This book is dedicated to the Serpents of Wisdom with thanks

It appears to me that by the time of the Crusades, 1095 – 1291 C.E., our ancestors had lost much of their spiritual heritage. There was a resurgence of gnostic practices after the crusaders returned to Western Europe. In the Holy Lands, the Templars met up with Sufi’s, Mandeans, and the remnants of the Essenes, Kabbalists, and the first Jewish Christian congregations, and were reacquainted with the esoteric practices. You will read some slander against the Templars and Freemasons. Just remember that underneath it all, they had and have, only one goal, which is to reunite with God and further that goal among all humans. The Templars Oath of Honor;
We the Knights of Christ and of the Temple follow the destiny that prepares us to die for Christ. We have the wish to give this rule of living, of work and of honor to the constructors of churches so that Christianity can spread throughout the Earth not so that our name should be remembered, Oh Lord, but that Your Name should live.

Among other things, the Templars were said to worship the Devil. The author of The Truth Behind the Christ Myth gives us some insight into this;

P 37 The fall of the Templar Order transpired when the Christian Inquisition found the Templars worshipping grotesque images of Rex Mundi, whom they naturally assumed was the Devil. They were half right. Rex Mundi was Lucifer, the Lord of Time and Destruction, but like the spiritually advanced members of other mystery schools, the Templars worshipped Baphomet’s (Rex Mundi/Lucifer/Devil) transformative influence, the Kundalini power, which was a concept Christian fundamentalists were never able to fully grasp. Through invoking the destructive power of Rex Mundi and Baphomet’s wisdom, the Templars sought to spiritually evolve and precipitate a golden age of enlightenment.

The Templars were also accused by the Catholics of worshipping idols, i.e. the head of John the Baptist, of spitting on the cross, and of renouncing Jesus. First of all, remember who is doing the accusing. The author of Guardians of the Holy Grail p 308 helps us understand some of this in an interview he did with Ian Sinclair, when Ian states; “The Templar initiation was not a process of rejecting or disparaging the figure of the Christ or the person of Jesus. Instead, it was a method of overcoming centuries of mainstream Roman Catholic indoctrination.” Regarding worshipping the head of Baphomet, the book relates that Baphomet was the actual head of John the Baptist which was still so imbued with Holy Spirit Power that a person could become infused just by being near it or touching it. He goes on to talk about the understanding some have that the Templars revered John the Baptist more than Jesus. He explains that they call both John the Baptist and Jesus the Anointed, or Messiah. He explains that at that time, there were two Messiahs expected one a priest and one a king. There was acrimony after John’s death because Jesus claimed both roles. I will add that Jesus could do that because he was descended from both the king and high priest lines and historically, the role was combined in one priest-king.

From the author of Roslyn - Guardian of the Secrets of The Holy Grail p 105 we learn; “In ancient Egyptian symbolism, the color black indicates wisdom. In the cult of the Black Madonna the Templars were venerating the Mother of Wisdom, the ancient goddess Sophia embodied in the form of the goddess Isis with the Horus child.” He goes on to say that this pagan concept was disguised as the Christian Madonna and Child. He shares the intriguing information that when drawing up the rule for the Templars, St. Bernard of Clairvaux “laid down a specific requirement on all the Knights to make obedience to Bethany and the house of Mary and Martha.”⁷⁶ He relates, as I have found as well, that many scholars believe that the Notre Dame cathedrals built by the Templars were dedicated not to Mary the mother of Jesus, but to Mary Magdalene and the son of Jesus instead. He goes on to write “In esoteric tradition, Mary Magdalene is described as ‘the symbol of divine wisdom.’ According to the Nazorean tradition, the Magdalene was to be depicted garbed in black like the priestesses of Isis, surmounted by Sophia’s crown of stars. Her infant child wears the golden crown of royalty.”

The downfall of the Templars was due to a conspiracy between King Philippe IV Le Bel of France and the then current pope. King Philippe was from the Rex Deus Valois dynasty of France. King Philippe, however, had been denied membership in the Templars and also owed them a great deal of money, so he had a great resentment towards them. Also, his father had been kidnapped and the Templars refused to pay the ransom. French forces raided the Templars headquarters and properties only to find that the majority of their property and valuables had already been removed, as they had been forewarned. They arrested as many Templars as they could find and subjected them to the Office of the Inquisition and their usual racks, whips, stakes, chains, cold, dark, dungeons and all the other torture devices they were so good at making and using. This caused the Templars to go underground and form new secret societies such as the Knights of St. John and the Freemasons. After this sad episode, the foremost goal of the European Serpents of Wisdom was to remove the Catholic hierarchy and all self-serving monarchies from power, even if they were our own family members. Their goal was to transform Europe into a Dragon Empire ruled over by benevolent Serpents. _{‘Return of the Serpents of Wisdom’ p 285}

I will finish the subject of the Templars with the following from The Guardians of the Holy Grail;

Within your Johannite logo is a cup with a snake curled around it. I have seen this symbol associated with John the Apostle. Is this the ancient symbol of the Johannites? ‘Yes. The cup with the snake curled around it is synonymous with a flame emerging from the cup.’ What do the cup and flame represent? ‘The cup is representative of both the Holy Grail and the human vehicle which possesses the sacred flame within.’

Freemasons

Freemasonry considers itself to be a peculiar system of morality based on brotherly love, relief, and truth. Freemasonry is not a religion in the same way that the concept of ma ’at⁷⁷ was not an integral part of some theological structure or legend. Both are pragmatic realizations that the continuance of civilization and social progress rests with the individual’s ability to “do unto others as you would have done to you.” ‘The Hiram Key - Pharaoh’s, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus’ p 103

From what little I have studied of the Freemasons thirty-three degrees of initiation I can tell there is a lot of biblical and family history contained in the rites. In one of their rites they commemorate Jesus’ brother James the Just who succeeded Jesus in the position of the Zadok or Teacher of Righteousness. The author of The Hiram Key wrote that Freemasonic rituals claim that the Craft arose at the time of Hiram Abif, who was killed by a blow to the temple for his refusal to betray a secret. He reveals that this is an allegorical reference to the death of James the Just. In the rite, Hiram was killed prior to the completion of Solomon’s Temple and “almost 1,000 years later, when work on the Herodian Temple was nearing completion, building was brought to a temporary standstill as a mark of respect for James, the brother of Jesus, who had just been ritually murdered. Thus, when Freemasons celebrate the ritual death of Hiram Abif, they are commemorating one of the founders of Rex Deus.”

The Freemason’s gnostic myths main character is Hiram Abif. In the story, Hiram is the head craftsman building the temple of Solomon. The story goes that three apprentice masons accosted him in order to make him divulge the secrets of his building skills, which, I believe, represent the secrets of the Freemasons. Hiram refused, so they killed him. According to The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Hiram Abif is a “type-figure of all the saviors of humanity who sacrificed themselves for the salvation of mankind, a direct human representative of its prototype among the divinities, such as Odin and Visvakarman, the builder and artificer of the gods. Hiram Abif is also the type-figure of the individual’s inner god, crucified upon the cross of material existence.”

The author of The Knights of the Holy Grail wrote that the 29th degree describes the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. It tells of the grief experienced by the brethren and how they had to flee their homeland. He said that it was their intent to erect a third Temple, but this one was to be a “spiritual rather than physical edifice,” which, according to the author, is “a direct reference to the spiritual obligations of the Rex Deus families for whom the creation of this new ‘Temple of God on Earth’ is a sacred duty.” p 251 He goes on to say that Rex Deus secrets are enshrined in a variety of degrees within the symbolism of Freemasonry. Earl William Sinclair’s famous church Roslyn chapel is another example of this, as are all the Templar built cathedrals of Europe. He makes the comment that “The spiritual inspiration of Freemasonry gave the world the gift of the American Constitution and made a significant contribution to the establishment of the principles of liberte’, egalite’ and fraternite’ that inspired the French Revolution and, ultimately, the transformation of despotism into democracy.”

