The primary purpose of the Open Cheops Committee is to bring about the re-opening the Great Pyramid of Cheops. This is difficult given the entrenched positions of the archeological community. As regards Cheops, the success and proving of our theory, on its face, will apparently contradict the work of ranking Egyptologists. What we are doing is not contradicting, but rather adding information to the field of study. Unless the authorities claim that all that can be known is already known, there are no rational reasons not to examine additional information. The current leadership in Egypt now accepts our premise that the Pyramids were not built as tombs for Pharaohs. So some progress has been made. This at least puts the goal in sight.
Our entire premise is based upon the study of Mysticism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, and Religion rather than buried artifacts. In pursuit of Mystic Archeology the sources are not as cut and dried as the academic community requires. From then to now the Mystery Schools have been systematically destructed at the hands of politicized religious organizations. In addition, the work of the Mystery Schools was intentionally concealed from populations at large. Despite the fact that there have been thousands of texts regarding the Mystery Schools which could hardly be contained in any single library, the doubts and criticisms by those ignorant of Mystic history have largely been successful in denying their very existence save as figments of fertile antiquarian minds.
The idea that the modern world has emerged from a colossal ignorance can not stand. Neither will the vanity that ours is the ultimate age. The Mystery Schools functioned from pre-antiquarian times until early in the Christian era, when the politics of religion, in concert with the military power of states, saw them all extinguished. The only known possibility of their preservation exists in Egypt in the un-opened halls and chambers of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Opening Cheops is mankind’s last best chance to bring the most profound Divine wisdom back to the future. An heretofore unknown entrance has been identified and is displayed at this website. Continued refusal by Egyptian authorities to examine the evidence is much like ostriches sticking their heads in the sand. There are none so blind as those who will not see. The time has come to re-open the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
In order to further publicize the existence of the Mystery Schools, to help answer some questions, and to put the Mystery Schools into a greater perspective with known history, we offer this brief tutorial.
MASONIC - EGYPTIAN - JEWISH - GREEK MYSTERY SCHOOLS
From C.W. Leadbeater 33° , 19th century Mason and practicing mystic, we are indebted for this exposition of a portion of the mysticism within Freemasonry.
Thus it was first put forward in all seriousness by Dr. Anderson in his first Book of Contradictions that “ Adam, our first parent, created after the image of God, the Great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written in his heart,” while others, less fanciful have attributed its origins to Abraham, Moses, or Solomon. Other authors writing as late as the first part of the nineteenth century, held that Masonry, as we have it today, is the only true relic of the faith of the patriarchs before the flood, while the ancient mysteries of Egypt and other countries, which so closely resembled it, were but human corruptions of the one primitive and pure tradition.
Striking analogies to our Masonic rites have also been found among the inhabitants of India and Syria, interwoven with their religious philosophy in a way which renders entirely impossible the idea that they were copied from European sources. Masonic scholars have by no means exhausted the facts which may be discovered in this most interesting field of research, but even with our present knowledge it is clear that rites analogous to those we call Masonic are among the most ancient on Earth, and may be found in some form or other in all parts of the world. Our signs exist in Egypt and Mexico, in China and India, in Greece and Rome, upon the temples of Burma and the cathedrals of medieval Europe; and there are said to be shrines in India where the same secrets are taught under binding pledges as are communicated to us in the Craft and high grades in modern Europe and America.
The Mystical School
A third school of Masonic thought, which we may call the Mystical, approaches the mysteries of the craft from another standpoint altogether, seeing in them the plan of man’s spiritual awakening and inner development. Thinkers of this school, on the record of their own spiritual experiences, declare that the degrees of the Order are symbolical of certain states of consciousness which must be awakened in the individual initiate if he aspires to win treasures of the spirit. They give testimony of another and far higher nature upon the validity of our masonic rites — a testimony that belongs to religion rather than science. The goal of the mystic is conscious union with God, and to a mason of this school the Craft is intended to portray that path to that goal, to offer a map, as it were, to guide the feet of the seeker after God.
They are not primarily concerned in tracing an exact line of descent from the past, but rather in so living the life indicated by the symbols of the order that they may attain to the spiritual realities of which these symbols are the shadows. They hold, however, that Masonry is at least akin to the ancient mysteries, which were intended for precisely the same purpose– that of offering to man a path by which he may find God; and they deplore the fact that the majority of our modern brethren have so far forgotten the glory of their Masonic heritage that they have allowed the ancient rites to become little more than empty forms.
The Occult Records
It will be seen that this occult knowledge depends no more on the study of books and records than do the experiences of the mystics: both belong to a higher order of consciousness, the existence of which can not be satisfactorily demonstrated on the physical plane. Nevertheless, the study of the physical plane records of the past is of value in confirming the historical researches of the trained occultist, who is able to read what are sometimes called the akashic records, and so acquire an accurate knowledge of the past.
In the light of this occult knowledge ( which is in reach of the inner sight,) Masonry is seen to be far greater and holy than its initiates appear generally to recognize. As tradition has always indicated, it is found to be a direct descendent of the Mysteries of Egypt ( once the heart of a splendid faith whose wisdom and power were the glory of the ancient world– those mysteries which were the parent and prototype of the secret schools in other neighboring lands), and its purpose is still to serve as a gateway to the true Mysteries of the Great White Lodge.
The ceremonies of Freemasonry ( at least those of its higher degrees,) are dramatizations, as it were, of sections of the invisible worlds, through which the candidate must pass after death in the ordinary course of nature– which he must enter in full consciousness during rites of initiation into those true mysteries of which Masonry is a reflection. Each degree relates to a different plane of nature, or to an aspect of a plane, and possess layer after layer of meaning applicable to the consciousness . The constitution of the universe, and the principles in man, according to the occult law formulated by Hermes Trismegistus and adopted by Rosicrucian alchemists and students of the Kabbala in later ages “ As above, so below.”
The Sacramental Power
The performance of the ritual of each degree is intended to call down spiritual power, first to answer the brethren upon whom the degree is conferred to awaken within himself that aspect of consciousness which corresponds to the symbolism of the degree, as far as it can be awakened.
Each of our rituals, when properly carried out, likewise builds a temple in the inner worlds, through which the spiritual power called down at the initiation of the candidate is stored and radiated. Thus masonry is seen, in the sacramental sense as well as the mystical, to be “an art of building spiritualized.”
Most brethren as the years passed by thought more of their own gain than service to the world, the bare succession passing down and transmitting, as it were, the seeds of power, although the power itself was largely in abeyance.
Orthodoxy and Heresy
We must realize that in Masonic ritual it is not the case of one orthodoxy, and a number of heresies, and schisms; it is rather there are as many lines of tradition in form as there are types of succession in inner power. The seating of the principle officers in a Craft Lodge, for instance differs in English and Continental Masonry. English Masonry follows the old Egyptian method of arranging them, while Continental Masonry follows the Chaldean plan and seats them as an isosceles triangle.
The Hidden Life in Freemasonry describes to some extent the form and meaning of Freemasonry as known in Egypt about six thousand years ago. That form was largely due to the birth of the World-teacher among the Egyptian people about 40,000 B.C. when He taught them the doctrine of the Hidden Light.
In light of this view of the Masonic succession, it will be seen that genuine rites are those which possess and transmit spiritual power, whereas spurious Masonry is the working of a form from which, for one reason or another the life has been withdrawn, or to which it has never been linked.
The authentic history of Egypt... begins with the first dynasty, which was founded by Mena, or Manu,about 5,000 B.C.... But the inner history of Egypt and its pyramids extends further back than this, into ages upon which even tradition is silent, although some echoes of the reigns of the Divine Kings of the Atlantean dynasties, who ruled Egypt for many thousands of years, appear in the Egyptian and Greek myths of the gods and demigods who are said to have reigned before the coming of Manu.
The Atlantean conquest of Egypt took place over one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and the first great Egyptian empire lasted until the catastrophe of 75,025 B.C., when the two great islands Ruta and Daitya were whelmed beneath the ocean, and only the island of Poseidonis remained. It was during the dominance of that empire the three pyramids were built in accordance with the astronomical and mathematical lore of the Atlantean priests; and it is to this age also that we for the origin of those Mysteries which have been handed down to us in Freemasonry. Even then the ceremonies were ancient, and we must search a still more ancient past for their ultimate source. In the great catastrophe of 75,025 B.C. the whole and of Egypt was flooded, and nothing remained of all its glory except save the three pyramids rising above its waters. After a period of Nubian control the land was again colonized by the Atlanteans, who restored the splendor of the Egyptian temples and established once more the hidden Mysteries which had been celebrated in the great pyramid. This empire lasted up to the time of the aryanization of Egypt in 13,500 B.C., it was ruled by a great dynasty of divine kings, among whom were many of the heroes whom the Greeks later regarded as demigods, such as Herakles of the twelve labours, whose tradition was handed on to classical time. It was to these people about 40,000 B.C. that the World-Teacher came forth from the White Lodge, bearing the name of Tehuti, or Toth, called later by the Greeks Hermes; He founded the outer cult of the Egyptian gods and restored the Mysteries to the splendor of bygone days. The Jews referred to him as Enoch.
