Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

352.It must not be supposed that any of the Ancient Initiates really worshipped the god of secrecy, but like in all else, they worshipped that which this god Harpocrates represented. The one thing in which Historians make their great and inexplicable mistake is to take the symbol for the actual fact or idea. Few races, even among the heathens, have worshipped idols but that which these idols represent. In this is the secret and solution of all Ancient Religion as well as in modern Freemasonry.

353."We find among all the priests of ancient people, and in order that none but really capable and ^[172] worthy men should be associated with their offices and studies, they instituted forms of probation and examination upon which followed some kind of initiation. Now as the oldest writers ascribe such mysteries and initiations to the Egyptian Priests, it is very probable that they already existed before the downfall of that people, for we find traces of them in equally ancient nations and perceive from the likeness of their fundamental principles and of the teachings and customs of their priests, that they must have had a common origin and that origin was on the lost Atlantis. Among the Chaldeans and Magi dwelt on the summits of the mountains, and among the Celtic races the Druids lived in the quiet solitude of the forests. Among the Indians and Ethiopians the Brahmins and Gymnosophists had localities specially dedicated to them, and among the Egyptians the Priests had intricate dwelling-places far beneath the surface of the earth. All had their symbols and distinctive signs, and owed their fame only to the Secrecy of their Initiation.

354."The Secrets of Antiquity had a two-fold aim. In the first case Religion was chosen as the object of care; the Greater the Mysteries the more eternally secret were they to be kept from the people. The aim in the second case was to guard the Wisdom of all things, He who would be initiated must be a man of upright character and true mental power. The Sacred Mysteries fell into decay with the Roman Empire, the flourishing and spread of the Christian ^[173] religion being the chief cause of this decadence. The initiation into the Mysteries of the Wisdom was, however, of much longer duration. They changed only from time to time either the name, the inner constitution, the degrees and various kinds of knowledge bound up in these, or even the nature of the union itself. The men, who were known under the name of Magi, or the White Masters, made one of their most important aims the true knowledge of the human heart, which lay always open before their eyes.

355.To them alone was entrusted the bringing up of Kings and the great on earth, for they alone could understand science as well as art, and careless of all prejudice taught a simple and natural Theology, which based itself upon the worship of a Supreme Being.

356.Because, however, their method of teaching was symbolical, many errors of which they were entirely incapable were ascribed to them on account of their numerous hieroglyphics. The Magi of Memphis and Heliopolis were held in such esteem, and their renown was so widespread that the greatest heroes of war, philosophers, and strangers of the highest rank journeyed to Egypt and sought to be initiated by the Priests in order to learn the secrets of the Priesthood. From among these priests Lycurgus and Solon drew a part of their system of Philosophy; and Orpheus was also initiated by them, and by this means enabled to introduce into his own land, festivals from which the Greek mythology afterwards arose. Thales also was instructed by them, Pythagoras received from the ^[174] same source his doctrine of Metempsychosis, Herodotus obtained much information, and Democritus his secrets. Moses also, who was brought up by the Magi, used his knowledge of the Mysteries to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and lead them to the service of the true God. It is well known that Moses prescribed certain probation for his Levites, and that the secrets of the Priesthood were inaccessible to the rest of the Israelites, and this principle rules till the time of Solomon.