He states that pope Pius openly acknowledged that the Freemasons were the authors of his debasement and said that this aged pope was under no illusions as to the origination of the organization that had stripped him of power. He says that for pope Pius, Freemasonry derived directly from the heretical Order of the Knights Templar whom he describes as being “Gnostic from their inception and followers of the Johannite Heresy.” That heresy is the same one practiced by John the Baptist, Jesus and John the Apostle! The author states that the pope was under no illusions as to the true purpose of the Masonic fraternity, “for according to him, their aim was to destroy Holy Mother the Church.” The author writes that, “For him there was little difference between the true aim of the Rex Deus families, that of reforming the Church by bringing back the true teachings of Jesus, and the destruction of the Church that had propelled him to the dizzy heights of the papacy. Can we honestly doubt his views? It was Pius IX who first promulgated the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.”

I would like to take a moment to share my feelings regarding the Catholic church. As an institution, I think it is highly corrupt. I believe that corruption has been present in its highest echelons since its earliest periods. However, I know, and have known, many wonderful Catholic people who are sincere and devout Christians. I believe the majority of Catholic’s are sincere and devout Christians. I doubt many Catholics are proud of their church’s dark history, but all they can do is make the changes necessary to make sure their church is a vehicle of the Holy Spirit and a force for good in the world now and in the future.
I will add too, that I am not proud of the Southern Baptist’s history of racial bigotry. Because they did not understand the esoteric meaning of the scripture they treasure, they didn’t understand that when slaves are referred to in the Bible, it is a reference to psychic humans. Southern Baptists have made great strides to overcome the errors of their past. The question remains, will they have the courage to make the changes needed in order to make their organization a force for the betterment of society in the future? Will they have the courage to admit that in the light of new revelations, and new discoveries, changes should be made to Christianity? Will they have the courage to proclaim that the Holy Spirit is our Mother? Will they come to the understanding that the reason they are declining is because they are an outdated model and that a new model is emerging?
From Fragments of a Faith Forgotten:
P 274 Not only were many of the founders of the United States government Masons, but they received aid from a secret and august body⁷⁸ existing in Europe, which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose known only to the initiated few. The Great Seal is the signature of this exalted body – unseen and for the most part unknown – and the unfinished pyramid upon its reverse side is a trestle board setting forth symbolically the task to the accomplishment of which the United States government was dedicated from the day of its inception.
Manley Hall, author of The Secret Teachings of All Ages, was considered a master scholar of the Freemasons and the ancient Wisdom religion. His books are in the public domain so I will use quite a bit of his material in this chapter. I will be using snippets of his material and so the following is not continuous. He speaks about Freemasonic symbols:
The apron shown above contains a wealth of symbolism: the beehive, emblematic of the Masonic lodge itself, the trowel, the mallet, and the trestle board; the rough and trued ashlars; the pyramids and hills of Lebanon; the pillars, the Temple, and checkerboard floor; and the blazing star and tools of the Craft. The center of the apron is occupied by the compass and square, representative of the Macrocosm and the microcosm, and the alternately black and white serpent of astral light. Below is an acacia branch with seven sprigs, signifying the life Centers⁷⁹ of the superior and the inferior man. The skull and cross bones are a continual reminder that the spiritual nature attains liberation only after the philosophical death of man’s sensuous personality. To the initiated Builder the name Chiram Abif signifies “My Father, the Universal Spirit one in essence, three in aspect.” Thus the murdered Master is a type of the Cosmic Martyr – the crucified Spirit of Good, the dying god – whose Mystery is celebrated throughout the world. To interpret the Hiramic legend requires familiarity with both the Pythagorean and Qabbalistic systems of numbers and letters, and also the philosophic and astronomic cycles of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Brahmins.

It is generally admitted by modem Masonic scholars that the story of the martyred Chiram is based upon the Egyptian rites of Osiris, whose death and resurrection figuratively portrayed the spiritual death of man and his regeneration through initiation into the Mysteries. Chiram is also identified with Hermes through the inscription on the Emerald Tablet. From these associations it is evident that Chiram is to be considered as a prototype of humanity; in fact he is Plato’s Idea (archetype) of man. Thus the building of Solomon’s Temple represents the consummation of the magnum opus,⁸⁰ which cannot be realized without the assistance of Chiram, the Universal Agent.⁸¹ The Masonic Mysteries teach the initiate how to prepare within his own soul a miraculous powder of projection by which it is possible for him to transmute the base lump of human ignorance, perversion, and discord into an ingot of spiritual and philosophic gold.

Sufficient similarity exists between the Masonic Chiram and the Kundalini of Hindu mysticism to warrant the assumption that Chiram may be considered a symbol also of the Spirit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column. The exact science of human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry, for when the Spirit Fire is lifted up through the thirty-three degrees, or segments of the spinal column, and enters into the p 234 domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it invokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name. Operative Masonry, in the fullest meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened. Little is known concerning the function of the pineal body, which Descartes suggested (more wisely than he knew) might be the abode of the Spirit of man. As its name signifies, the pineal gland is the sacred pine cone in man – the eye single, which cannot be opened until Chiram (the Spirit Fire) is raised through the sacred seals which are called the Seven Churches in Asia.⁸²

This brings us to the point of the secret meaning of the book of Revelation in the Bible. There are many references to sevens of different things in the book. The seven churches in Asia are none other than the chakras! No doubt the churches are in Asia because that’s where the doctrine originated from. This was something confirmed by Edgar Cayce. I am including this information regarding the Freemasons degrees to reinforce the fact that when it comes down to it, our ancestors have always been trying to preserve and perpetuate the way for humans to reunite with God via our built-in power centers. Next, the author talks about the path the Kundalini Serpent must take within the body of the initiate;

Chiram is the mysterious fiery, airy water which must be raised through the three grand centers symbolized by the ladder with three rungs and the sunburst flowers mentioned in the description of the Hindu painting. It must also pass upward by means of the ladder of seven rungs - the seven plexuses proximate to the spine. The nine segments of the sacrum and coccyx are pierced by ten foramina, through which pass the roots of the Tree of Life. Nine is the sacred number of man, and in the symbolism of the sacrum and coccyx a great mystery is concealed. That part of the body from the kidneys downward was termed by the early Qabalist’s the Land of Egypt into which the children of Israel were taken during the captivity. Out of Egypt, Moses (the illuminated mind, as his name implies) led the tribes of Israel (the twelve faculties) by raising the brazen serpent in the wilderness upon the symbol of the Tau cross. Not only Chiram but the god-men of nearly every pagan Mystery ritual are personifications of the Spirit Fire in the human spinal cord.
This Spirit Fire is said to flow downwards into generation and to reverse the flow and turn it upwards is to spiritualize the fluid. This is also known as turning back the Jordan or the waters of the Red Sea. Which brings us to the question, are there real people and events in the Bible? Our Semitic ancestors with their distinctive clothing style, who lived in the Land of Goshen, can still be seen depicted on the walls of Egyptian ruins. Most certainly archeology, literature and tradition tell us they were real people, places and events. However, the lines between real, archetype and allegory get very blurry.

The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor for a common good true happiness and prosperity are found. The bee is a symbol of wisdom, for as this tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so men may extract wisdom from the experiences of daily life. The bee is sacred to the goddess Venus and, according to mystics it is one of several forms of life which came to the Earth from the planet Venus millions of years ago. Wheat and bananas are said to be of similar origin. This is the reason why the origin of these three forms of life cannot be traced. The fact that bees are ruled by queens is one reason why this insect is considered a sacred feminine symbol.

The Merovingian King Clovis’ sarcophagus was opened and inside was found hundreds of tiny gold bees. This is the reason for those bees.
P 577 According to Freemasonic symbolism, Enoch, fearing that all knowledge of the sacred Mysteries would be lost at the time of the Deluge, erected the two columns mentioned in the quotation.⁸³ Upon the metal column in appropriate allegorical symbols he engraved the secret teaching and upon the marble column placed an inscription stating that a short distance away a priceless treasure would be discovered in a subterranean vault. After having thus faithfully completed his labors, Enoch was translated from the brow of Mount Moriah. In time the location of the secret vaults was lost, but after the lapse of ages there came another builder – an initiate after the order of Enoch – and he, while laying the foundations for another temple to the Great Architect of the Universe, discovered the long-lost vaults and the secrets contained within.

