CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH
The chemical dark rays are more bent than the luminous. The
chemical rays increase in power as you ascend the
spectrum,
from the red ray to the violet. The chemical rays typified by the
Egyptians under the name of their divinity, Taut or Thoth, are most
powerful in the morning; the luminous rays are most active at noon
(Isis, or abstractedly 'manifestation'); the heating rays (Osiris)
are most operative in the afternoon. The chemical rays are the most
powerful in spring (germination, 'producing', or 'making'), the most
luminous in the summer (ripening, or 'knowing'), the most heating in
the autumn (perpetuating). The chemical rays have more power in the
Temperate Zone; the luminous and heating, in the Tropical. There are
more chemical rays given off from the centre of the sun than from the
parts near its circumference.
Each prismatic atom, when a ray of light strikes upon it, opens
out on a vertical axis, as a
radius or fan of seven different
'widths' of the seven colours, from the
least refrangible red
up to the
most refrangible violet. (Refer to diagram above.)
'The Egyptian Priests chanted the seven vowels as a hymn addressed
to Serapis' (
Eusebe-Salverte, Dionysius of Halicarnassus).
'The vowels were retained to a comparatively late period in the
mystic allegories relative to the Solar System.' 'The seven vowels
are consecrated to the seven principal planets' (Belot,
Chiromancie,
16th cent.).
Fig.
33: PRISMATIC SPECTRUM
The cause of the splendour and variety of colours lies deep in the
affinities of nature. There is a singular and mysterious alliance
between colour and sound. There are seven pure tones in the diatonic
scale, because the harmonic octave is on the margin, or border, or
rhythmic point, or the First and Seventh, like the chemical dark rays
on the margin of the solar
spectrum. (See explanatory chart of
the Prismatic Colours above.)
Red is the
deep bass vibration of ether. To produce the
sensation of red to the eye, the luminous line must vibrate 477
millions of millions of times in a second. Blue, or rather purple, is
the
high treble vibration, like the upper C in music. There
must be a vibration of 699 millions of millions in a second to
produce it; while the cord that produces the high C must vibrate 516
times per second.
Heat, in its effect upon nature, produces colours and sounds. The
world’s temperature declines one degree
at the height of 100 feet from the earth. There is a difference of
one degree in the temperature, corresponding to each 1,000 feet, at
the elevation of 30,000 feet. Colouration is effected, at the surface
of the earth, to the same amount in one minute that takes half an
hour over three miles high, in the full rays of the sun. The
dissemination of light in the atmosphere is wholly due to the aqueous
vapour in it. The
spectrum is gained from the sun. In the air
opposite to it, there is no
spectrum. These conclusions result
from balloon observations made in April 1863, and the philosophical
deductions are a victory for 'aqueous vapour'.
It has been demonstrated that flames are both sensitive and
sounding; they have, therefore, special affinities.
'The author of
The Nature and Origin of Evil is of opinion
that there is some inconceivable
benefit in Pain, abstractly
considered; that Pain, however inflicted or wherever felt,
communicates some good to the General System of Being; and that every
animal is some way or other the better for the pain of every other
animal. This opinion he carries so far as to suppose that there
passes some principle of union through all animal life, as attraction
is communicated to all corporeal nature; and that the evils suffered
on this globe may by some inconceivable means contribute to the
felicity of the inhabitants of the remotest planet.'--Contemporary
review of the
Nature and Origin of Evil.
'Without subordination, no created System can exist: all
subordination implying Imperfection; all Imperfection, Evil; and all
Evil, some kind of Inconveniency or Suffering.'--Soame Jenyns,
Free
Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil.
'Whether Subordination implies Imperfection may
be disputed. The means respecting themselves may be as perfect as
the end. The Weed as a Weed is no less perfect than the Oak as an
Oak. Imperfection may imply primitive Evil, or the Absence of some
Good; but this Privation produces no Suffering, but by the Help of
Knowledge.' 'Here the point of view is erroneously taken for granted.
The end of the oak, in another comprehension, may be the weed, as
well as the end of the weed the oak. The contraries may be converse,
out of our appreciation.'--Review of the above work in
Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces. London: T. Davies, 1774.
'There is no evil but must inhere in a conscious being, or be
referred to it; that is, Evil must be
felt before it is
Evil.'--Review of
A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of
Evil, p. 5 of the same
Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces.
London: T. Davies, Russell Street, Covent Garden, Bookseller to the
Royal Academy. 1774. Query, whether the Review of this Book, though
attributed to Dr. Johnson, be not by Soame Jenyns himself, the author
of the book?
