Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

The problem of genuine Initiation, or training in occultism, consists in placing all the operations of the body under the dominion of the Will. In freeing the Ego from the dominion of the appetites, passions, and the whole lower nature. The idea is not to despise the body, but to purify or transmute it. Not to destroy the appetites, but to elevate and control them absolutely, and this is known in Alchemy as the ^[15] transmutation. This mastery of the lower nature does not change the Key of the physical nature as such; but subordinates it to that of a Higher plane. Without this subordination, the clamorous lower animal nature drowns out all higher vibrations; as if in an orchestra, the bass-viols and the drums only could be heard; and noise rather than harmony, results. Hence the saying: "He that conquers himself is greater than he who taketh a city. "

Says Dr. Buck: "While every true Mason is the most loyal of men to every office of woman, as Mother, Sister, Daughter and Wife; as Companion, Friend, and Inspirer of man, he would have been trammeled by her presence in the Lodge, and she would have received no benefit by being admitted. When, however, the days of Ritualism alone are ended, when from the one duty of guarding the altars and lighting the campfires, Masonry resumes its prerogative as Teacher and Enlightener of mankind, and the Philosophy of Nature and of Life are unfolded in its Schools and Colleges as with the Magi of old, and when with no fear of persecution from time-serving Potentate or Creed-ridden Priest, the Light may shine for all, then will the doors of real Initiation be as open to woman as to man, as was the case in the schools of Pythagoras as shown by Iamlichus. The Ancient Wisdom concerned itself largely with the Souls of men, and undertook to elevate the earthly life by purifying the Soul and exalting its Ideals. It teaches that souls are Sexless, and that the sex of the body is an incident of gestation.

^[16] " No civilization known to man has ever risen to any great heights, or long maintained its supremacy, that debased woman. Indeed, the Secret Doctrine demonstrates with unmistakable clearness that sexual debasement in any form is the highway to degeneracy and destruction of both man and woman; and of Nations quite as certainly as of individuals."

•When Brother Buck penned the above, he could not have been aware of the fact that the Rosicrucian Fraternity accepted women on an equal footing as men in all its degrees. It is for this very reason that the Rosicrucian Fraternity has been able to go unmolested, when other orders were persecuted. It is also for this same reason that the Catholic Church has been able to bring to its fold almost as many men and women as nearly all other churches combined. They recognize the Mother principle in Deity and know that man and woman, the twain are one.

Mystic Masonry recognizes this same principle and while it cannot admit women to its ceremonial Initiation, provisions are made whereby they can reach as high as can men. This is a wise plan, a plan founded by those who know and who know why the Rosicrucian Fraternity is as strong and as silent as it is.

While Mary of Magdalia could not be a disciple of Jesus, and could not travel with Him and His other disciples, yet, she could be taught in secret by Him and when all others, his most trusted disciples swore that they did not know him, Mary, the woman, did not fear to stand by Him. Let Mystic Masons remember.

Allentown, Pa. THE AUTHOR. Thanksgiving, 1906