P 588 The sanctum sanctorum of Freemasonry is ornamented with the gnostic jewels of a thousand ages; its rituals ring with the divinely inspired words of seers and sages. A hundred religions have brought their gifts of wisdom to its altar; arts and sciences unnumbered have contributed to its symbolism. Freemasonry is a world-wide university, teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all who will hearken to its words. Its chairs are seats of learning and its pillars uphold an arch of universal education. Its trestle boards are inscribed with the eternal verities of all ages and upon those who comprehend its sacred depths has dawned the realization that within the Freemasonic Mysteries lie hidden the long-lost arcana sought by all peoples since the genesis of human reason. The philosophic power of Freemasonry lies in its symbols – its priceless heritage from the Mystery schools of antiquity

P 620 The lambskin apron worn by the Freemasons over that part of the body symbolized by Typhon or Judas represents that purification of the generative processes which is a prerequisite to true spirituality.

The author of the book of The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom says that;

PP 280/81 The Legend of Hiram Abif, within which Chiram was personified as Hiram Abif, the Master Builder of Solomon’s Temple. At the outset of his legend Chiram as Hiram Abif is murdered and buried by jealous masons as he attempts to leave the grounds of Solomon’s Temple thus symbolizing the Kundalini’s death and entombment at the base of the human spine. Eventually, however, Hiram is rescued by King Solomon who reaches down into the Master Builder’s grave and pulls him out with the strong grip of a lion’s paw. This last episode of Hiram’s drama represents the last stage of spiritual practice in which the Solar Spirit (whose representative animal is a lion) located in the crown chakra uses the attracting force of its positive polarity to pull Chiram, the negatively charged Serpent Fire, up to its seat at the top of the head.
In his book World Gnosis, Mark Pinkham tells us that the legends passed down through the secret societies state that the regions of Sirius, Orion and the Pleiades, are the home of the Celestial Serpents of Wisdom, and that the first gnostic teacher of humanity was Karttikeya, also known as the archangel St. Michael. Mark wrote that the Great White Brotherhood was originally started on Sirius, “the great white lodge in the cosmos”. The channel Alice Bailey said that Masonry originated “under direct Sirian influence, and was modeled after certain Sirian institutions.” The Sirian influence on the secret societies is ongoing to this day. Mark Pinkham says this about the Sirians and their Masonic influence;
PP 220/21 The Sirian’s eternal support of Freemasonry is currently honored in many Masonic lodges by their prominently featured five pointed Blazing Star, which according to the late Freemason Grand Master Albert Pike, is the definitive Masonic symbol of Sirius. The Sirian support began on the Motherlands of Lemuria and Atlantis where the extra-terrestrials began using the Knighted Orders as their vehicles to evolve humanity to a point where it could accept a one-world government and a one-world spiritual tradition.

P 223 Through the Freemasons, the Sirians apparently had a hand in founding the nation of the U.S., which they have always intended to use as one of their primary vehicles to precipitate the coming one world civilization. While working in tandem with the Sirian agenda, the Masonic Founding Fathers were inspired to choose July 4, 1776 as the birthday of the new nation, thus placing the destiny of the U.S. directly in the hands of the Sirians. This special date corresponds to the annual transit of the Sun moving into a direct alignment with Sirius, thus making the astrological birth chart and destiny of the U.S. forever aligned with the Sirian agenda.

The authors of The Hiram Key - Pharaoh’s, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus say that;

P 347 Freemason’s carry the seed of the mind of the Nazoreans and most particularly Jesus. The legend and drama of the Master Mason's degree constitutes an indisputable link between Freemasonry and the ancient Mysteries, and few have fathomed the esoteric significance of this degree and of the legend of Hiram Abif.

Robert McCoy in his book The General history of Freemasonry wrote;
It appears that all the perfection of civilization and all the achievements made in philosophy, science and art among the ancients are due to these institutions which, under the veil of mystery sought to illustrate the sublimest truths about religion, morality and virtue and impose them in the hearts of their disciples. Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of One God, the resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul and to lead the people to see the shadow of the Deity in the beauty, magnificence and splendor of the universe.

Freemasonry is an organization that still works behind the scenes to change society for the better. They were behind the rebellion against King John of England which led to the Magna Carta and the House of Commons, which was considered the first democratic type of government. They were behind the French and American Revolutions. They are still behind the scenes working to spread democracy on Earth. They have fought tyranny wherever they found it, whether it was in a royal house, a government or a church. The Christian Reformation was brought about by the Serpents of Wisdom. The author of The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom p 289 talks about their contribution to the establishment of America. He says that while the Serpent Confederacy was working to build a democratic Europe, other leading Serpents of Wisdom on the American continent were drawing up plans for what was to be a model democratic nation. The esotericist’s referred to this new land, America, as the New Atlantis and The New Land of the Phoenix. It was to be a democracy and was to allow freedom of speech and belief, “while being governed by Serpents of Wisdom elected by the people and for the people.” He goes on to say that in the late 1600s, members of the European Order of Serpents crossed the ocean and became citizens of the New Land of the Phoenix. He remarks that once they were in North America, they proceeded to organize a network of Rosicrucian and Freemasonic Lodges “within a nation of thirteen colonies, the ancient number of the Phoenix Dragon.”

He wrote that in 1694 a Rosicrucian colony was established in Pennsylvania and by the early 1700’s, Freemasonic Lodges were sweeping across the land. I believe there is a good possibility that the Rosicrucian colony referred to was the colony of Gwynedd, which was established there at that time. He states that within these lodges, the Serpents could meet and discuss strategies “for the founding of an independent nation unshackled by British rule.” From what I can tell, at some point in time, much of the aristocracy became corrupted by power and wealth. The Habsburgs appear to have been a large part of that. I believe there was a schism in the family at that time that led to these revolutions, but I have not researched that history yet.
Mark Pinkham states too, that the North American Freemasons pooled their resources in order to organize a formidable resistance against the British. They chose the Rosicrucian and Master Mason George Washington to supervise the building of an army and brought the Freemason Baron Von Steuben from Germany to instruct the untested troops in the art of battle. Mark says that in its final form, the Colonial Army was a Military Lodge and a ‘Who’s Who’ of American Colonial Freemasonry. He says that over 2000 of its officers were Freemason’s and out of these at least one hundred were also Freemasonic Grandmasters. Familiar names among these are George Washington, Paul Revere and Joseph Warren, the Grandmaster of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge who became famous for sacrificing his life while leading a battalion up Bunker Hill. According to a New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry;
In the tense times before the American Revolution, the secrecy of the Masonic Lodges offered the colonial patriots the opportunity to meet and plan their strategy. The Boston Tea Party was entirely Masonic, carried out by members of St. John’s Lodge during an adjourned meeting. Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, only one was known not to be a Freemason, asserted Masonic writer Manley P. Hall, who in ‘The Secret Teachings of all Ages’ also told of a most mysterious incident at the time of the signing of this historic document. As the debate over their future reached a crescendo and many hesitated to sign the declaration realizing they would be putting their life on the line, suddenly a tall stranger with a pale face spoke out. No one knew who he was or where he came from, but the force of his oration was transfixing. His stirring words ended with the cry, “God has given America to be free!” Amid cheers filled with emotion, every man rushed forward to sign the declaration except the stranger. “He had disappeared”, wrote Hall, “nor was he ever seen again or his identity established.” Hall said this episode paralleled similar incidents in world history, when strange unknown men suddenly appeared just in time for the creation of some new nation. “Are they coincidences,” he asked, “or do they demonstrate that the divine wisdom of the Ancient Mysteries is still present in the world, serving mankind as it did of old?”

