge. The primitive
• 4:29:53
  holy symbol, composed of three letters, in which the Vedic triad is comprehended,
• 4:29:59
  ought to be kept secret like another triple Veda. He who knows the
• 4:30:03
  mystic value of this syllable knows the Veda laws of Manu Book eleven. The
• 4:30:08
  mortal who draws nigh unto fire will have a light from divinity Chaldean oracle in
• 4:30:14
  every world shines forth a triad, whereof the principle is unity Chaldean oracle.
• 4:30:19
  It is necessary to know that the divine name of its indwelling potency, and
• 4:30:23
  which is a symbol of the impression of the Demiurgos, according to which it
• 4:30:27
  does not go forth from its being, is ineffable and secret, and known
• 4:30:32
  only to the gods themselves. Proclus the legend of the Lost Word and the
• 4:30:37
  potency of the ineffable Name are inseparable. They are the glyphics of paradise lost
• 4:30:41
  and paradise regained, or of the fall and the redemption of man. So
• 4:30:47
  also is the legend of rebuilding the temple, a glyphic of initiation, which
• 4:30:52
  is the same as regeneration and evolution. This ancient wisdom belongs in a special
• 4:30:56
  sense to masonry, for it has done most of it any organization of modern
• 4:31:00
  times, to preserve the ancient landmarks, and has honored and protected the sacred
• 4:31:04
  symbols. If masonry has made only a superficial use of these hoary secrets,
• 4:31:11
  and their deeper meaning is still unknown to the craft, it is equally unknown
• 4:31:15
  to all others. Except as the result of genuine initiation. One may know
• 4:31:19
  that a thing exists, where it is to be found, and that it
• 4:31:22
  is above all price, without knowing, to the last analysis what it is.
• 4:31:29
  Such is the secret to the lost Word or the ineffable Name. Its
• 4:31:33
  secret lies in exact vibrations under mathematical and synchronous relations, and its law is
• 4:31:38
  equilibrium or eternal harmony. J. D. Buck Mystic Masonry, Chapter ten,
• 4:31:45
  conclusion, the foregoing pages can justly be called fragments only of the Secret
• 4:31:52
  Doctrine and of the symbols of Freemasonry. A systematic treatise on either of these
• 4:31:56
  subjects would necessarily include the other. The Secret Doctrine is the complete philosophy of
• 4:32:03
  Masonic symbolism. So long as this philosophy is unknown to the Mason, his
• 4:32:08
  symbols are to a great extent dead letters. The work of the lodge a
• 4:32:12
  dumb show beyond its moral precepts, and the genius of Masonry for the members
• 4:32:18
  of the craft is largely the spirit of self interest, mutual support, and
• 4:32:22
  physical enjoyment or revelry, the latest embodiment of which is the mystic shrine.
• 4:32:27
  But there are some among the members of the craft, and how many time
• 4:32:30
  alone can determine, who believe that masonry means far more than this, and
• 4:32:34
  who have already discerned in its symbols and traditions something of their real meaning.
• 4:32:38
  Many of these have found partial clues which serve to keep interest alive while searching
• 4:32:44
  for plainer meanings and deeper revelations. In retracing the steps by which these ancient
• 4:32:49
  symbols and their profound philosophy have come down to our own time, more and
• 4:32:53
  more obscured. With every passing century. Students have gathered a large number of
• 4:32:57
  facts, a great mass of traditions in general information, all of which have
• 4:33:02
  been variously interpreted by different writers on masonry. All writers, however, agree
• 4:33:07
  in the conclusion that the symbols and traditions of freemasonry come from the far East
• 4:33:11
  and go back to the remotest antiquity, so that the saying that the mason
• 4:33:17
  journeys from west to east in search of light is literally true. This search
• 4:33:22
  is not one incited by curious interest. Only. If masonry possesses merely a
• 4:33:26
  mass of curious myths and meaningless symbols, of what real value is it to
• 4:33:30
  anyone to trace them down? What real benefit can it be to anyone to
• 4:33:36
  demonstrate that five or ten thousand years ago, the same curious myths and meaningless
• 4:33:40
  symbols existed in the mysteries of Egypt, or were taught by Pythagoras and the
• 4:33:45
  followers of Zoroaster. Such, however, is not the genius of freemasonry.
