Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

55." Thus the Ineffable Name not only embodies the great Philosophical Idea, that the Deity is the Ens, the To on the absolute Existence, that of which the Essence is To Exist, the only Substance of Spinoza, the Being, that never could not have existed, as contra-distinguished from that which only becomes; not Nature or the Soul of Nature, but that which created Nature; but also the idea of the Male and Female Principles, in its highest and most profound sense: to wit, that God originally comprehended in Himself all that is; that matter was not co-existent with Him or independent of Him; that He did not merely fashion and shape a pre-existing chaos into a universe; but that His Thought manifested itself outwardly in that universe, which so became, and before was not, except as comprehended in Him; that the Generative Power, or Spirit, and the Productive Matter, ever among the ancients deemed the Female, originally were in God, and that He Was and Is all that Was, that Is, and that Shall be; in whom all else lives, moves, and has its being. "

56."This was the great Mystery of the Ineffable Name, and of course its true pronunciation and its meaning became lost to all except the select few to whom it was confided; it being concealed from the common people, because the Deity, thus metaphysically named, was not that personal and capricious, and as it were, tangible God in whom they believed, and who alone was within reach of their crude capacities.

^[53] This was the profound truth hidden in the ancient allegory and covered from the general view with a double veil. This was the exoteric meaning of the generation and production of the Indian, Chaldean, and Phoenician Cosmogonies; of the Active and Passive Powers; of the Male and Female Principles; of Heaven and its Luminaries generating, and the Earth producing; all hidden from vulgar view, as above its comprehension; the doctrine that matter is not eternal, but that God was the only Original Existence, the Absolute, from Whom everything has proceeded, and to Whom all returns. And this True Word is with entire accuracy said to have been lost, because its meaning was lost even among the Hebrews, although we still find the name (its real meaning unsuspected) in the Hu of the Druids and Fo-Hi of the Chinese."

57."The Holy Bible is one of the great Lights in Masonry and has a very profound meaning when coupled with the tradition of the Ineffable Name, or Lost Word. The object set before the neophyte in his search for the Lost Word, is, that he may travel in foreign countries and receive Master's wages, which are Knowledge and Power. The glyphic in its outer form is taken from the guilds of practical Masons of two or three centuries ago. The laws then governing the Mark of a Fellowcraft or a Master Builder were very strict, and the Mark was never bestowed unworthily, and when received was a passport among builders over a wide domain. But in a deeper, or Kabalistic sense, the Master's Word, which entitled ^[54] its possessor to Master's wages, was a very different thing indeed. The wages of the real Master were the satisfaction and the power that flow from the possession of real knowledge. Knowledge is power only when one comprehends that which he possesses, and is, therefore, enabled to use it for the purposes that lie nearest his heart. Albert Pike shows conclusively that the power of the word lies in the knowledge of the Philosophy which is its perfect synthesis. This is, in part, the meaning of 'knowing how to pronounce the Word.'

58."As already stated, the Kabalah of the Ancient Hebrews, which Moses derived by initiation into the Mysteries of Egypt and Persia, and which Albert Pike and many others declare was identical among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, Hindoos and other nations of antiquity, was known as the secret doctrine. The reason for such a name is fully revealed in what has been shown hitherto.

59."What Albert Pike says regarding the relation of the Pentateuch to the Kabalah, is true of the exoteric scriptures of every nation of antiquity."*

60.Mystic Masonry has come to teach the inner truths of Masonry, and there is no doubt but that it will fulfill its mission completely and ere many years have passed away.