Mark Pinkham shares this fascinating information in The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom;

P 291...the (U.S.) Constitution was modeled after the unwritten constitution of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, the native Serpents of North America. Much of the content of this document was acquired by Ben Franklin and other leading Freemasons who attended treaty councils of the Iroquois and learned firsthand the tenets of their ancient constitution. By incorporating these native precepts into the United States new Constitution, the Founding Father’s indirectly composed their own Serpent Constitution.
Isn’t it interesting how the Indian part of our story keeps coming up in the most amazing ways? Just recently, I learned that the word Chumash is Hebrew and stands for the first five books of the Old Testament. This is interesting to me, because the local Indian tribe where I live is called the Chumash. At the same time, I learned that the Chumash are Algonquian Indians, which was surprising to me, since as far as I knew, the Algonquian Indians lived on the east coast of the United States. Pocahontas father was an Algonquian and her mother an Iroquoian. So, here I see Indians with a tie-in to both my Israelite and Indian ancestors that live near me!
Some well-known Freemasons were Walt Disney, Roy Rogers, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Ethan Allen, Henry Knox, Patrick Henry, John Hancock and Paul Revere. Ask yourself, do these men seem to be evil or bad to you? I ask that because some authors portray Freemasons that way. It is possible that there is, or was a corrupt Freemasonry. There has been a battle of two antagonists for a long time and a long history of infiltration on both sides.
The tie-in between the Freemasons and Egyptian symbolism has always been a mystery to most people. The simple truth is that Egypt has played a huge role in the history of our family, as illustrated in this book. In the book The Genesis of the Grail Kings p 161 the author wrote that in the hermetic lore of the Egyptians, spiritual regeneration took place through the thirty-three vertebrae of the spinal column until reaching the pituitary gland which invoked the pineal body. He says that this is the reason the Freemasons have thirty-three degrees of initiation.
The book Morals and Dogma by Grand Mason Albert Pike is considered one of the authoritative volumes for insights into Freemasonry. The following are just snippets from that lengthy volume and are not continuous;
Our northern ancestors worshipped this tri-une Deity; Odin, the Almighty Father; Frea, his wife, emblem of universal matter; and Thor, his son, the mediator. But above all these was the Supreme God, "the author of everything that existed, the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living and Awful Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changes.

This is something that I have for the most part shied away from, but Gnostics posit a highest God who is unfathomable and then the Trinity of Father, Mother, Son or Child.

The pavement, alternately black and white, symbolizes, whether so intended or not, the good and evil Principles of the Egyptian and Persian creed. It is the warfare of Michael and Satan, of the Gods and Titans, of Balder and Lok; between light and shadow, which is darkness; day and night; Two or the duad is the symbol of antagonism; of good and evil, light and darkness. It is Cain and Abel, Eve and Lilith, Jachin and Boaz, Ormuzd and Ahriman, Osiris and Typhon.

There is no doubt that there is within Gnosticism this dualism, this clash of antagonists. However, Jeshua sees this differently now and this is reflected in his philosophy of “turning the other cheek,” and “loving your enemy”. He says that he no longer believes we should strive to transcend dualism, but not fight it at all. Just accept it. See it for what it is. Don’t judge it as one being bad and the other good just look at it dispassionately. As one author stated earlier, Jesus did away with the flail of the Egyptian pharaoh, used to smite one’s enemy. Jeshua’s Way is the Way of the Heart. Jeshua says we are to overcome Satan i.e. darkness, with love.

In the ancient Orient, all religion was more or less a mystery and there was no divorce from it of philosophy. The popular theology, taking the multitude of allegories and symbols for realities, degenerated into a worship of the celestial luminaries, of imaginary deities with human feelings, passions, appetites, and lusts, of idols, stones, animals, reptiles. Though Masonry is identical with the ancient Mysteries, it is so only in this qualified sense: that it presents but an imperfect image of their brilliancy, the ruins only of their grandeur, and a system that has experienced progressive alterations, Masonry is a march and a struggle toward the Light.

It is not strange that, thousands of years ago, men worshipped the Sun, and that today that worship continues among the Parsees. Originally they looked beyond the orb to the invisible God, of whom the sun's light, seemingly identical with generation and life, was the manifestation and outflowing….. They personified him as Brahma, Amun, Osiris, Bel, Adonis, Malkarth, Mithras, and Apollo.

The Holy Kabalah, or tradition of the children of Seth, was carried from Chaldæa by Abraham, taught to the Egyptian priesthood by Joseph, recovered and purified by Moses, concealed under symbols in the Bible, revealed by the Savior to Saint John, and contained, entire, under hieratic figures analogous to those of all antiquity, in the Apocalypse of that Apostle.

The true name of Satan, the Kabbalists say, is that of Yahweh reversed; for Satan is not a black god, but the negation of God. The Devil is the personification of atheism or idolatry. For the Initiates, this is not a person, but a Force, created for good, but which may serve for evil. It is the instrument of liberty or free will. They represent this force, which presides over the physical generation, under the mythological and horned form of the God Pan; thence came the he-goat of the Sabbat, brother of the ancient Serpent, and the Light-bearer or Phosphor, of which the poets have made the false Lucifer of the legend.

The first Druids were the true children of the Magi, and their initiation came from Egypt and Chaldæa, that is to say, from the pure sources of the primitive Kabalah. They adored the Trinity under the names of Isis or Hesus, the Supreme Harmony; of Belen or Bel, which in Assyrian means Lord, a name corresponding to that of Adonai; and of Camul or Camaël, a name that in the Kabalah personifies the Divine Justice.

P 127 There can be no interference with, or remittance of, or protection from, the natural effects of our wrongful acts. God will not interpose between the cause and its consequence; and in that sense there can be no forgiveness of sins. The act which has debased our soul may be repented of, may be turned from; but the injury is done. The debasement may be redeemed by after-efforts, the stain obliterated by bitterer struggles and severer sufferings; but the efforts and the endurance which might have raised the soul to the loftiest heights are now exhausted in merely regaining what p 128 it has lost. There must always be a wide difference between him who only ceases to do evil, and him who has always done well. He will certainly be a far more scrupulous watcher over his conduct, and far more careful of his deeds, who believes that those deeds will inevitably bear their natural consequences, exempt from after intervention, than he who believes that penitence and pardon will at any time unlink the chain of sequences. Surely we shall do less wrong and injustice, if the conviction is fixed and embedded in our souls that everything done is done irrevocably, that even the omnipotence of God cannot uncommit a deed, cannot make that undone which has been done; that every act of ours must bear its allotted fruit, according to the everlasting laws, must remain forever ineffaceably inscribed on the tablets of Universal Nature.⁸⁴

Masonry does not occupy itself with crying down this world, with its splendid beauty, it’s thrilling interests, its glorious works, its noble and holy affections; nor exhort us to detach our hearts from this earthly life, as empty, fleeting, and unworthy, and fix them upon Heaven, as the only sphere deserving the love of the loving or the meditation of the wise. It teaches that man has high duties to perform, and a high destiny to fulfill, on this Earth; that this world is not merely the portal to another; and that this life, though not our only one, is an integral one, and the particular one with which we are here meant to be concerned; that the present is our scene of action, and the future for speculation and for trust; that man was sent upon the Earth to live in it, to enjoy it, to study it, to love it, to embellish it, to make the most of it. He is sent into this world, not to be constantly hankering after, dreaming of, preparing for another; but to do his duty and fulfill his destiny on this Earth; to do all that lies in his power to improve it, to render it a scene of elevated happiness to himself, to those around him, to those who are to come after him. His life here is part of his immortality; and this world, also, is among the stars. A belief in the one true God, and a moral and virtuous life, constitute the only religious requisites needed to enable a man to be a Mason.

Masonry has ever the most vivid remembrance of the terrible and artificial torments that were used to put down new forms of religion or extinguish the old. It sees with the eye of memory the ruthless extermination of all the people of all sexes and ages, because it was their misfortune not to know the God of the Hebrews, or to worship Him under the wrong name, by the savage troops of Moses and Joshua. It sees the thumb-screws and the racks, the whip, the gallows, and the stake, the victims of Diocletian and Alva, the miserable Covenanters, the Non-Conformists, Servetus burned, and the unoffending Quaker hung. It sees Cranmer hold his arm, now no longer erring, in the flame until the hand drops off in the consuming heat. It sees the persecutions of Peter and Paul, the martyrdom of Stephen, the trials of Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, and Irenæus; and then in turn the sufferings of the wretched Pagans under the Christian emperors, as of the Papists in Ireland and under Elizabeth and the bloated Henry.