He came to teach the great doctrine of the ‘ Inner Light ’ to the priests of the Temples, to the powerful sacerdotal hierarchy of Egypt, headed by its Pharaoh. In the inner court of the chief Temple He taught them of ‘the Light that every man cometh into the world.’ – a phrase of His that was handed down through the ages, and was echoed in the fourth Gospel in its early Egyptian colored words. He taught them that the Light was universal, and that that Light, which was God, dwelt in the heart of every man. “ I am the Light,” He bade them repeat, “ That Light am I.” “That Light,” He said “ is the true man, although men may not recognize it, although they neglect it. Osiris is Light; he came forth from the Light; He dwells in the Light; He is the one Light. The Light is hidden everywhere; it is in every rock and in every stone. When man becomes one with the Osiris Light, then he becomes one with whole of which he was part, and then can see the Light in everyone, however thickly veiled, pressed down, and shut away. All the rest is not: but the Light is. The Light is the life of men. For every man the Reality is nearer than any ceremony, for he has only to turn inwards, and then he will see the Light. That is the object of every ceremony, and ceremonies should not be done away with, for I come not to destroy but to fulfil. When a man knows, he goes beyond ceremony, he goes to Osiris, he goes to the Light, the Light of Amen-Ra, from which all came forth, to which all shall return.
Osiris is in the heavens, but Osiris is also in the very heart of men. When Osiris in the heart knows Osiris in the heavens, then man becomes God, and Osiris, once rent into fragments, again becomes one. But see ! Osiris the Divine Spirit, Isis, the Eternal Mother, give life to Horus, who is man. Man born of both, but with one Osiris. Horus merged with Osiris, and Isis, who had been matter, becomes through him the Queen of Life and Wisdom. And Osiris, Isis, and Horus are all born of the Light.
“ Two are the births of Horus. He is born of Isis, the God born into humanity, taking the flesh of the Mother eternal, Matter, the ever Virgin. He is born again into Osiris, redeeming his Mother from her long search for the fragments of her husband scattered over the Earth. He is born into Osiris when Osiris in the heart sees Osiris in the heavens, and knows the twain are one.”
To Pharaoh, the monarch, He gave the motto: “ Look for the Light”; to the people He gave as a motto: Thou art the Light, Let that Light shine.”
And the joyous civilization of Egypt grew yet more joyous, because He had dwelt among them, the embodied Light. The priests whom He had taught handed on His teachings and His secret instructions, which they enshrined in their mysteries, and students came from all nations to learn the Wisdom of the Egyptians, and the fame of the Schools of Egypt went abroad to all lands.”
The Gods of Egypt
It will be seen from the above that the deities, or rather forms of the Deity, Osiris, Isis, and Horus were already familiar to the people, and the World-Teacher made it a part of His work to draw their attention to the meaning of the three Persons. At what time knowledge of these three Aspects of God was introduced into the land we do not know, but at the date of our experiences (mid-19th century) they had their places in the symbology of the Mysteries.
Isis and Osiris
Isis, to whom the Lesser Mysteries were ascribed, was not only the universal feminine principle expressed in nature, but also a real and very lofty being, just as the Christ is the universal Life, the second logo, and also a high official of the Occult Hierarchy. Isis is the Mother of all that lives, and wisdom and truth and power; upon her temple at Sais the inscription is written “ I am that which is, which hath been, and which shall be; and no man has ever lifted the veil that hides my Divinity from mortal eyes. ” The moon was her symbol.
Animal Deities
The Egyptians also followed the ancient practice of regarding certain animals as mirroring various aspects of the Divine, because of their outstanding qualities. Thus they took the intelligence of the ape, the clear-sightedness of the hawk, the strength of the bull, and so on, and attributed the quality to some particular aspect of the Deity.... They carefully bred certain animals as perfect representatives of their species, and kept them apart as symbols of those Divine qualities. These animals were regarded not exactly as sacred, but as objectified examples of the quality. In the beginning the creature was a mere symbol, but in later days the Egyptians had the idea that those who had been especially set apart came to be linked with the godhead, and so were to some extent a manifestation of the Deity.
The Practice of Embalming
In the same way the Pharaoh was embalmed with the idea that his power, his connection with the Deity ( which was a very close one as Pharaoh), would be preserved and would continue to radiate so long as the body remained preserved. This resembled the later practice of preserving the relics of a saint. The strong love of the Egyptians for their country provided another reason for embalming their dead. They hoped to preserve a definite link on the physical plane which would operate to draw them back to rebirth among their own people.
Other Deities
Many other Deities were reverenced in Egypt, much the same way as numerous gods are to-day in India; and in every case the devotion addressed to the Supreme obtained its response through a particular channel chosen by the worshiper. Shri Krishna, speaking as the Supreme in the Bhagavad Gita says “Even those who worship other gods with devotion, full of faith— they also worship Me.” Whatever devotion is offered through a particular form, we may be sure that there is an Intelligence behind that form who acts as a mediator, or channel between the suppliant and the Deity behind.
The Brothers of Horus
The four children, or brothers of Horus, who are depicted in the well known judgement scene as standing on a lotus before the throne of Osiris. These represent the Gods of the four quarters, or of the cardinal points, who support the canopy of heaven at its four corners. These four are the same as the four Devarajas of India. Kings of the elements, earth, air, fire, and water, who likewise preside over the cardinal points.
The Purpose of the Mysteries
The Mysteries were great public institutions, supported by the State, centers of national and religious life to which people of the better classes flocked in the thousands; and they did their work exceedingly well, for one who passed through their degrees — the process of many years— thereby became what we should now call a highly educated and cultured man or woman, with, in addition to his knowledge of this world, a vivid realization of the future after death, of a man’s place in the scheme of things, and therefore what was really worth living and dying for. It should not be taught that the Mysteries were secret societies, with all their affairs concealed from the ordinary public. It will be seen presently that thousands of people entered the ordinary degrees of Isis..... Everyone in Egypt knew that there were Mysteries, and practically everyone knew that they were largely concerned with the life after death and the preparation for it. The Great White Brotherhood has its headquarters in Central Asia, but it has at various times and for various purposes maintained subsidiary Lodges in different parts of the world.
The presence of this secret center belonging to the White Brotherhood had much to do with Egypt’s greatness throughout the ages; although the fact of its existence was not known to the outer world, that Lodge of the true Mysteries supervised the whole scheme of Egyptian initiation, and made it a prototype of all the nations around. Egypt was thus the center of spiritual illumination for the entire western world. Those who sought the Great Initiations were attracted to it; and it is a fact which explains the reverence paid to the Egyptian Mysteries by learned Greeks in later times.
The principle center for the public work of these Mysteries was the Great Pyramid, called in ancient Egypt Khut, “ The Light”. It was built on the most exact astronomical and mathematical calculations, and provided a veritable key in stone to the enigmas of the universe.
... In the halls below the Pyramid— those underground chambers which were mentioned by Herodotus as being contained in an island, fed by a channel to the Nile— certain ceremonies of the Mysteries were held. These and other halls in and near the Great Pyramid are still unknown to the explorer, though they may yet be opened “ by the proper steps” – the secret doors turning upon pivots, according to an elaborate system of counterpoises, and being set in motion by treading upon certain spots on the floor in a certain order.
The ceremonies of the Mysteries were intended to portray the higher evolution of man, his return to the divine source whence he came, through the development of the higher part of his nature, which is not merely consequent upon practices of meditation and ceremonial, but even more upon the living out of the ethical precepts which were taught. The whole scheme of initiation provided a complete chart of man’s spiritual evolution, and it was for the individual candidate to endeavor to put the teachings into practice and to make real in his own consciousness that which was symbolized in the ritual.
The Degrees of the Mysteries
The Mysteries of Egypt were, as ever, divided into two main sections, the Lesser and the Greater.... Behind the whole system of initiation was ( and is), the White Lodge itself, conferring the five great initiations which lead to human perfection and full union with God.