'Thoughts, or ideas, or notions--call them what you will--differ
from each other, not in
kind, but in
force. The basis
of all things cannot be, as the popular philosophy alleges, mind. It
is infinitely improbable that the
cause of
mind--that
is, of
existence--is similar to mind.'--Shelley's
Essays.
The foregoing is contained in that on Life. He means Reason, in this
objection to MIND. Shelley further remarks: 'The words I, and YOU,
and THEY, are grammatical devices, invented simply for arrangement,
and totally devoid of the intense and exclusive sense usually
attached to them.'
In the
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston,
part ii. (1749), there occur the following observations:
'N.B.--I desire the reader to take notice that the very learned
Gerard John Vossius, in his three accurate dissertations,
De
Tribus Symbolis, or
Of The Three Creeds--that called
The
Apostles’ Creed, that called
The Athanasian Creed,
and that called the
Nicene or
Constantinopolitan Creed,
with the
Filioque, has proved them to be all falsely so
called: that the first was only the Creed of the
Roman Church
about A.D. 400; that the second was a forgery about 400 years after
Athanasius had been dead, or about A.D. 767, and this in the West and
in the Latin Church only, and did not obtain in the
Greek
Church till about 400 years afterwards, or about A.D. 1200; and that
the third had the term
Filioque first inserted into it about
the time when the
Athanasian Creed was produced, and not
sooner, or about A.D. 767.'
CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH
To indicate God’s existence, the ancient sages of Asia, and
many Greeks, adopted the emblem of pure fire, or ether.
'Aerem amplectatur immensus æther, qui constat exaltissimis
ignibus' (Cicero,
De Natura Deorum, lib. ii. c. 36.) 'Cœlum
ipsum stellasque colligens, omnisque siderum compago, æther
vocatur, non ut quidem putant quod ignitus sit et insensus, sed quod
cursibus rapidis semper rotatur' (Apuleius,
De Mundo).
Pythagoras and Empedocles entertained similar theories (Brucker, I,
c. i. p. 113). Parmenides also represented God as a universal fire
which surrounded the heavens with its circle of light and fire
(Cicero,
De Natura Deorum, lib. iii. c. 2). Hippasus,
Heraclitus, and Hippocrates imagined God as a reasoning and immortal
fire which permeates all things (Cudworth,
Systema Intellectuale,
p. 104; and Gesnerus,
De Animis Hippocratis). Plato and
Aristotle departed but little from this in their teachings; and
Democritus called God 'the reason or soul in a sphere of fire'
(Stobæus,
Eclogæ Physicæ, lib. vii. c. 10.)
Cleonethes considered the sin as the highest god (Busching,
Grundriss
einer Geschichte dir Philosophie, 1 Th. p. 344) We find,
therefore, in the earliest ages, an æther (spiritual fire)
theory, by which many modern theorists endeavour to explain the
phenomena of magnetism. This is the 'Ætheræum' of Robert
Flood, the Rosicrucian.
Fire, indeed, would appear to have been the chosen-element of God.
In the form of a flaming 'bush' He appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai.
His presence was denoted by torrents of flame, and in the form of
fire He preceded the band of Israelites by night through the dreary
wilderness; which is perhaps the origin of the present custom of the
Arabians, 'who always carry fire in front of their caravans' (Reade's
Veil of Isis). All the early fathers held God the Creator to
consist of a 'subtile fire'. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the
Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, it was in the form of a tongue of
fire, accompanied by a rushing wind. See
Anacalypsis, vol. i.
p. 627(Parkhurst,
in voce ברנ (Sic--JBH).
The personality of Jehovah is, in Scripture, represented by the
Material Trinity of Nature; which also, like the divine antitype, is
of one substance. The primal, scriptural type of the
Father is
Fire; of the
Word,
Light; and of the
Holy
Ghost,
Spirit, or
Air in motion. This material
Trinity, as a type, is similar to the material trinity of Plato as, a
type, it is used to conceal the 'Secret Trinity'. See
Anacalypsis,
vol. i. p. 627. Holy fires, which were never suffered to die, were
maintained in all the temples: of these were the fires in the Temple
of the Gaditanean Hercules at Tyre, in the Temple of Vesta at Rome,
among the Brachmans of India, among the Jews, and principally among
the Persians. Now to prove that all 'appearances' are 'born of Fire',
so to speak, according to the ideas of the Rosicrucians.
Light is not radiated from any intensely heated
gas or
fluid. If nitre is melted, it will not be visible but throw
into it any
solid body, and as soon as that becomes heated it
will radiate light; hence the phenomenon, 'Nasmyth’s
willow-leaves', in the sun, must be solid, not gaseous; and through
their medium
the whole of our light from the sun is doubtless derived. See the
records of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(Cambridge Meeting), October 1862. These physical facts were known to
the ancient Persians.
