Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

20."From this point of view it appeared remarkable, so far as the present writer could ascertain, no pyramid student had surmised that possibly in the Great Pyramid we possess the connecting link between the astronomy and the geography of the ancients. Such a connecting link; if recovered, would naturally be expected to determine, incidentally, the long-lost equal-measurement boundaries of the zodiacal constellations; and if it should further prove to be the link between the science and the religion of the ancients, then possibly something might be discovered in the line of ^[33] Schelling's brilliant hypothetical surmise: 'How if, in mythology, the ruins of a superior intelligence, and even a perfect system, were found, which would reach far beyond the horizon which the most ancient written records present to us. " *

21.This is just what we have found. In the Supreme Initiation of the Mystic and Occult Masonry we have this Key. Not only have we the Key, but we have found the "Lost Word" which the Master Mason Degree teaches us was lost. There is no longer any guess work in this, but it is a fact as any Master Mason may prove for himself. In its Degrees are the absolute secrets of all Religions and every Initiate becomes a Priest. This is possibly a bold claim to make in the present age of materialism, but to me it is a question whether even the Ministers of the Gospel have formed any idea that the present age of Materialism is to give way, within the near future, to a Science-Religion or Religion-Science?

22."The round churches of the Templars were built in circular or cyclar (i.e. Gilgal) form in allusion to astronomical facts. All the round chapter-houses and choirs were built round for the same reason the churches of the Templars were built round. In the chapter-houses and crypts, till the thirteenth century, the secret religion, perpetuating the relics of a science not falsely so-called, was celebrated in safe seclusion from the profane and ignorant vulgar. The eternal ethical truths deduced by the grandest minds, from the astronomical events connected with the history of the ^[34] planetary fratricide were communicated to the common people in the nave (navy) of the church, as the ark of salvation, in allegories like that of Hagar (Gal. IV). Thus the Initiates sought to bring within the reach of the humblest minds, the fruits of the most difficult sciences and the most ancient learning.

23."The secret (i.e., "Sacred") religion arose from the natural and insuperable difficulty of communicating the great truths of astronomy to the ignorant, and of preserving records of the great phenomena of nature. Without universal relations no ethic, but only expediency, is possible. All the mystery and allegory grew upon the necessity of using symbols and characters by which the skilled might communicate with each other, but which the ignorant ran away with. And as they were infinitely in the majority, the learned found their symbols taken out of their own hands, and they were not allowed to rectify the errors of general ignorance, nor to explain their own meaning." *

24.The Secret Orders never had any intention of being as secret as they are. Priests of the Religion were only too willing to teach the people, but the people were no more willing to receive the truth then than they are now. The accusation by religious systems that the secret Orders are of the devil because they do not admit all, Initiated and uninitiated, is utterly false. It is not the Men of these Orders that exclude the people from them. It is the people themselves ^[35] through their ignorance, that excludes them. The Priests of the genuine Orders have learned long ago as the Christ taught: " Cast not pearl before swine, lest they trample upon them. " All Orders are open to the people if they are willing to learn. Mystic Masonry opens its door to Supreme Initiation, but it cannot take the ignorant on the same footing as the learned, for he who knows not the A. B. C. of Education cannot become the teacher of Latin, nor can the ignorant of Religion and Philosophy become the teacher of these systems. The Secret Orders are open to those who are willing to learn and obey until such time as they are able to take care of themselves.