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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Revised.
:ONSTITUTION, STATUTES, CEREMONIALS, & HISTORY OF THE A. & P. RITE. Re-arranged. i2mo., doth. 187s-
dASONIC CHARGES AND LECTURES, translated from the
8vo., Cloth. Manchester, 1881 (100 printed).
:.ECTURES OF A CHAPTER, SENATE, AND COUNCIL. i2mo., Cloth. London, 1882.
GENEALOGY OF THE SURNAME YARKER. with the Ley burn and allied Families,
4to. Manchester, 1882.
recapitulation of all MASONRY, translated from the
Boards, with symbolic plates. Dublin, 1883 (roo printed).
TWO LECTURES ON HIGH-GRADE MASONRY.
8vo., Wrappers. Liverpool, 1886.
THE CODE OF APEX AND OF THE SAT BHAI. i6mo* 1886.
CONTINUATION OF THE COMTE DE GABALIS.
(Amsterdam, 171S)- Bath, 1897.
THE ASSISTANT GENIES & IRRECONCILABLE (1718). Bath, 1897.
CAHAGNETS MAGNETIC MAGIC. Abridged translation,
Bath, 1898.
reprints OF PAPERS contributed to Ars Quatuor Co^natorum . THK Ld SWALWEI.L LODGE AND THE HAEOD.M,
the haughfoot lodge. 1903- patent
royal templar certificate of x779. and pate OF A RUSSIAN G.L. OF 1815. i9°3-
THE VERY ANCIENT CLERMONT CHAPTER. 1904
VEHME. i9°6-
rN°.r™7™»” S TRUTH.
?rT“rUD“^HDS OE THE DT TEMPLE. ....
E„ ..L., Lte..v
MS., Lu. .. rb.d ft-
‘t“t Pa» Av„u., ........p.
I
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3
i ll*
The arcane SCHOOLS;
A REVIEW OF THEIR ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY; WITH A GENERAL
History of Freemasonry,
AND ITS RELATION TO THE THEOSOPHIC, SCIENTIFIC, AND PHILOSOPHIC MYSTERIES.
BY
John Yarker,
P.M. P.Z. P.M.Mk., F.P., etc.. Past Senior Grand Warden of Greece ; Hon. Grand Master of the G.L. of Cuba; Past Gd. Constable or Mareschal of the Temple in England; in the A. &=A. Rite Hon. 33° in many countries ; Grand Master General of the A. P. Rite of Masonry ; G.H. of the Confederate Nations gj°; Grand Master Swedenborgian Rite;
Hon. IX° of the Rosicrucian Society ;
Etc., Etc.
WILLIAM TAIT,
3 WELLINGTON PARK AVENUE, BELFAST.
1909.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
R. CARSWELL AND SON, LIMITED, PRINTERS,
QUEEN STREET, BELFAST.
PREFACE.
I N the following pages I have sought to satisfy a request,
1 often made to me, to give a short but comprehensive view of the whole fabric of the Arcane mysteries, and affinity with the Masonic System ; and I here take the opportunity of recording my protest against the sceptical tendencies of the present generation of the Moderns who are Masons, and against the efforts that are made, in season and out of season, to underrate the indubitable antiquity of the Masonic ceremonies. These efforts, which tend to lower the prestige of our ancient Craft, are not altogether with- out good results, as they have led to a more careful examination of our Masonic legends and of ancient documents, and I have therefore added, to a general History of the Arcane Schools, a view, sufficiently explicit, of the ancient rites of the Masons, leaving the intelligent Freemason of our day to trace the relative bearing of these. It is no compliment to the Masons who founded the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, and who, however ill informed they may have been in London, yet, as is amply proved, accepted old customs of the Guilds with discrimination, to suppose that they unanimously under- took to impose upon the public, a system as ancient which they themselves were engaged in concocting. Nor is it any compliment to the intelligence of their imagined victims. Whether or not I succeed in convincing the candid reader of the great antiquity of the Institution must be left to time ; those of my readers who are pledged to the views of these Moderns will no doubt adhere
VI
PREFACE.
through life to the ideas in which they have indoctrinated themselves, but enquiry is progressing and there is still a very large substratum of the Craft whose belief is yet strong in the good-faith of their predecessors, whether, in what was last century, termed Ancients or Moderns, and it is to such that I more particularly address myself. The best reward for my labours would be to find that the study of our Craft and analogous societies was making progress, and that others are supplying new facts from old books, that may aid in bridging over any chasms that may be noticed in the following pages. My endeavour has been to print well authenticated matter only, in order that the information supplied may be reliable. Every paragraph is a fact or deduction from facts, and however much condensed nothing of moment, known to the present time and having a bearing upon Freemasonry, has been omitted. The works of the learned Brother George Oliver, D.D., lack critical cohesion, and have consequently fallen into undeserved neglect, but sufficient will be found in these pages to show that his theories are not devoid of method, and will admit of an authentic construction being put upon those claims which he advances for the antiquity of the Masonic Institution.
Those who obstinately deny the existence of anything which is outside their own comprehension are fully as credulous as those who accept everything without discrimination. There are certain intellects which lack intuition and the ability to take in and assimilate abstruse truths, just as much as there are people who are colour- blind, or deaf to the more delicate notes of music ; this was well known to the ancient theologians and mystics, and the reasons which they assigned for the mental inca- pacity will appear in the following pages.
I cannot allow the opportunity to pass, in closing my labours, without thanking my publisher for his mvariab e kindness, courtesy, and general care ; and the reader is also much indebted to him for the compilation of the Index. We have considerably exceeded the 500 pages
PREFACE.
Vll
with which we made the announcement to the public,
hence the slight delay in publication.
I have also to thank our subscribers for their unwearied patience in waiting for the appearance of this work, which, except for modern revisions, has lain dormant or lO
years.
JOHN YARKER.
West Didsbury,
Manchester,
lyth April, igog.
I
1
t
INTRODUCTION.
The object of the following chapters is to give a broad but condensed view of the various traces which are to be found amongst the ancients, in their religion, in their Art, and in their buildings — civil, sacred, and military of a speculative system, such as is now professed under the designation of Freemasonry. Xhe work is necessarily a compilation of suitable information gathered from books upon history, mystery, mysticism, and Freemasonry , but it embraces the most recent views upon these subjects which have been evolved by a close critical examination, and generally accepted by the learned.
In the first and second chapters will be found the proofs of a system of most ancient sacerdotal grades and mysteries which in the earliest or proto-Aryan, civilisation added to their ceremonies those emblems of geometry and art which have been transmitted by Freemasonry.
In the third and fourth chapters we see more clearly the advance which the Aryan civilisation introduced into the primitive association ; the development of a caste organisation, and the reduction of the more ancient civilisation, by invasions, to a subject state, which in time created an independent system of Art-Mysteries, combined with natural religion, or what we now term Freemasonry.
In the fifth and sixth chapters we have attempted the elucidation of the doctrine and symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries and their relationship with the minor schools
X
INTRODUCTION.
q£ Philosophy which sprang from them, as for instance the Pythagorean and Platonic schools, proving that all these possessed much in common in doctrine, rites, and symbols, not only with each other but with Free Masonry of our own days, without the distinguishing features of the latter as an operative art ; whilst, side by side, the Arcane schools of Philosophy passed onwards through the centuries of Christianity, in numerous branches, with the old rites and symbols.
In the seventh and eighth chapters we have, for con- venience, a recapitulation of proofs of the existence and transmission of Art Mysteries and symbols from the most ancient times to our own days, with details of the Consti- tutions of a Fraternity, speculative in its teaching and operative in its application, for the conservation of Arts and Sciences in their tripartite application to houses, churches, and fortifications, and which entering this country in British and Roman times from F^ypt was modified by Culdee monks and learned clerics, and so continued as Folc-motes or Guilds in the time of the Anglo-Saxons.
In the ninth and tenth chapters some space is devoted to an enquiry as to the origin of the Semitic legends of Free Masonry which entering this country in Anglo- Norman times, with an Eastern system of work, of marks, and symbols, were engrafted upon the older Constitutions ; together with some account of the esoteric marks, emblems, and rites of the organised Building-brotherhood who erected our noble Gothic edifices, and references are made to many of these edifices in illustration of Free Masonry. We see the end of the Gothic and revival of the Classic
Arcanum. 77^.,
The remaining eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chap ers
give a short account of the principal points m the history of Modern Freemasonry from \.o our own days ; and
which includes a chapter upon the design, origin, an history of what has come to be termed high-grade hree-
INTRODUCTION.
XI
masonry, and out of which sprung the distinction between Ancient and Modern Masonry, a dissension which con- tinued until the union of these two sects of Masons in
1813- . r
Lastly in the Afpendix we have added a full series of
Constitutional Charges which continued in force from Saxon times until the year 1717 and even much later; these we have slightly modernised for the ease of the reader.
CONTENTS
PREFACE - - .
INTRODUCTION — General Plan of the Work
PART L— THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Chapter.
I. Archaic Legends
II. Proto-Aryan Civilization and Mysteries
HI. Aryan Civilization and Mysteries - . . .
IV. The Mysteries in Relation to Philosophy
V. Philosophy in Relation to Masonic Rites -
VI. The Mystic and Hermetic Schools in Christian Times
PART II.— OPERATIVE AND SPECULATIVE.
VII. Recapitulated Proofs of Ancient Masonry
VIII. Masonry in Britain and Saxon England -
IX. Masonry in Norman Times
X. Freemasonry in Modern Times . . . . .
PART III.— SPECULATIVE REVIVAL.
XI. Origin of the System termed High-Grade (Ancient)
XII. Freemasonry in the Grand Lodge Era (Modern)
XIII. Freemasonry under the United Grand Lodge - . -
PART IV.— ANCIENT MSS.
Appendix-
Series OF Constitutional Charges - - - .
INDEX ...
Page.
V
ix
l
20
67
100
123
154
219
245
295
365
421
495
521
537
561
I
ERRATA.
PAGE
I — 5th line from top, for “ was ” read “ were.”
16 — loth line from top, for “term” read “ terms.”
24 — 4th line from top, for “ exists ” read “ exist.”
37 — 3rd line from top, for “proto-Aryan ” read “ pre- Aryan.”
96 — top line, after “ the legend is,” read HKYPIAE 1212 ArNH.
96 — 6th line from top, after “ 1490 is,” read “ EI2 ZEY2 2APATII2 AnON ONOMA 2ABA12 «Pi22 AXATOAH X0ON, translated One Jupiter, Serapis, Holy Name, Sabaoth, the Light, the Day- Spring, the Earth ! EI2 0EO2 2APAIII2 (often abbreviated into E.0.2.J There is but one God. and he is Serapis. He is also called EI2 Zi2N 0EO2, The one Living God.
127 — 12th line from top, for “ locius,” read “ , Socius.”
174 — 8th line from bottom, for “ dani ” read “ domi.”
210 — nth line from bottom, for “ last century ” read “in the eighteenth century.”
231 — 20th line from top, for “ as last,” read “ for in the eighteenth.”
233 — 1 2th line from top, for “ Henry ” read “ Hermann.”
234 — 14th line from bottom, read “Oi2N, Kai, o rjv, Kai, o, epxoiJL€vos.” 236 — 5th line from bottom, for “ the Parthenon” read “ one at Baalbec.” 247 — 1 2th line from bottom, for “ Tacitus ” read “ Trajan.”
288 — nth line from bottom, for “ criminals ” read “ animals.”
314 — 1 8th line from top, for “ Octroyie ” read “ Octroyee.”
330 — 19th line from top, for “bearing” read “ It bears.”
341— 9th line from top, for “last ” read “the eighteenth.”
35 j — 8th line from bottom, read “oy . . . sunn . . . se sunn
. . . donne his faedr.”
387— 3rd line from bottom, for “15 inches ” read “ 18 inches.”
390 — 2nd line from top, for “ 1685 ” read “ 1695.”
424 — 17th line from top, for “ 1737 ” read “ 1732.”
427— 2nd line from top, for “ MANETINAETER ” read MANET IN AETER • • (num.)
427— loth line from bottom, for “last” read “ in the eighteenth.”
443— 19th line from bottom, add “ as” after “ Masonry.”
490— 8th line from top, for “ 1905 ” read “ Sept. 24th, 1902.”
ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
CHAPTER I.
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
IT may reasonably be supposed that the advancement of mankind which we term civilisation had made great progress in hot climates before the Arts, science, and more especially the mystery of building temples and houses of stone, brick, or wood was developed. Religious mysteries, the rudiments of science, and open and secret worship, if not innate, which we believe them to be, would arise, and as the erection, hrst of temples, and then of houses, indicates a knowledge of geometry and construc- tive tools, it implies a more advanced culture.
The tradition which has reached us through the ages is that mankind contracted very slowly the protoplasm which forms our natural body, after which a variety of wants became apparent that were in earlier ages unfelt. Whether we accept or reject this view, we can realise that the united intellect of thousands of years has been unable to supply any better idea of the creation and progress of humanity upon earth than that handed down to us from the ancient sages. As man’s material nature increased his spirituality decreased, and as his intuition tended to become dormant means were sought which might restore his ancient status. The discipline necessary for this purpose was neither suitable nor agreeable to the majority, and this led to the establishment of secret or esoteric
2
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
schools for those who sought the higher spiritual develop- ment. Of an unpretentious nature at first and possessing but moral trials or proofs, these schools gradually assumed a magnificent exterior under State control, with even proofs dangerous to life, and were designated THE MYSTERIES. The natural wants had now come to be provided for ; the Arts and Sciences were developed ; Architecture, Metallurgy, Ship-building, Astronomy, Agri- culture, etc., were added to Theosophia, and religious ritual. This is the tradition of the Mysteries.
There are certain ancient legends in regard to a lost or sunken continent and a deluge which, though not abso- lutely accepted as history, are too probable to be passed over in silence. It is admitted by scientists that the surface of our earth is continually wasting away, with the result that the bed of the ocean is being slowly raised, and the geographical position of the land is changing : we see in one locality that the ocean is washing the land away, whilst in another the sea is receding. Equally great climatic changes are slowly developing ; thus Greenland was at one time a torrid clime, which at a later age, to be reckoned only by tens of thousands of years, was succeeded by intense cold, and when our own island was depopulated by a deluge of ice and frost.
These changes are attendant upon what astronomers term the “ Precession of the Equinoxes” ; there is a gradual displacement of the poles of the earth, occurring in cycles or periods of 25,000 years, and the last of which reached its extreme point about 12,500 years ago, when it is held that a great cataclysm occurred which changed the face of the entire globe. It follows of necessity that men s habits must change with climatic changes. The Hindu priests have a complicated series of cycles within cycles, which are not altogether imaginary but are grounded upon recondite astronomical calculations. When we remember that there is a great central sun round which the entire galaxy of planets and suns revolve, we may draw the analogy that in immense cycles what we may term seasonal
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
3
changes or states are produced, even on these planets and suns, similar to those which occur on our earth. (^)
There exists in Thibet and India a Secret Doctrine which is of unquestioned antiquity, and of which analogical con- firmation may be found in the writings of the ancient Philosophers. This doctrine allows for the existence in extreme antiquity of a sunken continent in the Pacific ocean, of which the present islands are mountain tops, and in the Atlantic ocean of seven islands, the last of which sank beneath the waters about the period which we have assigned for a great cataclysm, or 12,500 years ago.
Behind this account, which in the East is considered historical, lies the cyclical doctrine of a Day and Night of Brahm, or by whatever other word the impersonal Deity is designated. These cycles are the Outbreathing and Inbreathing of the Unknowable deity, or overliving Spirit and primal Matter ; the gradual progress of all created matter is the divine Day which proceeds from the etherial or cometary to the concrete by means of the Tatwas, which will correspond with the Genetic Days of Moses, and these again .with the gestation of the ordinary foetus ; in the divine Night everything again reverts to the etherial state, to be again followed, in immense cycles, by a reversed action.
The mythological account of the Hindu Paradise places Mount Meru at the North-pole, or the imperishable land ; a circular island upon which is the “ City of the Gods,” which is supposed to be a perfect square guarded by a wall protected by eight circular towers, and the holy mount, which is of conical shape, rises in the centre of the city (2).
Temples have been designed to represent this legendary Meru, and it has also formed the basic plan of cities, v/hich we may mention later. It is also noteworthy that the Egyptian legend of the Mystery God, Osiris or Heseri, is applicable to 68° north latitude, or where the sun dies
xi and Queries (S. C. and L. M. Gould, Manchester, N. H.),
(^) Anacalypsis, i, p. 507.
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
for 40 days, and which was then a hot climate, according to the legends. We know that the Mammoth existed there and fed on tropical herbage. The north they consider to have been torrid owing to the then nebulous or cometary state of our globe, which had neither cooled down nor hardened. Humanity, of a sort, existed in that land, but was moon-bred, etherial, globular, gigantic, sexless, generated as are atoms by self-multiplication. To these succeeded a second race, giants, of whom the later and more material were inspired by the Solar gods, these were dual-sexed or hermaphrodite, as many forms of life yet are, and more compact than the first race.
The Arabs and Persians have legends of such a race, and represent that it was ruled by 72 kings of the name of Suleiman, of whom the three last reigned one thousand years each. It does not seem that these Suleimans, who are, par-excellence, the rulers of all Djms, Afreets, and other elemental spirits, bear any relationship to the Israelite King, that being a more modern application^ We find the name as one of the gods of the ancient Baby- lonians, and the late Doctor Kenealey, who as a scholar translated the poems of Hafiz, asserts that the earliest Aryan teachers were named Maha-Bodhs or Solymi, and that Suleiman was an ancient title of regal power, synonymous with Sultan in Asia, Pharaoh in gyp , Khan in Tartary, Tsar in Russia. There is legend which alleges that in the mountains of Kaf, which can only be reached by a magic ring (that of Suleima ), there is a gallery built by the giant Arzeak where
statues of the ancient men are ’"^7 !n
by the Suleimans, or wise Kings of ' ^the
Eastern storyteller laments the departed gl°“« fhr^rof Suleiman, located near the present Aden in
Arabia, which it has been suggested populated by Kushites from dhe Hindu Kush. There ^s a v7ry wonderful structure hewn out of f \ confines of Afghanistan and India called t Suleiman, or throne of Solomon, its ancient Aryan na
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
5
being Shanker Acharya, fabled to have been erected by supernatural means, and known to have been a great rendezvous for two thousand years of merchants caravans. It is on the western side of the Suleiman Mountains.
Leaving this slight digression we return to the Secret Doctrine, which goes on to relate that in course of time a third race of men were produced with bones and divided into sexes, and who are practically the hrst race of Adamic men, for the rib of Adam is a euphemism alluding to the division of sex. These are said, after developing a mono- syllabic language, now represented by Chinese, to have spread over the long lost Pacific continent ; here they became great builders, developed the religious Mysteries, and spread from north to south, populating the Atlantic continent, who are considered a fourth race, after the Pacific continent had disappeared. Here was the home of the proto-Aryan race of a brown-white complexion. A colony of these settled in Egypt in remote ages, where they introduced the astronomy and zodiac of Asura-Maya of Romakapura, and the pupil of Narida, of whose books the Indians claim to have some fragments. Another colony of educated priests settled upon an island, where the desert of Gobi now exists, but then an inland lake, which held in its bosom 12 smaller islands. These priests, or at least some of them, allied themselves with a red- yellow Mongoloid race possessing great intuitive powers, a race of which the Chinese are a branch, for it is claimed that there were seven sub-races in each of the 3rd and 4th races.
The intermarriage of these two races, which we may compare with that of the sons of God with the daughters of men, gave rise to a fifth race of Aryans, who sent out civilising missions over the world, and it is asserted that there are records which show that these priests travelled into Europe to superintend the erection of religious struc- tures such as existed amongst the British Druids, and it is not impossible, as the Eastern civilisation had a lengthy precedence over that of Europe.
6
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
When the island of Atlantis sank a pass was reft which drained the Desert of Gobi, and caused the Aryans to take refuge in the mountains and high table-lands, and the change of climate may have sent out others to seek a warmer home ; others being forced outwards by the increase in population, and thus compelled to colonise new regions. Thibet has preserved many details of the wars of this lost Atlantis, charging the cause of its destruction to the culti- vation. by a portion of its tribes of black magic, or the left-hand path. It may be mentioned that there yet remains between Cabul and Balkh, or the ancient Bactria, some five immense statues from 120 to 60 feet high, said to symbolise this doctrine of the five successive races (3). It is curious that on Easter Island there are some similar statues, ranging from 70 to 3 feet high, mentioned by Cooke as equal to our best masonry, and of which investi- gation has been made by the Smithsonian Institute, and which are said to have been wrought in lava with iron tools.
