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PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO MASONIC RITES
CHAPTER V
the arcane schools
John Yarker
WE mentioned in our last chapter the introduction into
the State Mysteries of an intellectual class who, as laymen, were destined to
exercise great influence upon succeeding generations. The most notable was
Pythagoras, who was by birth a Samian of the period of 570 B.C. He obtained
initiation into the Mysteries of various countries, and consolidated all that he
had thus learned into a school of his own, which he opened at Crotono in Magna
Graecia. He conferred upon himself and pupils the title of Philosophers, or
lovers of Wisdom, and Philosophy began to lay claim to all the Wisdom possessed
by the Mysteries. It was the first of the Arcane Schools that sprang out of the
State Mysteries, in the same way that private Lodges of Masons sprang out of the
General Assemblies; and in the language of Masons, the School of Pythagoras
would be termed a new Rite of the Mysteries, but Pythagoras went beyond
speculation, in a Masonic direction, by his practical views upon the necessity
of studying the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and though he flourished nearly two
centuries before Plato, and nearly three centuries before the time of Euclid, he
made Geometry the basic plan of all creation.
The Rite of Pythagoras was divided into three classes or
grades, and Dr. George Oliver in his History of Initiation, makes the
School or Academy of Plato, to consist equally of three degrees with Initiatory
rites, but it is doubtful whether he had any better authority than will be found
in this section; it is full of Masonic doctrine {123} and symbolism which must
be left for the reader to apply. The Pythagorean Rite was Exoteric or public in
its teaching, and Esoteric or private in things intended for his Disciples, and
a like rule was followed by the Egyptian priests. The first step of the
Esoteric teaching was an Apprenticeship of five years of silence, which
Iamblichus informs us might be abridged in cases of merit; the Aspirants were
termed Mathematici, because the grade embodied instruction in the Liberal
arts, and Hippolitus informs us that Deity was denominated "Grand Geometrician;"
even as we saw that the Chinese termed Deity the "First Builder," and the Indian
Art fraternity the "Great or Divine Builder." The brethren advanced to the
second step were termed Theorilici, and here they were instructed in the
elements of divine wisdom. Then followed the very select class of Electi,
who were Perfect Masters. The School had a series of darkly-worded apothegms,
as for instance, "Stir not the fire with a sword" -- be calm. "Abstain from
beans" -- be chaste. It had also secret modes of recognition. Their
brotherly-love was often exemplified in the most remarkable manner, and their
devotion to the Society, and its laws, by the sacrifice of life itself. "The
Master has said it," was an all-sufficient guide in their conduct.
Ovid in his Metamorphosis has an essay upon
Pythagoras and his doctrines: -- "Why dread such mere visions as death and
Hades? Souls cannot die; they only leave one body to enter another, as I
(Pythagoras) know by experience who was once Eupherbus, and recognised the
shield I, in his person bore. Death is mere change; the breath goes forth from
one body to enter another (be it human or animal) but beneath different shapes
the soul remains substantially the same. Hence the horror of killing creatures,
it may be, tenanted by kindred souls. But one may go further and say, that not
souls alone, but all things shift and pass -- night and day, the hues of the sky
and sun, and the shapes of the moon. The seasons, the year, changes in
correspondence with the ages of man, {124} Spring answering to youth, Summer to
prime, Autumn to maturity, and Winter to old age."
Porphyrios, who was a Tyrian of the name of Melek, informs
us that the numerals of Pythagoras are hieroglyphic symbols, by which he
explained all ideas concerning the nature of things, and hence of the nature of
the symbols to which we have previously alluded. It is said that he taught the
true Astronomy, termed Mesouranios, as typifying the sun in its relation
to revolutions of the planetary bodies. Nor need we feel surprised at the
knowledge which this implies, as the Vedas and Shastras of the Hindus indicate a
conception that the earth was round and the planets in revolution, at least
2,000 B.C.<<Vide "Isis Unveiled," i, p. 10; also ii, p. 128.>> Pythagoras was
Initiated in Egypt after severe trials, and Porphyrios states that he was
initiated in Babylon by Zarades, but it is doubtful whether this person or even
Zoroaster were names of persons. Zar-ades may be interpreted by Na-zar-ad,
vowed or separated, and Zar-ades may be a chief or Rab-mag, whilst Zoroaster may
have been a Zara of Ishter, and Zerubabel the Zoro or Nazar of Babylon, a
Nazarene and recoloniser of Jerusalem.<<Vide "Isis Unveiled," i, p. 10; also ii,
p. 128.>>
Pythagoras claimed that all things were created by
Geometry and numbers, or as his follower Plato expresses it, "God perpetually
Geometrises." Censorinus thus develops his doctrine of the "Harmony of the
spheres": "Pythagoras asserted that the whole world is made according to musical
proportion, and that the seven planets between heaven and earth have an
harmonious motion and intervals, correspondent to the musical diastemes, and
render various sounds according to their several heights, so consonant that they
make the most sweet melody, but to us inaudible by reason of the greatness of
the noise, which the narrow passage of our ear is not capable to receive." Our
old Masonic MSS. allege that Jabal discovered the musical notes by listening to
the sound of the hammers of Tubal Cain, and tradition {125} assigns the
discovery to Pythagoras by the same chance.
The Greeks mention the visit of a man of the name of
Abaris from the Hyperborean regions; he appeared at Athens carrying a bow and
quiver, girt with a gilded belt, and a plaid round his body. He was a learned
man, instructed in Greek, very judicious, and Toland shews him to have been a
Druid from the Hebrides. Pythagoras had no reserve with him, nor the Druid with
him, and they parted with mutual esteem. It is said metaphorically that Abaris
shewed Pythagoras the sacred arrow which Apollo used against the Cyclops by
which we are to understand Druidical astronomy, and magic or in Celtic dry,
to which the Anglo-Saxons added craft, denominating Magic Drycraft.
Pythagorean Clubs or Schools were established at Crotona,
Sybaris, Metapontum, Tarentum, and other places in Magna Graecia; and Cicero
says that he died at Metapontum. The dates assigned to his birth vary from 608
and 570 B.C., and of his death 497 to 472 B.C.
The Philosopher Plato, who died at a great age in the year
347 B.C. was so much attached to Geometry, which the old Masonic Constitutions
tell us was the original name of Masonry, that he wrote over his study: "Let
none enter here who are ignorant of Geometry"; in his Republic he says
that "Geometry rightly treated is the knowledge of the eternal"; and in
Timaeus he says, that Pythagoras first brought Geometry to perfection; but
Herodotus and Iamblichus say that Geometry was perfected in Egypt, owing to the
necessity of surveying their lands after the overflow of the Nile; that is it
had to be applied to the practical purpose of landmeasuring, and one of the
probable derivations of the word Mason may be deduced from this use of Geometry.