The Mysteries of Isis
In the Lesser Mysteries the initiate was taught what lies on the other side of death, and the ceremony of initiation was a symbolical map of that intermediate world which is sometimes called the astral plane. Probably Apuleis refers to this degree when he describes the Mysteries of Isis as celebrated in Greece during the 2nd century A.D., although he wrote at a time when they had fallen into considerable decay.... It is reported that during the ceremony Isis said: ‘ I am Nature — the parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements, the primary progeny of Time.”
The Mystery Language
Besides teaching upon the Life after death – which was elaborated by countless stories of imaginary individuals, showing the results in the astral plane after death of certain course of action during life. A fine course of education was also given to the initiates of the first degree, embracing. grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. By grammar the Egyptians meant the sacred hieroglyphic writing of the priests, which was taught to all initiates of the Mysteries, but it also signified a kind of secret language, a way of speaking peculiar to the priesthood. In the secret language of the Mysteries it was not so much different words were used, as that the familiar words had different meaning. It was a system of double meanings.
In ancient Egypt we were able to talk about the secrets of the inner life before crowds of people without letting them know what we meant, and we had quite a large vocabulary of such significant words, so that an entire conversation could be conducted seemingly about ordinary affairs, but in reality upon the secrets of the Mysteries. Much instruction was given in this way; a lecture or address might be delivered publically by one of the priests, bearing two entirely distinct meanings — the one ethical and intended for the helping of the people who were not initiated, and the other esoteric, for the students of the Mysteries.
The secret tongue of the initiates was also used in inscriptions, and in the hieroglyphic wall paintings and papyri. Many of the inscriptions telling of the victories of some great Pharaoh, could be read in a hidden sense, and then they conveyed spiritual instruction to those who had learnt the real meaning. This is certainly true of The Book of the Dead in the interpretation of it taught in the Mysteries. These texts were full of inner illumination about the realities of life and death.
It is perhaps necessary to repeat that in all of this there was no desire on the part of the priests to mislead people. Their idea was simply to give instructions graded to suit the needs of the hearer and to guard important secrets from those who were not prepared to receive them . It was for the same reason that the interior arrangements of the Great Pyramid were confused. Some of the passages were not used at all in the scheme of the initiation, the real passage having been attainable in quite another way. This policy was dictated by wisdom.
The Duality of Each Degree
The ordinary, or Lesser Mysteries were open to practically all qualified persons who sought admission. In due course they would pass to the Greater Mysteries. But in each of these degrees there were also inner Mysteries in connection with the preliminary trials.
The Inner Mysteries of Isis
Within and behind the outer Mysteries of Isis were inner circles of students carefully chosen by the priests, the very existence of which was kept utterly secret, even from most of the initiates themselves. In these circles the practical occult teaching was given that enabled the student to awaken and train his inner faculties, so that he could study at first hand the conditions of the astral plane, and thus know for himself what was but theory for the majority. Tests were administered so that at the end of their training they were thoroughly versed in the knowledge of the astral world, and able to wield its powers freely in waking consciousness.
The Mysteries of Serapis
The instruction into the greater Mysteries was carried deeper and further as regards science and philosophy; a more advanced course of intellectual training was set before the students, which one might call a research into “ the more hidden paths of nature and science.” At the same time the study of the life after death was extended to include the heaven-world... into which all must go to receive their wages for the good deeds done on earth; much of this deeper knowledge on the mental plane was taught in the Greater Mysteries, in the same manner as the facts of the astral life had been taught in the Inner Mysteries of Isis, namely by presentation and drama. The purpose of the Mysteries of Serapis in the life of the individual initiate was control of the mind and training of the mental body. The sacramental powers invoked by the ceremonial had as their object the quickening of this mental development.
The Inner Degree of Serapis
Behind the outer mysteries in this degree there were also secret circles, quite unknown to those who had not been through the inner work of the Mysteries of Isis. In these practical instruction was given on the development of the mental body, and the method of awakening accurate sight on the mental plane, so the student was enabled to verify the teaching of the priests for himself.
The Mysteries of Osiris
The third degree was called in Egypt the Mysteries of Osiris.... Apuleius describes Osiris as : “ The more powerful God of the great Gods, the highest of the greater, the greatest of the highest, and the ruler of the greatest.” In the Egyptian ritual, which was much more complete and impressive than traditional history has preserved, the candidate has to pass through a symbolical representation of the suffering, death and rising again of Osiris, which included his experiences between death and resurrection, when he entered the world of Amenta, and became judge of the dead, who should decide for each soul what measure of felicity was due to him, and turn back to earthly incarnation those who needed further human development. The legend of the death and resurrection of Osiris was well known to the people of Egypt, both initiates and profane, and there were great public ceremonies, corresponding to those of our Good Friday and Easter, when these mystic events were celebrated with the utmost splendour and with heartfelt devotion.
The Legend of Osiris
Probably the best exoteric account of the legend is preserved for us by Plutarch in his treatise De Iside et Osiride, written in Greek about the middle of the first century of the common era, a large portion of which is substantiated by the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts which have been deciphered by scholars as follows:
Osiris was a wise king in Egypt who set himself to civilize the people and redeem them from their former state of barbarism. He taught them the cultivation of the earth, gave them a body of laws, and instructed them in the worship of the Gods. Having made his own land prosperous, he set out in like manner to teach the other nations of the world. During his absence the land of Egypt was so well ruled by his wife, Isis, that his jealous brother Typhon, ( or Set,) the personification of evil, as Osiris was the personification of good, could do no harm to his kingdom. But on the return of Osiris to Egypt Typhon made a conspiracy against him, persuading seventy-two other persons to join him, together with a certain Queen of Ethiopia, named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at that time. He secretly measured the body of Osiris, and caused a beautiful chest to be made of exactly the same size. This he brought to his banqueting hall when Osiris was present as a guest, and promised, as it were in peasantry, to give it to anyone whose body might be found fit it.
All those present at the feast tried it, but since the box fitted none of them, Osiris at last laid himself down in it, whereupon the conspirators at once fastened down the lid securely, sealing it with lead, and cast it into the Nile. The murder of Osiris is said to have taken place on the 17th day of the month Athyr ( Hathor,) when the sun was in Scorpio, Osiris being in the 28th year either of his reign or his age. ( It will be noted that this date marks the beginning of winter, when the sun is mystically slain by the forces of darkness; and it is on this date, corresponding to the festival of All Souls in the Christian church, that the land of Egypt mourned the death of Osiris, as we mourn the death of the body of Jesus on Good Friday.)
News was brought to Isis at Coptos of the tragedy which had occurred, where-upon she cut off a lock of her hair, arrayed herself in morning apparel, and went forth in search of the body of Osiris. She learnt that the chest had ben carried by sea to Byblos – not the Byblos of Syria – but the papyrus swamps of the delta – and that it had been caught in a tamarisk tree, which had so grown around the chest that nothing of it was to be seen. Further more, that the King of the country, amazed at its unusual size, had cut the tree down and made it a pillar to support the roof of his palace. Isis went to Byblos and became nurse to one of the King’s sons. Each night she put the child in the fire to consume his mortal parts, changing herself into a swallow, and bemoaning the loss of her husband. But the Queen happened to see her child in flames and cried out in fear, thereby depriving him of the immortality which would otherwise have been conferred upon him. The goddess revealed herself and begged for the pillar which supported the roof. This was granted to her, and she took the chest containing the body of Osiris back to Egypt, hiding it in a secret place while she sought her son Horus. But Typhon, by an unlucky chance, found the chest while hunting in the light of the moon, and recognizing the body as that of Osiris, tore it into 14 pieces [ seven in some other accounts,] which he scattered up and down the land. When Isis heard of this she made a boat of papyrus, and set out to collect the fragments of the body. Osiris returned from the other world and appeared to his son, Horus, instructing him to do battle with Typhon; this battle lasted many days, and at length Horus was victorious.** Ultimately Osiris became king of the underworld and the judge of the dead.
In other tellings, when Isis reassembled the fragmented body parts ( all save his sexual member, which had been cast into the Nile and was seen to be consumed by a fish,) the proof of the after life of Osiris was that he begat a child by Isis after he had died. This is a version of the immaculate conception story maintained to the present in other religious legends. It also established Osiris as having been resurrected in the next life, conferring on him the power to do the same for others. According to Sir E.A. Wallis Budge in Egyptian Religion, Osiris was worshiped for millenniums by the Egyptians, and after a couple of thousand years there was a transference in the legend from Osiris having been an example of a man who gave demonstrable proof of resurrection, to Osiris being the cause of the resurrection phenomena itself.