The Egyptian priests had a chronology vastly in excess of the ordinary computation, and the accounts dovetail with what we have already related. Herodotus, who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., states that the following were careful records of time preserved by the priests. Before any King, a dynasty of gods ruled in Egypt ; the first of these were the 8 great gods, sometimes enumerated as 7 ; then followed the 12, who were produced from the eight, of which the Egyptian and Tyrian Heracles was one, and who ruled 17,000 years before the historian’s time ; Horus, the son of Osiris, who the historian tells us is identical with Bacchus and his son with the Grecian Apollo, ruled 15,000 years before his own visit. From the time of Menes, the first human king and founder of Memphis, the priests read over to him the names of 330 kings, and also showed him the statues of 341 hierophants, which the historian estimates, at 3 to a century, as repr^ent- ing 1 1.340 years from the foundation of Memphis. Hero-
(®) The Secret Doctrine, of H. P. Blavatsky.
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
7
dotus was prohibited from giving any esoteric informa- tion, but we may point out that there is an affinity between the twelve zodiacal signs and the labours of the Grecian Heracles whom Herodotus considers to be much more modern than the Heracles of Egypt and Tyre, and whose labours were applied to the Hercules of the Latins. The great gods may refer to the Cabiric culte, the lesser gods to the Aryan, but we shall see more of this as we proceed. The former are represented by the planets, and the latter by the zodiacal signs. The birth of the gods may indi- cate the introduction of their worship into a country or district, their marriage the era when one worship was associated with another, whilst their death may be explained on the doctrine of an alleged reincarnation. The Egyptians, Herodotus says, were the first who erected altars, shrines, and temples, and who engraved the figures of animals in stone ; the first to divide the year into twelve months, and to give names to the 12 gods ; the first to defend the doctrine of the soul’s immortality ; the first to develop geometry.
It is worthy of note that 3, 7, and 12 are prominently represented in Hebrew. There are 3 mother letters, 7 double, and 12 simple characters, which actually bear a planetary and zodiacal signification. The Hebrew alphabet is but an adaptation from an older one, but the arrangement proves that the inventor wss an Initiate of the Mysteries, of which this alphabet is the synthesis. It is asserted that in the most ancient times there were two secret zodiacal signs and ten that were known as also 10 simple characters. It is now impossible to fix with mathe- matical precision the dates of such zodiacs as exist. Of the Egyptian that at Dendara might refer to 13,000 B.C., but there is one at Esne which might refer to 15,000 B.C. Without doubt the ancient Hierophant who designed these figures embodied therein a secret doctrine, and it has been supposed that the system was intended to symbolise the destinies of humanity for the 2,500 years which each sign represents, or for the period which the sun occupies in over-
8
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
running a sign. The chronology here set forth is much in excess of that allowed by the more extravagant archae- ologists, but, in some confirmation of it, Baron Bunsen admits traces of buried pottery which may be 20,000 years old, estimated upon the deposit which the Nile leaves at each annual flow.
The Aryan legend of the sunken Atlantis is said to have been recorded in Egypt. Plato indirectly informs us in the Timtzus that when his ancestor Solon visited Egypt the priests of Neith at Sais informed him that many catas- trophes had occurred to mankind in remote times, the most remarkable of which was one contained in the records of the temple. That some 9,000 years before this visit, which took place about 600 B.C., a large continent and some adjacent islands had perished in one night by earthquakes, and that from these islands was the way to the true con- tinent ; that the inhabitants of this Atlantis were a race who recognised that great advantages sprang from a just and righteous commerce ; that they had conquered and colon- ised Greece, and extended themselves on one side as far as Lybia, and on the other to Tyrrhenia. But a part of the island’s inhabitants had given themselves up to selfish aggrandisement, and had made war upon the well disposed people, and to subvert the good regulations which had been established by Poseidon and his son Atlas. Whereupon the incensed gods, in one night, sank the country of Atlantis beneath the waves of the ocean. It is further stated that the country had temples of black and white stones, decorated within and without with precious metals. The shrine of Poseidon and the palace of the King was surrounded with three sheets of water, forming three parallel concentric circles, and a temple existed roofed with gilded copper. Theopompus in his Merops attributes a similar account to the priests of Phrygia, and tells us that the island contained a fighting and a contemplative race ; the former knew how to make themselves invulner able to iron, so that they could only be wounded by stone or wood. Proclus quotes Marcellus on the subject.
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
9
Blavatsky says that they had a written character and used it with the tanned skins of monstrous animals now extinct Professor Bowdler Sharpe thinks that allied forms of birds point to a lost continent which stretched from South America to Australia with an arm extending to Mada- gascar, and this would meet the account of Plato.
We have another account, similar in its essentials to that recorded. 'The P O'pul-Vuh, or Book of tho A.zut6 Veil of the Mexicans, tells us that these Atlantians were a race that “ knew all things by intuition,” and repeat the charge of sorcery, or black magic, as the cause of the destruction of their country by the gods. This book allegorises and personifies the forces of nature. The Troano MS. records the same matter with special mention of the geological changes which the catastrophe caused. Dr. le Plongeon translates a passage thus; — “In the year 6 Kan, on the I ith Muluc, in the month Zac, there occurred terrible earth- quakes which continued without interruption until the 13 th Chuen.” The MS. goes on to say that the land of Mu disappeared and that ten countries were scattered, and that this occurred 8,060 years before the book was written. This writer advances still more extraordinary matter con- firmative of the statements of the book.
We find in the grave-mounds of a prehistoric race (‘^), as well as in the architectural sculptures of the Mayaux, the cross in its various forms ; the tau cross T of Egypt, on the breast of numerous statues throughout America, the equi-limbed cross and the so-called Latin cross "i", a form equally found in Egypt in pre-Christian times. There is the winged-egg with a symbolic explanation same as was given to it in Egypt (^). Brother George Oliver, D.D., asserts that these races used a cube of pure crystal in their temples, and Dr. le Plongeon, who spent twelve years in overhauling the ruins of Yucatan, has found cubical dice upon which is engraved a human hand, as well as crystals of a globular form, arrows of jade, the
(■*) See Ars Quaiuor Coronatoiiwi, v, part II.
(*) Sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and Quiches ir,^oo Years Ago,
10
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
hardest of stones, etc. The hand, as a symbol, held an important place amongst these people, as it is found stamped on the inside of buildings as if it was done with the actual hand of the architect as a mark of approval, or as a modern Indian Rajah stamps his own hand on the standard given to one of his troops ; the same custom appears in the Temples of India. Le Plongeon further found an altar which is a facsimile of one at Anger-thorn in Cambogia, and he also claims that he has discovered the tomb, statue, and cremated body of Prince Cay Canchi, the High-priest ; in the centre of his mausoleum was repre- sented 12 serpent heads, and the statue which he disinterred at Chichen Itza, the city of the Sages, possesses a carved apron on which is figured an open human hand. The number seven is an important factor in their secret symbolism.
The Doctor, who found a difficulty in getting into print because the publishers saw no money in the subject, claims that the following account is sculptured upon the ruined temple of Uxmal, and confirmed by the Troano MS. as the veritable history of the country, but which has become mythologised in the old world : the history of an Empire more ancient than Atlantis, embracing three continents peopled by a red and black race, that is including North and South America and Atlantis ; that this empire was symbolised by the trident, and the three-peaked crown of its kings, and alluded to in mythology as the kingdom of
Poseidon, Kronos, or Saturn.
There was, says the author, a deified king named Can, whose totem or emblem was the serpent, and a rule of his kingdom, as in some Asiatic countries, was that the eldest son should marry his youngest sister. This Can had 3 sons and 2 daughters, thus making a famly of 7, each of whom ruled one of seven cities. Following the rule already mentioned, one of the brothers named chacmol or leopard, took to wife his sister Moo, but their brother Aac, whose TOTEM was the turtle, out of love for his sister slew her husband treacherously. According to
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
1 1
the custom of the country he is represented as offering her . fruit, whilst she is seated under a tree upon which is perched a macaw as the totem of Moo ; the serpent, or her husband’s emblem, is twined in the branches of the tree, whilst a monkey stands by as if representing a councillor. The tree is the emblem of the country, and the representa- tion is in close conformity with the legend of Genesis as to the temptation of Eve. Moo refuses to accept this symbol of the love of Aac, and he puts her to death, as well as her elder brother Cay Canchi, or Hunacay, the wise-fi.sh, the high-priest.
It is noteworthy that in the sculptured representations of this legend, or history, whichever it may be, the murderer Aac is represented as a Sun-worshipper, whilst Coh and his sister Moo venerate the serpent. A curious analogy to this is to be found in Egypt, it is in a statue of Typhon or Set as described by Plutarch. It is the representation of a hippopotamus, which corresponds to the turtle of Aac, and on the back of the animal is a hawk and a serpent in the act of hghting. Le Plongeon again affords another correspondence with Egypt in the descrip- tion of the 12 kings descended from the 7 of the race of Can, who ruled before the destruction of Atlantis ; for we have here the 12 minor gods and the zodiac, and the 7 greater gods or planets. The account may be veritable history, as Le Plongeon , maintains that it is, but it is possible that the author may have mistaken for history a still older mythology carried from Atlantis to Yucatan.
The temple of Chichen Itza is itself an interesting study. It is built on a ground plan of three apartments which
make a triple cross. In one peculiarity it corresponds
with some ancient temples in Egypt and Cambodia where a keyed arch was then not known. It has a triangular arch constructed by the overlapping of large stones, in which the three sons of Can are symbolised ; by taking in the sides we have five to include the two sisters ; and adding the ends we have seven or the whole family ; numbers which are sacred both in Central America and in
12
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
the East. Over the door of the sanctuary is represented both the cross-bones and a skeleton holding up its two fleshless arms in the form of two squares, a position which is sometimes represented in Egypt as that in which the soul appears before Osiris. Here again it is singular that a corresponding doctrine is found in India as to the symbolism of the walls and floors of their temples. There are other temples in Yucatan which were intended for sun-worship, the ground plan being three concentric circles, like the lakes we have mentioned as surrounding a palace in Atlantis.
But the most extraordinary part of the claims of Le Plongeon is that he has discovered the interpretation of the hieroglyphical inscriptions and finds that the character used, with the exception of a very few letters, is absolutely identical with the hieratic alphabet of Egypt, whilst the language which these characters bespeak is yet found in almost pristine purity in the dialect of Patan, a language which is perfectly constructed and strikingly resembles the Coptic. As in Egypt and Chaldea the ground plan of a temple was the oblong square I — I, which was again the symbol both in Yucatan and Egypt of the letter M or Ma, which implies the earth, and the word Maya. In the names of the Greek alphabet Le Plongeon finds a poem, the Patan words of which gives the history of the great catastrophe.
The Mayaux had their religious Mysteries which were governed by 12 priests, with initiations and carefully guarded sacred rites, of which some account may be gathered in the writings of the Quiches, a neighbouring race at Xibalba : in passing through these initiations the Neophyte had to undergo most severe bodily trials, which Le Plongeon compares with certain descriptions in the Chaldean Book of Enoch. It is not, however, shown that in these Mysteries Art symbolism exists such as we shall find in Thibet and China and in Freemasonry. We learn elsewhere from some researches made at the in^ance of the Smithsonian Institute that these, or similar Myste-
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
13
ries, are yet preserved by the Zuni people and consist of twelve orders of priests, into some degrees of which Mr. Frank H. Cushing has recently obtained admission after undergoing severe bodily trials. Historical and religious analogies with Yucatan are to be found amongst the Japanese who represent the first seven gods by the same symbols as the Mayas, and Brother* George Oliver sets forth that a Japanese candidate, in initiation into their Mysteries, represents the sun’s passage through the twelve Zodiacal signs. It is singular that the Mayaux legends or Mythology should contain so much in common with Egypt, Asia, and India. Persia has the tradition of one brother slain by another. The Hindu Ramayana represents that the king of the monkey race, perhaps an inferior aboriginal tribe such as the Andamans, had two sons, Bali and Sougravia, each of whom desired the same wife, and Sougravia, by the aid of the divine Rama, treacherously slew his brother Bali. It is alleged, in confirmation of Solon’s statement, that Atlantian emigrants settled in Egypt and Greece, that they equally settled in the Dekkan. Indeed, the Ramayana states that Maya, the magician and architect of the Havanas, took possession of South India and navigated the ocean from west to east and from the south to the north ; the word Maya here meaning a dweller upon the sea.
In the Atlantic Islands, or mountain tops of Atlantis, there is a general belief that a system of secret Mysteries prevails, and this seems to have been established as a fact by several recent Masonic experiments. (®)
The natives of Virginia have a society of Initiates designated Huseanawer. The mother prepares a funeral pyre for her son of whom a simulated sacrifice is to be made, as in the case of Isaac, and during the preparation she weeps him as dead. A tree is cut down and a crown made from its boughs : the initiate is given a powerful narcotic by which he is thrown into a state of somnambulism, and after a protracted retirement he
(“) Canadian Craftsman, xvii. No. 4 ; also A.Q.C.
14
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
is looked upon by his tribe as a new man. Again, the negroes of Guinea have certain Mysteries called the Belly Paaro ; the candidate is led into a wood where he is divested of all clothing and metals ; here he passes hve years in absolute seclusion ; after this he is initiated into the most secret doctrines of the sect. (J) The object of their worship, as with the Maoris, is Rangi and Papa, or the heavenly Father and the earthly Mother.
Even in the Pacific islands, or the mountain tops of a great sunken continent which has been denominated Lemuria, there exists a system of religious Mysteries. Heckethorn mentions that at Tahiti and scattered over Polynesia, is a society called Areoiti, which has seven degrees of initiation, which none but the king may pass over all at once. One of their ceremonies is practised at the winter solstice, and it is a funereal ceremony resembling that in honour of Osiris, Bacchus and Adonis. The meaning underlying this initiation is the generative powers of nature, and laymen have to undergo severe bodily trials. C^)
There are cave pictures in Australia of a race more ancient than the Bosjesmen, one of these caves has a robed figure with a rainbow round the head which the Rev. J. Matthew considers to be identical with the chief god of Sumatra. (8) There are many general assertions that a system of signs identical with modern Freemasonry exists amongst the native Australians, and one such account appears in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. Q) But the most precise account is a paper in the ~New Zealand Craftsman of 8 Feb., 1898, by Brother Henry Stowell, whose grandmother was a Maori. The paper deserves
to be fully copied. .....
“ The Maori in their traditions, Fangitawhiti (epic
poems), and language show conclusively that ages ago there was at Hawaiki a grand temple known as Whare-
(’) Secret Societies o) All Ages and Countries. Jno. Hogg, 1875, by Heckethorn.
(*) Lucifer, xiv, 1894. (“) Vol. x. Bro. F. Jones.
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
15
kura, at which temple meetings were regularly held and presided over by Tohunga, or initiates of a very high order, and wherein was taught and practised a perfect system of principles in an esoteric form, with exhaustive and appropriate rituals, also symbols, signs, and pass- words, and that these were kept and preserved on tables of stone, which latter were deposited in the temple. The ritual and symbols were entrusted by the Ariki-Ranji (divine and supreme head) to the various officers in order to properly carry out the ceremonials connected with these meetings, whereat only those others who were entitled to be present had the happiness of listening to the recitals, and of observing the uses of the higher symbols. Regarded from a Maori point of view this Masonry is neither more nor less than the relation of ‘ the main features of creation and the origin and history of the higher destiny of man,’ which relation was accompanied with appropriate symbols. Tane was the G.A.O.T.U., he may or may not be identical with the Chaldean Cannes. The language in which this wisdom- religion was embodied is extremely archaic, but thanks to my having been taught in my youth by an aged Tohunga, and relative, some of the symbols and
mysteries, I understand many of the allusions and
am acquainted with various signs. A knowledge of
astronomy being absolutely essential to a proper realisa- tion of the principles of the order, its Adepts — Tohunga-Kokorangi — constantly taught in observatories its elements and phenomena, to those who were accepted for qualification.
“ Under the Maori system the two main Pillars,
together with their Chapiters, were represented before the dome of the sky. These were divine. A subordinate pillar was ‘ the Pillar of the Earth’ ; at certain points the Nagana or centre was traced. These were two great circles which intersected and which had their correspond- ing circles. The square was taught upon four points of the visible universe. Moral teachings were more or less
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
l6
associated with the figure of the Ripeka cross, the type of good and evil, or enlightenment and ignorance by two opposing lines. It appears that there is a universal tendency to restrict, thwart, or delimit its beneficial functions. Hence, 'He waewae ta-peka ta ia ara Ripeka.
(‘ A foot which diverges from the good or pure to the evil or impure path.’) The figure of the triangle, Tantora, formed the basis of, or for, the most elaborate calcula- tions in connection with astronomy and geography.
“ The term ‘ Mason,’ ‘ Masonry,’ ‘ Masonic,’ are used m the English sense and for convenience. Days and months were measured by successive phases of the moon, while the year was marked by the heliacal rising in June of the star Puanga, Rigel in Orion, due east, this being the star of the Maori new year, and the first sign of the
Awahio-Rangi, or zodiac. o- ac
“ I have no knowledge of the use of such a thing as
the 24 inch gauge, but can vouch that calculations o length or distance were worked out with nice exactit . The signs in use varied from those of the Still in some important respects, so far as a mere M. . able to compare, there is astonishing agr^men , an agreement suggests <r variation on the owing to the incorporation or blending therein, o terms of the Oath. The ordinance of the Tapu ^ncti y was its (Masonic) very essence: any infringemen .
or neglect of its observance, by whomsoever, resu ted in sure and speedy death, which was the true penal sign, silent and Lesome. Then again ‘ Speculative Masonry was not advanced or urged, and each one appears to have used his enlightenment for the purpose °*J“Cthermg knowledge along these ancient lines, which embraced thTcomplete system, offering that futess ° granted to mortals who were enabled to penetrate t ve^Lpths of nature, and by revelling in her mysteries
attain the threshold ‘i'V'ne j ^hieh might
have appeared in this chapter but which it will be mo
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
1/
convenient to refer to hereafter by way of illustration. 'Those of Genesis, for instance, come within this category. The Adamic legend of Genesis has the appearance of being the esoteric caste mythology of a tribe which settled in the Caucasian highlands, holding the Aryan doctrine of divine incarnations, to which they gave the expression of a coming Messiah, or divine reincarnation, who was to redeem and rehabilitate their own fallen race alone, and we have seen that the serpent was equally an esoteric emblem in America. Analogous legends to those of Genesis appear also in Vedaic literature. A clergy- man recently advanced in his book entitled the Fall of Adam that it allegorised the intercourse of the higher spiritual or Adamic man with the lower and soulless race of pre-Adamites, and as we are not bound down by the Rabinical chronology we may carry such a theory back to the Moon and Sun races of Thibet.
In the American Can we may have a coincidence with the Tartar title of Khan, and perhaps with the Biblical Cain. In the scriptural account it is Cain, the eldest son, who, like the Thibetians, offers a sacrifice of the fruits of the earth, slays his younger brother Abel who offers a sacrifice of blood, and who leaves no progeny. The con- tinuance of a spiritually minded line devolves upon the third son, or race of Seth. It is after the marriage of these sons of God with the daughters of men that we find the union of the worldly arts of the line of Cain with the more spiritual line of Seth. According to the Talmud Lamech marries the two daughters of Keenan, to whom it assigns the stone tablets of prophecy ; the progeny of these marriages become men of renown— Jabal, Jubal, Tubal Cain, &c. In Egypt owing either to a racial inversion of the legend, which may have either been the production of some very old racial war, or later to mark their detestation of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings the priests made of the god Set. or Seth, a devil identical with Typhon who murdered his brother Osiris. There existed in Africa, contemporary with the beginning of
B
l8 THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Christianity, a sect of Abelites, and it is not improbable that the Syrian Baal, the Cretan Abelios, the Celtic Abellio, and the Greek Apollo, were modified versions of the Hebrew Hebei or Abel.
It is worth while to note that the Jewish Bible makes the line of Cain to be the first to build a city, which may mean a series of wooden huts analogous to those which originated the trabeated, or beam style of stone work, prevailing amongst the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans in their temples and coming down even to Christian times ; found as well in the cave temples of India, which are richly and wonderfully carved to represent woodwork. After the flood it is the descend- ants of Ham who become the great builders, and Japhet is to “ dwell in the Tents of Shem,” which tent is the prototype of the Pagodas of China, Persia, and Japan.
As these legendary accounts of an art which spread from a sunken continent are scarcely more than pre- historic tradition, we need not follow the subject further in this chapter ; widely spread as these traditions are, they can scarcely be altogether baseless. Some confirma- tion has been found by scientific sea-soundings, and further corroboration is afforded in the accepted fact that all the Pacific islanders are of the same race, and speak dialects of the same language, and this at a distance from each other which is impassable to their small boats ; all equally say that their forefathers dwelt in a land over which the waves of the ocean now sweep.