The poet Chaucer, who was a Clerk of Works to the King and
therefore in constant contact with Masons, uses the old word "Mase" to signify
an artistic building, and "to mase" is to think out; and Krause observes that,
in almost every tongue, m-t, m-s, metz, mess, masz, is used {126} to define the
boundaries of an object, and in general, to invent, to measure, to work
according to measure. In Latin we have mansio, a day's journey, and Macerieo, a
boundary wall, hence our word mansion. The term Mase has now passed out of use,
but at the period when the word Macon arose was well understood.
Our ancient MSS. distinctly state that in early Saxon
times the word was not in use and the Craft was designated Geometry; we may
therefore seek the origin of the word in the Teutonic. In the Somneri
Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum, Oxon. 1689, we have a word which
covers what we seek -- Massa, or "Maca, par locius, censors, conjux, a peer, an
equal, a companion, a mate." It is therefore a term equally applicable either
to the Society or the trade. The builders were Masons because they were
Sociates and Fellows of Craft, and the trade was the same because the Sociates
made and mated the stones to form a building. The word Massa, a table, a mate,
indicates fellowship.
Brother Wm. S. Rockville has hazarded a derivation from
the Coptic Mai to love, and Son a brother, which is quite
applicable philologically, and he points out that the hieroglyphic of the first
word is a sickle, plough, or scythe, and of the second a chisel, or a seal is
used.<<"Mis. Notes and Queries," xi, p. 2; also "Freemason's Mag." 1865.>>
Geometry was the chief qualification for the Arcane
Schools, as well as for Masonry, and the following which Plato gives in the
Philebos, and perhaps derives from an older source, appears also in the
Masonic MSS.: "All arts require Arithmetic, Mensuration, and Statics, all of
which are comprehended in the Mathematical science, and are bounded by the
principles which it contains, for the distribution of numbers, the variety of
measures, and the difference of weights are known by this science." But Proklos
makes Geometry to be also the basis of religion, and confirms what was stated in
our last chapter, for he says: -- "The mathematical disciplines were invented by
the Pythagoreans, in order to be a reminiscence of divine {127} concerns, at
which through these, as SYMBOLS, they endeavour to arrive."
Even at the present day Geometry and its diagrams are the
technical language of Architects by which they convey their ideas to each other,
and which they have inherited with the Craft of the ancient Masonic Society. It
follows that architecture is the best school in which to study speculative
geometry, and there must always have existed a close relationship between
operative Masonry and Speculative Philosophy, based as the latter is, to a great
extent, upon geometrical science. There must be a good reason why old Masonic
MSS. couple all the sciences which go to form a liberal education; and though it
may seem incongruous to couple grammar and logic, with qualifications necessary
to build houses, we can give very ancient Greek evidence to prove its necessity
and bearing. Ammonius Saccus says: "For in general the end of theory is the
beginning of practice; and so reciprocally the end of practice the beginning of
theory. Thus, for instance, an Architect, being ordered to build a house, says
to himself, 'I am ordered to build a house; that is to say a certain defence to
protect against the rains and the heats. But this cannot be without a roof or
covering.'" From this point therefore he begins his theory. He proceeds and
says, "But there can be no roof if there be no walls; and there can be no walls
without some foundations; nor can there be laid foundations without opening the
earth." At this point the theory is at an end. Hence, therefore, commences the
practice or action. For, first, he opens the earth, then lays the foundation,
then raises the walls, and lastly puts on the roof which is the end of the
action or practice, as the beginning of the practice was the end of the theory.
And thus also the philosopher does; being willing to form a demonstration he
says to himself: "I am willing to speak concerning demonstration. But inasmuch
as demonstration is a scientific syllogism, it is impossible to say anything
concerning it without first saying what is a syllogism; nor can {128} we learn
what is simply a syllogism without having first learned what is a proposition;
for propositions are certain sentences; and it is a collection of such sentences
that form a syllogism; so that without knowing propositions it is impossible to
learn what is a syllogism, because it is out of these that a syllogism is
compounded. Further than this, it is impossible to know a proposition without
knowing nouns and verbs out of which is composed every species of sentence, or
to know nouns and verbs without knowing sounds articulate or simple words,
inasmuch as each of these is a sound articulate having a meaning.'" The same
writer speaks of "the practical and the speculative part of Philosophy." Plato
in his Republic, makes Socrates to say: "It is indeed no contemptible
matter, though a difficult one, to believe that through these particular
sciences (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) the soul has an organ
purified and enlightened, which is destroyed and blinded by studies of other
kinds; an organ better worth saving than a thousand eyes; inasmuch as truth
becomes visible through this alone."
An important part of the Mythologies of various peoples
was founded upon TWO PILLARS, where the sciences were alleged to be written; and
the old Masonic MSS. state that Hermes and Pythagoras respectively found the
Pillars of stone and brick or latres upon which the antedeluvian sciences
had been engraved. Iamblichus asserts that these two Pillars were preserved in
the temple of Amen at Thebes, and Porphyrios, the Platonic philosopher, having
addressed a letter of enquiry upon the Mysteries and their doctrine, to "Anebo
the Egyptian Prophet," probably of a fifth order of priests established by the
Ptolemies in a Synod, is thus answered by Iamblichus in a letter entitled, "The
Reply of Ab-Ammon the Master, to the Letter of Porphyrios to Anebo": --
"Hermes, the patron of learning, in ancient times, was
rightly considered to be a god in whom the whole sacerdotal Order participated.
The One who presides over {129} true knowledge is one, and the same,
everywhere. Our ancestors dedicated to him their wise discoveries, and named
their respective treatises Books of Hermes. . . . . It would not be
becoming that Pythagoras, Platon, Demokritos, Eudoxes, and many other of the old
Greeks, should have been able to receive instruction from the Sacred Scribes of
their time when you, our own contemporary holding sentiments like theirs, are
disappointed in your endeavour by those now living, and styled Public Teachers.
. . . . But if you press an enquiry after the method of the Philosophers, we
will adjudicate it according to the ancient Pillars of Hermes, which
Platon and Pythagoras have already recognised and combined with their own
philosophical maxims. . . . . The knowledge of the gods is innate and pertains
to the very substance of our being. . . . . From the beginning it was one with
its own source, and was co-existent with the inherent impulse of the soul to the
supreme goodness."