The Roman Virgin naked before the hungry lions; young Margaret Graham tied to a stake at low-water mark, and there left to drown, singing hymns to God until the savage waters broke over her head; and all that in all ages have suffered by hunger and nakedness, peril and prison, the rack, the stake, and the sword, - it sees them all, and shudders at the long roll of human atrocities. And it sees also the oppression still practiced in the name of religion - men shot in a Christian jail in Christian Italy for reading the Christian Bible; in almost every Christian State, laws forbidding freedom of speech on matters relating to Christianity; and the gallows reaching its arm over the pulpit. The fires of Moloch in Syria, the harsh mutilations in the name of Astarte, Cybele, Jehovah; the barbarities of imperial Pagan torturers; the still grosser torments which Roman-Gothic Christians in Italy and Spain heaped on their brother-men; the fiendish cruelties to which Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland, America, have been witnesses, are none too powerful to warn man of the unspeakable evils which follow from mistakes and errors in the matter of religion, and especially from p 165 investing the God of love with the cruel and vindictive passions of erring humanity, and making blood to have a sweet savor in his nostrils, and groans of agony to be delicious to his ears.

Man never had the right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God, and condemn and punish another for his belief. Born in a Protestant land, we are of that faith. If we had opened our eyes to the light under the shadows of St. Peter's at Rome, we should have been devout Catholics; born in the Jewish quarter of Aleppo, we should have contemned Christ as an imposter; in Constantinople, we should have cried "Allah il Allah, God is great and Mahomet is his prophet!" Birth, place, and education give us our faith. Few believe in any religion because they have examined the evidences of its authenticity, and made up a formal judgment, upon weighing the testimony.

The Mason's creed goes further than that. No man, it holds, has any right in any way to interfere with the religious belief of another. It holds that each man is absolutely sovereign as to his own belief, and that belief is a matter absolutely foreign to all who do not entertain the same belief; and that, if there were any right of persecution at all, it would in all cases be a mutual right; because one party has the same right as the other to sit as judge in his own case; and God is the only magistrate that can rightfully decide between them. Among all the ancient nations there was one faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated, and another for the common people. To this rule the Hebrew’s were no exception. Yehovah, to the mass of the people, was like the gods of the nations around them, except that he was the peculiar God, first of the family of Abraham, of that of Isaac, and of that of Jacob, and afterward the national God; and, as they believed, more powerful than the other gods of the same nature worshipped p 207 by their neighbors - "Who among the Baalim is like unto thee, O Yehovah?" - expressed their whole creed.

The Deity of the early Hebrews talked to Adam and Eve in the garden of delight, as he walked in it in the cool of the day; he conversed with Kayin;⁸⁵ he sat and ate with Abraham in his tent; that patriarch required a visible token, before he would believe in his positive promise; he permitted Abraham to expostulate with him, and to induce him to change his first determination in regard to Sodom; he wrestled with Jacob; he showed Moses his person, though not his face; he dictated the minutest police regulations and the dimensions of the tabernacle and its furniture, to the Israelites; he insisted on and delighted in sacrifices and burnt-offerings; he was angry, jealous, and revengeful, as well as wavering and irresolute; he allowed Moses to reason him out of his fixed resolution utterly to destroy his people; he commanded the performance of the most shocking and hideous acts of cruelty and barbarity. He hardened the heart of Pharaoh; he repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto the people of Nineveh; and he did it not, to the disgust and anger of Jonah.

But such were not the ideas of the intellectual and enlightened few among the Hebrews. It is certain that they possessed a knowledge of the true nature and attributes of God; as the same class of men did among the other nations - Zoroaster, Menu, Confucius, Socrates, and Plato. But their doctrines on this subject were esoteric; they did not communicate them to the people at large, but only to a favored few; and as they were communicated in Egypt and India, in Persia and Phœnicia, in Greece and Samothrace, in the greater mysteries, to the Initiates. It (Freemasonry) is philosophical, because it teaches the great Truths concerning the nature and existence of one supreme Deity, and the existence and immortality of the soul. It revives the Academy of Plato, and the wise teachings of Socrates. It reiterates the maxims of Pythagoras, Confucius, and Zoroaster, and reverentially enforces the sublime lessons of him who died upon the cross.

The ancients thought that universal humanity acted under the influence of two opposing principles, the good and the evil: of which the good urged men toward truth, independence, and devotedness; and the evil toward falsehood, servility, and selfishness. Masonry represents the good principle and constantly wars against the evil one. It is the Hercules, the Osiris, the Apollo, the Mithras, and the Ormuzd, at everlasting and deadly feud with the demons of ignorance, brutality, baseness, falsehood, slavishness of soul, intolerance, superstition, tyranny, meanness, the insolence of wealth, and bigotry.

We are all of us, though not all equally, mistaken. The cherished dogmas of each of us are not, as we fondly suppose, the pure truth of God; but simply our own special form of error, our guesses at truth, the refracted and fragmentary rays of light that have fallen upon our own minds. Our little systems have their day, and cease to be; they are but broken lights of God; and He is more than they. Perfect truth is not attainable anywhere. We style this degree that of Perfection; and yet what it teaches is imperfect and defective. Yet we are not to relax in the pursuit of truth, nor contentedly acquiesce in error. It is our duty always to press forward in the search; for though absolute truth is unattainable, yet the amount of error in our views is capable of progressive and perpetual diminution; and thus Masonry is a continual struggle toward the light.

Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahmin, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the one God who is above all the Baalim,⁸⁶ must needs leave it to each of its Initiates to look for the foundation of his faith and hope to the written scriptures of his own religion. For itself it finds those truths definite enough, which are written by the finger of God upon the heart of man and on the pages of the book of nature.

The true Mason, sincerely holding that a supreme God created and governs this world, believes also that He governs it by laws, which, though wise, just, and beneficent, are yet steady, unwavering, inexorable. He believes that his agonies and sorrows are ordained for his chastening, his strengthening, his elaboration and development; because they are the necessary results of the operation of laws, the best that could be devised for the happiness and purification of the species, and to give occasion and opportunity for the practice of all the virtues, from the homeliest and most common, to the noblest and most sublime; or perhaps not even that, but the best adapted to work out the vast, awful, glorious, eternal designs of the Great Spirit of the Universe.

P 247 The religion taught by Moses, which, like the laws of Egypt, enunciated the principle of exclusion, borrowed, at every period of its existence, from all the creeds with which it came in contact. While, by the studies of the learned and wise, it enriched itself with the most admirable principles of the religions of Egypt and Asia, it was changed, in the wanderings of the people, by everything that was most impure or seductive in the pagan manners and superstitions. It was one thing in the times of Moses and Aaron, another in those of David and Solomon, and still another in those of Daniel and Philo.

Emanation from the Deity of all spiritual beings, progressive degeneration of these beings from emanation to emanation, redemption and return of all to the purity of the Creator; and, after the re-establishment of the primitive harmony of all, a fortunate and truly divine condition of all, in the bosom of God; such were the fundamental teachings of Gnosticism.

The Logos, Chief of Intelligence, of which he is the general representative, is named archangel, type and representative of all spirits, even those of mortals. He is also styled the man-type and primitive man, Adam Kadmon. The Word⁸⁷ is not only the Creator, but occupies the place of the Supreme Being. Through him all the powers and attributes of God act. On the other side, as first representative of God gives to man the soul or intelligence, which exists before the body and which he unites with the body. The reasoning p 252 principle comes from God through the Word, and communes with God and with the Word; but there is also in man an irrational principle, that of the inclinations and passions which produce disorder, emanating from inferior spirits who fill the air as ministers of God.

The body, taken from the earth, and the irrational principle that animates it concurrently with the rational principle, are hated by God, while the rational soul which He has given it, is, as it were, captive in this prison, this coffin, that encompasses it. The present condition of man is not his primitive condition, when he was the image of the Logos. He has fallen from his first estate. But he may raise himself again, by following the directions of Wisdom and of the angels which God has commissioned to aid him in freeing himself from the bonds of the body, and combating evil, the existence whereof God has permitted, to furnish him the means of exercising his liberty. The souls that are purified, not by the law but by light, rise to the heavenly regions, to enjoy there a perfect felicity. Those that persevere in evil go from body to body, the seats of passions and evil desires.