Once this thresh hold has been crossed the ideal of direct personal experience of the Deity in the here and now is abandoned. Direct realization is then relegated to an after death experience, and the Immortal -Mortal is reduced to a savior whose personal involvement is required for redemption of the soul of the worshipers. This eliminated direct experience as an ideal. It was at that point that the metaphysical teachings of the Mystery School became separated from what became the state religion. This lead to the rise of a priestcraft that established itself as standing between the worshiper and the worshiped. This form of religion in which only the barest of the lesser teachings were taught continued and was, over a long period of time, instrumental in the destruction of the Mystery Schools across the planet.
This story, like our own traditional history, has suffered from the materializing tendencies of those who did not understand. Even Plutarch’s version is most likely highly distorted, and yet remains one of the most accurate accounts available in our times. The Mysteries of Osiris are in keeping with the real facts of the spiritual world, but those facts remain speculative in the modern world. The outline of the true legend was the death of Osiris at the hands of Set, the division of his body into twice seven parts, representing the coming forth of the seven rays, or types of manifestation, consequent upon the descent of Logos into matter, the search of Isis and the finding of the various portions of the body, their reunion and the final raising of Osiris by the third of three successive attempts to triumphant immortality and eternal resurrection. These remain as symbols and legends but may be deciphered and recognized by various individuals and members of certain esoteric traditions.
** During this battle the left eye of Horus was cut off by a sword. It regenerated. Thereafter the eye of Horus became a talisman of healing and regeneration. The Rx symbol used in modern times by pharmacists and doctors is a stylization of the Eye of Horus.
The Meaning of the Story
It is often thought that the story of Osiris, like that of Krishna, Mithra and other sun-gods ( many would include the Christ,) is simply an apotheosis of the processes of nature familiar to an agricultural people.
Osiris was also regarded as Nilus, the river Nile, and Isis as the land of Egypt, periodically fertilized by his overflow. Astronomically Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon, and Typhon darkness and winter, who in his triumph destroyed the fertilizing powers of the sun, preventing him from giving his life to the world. It is the universal story of the sun god who, after a struggle for existence and development of his power early in the year, at last rises in triumph into the mid-heaven of his glory, and bestows life upon all creatures, only to yield once more to the advance of winter and its darkness.
The sun in the heavens, as the great life of the world, pursues this cycle of death and resurrection; and the smaller life in the seed follows a similar process. It sprouts, grows to fruit, which is sacrificed for the nourishment of other creatures. Man in his turn grows through the same cycle of changes, and for him there is no escape from the sacrifice that characterizes all life. He too is reborn again and again in his cycle of reincarnations.
The story of the seed is the story of the ordinary man, but the story of the sun is that of man becoming divine. In the Egyptian Mysteries they called him the Osirified. The Christian Mystics call him Christed. It is the voluntary nature of the divine sacrifice that distinguishes it from forced sacrifices. Therefore the method of a man’s reaching divinity was always proclaimed to be unselfish and self-sacrifice for the sake of others, and the story of Christ and Osiris is but an epitome and example of how the sacrifice may be expressed on earth in human life, as it is in the heavens.
The researches of the initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris further extended to include the higher section of the mental world in which the ego ( individual identification,) functions in his causal body; and at the same time the great ceremony of raising the consciousness was perceived in many layers of interpretation including the descent of the Logos into matter. The initiate experienced a conscious death with symbolic burial, rose into a world without end, observed the descent of soul into bodies, their resurrection from the death-in-life of the lower worlds of form, and his own reincarnation on earth once more.
The Inner Mysteries of Osiris
Within this degree is also an inner circle. The practical instruction was therein carried into the higher part of the mental plane, so that the fully trained initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris acquired full consciousness as an ego beyond the limitations of the one personal life which is all that most people know. This involved an individual teaching which led to the acquisition of still greater powers, and to formations of links with beings in consciousness at still higher levels.
The Stages of The Occult Path
Behind the whole splendid scheme of the Egyptian Mysteries the Lodge of the Great White Brotherhood in that country ever stood in silence and secrecy, guarding them and using them as a channel of the Hidden Light – its very existence being unknown to all who remained outside the inner circles. The brotherhood selected for initiation into its ranks only those who had fulfilled the ancient conditions imposed upon candidates for the higher degrees. Candidates were therefore generally chosen from among the brethren who had received the higher instruction, and had prepared themselves by many years of meditation, study, and service. Still, it sometimes happened that one might be chosen for Initiation who had not passed the outer steps of the Mysteries, but in previous lives had prepared himself for it... for it is the super-ego which is initiated, not the mere personality of the lower planes.
There have always been five great initiations, which in Christian teaching have been illustrated in the life of Christ as related in the gospels, which contain elements derived from the teachings of the Egyptian Mysteries. The disciple Jesus was an initiate of the Egyptian Lodge, and therefore much of the Egyptian symbolism was incorporated by His followers, and was later woven into the gospel story. The Egyptian rituals were in some respects slightly different from these in form, although their essence is the same; for the Egyptian Lodge possessed the tradition handed down from the initiates of Atlantis, which was somewhat modified in later days, to suit the needs of the slowly evolving humanity of the Aryan race.
The First Three Initiations
The first of the true inner initiations was called The Birth of Horus, and corresponded in that great religion to the birth of Christ in the Christian presentation. Horus was born of Isis, the Virgin Mother, at his birth the Star shone forth, and the angelic hosts sang their song of triumph; he was adored by shepherds and wise men, and saved from danger which threatened him from without. In the Book of the Dead it is said “ I know the power of the East, Horus of the Solar Mount, the Star of Dawn.” The story of the initiate is a story of the Sun-God, the universal Christ who is born into the heart of man, and His mystic birth is the purpose of the first great initiation.
If the candidate had not already passed through them, as most students in the Mysteries would have done, he had at this stage to undergo trials by earth, water, air, and fire, learning with absolute certainty that none of these elements could in any way harm him in the astral body. All this was preparatory to the taking up of service on the astral plane, for the initiate had to fit himself to become a trained and useful servant of humanity both in this and the other world.
The Third Great Initiation corresponds to that stage of Christian life which is typified by the baptism, in which an expansion of intellectual faculties takes place, just as a wonderful opening out of the emotional nature is the result of the first initiation. It is at this stage that the inner trial typified by the temptation in the wilderness takes place in the life of the candidate. Then comes the splendour of the transfiguration, when the Monad descends and transforms the ego into the likeness of His own glory.
The Fourth Initiation
The Fourth Great Initiation corresponds to the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ; the candidate must pass through the valley of the shadow of death, enduring the utmost suffering and loneliness that he may rise forever to the fulness of immortality. This awful and wonderful experience is the reality which is reflected at an infinite distance through the portal of death to ascend to the everlasting glory of Resurrection.
Certain portions of the ritual of this Fourth Initiation according to the Egyptian rite were curiously entangled with the Christian teachings, and became utterly materialized and distorted in somewhat the same way as the legend of Osiris became distorted in Egypt itself. The rubric of this part of the Initiation was as follows:
‘Then shall the candidate be bound upon a wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be buried, and descend into the underworld; after the third day he shall be brought back from the dead, and shall be carried up into heaven to be the right hand of Him from whom he came, having learnt to guide the living and the dead.’
During the ceremony the candidate laid himself down upon a wooden cross, made hollow to support his body. His arms were lightly bound with cords, the ends of which were left loose to typify the voluntary nature of the sacrifice. The candidate then passed into a trance, left the physical body and passed in full consciousness into the astral plane. His body was carried into a vault below the temple and was placed in an immense sarcophagus, where it lay for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
During the mystical death of the body the candidate passed through many strange experiences in the astral world, and preached to ‘ the spirits in prison. Those who had recently left the body in death and were still fettered by their passions and desires.
On the morning of the fourth day of his burial, the candidate was raised from its sepulcher, and borne into the outer air at the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, so that the first rays of the rising sun might awaken him from his long sleep.
It was at this initiation that the candidate was carried up into “ heaven,” to receive an expansion of consciousness on the spiritual plane, often called atmic, or nirvanic. This is the plane of absolute union, and that consciousness knows all from within, is one and all in all. The initiate was made “ the right hand of Him from whom he came,” being now pledged forever to the service of God and man, and it was to be his work henceforward to guide the living and the dead towards the Hidden Light in which alone is peace. The great truth that all power which is gained is but held in trust, to be used as a means of helping others, has rarely been more clearly or more grandly set forth. And still there are higher stages, greater steps upon the Path, though belonging no more to human evolution but to the development of a Superman.
Many of the traditions preserved in the Old Testament have a basis in fact, although the actual events of Jewish history were magnified and distorted through the lens of almost fanatical patriotism by the later compilers of the records. The Jewish scriptures as we have them today were almost entirely rewritten after the exit from Egyptian soil. The priestly writers who did this work transfigured in a glow of enthusiastic romance the poetic traditions of their nation.