• 4:33:51
  The real secrets of masonry lie concealed in its symbols, and these constituting as
• 4:33:56
  they do a picture, language or art. Speech, are made to carry
• 4:34:00
  a complete philosophy of the existence in relations of deity, nature and man.
• 4:34:06
  The average mason, taking the symbols for the thing symbolized, and knowing nothing
• 4:34:10
  of the profound philosophy upon which they rest, is incredulous that it ever existed,
• 4:34:15
  And so he treads the burning sands in search of a novel sensation or
• 4:34:18
  a new joke. As mere pastimes, these jovial entertainments are neither better nor
• 4:34:23
  worse than many others. They represent one extreme into which the ancient wisdom has
• 4:34:30
  degenerated. Let every intelligent mason reflect on the sublimity and sanctity of the ceremonies
• 4:34:36
  in some of the degrees where the name of deity is invoked, where the
• 4:34:40
  highest moral precepts are inculcated, and where the purest and most exalted ethics are
• 4:34:45
  taught. And then let him ask himself the question whether it is consistent and
• 4:34:48
  devoid of hypocrisy to round all this with a roaring farce. Does not such
• 4:34:53
  a course tend to make all sacred things also a mere matter of form,
• 4:34:56
  a jest and a by word. Every mason is familiar with this extreme,
• 4:35:02
  and with the extent to which these recent innovations and associations how he been carried,
• 4:35:07
  And the present writer is by no means the first to protest against it.
• 4:35:11
  However ungraciously his protest may be received or unpopular, his work may be.
• 4:35:15
  Let every intelligent Mason admit, merely for the sake of the argument,
• 4:35:19
  that there is another extreme. Suppose it to be true and easily demonstrable,
• 4:35:25
  that the symbols of masonry and body and were originally designed to convey the most
• 4:35:29
  profound wisdom, And that these symbols stand unchanged through all the ages, and
• 4:35:33
  are the means by which that wisdom may at any time be recovered by him
• 4:35:37
  who can find their true meaning. Masonry is, in a special sense the
• 4:35:41
  custodian of these symbols, and it is its most common tradition that these and
• 4:35:47
  the ancient landmarks are to be preserved unaltered. This is the plainest and most
• 4:35:52
  logical deduction from the whole spirit of masonry. These custodians are, in the
• 4:35:56
  highest degrees called princes of the Royal Secret, nay sublime princes of the Royal
• 4:36:02
  Secret. What a farce, what pretense? If there is no royal secret.
• 4:36:07
  Reflect a moment, good reader, and especially good brother Mason. What
• 4:36:12
  is the most sacred treasure, the most lasting possession of man? Is it
• 4:36:18
  not knowledge? Suppose a tidal wave should sweep all our seaports on the eastern
• 4:36:22
  and western coasts, and that this should be followed by cyclone and earthquake,
• 4:36:27
  so that the whole country should be completely devastated in a month, a few
• 4:36:32
  millions of our people remaining, with all our resources of knowledge, it might
• 4:36:36
  take half a century to recover a greater part of our prosperity. But suppose
• 4:36:41
  our people were all swept away, like many an ancient civilization were lost empire.
• 4:36:45
  Or suppose that all else remained, and we lost our store of knowledge,
• 4:36:49
  all arts, all sciences, and that our whole people were reduced to
• 4:36:52
  the condition of our North American Indians. Half a century then would destroy all
• 4:36:57
  we have so laborious wrought out, and we might pitch our wigwams in weed
• 4:37:02
  grown streets or amid crumbling ruins. What we have imagined of our own is
• 4:37:07
  but the history of other civilizations, the howling wastes of Gobi concealed, we
• 4:37:12
  are told the remains of a civilization far outranking our own, and beneath the
• 4:37:18
  ocean's bed lie entombed the records and the monuments of man. Our most lasting
• 4:37:22
  possession is knowledge, and when this is swept away, desolation only remains.