The ancient ideas upon these subjects have not come down to us at
all definitely. The destruction of ancient manuscripts was effected
upon a large. scale. Diocletian has the credit of having burned the
books of the Egyptians on the chemistry of gold and silver (alchemy).
Cæsar is said to have burned as many as 700,000 rolls at
Alexandria; and Leo Isaurus 300,000 at Constantinople in the eighth
century, about the time that the Arabians burned the famous
Alexandrian Library. Thus our knowledge of the real philosophy of the
ancient world is exceedingly limited; almost all the old records, or
germinating means of knowledge, being rooted out.
In regard to 'Boudhisme, ou système mystique' as he
denominates it, a learned author describes it as 'Métaphysique
visionnaire, qui, prenant à tâche de contrarier l’ordre
naturel, voulut que le monde
palpable et
matériel
fût
une illusion fantastique; que l’existence de
l’homme fût
un réve dont la mort la était
le vrai rèveil: que son corps fût une
prison
impure dont il devait se hâter de sortir, ou une
enveloppe
grossière que, pour la rendre perméable à la
lumière interne, il devait atténuer, diaphaniser par le
jeûne les macérations, les contemplations, et par une
foule de pratiques anachorétiques si étranges que le
vulgaire étonné ne put s’expliquer le caractère
de leurs auteurs qu’en les considérant comme des êtres
surnaturels, avec cette difficulté de savoir s’ils
furent
Dieu devenu homme, ou
l’homme devenu
Dieu.'--Volney. (C. F.),
Les Ruines, p. 210.
'Mind cannot
create, it can only
perceive.' This
hazardous statement, in its utmost extent, is used simply as an
argument against there being the
philosophical possibility of
religion as derivable from
reason only--which will be found to
be the mere operation of the forces of the 'world'. No religion is
philosophically capable of being defended on the grounds of
reason;
though one religion may seem (but, in the inner light, it will
seem
only) to be more reasonable (or probable) than another. Divine light,
or faith, or intuition--in other words, the enlightenment of the Holy
Spirit (to be recognized under its many names)--is that means alone
which can carry truth, through the exposure of the futility of all
knowable (that is, of all intellectual) truth. Such are the
abstract notions of the Gnostics, or 'Illuminati', concerning
religion.
'The curtains of Yesterday drop down, the curtains of To-morrow
roll up; but Yesterday and To-morrow both
are' (
Sartor
Resartus, edit. 1838, Natural-Supernaturalism', p. 271). To the
divine knowledge, the future must be as much present as the present
itself.
The explorations of the Rosicrucians may be said to be 'as keys to
masked doors in the ramparts of nature, which no mortal can pass
through without rousing dread sentries never seen upon this side' (
A
Strange Story, Lord Lytton, vol. i. p. 265). 'Omnia ex Uno, Omnia
in Uno, Omnia ad Unum, Omnia per Medium, et Omnia in Omnibus'
(
Hermetic axiom).
In the speculations of the Gnostics, the astronomical points
Cancer and Capricorn are called the 'Gates of the Sun'. Cancer,
moreover, is termed the 'Gate of Man'; Capricorn, is the 'Gate of the
Gods'. These are Platonic views, as Macrobius declares. With the
influences of the planets, Saturn brings reason and intelligence;
Jupiter, power of action; Mars governs
the irascible principle, the Sun produces sensation and
speculation, Venus inspires the appetites, Mercury bestows the power
of declaring and expressing, and the Moon confers the faculty of
generating and augmenting
the body. The Egyptian 'winged disc' is a symbol of 'Tat', Taut', or
'Thoth' (Plutarch,
De Iside et Osiride). The lions’
heads, so frequently observable, in the sculptures decorating
fountains, bespeak the astral influences under Leo, which produce the
rains in the ardent month of July; and in this view they are regarded
as the discharges of the 'sacred fountains'. Lions’ heads, with
fountains, are observable in architecture all the world over. All
architecture is primarily derivable from two mathematical lines (|
and --), which, united (and intersecting), form the 'cross'. The
first 'mark' is the origin of the 'upright' tower, pyramid, or
imitation ascending 'flame of fire', which aspires
against the
force of gravity; also of the steeple, or
phallus, all
over the world. The second, or horizontal, 'mark' is the symbol of
the tabernacle, chest, or ark, or fluent or base-line, which is the
expression of all Egyptian, Grecian, and Jewish templar architecture.