The Jewish Migrations
The Jewish race is an offshoot of that Semitic people who formed the fifth sub-race of the Atlantean root race. Some 4,000 years before the great cataclysm of 75,025 B.C., which overwhelmed the first Atlantean empire of Egypt. The Manu led His special followers into the uplands of Arabia in order that they might be separated from the bulk of the Atlanteans, and that a new type might be evolved from them which would later be developed into the Aryan root-race. Strict injunctions were given by the Manu that there was to be no intermarriage with neighboring races, so that the purity of the new stock could be maintained. The idea that they were the ‘ chosen people ’ was fostered to that end. Shortly before the cataclysm some 700 of the best and most promising of these people were led into central Asia by the Manu, and they grew there after thousands of years into a great nation, the nucleus of the Aryan race that was later to rule the world.
A small division of these peoples, rebelling against the prohibitions of intermarriage forsook their homeland and settled in the area now called Somaliland. After many wanderings they found themselves in Egyptian territory. The Pharaoh of the time, interested in their story, offered them an outlying province of his kingdom if they chose to settle there. Subsequent Pharaohs made demands of taxes and conscripted labor upon them which was considered an infringement of privileges Jews considered to be sacred. Once more they took to wholesale migration under the leadership of him whom we now call Moses. After further wanderings they settled in Palestine, where they were known as the Jews, still strongly maintaining that they were a chosen people.
During their sojourn in Egypt certain of them had been initiated into some of the degrees of the Egyptian Mysteries. Moses, as was said much later “ was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and he seems to have been the real founder of the Jewish Mysteries. The Jews departed Egypt without much opposition, and after wandering in the wilderness conquered various tribes and took possession of Palestine.
The Prophets
It appears that Moses was also acquainted with the great ritual of Amen as worked in the Mysteries of Egypt, and some portion at least of this tradition was transmitted to his successors. There were also schools of the prophets, who were trained in the Mysteries and studied the deeper teaching enshrined in the ancient rites. One such school is mentioned in the Old Testament as existing at Naioth under the direction of the Prophet Samuel, and there were others later in Bethel, and Jericho. These schools were not so much concerned with prophecy in the modern sense of foretelling the future, but as endeavoring to instruct the people by preaching. They attempted to arouse in their followers a sense of unity based on teachings and ritual. These preachers were chosen from among the Levites, and were sent forth to proclaim the deeper teachings in popular form. Other schools operated under Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial and others, but the Levitical priestcraft was seen as having the oldest tradition.
Something both of the inner power of the Egyptian rituals were handed down from generation to generation from the days of Moses through King David and on to King Solomon. There is some truth in the traditions preserved in the Bible, although there are exaggerations and mistakes in the account which has come down to us, and much of the inner meaning of the symbols have long since been forgotten.
King Solomon
King Solomon seems to have been a man of considerable force of character and some occult knowledge, and the ambition of his life was to weld his people into a strong and respected kingdom, able to take an influential place among the surrounding nations. To that end he built the Temple in Jerusalem to be the center of religious worship of his people and a symbol of their national unity. In this he was assisted by Hiram, King of Tyre. Hiram Abiff also assisted with highly decorative wooden and metal trims as a craftsman rather than an architect. He was the son of the widow Naphtali.
The Recasting of Rituals
While the building of the Temple had formed an outer center of worship, Solomon’s plan was incomplete. He now desired that the Mysteries, the heart of the people’s religion and center of their spiritual consciousness should also be purely Jewish in their form. The ceremonials handed down from the days of Moses were still Egyptian, and the initiates of the mysteries were yet symbolically engaged in building the Great Pyramid, the House of Light, and in celebrating the death and resurrection of Osiris. Even though it had no corresponding halls of initiation, King Solomon desired that in the future his temple should take the place of the House of Light, and become the spiritual center of the Jewish mysteries.
At first, it appears, the two Kings, Solomon and Hiram, sent an embassador to Egypt to consult the Pharaoh in the matter, telling him of the temple which they had built, and asking for some recognition of the Jewish branch of the mysteries. The Pharaoh did not accept their proposal with any degree of enthusiasm, but rather implied that no foreigner could possibly understand the Mysteries of Egypt. There is no confirmation of the story of the marriage of King Solomon to Pharaoh’s daughter, as is related in the Bible; indeed, this union is now generally rejected as impossible, for according to the Tell-el-Amarna tablets, an Egyptian princess might not marry a foreigner, or anyone else outside the royal bloodline.
The Mingling of Traditions
King Solomon then called together a great council in Jerusalem in order to proceed with the work of recasting the rituals into Jewish form. The three major members of the council represented three distinct traditions. King Solomon had inherited the Egyptian line of succession derived from Moses. King Hiram of Tyre preserved the Chaldean Mystery School descent, while Hiram Abiff brought with him another line of tradition, not derived from either of these sources. But the theme of the sacrifice of a priest-king, who was also an immortal-mortal, and who gave a demonstration of resurrection, was common to all three.
The Transmission of the New Rites
The mysteries were transmitted from generation to generation for the next 350 years, during the survival of the Kingdom of Judea. In 586 B.C., the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the people were led captive into Babylon. During the captivity the Mysteries were interrupted, and it is unlikely they were seriously worked during that time. Nevertheless, the apostolic line was preserved, and when the people returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, they also tried to reconstruct their rites of initiation. This was highly limited as that which remained had become oral, and its transmission had relied on memory.
The Essenes and Christ
The tradition of the Mysteries was transmitted from century to century, until we find it among the Essenes, who appear to have inherited the Chaldean rites. It was in this school that the disciple Jesus lived in preparation for his ministry after receiving a high initiation into the true Mysteries in Egypt. The Essenes had among the Chaldean rites inherited what was afterwards known as the Mithraic eucharist, the ceremony of bread and wine and salt. It seems probable He took the existing sacrament which was regularly celebrated in the Essene community, and transfigured it another and holier eucharist, which has become the glory of His church from generation to generation.
Kabbalism
With the tremendous impetus given by the coming of the Lord the mysteries received a greater inspiration than had been theirs since the days of Moses. Part of the mystic teachings belonging to them later passed into writing, and in the Kabbala we find fragments of the symbolic knowledge which was once the exclusive property of initiates. Most of this was derivative of the Egyptian Mysteries. The Kabbala contains the written and exoteric portion of certain teachings belonging to the Jews, though handed down in an independent line and to some extent in latter days as it were.
The literature of the Kabbala represents a growth of many centuries under the influence of many types of thought - Jewish - Gnostic - Neo-Platonic - Greek - Arabic - and even Persian - and it has never been fully translated into any European language. It consists of certain great texts written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the mass of commentaries upon them compiled by Jews of many lands and many ages. The most important texts are the Sephir Yetzirah, which explains the mystic meanings underlying the Hebrew alphabet, and erects a vast system of mystical and occult speculations upon the combinations and permutations of the various letters; and the Sepher ha Zohar, or Book of Splendour, which is a medley of history and legend, of fable and fact, of mysticism and fantastic speculation which, like all literature, contains priceless gems of occult wisdom hidden in a mass of rubbish. Both of these texts claim to have been written in the 2nd century A.D., but in reality were not written down until a later period, the former being completed by the 10th century and the latter by the 13th.
The written Jewish tradition presupposes throughout a tradition which did not pass into writing. The Zohar for example, which is its chief memorial, refers everywhere to a great body of doctrine as something perfectly well known by the circle of initiation for which the work was alone intended.
The Spiritualization of the Temple
Two mystical concepts found in the Zohar relate directly to our subject - the spiritualization of the temple of King Solomon, and the doctrine of the lost word, both of which have their roots in the Egyptian mysteries, as we have already seen. King Solomon’s temple formed the physical basis for a vast structure of mystical speculative inquiry; for its measurements and proportions were held to have a relation to the universe, and all the sacred objects which it contained had their macrocosmic and microcosmic interpretations. The Shekina or divine glory which irradiated the innermost sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was interpreted not only as the divine Presence which hallowed the visible temple, but as God immanent in His universe and indwelling in the heart of man.