• 4:37:29
  Bro Pike says that the real secrets of masonry, the philosophy concealed in its
• 4:37:33
  symbols, are far older than the Vedas, and are at least ten thousand
• 4:37:37
  years old, and that the art speech which symbolism is was designed by real
• 4:37:41
  princes of the Royal Secret, by prince adepts or perfect masters, to conceal,
• 4:37:47
  preserve, and convey this ancient wisdom to the latest generations of men.
• 4:37:52
  That when civilizations decayed, when empires cease to be, and when desolation brooded
• 4:37:56
  in silence over a whole kant, a rock beside the water, or a
• 4:38:02
  symbol transplanted to another land might serve to convey the lost secret to another people
• 4:38:07
  in time. Knowing the course of empire the inevitable destiny of races of man,
• 4:38:11
  these sublime princes of the Royal Secret, by wise forethought, determined that
• 4:38:17
  nothing should be lost. Such is the heritage of masonry, and bro Pike
• 4:38:22
  proves this beyond all controversy, by excerpts from the sacred books of all religions,
• 4:38:26
  and by the most learned and painstaking investigation. The value of such investigations
• 4:38:33
  does not consist in proving the great antiquity of the symbols of freemasonry, for
• 4:38:37
  this is an easy task, and no one with the slightest knowledge of the
• 4:38:41
  subject dare dispute it. For the symbols are found on the oldest monuments and
• 4:38:45
  described in the oldest records known to man. A far more difficult undertaking,
• 4:38:52
  the results of which are beyond all else valuable, is the effort to determine
• 4:38:56
  exactly what these symbols mean. If they were the precipitated results of profound knowledge,
• 4:39:00
  the very fruitage of all past civilizations, some of which transcended all we
• 4:39:06
  have yet achieved in the West, than to correctly interpret them means the recovery
• 4:39:10
  of all past knowledge in substance, if not in detail. This is precisely
• 4:39:15
  the interpretation and the value that should be put upon such results. This result
• 4:39:21
  is the recovery of the lost word of the Master, and the symbol of
• 4:39:23
  that word is the au m of the Persian magi, and the most ancient
• 4:39:27
  Brahmin. Because back of that trilitero glyphic lies the philosophy of the Secret doctrine,
• 4:39:33
  the synthesis of all knowledge. Let any prince of the royal secret examine
• 4:39:37
  the evidence and judge for himself. If, instead of doing this he prefers
• 4:39:42
  to sneer at these statements and to ridicule the whole subject, while he still
• 4:39:48
  boasts the title of prince adept, he stands as three men once stood near
• 4:39:52
  the coast of Joppa, self convicted by the imprecations of his own mouth.
• 4:39:56
  The present revival of philosophy in the West ought to be bring about the restoration
• 4:40:02
  of this old wisdom. While it cannot interfere with the Masonic organization in the
• 4:40:07
  least or seek to reveal any of its ceremonies, grips, or passwords by
• 4:40:11
  which the secrets of Masonry may be obtained unlawfully, it must give the largest
• 4:40:15
  credit to the fidelity with which the symbols and ancient landmarks have been preserved by
• 4:40:21
  the organization of Freemasons, and seek the co operation of all earnest and true
• 4:40:25
  Masons in the recovery of the lost word and in promulgating this sublime philosophy for
• 4:40:30
  the benefit of the whole human race. There is an old occult maxim which
• 4:40:36
  declares that nothing is concealed from him who knows. No mason is bound to
• 4:40:41
  conceal that which he has never learned in the lodge, all else he receives.