We are, for these various reasons, justified in a belief in the veritable existence of such continents, and, by the same parity of reasoning, as we find sacred and secret mysteries existing amongst them, in the Pacific, Atlantic, and in Australia, we are justified in supposing that these sacred schools are as old as the race that inhabited these continents. We see, however, that these mysteries have no architectural aims, and are a part of the conjecture with which we began this chapter, as to the relative position of religion and art. If the reader places no
ARCHAIC LEGENDS.
19
confidence in these traditions, until science has pro- nounced upon them, he can forget that he has read them, and pass on to what is more generally accepted
In the following pages closer proof will be found of the existence of a system resembling Free Masonry, and though we have not a minute book to prove that primeval man invented Free Masonry, under a more ancient name, and then established Lodges in Tartary, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Italy, Britain, etc., yet the fact that similar societies existed in all these countries is indisputable, and there is no doubt that other and more important links will yet be brought to light by a diligent perusal of old classical authors, by someone who has the intuitive ability to understand the language of Mystery.
CHAPTER II.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
PHILOLOGISTS seem to be fast arriving at the view that when the whole earth was of “one language and of one speech” it was a primitive monosyllabic or Turanian tongue. The word Turanian is most mdehmte, for it is taken to include the small, dark, long-headed Dravidian race of India, which penetrated Britain before the Aryan Celt and of which the Basques of Spam are a survival ; the long-headed white race of Scandinavian hunters ; and the white, broad-headed Mongoloid, whom we chiefly term proto-Aryan, as an early branch of the Aryan race; a race which in prehistoric times spread from Lapland to Babylon, and from India to gyp
The modern discoveries of archaeologists, m the countries occupied m remote times by this once powerfu proto-Aryan race, have scarcely yet had Lwn into the ordinary Masonic channels, but they must in course of time considerably modify the views of old« writers upon our Masonic Mystenes. It from what can be gathered that we owe advanced ^ ing in stone and brick to this race, and of their so-called Turanian speech is indicated by t , that Monsieur Lenormant traces the remotely prot^-tdian and Akkadian of Babylon t°
Ltaic family of languages, traces the Aryan *
Finnic race of the Ural mountains, and the anthrop fogTcal evidence is as conclusive as 'anguage^of^the
Ugro- Altaic origin of the Aryan race. Y
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
21
tens of thousands of years for the development of the proto-Aryan into the Indo-Iranian tongue, Zend, San- scrit, Pushtu, Baluchea, as well as the Aryo-European languages, including Greek, Latin, Sclavonic, Lettic, and Teutonic. From it also sprang, at an earlier period, the Celtic of Europe, and from it, by a probable mixture with a black or Hamitic speech, the Semitic tongues spoken in Assyria, Phoenicia, Arabia, and Palestine.
Even with the comparatively slight knowledge which we possess of the ancient Turanian and proto-Aryan speeches it may be taken for granted that a race which had founded a language which embraced certain roots equally found in Teutonic, Greek, Celtic, Semitic, and Sanscrit, and their cognate dialects, before separating into colonies, and which embraced terms in art, agricul- ture, jurisprudence, family life, religion, etc., had even then made progress in geometry, in the building of temples and houses, and architecture generally. In this chapter, however, we are dealing more particularly with an earlier phase of culture, but it is necessary to say some little of , Aryan advancement.
A high state of civilisation was developed in the high- lands of Europe and extended to other centres in Northern India which included Thibet. The Indian Vedas assign the centre of their culture to the Himalayan source of the Ganges, “ the abode of the Gods.” The Persian Avesta seems to point to the northern- plateau of Pamir. We have no certain information in regard to the departure of colonies from their parent home, but no doubt the causes were various. The continuous increase oh population would, of itself, make it a necessity. The Zend Avesta attributes their departure from their original home to climatic changes : Ahriman, the evil spirit, who is mentioned both in the Avesta and the Vedas, introduced cold. The nomadic habits of the people as breeders of cattle led them into Europe. In the Himalayan centre or that of the Hindu, a war arose between those who had assumed divine powers in virtue
22
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
of their, orally acquired, knowledge of the sacred hymns, and the warrior or Maharajah class, who were subdued by a divine being who incarnated as Rama, upon which the priests allowed favourable terms and permitted the warriors to receive a limited amount of sacred knowledge, and to hear the Vedas, when collected in writing, read. A previous incarnation is alleged for the benefit of the “ monkey race,” by which is perhaps meant some low- caste tribe, but that of Rama represents some prehistoric reformer of the Turanian culture, to whom a divine origin is assigned.
At the period when the advance into India began, some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, a race existed under the name of Tchandalas, probably partly Aryan, and partly Hamitic and other conquered Turanian races. These migrated to other parts, and some are believed to have originated the Semitic tribes. Such of the Tchandalas as remained were treated with the greatest barbarity by the Rishis or ancient Brahmin rulers, and were compelled to submit to a slavery which reads like that of the Hebrews in Egypt, (i) There were ex-Brahmins amongst them, and a caste system was established amongst the tribes which the Rishis did their best to suppress.
It is not possible to give any reliable estimate of the centuries that elapsed before the reduction into writing of the ancient hymns, and the conversion of the rocks into temples of Cyclopian architecture. The late Baron Bunsen deemed that the date 4,000 B.C. might be a very suitable era for what we may term the " manifestation of light,” or the beginning of recorded history, and the desire to transmit the same upon monuments, in Egypt in hieroglyphics, in Chaldea upon slabs in the cunieform. The Iran and the Hindu had developed the Avesta and the Vedas; the Babylonian an epic upon the journey o the sun through the signs of the Zodiac ; the Egyptian the Book of the Dead, and the books of Hermes. But the nomadic Aryans of Europe had not made the same
(i) Macktmie'^ Royal Masonic Cyclopccdia, also Blavaisky's Secret Doctrine.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
23
progress, the Celt was the most advanced but used bronze tools until about 2,000 B.C. Hence the Esoteric claims deserve serious consideration. Their earliest buildings are subterranean caves wrought with infinite labour and perseverance. We should have liked to enlarge upon these wonderful cave temples wrought in solid rock but space forbids. An interesting visit to some of these is recorded in the late H. P. Blavatsky’s book entitled The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan. That of Elephanta is a threefold construction, and it is alleged that all castes,, and even kings wrought with the chisel in its construction. Whilst the oldest cyclopean architecture is attributed in Europe to the Pelasgians, in India it is attributed to the Pandus who were a pre-Brahmin tribe, and Ferguson regards the analogy of this style with that of the Incas of Peru as one of the most remarkable facts of history. It was in these prehistoric times that the symbols of the two creative forces of nature developed, repre- sented by crux-ansata, lithoi, or lingam, and the vesica piscis, or yoni. They are equally the signs of a dogma which lay at the root of all religions in regard to fire, not the fire burning upon the altar, but the fire which that symbolised and was termed “ divine darkness,” a spiritual or magical fire, seen by gifted seers, of which the earthly symbols are the pyramids, the obelisk, and the church spires. (2)
The oldest of the Turanian, or proto-Aryan, races had an organised priesthood of three grades, as in that of the Art school. It is true that we cannot now give proof that such a system is as ancient as humanity, but we may accept its extreme antiquity from the fact that in the most ancient historic times there was a widespread system of three degrees of Theosophy amongst people hopelessly separated.
The Finlanders from the most ancient times to the present day have -had a magical system of three grades which are termed Tietajat (learned), Asaajat (intelligent),
('■') The Rosicruciansy Jennings.
24
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
and Laulajat (incantators). The Babylonian Chasdim were termed Khartumim (conjurors), Chakamim (physi- cians), and Asaphim (theosophists). (^)
There yet exists in India certain Kolarian and Dra- vidian tribes who possess a magical system similar to that of the Finnic and Babylonian races, and they practise a system of secret initiation which they claim has descended to them from a time more ancient than the invasion of their plateau in central India by the Aryans, a conquest occurring thousands of years ago, but we pur- posely abstain from following European dates as they axe altogether unreliable. Their grades are Najo (witches and wizards), Deoni or Mati (wizards), and Bhagat (diviner). It is said that in the grade of Bhagat the Master priest goes through a part of the initiation alone with the aspirant, and that the ceremony is completed at night time with a corpse, near to some water. Amongst these tribes are the Gonds, sprung from Dravidians, who in early times reached a high degree of culture ; in Chanda are the ruins of a palace and town with a perfect network of underground passages, which have never been explored by Europeans, and which, tradition states, lead to a series of halls where secret conclaves were formerly held, ('t) Mr. James Ferguson, F.R.S., in a lecture read before the Bengal Institute of this country maintains that the original occupiers of India were a Turanian race of builders who were tree and serpent worshippers, and that the Pelasgian inhabitants of Greece possessed the same features, in each case before the Aryan invasions and conquest of these countries. The full comprehension of this is the key to much that is puzzling in the trans- mission of Masonry and the Mysteries. There are im- portant distinctions between the Hindus and these abori- ginal hill-tribes ; the latter have no caste divisions, they eat flesh food and offer live victims in sacrifice to their
(®) Chaldean Magic, by Lenormant.
(^) The Kneph, v. p. 40. See also Mr. E. D. Ewen’s paper (who resided several years amongst these people) in Five Years of Theesop y-
PROTO-AHYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 25
gods ; and are essentially either of a Mongolian or Turanian type, like the Burmese and Japanese.
The Median Magi, or sacerdotal class of the proto- Medes were originally a so-called Turanian priesthood. But at some remote period there arose in the region north of Bactria a monotheistic reformer whom his followers termed Zaradust, the first of the name, and who is probably the same prophet whom the Hindus term Parusha-Rama, and it is this reformed Median civilisa- tion which constituted the religion of the most ancient Babylonians ; and of the somewhat more modern Persians. It is clear that the race worked metals and built in brick and stone from their earliest migrations. In the time of Cyrus I. these Magi consisted of three classes, thus named by the learned German scholar Heeren — Harbed, or disciple ; Mobed, or master ; Destur- Mobed, or complete Master. These constituted a sacer- dotal College over which presided a Rab-Mag, or chief magian. The word Magi, or Mahaji in Sanscrit, means great or wise. Their distinguishing attributes were the Costi or girdle ; the Havan, or sacred cup ; and the Barsom, or bundle of twigs grasped in the hand ; a symbol not properly understood but supposed to repre- sent staves that were employed in divination, but it is much more probable that it was a symbol of that union which was to give strength to their order. The cubical dice were said to be used by them for divinatory pur- poses. Aristotle asserts that this Magian pontificate was more ancient than the foundation of Egypt ; and Plato, who had an exalted opinion of the purity of its doctrines, confirms this antiquity. Hermeppius says that the primi- tive Zoroaster was initiated by one Azanaces 5,000 years before the Trojan war, or, as is supposed, 8,168 years ago ; Endoxes says that he lived 6,000 years before the death of Plato, or 8,237 years ago. In its proper place we will take the rites of the Aryan Mysteries of Mythras. Heckethorn asserts that the Indian Gymnosophists were the disciples of the early Magi, and that these Magi had
26
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
put forth 5,000 years before the Iliad was written the three grand poems of the Zend Avesta, the hrst ethical ; the second military ; and the third scientific. They taught the duality of nature as exemplified in light and darkness, heat and cold, summer and winter, good and evil, of which two principles, in the revolving cycles, the good would become paramount.
Ernest de Bunsen says that it is proved that the three grades of the Jewish Rabbinical school are an exact parallel of the three grades of the Magi ; that it was a secret school of Scribes, its highest teaching embracing the doctrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit in man, and that Jesus was a Rabboni. The Babylonian Rabu corre- sponding with the Hebrew Rab, the Mobed with the Rabbi, and the Destur Mobed with the Rabban or Rab- boni. The Persian Mazda is equally styled Ahmi yat Ahmi — am that I am. (^)
The British or Celtic Druids were a priesthood that had features common to the Eastern Magi, and were divided into three classes denominated Bards, Ovates, and Druids, Michaelet says that it is wonderful the analogy which the names of the gods of Ireland — Axire, Axceavis, Cois- maoil, Cabir, bear to the Cabiri. (^) The evidence of Strabo is to the same effect, as he says that the British Druids practise the same religious rites as existed at Samothrace. They cause their ancient progenitor to exclaim : “ I am a Druid, I am an architect, I am a prophet, I am a serpent.” We shall see that the Cabiric Rites were the prerogative of priests and architects, embodying the drama of a murdered god. There can be small doubt that the Irish legend of Gobham-Saer, the son of Turibi of the Strand, who was murdered with his I2 companions by 12 robbers, is a vulgarised exoteric reference to the murdered Cabir and the I2 signs of the Zodiac. O Brien says that he was a Guabhres or Cabiri, and that Saer has the signification of son of God. He advocates in his
(“) Miscell. N. Q. (Gould, 1894), xii, p. 304.
(*) Freemasons' Mag., i860, i, p. 166.
PROTO- ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 2/
Round Towers the Phoenician origin of these buildings with their appropriation by later Christian Monks ; often, as at Glendalough, seven small chapels, or altars, are attached. It is possible, as has been maintained, that north Europe was the centre whence the Orientals derived their legends, and that Chaldean, whence Culdeean, was as appropriate to the Druids as to the Babylonian, and that as the Essenians were Babylonians, the Culdees were Essenes, as held by the venerable Bede, and thus the Essenes, or Assidiana, were Culdees.
The chief British gods were Hu and Cerwiden, or the Ouranos and Ghe of the Cabiri ; and it is worthy of men- tion that there are Druidical unhewn stones and temples in cruciform, the one in the island of Lewes consists of 12 stones each limb having three, and the subterranean of New Grange in Ireland is also cruciform. Higgins in his Celtic Druids, mentions in Scotland as prechristian, a crucifix on one side of which is a lamb, and on the other an elephant.
There is nothing very remarkable in the prechristian existence of such cruciform structures, in Italy it predates architecture, and the Rev. Baring Gould points out that there are in South Italy lake-dwellings of an immense antiquity where the cross-form is of greater antiquity than the bronze age. The cyclopean temple at Gazzo is built on the basis of a Latin cross, and hence it was a religious emblem of the Cabiri. It is found in India in the most ancient cave of Elephanta, and is equally an emblem in central America. There are also two pre- christian caves in Ireland of this form. C^) We mentioned its use by the Maori race.
Toland points out that the three divisions of the Druidical system which we have mentioned must not be taken as progressional degrees. They were three classes corresponding to Soothsayers, Physicians, and Prophets. The last, or the Druid class, had four degrees conferred at intervals of 3, 6, and 9 years. The Bards and Ovates
(') See Freemasons' Magazine, 1857, p. 276.
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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
were each divided into three classes with special func- tions. (®) Taliesin as an initiate exclaims — “Thrice was I born, now I know how to acquire all knowledge by meditation.” The emblem of the Druid was a vitrihed egg, chased in gold, and hung from the neck, and which held up to the light shewed a sacred token ; the “ Ser- pents,” or Druids, prepared it.
It is generally accepted that the theology of these sacred Colleges, even in the most ancient times, taught the existence of one sole power or creator of the visible universe, though triplicated in His manifestations, and that from Him proceeded the minor gods, angels, and demi-gods. He, the one, was Dyaus in Sanscrit, Zeus in Greek, Tin in Teutonic, the ancient inscriptions and books of the Egyptians place it beyond doubt ; the Chinese, the Magi, Hindus, Hebrews, etc., all add con- firmation, and various other proofs are adduced in the work entitled Natural and Revealed Religion of our brother the Chevalier Ramsay. It is immaterial by what name the prophet, or outteller, who revealed this doctrine whether Taut, Fohi ; Zaradust, Rama ; Enoch or Edris whose pupil Abram, or great-father, was ; the doctrine of one God, uncreated, incorporeal, all-seeing, all- powerful, everywhere present, and dwelling incompre- hensibly in his own unity, gleams out through the dark- ness of the ages. And though the doctrine admits of minor deities as agents of the Supreme the dogma of unity formed the background of all the ancient religious Mysteries, coupled with that of divine incarnations, and that indwelling holy spirit in men, which makes him equal with the minor gods.
The examples which we have given of an arcane society divided into degrees, so widely separated by locality, by language, and by manners, from data existing some thousands of years ago, unmistakably point to a much more ancient derivation from a common centre, unless we admit an intuitive need for some such system. We
(*) Toland, quoting Jones.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 29
'find equally the same widespread distribution of geomet- rical symbols intended to typify Theosophical truths, and embracing cosmogony and creation. It is held that each symbol represented a letter, a colour, a number and a sound, thus constituting an esoteric hieroglyphic under- stood by the Initiates of every country. As an example we might easily arrange a set of very ancient symbols forming little understood Masonic emblems, and equally carved by operative masons on the ancient ruins of Asia, India, and Egypt, and these might again be applied on the plan of the old Philosophers to the recondite mysteries of nature. Take the following as numerals : — •
I, II or V.A.n,A. or 0. (D 10.
In mystic crosses of equal antiquity with all our other emblems we find the following forms, namely,
.=1^ ‘^.T. t X E t. 0 t.
each having special application to a dogma.
We have already made slight allusion to the Cabiri, and all authorities are agreed that the Mysteries prac- tised under this name were allied with the Cyclopean Masonry and its builders, and that those Rites and Build- ings, in all countries, were the religion and architecture of a primitive race which preceded the Aryan invasions of Media, Babylon, India, Greece, and Egypt. The primi- tive inhabitants of Babylon, whom it has been agreed to term Akkadian, were more nearly allied in blood, language, and religion, with the Finlanders, Mongolians, early Egyptians, proto-Medes, Pelasgi, Etruscans, perhaps also American Indians, all so-called Turanian, than they were with the Elamites, Ethiopians, Arabians, and other Semites, or with the Hindu, Persian, and other Aryan races, that appear later on in the pages of resuscitated history. Yet there are actual traces of speculative Free- masonry, intimately allied with the religious Mysteries, amongst these primitive proto-Aryans. A clear explana- tion of these particulars does not admit of being printed, but every intelligent Free-Mason will be able to read]
30
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
what we may write, between the lines, and thus supply for himself what we may leave unexplained.
Recent discoveries go to prove that Palestine had its Cabiric or Magian Rites, and that long before the inva- sion of the “ brigand Joshua,” the son of Nun, as an old inscription is said to term that scriptural warrior, Akkadian civilisation existed in Syria, and the legendary Cain, Abel, and Seth of Genesis, and their progeny, find their analogies in other of the religious Mysteries. But the Talmud or Mishna, which is a very ancient explana- tion of the Law, differs materially from Genesis ; thus it
is said that in the days of Cain’s son Enoch, and in the days of Seth’s son Enosh, the people made images of copper and wood to worship, and it is to Keenan the son of Enosh that the Talmud attributes the prophecies of the destruction of the world, which he wrote upon tablets of stone. Enoch is represented as a Hermit, and the word implies Initiation. Lamech when blind by age is said to shoot his progenitor Cain by the accident of an arrow, and further, in his grief, kills by accident his own son. Hence the traditional Lament of Lamech in Genesis which has been supposed to be a veiled confession of Initiation. The scriptural Tubal-Cain who was son of Lamech by the daughter of the Sethite Keenan seems to be equally a Cabiric legend in the Crysor of Sanconiathon the Phoenician historian, who is supposed to have lived as a contemporary of King Solomon. Equally Tubal- Cain, and Crysor, is the Vulcan of Greek mythology. Sanconiathon says of this Crysor Men worshipped him as a god after his death and they called him Diama- Chius, or the great inventor, and some say his brother invented the making of walls and bricks. After th things, of his race were born two young men, one o whom was called Technites or the artist the other Geinos Autochthon or earth born, or generated from the ^arth itself. These men found out to mix stubb e with the brick earth, and to dry the bricks so made in the su . {)
(") Cory’s Ancient Fragments, 1876, p. 8.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 3 1
Sanconiathon further states that Upsistos was deified after he had been torn in pieces by wild-beasts, and that he was the father of Ouranos who invented sculpture, and of Tautus who invented hieroglyphics, and repre- sented the constellations by pictures ; he says also that in the third generation two Pillars were erected which were dedicated to Fire and Wind.
According to F. von Schlegel there exists a tribe in Eastern Asia, in the mountains, that possesses an inverted history resembling the Cain and Abel legend, but with these people it is the youngest brother who out of envy at the success of his elder brother, in mining for gold and silver, drives him out of the fatherland into the East. This writer, in his Philosophy of History thinks that the wars of races, the giants and the Titans, may be traced in the Biblical legends, and he is inclined to identify the holy Sethite race with the seven holy Rishis of Brah- minical tradition. He also supposes that the confession of Lamech may hint at the beginning of human sacrifice. As Cain’s offering was the fruits of the earth, animal life ought to have been as sacred to him as to the Budists. As Cain was the eldest son Schlegel’s view would make him the prototype of the Turanians, whilst Seth would represent the prehistoric Aryan; and these races the Talmud would again reunite in the posterity of Lamech,
which does actually point to the union of religion and art.