There is altogether much ambiguity and uncertainty as to
the nature of these Two Pillars, but it is evident from the foregoing,
that they were much more than a mere record of the worldly arts. They probably
stood for two very ancient traditional Pillars, used in the primitive Mysteries,
which were copied in the "Petroma" of the temples of the various Mysteries of
the world, from which the sacred laws were read to the Initiate, as in the two
tablets of Moses in the Jewish law. There was an ancient Babylonian tradition
that these Two Tablets were buried by Xisithrus, the Chaldean Noah, beneath the
foundation stone of the tower of Borsippa, or Babel.<<A.Q.C., v, pt. 2 -- "Har-moad.">>
Many kings sought for them in vain, until the time of Nabunahid, who professed,
if we are to believe his inscription, to have discovered them. Josephus says
that one of these Pillars existed in Syria, in his days. What he saw was
probably a pillar recording some Egyptian conquest. Diodorus Siculus repeats a
tradition that the Egyptians attributed to Thoth or Hermes the discovery {130}
of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, and the sciences; and as the
"method of the philosophers," referred to by Iamblichus, was to employ
geometrical symbols as a method of teaching Theosophy, the "Pillars of Hermes"
would appear to cover such reference in the quotation.
Manetho, the Egyptian priest who compiled the annals of
his order for the Ptolemies, says: "The second Hermes, called Trismegistus,
translated, or rather transcribed into vulgar alphabetical characters, what the
first Hermes had wrote in hieroglyphical characters upon pillars of stone."
Hermes is the Greek name for the Egyptian Thoth, and this second of the name is
believed to have been a Royal scribe of Menes the first King of Egypt, the first
Thoth was a primitive traditional prophet, and the name, as Iamblichus has told
us, of a god of Revelation.
The great Master of Geometry that followed Plato, after a
lapse of about a century, was a Tyrian by birth of the name of Euclid, who
opened an Academy of the Sciences at Alexandria under the Ptolemies. He was
beyond doubt a Platonist, and described as such by Porphyrios in his Life of
Plotinos, a philosopher born at Lykopolis in Egypt, 205 A.D. The words of
Porphyrios are thus translated: "In the first class of the Platonists there were
Euklides, Demokritos, and Proklinos who lived near Troy. . . . . Of those
philosophers, therefore, who were authors some produced nothing more than a
collection and transcription of the remains of the ancients, as Euklides,
Demokritos, and Proklinos." We see from this that Euclid did no more than
reproduce what had existed from ancient times, and hence it is not without some
show of authority that later scribes of the Masonic MSS. have substituted the
name of Hermes for Euclid, as the author of the Constitutional Charges, and as a
matter of fact Hermes was, in a sense, their remote originator. At this distant
era there were only five liberal arts and sciences, and the assimilation of
these to the five parts of the Mysteries was shewn in our last chapter. In the
11th century of our era these had been increased to {131} seven, in two
divisions, designated the Trivium which comprised grammar, rhetoric, and
logic, and the Quadrivium which included arithmetic, geometry, music, and
astronomy.
In what has gone before we have various illustrations of
the use of the cross as a pre-Christian symbol in the religious Mysteries, and
in these minor Arcane Schools of philosophy the symbolic cross is prominent.
Aeschylus, the author of Prometheus Bound, relegates this Cabiric god to
a similar punishment on Caucasus for stealing the fire of the gods with which to
endow mankind, and he himself narrowly escaped death under a suspicion that he
had revealed some of the mystic doctrine. Plato advances that the Logos, or
second person of his trinity, had impressed himself upon the world in the shape
of an X, or St. Andrew's cross, as it is now termed; as this symbol is
one of the forms used to express the union of two generative principles it may
be Plato's secret way of expressing that.
The Indian Guilds say, as previously mentioned, that the
Divine Builder crucified his son Surya (the Sun) upon his Lathe which is the
Svastica ![]() cross. All the Guilds,
both ancient and modern, in one of the higher degrees, has a symbolic
crucifixion at High XII. at noon, which is founded upon the laying of the
Foundation stone of a Temple on the 5 Points, by 3, 4, 5, angle. But it goes
far beyond this, as there was everywhere an actual sacrifice of human life to
ensure safety to the building; and the assertion, traditional, of course, is
that it occurred at the erection of Solomon's temple, and it certainly had place
in our old English churches even. The temple of Solomon was a 3 to 1 structure,
60 x 20 cubits, the pyramids have a square basis, and therefore a Coptic Guild
would lay down a perfect square. The Mysteries were no more than a Guild, and
had equally the same rite. Vitruvius gives the X cross as a canon of
proportion of the human figure, the centre of the cross being the navel of the
body. This was in Egypt "where also our Lord was crucified" {132} (Rev. xi. 8);
a confession of Initiation, "crucified before the sun" as the Mystics say.
Minucius Felix, a Christian, taunts the Romans themselves with the worship of
wooden gods, and says: "Your victorious trophies not only represent a cross, but
a cross with a man upon it."
Various writers of the Platonic school treat of the
"Perfect Man" in the light of embracing all the virtues which lead to happiness,
but which are never found combined in one individual. It is in this ideal of a
perfectly virtuous man that we must look for such works as the Egypto-Greek life
of Pythagoras, the Greco-Roman life of Apollonius; and exemplified to the full
in the Greco-Jewish life of Jesus of Nazareth. The 2nd and 3rd Books of the
Republic of Plato teach that goodness to be apparent must be stripped of all
adventitious circumstances, and that a really good man will find so much
opposition in the world that "he will be scourged, tormented, bound, his eyes
put out, and die by crucifixion after he has endured all these evils." Again,
"a good man will be tormented, furiously treated, have his hands cut off, his
eyes put out, will be bound, condemned, and burnt." Lactantius quotes Seneca as
using similar language. Grotius, from whom we take our translation, considers
that Plato writes prophetically, but, after the allusions made in previous
chapters, we may be pardoned if we look upon them as applied to certain things
in the Mysteries, which assigned a reason in the danger of making the Arcane
doctrines too public.
The ancient Sybils, or inspired prophetesses of the
Mysteries, have similar language. Augustine<<De civ. Dei, lib. xviii, c. 23.>>
thus quotes the Erythrean Sybil: "He will fall into the hostile hands of the
wicked; with poisonous spittle will they spit upon him, on his sacred back they
will strike him; they will crown him with a crown of thorns; they will give him
gall for food, and vinegar to drink -- five forms of trial. The Veil of the
temple will be rent, and at midday there will be a darkness of three hours, and
he will die, {133} repose in sleep, and then in joyful light he will come again
as at first." One of these Sybils had the following Oracle to deliver: --
"Then suddenly
a sign for mortal men shall be,
When out of
Egypt's land a stone most fair shall come safeguarded."
Celsus accuses the Christians of interpolating passages from
these Oracles "without understanding their meaning," from which we gather that
they had a mystical reference. The veil that is rent is that of the Sacred
Curtain of Apollo, and Virgil has ascribed to his patron the coming glories of
the age of gold. In the temple of Philae in Egypt there is an old-time painting
of a man laid upon a cruciform bier asleep, over him stand two persons who are
pouring upon his head water in which appears the sacred tau-cross, whilst the
sun's rays strike upon him; and it is evident that such an Initiate is
represented by a cube opened out as a Latin cross, the top square having a man's
head, in the same temple. We mentioned this species of crucifixion in our last
chapter, where the Initiate was carried into the lower crypt of the temple.