• 4:40:45
  As he learns any thing, places his own estimate upon its value,
• 4:40:48
  and becomes individually responsible for its use. It must be a matter of conscience
• 4:40:55
  and be weighed in the balance of duty, and every one must abide by
• 4:40:57
  the result. If masonry has lost the royal secret, or if it never
• 4:41:03
  possessed it, or if it was wrenched away in the very name of religion
• 4:41:06
  little more than a century ago, all the same, it belongs to the
• 4:41:10
  craft as the heir apparent of the old wisdom. But the time has come
• 4:41:14
  when no cable toe can bind it. It now belongs to humanity equally with
• 4:41:18
  the mason. To this end has it been preserved throughout the centuries. What
• 4:41:25
  a future lies before masonry, should it determine to enter into its birthright,
• 4:41:29
  to possess it thoroughly organized as it is, and counting its membership by tens
• 4:41:33
  of thousands, rehabilitated in its ancient wisdom, it may become an irresistible force
• 4:41:38
  in shaping the present civilization and in influencing the future destiny of man. All
• 4:41:45
  else has perished from the civilizations of the past. Wisdom alone is a mortal
• 4:41:49
  of all the possessions of man, of all the achievements of classic Greece.
• 4:41:55
  Nothing is so well remembered to day as the school of Pythagoras and the philosophy
• 4:41:59
  of Plato. And these but in body, and were founded upon the royal
• 4:42:03
  secret of every prince adept Mason. To restore the royal Secret would be a
• 4:42:07
  work which, when completed, would be to our present humanity what the supporting
• 4:42:11
  columns are to the lodge, wisdom, strength and beauty, knowledge, power
• 4:42:18
  and harmony. It would introduce new methods and motives and new ideals into modern
• 4:42:23
  education, and give us, in a few generations, other Plato's. If
• 4:42:27
  we create the conditions, the results are sure to follow. Here lies the
• 4:42:33
  reward for all the trials and persecutions to which Masons have been subjected in the
• 4:42:37
  past. Here we may build the monument of all its heroes and martyrs.
• 4:42:42
  We may so build that seeing it they would rejoice that they suffered to the
• 4:42:45
  end. Bacon dreamed of a great instoration or recovery of knowledge and possession of
• 4:42:52
  wisdom from inductive philosophy alone, but on such lines it must be forever a
• 4:42:56
  dream. The old philosophy is both in conductive and deductive through the perfect equilibrium
• 4:43:02
  of reason and intuition or experience and aspiration, and is scientific to the last
• 4:43:07
  degree. It will give us, as a result, knowledge and power without
• 4:43:11
  oppression, religion without superstition, universal liberty, toleration and fraternity, universal compassion,
• 4:43:18
  peace on earth, and goodwill to man. Of course, it is
• 4:43:22
  in the province of masonry to elect if it chooses that its symbols shall have
• 4:43:26
  only a superficial meaning in the lodge, it may admit that it has adopted
• 4:43:32
  from the ancient mysteries the glyphics and parables that once serve to embody and convey
• 4:43:36
  the most complete and profound philosophy, and while adopting these symbols and the ancient
• 4:43:41
  art speech, confine their use and interpretation to such lessons of equity, morality,
• 4:43:45
  and fraternity as are to be found in all exoteric religions. The author
• 4:43:52
  of this book would be the last to ignore or to belittle the value of
• 4:43:55
  ethical or moral precepts. But these are the basis of conduct, not the
• 4:44:00
  crown of existence. The beginning, not the end of wisdom. Man's general
• 4:44:04
  infancy, as Browning puts, it, only begins when his code of ethics
• 4:44:10
  is complete, and when he is perfected as man. To spend the greater
• 4:44:14
  part of his days in transgression and repentance is not man's objects, served,
• 4:44:18
  his end attained, his genuine strength. Put fairly forth. Masonry not only
• 4:44:23
  nowhere denies this deeper meaning to its symbolism, but many writers have admitted it
• 4:44:29
  and expatiated upon it. But very few seem to have been able to discern
• 4:44:32
  the real meaning. They have generally failed because of sectarian bias, which dwarfed
• 4:44:37
  their vision and narrowed the ancient wisdom religion to the bounds of a modern creed.