As a matter of fact the Babylonian, Phoenician, and Jewish legends of the invention of the arts can only be looked upon as an attempt to explain the remote origin of these, something invented to please the curious, and to point out the early period at which these were supposed to have successively originated ; the Persians have similar legends applied to their own people. But we are not without some proof to shew that an esoteric Masonic system was known to these early races, from which pro- ceeded the “hundred families” that founded the Chinese culture. Owing to the researches of Professors de La-
32
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
comperie, Douglas, and Ball, it has been established that the Bak tribes, which entered China about 4,000 years ago, had the archaic cuneiform character, and the customs of the tribes of Elam and Chaldea, which alone is sufficient to establish a community of race. The Yh- King, or Book of Changes, in its original form was about a sixth of its present extent and termed the Ku-wen, and is a vocabulary of the primitive cuneiform thus uniting with the other countries which used it. There can be no doubt that the primitive Mysteries were held in Groves, and that the Initiates, as in the Druidical Rites, were received “ in the eye of day,” the trials being rather moral than physical, the latter being a later stage, when the schools had somewhat degenerated, and temples specially adapted for the physical proofs began to be built.
Before we enter upon the nature of the Cabiric MYS- TERIES, and the Architecture termed CYCLOPEAN, we will endeavour to prove that in the most ancient times there was in existence an actual Society such as we now term Fr^- masonry. We will take hrst the Chinese, who are the most primitive of civilised races, and still retain their monosyllabic language, represented by hieroglyphics o which each is the picture of a root-word, of such value that the characteristic meaning is understood throughou the Empire, even where the spoken language is mutually unintelligible. It is a culture concreted thousands of years ago amongst a race closely allied in language,
religion, mythology, and astronomy Babylon. Moreover the archaic tablets of Thibet ha mystical allusions in consonance with the Mysteries, u we will allude to these in a later chapter.
There occurred in the year 1879 m the District Grand Lodge of China a discussion upon the subject we hav mentioned above, from which we l^arn that about 4,000 vears ago this people had a symbolism identical with the
Masonk Craft. An altar in form of a ^
used to tvpify the earth, and this may be read in conjun don ^hat we wrote in our last chapter on the Maon
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 33
rites, the circle being an emblem of heaven, and earth and heaven in union were Cabiric deities. The N.E. and S.E. are relatively used to imply the beginning and con- clusion of an object in view. One of the oldest words in the language is literally “ square and compasses” and signifies right conduct. The skirret as an hieroglyphic signifies the origin of things. When the Emperor of a new dynasty succeeded he began the erection of a new temple under the oversight of a Grand Architect. Aprons were used which bore emblems denoting religious office — there is a plant, an axe, and another not clear. The Shu- King, which is one of the oldest books in the language, gives the representation of two jewels in jadestone, which is one of the hardest and most valuable of all stones and the most difficult to work ; these two are the square and the plumb-rule. The same book speaks of Chien jen, magistrates, which is literally “ level men,” implying what is expected of them ; and the three chief officers of State
are called the San chai, the three houses or builders j and one of the most ancient names of deity is the “ First Builder.” The Emperor Shun, about 3,000 years ago, had amongst his attributes the circle and rule ; and the hammer in the hands of their kings was an emblem of authority. When a monarch died the emblems of authority were returned for the purpose of reinvestiture, (w) In Masonry this is done on election of a new Master.
We learn from the Book of Odes that when an Emperor sacrificed he divested himself of his Imperial robes, was barefooted and bareheaded and girt with a lambskin At the spring festival, which has much in common with the rites of the Grecian Ceres, we see following the proces- sion a boy with one foot bare and the other shod, but w ich they apply to the yang and yin, or the positive and negative principles of nature. Brother Chaloner Ala- aster from whom we copy some of these illustrations, says that this building symbolism was continued by the Chmese ph.losophers of the 5th century B.c. Thus we
^ (‘"I The Masonic Magazine (Kenning).
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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
read in the Great Learning that “ a man should abstain from doing unto others what he would not they should do unto him” ; and the writer adds, “ this is called the principle of acting on the square.” Other similar expres- sions are used by Confucius 481 B.C. ; and his later follower Mencius says, “ that a Master Mason, in teaching his apprentices, makes use of the compasses and square; ye who are engaged in the pursuit of wisdom must also make use of the compasses and square.” Every trade in Japan has a Guild, and they are said to have been derived from China, by way of Korea, 3>ooo years ago.
At the present time we are not thoroughly informed whether a system identical in all respects with that of China existed in Babylon, but there are indications that such was the case, as well as in Egypt, and we have already pointed out that Yh-King is an Akkadian voca- bulary of root-words. Mr. St. Chad Boscawen has afforded us a note, where he treats of the ancient Calneh, about 3,800 B.C. (12); in this article he represents the Viceroy Gudea as Patesi, or sceptre-bearer, subservient to the King of Erech, and terms him the chief priest and architect as well, his palace indicating the art influence of Egypt. His statue represents him as seated and having the right arm and shoulder bare ; on his knees is a tablet containing a plan, or what Modern Masons term a Trac- ing-board, of his palace or temple ; the edge of this tablet is divided into a scale of 20 inches to the cubit, a measure corresponding with that used in Egypt. Brother W. H. Rylands deems that this cubit may have divided . the plan into chequered squares though not shewn thereon. Pure copper images of the Cabiri have been disinterred at
Calneh.
Very strong philological grounds have been shewn by Dr. Miller in his Har-moad for identifying the Chinese Masonic system with Babylon, and this must be read in the light of the remarks we have made thereon.
(“) Ars Quat. Cor., ii, p. 120, and iii, p. 14-
(^) Modern Thought, 1883.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 35
I
One of the earliest Akkadian Kings named Lik-baga was a pyramid builder and, like Melchisedek, a king and priest of the Most High ; he uses as a title the term Pa-te- shi, which is thus literally translated Pa — anoint, te — corner stone, shi — to strike ; and the same term is used by his successors. Patasso is a hammer, and the term Patoeci was the habitual designation of the images of the gods of the Cabiric Mysteries. Lik-baga seems to have modified Akkadian theology and was the crowned architect and apostle of Sin (moon), Samas (sun), Bel, and Anu. Another term used by these kings, and applied by Nebuchadnezzar to the most ancient kings, is Pa-te- shi tsi-ri, which is translated Sublime Master by Dr. Schrader ; it is connected with the Hebrew Pat-tish, a hammer, or the Cabiric hammer in the hand of Tubal- Cain or the Greek Vulcan. With the Akkadians the god of copper-smiths had the same name as the god of iron- workers amongst the Laplanders, and the words for iron and copper are the same respectively. (1^) It is, however, through the Aryan Sanskrit that we can more particularly trace the assimilation of Akkad to a building fraternity, for the word Ak means to pierce, Akra is a sharp point, Akri is corner, Akana is a stone, Aktan is the number eight or the angles which are in a cube. Akman in Sanscrit is a stone and in Persian heaven, and as a cube symbolises the eight cosmogonical powers, the word comes to imply the whole heavens. In Greek, which is an Aryan tongue, the name of the father of Ouranos is Akmon, and Dio- dorus makes Ur, or Ouranos and Ops children of Akmon and parents of the Titans, who are again the Cabiri.
kmon IS also an anvil, which means a meteorolite, from which iron was first made, for in Greek Sideros is iron the Latin Sidus, a star. The word Ak in he Akkadian signifies to build or to make, hence we have a-ak tak, tag, a stone or mountain, and akka, a building ample or sanctuary ; these significations further connect Akkad, or proto-Aryan, with the Hindus and their archi- ll*) Chaldean Lenormant.
36 THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
tecture. Ak is also the monogram of Nabu who is Mer- cury, Marduk, whence Nimrod ; Nabu is therefore Mer- cury, and the Hermes of Egypt, the revealing God. In Semitic Assyrian abn is stone, abni stones, banah (Heb. benah) is to build. The learned Alexander Wilder expresses an opinion that Nimrod, founder of Babylon, was of Tartar descent, in which language the word means “spotted,” and may point to the leopard skin in which the Assyrian priests of Dionnisi were clothed. If Nimrod personates Kronos, as some hold, he was in that case a Cabiri or king of the race of Cyclopean builders.
From all this it is argued, with much soundness, that the first kings were both priests and architects, or the Grand Masters of these, and of the class of Cabiri who were first workers in stone and brick, and afterwards in metals, and that they transmitted a traditional doctrine of the temple, based upon cosmogony and the crea- tion of the world, It explains why Genesis assimi-
lates the worldly arts with religion, and shews the high respect the Hebrew priests had for art, though deficient in practice. The Babylonians must have afforded infor- mation to Ezra who revised the Jewish Bible, and it may be pointed out that these people were builders in brick rather than stone, and hence that the practice of art would vary in a country with that in which stone was
used.
CABIRIC MYSTERIES AND CYCLOPEAN WORK.
When we approach historic times we find that the actual Cabiric Mysteries were of Grecian continuation and nerpetuated at Samothrace where they had been in exist- ence, from a remote era, far into Christian tunes, and where they were held in great veneration not only for their antiquity but for the purity of their doctrine. They are said to have retained much of their technique i Chaldean language, and to have
Masonic symbolism which we have seen in Chinese prac
(W) Gould’s N. Q; xiii, P- 296. (“) Ars Quat. Cor., v, pt. 2.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 37
tise, for the aboriginal inhabitants of Greece, Pelasgians, were an allied race, and Dr. Petrie asserts that pre- Hellenic, or proto-Aryan Greeks, were in Egypt, either as friends or captives, 2,500 B.C., with a civilisation all their own. Barbarous wars arose, the Aryan Hellenes devas- tated the country, and during an era of oppression reduced the old inhabitants to subjection ; we hnd them denominated Pelasgi with a succession of 26 kings followed by 7 priests. Egypt eventually sent them rulers who restored their country to prosperity, founded cities and gave them laws. Upon this we learn that the Cabiric Mysteries were in practice at Samothrace, and that they were, or had been, a fraternity which combined art with religion. Herodotus says that Samothrace had these Mysteries from the Pelasgi, and that they taught the initiated by a sacred tradition, why the figure of Hermes, Mercury, or Casmillus was constructed in a peculiar manner, from which we gather that they used Phallic symbols as emblems of the generative powers of nature ; and this historian, who wrote 450 B.C., tells us that the names of their gods were derived from Egypt, as anciently they used the general term “ Disposers.”
The views of all authorities are in unison with those of Frederick von Schlegel, who says that this primitive people were the constructors of the Cyclopean buildings of Greece and Italy, being the original inhabitants who were conquered and overrun by the Aryan immigration of Deucalion, that they were a people who had the traits in common with those of many other countries, at a remote period. (^®)
Before we consider their Mysteries we will say some- thing of their architecture ; a style which is of prehistoric antiquity. It was very massive, and built of irregular and well-bound blocks of immense size, so well knit that though without cement a knife blade would not enter the joints, and so placed that a large block might be with- drawn without endangering the structure. The French
(^®) Philosophy of History, p; 234.
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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Institute, in 1804, traced about 150 towns which were in part, at least, Cyclopean, and 127 of these were in Europe. Strabo says that the builders were from Syria in Asia Minor, by which he means Assyria ; the same writer mentions vast caverns in Argos which had been converted into a Labyrinth by the Cyclops ; and here was a statue of the father of the gods, which had a third eye in the middle of the forehead, and which was said to have been brought from the palace of Priam at Troy, an Asiatic city intimately connected with Assyria.
Pliny states that in the island of Lemnos, the home of the Cabiric Mysteries, there was a Labyrinth of 150 columns, each stone of which might be moved by a child ; hence we learn that they resembled the rocking stones of the Druids ; and Dr. Daniel Clarke found a stone circle at the top of Mount Gargarus, where the gods, according to Homer, assembled at the siege of Troy. Q-'’) Pliny attributes the working of iron to their invention, and the first inhabitants of Sicily are said to be of this race. Achilles Statius, bishop of Alexandria, mentions a statue in a temple on Mount Cassius, between Syria and Egypt, which held a pomegranate in the hand ; it is a temple which Sanconiathon deems to have been built by the descendants of the Cabiri.
This peculiar Masonry is found upon the summits of mountains, a position in which Homer places the Cyclops and the Lastragons, and Theocritus the establishments of the old Pelasgi. As it demanded a large exertion of physical strength the later, but still ancient, Greeks attributed the work to giants who had an eye in the middle of the forehead as had Priam’s statue of their deity. Mythology makes them sons of Neptune and Amphitrite, whom Jupiter overthrew and cast into Tartarus where they become the assistants of Vulcan ; thus assigning a sea-pedigree to these workers in iron and stone, and typifying an enforced slavery by their
(1’) Anacalypsis.
(18) Mackey’s Cyclo. Art. Pome§ranale.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 3Q
Aryan conquerors. They are fabled to have made the sickle of the Greek Kronos or Saturn, whom the Latins made the god of agriculture, in whose reign a ship grounded at Samothrace, where the passengers settled and erected a temple for their Mysteries. It is further pretended that these Cyclops constructed for Jupiter a cubical altar of brass upon which the father of gods took his oath before attacking the Titans, and upon this altar was engraved the name of Deity, Three principal Cyclops are mentioned — Brontes, Steropes, and Paracmai. We see that like Hiram, who has credit for building the temple of Solomon, the Cyclopean Cabiri were not only skilled builders in stone but workers in brass and iron, a race subject to Vulcan, and that all this long preceded the introduction into Greece of a Masonry of flat and squared stones, which came into use about the time of the Egyptian colonisation, after the ages of barbarism occa- sioned by the Aryan wars.
Besides India, which we have mentioned in its cave temples, and Greece, other nations have this ancient style of Masonry, and Syria, under Babylonian influence, has many traces of it, older than the invasion of Joshua and the Abri, and it is quite possible that the Hebrew invaders had much of their special bias from the school of Mel- chisedek. King of Salem.
It has been shewn by Monsieur Perotti that some of the most ancient ruins in Palestine are Cyclopean, or as he terms them Pelasgian, and he instances some at Ephrata or Zelzah, in other places are later ruins of a mixed style, built compositely of polygonal and squared blocks ; at Rama is a doorway resembling, on a small scale that of Atreus at Mycenae ; Cyclopean ruins
exist also at Bashan and Baalbec. The Rev. Brother Fosbrooke says ; “ The abacus of the gate of lions at Mycenae, which was built by the Cyclops, supports four balls or circles, which are again surrounded by a second abacus, similar to the first. They are supposed to be
(^®) Freemasons' Mag., 1862, viii, p. 384,
40
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
derived from the worship of Mythras, the lion being his symbol. The triangular form of the stone had a special signification. The Cyclops were worshippers of fire, Vulcan, and the sun.”
Older and still more important than Mycenae is the recent discovery in Crete of the palace of Minos at Knossos, with its works of art, and its Dedalian labyrinth of passages and rooms, but more remarkable still tablets and records partly in hieroglyphics, and partly in alphabet.
In an article in the Builder in 1865, Monsieur Renan states that this style is the most ancient in the world, except it be the Pyramids, and he points out that Homer mentions the great strength of the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae in Argolis, the former of which is said to be 20 feet thick : the Etruscan style, he says, is derived from it, but when it had made a decided advance^ as it indi- cates improved architectural knowledge. He also points out that wherever this Masonry is found there exists a tradition of an ancient race of giants, who have passed away or been destroyed, and he attributes the remains of this style in Palestine to the Anakim, Rephaim, and the Canaanitish tribes. (2°)
Britain. The Cyclopean architecture of the British isles is prominent and may range from 4,500 to 1,500 years antiquity, and are well described by Toland as they existed 200 years ago. Numerous circles of stone were dedicated to the sun : that in the isle of Lewes has 12 obelisks and a 13th in the centre representing the rudder of a ship, and reached by a passage of double obelisks each of 19 stones with a 39th guarding the entrance of the avenue. We have here the 12 signs of the Zodiac, the Sun, and the Druid cycle of 19 years. At St. Burien in Cornwall is a temple of 19 stones, each 12 feet distant, and a 20th of greater height in the centre, this may refer to the 19 yc3,rs cycle of 12 months. In these temples a large altar was erected near which stood
(20) Ibid, 1865, xii, p. 146.
PROTO- ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 4 1
the Cruimthear or priest, and adjacent are found prodi- gious stones which can be moved by a touch at the right place, whilst elsewhere they resist all the strength of man. Toland mentions one of these Cromleachs at Cruich, in Cavan, placed in the midst of 12 obelisks, covered with brass, on which stood statues of the gods, whilst the bowing-stone was covered with gold and silver.
The Circles of Stonehenge are 3,600 years old, accord- ing to the calculation of Professor Norman Lockyer, founded upon its orientation as a Sun-temple 1680 years B.C. This calculation is confirmed by the discovery in 1901, when making some repairs of the chippings from the two descriptions of stones, of which the two circles are composed, together with rude flint axes and hammers of the pre-bronze age, i.e., 1500 to 2000 B.C.
In the face of the varied authorities we have quoted it is not possible to come to any other conclusion than that the Cyclops were the primitive builders and workers in metals, and that their descendants the Cabiri were until we approach Christian times a religious and operative brotherhood which then became entirely speculative. There is a mythological groundwork for the assimilation of the various nations that practised the Cyclopean style. Plutarch quotes Anticlides as affirming that Isis was the daughter of Prometheus, who as a revelator of arts was a Cabir, and wife to Dionysos or Bacchus, and Dionysius Halicarnassus says that Atlas left his habitation on Mount Caucasus and became King of Arcadia. Apollo- dorus affirms that this Atlas was son of Japhetus and brother to Prometheus. Pausanius informs us that the Arcadians were all Pelasgi, as were also the inhabitants of Argos, and that the Pelasgians had that name from a King Palagius. (21) Dionisu is Assyrian, and also Indian as Dionysos, whilst admittedly Egyptian as Bacchus ; hence the Dionysian artificers of Greece may have sprang out of the Cabiri. Raol Rochette considers that the Cyclop Palaemonius, to whom a Sanctuary was raised, was
Bishop Cumberland ; Origenes.
42
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
the Tyrians Heracles. H. P. Blavatsky says that the builders of the sacred columns at Gadir covered them with mysterious characters and figures, of which the same is still found on the walls of Ellora, that gigantic ruin of the temple of Visvakarman styled “ the builder and artificer of the gods.” It is quite likely that the physical and superior strength of the Cyclops has a foundation in fact. Apart from the testimony of ancient writers, col- lected by men of the stamp of Grotius, in regard to the existence at one time of a race of giants, there has recently been discovered at Piedmont in Moravia the skeleton of a human family, side by side with the bones of the Mam- moth, that of the man being of “extraordinary size.” At the Grotto of Rochers Rouges, Mentone, skeletons have been found under 29 feet of limestone stalagmite, which may be reckoned to represent 8,000 years, that of a male was /ft. Qin. without head, and that of a female 6ft. 3in.
Cabiric Mysteries. In order to arrive at an idea of the Cabiric Mysteries and their several great gods, or powers, we must recognise their antiquity, and the fact that their chief constellation was the Great Bear, the seven stars. Of the Pleiades a seventh star is said to be lost, “the six present the seventh hidden.” We must also consider the most striking facts of nature, which led to the division of time into days, months, and years. The first measure of time is a contest between light and darkness, a day and a night, or what is now known to be a revolution of the earth round the sun. The next measure of time was the birth and death of the moon, or what we know as a monthly revolution of the moon round the earth. It would next be noted that the seven stars of the Great Bear makes a complete turn round in 365 days or thereabouts. The 13 lunar and 12 solar months in the annual birth and death of the sun is a later and more complicated calculation of a year, though it corresponds with the annual revolution of the seven stars round a polar centre, which was what the Cabiri plainly commemorated.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 43
The Sun was the Semitic, rather than the Cabiric symbol, and may possibly be indicated in the archaic hymn of the Akkadian victory of Hea over the seven- headed serpent. Other changes of the symbolism suc- ceeded and we have the seven gods applied to so many spheres, or to the planets, and finally anthropomorphised into seven gods of arts. We read (22) “The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth,” which is understood to be the image worship of the Pleiades. The late Doctor Walker Arnott asserted that none could comprehend Masonic ritual without a full knowledge of Hebrew astronomy. These considerations tend to prove the greater antiquity of the Cabiric system, as preceding the Mysteries that made a dying god of our solar orb ; and it has also a higher scientific basis, as implying the origin of systems from that far distant central sun, round which all the globes revolve. It is on these natural phenomena, spiritualized in the Mysteries, that their ceremonies are founded. Apollodorus and Varro say that the Cabiri adored the heavens and earth under the names of Ouranos and Ghe as the creators of mankind : Hindu spirit and matter.