Socrates Scholasticus in referring to crosses found in the temple of Serapis,
when it was sacked by the Christians, says: "The Christians contended that the
cross belonged to the Master, Jesus Christ, which they also which understood
these rites maintained; the Gentiles on the contrary maintaining that the cross
was common both to Jesus Christ and Serapis." An eminent Catholic divine says
that the cross is "the hidden Mystery, a scandal to the Jews, and folly to the
Gentiles, of which Paul writes." Foucart mentions a treatise by a disciple of
Pythagoras entitled, "The passing into the invisible world, or the Descent
into Hades."
In the ancient Mystery language of pre-Christian times,
and with the Gnostics, and in the Arcane Discipline of the church, Chrestos
meant a Disciple, whilst Christos was one anointed, purified, and accepted.
Boeckhos, in Corpus Inscriptionem, shews that it was an epithet applied
{134} to the departed, or the saved and redeemed, of pre-Christian times,
Aeschylus speaks of the Manteumata Pythocresta, or oracles of the Pythoness, in
which Chrestos becomes the expounder of Oracles. Justin Martyr, in his
Apology, speaks of Chrestians, and Lactantius (iv. c. 8) says that "it is
only through ignorance that men call themselves Christians, instead of
Chrestians."
As the Mysteries had a symbolic death so had the Minor
Arcane Schools, but the language of the latter has a very realistic character,
and we will see what has been said on this subject; first quoting Hermias in his
"Commentary on the Phaidros:" "The word
![]() (telete) or Initiation was so
denominated from rendering the soul perfect; the soul was therefore once
perfect. But here it is divided, and is not able to energise wholly by itself.
But it is necessary to know that Telete, Muesis, and Epopteia, differ from each
other. Telete therefore is analogous to that which is preparatory to
purifications. But Muesis, which is so called from closing the eyes, is more
divine. For to close the eyes in Initiation is no longer to receive by sense
those divine Mysteries, but with the pure soul itself, and Epopteia is to be
established and become a spectator of the Mysteries." Synesius in his treatise
on Providence, as translated by Thomas Taylor, says: "You also who have
been initiated in those Mysteries in which there are two pairs of eyes, and it
is requisite that the pair which are beneath should be closed, when the pair
which are above them perceive, and when the pair above are closed, those which
are below should be opened." This means that the spiritual eyes must be used
for spiritual things.
Bishop Warburton, in his Divine Legation, quotes an
ancient writer, preserved by Stobaeus, as saying: "The mind is affected in
death, just as it is in the Grand Mysteries, and word answers to word, as thing
to thing, for![]() (teleuteiu) is to die
and ![]() (teleisthai) is to be
initiated." By the word Grand is meant the Greater Mysteries which resemble the
Master Mason. {135} Plutarch has some passages which strikingly illustrate the
doctrines of the Mysteries and the relation of these to Ceres and Persephone.
This writer says: "Now of the deaths we die one makes man two out of three, and
the other one out of two. The former is in the region and jurisdiction of
Demeter, whence the name given in the Mysteries
![]() , resembling that given to death
![]() The Athenians also heretofore
called the deceased sacred to Demeter. As to the other death it is in the Moon
or region of Persephone." The first separation is into what he terms "the
Meadows of Hades," situate between the earth and the moon, where the soul
wanders for a more or less period, where it plucks the soul violently from the
body, but Persephone mildly and in a long time disjoins the understanding from
the soul"; that is separates the higher and lower self which is the second
death, "as if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage, or long exile,
into their country, where they have a taste of joy, such as they principally
receive who are initiated into sacred Mysteries, mixed with trouble, admiration,
and each one's proper and peculiar hope." This of course refers to actual
death, the three being body, soul, and spirit, and the two soul
and spirit. These quotations all apply rather to the State Mysteries than the
Arcane Schools of Philosophy, but we have other passages.
The following is found in the Auxiliaries of
Porphyrios (printed by Ficinus the restorer of the Platonic Academy at Rome in
the 15th century): "Hence there is a two-fold death, the one universally known,
by which the body is liberated from the soul; the other peculiar to
philosophers, by which the soul is liberated from the body; nor does the one at
all follow the other." Celsus speaks of a Pagan priest who could voluntarily
perform the separation of soul and body, "and lay like one dead void of life and
sense."<<"Anatomy of Melancholy" (Burton).>> The Phedon of Plato has
several similar passages, of which, in order not to tire the reader, we will
take but one: "Now we have shewn that in {136} order to trace the truth or
purity of anything, we should lay aside the body and only employ the soul to
examine the objects we pursue."
Mr. Robert Brown, in his Great Dionysiac Myth, says
in allusion to the Hall of Arcane rites, or the sekos, a word literally
meaning sheep-fold but which came to signify the interior of a temple: "Here,
deeply excited and agitated by all they had gone through, ready to believe
anything, and everything, in that state of abstinence which is, or is supposed
to be, most favourable to the reception of supernatural displays, and their
minds more or less affected by drugs, and their whole being permeated with the
impression and expectation of the more-than-mortal, they were allowed to SEE."
We have here to remember that the Mysteries required a
long and protracted fast, and the passages that we have quoted state clearly
enough that an ultra-natural state was produced. What in these times is called
hypnotism, mesmerism, trance, was well known to the ancients. Proclos, quoting
Clearchus' Treatise on Sleep, mentions a wand with which the operator,
upon gently striking a boy, drew his soul a distance from his body, for the
purpose of proving that the body is without sensation when the soul is taken
away, and, by means of his rod, he again restored the soul to the
body.<<Oliver's "Hist. Landmarks." ii, p. 614.>> The writings of the early
Christian Fathers afford much testimony of the phenomena, and the Benedictine
ceremony of covering the newly received Monk with a funereal pall, equally with
a certain Masonic ceremony, is an exoteric reference to it. It is related by
Hugh, a Monk of Saltery in Huntingdonshire, that a soldier of King Stephen of
England visited "St. Patrick's Hole," in Donegal, and after a fast of nine days,
as in the Mysteries, was laid in a kind of grave, where a view of Paradise was
shewn to him, the whole of which account reads like a paraphrase of the descent
of Æneas into Tartarus and Elysium. It also resembles the relation in the
Metamorphosis of Apuleius, {137} of his initiation into the Mysteries of
Isis and Serapis, and as the latter Mystery was introduced into the Christian
Church, as the Arcane Discipline, and equally claimed supernatural appearances
as a part of the faith, we need be at no loss to account for these relations.