The union of the two lines gives the Christian, universal cross-form,
in the blending of the 'two dispensations'--Old and New, or 'Law' and
'Gospel'. Now, both of these lines, in the Rosicrucian sense, have
special magic 'powers', or gifts, according to their several places,
and according to the 'supernatural extra forces brought' specially to
bear on them through the operations of those who know
how (and
when) to direct the occult power.
Those powers bestowed upon the original deserving 'Man', and not
extinguished in the existing 'Man', are his still--if he retain any
glimpse of his original spark of light.
Justinus Kerner, in his
Scherin von Prevorst, most
ingeniously anatomizes the inner man, and makes him consist of
'Seele', 'Nerven-geist', and' 'Geist'. The 'Nerven-geist', or nervous
energy, being of a grosser nature, continues united with the 'Seele'
on its separation from the body, rendering it visible
in the form
of an apparition, and enabling it to effect material objects,
make noises, move articles, and suchlike things perceptible to the
living sense--in short, to 'spucken'. According to its nature, this
composite being takes a longer or shorter time to be dissolved; the
'Geist' alone being immortal (
The Gnostics and their Remains,
note to p. 46).
An
Ancient Homily on Trinity Sunday has
the following: 'At the deth of a manne, three bells should be ronge
as his knyll in worship of the Trinitie. And for a woman
[1]
who was the Second Person of the Trinitie, two bells should be
ronge.' Here we have the source of the emblematic difficulty among
the master-masons, who constructed the earlier cathedrals, as to the
addition and as to the precise value of the second (or feminine)
tower at the western end (or Galilee) of a church.
Valentinus is called the 'profoundest doctor of the Gnosis'.
According to him, the 'Eons' (angels, or effusions) number fifteen
pairs, which represent the thirty degrees of each sign of the zodiac.
The name of the great Gnostic deity, Abraxas, is derived as follows:
'Ab' or 'Af' ('Let it be'); 'Rax' or 'Rak' ('Adore'); 'Sas' or 'Sax'
for 'Sadshi' ('Name'). 'The entire Gnostic system was not derived
either from the Kabala, or from the Grecian philosophy; but from the
East, as Mosheim long ago maintained': so declares the author of
The
Gnostics and their Remains; but it is a thorough mistake,
both in his authority (Mosheim), and also in himself. We shall
successfully show this before we have done.
As soon as Jesus was born, according to the Gnostic speculative
view of Christianity, Christos, uniting himself with Sophia (Holy
Wisdom), descended through the seven planetary regions, assuming in
each an analogous form to the region, and concealing his true nature
from its genii, whilst he attracted into himself the sparks of Divine
Light they severally retained in their angelic essence. Thus
Christos, having passed through the seven
Angelic Regions
before the 'THRONE', entered into the man Jesus, at the moment of his
baptism in the Jordan. 'At the moment of his baptism in the
Jordan'--mark. Up to that point he was natural--but not the 'Christ'.
This will recall his exclamation of world’s disclaimer to the
Virgin:--'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' From that time forth,
being supernaturally gifted, Jesus began to work miracles. Before
that, he had been completely ignorant of his mission. When on the
cross, Christos and Sophia left his body, and returned to their own
sphere. Upon his death, the two took the man 'Jesus', and abandoned
his material body to the earth; for the Gnostics held that the true
Jesus did not (and could not) physically suffer on the cross and die,
but that Simon of Cyrene, who bore his cross, did in reality suffer
in his room: 'And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by,
coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear
his cross' (
St. Mark xv. 21). The Gnostics contended that a
portion of the real history of the Crucifixion was never written.
Asserting that a miraculous substitution of persons took place in
the great final act of the 'Crucifixion', the Gnostics maintained
that the 'Son of God' could not suffer physically upon the cross, the
apparent
sufferer being human only--real body having no part with him.
At the point of the miraculous transference of persons, Christos
and Sophia (the Divine) left his body, and returned to their own
heaven. Upon his death on earth, the two withdrew the 'Being' Jesus
(spiritually), and gave him another body, made up of ether
(Rosicrucian
Ætheræum). Thenceforward he consisted
of the two first Rosicrucian principles only, soul and spirit; which
was the cause that the disciples did not recognize him after the
resurrection. During his sojourn upon earth of eighteen months after
he had risen, he received from Sophia (
Soph,
Suph), or
Holy Wisdom, that perfect knowledge or illumination, that true
'Gnosis', which he communicated to the small number of the Apostles
who were capable of receiving the same:
The Gnostic authorities are St. Irenæus in the first place,
Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, St. Epiphanius. The
Gnostics are divided into sects, bearing the names of Valentinians,
Carpocratians, Basilideans, and Manichæans. Γνωσις,
Gnosis, Gnossos: thence 'Gnostics'.