According to Sanconiathon and the Phoenicians, the Cabiri were the eight sons of Sadyk, of whom the youngest, named Eshmun or Akmon, or in the Greek version Cadmillus or Casmillus, was slain by the others. Misor, the brother of Sadyk, was father of
Taut, and received the inheritance of Egypt, and the Cabiri record it, a claim that the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt, were of this ritual. Of these eight, three were most noted, and were termed by the Greeks Axieros, Axiochersos, and Axiocheres, and as xi is but the Greek cM, it has been suggested (23) that these names may be transmuted into Chaldean as Ahea, Ashur, Ahea, which is equal to I am that I am. Mr. Edward C. King (24) reads these words Aya, Asher, Aya, and
{“) II A'ings xYii., v. 30. (^) Dr. Tytler, in F.Af. Mag.
(24) Akkadian Genesis, p, 59 ; Exodus iii. v. 14 ; Ahih Ashr Ahih.
44
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
when Theodoret asked a Jew the true pronunciation of the sacred name n' H', the Jew said ya, and wrote aya, for he was not permitted by his law to pronounce the sacred name. Equally in Masonry there is a Word which can be written but not pronounced, and there is a mode of uttering that word which cannot be written. Some writers suppose that the three Cabiri, or Cory- bantes, symbolise sun, moon, and earth, in the contest between which one is supposed to be slain in eclipse, and quote the words of Hesiod — “ Stained with blood and falling by the hands of two celestial bodies.” One of the gods was named Eubulos, pronounced very similarly to three words used in “ Ancient ” Masonry, which had a reference to Solomon’s temple, which all ancient writers admit was a type of the universe.
The slain Casmillus had the same signification as the Osirian sun-god, and in the Phoenician, Babylonian, and Egyptian books, and cosmogonies are some curious references which may typify circumcision, the Mythraic baptism of blood, and the Taurobolium or baptism of bull’s blood, which is referred to in the Phrygian version of the Cabiric rites. Thus, on the authority of Philo Byblus, we have it in the legend of Kronos that he sheds his son’s blood as a propitiation to his father Ouranos and circumcised his family, and from the words used it would seem that this was symbolically acted in the Mys- teries. In another legend, El castrates his father Ouranos in order to fertilise the rivers, in which is found the first germ of life. Again Bel Merodach cuts open the dragon Tiamat, or chaos, from which he proceeds. In the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead it is said : “ the blood is that of the sun as he goes along cutting himself.”
Masonic writers tell us that the Initiated symbolically embrued his hands in the blood of the slain Casmillus. These murdered gods, as in the case of Osiris and Adonis, usually suffer in the generative parts, indicative of the transfer of the life principle, and it is said mythologically that when the two other gods slew Casmillus they fled
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 45
with a chest containing his genitals to Etruria, in which we have doubtless a notice of colonisation.
The Cabiric gods were held to be the instructors of mankind in all useful knowledge ; magical rites, build- ing, smelting and working in metals, shipbuilding, music, etc., and were denominated Technites or artificers. San- coniathon says that Ouranos was the father of Sculptors, as was Hiram the father or Abiv of Masons, metal workers, carvers, and dyers, and in verity a Cabir. Faber considers that the term Fabri by which the Latins desig- nated Artificers in general is derived from Cabiri, and he also asserts that “ all the most ancient remarkable build- ings of Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor were ascribed to Cabirian or Cyclopean Masons.” (^)
As the rites also professed to instruct the candidate in incantations such as we know were used by the Akkadians of Babylon that alone would indicate identity of origin. The learned Hyde attributes the name Cabir to Gabri, Guebri, fire or sun worshippers ; and as the slain god is named Akmon, which word also means a cube of eight angles, heaven or Ouranos, it is therefore equivalent to the Semitic Ur and Urim, and remotely to Hiram, whose father Josephus says was named Ur.
It is said that the Initiatory ceremony into the Mysteries of Samothrace lasted three days and was termed “ En- thronement,” and that mystic dances representing the motions of the heavenly bodies were performed round the throne, which connects the rite with astronomy. A white-stone was presented to the Initiate as a symbol of membership. Hives of bees were preserved in the temple, and the interior cavern or Sanctuary contained a pyra- midical chamber as its most sacred place. Heckethorn asserts that in the Phrygian branch of these Mysteries they had a pine tree cut to form a cross, with the figure of a man upon it, and the same thing is asserted of the British Druids. The tomb of Midas in Phrygia is adorned with the equal-limbed cross, or the modern Greek
(’’*) Faber, Cad. i. p. 35.
46
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
form. Eusebius, who can see only the worst side of the Mysteries, writes of them in the same style as the modern secularist upon the scriptures. Ection, he says, founded the Samothracian Mysteries, and Venus sprang from the member of Uranus which was thrown into the sea, where- fore a lump of salt is the symbol of generation. These are what the Phrygians celebrate as the rites to Attys, Cybele, and the Corybantes. Certain signs were, “ I have eaten out of the tambourine. I have drank out of the cymbal. I have carried the mystic salver. I have slipped into the bed.” Similar expressions are found arnongst the Druids, and were known to the Eleusenian initiates. They are but allegories and not actual rites.
Clemens of Alexandria speaking of these Mysteries says : — “ Know that having killed their third brother they covered the head of the dead body with a purple cloth, crowned it (or encircled it with a chaplet), and carrying it on the point of a spear (or bearing it on a brazen shield), buried it under the roots of Olympus. The Mys- teries are in short murders and funerals.” (2^) Where two gods murder a third the reference may be to two seasons and winter.
Babylon. We will now glance at the Babylonian con- temporaries of these Cyclops or Cabiri. Berosus the Chaldean historian records that the civilisation of Babylon was derived from a god who was half man and half fish, and who rose each day out of the Erythrean sea, and Lepsius has expressed the opinion that the legend points to Egyptian sources. The faith of the old Akka- dians was of a magical nature in which amulets, as in the Cabiric Mysteries, played a leading part. They adored the spirits of nature and the elements, whom they believed to be ruled by three great gods — Anu the supreme ; Hea the ruler of the earth from his heavenly boat ; and Mulgi the lord of the underworld or Hades. Each of these had his feminine consort. Hea is the counterpart of the Hebrew
n Ars Quat. Cor. v., p. m^-Exhort, ch. ii., also Eusebius, prep. c. iii., b. 2.
PROTO- ARY AN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 4/
i
Jehovah, he walks with, talks with, and instructs man- kind ; and a hymn, which is possibly the most ancient in the world, describes his power and might and his victory over the seven-headed serpent, a metaphor equally found in Lapland, Thibet, Egypt, India, Greece, and even Yucatan. These Akkadians were, like the Egyptians and Mayaux, pyramid builders, and the ruins of Babel or Borsippa is of this nature. It came to be called the temple of the Bit-zida or of the right hand, and there is an ancient cylinder which represents a seven-stepped pyramid, at the top of which is a colossal hand, and eight worshippers, corresponding to the Cabiric gods surround the pyramid in worship.
The locality of Babylon gave them in speculation two Great Pillars, the “ Mount of the world,” in the north- east, or Ararat, which they also termed “ the abode of the gods,” and which was to them what Meru was to the Aryans, and a corresponding mount in the south west, whence was the descent to the domain of Mulgi the ruler of the dead ; which descent was alleged to be guarded by seven concentric walls, with one gate in each wall. All the great mountains of the East are represented as the residences of a spiritualised race.
At a remote period the priests had composed an epic in twelve books answering to the Zodiacal signs over which the sun-god journies — in Akkadian Isdhubhar, in Egyp- tian Heracles, in Tyrian Melcarth. It commences the first book or month with the siege of Ghizdubar or Isdhubhar in Erech — it is light which overcomes darkness. In the second and third the hero resorts for comfort to the prophet Heabani. In the fourth and fifth there is war, figuring the elemental storms. In the sixth and seventh we have the lives and disorders of the hero and Ishter, believed to refer to the moon’s changes. Ishtar descends into Hades, like Ceres of Greece, to seek aid from Mulgi, and is divested of some portion of her apppel at each gate of the seven walls. In the eighth and ninth we have the wanderings of the hero and a Paradisical garden. In
48
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
the tenth the hero is ferried over the Styx that he may be restored to health by Tamzi, the translated Sage. The eleventh is a similar account of the deluge to that in Genesis. The twelfth commemorates the death of Hea- bani.
In analogy with this sacred number seven, the tower of Babel had seven stories, and Herodotus informs us that Ecbatana in Media was guarded by seven concentric walls, each of which, as were the stories of Babel, was painted to represent one of the seven spheres or planets. The Mythraic Mysteries though proto-Median in their conception, were Aryan when we become historically acquainted with them, and they had seven caverns of Initiation approached by gates in a pyramid of seven landings, and the trials of Initiation are doubtlessly alle- gorised by the ancient Persian poet Ferdusi, in the Heft- Khan or labours of Rustam. In this the implication is obvious that the mythology was more ancient than the erections which symbolised it, old as these are in the world’s history. The tower of Babel or Borsippa, “ which had been left unfinished since the deluge,” was completed by Nebuchadnezzar with the addition of an eighth story “ according to the original design ; this last consisted of a cubical chamber as a shrine for the god, the appoint- ments being of gold.
The oldest temple in the world is said to have been dis- covered by excavators at Biaya in Central Babylonia. The walls of the tower were first uncovered and the summit cleared. The first inscription on the surface was brick stamped with the name Dungi of 2750 B.C. A little lower appeared a crumpled piece of gold with the name Param Sim who lived in 3750 B.C. {Freemasons' Chronicle, 15 Aug., 1908.)
In his “Seven Great Monarchies,” Professor George Rawlinson terms the Tower of Babel the “ Birs-i-Nimrod, the ancient temple of Nebo at Borsippa. It was a perfect square of seven ascents or stages, 272 feet a.t base, eac way, the four corners facing the Cardinal points, and the
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 49
seven stages occupying a height of 156 feet, the highest of all was a perfect cube and the Sanctuary of the God. Rawlinson’s arrangement of these is as follows : —
|
STAGE. |
COLOUR. |
PLANET. |
|
Basement, |
Black, |
Saturn. |
|
Second Stage, |
Orange, |
Jupiter, |
|
Third ,, |
Blood Red, |
Mars. |
|
Fourth ,, |
Golden, |
Sun. |
|
Fifth |
Pale Yellow, |
Venus. |
|
Sixth ,, |
Azure, |
Mercury. |
|
Seventh ,, |
Silver, |
Moon. |
A similar symbolic plan existed in India, for we find Seven Courts of which the last, or central ones, have no canopy, but that of the heavens. In Egypt, the most ancient of the Pyramids, that of Saccarah, consisted of
Seven Stages, the same thing equally existed in Mexico.
All the wonderful works wrought by the god Hea upon earth were performed by virtue of an omnific Word, which would seem to have been lost to the Magi, though the ancient priests of Egypt appear to have claimed that they possessed it, and they had a god “whose name is hidden. The Jewish belief as to the power of the Ineffable name of their God JHVH— Yahvah, Yihvah, or as we, incorrectly, use it Jehovah, would seem to be based on these beliefs. Yahvah reads. He causes to bring forth.
Assyria. A complete fusion of the Akkadian and Semitic faiths had taken place before 2500 B.C., and the population had become known as Chaldean. Assyria, cmlised from Babylon, rose into power, though its pre- cise beginning has not been traced. About 1820 B.C., Samsi-Vul built at Assur a temple to Anu and Vul, and Iritak built one called the “ House of Salvation." Samsi- Vul also repaired the temple of Ishter then at Nineveh. About 1350 B.c. Budil built a palace at Assur which his successor Vul-Nerari I. enlarged and which his son Shal- maneser 1300 B.C. still further extended ; he also restored
e peat temple called the “ Mountain of the world” ; he further built the new city of Caleb, about i8 miles from Nineveh, founded a palace at the latter place, and repaired the temple of Ishter there. His son Tugulti-
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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Ninip assumed the title of “King of Nations, King of Sumar and Akkad, and conqueror of Karduniyas ” (Babylon). The next great builder was Tiglutli-Pileser, 1120 B.C., he rebuilt the temple of Assur, after a lapse of 701 years and raised there two pyramidical towers; he also improved the palaces of Assur and Nineveh, and left his country one of the foremost monarchies of the world. His tablet, in the British Museum, represents him with a Maltese cross which hangs from the breast, and there is also one of another king having the like decoration.
There is a somewhat remarkable Assyrian confirmation
of the antiquity of the Masonic system of consecration to be found in the inscriptions. When Cyrus King of Persia discovered the foundation of his early predecessor in Assyria, Assur-bani-pal, he says — ‘ I laid the foundation and made firm the bricks; with beer, wine, oil, and honey.” (2’) Other inscriptions mention oil, and the sacri- fice of animals. The foundation cylinder of Naboniadus, a Babylonian King conquered by Cyrus, speaks of the discovery of the foundation-stone of the temple built by Naram-sin, son of Sargon of Akkadia the Semitic con- queror of Babylon 3,200 years earlier. Recent digging is said to carry Babylonian data to 8000 B.C.
Something of the nature of caste initiation must also have existed amongst the Augurs and Sacred Scribes. Professor Sayce in his Hibberi Lectures has to this effect A tablet states that an Augur must be, “ of pure lineap unblemished in hand or foot,” and speaks thus of the vision which is revealed to him before he is “ initiated and instructed, in the presence of Samas and Rimmon, ^ ® use of the book and stylus,” by “ the Scribe, the instructed one, who keeps the oracle of the gods,” when he is made to descend into an artificial imitation of the lower world and there beholds “ the altars amid the waters, the trea- sures of Anu, of Bel, and Hea, the tablets of the gods,
the delivery of the oracle of heaven
cedar tree, the beloved of the great gods, which thei
Records of the Past, iv, p. I7i-
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
51
hands have caused to grow.” It is thought that each sign of the Babylonian Zodiac had its special order of priests, in all twelve.
In very many countries the eternal stability and power of the deity was represented by a square block or cube stone. Maximus Tyrius speaking of the worship of some god by the Arabians says — “ The statue that I saw of him was a square stone.” Phurnutus speaking of the figura- tion of Hermes or Mercury says — “ As the square figure betokens his solidity ; so he wanted neither hands or feet to execute what he was commanded by Jove.” (28)
Some approximation of the very ancient flourishing period of the Cabiric Mysteries may be formed upon con- sideration that the Nagon-wat of Cambodia contains Cabiric sculpture in its architecture; the fish-man or
Dagon of Babylon, and equally with every nation, includ- ing the Mayas of America, the monkey god. No one now knows what people erected the place, but Blavatsky, who IS good testimony on a point of this nature, main- tains that whoever built Nagon-wat were of the same religion and race as those who built the ancient Pagodas, the Egyptian pyramids, and the ruins of Ellora, Copan,' and Central America.
^gypt. If we now turn to Egypt we find it accepted by scholars that its earliest known population were allied with the Akkads of Babylon, by language and religion. Besides the affinity of the ancient Coptic to the Chinese ^d Chaldean speech, it is admitted that before the Osirian worship became general, and it is as old as Menes
j there was an identity of religion •
and that the seven gods of Memphis represented in the worship of Ptah— the potter who creates the world out of
minor gods, are identical with gods of the Cabiri. The greater antiquity of Egypt wou d seem to be proved by the mutations of the methods ri mg, or the Egyptians besides their Hieratic and omatic alphabet, reserved the hieroglyphic system for
( *) Toland’s Druids,
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THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
sacred things ; the Domatic was then used for secular matters, and the Hieratic for their sacred manuscripts. This latter alphabet they transmitted to Phoenicia, whence through Greece and Rome, in a gradually modified state, it forms the characters of our own times. But when the Akkadians settled in Babylon they were already possessed of the cuneiform alphabet, and although the exact locality where this was developed has not yet been settled, it is possible that they carried it with their language and religion by way of Bactria from their primitive home in the Caucasian highlands, or those of central Asia. The Egyptian Sesun, the Babylonian Nabu, the Akkadian and Aryan Ak, and the Chinese diagrams called the Kouas, introduced into the primitive Yh-King at a later period, all have the same relation and are equally represented by eight parallel lines in two fours. The Ritual of tho Dead. or Manifestations of Light, contains allusions to the
Cabiric constellation of the Great Bear or seven stars, who are equally the seven sons of Ptah ; the seven spirits of Ra ; the seven companions of King Arthur ; the seven Hohgates of America ; the seven Lumazi or leaders of the star flock of Assyria ; they may also be applied to the seven Amashpands of Persia, the seven Rishis of India, and seven spirits that surround the throne of God. Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen asserts that at a remote period, a close intercourse existed between Egypt and Chaldea, the point of junction of the two civilisations being the penin- sula of Sinai. The old legends of Chaldea and the old hymns of Eridu which, on the evidence of silt, are assigned a period of 6,000 years B.C., betray ^ culture derived from a maritime people; Eridu, like Memphis, was called the “ Holy City,” and in Chaldea we find a god named Asari and in Egypt Heseri or Osins, whilst
in India we have Iswari. _
At the remote period of which we are writing we have
no written account of the nature of the f “l
tised either in Egypt or Chaldea, and we must J“dge J. secret rites, by what we can ascertain of them at a late
' PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 53
period ; we know, however, that that which was applicable to the Cabiric gods of Greece and Chaldea was also appli- cable to the seven sons of Ptah at Memphis. Sanconiathon informs us that in the time of one of the most ancient hierophants, they had corrupted their Mysteries by ming- ling cosmogonical affections with the historical tradi- tions ; from which we see that before his time they had diverged from the Cabiric ritual. It is very noteworthy that Egypt was the most prosperous during the eras which followed the accession of Menes their first King. Most of the arts known at this day, and some which we do not know, are pictured in the earliest tombs, and these include gold mining and smelting, Cabiric claims, of which we accept Tubal-Cain as the father on Hebrew evidence.
It was the custom of the priestly caste to confer Initia- tion upon a new Pharaoh, as was the case in Babylon, and there are traces of art symbolism to be found in the earliest times. Thus the Cubit rule was the sacred symbol of Truth ; and we are told by Diodorus that the ancient Hieratic alphabet, distinguished from the Domatic or common, was of this nature, as it made use of the tools of carpenters, and he instances the hatchet, pincers, mallet, chisel, and square. The most ancient ruins contain Masons’ Marks, such as the point within a circle, the triangle, the trowel, the tau, and triple-tau. We give here a part of the first chapter of the Book of the Dead; the work is of a composite character and commingles the Memphian theology of Ptah with that of the Theban Amen, and the Osirian theology. The copies also vary according to the social position of the dead for whose burial the copies were intended.
I am a Priest in Abydos in the day that the earth rejoiceth,
I see the secret places of the winding region,
I ordain the festival of the spirit, the Lord of the abiding land, I hear the watchword of the watchers over me,
I am the Architect of the great barge of Sochais, (Ptah.)
Building it from the stocks (a temple Symbol.)
Oh ! ye Liberators of Souls, ye Builders of the house of Osiris,
54
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Liberate the Soul of the Osirian . . . (Name of deceased.)
He is with you in the house of Osiris,
He sees as you see, hears as you hear.
He stands as you stand, sits as you sit,
0 ! ye that give meat and drink.
To the souls built into the house of Osiris, (living stones.)
Give seasonable food and drink to the Osirian . . . (Name.)
1 do not compute my justification in many parts,
My soul stands up square to the face of the Judge,
It is found true on the earth.” (Guild Symbolism.)
Another passage says — “ As the sun died and rose again yesterday, so man dies and rises again.” There are many passages in the Ritual which clearly imply secret Initia- tion. The representations of the Judgment Hall of Osiris — the living one, the Master of life, the Master of all, in all his creation, names, functions, diadems, orna- ments, palaces, etc., is of a very impressive character, and has been incorporated with the Christianity of later times. In some of the papyrus MSS., both in hieroglyphic and hieratic characters, 3-4,000 years old, the spirit appearing for justification stands between Isis and Nepthys pictured with the sign of a Fellow Freemason; in others he is holding up both arms, representing two squares; in this following the written statement that he stands square before his judge.
Each district of Egypt had its Trinity of Gods; — Thebes, in the 14th century B.C. had the “hidden god,” Amen, “ Maker of all things ; Thou only one ” ; Muth (mother) Mother Nature ; Khensu (the child) : in the 4th century B.C. we have Amen or Khepura (creator) ; Tefunt (humidity) ; Shu (light). Abydos had Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Elephantine— Khnum or Chnoumis ; Anuka or Anocuis ; and Hak. Heliopolis had Turn or Harmachis ; Nebhetp’; Horus. Memphis had Ptah by Merenphtah ;
Nefer; Atum.