The Druses of Lebanon, on the testimony of Professor A. L. Rawson, who is
himself an Initiate, require an interval of fasting, of more or less length
according to circumstances, with a total fast on the day of Initiation, by which
regimen a species of Epopteia is produced which the Professor terms mental
illusion or sleep-waking<<Letter in "Isis Unveiled," ii, p. 313.>>. The same
phenomena is found in the Yogi, or "twice born," and known in certain Rites of
the Dervishes. It is almost certain that certain rites of the Egyptians have
passed to the Africans, and Heckethorn, and other writers, have shewn that there
exists on that Continent, and in other places where the race has carried the
Initiation, a society called the Almuseri, with secret rites similar to those of
the Orphic and Cabiric Mysteries. The reception takes place once a year in a
wood, and the candidate is supposed to die; at the appointed hour the Initiates
surround the Neophyte and chant funereal songs. He is then carried to a temple
erected for the purpose, and anointed with palm-oil; after forty days of this
probation he is supposed to have obtained a new soul; and is greeted with hymns
of joy, and conducted home.<<"Secret Societies," ii, p. 283.>> We are informed
that Freemasonic signs have been answered by the Kaffirs.
Galen<<"Dogm. Hipoc. et Platon," viii.>> may be quoted
here as to the existence of this doctrine of a soul which may be separated from
the body: "The soul is an immaterial substance, which has a luciform, etherial
body, for its first vehicle, by which as a medium it communicates with the gross
etherial body." The Chevalier Ramsay says: "It appears that the Platonists,
Pythagoreans, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and all Orientals believed that souls had an
etherial, aerial, and {138} terrestrial vestment, or tabernacle; that the last
named was put off by natural death, the second by a supernatural death, and the
other retained for ever."
The mathematical discipline, by aiding thought
concentration, was intended to serve a similar purpose to that of the Hindu
Yogism and of the Dervishes. Plutarch in his Symposiacs<<Vol. viii, 2.>>
ascribes to Plato the words, "God is constantly a Geometer," hence to immerse
oneself in Geometrical thought, is to think with the mind of God. All the
Platonists taught that the gradations of the spiritual world were arranged in
Geometrical order, hence it is, "a science that takes men off from sensible
objects, and makes them apply themselves to the spiritual and eternal nature, as
a view of epopteia of the Arcane of initiation into holy rites." Proklos makes
this assertion of the Pythagoreans: "They perceived that the whole of what is
called Muethsis is reminiscence, not externally inserted in souls, in the same
manner as phantasms, from sensible objects, are impressed on the imagination;
not adventitious like the knowledge resulting from opinion, but excited indeed
from things apparent, and inwardly exerted from the reasoning power converted
from itself. They likewise say that though reminiscence might be shewn from
many particulars, yet it was evinced in a most eminent manner, as Platon also
says, from the Mathematical discipline, for if any one, says he, is led to the
diagrams he will, from them, easily prove that discipline is reminiscence."
The science of Geometry was also used in a symbolical
sense, for Socrates in the Gorgias, accusing Kallicles of an intemperate
life, says to him: "You neglect Geometry and Geometric equality." Zenocrates
refused a candidate for Discipleship, saying to him: "Depart, for thou hast not
the grip of philosophy."
Of the nature of the SYMBOLS used in the Arcane Schools
there is almost as little to be gathered in its books as is to be found in old
Masonry, and they were evidently {139} "close tyled." We may fairly seek what
we do not know respecting symbols, through what we do know of history, and to
comprehend symbols we must study the old historical religions. The Masons,
Rosicrucians, Templars, and Gnostics, all used the same class of symbols. The
society of Druses in Syria, and the Sufi Dervishes of Persia and Turkey, admit
themselves to follow the Platonic School, whether by inspiration from its
writers or by descent from the old Mysteries, and from which each and all, in
one form or another, derive their knowledge. We may also follow these religious
symbols in the unchanged rites of India.
The basis of the Masonic Jewel of a Master in the Chair is
an old Egyptian symbol, for Plutarch informs us that a triangle whose base is 4,
perpendicular 3, and hypothenuse of 5 parts, the square of which is equal to the
square of those sides containing the right angle, was an important emblem in
Egypt, as a symbol of nature. The base figured Osiris, the perpendicular Isis,
and the hypothenuse Horus; the originating and receptive principles, and the
offspring of the two. It was the standard of their measures of extent, and was
for modern centuries the traditional method by the application of which the
stonemason tested the squareness of his plan (5 x 5 = 25; 4 x 4 and 3 x 3 = 25,
the Guilds of both East and West employ the Rites to this day.)
Iamblichus (i. ix.) says: "Amongst those things which are
everywhere set forth in the sacred dramas, some have a specific Arcane cause and
higher meaning; others preserve the image of some idea beyond, as nature the
genatrix develops certain specific formations from invisible principles; others
are introduced from the sentiment of veneration, or for the purpose of
illustrating something or rendering it familiar. Some enclose what is
profitable to us, or in some way purify us, or set us free from our human
frailties, or turn aside some other of the evils that are likely to befall us."
We have already referred to the Pythagorean sentiment
{140} that "the path of vice and virtue resembles the letter Y," and though the
apothegm has been forgotten in Masonry, yet the "Golden branch" by which it was
represented is still remembered. The letter Y is equally a symbol which
the Chinese consecrated to the Deity. It has been suggested that as an emblem
it is a square ![]() placed over a
plumb-rule, I. Hermes Trismegistus, or the Thrice-greatest, describes
God as "an intelligible sphere, whose centre is everywhere, and circumference
nowhere," and this language tends to confirm the remarks we have ventured as to
the Two Pillars. Pherekydes Syros, who had the early education of Pythagoras,
in his Hymn to Zeus, cited by Kircher (Oed. Egyptae) has the
following noteworthy lines: --
"Jove is
a circle, triangle, and square,
Centre,
and line, and all things, -- before all."
Plato in his seventh Epistle to Dion, says
expressly that he never will write anything explicitly upon these sublime
speculations, but that there are three things through which science, the fourth,
is necessarily produced, the fifth establishes that which is known and true.
"Now take each of these desiring to learn what we have lately asserted, and
think as follows concerning them all -- a circle is called something whose name
is so expressed. For that which everywhere is equally distant from the extremes
to the centre is the definition of that which we signify by the name of a round
or circumference and a circle. But the third is the circle which may be blotted
out. But the fourth is science, and intellect, and true opinion about these.
And the whole of this again must be established as one thing, which neither
subsists in voice, nor in corporeal figures, but is inherent in soul."