Furthermore, the idea of the Jews that someday the temple should be rebuilt is itself spiritualized and transformed. It was as an allegory of the attainment of divine perfection both in man and in the universe. The Jews, whose rich Oriental minds delighted in exuberant and complex allegory, conceived a veritable city of temples, of which King Solomon’s was but a symbol - temples and palaces each relating to a different aspect or plane of nature and forming an intricate system of reflection and correspondences. The prototype of all this wealth of symbolism is found in the mysteries of Egypt, wherein the measurements of the Great Pyramid were studied as emblematical of the proportions of the universe, and contained vast stores of occult and astronomical lore. The Jews applied what they knew of the Egyptian system to the temple of Solomon, reflecting the wisdom of Egypt through their own fiery and poetical temperament, which some portion of it gradually passed on to the one hand into written and exoteric literature, and on the other hand into the secret Lodges of Masonry.
The Spiritualization of the Divine Name
The second great doctrine of Kabbalism is the loss of the great Divine Name, or rather, the correct method of pronouncing that Name. The Jews thought of this Name as a word of four letters, J. H. V. H. Which is generally read as ‘ Jehovah.’ The tradition relates that the Omnific Word, being the Name of God, commanded all the creative forces of nature, was pronounced by the high priest once a year on the day of atonement, but that after the exile from Egypt, the true pronunciation was lost. The consonants remain, as with the Egyptian tradition, but the vowel points essential to correct articulation had been forgotten. This was woven into beautiful allegory of the descent into matter and the fall of man; for immersed in matter as we are in our present state of evolution, we can not utter the word, or know the divine nature in its fullness, but can only perceive the outer shell, represented by the remaining consonants. And even this we do not understand. And therefore for even that much of the Divine Name a substituted secret is necessary. And so in the tradition whenever the word Yahweh occurred in the reading of the Law, the name of Adonai, meaning ‘ my Lord,’ was substituted for it. The modern word ‘Jehovah,’ is made by using the consonants JHVH, and intercalating the vowels of the word ‘Adonai.’ The tradition looks forward to a future when time or circumstances shall have restored the genuine method of pronunciation, and man will return to the God from whom he came forth, and be able to utter the word in all its mighty power, to command the forces latent in his own divinity. Until such time, man and God are separated.
All this was interwoven with the doctrine of the Logos, the Word of God, expounded so admirably by Philo, and known to all Christians from the opening words of the Gospel of St. John; for whom the whole tradition of the divine Word is derived from the mysteries of Egypt. The true Tetragrammaton was not the name of God in Hebrew, but another and far more ancient word, which has never been discovered in modern times. Under the old covenant the Word was lost, and its true pronunciation is unknown. The end of the quest has not been reached, though it may be in sight. The new covenant added in the center of yet one letter more, the mystic Shin, emblematic of fire and of the spirit; and so the word ‘ Jehovah,’ became ‘ Jeheshua,’ the name of the Christ, which things are allegorical. For it is only by finding of the Christ in the heart that the lost word can be rediscovered, and that very finding brings the knowledge of the true Tetragrammaton - the secret of man’s eternal being, which from the beginning has been written upon the cross of sacrifice and always kept hidden in the heart of the world among the secret things of God.
Such is briefly, an outline of the Jewish Mysteries, the tradition of which was carried to Rome, and thence passed down to the present. The Jewish Mysteries are the source of our present tradition which is embodied in Western culture in an osmotic way. It is simply not possible to grow up in the modern world without learning the tenets and dogmas of the Judaic - Christian teachings. But these teachings enshrine both the Lesser [known] and Greater [secret] Mysteries of Egypt, and do not include other great mystery systems which were famous in the ancient world, the existence of which modern religions now deny. The evidence for this linkage is stated at KJV Revelations 11:8 “ And their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” It injects the rites of the Egyptian Mystery School into both Christianity and Judaism. Insofar as Egypt had been conquered politically between Moses and Jesus, the continuity of the Egyptian origins of their doctrines was lost as competing nationalities edited the original texts to suit their own particular needs.
The Eleusinian Mysteries
The most important and best known of the Mysteries of Greece in classical times were the Eleusinian. There developed in latter times a wide spread delusion promulgated by the writings of early Christian theologians that the Mysteries of antiquity were kept secret because they contained much that was deemed improper, and should not see the light of day. However there was nothing whatever in them of an objectionable character, and those condemning them were ignorant of their true contents. The teachings were of the highest and purest nature, and they could do naught but benefit greatly all who had the privilege of being initiated into them. In classical and post classical times many of the greatest men ( and women,) have borne witness, testified to, and taught their true worth.
A few quotations, samples of innumerous statements are sufficient to illustrate this point.
Sophocles, the great tragic poet, says of them: “ Thrice happy are those mortals who after contemplation of the Mysteries go down in the realms of hades; for there they alone will possess true life; for the rest is naught but suffering.” [ Les Mysteries d’Eleusis; Foucart.]
Plato says through the mouth of Socrates in that wonderful death scene in Phaedo: “ I fancy those men who established the Mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a hidden meaning when they said long ago that whatever goes uninitiated and unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there initiated and purified will dwell with the Gods.” [ Plato: Phaedo]
Cicero was initiated into them and held them in the highest reverence, while Proclus tells us in the last days of the pagan faith: “ The most holy Rites of Eleusis vouchsafe to the Initiates enjoyment of the good offices of Kore when they shall be delivered from their bodies.” [ Proclus: Comment, in Plat. rem pub. quoted Foucard.]
The modern world knows little of the Greek Mysteries for their activities and doctrine were kept secret. Very little of direct fact from pagan sources has reached into our known recorded history. The greater part of our information comes from early Christian writers Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Arnobius and others, who were engaged upon destroying as much as possible of the pagan religion, and therefore always spoke of the Mysteries in the worst possible light.
The Origin of the Greek Mysteries
The original founder of the Greek Mysteries was Orpheus, who was an incarnation of the same great world teacher who had come to Egypt as Toth ( or Hermes,) to preach the doctrine of the Hidden Light. But now the method of His message was different; for it was spoken to another race.
He came as a singer. He taught by song, by music, music of voice and music of instrument, carrying a five stringed musical instrument, probably the origin of Appolo’s lyre. He used a pentatonic scale. By sound he worked upon the astral and mental bodies of His disciples, purifying and expanding them. By sound He drew the subtle bodies away from the physical, and set them free in the higher worlds. He worked by melody and not repetitive sounds, the rousing of each etheric center had its own melody, stirring it into activity. He showed His disciples living pictures, created by music, and in the Greek Mysteries this was wrought in the same way, the tradition coming from Orpheus. He taught that Sound was in all things, ( “ In the beginning was the word...”) and that if man would harmonize himself; then would the Divine Harmony manifest through him, and make all nature glad. He went through Hellas singing, choosing here and there one who would follow Him, and singing also for people in other ways, weaving over Greece a network of music, which should make her children beautiful and feed the artistic genius of the land. [ The remnants of the Druids after their near extinction at the hands of the one called “ St. Patrick” became bards and minstrels in order to communicate their teachings.]
This wonderful tradition of the Mysteries of Orpheus was handed down until classical times and we find on the one hand Orphic schools, of which that of Pythagorus is related, and on the other the greatest of all the Greek Mysteries, those of Eleusis, which preserved much of the ancient teaching in a ceremonial form. A relic of the tradition of Orpheus is found in the fact that the hierophant of the Eleusenian Mysteries was always chosen from the sacred family of Eumopidea, the descendants of the fabled Eumolpus, whose name meant the sweet singer. One of the most important qualifications for the office was the possession of a beautiful and resonant voice, with which the sacred chants might be correctly intoned.
The Greek idea of worship was very different from our modern conceptions. It must not be supposed that any of the educated Greeks believed in the mythology of their religion as literal fact; although it was taken literally by some ignorant people. All cultured and thinking men took up the study of one or another of the systems of philosophy. In many cases they were initiates of the Mystery Schools, and it was the higher teachings that moulded their lives, replacing religion per se. Some of the Greek myths did however enshrine the hidden teachings related to the life of the soul.
The gods of Greece are not the same as those reverenced in Egypt. They represented somewhat different aspects of the one eternal god in forms suited to the development of the Celtic subrace, which was essentially artistic, as the Egyptians had been scientific. The chief aspect of outer religion in Greece was the cult of the beautiful. It was known in Greece that every true work of art radiated an atmosphere of joy and beauty; therefore the Greeks surrounded themselves and their worship with every kind of lovely thing. They held the gods manifested themselves through beauty, were aspects of and channels for the One beauty; and thus they gathered artistic streams of the divine influence around them and so outpoured blessing upon the world.
Different symbols were developed to express the varied aspects of the One eternal causation. These god-symbols were said to hold offices in the divine court. Some of these were pure gods, having no birth and therefore no death, as well as immortal-mortals who experienced biological birth but upon death emerged as eternal beings who thereafter dwelled with the immortals in an eternal state free from birth and death. As with other belief systems, as time progressed, traditions became formalized dogmatically and the remaining rituals possessed but echoes of their original meanings, with the inner knowledge of the Mysteries withdrawn. Most of the Greek tradition that has been carried into the present is largely of the outer, commonly practiced rituals given to the lay population.