Though this chapter has run to great length something must be said of the architecture of this extraordinary people. The oldest structures which remain are the
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 55
pyramids, and the most ancient of these is possibly 8,000 years old, and may be described as a mere cairn of stones. Next follows the great pyramid of Ghizeh, which has been termed a stone bible, the Masons might call it that wonderful religious, scientific, and astronomical Tracing- board. According to Herodotus it was built by Cheops, whom the priests held in detestation, as he had caused all the temples to be closed during its erection, its date variously estimated at 3324 to 43^5 is said that
the architect was Khufu-ankh, an Osirian, who was buried near to it. Cheops was certainly an Osirian, whilst the priests were opposed to that worship. (29) All the pyra- mids had their official priests attached, and even in the earliest times fabulous sums were lavished upon these structures, and upon their temples. These latter were divided into three portions: — i, an outer court, not always roofed ; 2, the body of the temple ; 3, the Holy- place and the shrine of the god in whose honour the temple was built. The temple of Jerusalem was of analo- gous character. Archaeologists consider that the pre- historical nucleus was the holy-place, and that gradually other chambers began to be erected around it. The pyramid was the model upon which the builder acted, the walls sloping and narrowing upwards.
There are grave discrepancies amongst the learned in regard to the chronology of this nation, owing to dis- agreement as to whether certain dynasties of kings were reigning contemporaneously ; but the great pyramid of Ghizeh, whatever its real age, shews a marvellous know- ledge of geometry, astronomy, and operative Masonry. The hardest granite has been chiselled with such mathe- matical accuracy that a knife blade will not enter the joints, and men of science suppose that they have dis- covered in its construction the evidence of a learning equal to that of the present day. The number 5, and its multiples, is the radical basis of its measurements ; pre- cisely as the Israelitish Tabernacle is set up with the like (M) Egypt, Wm, Oxley, p. 87.
56
THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
multiple of 5, whilst the Temple of Solomon works upon its exact double or 10. The pyramid is found to be an exact mathematical expression of the proportion which the diameter bears to its circumference, that is as i is to 3.1459. It is accurately oriented, that is its four sides are opposite the cardinal points ; and it occurs that twice in each year, at a period of 14 days before the spring, and 14 days after the autumnal equinox, the sun for a short period seems to be resting upon the very apex of the pyramid, as if it was its pedestal. It is so constructed that five hundred million pyramid inches, or twenty million cubits, represent the polar axis of the earth. The height multiplied by ten to its ninth power gives the distance of the sun from the earth (about g2\ million miles). If the length of each of its four base lines is divided by cubits of 25 inches it gives the exact length of a solar year, in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. The length in inches of the two diagonal lines, drawn across the base, gives exactly the number of years occupied in a full procession of the equinoxes, or 25,826^ years. The entrance is so designed that it indicates the obliquity of the polar axis of the earth, and the stones of the Masonry above the entrance form the monogram of Osiris, it is a cube over which are two squares. The chambers are equally based upon intricate mathematical calculations, and various astronomical facts are symbolised in the arrangements of its several parts, but for these particulars the reader must consult some of the works which have been specially written on the subject. The coffre in the King’s Chamber is generally considered a pastas of Initiation, but is said also to constitute a standard of dry measures. Even a prophetical bearing is said to be found in its measurements, but as this is the least certain of these various uncertain correspondences we will not enter into it here.
Herodotus says that it took 300,000 workmen to build the structure in 30 years, and that one-third of the men and of the time were employed in making a causeway
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 5/
for the blocks. Noting its splendid work, we may ask, if this pyramid is only 5,000 years old, of what age is Cyclopean work?
But the pyramid of Cheops has a much more important bearing on Speculative Freemasonry than anything that we have yet said ; and though the secrecy of the priests of Egypt was absolute, yet is not altogether impenetrable. This secrecy was equally stringent at Memphis, Thebes, and Heliopolis, and when Pythagoras applied for initia- tion he was referred from one to the other. The architect of Cheops embodied the Osirian Mysteries in imperishable stone, as did also the builder of the Babylonian Borsippa, and the designer of the Persian cave of Mythras. And now for something of the Mysteries of Egypt, as repre- sented by this pyramid. The entrance and its passage conform to the letter Y, or “ two paths” of Pythagoras and the broad and narrow way of the Greek Mysteries. The descending path leads to an underground chamber, the floor of which is rough and unhewn, as is the rough Ashlar of a Freemason. The ascending passage leads first to a. middle chamber named the Queen’s, or that of our Lady Isis, and above that is the King’s chamber with the empty sarcophagus of Osiris ; over all are five secret chambers of small dimensions. Dr. Oliver asserts that the vesica piscis enters into the constructive design of the Queen’s chamber, (^o) The whole of the internal struc- ture covers an all-important allegory. It has been recently shewn by Brother W. M. Adams, and having the general approval of Professor Maspero, that there is a relationship between the internal structure of the pyramid and the Ritual of the Dead, or as Maspero says, “ both the one and the other have reference to an ideal house which Horus was conceived to have erected for his father Osiris, and Adams points out that the Well, the hidden lintel, the north and south passages apply equally to the heavenly temple, and the earthly counterpart. It is in fact the embodiment, perhaps 6,000 years ago, of a
(30) Freemasons’ Treasury, p. 241.
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speculative and operative Masonry consonant with the spiritual faith of Osiris.
The religious symbols of Egypt, according to Mr.'* William Oxley’s work on Egypt, changed with the progress of the sun through the signs of the zodiac, an assertion confirmed by much evidence. The era of Osiris and Isis is mythical, yet they are represented as parents of the twins Horus and Harmachis. In the year 4,565 B.C. the sun entered Taurus, and the Bull became the emblem of Osiris. It entered Aries 2,410 B.C., and the Ram becomes the emblem of Amen at Thebes. It entered Pisces 255 B.C., and we have crocodile- shaped gods, and the fish is a Christian symbol. The Egyptians conveyed something of this nature to Herodotus, who records it in a curious f abk ; Heracles desired to behold the highest god, he being one of the 12 minor gods; at length to meet his prayers, the supreme one revealed himself clothed in the skin and with the head of a Ram. The late Godfrey Higgins supposes in his AnacaLypsis that when the sun entered Taurus he found man a negro such as the black Budha, and when he entered Aries he found him still black but with aquiline nose and straight hair as in the handsome Chrishna.
The recent discoveries of Colonel Ram indicates that the Sphinx is one of the most ancient monuments of Egypt, as it was old in the days of Cheops, and there is a tablet which shows that it was repaired by Pharaoh Chephren. It represents, as facing the rising sun, the god Ra-Harmachis and has at its base several chambers hewn in the rock, the tombs of kings and priests devoted to the worship of Harmachis.
During the 5th dynasty of Kings several small temples were erected, as at Esneh, some pyramids, and an Osirian temple at Dendereh. There is an inscription of the 6th dynasty in the Ghizeh Museum, in which Una, a man ot the people, describes how he had been sent by Pepi . to cut, and then convey, a block of stone for the roya
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 59
tomb ; he details the mode in which he accomplished this, yith much engineering skill, about 3,400 B.C., and styles himself “chief of the royal workmen,” Usertesen L, perhaps 3,000 B.C., laid the foundation of the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, and assumes himself to be son of the double Harmachis ; the same king built the front part of the temple of Karnak, which measures 1,200 feet by 348 feet ; he also enlarged the temple of Ptah at Memphis. Professor Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., considers that as Karnak is oriented to receive the direct shaft of the sunlight at the season when it touched the horizon, opposite the temple gateway, that it was built 3,700 B.C.
The superintendence of Egyptian Craftsmen by higher officials is shewn in the rockcut temple of Rekhmara, as 3,400 years ago the Vizier of Thebes is represented with all his attendants, “ inspecting all the handicrafts made in the temple of the house of Amen, and teaching each man his duty concerning his trade.” His inscription concludes : “ I have left no evil deeds behind me, may I be declared just and true in the great judgment.” (Bos- cawen in Globe, Aug., 1900.)
A few centuries later the famous Labyrinth was erected ; it represents the twelve Zodiacal signs, and the twelve great gods, and contains 3,000 chambers with a lofty carved pyramid as adjunct. As proof that the priests had a monotheistic creed we quote the following words from over the gate- way of the temple of Medinet- Abou : — “ It is He that has made all that is, and without Him nothing has been made.” The temple of Luxor is the largest upon earth, but space fails us to record a tithe of the mighty works of this wonderful race. The names of numerous architects are preserved and Brugsch, Leib- lein, and Lepsius, give the names of thirty- four, some of whom were allied with the reigning Pharaohs. Commer- cial intercourse existed with China, as pottery, and other works of art, have been found in very ancient tombs.
There is the record of an Artist of the name of Iretsen, of about 2,800 B.C., in which he says: — “I know the
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mystery of the divine Word ; the ordinances of the religious festivals, and every rite performed therein, and I have never strayed from them. I know how to produce the form that issueth forth and cometh in, so that each member goes to its place. I know the contem- plating eye, without a second, which affrights the wicked ; also the posing of the arm that brings the hippopotamus low. I know the making of amulets, by which one may go and the fire will not give its flame, nor will the water destroy. I am an artist wise in his art, a man standing above all men by his learning.” One passage here can only refer to the egress and ingress of the soul in trance, as in the Yogism of India, and the amulets against fire and water would seem to refer to the trials of the Neo- phyte by fire and water in the Mysteries. But in our days very extraordinary tales are told about the priests of Japan, and other less civilised people, walking unharmed over hot coals. We wonder how this artist would inter- pret the following symbolic design upon an ancient monument ? A lion holds in one paw a crux-ansata and with the other takes the hand of a recumbent man, whose head is near an altar, as if the lion intended to raise the man ; at the altar stands a god with the hailing sign of a Craftsman,
The highest development of Egyptian civilisation was during the patriarchal times extending from the 4th to the 1 2th dynasty, say from 7,000 to 2,400 B.C., and before Egypt began to be affected by foreign influence. The kings had their “ Court Architects,” the profession being held in such honour that this officer often mated with the royal family. During the whole period that we have named the highest positions of the State were open to intellect, and the humblest man might aspire to become a General, a Court Architect, or a royal Scribe: the Kings were the fathers of the people, and accessible to their subjects, and a successful soldier or architect might become, as the highest prize, a “Royal Companion,” or a “True royal (81) Vide Pike’s Morals and Dogma, p. 80.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 6l
Companion,” and be intimately associated with the King. (32)
Running contemporaneously with the Egyptian culture, was that of the great Scytho-Hittite Kingdom, the equal of Egypt, in metals, buildings, and art, and Captain Conder points out that the point within a circle, O, was their phonetic symbol for An, or God ; the hve-pointed star, the symbol of to, which implies either down, or to descend, and that the Cypriote symbol of two triangles joined at their apex, but without the bottom line, was the Hittite character for man or protection. (33)
A long period of historical darkness now supervenes, and it has been discovered that a race totally distinct from the Egyptians had taken possession of the high- lands to the north of Thebes, between the 7th and 9th dynasty. They were a tall, powerful race, resembling the Lybian and Ammonite people, had wavy brown hair, prominent aquiline noses, and used flint axes and copper implements. They were accomplished potters, stone workers, and metallurgists. In a ritualistic sense they were cannibals, and broke the bones of human bodies to extract the marrow. Near to the home of this recently discovered race was Nubt, a town which was devoted to the worship of the execrated Set and which is mentioned in one of the Satires of Juvenal, as the origin of horrid wars, and cannibal orgies.
Following upon this, as if in some measure due to It, was the domination of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, who overran Egypt, between 2500 and 1600 B.C. perhaps dependent in part upon the ferment which arose in Central Asia when the Elamitpc; lnvprl^.1
W. St. Chad Boscawen. (33) Lucifer, ix.
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the invaders. Manetho, an Egyptian historian who was employed by the Greek Ptolomies to investigate the annals of Egypt, asserts that the Hebrews were of this race. Simplicius asserts that what Moses taught the Hebrews he had learned in the Mysteries. These Hyksos were at length expelled by a Theban of the name of Aahames and the Osirian temples were reopened.
Very recently the mummy of Menephtah was discovered at Luxor, and on examination at Cairo was held to be the Pharaoh who pursued the Israelites ; he was the 2nd king of the 19th dynasty.
Thothmes HI., about 1,600 B.C., relates the ceremony which he observed in laying a foundation-stone at Buto, but the tablet is imperfect. The first stroke of the hammer thereon appears to be intended to conjure the keeping out of the water ; a document was deposited in the stone containing the names of all the great gods and goddesses, “ and the people rejoiced.” There is also an inscription of this period on the Statue of Semut, in which he is styled ; “ First of the first, and Master of the works of all Masters of work.”
There are also geometrical diagrams of this period indicating the knowledge of the square, and in the great pyramid there yet exists a workman’s diagram indicating the method of making a right angle ; the vesica piscis exists in a recess over the King’s Chamber. Some of the drawings yet exist of a Canon of proportion for the con- struction of the human figure, which Vitruvius represents by this X , the navel being the centre ; and though from the earliest to the latest times, the Canon varied, the relative proportions were fixed by forming a chequered diagram of perfect squares.- Clement of Alexandria says that the temples of Jerusalem and Egypt separated the congregation and the Sanctuary by a large curtain of four colours, drawn over five pillars, the one alluding to the cardinal points of the compass, the other to the elements. The Pyramids were worked from the centre by the angle
Josephus, Against Apion.
PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 63
i
3, 4, 5. The Guilds say that this symbol T F F, indicates the presence of 3 G.M.M.’s.
There followed upon this era the introduction into Egypt of a large amount of Babylonian influencOj but to render this comprehensible some explanation is necessary. At some remote period races of conquering Cushites from Ethiopia, followed by Semites, settled in Elam, had planted themselves in Babylon. The first of them was probably a worshipper of the god Marduk, or Mercury who is also Thoth and Hermes, for the Biblical Nimrod is one with Marduk, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel and Erech and (Ur in) Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. These new comers accepted the religion of the earlier Akkadians, whence we may assume either that there had arisen no great distinctions in the mode of worship, or that the latter had influence as a race of higher culture. The conquerors, however, changed the names of the gods to adapt them to their own Arya-Semitic tongue, and as astronomical terms are in that language the inference is drawn that that science was a Semitic develop- ment. (^5^ The chief gods of the assimilated race were Samas the sun-god ; Sin the moon-god ; and Yav “ the inundator,” who is probably Hea of Akkad. They accepted the doctrine of the soul’s immortality, (^e) The early Assyrian King Asir-nasir-pal claims all the dia- bolical conquests which he relates in his inscriptions from these gods, and proclaimed himself as the “exalter of Yav.” The Semitic names of Beth-Yakin and Yakin, as names of places and persons are found in these early inscriptions. The remains of this theology exists to-day amongst the Yezids of Asia, the sun is worshipped by its old name, and the moon and bull receive equal veneration amongst some of the tribes, and with the worship have been transmitted secret modes of recognition, which a writer who was acquainted with them terms Freemasons’
( ) Chaldnan Afagtc — Lenormant.
( ) Jiecorda of the Pant — translated hymn.
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signs. (^'^) It equally constitutes an argument for the possibility of the uninterrupted transmission of Free- masonry from century to century ; and it is impossible to overlook the many striking points of similarity to the primitive Mysteries which it possesses ; and the inference which we may draw from this is that an educated priest- hood had added art and science to their curriculum, amd that all temples yet continued to be erected under their supervision.
The Chaldean civilisation about 4,000 years ago domi- nated Syria, and its tongue became the diplomatic language of the known world, whilst commerce was main- tained extensively between Egypt, Babylon, India, and China. About 1500 B.C. an Egyptian King of the name of Amenophis III., a worshipper of the Theban god Amen, married an Asiatic woman who surrounded the throne with her kindred, and a Babylon Scribe was estab- lished at the Court, for Chaldean legends were copied and sent to Egypt. Their son Amen-hotep adopted the Chaldean faith and changed his name to Khu-en-aten, withdrawing from Amen, then one of the oldest priest- hoods in the world. He built in eight years the vast city of Tel-el-amarna, where for seventeen years he enforced the worship of the “ Solar disc,” or its vitalising rays. It was in fact the worship of the sun’s vital rays as the source of all vital life, power and force. Probably in some respects it was a restoration of the faith of the Hyksos, but it terminated again with the death of the King. In the erection of his new city, Bek, the hereditary successor of a long line of Egyptian architects, is described as — “ the artist, the overseer of the sculptors, the teacher of the King himself.” His assistant, or what we should now term, his Deputy or Warden, was Potha, who is described as — “ Master of the Sculptors of the Queen,” by whom no doubt the Asiatic is meant. These valuable records have only recently been disinterred, and in the house of the Master, trial-pieces were found in various stages, exem- Ars Quat. Cor. iv. — Yezids (Yarker).
■ PROTO-ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 65
plifying the cutting of hieroglyphics, and as well, per- fectly finished portraits and statues, without any admix- ture of foreign style, and which are equal to any work of the moderns. It is noteworthy that the ground plan of the tomb of the Queen of Amenophis III., about 1470 B.C., is a cross of the Latin form, and as Mr. William Oxley says, “ exactly on the plan of a Christian church.”
The Ramiside dynasty, in which the priests of Amen came again into power, did much in the 14th century B.C. to adorn Egypt with stately buildings, and Beken- Khonsoo describes himself as the architect of Rameses II., “the friend of Amen,” and the restorer of Karnak, and Dr. Wm. Birch informs us that the twins Suti and Har were Mer-kat, architects, who had charge of Karnak. Rameses III. makes a record of the numerous temples which he restored. He built at Thebes a temple to Khons, of good hewn sandstone and black basalt, having gates whose folding doors were plated with gold and itself overlaid with electrum like the horizon of heaven.(38) It is unfortunate that we have so little that is authentic in regard to the rites of the Mysteries, though the doctrine is fully embodied in the Ritucil of the Dcod^ we only begin to have details after they had been carried to Greece by Orpheus, Cadmus, and Cecrops in the i6th century B.C. All the Egyptian Kings were initiated into them, and are represented as adorned with very handsome aprons. There are also representations, in paintings, of scenes which may equally apply to the earthly Mysteries, or to the passage of the soul in the after life, which was in reality the object of the sacerdotal Mysteries, and it was a firm custom in Egypt to adapt their whole life to their faith in the future, or to enact in their religious rites, that which they believed would follow on quitting the body.
Ill our next chapter we may be able to form a more solid opinion upon the changes made in the Cabiric Mys- teries, which were clearly the most ancient of the great Mysteries, by the advanced Aryans, and as to the alleged
(’“) Records of the Past, vi.
E
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changes made in ancient Egypt by the substitution of cosmogonical or natural effects, for such traditional history as that recorded by Sanconiathon, Berosus, etc., a natural consequence, for the Egyptians were undoubtedly a nation of mixed blood. They seem ffrst to have been of the Negro or Hamitic type with a polytheistic creed, they saw God in all nature and in all forms. As proto- Aryans they developed greatly the arts and sciences. Lastly, reinforced by purer Aryans they became the Apostles of the conditional immortality of the human soul. During the thousand years rule of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, they were in constant contact with a monotheistic creed, but no sooner had they driven out these oppressors than the rites of the doctrine of immortality, under a Father, Mother, and Son, arose in their old splendour.
By way of closing this chapter it may be pointed out that we have ffrst a series of Mysteries, which amongst people who, living in hot climates, had little need of art, and conffned themselves rather to speculative views of the creation of the world and the relations that exist between heaven and earth. To these, in the next stage were added the whole circle of arts and science, the older Mysteries as to the creation of the world and the affinity between heaven and earth were retained, but a superior race of Cabiri added an improved architecture, agriculture, metal- lurgy, shipbuilding, and all the arts. The third stage which followed was the separation of the Mysteries of Religion and Art into two branches.
CHAPTER III.
ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
IN the long series of ages which it took to develop the Ugro-altaic monosyllabic language into proto-Aryan, and in the centuries which it took to convert the Aryo- European into Celitc, Latin, Sclavonic, Lettic, German j other branches into sub-dialects as, for instance, Indo- Aryan into Sanscrit, Persian, Greek, Armenian, Pushtu, Kurd, Baluchi, Hindustani ; and again the Semitic speech into Babylonian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Arabic, etc., need we feel surprised if the Rites of the Theosophical and Art Mysteries underwent a variation also. Thus the primitive Mysteries known as Magian and Cabiric, were denominated Osirian amongst the Copts; Tammuz and Adonis amongst the Semites ; Dionysian amongst the Assyrians and the Greeks; and applied to Bacchus amongst the Latins. Yet all had the same primitive origin in a remote Arcane School, and varied but by a gradual development in technique.