P 254 Amun, at first the God of Lower Egypt only, where Moshah⁸⁸ was reared [a word that in Hebrew means truth], was the supreme God. He was styled "the Celestial Lord, who sheds Light on hidden things.” He was the source of that divine life, of which the crux ansata is the symbol; and the source of all power. He united all the attributes that the ancient Oriental Theosophy assigned to the Supreme Being. He was the Pleroma, or ‘Fullness of things,’ for He comprehended in Himself everything; and the Light; for he was the Sun-God. He was unchangeable in the midst of everything phenomenal in his worlds. He created nothing; but everything emanated from Him; and of Him all the other Gods were but manifestations. (my emphasis)

Moshah himself was an initiate in the mysteries of Egypt, as he was compelled to be, as the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh, Thouoris, daughter of Sesostris-Ramses; who, as her tomb and monuments show, was, in the right of her infant husband, Regent of Lower Egypt or the delta at the time of the Hebrew Prophet's birth, reigning at Heliopolis.⁸⁹ She was also, as the reliefs on her tomb show, a Priestess of Hathor and Neith, the two great primeval goddesses. As her adopted son, living in her palace and presence forty years, and during that time scarcely acquainted with his brethren the Jews, the law of Egypt compelled his initiation: and we find in many of his enactments the intention of preserving, between the common people and the initiates, the line of separation which he found in Egypt.⁹⁰ Moshah and Aharun his brother, the whole series of High-Priests, the Council of the seventy Elders, Salomon and the entire succession of prophets, were in possession of a higher science; and of that science Masonry is, at least, the lineal descendant. It was familiarly known as The Knowledge of the Word.

He, the first Hermes, was the Intelligence or Word of God. Moved with compassion for a race living without law, and wishing p 255 to teach them that they sprang from his bosom, and to point out to them the way that they should go [the books which the first Hermes, the same with Enoch, had written on the mysteries of divine science, in the sacred characters, being unknown to those who lived after the flood], God sent to man Osiris and Isis, accompanied by Thoth, the incarnation or terrestrial repetition of the first Hermes; who taught men the arts, science, and the ceremonies of religion; and then ascended to Heaven or the Moon. Osiris was the Principle of Good. Typhon, like Ahriman, was the principle and source of all that is evil in the moral and physical order. Like the Satan of Gnosticism, he was confounded with Matter.

The Jews of Syria and Judea were the direct precursors of Gnosticism; and in their doctrines were ample Oriental elements. These Jews had had with the Orient, at two different periods, intimate relations, familiarizing them with the doctrines of Asia, and especially of Chaldea and Persia; their forced residence in central Asia under the Assyrians and Persians; and their voluntary dispersion over the whole East, when subjects of the Seleucids and the Romans. Living near two-thirds of a century, and many of them long afterward, in Mesopotamia, the cradle of their race; speaking the same language, and their children reared with those of the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, and receiving from them their names as the case of Danayal, who was called Bæltasatsar, proves, they necessarily adopted many of the doctrines of their conquerors. Their descendants, as Azra and Nahamaiah show us, hardly desired to leave Persia, when they were allowed to do so. They had a special jurisdiction and governors and judges taken from their own people; many of them held high office, and their children were educated with those of the highest nobles. Danayal was the friend and minister of the King, and the Chief of the College of the Magi at Babylon; if we may believe the book which bears his name, and trust to the incidents related in its highly figurative and imaginative style. Mordecai, p 256 too, occupied a high station, no less than that of Prime Minister, and Esther or Astar, his cousin, was the Monarch's wife.⁹¹

It is a significant fact, that while Christ spoke often of the Pharisees and Sadducees, He never once mentioned the Essenes, between whose doctrines and His there was so great a resemblance, and, in many points, so perfect an identity. Indeed, they are not named, nor even distinctly alluded to, anywhere in the New Testament. This faith, taught by John,⁹² and so nearly Christianity, could have been nothing but the doctrine of the Essenes; and there can be no doubt that John belonged to that sect. The place where he preached, his macerations and frugal diet, the doctrines he taught, all prove it conclusively. There was no other sect to which he could have belonged; certainly none so numerous as his, except the Essenes.

The forms and ceremonies of the Essenes were symbolical. They had, according to Philo the Jew, four degrees; the members being divided into two orders, the Practici and Therapeutici; the latter being the contemplative and medical brethren; and the former the active, practical, business men. They were Jews by birth; and had a greater affection for each other than the members of any other sect. Their brotherly love was intense. They fulfilled the Christian law, "Love one another." They despised riches. No one was to be found among them, having more than p 264 another. The possessions of one were intermingled with those of the others; so that they all had but one patrimony, and were brethren.

Eusebius broadly admits "that the ancient Therapeutæ⁹³ were Christians; and that their ancient writings were our Gospels and Epistles." The Essenes were of the eclectic sect of philosophers, and held Plato in the highest esteem; they believed that true philosophy, the greatest and most salutary gift of God to mortals, was scattered, in various portions, through all the different sects; and that it was, consequently, the duty of every wise man to gather it from the several quarters where it lay dispersed, and to employ it, thus reunited, in destroying the dominion of impiety and vice.

The great festivals of the Solstices were observed in a distinguished manner by the Essenes; as would naturally be supposed, from the fact that they reverenced the Sun, not as a god, but as a symbol of light and fire; the fountain of which, the Orientals supposed God to be. The Word⁹⁴ appears in all these creeds. It is the Ormuzd of Zoroaster, the Ainsoph of the Kabalah, the Nous of Platonism and Philonism, and the Sophia or Demiourgos of the Gnostics. And all these creeds, while admitting these different manifestations of the Supreme Being, held that His identity was immutable. The belief in dualism in some shape was universal. Those who held that everything emanated from God, aspired to God, and re-entered into God, believed that, among those emanations were two adverse Principles, of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. ...It resists the influences that would spiritualize it. That resisting power is Satan, the rebellious matter, matter that does not partake of God.

P 274 But one grand idea ever emerged and stood prominent and unchangeable over the weltering chaos of confusion. God is great, and good, and wise. Evil and pain and sorrow are temporary, and for wise and beneficent purposes. They must be consistent with God's goodness, purity, and infinite perfection; and there must be a mode of explaining them, if we could but find it out; as, in all ways we will endeavor to do. Ultimately, good will prevail, and evil be overthrown. God alone can do this, and He will do it, by an emanation from himself, assuming the human form and redeeming the world.

Behold the object, the end, the result, of the great speculations and logomachies of antiquity; the ultimate annihilation of evil, and restoration of man to his first estate, by a Redeemer, a Masayah, a Christos, the incarnate Word, Reason, or Power of Deity. This Redeemer is the Word or Logos, the Ormuzd of Zoroaster, the Ainsoph of the Kabalah, the Nous of Platonism and Philonism; He that was in the beginning with God, and was God, and by whom everything was made. That he was looked for by all the people of the East is abundantly shown by the Gospel of John and the letters of Paul; wherein scarcely anything seemed necessary to be said in proof that such a Redeemer was to come; but all the energies of the writers are devoted to showing that Jesus was that Christos whom all the nations were expecting; the ‘Word,’ the Masayah, the Anointed or Consecrated One.

These old controversies have died away, and the old faiths have p 275 faded into oblivion. But Masonry still survives, vigorous and strong, as when philosophy was taught in the schools of Alexandria and under the portico; teaching the same old truths as the Essenes taught by the shores of the Dead Sea, and as John the Baptist preached in the desert; truths imperishable as the Deity, and undeniable as Light. Those truths were gathered by the Essenes from the doctrines of the Orient and the Occident, from the Zend-Avesta and the Vedas, from Plato and Pythagoras, from India, Persia, Phœnicia, and Syria, from Greece and Egypt, and from the Holy Books of the Jews. Hence we are called Knights of the East and West, because their doctrines came from both. And these doctrines, the wheat sifted from the chaff, the truth separated from error, Masonry has garnered up in her heart of hearts, and through the fires of persecution, and the storms of calamity, has brought them and delivered them unto us. That God is One, immutable, unchangeable, infinitely just and good; that Light will finally overcome darkness - good conquer evil, and truth be victor over error; - these, rejecting all the wild and useless speculations of the Zend-Avesta, the Kabalah, the Gnostics, and the Schools, are the religion and Philosophy of Masonry.