We have here an example of the way in which Plato employs
Geometry to convey instruction, but in his second epistle to Dion, he employs
concentric circles to discourse upon the divine triplicity of Agathos, Logos,
and Psyche -- wisdom, mind, life -- Father, Word, Spirit. He says: "You inform
me that the nature of the First has {141} not been sufficiently revealed to
you. I must write to you in riddles, in order if my letter should miscarry,
either by sea or land, the reader may not understand it. All things are round
about the king of all things, all things exist for his sake, and that is the
cause of all excellent things. Around the second are the things secondary.
Around the third are the third class of things. The human souls endeavour to
learn the nature of these, looking for what is homogeneous with itself, and
consequently imperfect, but in the King, and in these others which I have
mentioned, it is not such. . . . . The greatest precaution is to be observed not
to write, but to learn by word of mouth, for it is hardly possible for what is
written not to come abroad. For which reason I have written nothing upon such
topics; no such books of mine exist, nor ever shall." Proklos in his Commentary
upon this says: "The Demiurgos or creator is triple, and the three Intellects
are the three Kings, He who exists, He who possesses, He who beholds." Several
writers give the following appropriate passage, on the authority of Suidas: "Thulis
King of Egypt, thus went to the Oracle of Serapis: 'Thou who art the God of
fire, and governest the course of the heavens, tell me the truth, was there
ever, or will there ever be, one so powerful as myself?' He was answered:
'first God, then the Word, and the Spirit, all united in one. Go hence, O!
mortal, whose life is always uncertain.'" In going thence the priests carried
out the implied threat by cutting the throat of the egotistic Thulis.
In the Ethical Fragments of Hierocles, who wrote
towards the end of the second century and was a Pythagorean, the symbol of ten
concentric circles is used to set forth our moral duties, and we have seen that
the Chaldeans, Medes, and Persians, considered seven concentric circles as a
sacred symbol, whilst still more ancient races that we have mentioned are said
to have used three such. Hierocles says: "Each of us is, as it were
circumscribed by many concentric circles, some of which are {142} less, but
others larger, and some comprehend, but others are comprehended, according to
the different and unequal habitudes with respect to each other. For the first
and most proximate circle is that which everyone describes about his own mind as
a centre, in which circle the body, and whatever is assumed for the sake of the
body is comprehended. For this is nearly the smallest circle, and almost
touches the centre itself. The second from this, and which is at a greater
distance from the centre, but comprehends the first circle, is that in which
parents, brothers, wife and children are arranged. The third circle from the
centre is that which contains uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, and the
children of brothers and sisters." He then proceeds through six other circles:
(4) relations, (5) the people, (6) tribes, (7) citizens, (8) villagers, (9)
provincials, and concludes, (10) "But the outermost and greatest circle, and
which comprehends all the other circles, is that of the whole human race." In
sentiment nothing can be more Masonic than this, but Augustine has a very
apposite allusion to the symbolic point within a circle, and he had at one time
been a Gnostic. He says: "As in a circle however large, there is a middle
point, whither all converge, called by Geometricians the centre, and although
the parts of the whole circumference may be divided innumerably, yet is there no
other point, save that one, from which all measure equally, and which by a
certain law of evenness hath the sovereignty over all. But if you leave this
one point, whatever point you take, the greater number of lines you draw, the
more everything is confused. So the soul is tossed to and fro by the very
vastness of the things, and is crushed by a real destitution, in that its own
nature compels it everywhere to seek one object, and the multiplication suffers
it not."<<Oliver's "Symb. Dic." -- Art. Point. &c.>> The curious part of this
is the involved verbiage, as if Augustine had in his mind, and sought to hide
the secret method of finding a true square by the centre. {143}
Lucian makes Cato to say that, "God makes himself known to
all the world; He fills up the whole circle of the universe, but makes his
particular abode in the centre, which is the soul of the just." Another mode of
illustrating this is used by the Rosicrucian Paracelsus, who says: "All numbers
are multiples of one, all sciences converge to a common point, all wisdom comes
out of one centre, and the number of wisdom is one. . . . . Those who love the
luminous circle will be attracted to it, and their knowledge comes from God."
Dionysius Thrax, an eminent grammarian, is quoted by
Clemens Alexandrinus as saying, that some converse, "not only by speech but by
symbols also." This implies that there was an understood signification attached
to the symbols. The same writer informs us that it was a custom of the
Egyptians to hold a branch in the hand whilst in the act of adoration.
Aristotle says that, "He who bears the shocks of fortune
valiantly and demeans himself uprightly, is truly good, and of a square posture
without reproof."<<"Old York Lectures.">> The Zoroastrian Oracle declares, "the
mind of the father decreed that all things should be divided into three"; which
Plato geometrises thus: "God resembles a triangle which has three equal sides."
Xenocrates, the friend of Plato, assigned the equal triangle to gods, seeing
that it is everywhere equal; the scalene to man seeing that it is unequal in its
sides; the isosceles to daemons or tutelary spirits, because it is partly equal,
and partly unequal in it properties, the daemons being placed between men and
gods.
Proklos says that, "Knowledge has three degrees --
opinion, science, and illumination. The means, or instrument, of the first is
reception, of the second dialectus, and of the third-intuition." Diodorus of
Sicily terms the "Sun" the architect of all nature, and thus we symbolise the
Master Mason by that emblem. The square was one of the sacred emblems borne by
the Stolistos of the ancient {144} Mysteries. In the real Guild Masonry Man is
the living stone and the tools and emblems are used to bring him to due
proportions as in the actual stone.
But a very important symbol, philosophic and Masonic, and
one which has been common to the world in all time is the cube. Pythagoras is
said to have taught that, "the number eight or the octad is the first cube, that
is to say, squared in all cases as a die; proceeding from its base the even
number two; so is man four square or perfect." Plato in his Protagorus
causes that character to address Socrates in a quotation from Simonides, a man
of Scio who flourished 556 B.C., "It is very difficult to become truly virtuous,
and to be in virtue as a cube; that is to say that neither our carriage, our
actions, or our thoughts, shall shake us, or even draw us from that state of
mind." It is the cubical stone of the Rosy Cross, which "sweats blood and water
and suffers anguish of soul."
The passages that we have quoted are a fair example of the
moral geometry of antiquity. Those from Plato, for example, indicate the use to
be made of geometrical diagrams in teaching science and Theosophy; that from
Hierocles the use made of them in teaching morals; and that from Augustine may
explain why a Master Mason may find his secrets by the centre. The quotation
from Aristotle ought to remind a Mason of the day when he stood at the
north-east corner; and that from Simonides of what is required of him in order
to become a perfect Ashlar, and the more especially as we have shewn that this
cube had the same signification in Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, and America, and that
it is, therefore, one of the most primitive symbols. A Persian proverb is thus:
--
"O!
square thyself for use; a stone that may
Fit in
the wall is not left in the way."
The "Regius" Masonic MS. tells us, in the Master's first
Article, how he is to regulate his conduct as a judge of work: "And as a jugge
stond upright, And then thou dost to bothe good ryght." Curiously enough the
Egyptian {145} Ritual of the Dead, quoted in our 2nd chapter, has a line
symbolically identical.