• 4:44:41
  While the genius of the ancient wisdom is universal and all inclusive. To
• 4:44:47
  deny or to ignore any but the most superficial view is to adopt such conclusions
• 4:44:52
  as those arrived at by the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, who makes of the
• 4:44:56
  coffer in the King's Chamber of the great pyramid of gayze only a hornbin.
• 4:45:00
  It is to profane the holy vessels, and at last to materialize all spiritual
• 4:45:06
  things. It may justly be doubted whether any man, for the past century
• 4:45:10
  and a half has done so much toward restoring Masonry to its birthright as Grand
• 4:45:15
  Master Albert Pike. His writings are a mine of wealth too little known to
• 4:45:18
  the great majority of Masons. The recent Jesuitical attack on his memory is not
• 4:45:25
  only a palpable and sensational lie, but it should serve to arouse every prince
• 4:45:29
  of the Royal Secret to a deeper knowledge of the value of bro Pike's work.
• 4:45:33
  That work not only abounds in the clearest exposition of all the Masonic virtues
• 4:45:37
  and reveals a mind incapable of baseness, but passing beyond these to the full
• 4:45:42
  stature of manhood, grasps those eternal principles which underlie the building of cosmos and
• 4:45:48
  the evolution regeneration of man. The charge that such a man, breathing reverence
• 4:45:53
  to truth, love to man, and aspiration toward light in every sentence of
• 4:45:57
  his voluminous writings, could descend to bestiality, in grovel, in convulsions,
• 4:46:02
  at the feet of a confessed devil worshiper is worthy of his real accusers.
• 4:46:07
  And yet such is the voluminous attack recently made in the pages of a leading
• 4:46:11
  New York daily. The attack but thinly veils the old time assassins of the
• 4:46:15
  heroes and martyrs of masonry, and is designed to frighten the ignorant and superstitious
• 4:46:19
  into fresh hatred of masonry. This hysterical granddaughter of a start is herself a
• 4:46:26
  victim if she has any real existence at all of the same a fast body,
• 4:46:30
  and is only a fit subject for a madhouse. History repeats itself,
• 4:46:34
  and this fresh attack upon Masonry, while it cannot tarnish the fame of the
• 4:46:38
  honored dead, should warn Masons that even in this enlightened age, the minions
• 4:46:42
  of the Prince of Darkness and the Father of Lies have not renounced their allegiance
• 4:46:47
  or forgotten their cunning persecution is to the truth what the winds and the rains
• 4:46:52
  are to the sprouting oak. These but sink deeper the roots of conviction and
• 4:46:56
  spread wider the leaves that are for the healing of theasa. If Masons will
• 4:47:02
  but pass from refreshment to labor, and unite in rebuilding the city and temple
• 4:47:06
  of the Lord of Truth, recover the lost word, and rehabilitate the ancient
• 4:47:10
  wisdom. She may paraphrase the saying of Macaulay in his Essay on Bereer,
• 4:47:14
  and apply it to all her enemies. We therefore like his invectives against us
• 4:47:18
  much better than anything else he has written. It was but little that he
• 4:47:22
  could do to promote the honor of our country. But that little he did
• 4:47:26
  strenuously and constantly renegade, traitor, slave, coward, liar, slanderer,
• 4:47:33
  murderer, hack wrider, police. By the one small service which he could
• 4:47:36
  render to England was to hate her. And such as he was, may
• 4:47:40
  all who hate her be Masonry need not fear the hatred of such, And
• 4:47:44
  only such will hate her if she enters into her priceless inheritance bears aloft banners
• 4:47:49
  and emblazons with lighter time honored landmarks. So mote it be