All antiquity solved the enigma of the existence of evil, by supposing the existence of a principle of evil, of demons, fallen angels, an Ahriman, a Typhon, a Siva, a Lok, or a Satan, that, first falling themselves, and plunged in misery and darkness, tempted man to his fall, and brought sin into the world. All believed in a future life, to be attained by purification and trials; in a state or successive states of reward and punishment; and in a Mediator or Redeemer, by whom the evil Principle was to be overcome, and the Supreme Deity reconciled to His creatures. The belief was general, that he was to be born of a virgin, and suffer a painful death. The Indians called him Chrishna; the Chinese, Kioun-tse; the Persians, Sosiosch; the Chaldeans, Dhouvanai; the Egyptians, Har-Oeri; Plato, Love; and the Scandinavians, Balder.

The first Masonic legislator whose memory is preserved to us by history, was Buddha, who, about a thousand years before the Christian era, reformed the religion of Manous. He called to the Priesthood all men, without distinction of caste, who felt themselves inspired by God to instruct men. Those who so associated themselves formed a society of prophets under the name of Samaneans. They recognized the existence of a single uncreated God, in whose bosom everything grows, is developed and transformed. Man had fallen, but not by the tempting of the serpent. For, with the Phœnicians, the serpent was deemed to partake of the Divine Nature, and was sacred, as he was in Egypt. He was deemed to be immortal, unless slain by violence, becoming young again in his old age, by entering into and consuming himself. Hence the serpent in a circle, holding his tail in his mouth, was an emblem of eternity. With the head of a hawk he was of a divine nature, and a symbol of the sun. Hence one sect of the Gnostics took him for their good genius, and hence the brazen serpent reared by Moses in the desert, on which the Israelites looked and lived.

Jesus of Nazareth, the ‘Son of Man’ is the expounder of the new Law of Love. He calls to him the humble, the poor, the pariahs of the world. The first sentence that he pronounces blesses the world, and announces the new gospel: "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." He pours the oil of consolation and peace upon every crushed and bleeding heart. Every sufferer is his proselyte. He shares their sorrows, and sympathizes with all their afflictions. He raises up the sinner and the Samaritan woman, and teaches them to hope for forgiveness. He pardons the woman taken in adultery. He selects his disciples not among the Pharisees or the philosophers, but among the low and humble, even of the fishermen of Galilee. He heals the sick and feeds the poor. He lives among the destitute and the friendless. "Suffer little children," he said, "to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven! Blessed are the humble-minded, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven; the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth; the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; the pure in heart, for they shall see p 310 God; the peace-maker, for they shall be called the children of God.

First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift at the altar. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away! Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you! All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also unto them; for this is the Law and the Prophets! He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another: by this shall all know that ye are my disciples. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend."

The Gospel of Love he sealed with his life. The cruelty of the Jewish priesthood, the ignorant ferocity of the mob, and the Roman indifference to barbarian blood, nailed him to the cross, and he expired uttering blessings upon humanity. Dying thus, he bequeathed his teachings to man as an inestimable inheritance. Perverted and corrupted, they have served as a basis for many creeds, and been even made the warrant for intolerance and persecution. We here teach them in their purity. They are our Masonry; for to them good men of all creeds can subscribe.

That God is good and merciful, and loves and sympathizes with the creatures He has made; that His finger is visible in all the movements of the moral, intellectual, and material universe; that we are His children, the objects of His paternal care and regard; that all men are our brothers, whose wants we are to supply, their errors to pardon, their opinions to tolerate, their injuries to forgive; that man has an immortal soul, a free will, a right to freedom of thought and action; that all men are equal in God's sight; that we best serve God by humility, meekness, gentleness, kindness, and the other virtues which the lowly can practice as well as the lofty; this is "the new Law," the "Word," for which the world had waited and pined so long; and every true Knight of the Rose ✠ will revere the memory of him who taught it, and look indulgently even on those who assign to him a character far above his own conceptions or belief, even to the extent of deeming him divine.⁹⁵

Originally the Mysteries were meant to be the beginning of a new life of reason and virtue. The initiated or esoteric companions were taught the doctrine of the One Supreme God, the theory of death and eternity, the hidden mysteries of Nature, the prospect of the ultimate restoration of the soul to that state of perfection from which it had fallen, its immortality, and the states of reward and punishment after death.

From the bosom of Egypt sprang a man of consummate wisdom, initiated in the secret knowledge of India, of Persia, and of Ethiopia, named Thoth or Phtha by his compatriots, Taut by the Phœnicians, Hermes Trismegistus by the Greeks, and Adris by the Rabbins. Nature seemed to have chosen him for her favorite, and to have lavished on him all the qualities necessary to enable him to study her and to know her thoroughly. The Deity had, so to say, infused into him the sciences and the arts, in order that he might instruct the whole world. He invented many things necessary for the uses of life, and gave them suitable names; he taught men how to write down their thoughts and arrange their speech; he instituted the ceremonies to be observed in the worship of each of the Gods; he observed the course of the stars; he invented music, the different bodily exercises, arithmetic, medicine, the art of working in metals, the lyre with three strings; he regulated the three tones of the voice, the sharp, taken from autumn, the grave from winter, and the middle from spring, there being then but three seasons. It was he who taught the Greeks the mode of interpreting terms and things, whence they gave him the name of Ἑρμης [Hermes], which signifies Interpreter. In Egypt he instituted hieroglyphics: he selected a certain number of persons whom he judged fitted to be the depositaries of his secrets, of such only as were capable of attaining the throne and the first offices in the Mysteries; he united them in a body, created them Priests of the Living God, instructed them in the sciences and arts, and explained to them the symbols by which they were veiled. Egypt, 1500 years before the time of Moses, revered in the Mysteries One Supreme God, called the Only Uncreated. Under Him it paid homage to seven principal deities.⁹⁶

It is to Hermes, who lived at that period, that we must attribute the concealment or veiling [velation] of the Indian worship, which Moses unveiled or revealed, changing nothing of the laws of Hermes, except the plurality of his mystic Gods. The Egyptian Priests related that Hermes, dying, said: "Hitherto I have lived an exile from my true country: now I return thither. Do not weep for me: I return to that celestial country whither each goes in his turn. There is God. This life is but a death." p 365 This is precisely the creed of the old Buddhists of Samaneans, who believed that from time to time God sent Buddhas⁹⁷ on Earth, to reform men, to wean them from their vices, and lead them back into the paths of virtue.

The Druidical ceremonies undoubtedly came from India; and the Druids were originally Buddhists. The word Druid, like the word Magi, signifies wise or learned men; and they were at once philosophers, magistrates, and divines. There was a surprising uniformity in the temples, priests, doctrines, and worship of the Persian Magi and British Druids. The Gods of Britain were the same as the Cabiri of Samothrace. Osiris and Isis appeared in their Mysteries, under the names of Hu and Ceridwen; and like those of the primitive Persians, their temples were enclosures of huge unhewn stones,⁹⁸ some of which still remain, and are regarded by the common people with fear and veneration. They were generally either circular or oval. Some were in the shape of a circle to which a vast serpent was attached. The circle was an Eastern symbol of the Universe, governed by an Omnipotent Deity whose center is everywhere, and his circumference nowhere: and the egg was a universal symbol of the world. The Gothic Mysteries were carried Northward from the East, by Odin; who, being a great warrior, modeled and varied them to suit his purposes and the genius of his people. He placed over their celebration twelve Hierophants, who were alike Priests, Counsellors of State, and Judges from whose decision there was no appeal.

P 368 Joseph was undoubtedly initiated. After he had interpreted Pharaoh's dream, that Monarch made him his Prime Minister, let him ride in his second chariot, while they proclaimed before him, Abrech! and set him over the land of Egypt. In addition to this, the King gave him a new name, Tsapanat-Paänakh, and married him to Asanat, daughter of Potai Parang, a Priest of An or Hieropolis, where was the temple of Athom-Re, the great God of Egypt; thus completely naturalizing him. He could not have contracted this marriage, nor have exercised that high dignity, without being first initiated in the Mysteries. When his brethren came to Egypt the second time, the Egyptians of his court could not eat with them, as that would have been abomination, though they ate with Joseph; who was therefore regarded not as a foreigner, but as one of themselves: and when he sent and brought his brethren back, and charged them with taking his cup, he said, "Know ye not that a man like me practices divination?" Thus assuming the Egyptian of high rank initiated into the Mysteries, and as such, conversant with the occult sciences.