While it lasted, as in Egypt, women were admitted to the Mysteries on equal terms as men. No distinction was made between the sexes save in the matter of office. The instruction of the candidates was placed in the hands of the Mystagogues, who taught under the supervision of the hierophant and prepared initiates for the celebration of the Mysteries. All seriously minded people gravitated towards the Mysteries, much as the better minds of our day seek higher education. Many were interested in the broadest possible exposure, and took initiation in more than one discipline. The inner school was kept secret however, so that none of the initiates knew of its existence until they actually received it. Emblems of initiation were incorporated into clothing, dress, and costume to the point where specific adornments constituted a uniform.
The most serious of these initiates into the Lesser Mysteries were accepted as candidates for the Greater Mysteries in an annual ceremony held in the month of September in Athens. Ritualized processions preceded the initiation day. From Athens the initiates entered a cloistered, celibate, monastic life at the temple of Eleusis, some 13 miles from Athens. This temple was surrounded by a high wall and none but initiates were ever allowed to enter its grounds. The initiates were known a Mystae.
‘ Clean hands,’ and an ‘ intelligible voice’ were two important criteria. This is taken to mean having committed no personal transgressions and having no speech impediment. The most probable requirement for the latter was in order to pronounce the sacred formulae correctly, one’s voice must be free from impediment. This compares to the Egyptian title Maat-Heru, which meant not only true of voice, but one which must wield occult powers of sound without mistake. In the Orphic tradition of sound as the supreme sacrament this conjecture is not without foundation.
As with the Egyptians, the secret ceremonial initiation into the Greater Mysteries took three days. This was the direct experience of death, the extension of consciousness into the heaven-world, and the subsequent return to the body. The ceremonial garment of those so initiated was a golden fleece. This symbolized the mental body, and the power to function in it transcendentally at will. In the lesser Mysteries men learned the exact result in the immediate world after death of certain actions and modes of life on the physical plane. In the Greater Mysteries they learnt how causes generated in this lower existence work out in the heaven-world. In the lesser the necessity and methods of control of desires, emotions, and passions was made clear. In the Greater Mysteries the same teaching was given with regard to the control of the mind. They obtained wonderful visions of cosmic processes and their terrestrial analogies.
Just as in the case of after-death states, these representations were at first produced by occult methods; and later, when these failed them, by mechanical and pictorial means, the results of which were greatly inferior. Illustrations were employed to teach the truth of cosmic evolution by the law of correspondences. It is probable that the intentional mischaracterization of these representations and processes were distorted as developing religious politics distorted these teachings in vulgar ways.
The culmination of the ceremonial of the Greater Mysteries was symbolized by an ear of corn. “ An ear of corn in silence reaped.” In this, an ear of corn ( believed also to have been used in Atlantean rituals,) was considered by the Athenians to represent the perfect and enormous illumination that has descended from the unportrayable One.
The symbol referred to the divine life of God, ever changing, ever renewed, buried in the lower planes, only to rise in other forms to a fuller and more abundant life, passing from manifestation to manifestation without end. The simplicity of the symbol and the beauty and profundity of the meaning underlying it formed a fitting climax to a wonderful ceremony.
The Magic of the Greater Mysteries
The inner meanings of various myths were explained in detail in the instructions given initiates. The legend of Persephone ( or Proserpine,) is itself an occult parable of the descent of the soul into matter. It was taught that the soul was not originally immersed in matter, and need not have been so, but for the desire of the ego to love itself as a material creation. The power of this self adoration causes identification and attachment to the matter world. Nevertheless, the divine seed still remains within. The cultivation of the divine seed in the Mysteries, through various supersensuous practices and ceremonies, returns an individual to their underlying divine nature.
The Minotaur, slain by Perseus, represented this dual personality in man as half animal, half human, Theseus typifies the higher self, which gradually develops and gathers spiritual strength until at last the ‘sword’ of divine Spirit slays the beast within. The labyrinth of illusion which houses the Minotaur represents the lower planes of mentation navigated by the thread of occult knowledge provided by Ariadne (intuition.) Thus the higher self is able to slay the monster of ignorance and escape safely from the web if illusion.
Pitfalls still remained for those thus illumined in that re-emerging ego can result in the loss of intuitive faculties, further resulting in limited success in reaching the final goal. The Greek legend of the slaying of Bacchus by the Titans, the tearing of his body into fragments, and his resurrection from the dead was also taught. This is one of the twice told tales as it is virtually identical to the predecessor legend of Osiris in the Egyptian Mysteries, including the descent of the God to become a man, and the re-union of the man to become God through suffering and sacrifice.
The Eleusinian School
In the Eleusinian Mysteries the initiates were brought into close communion with the Deity through specially consecrated food. This corresponds in modern times to the asking of a blessing before beginning a meal. Even in today’s world, the power of the efficacy of doing so is evident by the experience that consecrated food tastes better than the same food eaten without such consecration ( Try it!) In Greece, cups of highly magnetized water were given, and consecrated cakes were eaten during ceremonies of initiation. Formulaic incantations were used before consuming these sacramental substances. The Hallows ( Hiera) were physical objects extremely highly magnetized, through which much of the magical side of the Mysteries was performed. These objects were the personal property of a priestly family of the Eumolpidea, and had been handed down for generations. Their solemn exposition and the explanations of the symbolical teaching connected to them was one of the features of the Eleusinian ritual according to Clement of Alexandria.
One of these was the caduceus, the rod of power, surrounded by twisting serpents and surmounted with a pine cone. This is the same caduceus of Hermes, the Druids, and currently the symbol used to denote medical personnel the world over, including oddly enough, all U.S. military personnel serving in medical units. In a world in which modern religion has spent some 1500 years in the destruction of other religions per se, the power of this enduring symbol speaks for itself. Another object was the thrysus, which was said to be a hollow stick filled with fire. In India it is a stick with seven knots in it, which represents the spinal column with its seven centres or chakras. When a candidate was initiated, he was often described as one who had been touched with the thrysus, showing it as an instrument, and not merely an emblem, which had a practical use.
The climbing serpents deserve their own explanation. Serpents (snakes,) can not speak, are virtually deaf, and live and move in silence. The power of the snake lies in silence. What is received from the snake is transmitted in silence. Some Buddhist sects identify the voice of God as silence. In Hinduism the two serpents are symbolic of the flow of divine energy through the spinal column, which has two channels deemed the Ida and the Pingala. The serpent fire which uncoils and raises itself from the base of the spine to the brain is called Kundilini. In the Eleusinian Mysteries the initiate had magnetized utensils laid against their back, whereby the strong magnetic instrument induced an alignment of the nerves involved which facilitated the rising of the Kundilini in a mechanical way. This awakened and connected latent forces within the initiate and freed the astral body from the physical. So that the candidate might pass in full consciousness to higher planes of mentation.
What happens as a matter of actual experience has a basis in medical fact, although modern science has yet to study the phenomena. The aroused kundilini, which is a form of energy that flows through neural channels, uncoils and gradually ascends past six portals as it were, before reaching its destination, which is the pineal gland. The kundilini is the procreative animus located at the sex organs. A pleasant sensation accompanies the rise of the kundilini which is tactile, meaning it is experienced not believed. When the kundilini reaches the pineal it completes the circuit between the lower and higher repositories of human nature. This area, located within the brain, is referred to as the Crown Chakra. As the circuit is completed, the pineal becomes erect and at its climax ejaculates a hormone throughout the brain. The splash of the ejaculated hormone results in a supersensuous state of mind known as Samadhi (Hindu) or Nirvana ( Buddhist.) The Hindus call it ‘ the thousand points of Light,’ or ‘ the thousand petalled lotus in the brain.’ It is the yoking, or union, of the higher and lower consciousnesses [ physical and temporal.] In this state consciousness exists within a brilliant white light, a thousand times brighter than our sun, and yet a Light that gives off no heat. The sensations of pleasure generated are so great as to be unbearable to all except the prepared. Not many can remain in this state for more than a few seconds of earth time. To remain is to be consumed and become one with God; in fact the ultimate conscious death. Those who have seen this Light (whether they have been immersed in it or not,) are called Illumined. They are empowered to carry the word of God. This is one of the paramount milestones of all mystic experiences.
Amplifying and directing the kundilini through the use of magnetism was utilized to great advantage in the Elusinian Mystery school. The use of the caduceus as a symbol of this sacerdotal experience is known to have been used from pre-antiquity to the present. The symbol represents an experiential event.