And notwithstanding such departures from an exact orm of transmission, with the change of scene, in passing from one country to another by colonists, the social customs of Oriental nations are most unchanging. We have already instanced the practice to-day of Babylonian ri es by the Yezids. The sacred springs and trees of the o d worship are venerated with the ancient rites of music and the dance. The priests of Christianity may be seen practising their ceremonials with the serpent staff of Mercury or Esculapius in their hands; and also personat- ing the High priest of Zeus of Vanessa. The ancient
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Artemis of the Lakes, the Ephesian Aphrodite who is Ishter in Chaldea, and Astarte in Phoenicia, has been succeeded by the Virgin of the Lakes, with a special society called the Takmorei which has consolidated into a species of Freemasonry termed the “ Brotherhood of the Sign.” Even in this country many curious customs of the Druids have been preserved in the three kingdoms. And as Free Masonry can unquestionably be carried up to very ancient times in England, and, beyond, its legends into Oriental lands, what right can be adduced to con- demn its traditions as altogether false? The sacred Mysteries spread with the various colonies into many lands and in the lapse of ages began to apply their tradi- tional knowledge to their new home, under the supposition that their ancestors had occupied this residence in all time.
The late Lord Beaconsheld, in his Lothair, speaks of the Madre Natura as the oldest and the most powerful of the secret societies of Italy, whose mystic origin, in the ideal- ised worship of nature, reaches the era of paganism, and which, he says, may have been founded by some of the despoiled professors of the ancient faith, which as time advanced has assumed many forms. Its tradition that one of the Popes, as Cardinal de Medici, became a mem- ber of the Fraternity is accredited upon some documen- tary grounds, and it accepted the allegorical interpretation which the Neo-Platonists had placed upon the Pagan creeds during the first Ages of Christianity.
It is necessary to say that in dealing with the chron- ology of the ancients we have no certain era which enables us to give dates with the least precision. We saw m our last chapter that from North Europe colonies spread over Asia, Arabia, and Chaldea, erecting some wonderful structures in their passage and introducing art into their new settlements. The Celts, Persians, and Greeks con- tinued together a sufficient length of time to ment the title of true Aryans, but of the main branch the Hm u undoubtedly made the greatest progress in architecture.
ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES. 69
literature, and early civilisation. There is a record, which we will allude to later, that a whole army of pure Aryans entered Egypt. The cradle of the Hindu is traditionally held to be the high-table-land between Thibet and India in the region of the lake Mansurawara. Before their advance into India three chief peoples were m possession of that country : the Dravidians of the north west, who have some affinity with the aborigines of south and west Australia, use the boomerang as a weapon, and have the same words for I, thou, he, you, etc., these now use a language represented by Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kanarese, Tulu, Kudugu, Toda, Kota, Gond, Kandh, Urain, Rajmahal, etc. A second tribe was the Kolarians driven from the north-east against the Dravidian, and so broken up into Santals, Savars, Kurkus, Juangs, Hos, etc. A third race were the Tibeto-Burman tribes who have an affinity with the Mongolians. Lastly, and after the inva- sion of India, Scythic tribes, as the Jats or Getae, and the Ghakkars, secured a footing in the country ; our Gypsies seem to spring from the Jat race.
As Aryan civilisation was but an advance upon what we have termed proto-Aryan, so also it follows that the art of building with squared and levelled stones, wrought by the use of square, level, and plumb was the gradual improvement upon the Cyclopean system of irregular blocks ; and mingled with the most ancient level architec- ture of India, equally with various other countries, are walls which resemble the Cyclopean method of build- > (0 from this, and other circumstances, we may draw the conclusion that Aryan culture was the medium of advanced architecture. This improvement had birth in north India and one of the oldest cities was the Aryan colony of Balkh where are vast ruins, colossal images, of which the number of prominent figures, or recesses, amount to twelve thousand, in subterranean temples hewn out of the solid rock.
At a remote period there arose a contest for supremacy (h Philosophy of History. F. von Schlegcl.
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between the warrior and the priest, who had the oral hymns that now compose the Vedas ; also termed the wars of the solar (warrior) and lunar (Brahmin) races. The priests or Brahmins obtained a victory over the Maharajahs who were of a different branch of the Aryan family, and were both warriors and agriculturists. An alliance was formed, and the warriors were permitted to receive a limited amount of religious instruction, and at a period later than the oldest Vedas, a system of heredi- tary caste was established in three chief divisions, the Brahmin, warrior, and artisan, which may be now con- sidered three distinct Rites of the Mysteries.
It has long been thought that some of these ancient wars were the result of a dispute as to the relative power of the two forces of nature. In prehistoric times a system had spread over the world in which creative spirit was represented by the Phallus, and hrst or primordial matter by the Yoni, or the male and female organs of generation, but it is somewhat doubtful whether the most ancient hymns accepted these emblems ; the emblems are older than any of the hymns when committed to writing, but the probability is that when the hymns were written they had not then been sectarianly adopted. Primordial matter, upon which the action of spirit is supposed to take place, is not ordinary matter as we designate it, but its originator ; and it is a scientihc fact, well known to the ancients, and embodied in the Divine Poemander of Hermes, that matter, such as we know it, cannot be destroyed, we can only change its form, and under all that we see lies this primordial matter, as the vehicle of
spirit. , .
Both spirit and primordial matter are eternal, and m
the recondite aspect of Aryan philosophy, all creation springs from the union of these two indestructible prin- ciples, which is Para-Brahm, or Deity without form. In Egypt the conjoint worship of the two active principles, or latent forces, is found emblemised in the crux ansata f which embraces both attributes ; separately they appear
ARYAN CIVILISATION AND MYSTERIES.
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also in the obelisk and the vesica-pisces, but also in various other emblems in all countries. In remote times sects arose that made a separate symbol of one or other of the principles.
It has been shewn by Dr. Inman (^) that most Hebrew names have reference to the male principle. On the other hand the Greeks, who are designated Yavans in Hindu lite- rature, with other tribes that it was said were expelled the Aryan home with them, were worshippers of that female nature, or principle of nature, which in Egypt was adored as Isis ; in Babylon as Ishter ; in Samothrace as Ghe ; in Britain as Ceridwen ; in Italy as Cybele ; in Greece as Ceres ; in Armenia as Anaitis ; in Germany as Hertha ; in Persia as Mythra ; and we may even add, in Christian times as the Virgin Mary.
The learned Brother Dr. George Oliver, in his History of Initiation, professes to give the ceremonials of Initia- tion into the Brahminical Rites of Mahadeva, but as we know of no evidence of their accuracy we shall refrain from quoting the account. There is a very interesting legend in Porphyry, which he gives upon the authority of Bardesanes, an Initiate and Gnostic, who had it from the Brahmins. There was a very lofty mountain which had in it a cave of large dimensions. It contained a statue of 12 cubits with its arms extended in form of a cross, the face was half male and half female ; on the right breast was represented the Sun, and on the left the Moon ; the arms had figures of the sky, the ocean, mountains, rivers, plants, and animals ; on the head of the figure was a god enthroned. Beyond this was a large extension of the cavern, guarded by a door from which issued a stream of water, but only the pure in mind could pass this door ; but upon doing this they reached a pellucid fountain. The writer supposes that it is to this cavern of Initiation that Apollonius of Tyana alludes to the letters which he addressed to the Brahmins, where he is wont to say, “ No ! by the Tantalian water by which you Initiated me into
('*) Ancient Faiths in Ancient Names.
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your Mysteries.” The description of this cavern has some points very similar to the Peak cavern in Derbyshire, which Faber supposes was used by the Druids for like purposes. The late H. P. Blavatsky asserts that every ancient and modern Initiate takes the following oath :
“ And I swear to give up my life for the salvation of my brothers, which constitute the whole of mankind, if called upon, and to die in the defence of truth.”
A system of caste initiation does exist amongst the Hindus at this day. Thus a Brahmin youth is first invested with a sacred symbolic cord worn from the left shoulder to the right hip, which is done at about 8 years of age ; for a Brahmin the thread is cotton ; warriors of flax ; traders of wool. As the Par sees are of Aryan race, a similar custom prevails amongst them ; the cord in this case goes thrice round the waist. It is three yarns twisted into one thread, and three of such threads knotted into a circle, symbolising “ one in three, and three in one” ; it also signifies these conquests, over speech, thoughts, actions. The Hindu youth is from this time instructed in the Mysteries of the Vedas, and when he comes of age he is formally bound in the Goparam to the service of his temple and instructed in the science and higher Mysteries of his religion ; it is practically analogous to Christian baptism, and confirmation. But the instruction of a Hindu is sometimes compared to a “ nine-storied house,” and they speak mystically of nine spiritual grades, repre- sented by nine jewels upon a string, or in the hands of a beggar. A Hindu Mason thus allegorises the practices of a Brahmin ; “ With the sacred Word of a Brahmin on his lips, the Yogi closes his eyes to the visible creation, that in abstraction he may erect the symbolic temple, looking heartfully upon his body as a temple with nine gates, governed by three principal officers, supported by three subordinate agents. The temple of Truth is thus built in the heart, without the sound of metal tool.” The symbol of a Pranayani Yogi, as an emblem of the prolongation of life beyond the ordinary time, is the 5 pointed star m a circle, @ •
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73
Then again there are degrees of Aspirants who are taught by Brahmins of different degrees of learning, and these again by ascetics or Mahatmas of different degrees of spiritual knowledge. The Buddhists of Thibet recog- nise four degrees of spiritual advancement ; and amongst the Moslem sects of India, Persia, and Turkey, the system is sometimes of four, and with others of seven degrees. Much of this is spoken mystically and with secrecy, and has its counterparts in the esoteric side of Freemasonry.
There is a symbolic doctrine taught by the Brahmins to their disciples in respect to the construction of their temples, and given orally ; their basic symbol is the equilateral triangle, the first corner represents birth, the next death, and the apex immortality ; the four walls, floor, etc., are typical of their doctrinal teaching ; the entrance must be either south or west so that the wor- shipper may face either the north where the gods are said to reside and whence knowledge comes, or the east whence rites and ceremonies are derived ; the body of the temple represents our human body, and the central image, which has its emblem, much resembling the “ Seals ” of the Rosicruciains, symbolises our own jivatma, or immortal spirit, but the aspects or faces are only explained fully to competent Initiates. (^) This species of instruction has been equally applied to our own cathedrals. There is also supposed to be what we may call an invisible tyler, represented by a statue.
That the ancient Brahminical system of Initiation was fearfully secret is evidenced by the Agrouchada Parikshai or manual of Hindu caste-initiation, which makes death the penalty of indiscretion. Every initiate of the first class who betrays the secret instruction to members of other castes must have his tongue cut out, and suffer other mutilations. Again, it is said that : “ every Initiate, to whatever grade he may belong, who reveals the great sacred formula must be put to death.” And, “ any Initiate of the third class who reveals, before the prescribed time,
(®) Mis. Notes and Queries, x, p. 279.
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to the Initiates of the second class, the superior truths, must be put to death.” Blavatsky states that if an aged Brahmin was tired of life he might give his own blood, in place of an animal sacrifi.ce, to the disciple whom he was initiating. She makes no reference to her authority, but the act is probable enough.
We shall allude shortly to the Mysteries of Mythras, Dionysos, and Osiris, as systems practised by the Aryan race, but it must be borne in mind that the Hindus teach that the Persians and Greeks were of the warrior and agricultural caste, who were only allowed partial instruc- tion in Vedaic learning, but it is possible that they branched from the parent stem before the establishment of caste, and others refused caste arrangement. The Maha- rajahs of India identify themselves with the legislation of Bacchus or Dionysos, whom the German savant, Heeren, believes to be the Parusha-Rama, or incarnated priest who aided the Brahmins. The basis of the Devanagari char- acter of the Hindus, called the “ Alphabet of the Gods,” is the square “1, termed “the pillar of knowledge entwined with the garland of thought.”
But besides the Initiatory ceremonies of Brahmins, and warriors, there has existed from remote times a succession of members of an Art Fraternity, using the investiture of the sacred thread, and with an Initiation of their own intended to embrace all castes. The god whom they recognise is Visvakarman, the great builder, or Architect of the Universe, and Lord of the Art Fraternity. Myth- ology says that he crucified his son Surya (the sun) upon his lathe, which is esoterically the Jain cross, , or four squares joined at the ends ; and the Pagodas of Benares, and Mathura are built as an equal-limbed cross, as are many others, of which we mentioned some in our last
chapter.
In a lecture of 1884 Bro. Nobin Chand Bural speaking of the existing Hindu sect of Visvakarma says that all description of Artizans observe the last day of the month Bakdra as a close holiday sacred to Visvakarma, and will
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not even touch a tool, and says : “ Mr. Ferguson, the celebrated archaeologist, who is a good authority on these matters, connects the sect with some of the old temples abounding in those parts, and by reason of these temples bearing Masonic symbols and devices sculptured on their walls, competent authorities connect the sect with Masonry.”
When Jacolliot, the celebrated French savant and author, was studying the antiquities of India, he was informed by the priests of Benares, that, in very remote ages, “ thousands of ages before our era,” he says, the Artisan caste formed two divisions the one of which adopted as its mark or sign the plumb-rule, and the other the level. They eventually united into one, in order the more effectually to resist the confederacy between the two higher castes ; and all the great works of remote ages were executed by this confederacy. As this confederacy is evidently a mixed caste, and as the two higher castes, refused them equal recognition, it seems evident, that these builders were a mixture of Aryans and aborigines, who had their existence as a Fraternity before caste existed, and from the evidence adduced in our last chapter, and the splendour of their labour, a branch of the Cabiric fraternity.
A remnant of this confederacy was recently brought to light by a very ridiculous mistake of our Government in India by interpreting mystical language as “ to the repair of their temple,” by Yogis, literally. It is located in Cochin where the dynasty is of Dravidian origin. They claim, in a pamphlet, equal right to the sacred cord with the Brahmins, and even dispute their authority, claiming that their privileges and special symbolic instructions were conceded by the Rishis who founded the Brahminical caste Initiation, in those remote ages when hereditary caste was first established. Whilst the Brahmins use nature symbols to embody divine truths, they express the esoteric truths of the Vedas by art symbols, plans, and measure- ments. (The reader should note this because it is the
;6
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essential difference between Modern Free Masonry and the church.) All temples and even private houses are erected according to traditional symbolism, which conveys a secret and esoteric doctrine. Aii Anglo-Indian Officer who had the duty of inspecting the Guilds at the date of the Mutiny says they have all which Masonry possesses.
We have here an Art Society springing out of the old reli- gious Mysteries but becoming by conquest an independent organisation, tolerated for its great services. Such were the Dionysian Artificers of Greece, whence originated the Roman Colleges of Artificers, and we shall assign good reasons for believing that it was this creation of caste that made Artists into a separate society.
Brother C. Purdon Clarke, who has had practical experi- ence amongst these Master builders, confirms the general truth of these claims. C) He says that the Hindu car- penters and masons, who are also carvers, constitute a body that claims peculiar privileges of divine origin, which, though often prejudicial to the Brahmins, were usually conceded. To these artizans belong 32, or as some reckon 64, of the Shastras of which they are the custodians. At the great temple of Madura, in 1881, whilst one of these Shastras were read out, an architect drew from the details the representation of one of their deities. The record seemed but a string of meaningless figures resembling a table of logarithms, but when these were marked down in off-set lines, on both sides of a centre stem, it produced a representation of Vishnu with his flute, standing upon one leg. He noticed that the centre stem was divided into 96 parts, and he further states that the Pagoda at Cochin in Travancore has a special room set apart for the temple architect, the walls being decorated with full size figures of temple furniture. All this seems to be an advance upon the chequer designs which were used in ancient Egypt. Ram Ras, in his work upon the building caste, says that jealous of the Brahmins and of trade competitions, they took care to conceal from
(*) Vide Ars Quat. Cor., vi, p. 99.
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the rest of the people the sacred volumes which have descended to them. The Shastra on civil architecture says that, “ an architect should be conversant in all sciences, ever attentive to his vocations, generous, sincere, and devoid of enmity or jealousy.”
The late Brother Whymper states that the key-stone used in erections by the earliest Aryan builders was tau- shaped and that the wedge-shaped key-stone, though of old date, is of a more modern form, (s) According to the Vastu Shastra, the ancient Hindu temple consisted of seven courts, as at Srirangam and Mavalipuram, their seven walls referring allegorically to the seven essences of the human temple. In the centre of these courts was a raised seat without any covering. At entrance the wor- shippers had to undergo purification before a fire, kept burning for that purpose. The Goparams, or towers at the entrance, represent the mountain over which Deity presides, surrounded by seven classes of angels and puri- fied beings. The palace of the King of Siam has seven roofs, and he only can occupy the highest stage.
If we rely upon the Hindu tradition, as we may, that the Persians and the Greeks were members of the Maha- rajah caste, coupled with what seems to be historical fact that certain parts of India refused caste laws, we find a reason for the special characteristics of the Mysteries, so far as applies to Brahmin governed countries but not there- fore of general practice. It leads to this conclusion that in the Rites of Maha-deva we have the Brahmin caste ; in the Mythraic, and their equivalents, we have the Maha- rajah caste ; whilst in the followers of Visvakarraan we have the Artizans, and this combination tends to prove the contentions of the last named, coupled with the evidence of the priests of Benares, that they were sanc- tioned when the warriors combined with the Brahmins to confine each profession in a close fold, and make hewers of wood, and drawers of water, of an ancient population that they conquered upon advancing into India. We
(“) Ibid. vi.
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should not expect under the rule of an old patriarchal government to hnd religion and art divorced, nor a body of Masons, practising a system of religion as a separate organisation. Native Mysteries, which followed the Cabiric system of religion and art in union, would be rendered subject by caste laws to the Brahmins, and socially reduced to an inferior position, and new bodies would arise on this basis.
Persia. The Magian system, as has already been observed, was not Persian but proto-Median, and as their civilisation preceded the Aryan it argues strongly that a Mystery of the nature of the Cabiric, which combined Theosophy, Science and Art, was of greater antiquity than a Mystery founded upon caste laws, and that the latter system simply modified the former according to the doctrines of their incarnate deity with separate rites so arranged as to preserve caste distinctions. The pontifi- cate of the Magi, as it had been received from the first Zaradust, was the instructor of the Persians, but reformed in the time of Cyrus by a second Zoroaster, and these Mysteries eventually spread over the world and into several counties of Britain. Art has a similar tradition to India.
Mythraic Mysteries. It is believed that the Initiation of Mythras consisted of seven degrees. The first degree was “ Soldier of Mythras,” Porphyry says that the second was that of the “ Lion” — Lion of Mythras ; then followed the “Child of the Sun,” and we find Initiates termed “ Eagles,” and “ Hawks.” Herodotus asserts that Mythra is Urania ; and Ouranos, the Hindu Varuna, was the highest god of Orpheus ; Dionysius the Areopagite uses the term, “ the threefold Mythras.”
During the Initiatory ceremony the candidate passed, as is also said of the Brahminical, through seven caverns, the last of which was embellished with the signs of the Zodiac. Celsus mentions that there was a great ladder of steps, with gates or portals on each, coloured to represent the seven planets as in the turrets of the tower of Babel,
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and the walls of Ecbatana, but Faber justly thinks that this ladder was a pyramid such as Babel itself. The Neophyte underwent 12 trials, the number of the Zodiacal signs, and during the reception was offered a crown on the point of a sword which he had to refuse, saying : “ Mythras is my crown.” He was then offered a wreath which he cast down, saying : “ My crown is in my God.” Justin Martyr says : “ They take bread and a cup of water in the sacrifice of those that are Initiated and pro- nounce certain words over it.” 0 Augustine : “ The candidate received an engraved stone as a token of admission to the Fraternity.” (J) Tertullian : “ Mythras marks the forehead of his soldiers, celebrates the oblation of bread, introduces the image of a resurrection, and under the sword wreathes a crown” ; he also speaks of a baptism and the promise of absolution on the confession of sins.(8) It is said that when Maxime the Ephesian Initiated the Emperor Julian, he used the following formula, on baptis- ing him in blood : “ By this blood I wash thee from thy sins. The word of the highest has entered unto thee, and his spirit henceforth will rest upon thee, newly born. The newly begotten son of the highest god. Thou art the son of Mythras.”
Bread and wine have been held to be the body and blood of Bacchus, and Mr. St. Chad Boscawen (1900) announces that he has just received from Egypt some old Gnostic papyri of the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. in which the names of Jesus, John, and Peter are said to be power- ful. Over a cup or chalice these words appear in Greek : This is not wine, this is the blood of Osiris,” and over a piece of bread : “ This is not bread, this is the very body of Osiris.” It proves that the spirit of the Arcane Schools existed far into Christian times.
The European Temples of Mythras were an oblong square reached by a Pronas on the level, from which a few steps led to the actual temple. On each side of the entrance was a human figure, one of which holds a raised
(*) Faber i, p. 458. {’') 2 John, dis. 7. («) De Proescriptione, c. 40.