So also must Moses have been initiated: for he was not only brought up in the court of the King, as the adopted son of the King's daughter, until he was forty years of age; but he was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians, and married afterward p 369 the daughter of Yethru, a Priest of An⁹⁹ likewise. Strabo and Diodorus both assert that he was himself a Priest of Heliopolis. Before he went into the desert, there were intimate relations between him and the priesthood; and he had successfully commanded, Josephus informs us, an army sent by the king against the Ethiopians. Simplicius asserts that Moses received from the Egyptians, in the Mysteries, the doctrines which he taught to the Hebrews: and Clement of Alexandria and Philo say that he was a theologian and prophet, and interpreter of the Sacred Laws. Manetho, cited by Josephus, says he was a Priest of Heliopolis, and that his true and original (Egyptian) name was Asersaph or Osarsiph.¹⁰⁰ And in the institution of the Hebrew priesthood, in the powers and privileges, as well as the immunities and sanctity which he conferred upon them, he closely imitated the Egyptian institutions; making public the worship of that Deity whom the Egyptian initiates worshipped in private; and strenuously endeavoring to keep the people from relapsing into their old mixture of Chaldaic and Egyptian superstition and idol-worship, as they were ever ready and inclined to do; even Aharun,¹⁰¹ upon their first clamorous discontent, restoring the worship of Apis as an image of which Egyptian God he made the golden calf.

The Egyptian Priests taught in their great Mysteries, that there was one God, supreme and unapproachable, who had conceived the universe by His Intelligence, before He created it by His Power and Will. They were no materialists, nor pantheists; but taught that matter was not eternal or co-existent with the great First Cause, but created by Him. The early Christians, taught by the founder of their religion, but in greater perfection, those primitive truths that from the Egyptians had passed to the Jews, and been preserved among the latter by the Essenes, received also the institution of the Mysteries; adopting as their object the building of the symbolic Temple, preserving the old scriptures of the Jews as their sacred book, and as the fundamental law, which furnished the new veil of initiation with the Hebraic words and formulas, that, corrupted and disfigured by time and ignorance, appear in many of our degrees.

Everywhere, and in all their forms, the Mysteries were p 375 funereal; and celebrated the mystical death and restoration to life of some divine or heroic personage: and the details of the legend and the mode of the death varied in the different countries where the Mysteries were practiced. Nothing of this recital (story of Isis, Osiris and Horus) was historical; but the whole was an allegory or sacred fable, containing a meaning known only to those who were initiated into the Mysteries. All the incidents were astronomical, with a meaning still deeper lying behind that explanation, and so hidden by a double veil. The Mysteries strove to recall man to his divine origin, and point out to him the means of returning thither. The great science acquired in the Mysteries was knowledge of man's self, of the nobleness of his origin, the grandeur of his destiny, and his superiority over the animals, which can never acquire this knowledge, and whom he resembles so long as he does not reflect upon his existence and sound the depths of his own nature.

By doing and suffering, by virtue and piety and good deeds, the soul was enabled at length to free itself from the body, and ascend along the path of the Milky Way, by the gate of Capricorn and by the seven spheres, to the place whence by many gradations and p 418 successive lapses and enthrallments it had descended. And thus the theory of the spheres, and of the signs and intelligences which preside there, and the whole system of astronomy, were connected with that of the soul and its destiny; and so were taught in the Mysteries, in which were developed the great principles of physics and metaphysics as to the origin of the soul, its condition here below, its destination, and its future fate.

Rosicrucians

Morals and Dogma p 441; Secret teachings prominent among Rosicrucian apologists was John Haydon, who inscribes himself “A servant of God, and a secretary of nature.” In his curious work, The Rosie Cross Uncovered, he gives an enigmatic but valuable description of the Fraternity of R.C. in the following language: “Now there are a kind of men, as they themselves report, named Rosie Crucians, a divine fraternity that inhabit the suburbs of heaven, and these are the officers of the Generalissimo of the World, that are as the eyes and ears of the great King, seeing and hearing all things: they say these Rosie Crucians are seraphically illuminated,¹⁰² as Moses was, according to this order of the elements, earth refined to water, water to air, air to fire.

.....He further declares that these mysterious Brethren possessed polymorphous powers, appearing in any desired form at will. In the preface of the same work, he enumerates the strange powers of the Rosicrucian adepts: “I shall here tell you what Rosie Crucians are, and that Moses was their Father, and he was Θεοῦ παῖς; some say they were of the order of Elias, some say the disciples of Ezekiel; (...) For it should seem Rosie Crucians were not only initiated into the Mosaical Theory, but have arrived also to the power of working miracles, as Moses, Elias, Ezekiel, and the succeeding Prophets did, as being transported where they please, as Habakkuk was from Jewry to Babylon.

The Fraternity of R.C. is an august and sovereign body, arbitrarily manipulating the symbols of alchemy, Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to the attainment of its own peculiar purposes, but entirely independent of the cults whose terminology it employs.

One of three major objects of the Fraternity is:

The abolition of all monarchical forms of government and the substitution therefore of the ruler ship of the philosophic Elect. The present democracies are the direct outgrowth of Rosicrucian efforts to liberate the maws from the domination of despotism. In the early part of the eighteenth century the Rosicrucian’s turned their attention to the new American Colonies, then forming the nucleus of a great nation in the New World. The American War of Independence represents their first great political experiment and resulted in the establishment of a national government founded upon the fundamental principles of divine and natural law. As an imperishable reminder of their sub Rosa activities, the Rosicrucian’s left the Great Seal of the United States. The Rosicrucian’s were also the instigators of the French Revolution, but in this instance were not wholly successful, owing to the fact that the fanaticism of the revolutionists could not be controlled and the Reign of Terror ensued.

The Rosicrucian’s declared that the material arts and sciences were but shadows of the divine wisdom, and that only by penetrating the innermost recesses of Nature could man attain to reality and understanding. Though calling themselves Christians, the Rosicrucian’s were evidently Platonists and also profoundly versed in the deepest mysteries of early Hebrew and Hindu theology. There is undeniable evidence that the Rosicrucian’s desired to reestablish the institutions of the ancient Mysteries as the foremost method of instructing humanity in the secret and eternal doctrine. Indeed, being in all probability the perpetuators of the ancient Mysteries, the Rosicrucian’s were able to maintain themselves against the obliterating forces of dogmatic Christianity only by absolute secrecy and the subtlety of their subterfuges. They so carefully guarded and preserved the Supreme Mystery – the identity and interrelationship of the Three Selves – that no one to whom they did not of their own accord p 445 reveal themselves has ever secured any satisfactory information regarding either the existence or the purpose of the Order. The Fraternity of R.C., through its outer organization, is gradually creating an environment or body in which the Illustrious Brother C.R.C. may ultimately incarnate and consummate for humanity the vast spiritual and material labors of the Fraternity.

P 447 The perfect Rosicrucian medicine was for the healing of nations, races, and individuals. In an early unpublished manuscript, an unknown philosopher declares alchemy, Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to have been divine sciences originally, but that through perversion they had become false doctrines, leading seekers after wisdom ever farther from their goal. The same author gives a valuable key to esoteric Rosicrucianism by dividing the path of spiritual attainment into three steps, or schools, which he calls mountains. The first and lowest of these mountains is Mount Sophia; the second, Mount Qabbalah; and the third, Mount Magia. These three mountains are sequential stages of spiritual growth. ‘By philosophy is to be understood the knowledge of the workings of Nature, by which knowledge man learns to climb to those higher mountains above the limitations of sense. By Qabbalism is to be understood the language of the angelic or celestial beings, and he who masters it is able to converse with the messengers of God. On the highest of the mountains is the School of Magia (Divine Magic, which is the language of God) wherein man is taught the true nature of all things by God Himself.’
Manley Hall said about the Rosicrucian’s “They declared themselves the descendants of Tubal-Cain and Hiram Abif and that the purpose of their existence was to preserve the spiritual nature of man through ages of materiality.”