There are numerous references to Symbols which are both
Platonic and Masonic in the works of our learned Brother the late George Oliver,
D.D., but unfortunately he does not often give references that will enable us to
verify them. All the foregoing quotations have been taken from non-Masonic
works, and may therefore be considered wholly unbiassed. The following are
probably equally reliable, and are chiefly assigned by Oliver to the
Pythagoreans, from which school Plato accepted much of his teachings. The
clasped hands was a Pythagorean symbol. The divine essence was represented
by a quadrangle or square, which implies order and regularity; it is
found in Chinese books of great antiquity with the same meaning. The
right-angle was the symbol of female deities, as Ceres, Vesta, Rhea. The
pyramid, a valued symbol, referred to the divine triplicity. The cube
was considered by the Hermesians as the symbol of truth, as the appearance is
the same in every point of view. The double-triangles, single triangles,
five-pointed star, cross, etc., have been used by all nations, in all time,
and in common with square and compasses, plumb, square, triangular-level,
etc., have figured as alphabetical characters.
The triple-tau ![]()
is given as the monogram of Hermes; and the letter P crossed,
![]() as the staff of Osiris. But the
most widely spread, and most ancient of all symbols is the Svastica, Filfot, or
Jain cross ![]() , formed of four squares
joined at the ends, derived from the primaeval centre, and Cabiric. The five
Platonic bodies are Masonic symbols, and in ancient Arcane Schools were held
to teach that the world was made by God, "in thought and not in time," and of
the elements thus evolved, fire is a pyramid; earth a cube; air
an octohedron; water an icosahedron; the sphere of the universe a
dodecahedron. The equilateral triangle, the square, and the equal
hexagon were considered the most perfect geometrical diagrams, {146} and it
was pointed out by Pythagoras that there exist no other forms whose multiples
are competent to occupy the whole space about a given centre; and which can only
be effected by six equilateral triangles, four squares, and three equal
hexagons.
There are certain ancient symbols some of which have the
appearance of Roman letters but are not really so, which are found sculptured on
stones in Egypt and elsewhere, and found, in later times, in this country as
Masons' marks. The letter Y may be found placed on a reversed triangle
![]() ; we have the X cross; the
reversed tau or level ![]() ; and doubled
it may form a cross ![]() . There are the
masculine and feminine symbols V and ![]() , which united
may form the N symbol, so often found as a Mason's mark, the same symbol
is found on pre-Christian coins of Persia, in various angles; the
![]() and W, the latter a double symbol; the I is
phallic; the ![]() and V crossed or interlaced, as in the
Masonic square and compasses. Another very ancient symbolic mark is two
triangles ![]() joined at the apex, which
is still a sacred symbol in Thibet, Turkey, and India.
Our readers, who have carefully noted the symbols
mentioned in our previous chapters, will have perceived that whilst many of the
Arcane emblems have been continued in Free Masonry, throughout the centuries,
others have been lost in the speculative system, but were preserved by the Guild
and also as Masons' marks; they must at one time have enclosed a recondite
doctrine, which was common to both the sacerdotal, and art Colleges; and marks
of this class, which go beyond mere monograms, admit of a mystic interpretation,
which indicates a culte common to Theosophia and philosophic Geometry or
Masonry; it happens that some of these symbols may be interpreted to contain the
doctrine of the pre-existence of souls; the union of the spiritual and material
nature in man, which enables him to live two lives -- the sensual and the
spiritual, the Fall of Man as the Cabalists pretend being figured in the
predominance {147} of the former over the latter. Other emblems have reference
to the divinity, and an example of the Masonic manner in which these may be made
to convey instruction may be illustrated by the equilateral triangle. It has
three points; a point has position only; a line has length only and terminates
in two points; three lines of equal length at equal angles form an equilateral
triangle, or the primary figure in geometry, and represents the trinity in
unity, or Deity pervading all space, creator of all things animate and
inanimate; doubled it represents the perfect godhead, and the male and female
energies of nature. Or again, a point is the beginning of any active
duty, the flowing of which point generates a line; a line is therefore
either reward, duty, pleasure, or profit. A right line is a duty
performed and pursued with constancy. The extension of a right line to generate
a surface is therefore perfect duty. Better still is a passage from
Macrobius in his Commentary on Scipio's Dream: "And as a line is
generated from a point, and proceeds into length from an indivisable, so the
soul, from its own point which is a monad, passes into the duad, which is its
final extension."
But the most remarkable of all the Arcane and
architectural symbols is the vesica-pisces
![]() , it was in use until our days, and
Brother Conder (a member of the Masons' Company) says that its formation was the
diagram by which old operative Masons tested their squares. Proklos repeatedly
refers to this figure, which he had seen in Egypt, and heard interpreted there;
it often appears on temples, as well as modern churches, and is found especially
on the throne of Osiris. In the Platonic system it is said to have constituted
the sign of Epopts, the open hand being united at the finger-ends and the wrists
touching each other. We mentioned in our third chapter the affinity of
Philosophy with the Mysteries of Serapis, and the Arcane Discipline of the
Christians. The Ptolemies, who had the Jewish Scriptures translated in the
Septuagint, seem to have found a mode, or thought {149} they had, in the
establishment of a fifth order of prophets, of harmonising all faiths in the
mysteries of Serapis, and Clement, of Alexandria, informs us that the initiates
of these Mysteries wore on their persons the mystic name I-ha-ho, the original
of which appears to be IAO, which embodies the symbols of the two generative
principles. It is further asserted that the before-mentioned sign of Epopts
constituted that of the Arcane Discipline, coupled with the lettering of the
word ICHTHUS, a fish, and the Pope's ring is that of the Fisherman. Oliver,
quoting Kerrich, says that the vesica-pisces is the great secret of church
architecture, and the determinator of all dimensions.<<"Pythagorean Triangle"
(Hogg).>> It continues an equally important symbol amongst the Dervish sects.