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torch, and the other a torch reversed. Benches occupied the two sides, and at the further end was the Altar, and beyond it a statue of Mythras Tauroticus with the sun at the god’s left hand, and the moon at his right hand.
M. Caumont in his magnificent work on the Mythraic Mysteries gives an example of the Mythraic sculpture at Chesterholm. It is a bordered triangular structure on which IS sculptured at the top a small circle, below that an equal-limbed cross, over a semi-circle or crescent. Below that a cock, and at the corner a double circle with cross in centre. The god often appears holding a pair of scales. He quotes a text of St. Jerome to prove that the Rite had seven degrees and that the Mystas (Sacratus) took succes- sively the names of Crow, Occult, Soldier, Persian, Courier of the Sun (Heleodromus), and Father. There are repre- sentations of four small loaves marked with the cross, representing no doubt the bread and water which they con- secrated. The lion, he says, is an emblem of fire, to which water is inimical.
- From two of the passages quoted above it would seem that a simulation of death preceded baptism, thus making it a symbol of the new birth, and hence it follows that Christian baptism is a version of this mystic rite of the Mysteries. In a report of Fermecius Maternus, read before Constantine, it was said that at the celebration of the festival of the Sun, which took place at the same period of time as the Jewish passover, a young ram was slain. The priests of Mythras offered bread and water to the worshippers whilst whispering, “ Be of good courage, ye initiated in the Mysteries of the redeemed god, for we shall find redemption from our afflictions.”
There are Mythraic monuments which bear close resemb- lance to the symbolism of the Apocalypse. In some the god is represented in the act of slaying a bull, and he is crowned with a tiara on which is seven stars ; m others he appears with a torch in each hand, whilst a flaming sword issues out of his mouth. Most of the figures of this god have a man on each side of him, one holding a torch
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flaming upwards, and the other in a reversed position. Mr. Ernest de Bunsen compares the offering of bread to the Haoma sacrifices of the undivided Aryan family, where the priests offered in a cup a piece of the holy plant and some round flat cakes, or draona, corresponding with the Christian wafers, but mystically alluding to the solar disc, and he further says that these Hota priests cor- respond with the seven soma priests of the Hindus, and that the Avesta has this address for the Mysteries : “ Eat, ye men, this mayazda, ye who are worthy of the same by your purity and piety.” (9)
After the revolt of the Persian tribe against the Brah- mins, the former converted the Vedaic Ahriman into an evil being, or devil ; and named other Vedaic gods as his followers ; the Greek Ouranos is the Hindu Varuna and Mythras is associated with Ahura, as the Hindu sun-god is with Varuna.
Arts. The invented arts have their legends. Hushang the son of their first King Kiumers accidentally discovered fire and the blacksmith’s art, further developed by Tahu- mers ; then weaving was invented ; his slaves the demons taught him letters. The next king was the wise Jemschid, in whose time military accoutrements were fabricated ; he built in brick and gave laws, but lost his life at the hands of Zohak, a monstrous usurper of Arabia, but was avenged by Feridun of the Kainian race, one of whose sons slew the other. According to the poet Ferdusi (i°), who collected the annals of the Persian Kings close upon a thousand years ago, Jemschid erected the Artizans into a class by themselves, under a chief, that we should call Grand Master, giving them laws, which Jemschid himself interpreted : —
“ Selecting one from each, the task to guide.
By rules of art, himself the rules applied.”
Brother C P. Clarke informs us that the modern Persian Master-builder works out his ideas by a secret method, in
(') Mis. Notes and Queries (Gould), xii, p. 218.
('*) Shah Namah.
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which a plan is divided into equal chequered squares, of which each square represents either one or four square bricks such as are used in Persia. It is a miniature of one which is transferred to the floor of the Master’s workroom, where the patterns are incised in a plaster of Paris ground- work ready to serve as a mould from which slabs may be cast. (11) The system yet forms the floor-cloth of Free Masonry ; it is still in secret practice in Persia and agrees with the square designs of old Egypt which served to fix a canon of proportion. The Guild Free Masonry says that Solomon’s temple had squares of a cubit now repre-
sented on their carpet.
■E sypi- The worship of Osiris had its centre at Abydos, and was probably the system of an Aryan colony, even if the first King Menes was not of that race. Kaluka Bhatta mentions an Aryan king named Manu Vena, who was driven out of India after a five days’ battle and led his army into Egypt. Georgius Sincellus tells us that in the early times of Amenophis an Indian colony immigrated to Egypt, but the worship of Osins is very much o er than Amenophis. The historian Heeren demonstrates that certain skulls of mummies resemble those of Ben- galese, though this rather connects them with a pre- Aryan race of Indians, and a modern Indian regiment found in the god-ruins of Egypt, the deities of their own country, and Philostratus shews that commercial inter- course existed. There is, however, a perfect resemblance of priestly governance in Egypt with the laws P’^escribed by Manu for the Aryan priests ; moreover the social habits, cLd, and even minute questions of costume, are resem - lances between Egypt and India that cannot be awav As in minor so also in questions of religious sacrftce, the cow, bull, and crocodile were sacred 1 * L t c>niia11v the bull was sacrificed, and the doc-
trtaTof’ Metampsychosis was held,
nations. Flinders Petrie has sanctioned the belief
King Menes is the Mythical Manu of India.
(11) Ars Quat. Cor., vi, p. 99*
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The Mysteries. The Egyptian Mysteries were cele- brated in honour of Isis and Osiris, the former symbolised by the Moon, and the latter by the Sun. We have few authentic details, but we know that Isis corresponds with the Grecian Demeter and Latin Ceres, and Osiris with the Grecian Dionysos and Latin Bacchus. lamblichus says that Amen represents the hidden force which brings all things forth to light ; he is Ptah when he accomplishes all things with skill and truth ; and Osiris as the good and beneficent god. Damascius writes : “ Of the first prin- ciples the Egyptians said nothing, but celebrated it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown darkness.” Jennings considers that the Mystic black and white banner of the Templars referred to this doctrine. Plutarch informs us that Isis was apparelled in clothing partly black and partly white to indicate a notion of the Deity, and that the dead were so clothed to shew that the idea remained with them. Dion Chrysostom says that the ceremonies of the Mysteries were an alterna- tion of light and darkness. It is said that healing of the sick by sleeping in the temples was an actual fact, aided often by dreams, and was “ not fable as amongst the Greeks, but actual fact.”
The Mysteries of Isis required of the candidate a lengthy purification and severe bodily trials. It was a representation of the trials of the soul in the future life, from which lessons for conduct in this life might be drawn. We shall see more of this in comparison with the Greek Mysteries, which were derived from the Egyptian.
^ In the drama of Osiris the legend relates how he was siain by his brother Typhon, in like manner as Bacchus was slam by the Titans, and his body thrown into the Nile. The river carried its burthen to Byblos and deposited it on a tamarind tree, which enclosed it in its growth. Isis travels about lamenting the loss of her husband, as did the Grecian Demeter and Latin Ceres lamenting the loss of her daughter Proserpine, and is at
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length led to the place where the body rests and which she recovers. After this Typhon seizes again the body, dis- members it, and scatters the pieces over the 26 nomes into which Egypt was divided. The sorrowing Isis now wanders about to collect the various pieces, and at length recovers all but the generative part, for which a substitute is made. Eventually the son Horus overthrows Typhon, and reigns in the place of Osiris.
A curious analogy with Masonry may here be noted . the sacred word of the Hebrews, JHVH, in that language signifies generation ; in the Egyptian Mysteries it is the generative organ which is lost and a substitute made ; in Masonry it is the word which is lost and a substitute which is given in its place. A level was recently found in the tomb of Semoteus, a King of the 20th dynasty. (Initia-
tion, April, 1903, p. 39 )
In the natural aspect, followed by Plutarch, the allegory represents tropical heat and the fertilisation of the land by canals for the distribution of the Nile, which they represented by the sun, with a stream of water issuing from the mouth. In the second place Osins is the sun, Isis the moon, Typhon is night, Nepthys twilight. Thus the sun sets in the west pursued by the moon, lost in the darkness of night, to rise again as Horus m the newborn sun. In another and higher aspect, Osiris and Isis sym- bolise spirit and matter, ? , or the two forces. His is usually represented as a mother nursing her son Horus, and this simile is used by Grecian philosophers, who were always less reticent than the Copt, to symbolise primal matter; thus Oscellus terms it “mother nurse “ the reception of all generation as its nurse ” ; and Aris- totle “a mother.” The Aureus attributed Hermes makes use of this symbolism to reveal, and yet hide, the alchemical process. The true spiritual import, we mus seek in the Book of the Dead, for
are lost to us. Brother Malapert professes to find the ceremony of Initiation in the jewels, rituals, and sculpture deposited in the Louvre, certain of which are considered
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to shew that the approaching candidate, properly pre- pared, is taken charge of by his guide, and the purifica- tions proceed, in regular order — until the Neophyte is brought before the hierophant, who is seated upon his throne with the scales of justice before him. It is a Mys- tery of the cross as an emblem of eternal life, equally a Cabiric symbol, or still more ancient.
The Rev. Mr. C. W. Leadbeater has some very interesting remarks in regard to the ancient sacerdotal initiations, for the priests had their own Initiations to which they alone were admissible. He claims that the cross was the emblem of the descent into matter, and that, to represent this, the candidate was laid upon a cruciform bier, hollowed to suit the body of the candidate, wearied after a long preliminary ritual. His arms were loosely bound with cords, and he was then carried from the Hall of initiation into the Crypt, or lower vault of the temple, and placed upon a sarcophagus to represent actual burial. He remained thus for three entire days, whilst the tests of earth, water, air, and fire were applied to the divorced soul, as a practical experience of invulnerability. On the fourth day of the entombment he was brought forth and exposed to the first rays of the rising sun, and restored to natural life. He thus develops the Rubric of the hiero- phant: "Then shall the candidate be bound upon a wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be buried, and shall descend into the underworld ; after the third day he shall be brought back from the dead, and shall be carried up into heaven to be the right hand of him from whom he came, having learned to guide (or rule) the living and the dead ” There is a very ancient dirge, called the Matter os, w ich IS supposed to have been chanted over the Neophyte. There are said to be some ancient mystical MSS. which speak of this trial as "the hard couches of those who are in travail m the act of giving birth to themselves” ; that is crucified before the sun.” Plutarch says that "when a man dies he goes through the same experiences as those who have their consciousness increased in the Mysteries
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Thus in the terms TeXevrav and reXeLo-dai we have an exact correspondence, word to word and fact to fact.” It seems evident from this, and from other things that we shall mention in our next chapter, that Plutarch is allud- ing to the actual divorce of soul from the body, related to what may be an allegory which he recites, under the tale of a man named Aridasus or Thespesius of Soli in Asia Minor, who apparently died from a fall, and after three days returned to his body, and detailed his experience of the exquisite sights which he beheld,
In the year 1898 an interesting discovery was made of the tomb of Amenophis II. It is entered by a steep inclined gallery terminating in a 26ft. well, having passed which the tomb is reached. In the first chamber was found the body of a man bound to a rich boat-like structure, his arms and feet are tied with cords, and his mouth gagged with a cloth, the breast and head have marks of wounds. In the second chamber were found the bodies of a man, woman, and child. The third is the tomb of the king, the roof is supported by massive square columns painted deep blue and studded with golden stars, the walls covered with paintings. At one end is the sandstone Sarcophagus, rose coloured, which enclosed the mummy with chaplets of flowers round the neck and feet. To the right is a small chamber in which other mummies of later kings have been placed. The floors of all the chambers are covered with such articles as statues, vases, wooden models of animals, and boats.
The Mysteries of the Latin Bacchus, who is Dionysos m Greece and Assyria, and Osiris in Egypt, are thus spoken of by Macrobius; “The images or statues of Bacchus, represent him sometimes as a young man, at other times with the beard of a mature man, and lastly with the wrinkles of old age. The differences relate to the sun, a tender child at the winter solstice, such as the Egyptians represent him on a certain day, when they bring forth from an obscure nook of their Sanctuary his infantine
(«) Theos. Rev., xxii, p. 232. Vide also Secret Doctrine, ii. p. 359.
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image, because the sun being then at the shortest, seems to be but a feeble infant gradually growing from this moment.”
The learned French writer Christian considers that the 22 symbolical designs of the Tarot cards embody the synthesis of the Egyptian Mysteries, and that they formed the decoration of a double row of 1 1 pillars through which the candidate for Initiation was led, and that these designs further correspond with the 22 characters of all primitive alphabets. Dr. Clarke finds the traditional characters of the ancient Mysteries in our modem panto- mime. (i**) He says that Harlequin is Mercury ; Colum- bine is Psyche, or Soul ; the old man is Charon, the ferry- man over Styx ; the clown is Momus, and he engraves the subject of an ancient vase, which, he says, represents Harlequin, Columbine, and Clown, as we see them on the stage. In further evidence of how such legends survive, in new dresses. Baring Gould has shown that the trials of St. George are but a transformation of the various martyr- doms and resurrections which were related to the weeping worshippers in the temples of Babylon and Assyria at the fate of Tammuz and Adonis ; and that the dragon story in the life of St. George is but that of other dragon slayers in Semitic and Aryan Mythology. Maimonides mentions the work of Abn Washih as alluding to this. On the agricultural classes of the Mysteries there is a curious old Babylonian work translated by Chwolsohn about 35 years ago. Maimonides, who was physician of Saladin, circa 1200 A.D., speaks of it as “full of heathenish foolishness . . . preparation of talismans,” etc. Its title Nabatheans is derived from the god Nebo, and the Per- sian Yezids say that the sect went from Busrah to Syria, and that they believe in seven archangels or stars. The book is a difficult esoteric one, by an amanuensis named Qu-tamy, and precedes the era of Nebuchadnezzar.
We now come to what is more interesting to Free
Vide The Tarot, by Papus.
Vol. iv, p. 459, quoted in Disraeli’s Curiosities of Literature.
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Masons, and to Geometry which is one of the mystic or esoteric keys of most sacred books. Geometry, as applied to land-measuring, had its origin in Egypt, and we quoted the authority of Diodorus that the sacred alphabet repre- sented some of the implements of labour. In early times the superintendence of art was a priestly office. It is noteworthy that the tomb of the ancient King Osyman- dius has a ceiling of stars upon a blue ground the like of which is found in the Cathedrals of York, Canterbury, and Gloucester, truly there is nothing new under the sun. The tomb of an ancient Egyptian was recently opened by M. Maspero, and buried with the body were found the working tools of a Mason. Herodotus informs us that they prohibited burial in wool for the reason of which he refers to the rites of Orphic and Pythagoric initiation, thus confirming their affinity with Egypt. Cleopatra’s needle was a comparatively modern re-erection by that Queen, at a time when the Roman building fraternities may have influenced Egypt ; but at its base was found, when taken down for removal to America, various stones designedly laid in accordance with Masonic Symbolism, and upon a block, in form of a square, was placed a cube, or Ashlar, also a stone wrought from the purest lime- stone symbolising purity, In the Osirian temple at
Philae, re-erected on the site of a more ancient one, about 300 B.C., are found many interesting representations, such as the death and resurrection of Osiris, and also a cube opened out in the form of a Latin cross, with a man s head in the upper square.
A writer in the Indian Freemasons' Friend, maintains that the Copts have preserved, from their ancestors to the present day, much information upon Masonry which may be gathered from the Hajjar, or stone cutters. He also adds that Masons’ Marks are found upon the stones of buildings, as old even as the “ well ” of the peat pyramid. There was a fine old stone in the possession of Consul John Green on which was the point within a circle, triple
(10) Vide Egyptian Obelisks (Weisse).
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tau, square, five-pointed star, crux ansata, level, triangle, Gi^FAt 1 A. Outside the Rosetta-gate are, or were, some old granite remains and two statues of Isis and Osiris,, on the base of each of which, as well as on the many stones around, are found the first, second, and fourth of the characters before-mentioned, A. On an old stone of red granite built into the Court-house of Rosetta amongst those we have mentioned, and others, are the tau, sloping ladder of three steps, trowel, J 4^
At Heliopolis the above marks are found, as well as others of a different character, eye, crook, two concentric demi- circles, -<2> (16) Amongst Masons’ Marks
of the 1 2th dynasty, say 3,000-2,400 B.C., we find the svastica the equal-limbed cross -f , both plain and in a circle 0 , our five-pointed star open angles crossed like square and compasses, delta, letter H, &c., + 0 !&!)()<. A K. m Guild Masonry tells us that semi- circles denote an Arch Guild.
Greece and Italy. The Dionysian and Bacchic rites, through which we may better comprehend the Egyptian, were of two classes. In the first Ceres goes in search of Proserpine to Hades, as did Ishter when she sought her lover Isdhubar, Duzi, or Tamzi, these rites were in especial of an agricultural nature. In the higher Mysteries the Neophyte represented Bacchus. Plutarch says that Typhon revolted against Osiris, tore his body in pieces, mangled his limbs, scattered them abroad, and filled the earth with rage and violence. In like manner in those of Greece and Italy the rebel Titans tear in pieces the god Bacchus, and as these Titans were Cyclops it appears to mythologise the war of races. As we shall treat of these Mysteries more fully in our next chapter, we will only add here a few quotations as to their teaching. The Orphic verses apply these Mysteries to the sun, as known by many names : —
The sun, whom men call Dionysos, is a surname,
One Zeus, one Aides, one Helios, one Dionysos.”
(1«) A". M. Mag., 1861, V, p. 487, iii.
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The Oracle of Apollo Clarius says : “ Much it behoves that the wise should conceal the unsearchable orgies. But if thy judgment is weak, know that of gods who exist, the highest of all is Jao. He is Aides in winter ; Zeus at the coming of spring-time ; Helios in summer-heat ; and in autumn graceful Jao.”
Macrobius says that it was an inviolable secret that the sun in the upper hemisphere is called Apollo ; also that the ancients perceived a resemblance between the sun and the wolf, for as flocks disappear at the sight of the latter, so stars disappear before the sun.
As the Chaldean technique was used in the Cabiric Mysteries, so in these we are said to have a trace of San- scrit. The words Konx Oumpax, was a formal dismissal, or as we might say, “ go in peace” ; the original is said to be identical with the words “ Kanska om Paksha,” with which the Brahmins conclude some of their more impor- tant ceremonies. Le Plongeon hnds the expression may be interpreted in Maya language, “ go hence, scatter.
We equally hnd a Theosophical and Art fraternity in the Dionysiacs of Greece, and the Persians were near kindred of the Hellenic Greeks ; but according to Herodotus the descent was Egyptian, for he says that the Greek Dionysos and the Latin Bacchus is Osiris, and that the same rites are practised in both countries, but though they are known to him he is compelled to be silent. Yet Dionysos is the Assyrian Dionisia, the Phoenician Melcarth, and the Akka- dian Izdhubar.
The art of building in flat stone blocks in contradistinc- tion to Cyclopean Masonry is mentioned in our last chapter, and seems to have been adopted about' the period when Egypt colonised the country, and as we know the perfection masonry had reached in Egypt ages before the 1 6th century B.C., we may reasonably conclude that they introduced the improved art, with the Dionysian Mys- teries. At any rate we And not only the State Mysteries of Dionysos, but as in other cases mentioned, where caste Hellenes or Aryans had invaded the native population.
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an Art fraternity, under the same name, which above 3,000 years ago was designated the “ Dionysian Artificers, and which superseded the style of the Cabiri by an improved system.
This body executed all the level work in Greece and Asia Minor at the period, and were an Incorporated Society ; there are many inscriptions in reference to them, and their existence is placed beyond doubt. Their organ- isation was identical with the later Roman Colleges, which again have their counterpart in English Guild Free Masonry. They are said to have rebuilt the temple of Heracles at Tyre. Herodotus states that the priests told him that the temple had existed for 2,300 years, and the old author enlarges upon two pillars which it contained, the one of gold, the other of emerald, which shone exceed- ingly at night, and which may emblemise the two pillars which Sanconiathon says were dedicated by men of the first ages to Fire and Wind.
In 1874 a peculiar discovery was made at Pompeii of a table in Mosaic work, which is now in the National Museum of Naples (No. 109,988). It is about a foot square and fixed in a strong wooden frame. The ground is of a greyish-green stone, in the centre is a human skull in white, grey, and black. Above the skull is a level, of coloured wood, the points of brass, and from the top point, by a white thread, is suspended a plumb-line. Below the skull is a wheel with six spokes, and on the upper rim of the wheel is a butterfly, the wings being edged with yellow and the eyes blue. Through the pro- traction of the plumb-line the skull, wings, and wheel, have the appearance of being halved. On the left is an upright spear, the bottom being of iron, and resting on the ground, from this there hangs, by a golden cord, a garment of scarlet and a purple robe. The symbol of a purple robe is worthy of note, as it corresponds with what Clemens