There was also the krater, or cup, associated with Dionysius, which was emblematic of the causal body of man. This cup has ever been used as a symbol and emblem of the causal body of man especially when filled with the wine of divine Life and love. This tradition continues to this day. It has been co-mingled with that of the Holy Grail, which played such a large part later in the early mediaeval romance and legend.
Among the holy symbols there were also highly magnetized and richly jeweled statues, which had been handed down in the remote past, and were the physical basis of certain great forces within the Mysteries. A lyre, attributed to Orpheus, on which certain melodies were played and to which sacred chants were sung is one. The tonalities used have been lost. Nonetheless, the use of magnetic instruments which create distinct sensations and the use of tonalities (resonance) may be used today by those seeking entrance to higher planes of mentation.
The Toys of Bacchus
There were also the ‘toys’ of Bacchus, which in legend, he was playing with when seized by the Titans and torn to pieces. These ‘toys’ were full of significance. The dice he played with are the five Platonic solids, the only regular polygons possible in geometry ( which was also considered a mantic art at that time.) They are given in a fixed series, and this series agrees with different planes of the solar system. Each of them indicates, not the form of atoms in the different planes, but the lines along which the power surrounding those atoms works. Those polygons are the terahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosahedron. If we put a point at one end, and the sphere at the other, we have a set of seven figures, corresponding to the planes in our solar system, and many other mystical symbols connected to the number itself. [ 7th heaven, Seventh son, Seven chakras, Lucky seven, etc.]
‘No one can enter who does not know mathematics.’ In the ancient world mathematical and geometric sciences were closely held disciplines not taught or disseminated among worldly (secular) people. At that time science and religion were bundled as one and held as proprietary among the various classes of priests. This was because science was held as the key to accessing higher planes of knowledge. Strange that in modern times science completely denies religion its place in accessing the higher knowledge that underlies the tactile world. Not only does modern science do so, it seeks to distance itself from the possibility that ever the twain shall meet.
The Mystery Schools differed somewhat one from the other in methodology and technique, but all embraced a science which incorporated the knowledge of higher planes of mentation. Their relationship to the lower manifested, physical planes and the manner in which the whole had been crafted by the Will of God. Plato stated a profound truth when he said “ God geometrizes.” Geometry may be used to throw much light upon the methods and mysteries of evolution. Those forms are not conceptions of the human brain; they are the truth of the higher planes. The work of Euclid is studied in modern scales of measure, but not as a guide to higher levels of consciousness.
Another ‘toy’ of Bacchus was a top, the symbol of the whirling atom. Another was the ball, which represented the Earth as a particular part of the logos visible to mankind. He also played with a mirror. The mirror has always been a symbol of the astral light in which archetypal ideas are reflected and then materialized. Each of these ‘toys’ indicates an essential part in the evolution of a solar system. The murder and dismemberment of Bacchus represents once again, the power of ignorance to destroy knowledge, the victory of darkness over light, and hatred over love.
The Hidden Mysteries
The two divisions of the lesser and greater mysteries above were generally known, but not that behind and above these lay the greater mystery of the Path of Holiness, the steps of which are the five great initiations already mentioned. The very existence of the possibility of future advancement was not known even to initiates of the Greater Mysteries until they were actually fit to receive the mystic summons from within.
The Hidden Teachings were less taught than revealed or discovered. Experience can not be taught, only the way to an experience can be taught. Both the Egyptian and Greek Mystery Schools prepared initiates to receive the “Wisdom of God” which was “ before the beginning of the world.” Such knowledge will always be an individual rather than collective experience. Few have ever been successful. With the destruction of the Mystery Schools largely only symbols remain. Symbols that represent invisible worlds and that still empower seekers to receive divine insight.
The School of Pythagorus
The great philosopher was born in Samos about 582 B.C. He founded his own chapter of the Mystery Schools after receiving training and initiation in Greece, Egypt, Italy, and Asia minor. Known primarily in later years for his geometric contributions ( none of which actually originated with him,) the disciplines established at Crotona, Italy, included the ascetic traditions found throughout the Orient. It is said his initiation in Egypt took place at Sais. He was also initiated in the Eleusenian, Kabeiric, and Chaldean Mysteries and was thoroughly versed in the hidden knowledge of the ancient world. In addition to his Mediterranean travels, he also journeyed to India where he met Lord Buddha, and became one of his disciples. He spent some years in India, and was reported to have had the high honor of direct experience with the god Krishna in the form of the Holy Child, before returning to Italy to found his system of philosophy and esotericism. Thus in the Pythagorean Schools many widely scattered disciplines and traditions were gathered and crafted into a coherent whole.
He became the center of a widespread and influential organization, a religious brotherhood which extended far and wide. One of its greatest principles was that ‘ Number is order and limitation, and alone makes a cosmos possible. By numbers nature moves, and to understand numbers is to be a master of nature.’ Hence Pythagoreans sought to understand the nature of numbers, and to trace their workings in the universe both in the vast ordered movements of the heavens, as well as in the arrangement of Earth. Hence also his devotion to mathematics, a science which by Western traditions, may almost be said to have been created by Pythagorus. Pythagorus systemized and added technique to the organization of numbers by gathering scattered and unrelated facts which he virtually singlehandedly turned into a scientific discipline. If such existed among secret societies and schools, it entered the public domain at his hands.
Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of the soul, played an essential part of Pythagorean teachings. Reincarnation was recognized as part of the natural process of learning and growth. The purification of the soul through multiple matter world incarnations with withdrawals into the invisible planes transmuted experience into transcendental faculties and abilities.
The Akoustikoi
The Pythagorean schools worked in close association with the Mysteries, but without the ceremonies. They gave a philosophical exposition of the great facts of the inner worlds coupled with simplified initiation rites which were more symbolic than experiential. Echoes of many of these techniques reverberate throughout the world today. Pupils were divided into three groups, each of its own progressive degree. These were the stages of purification, illumination, and perfection. Clement of Alexandria called the last “ scientific knowledge of God.” The first degree was that of the akoustikoi, or hearers. They took no part in discussions or addresses, but kept absolute silence in the meetings for two years, devoting themselves to listening and learning.
The Mathematikoi
The second degree was that of the mathematikoi. The mathematics concerned were not confined to what is now meant by the term. For Pythagorean initiates it was a preparation for something much wider, higher, and more practical. Inside the Mystery Schools the subject was carried much further, to the study and comprehension of the fourth dimension, and the laws and properties of hyperspace. It lead men to the understanding of all the octaves of vibration, and areas of which science knows nothing yet; towards the intricate occult relations of numbers, colors, sounds, and various three dimensional sections of the mighty cone of space, and the true shape of the universe. There is as yet a vast amount to be gained from the study and use of mathematics by those who know how to take it up in the right way. It will help us see how worlds are made.
The mathematikoi brought geometry, mathematics, ans music into relation with one another, and worked out correspondences between them. In music there is a fixed proportion between the lengths of the string which produce certain tones. These tones may be expressed in vibrations per second. A harmonious chord can therefore be expressed mathematically. The peculiarity is that numbers which produce a harmonious chord have the same relation to one another as that which exists between certain parts of the Platonic solids. Our musical scales today express the same proportions as the Platonic scales of 2,000 years ago.
The Physikoi
The third degree of the Pythagoreans was that of the physikoi. These were not students of physics as practiced today, but students of the true inner life, who learnt to distinguish the divine life under all its disguises, and so were able to comprehend the course of its evolution. The life exacted from these students was of the most exalted purity. The disciples of this school wore the simplest kind of clothing. They were required to surrender all their possessions to a common fund and live in poverty and silence for three years. They were divided into Exoterics and Esoterics This distinction had been incorporated by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests. The exoteric students attended public assemblies, where general instructions were delivered. by the sage. Only the esoteric constituted the true school and these alone Pythagorus called his companions. Candidates lives and character were scrutinized, and in the preparatory initiation they were enjoined by oath and submitted to severe trials of self control and fortitude. Their meals consisted primarily of bread and honey.
The tradition of the Pythagoreans passed into neo-Platonic schools, and from there the inner teachings made their way into Christian hands. Pythagorean teachings and precepts also became the basis for many schools of mystic instruction in mediaeval times including the Masons, Rosicrucians, and Knights Templar. There was a succession of ideas as well as sacramental power in the mysteries which forms the basis for religious and service organizations in the modern world.
THE ARCHIVES OF ANTIQUITY AWAIT US WITHIN THE GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS
WHAT REASONS ARE THERE NOT TO LOOK ?