We will now pass on to the use in the Platonic system of
other symbols in which Masons are interested. Plato in his Philebos has a triad
under the names of Bound, Infinite, and Mixed, and likewise a triad still more
Masonic of Symmetry, Truth, and Beauty, which, he says, "are seated in the
Vestibule of the good." The Masonic pillars of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty,
are an analogy, and the divine triad of Agathos, Logos, and Psyche, if literally
translated are a close approximation. He likewise prescribes the following
moral qualities as essential in a student of Philosophy: -- "He must have a good
memory, learn with facility, be magnificent, magnanimous, and be the friend and
ally of Truth, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance; qualities which are equally
made the essential points in a Freemason. Again, in the Phedon, which is a
dialogue on the immortality of the soul, we find the following important
passage, which he adduces on the authority of the most ancient Mysteries: --
"Wisdom is the only true and unalloyed coin, for which all others must be given
in exchange, with that piece of money we purchase. . . . Temperance, Justice,
Fortitude, and Prudence, or wisdom itself, are not exchanged for passions but
cleanse us of them. And it is pretty evident {149} that those who instituted
the Purifications called by us Teletes, i.e., perfect expiations, were persons
of no contemptible rank, but men of great genius, who, in the first ages, meant
by such riddles to give us to know, that whoever enters the other world, without
being Initiated and Purified, shall be hurled headlong into the vast abyss; and
that whoever arrives there after due purgation and expiation shall be lodged in
the apartments of the gods. For as the dispensors of these expiations say --
'There are many who bear the Thyrsus, but few that are possessed of the spirit
of God.' Now those who are possessed, as I take it, are the true
Philosophers." So far Plato, and he may be put into other words -- "Many are
called but few are chosen." The Thyrsus here alluded to, as a badge of office
in these Mysteries, was carried by the soldiers of Bacchus, Sabazios, or
Dionysos; the Chevalier Ramsay says that it was twined with ivy, and very often
had upon it a cross, and he compares the Greek conception of Bacchus, as god of
the vintage, with the description of Messiah as given in Isaiah and the
Apocalypse.
Porphyrios has a long description of the advantage of the
four Cardinal virtues, but after the illustration of the Master Plato we may
omit this. Stobaeus says of them pretty much what Masonry tells us.<<"Eccl.
Ethio," p. 167.>> The pagan Emperor Aurelius Antoninus, circa 145
A.D., has several passages on these virtues; in one he says: "If any man should
conceive certain things as being really good, such as Prudence, Temperance,
Justice, Fortitude, he would not after endure to listen to anything which was
not in harmony with what is really good." We wonder how many Masons have this
feeling.
The doctrine of equality and brotherly love, which forms
the base of the Masonic Institution, may be paralleled in the Arcane Schools
with such passages as the following: -- Alypios, "Tell me, O!
Philosopher, is the rich man unjust, or the heir of the unjust! Iamblichus,
{150} "That is not our method of disputing, O! illustrious man; no one is
considered rich by us, even if he does possess external riches, unless he
likewise has the virtues characteristic of a true philosopher." That is the
virtues which have been already mentioned; and brotherly-love is often enforced,
but in the "Regius MS." of the old Masonic Constitutions there is a passage
which states that the Stewards of the Hall are to serve one another, "like
sister and brother," for which sentiment Platon's Symposiom, or Banquet
of Life, may be consulted. Demokritus expresses the gist of this work in a few
admirable words: "He who loves the goods of the soul will love things more
divine, but he who loves the goods of its transient habitation will love things
human."
We may close this chapter with a few hints as to the
changes which Christianity forced upon the ancient schools. Iamblichus phrases
a Pythagorean dogma thus: "As the Lesser Mysteries are to be delivered before
the Greater, thus also must discipline precede philosophy." If the Lesser gave
the title of Mystae, the Greater gave that of Epoptæ, and if the passage means
anything it must be this, that science and art, represented by Geometry, is the
counterpart of the former, whilst philosophy is in relationship with Epoptæ.
Hence after the break-up of the State-Mysteries, we see a succession of two
schools, closely related to each other -- the Craftsmen, or art school, and the
Gnostics who know. Ragon<<"Orthodoxie Maconique," p. 44.>> says: "Do we
not know that the ancient Initiated Poets, when speaking of the foundation of a
City meant thereby the establishment of a doctrine? Thus Neptune the god
of reasoning, and Apollo the god of hidden things, presented themselves before
Laomedon the father of Priam to help him to build the city of Troy, that is to
say, to establish the Trojan religion." In other words to "build a city" is to
establish a public culte, to "build a temple" is to found an Arcane School. The
Mystae, or veiled, are they who see things as they appear; the Epoptae, or set
{151} apart, see things as they really are, that is they are Gnostics or knowing
ones. There is a passage in the Prometheus of Æschylus, which seems to
correspond with the adventures of Æneas that we have related; and to advise the
god that he was to look for an Initiate who would give peace to humanity: "To
such labours look thou for no termination to thy pangs till a god shall appear,
as thy substitute, willing to go down to gloomy Hades and to the murky depths
around Tartarus." Blavatsky observes, and we see no reason to disagree with her
views, that when the Hierophants of the Mysteries saw that it was necessary to
rebuild the sinking speculative edifice, the Mystae had committed to them
the rebuilding of the "Upper-temple," or exoteric part; whilst the Epoptæ
had the "Lower-temple," the crypt or the esoteric portion; "for such were their
respective appellations in antiquity, and are to this day." Initiation was
spoken of as a "walking into the temple," and the "cleaning" or rebuilding of it
referred to the body of an Initiate on his supreme trial.
The misfortunes which befell the establishment of
Pythagoras at Crotono may possibly have had their origin in the jealousy of the
State Mysteries, though the destruction of its building and its members is
usually attributed to the anger of one Cylon who had been refused admittance.
It is evident, however, that two centuries later the State Mysteries must have
lost much of their exclusive power over the mind, when the Arcane Schools of
Philosophy were permitted without check to assume the entire role of their
doctrines.
The Emperor Galen, at a still later period, gave
permission to Plotinos, to build a city by the name of Platonopolis, where the
Philosophical system was to be taught, but this does not appear to have been
carried out. It is, however, quite clear that the State Mysteries and the
Arcane Schools taught the same truths, if in somewhat varied forms, and that
these truths are equally represented in Masonry, which is as far as we desire to
go in this {152} chapter. It is quite possible that there are some trifling
resemblances between Platonism and Masonry, which may have been introduced at a
modern date, but it is utterly impossible that this can apply to the great mass
of things which are in common, and we shall see more of this affinity, and in
the ancient times of Masonry, as we proceed.
Before the reader advances to the next chapter he will be
pleased to note, and to remember in regard to all which follows, that these five
chapters afford ample evidence that the original Mysteries had now
culminated in three classes, but varying only in profession and
technique, in the several systems viz.: 1, The Sacerdotal. The drama
refined into a temporary trance death. 2, The Military. The original
drama of a murdered god. These two classes were suppressed by the Christian
Emperors of Rome, but continued to be secretly practised by what one writer
terms "strolling priests." The third class learned to "close the lips," which
in the Greek is the equivalent of Mystery, and as Art was necessary to
the Church they received protection. 3, The Artizan. A version of the
last-named; entering India, China, and Babylon from the North, and Greece,
Phoenicia, and Palestine by way of Egypt, at times, in India, imparting the
Yogism of the first class. Our Saxon ancestors for these adopted the term
Guild, which implies contribution of money. {153}
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