As the Son of God remained unknown to the world, so must the
disciple of Basilides also remain unknown to the rest of mankind. As
they know all this, and yet must live amongst strangers, therefore
must they conduct themselves towards the rest of the world as
invisible and unknown. Hence their motto, 'Learn to know all, but
keep thyself unknown' (Irenæus).
The speech of an angel or of a spirit with man is heard as
sonorously as the speech of one man with another, yet
it is not
heard by others who stand near, but by the man himself alone. The
reason is, that the speech of an angel or of a spirit flows first
into
the man’s thought, and, by an internal way, into his organ
of hearing, and thus actuates it
from within; whereas the
speech of man flows first into the air, and, by an external way, into
his organ of hearing, which it actuates
from without. Hence it
is evident that the speech of an angel and of a spirit with man is
heard in man, and, since it equally affects the organs of
hearing, that it is equally sonorous (Swedenborg; also
Occult
Sciences, p. 93; London, 1855).
The Greek Bacchanals were well acquainted with the
mythos
of Eve, since they constantly, invoked her, or a person under her
name, in their ceremonies.
Black is the Saturnian colour--also that of the Egyptian Isis.
Under the strange head of the embodiment of Deity under darkness, the
following remarkable facts may be considered: the Virgin and Child
are depicted
black at the Cathedral at Moulins, at the famous
Chapel of the Virgin at Loretto, in the Church of the Annunciation at
Rome, at the Church of St. Lazaro and the Church of St. Stephen at
Genoa, at that of St. Francisco at Pisa, at the Church of Brixen in
the Tyrol, at a church in (and at the Cathedral of) Augsburgh, where
the black figures are as large as life, at the Borghese Chapel in
Rome, at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Pantheon, and in a
small chapel at St. Peter’s, on the right-hand side, on
entering, near the door. The reader can make references in his memory
to these places, if he be a traveller.
The writer, who goes by the name of Dionysius Areopagita, teaches
that the highest spiritual truth is revealed only to those who have
transcended every ascent of every holy height, and have left behind
all divine lights and sounds and heavenly discoursing, and have
passed into that
Darkness where HE really is (as saith the
Scripture) who is ALL, above all things
(
De Mystica Theologia, cap. i. sec. 3;
Hours with the
Mystics, by R. A. Vaughan, note to book i. chap. 2).
The words graven upon the zone and the feet of the Ephesian Diana,
which Hesychius has preserved, are the following:
Aski-Kataski
|
|
interpreted as
|
|
'Darkness--Light'
|
Haix-Tetrax
|
'Himself'
|
Damnameneus
|
'The Sun'
|
Aision
|
'Truth'
|
'These Ephesian words', says Plutarch (
Sympos), 'the Magi
used to recite over those possessed with devils.' 'Damnameneus' is
seen on a Gnostic amulet in the De la Turba Collection (
The
Gnostics, p. 94).
The Argha had the form of a crescent. The
Argo,
arc,
or
arche, is the
navis biprora. It is clear that, as
neither the full moon nor the half-moon was ever the object of
worship, it is the
crescent horns of the moon which imply the
significance. These mean the woman-deity in every religion.
The snake associated with the mysteries among the Hindoos is the
cobra-di-capella. It is said that the snake on the heads of all the
Idols in Egypt was a Cobra. The name of the monarch or Chief Priest
in Thibet is the Lama, or the Grand Lama. Prester-John is the great
Priest, or Prestre (
Prêtre), Ian, Ion, Jehan, or John
(the Sun). Lamia is the '
snake' among the Ophidians; Lama is
the hand:
lamh, hand, is a divine name in the Scythian tongue.
It also means the number 10, and the Roman numeral X, which is a
cross. Now, the double pyramid, or
hand, (a) △, of the Egyptians comprises the mystic mark
signifying the two original principles water and fire, as
above--(b)--the union of which, as intersecting triangles, forms the
famous Hexalpha, or 'Solomon's Seal', or 'Wizard's Foot', which, according
to the Eastern allegory, is placed (as that of St. Michael) upon the
Rebellious Spirits in their 'abyss', or 'prison'.
Pyr is the Greek name of fire (thence Pyramid), and
mythologically of the
sun, who was the same as Hercules. And
the great analyser of mythology assures us that
Pur was the
ancient name of Latian
Jupiter, the father of Hercules; that
he was the deity of fire; that his name was particularly retained
amongst the people of Præneste, who had been addicted to the
rites of
fire. Fire, in short, in these mythologies, as
also in all the Christian churches, meets us at every turn. But we
must not mix up heathen ideas and Christian ideas in these matters.
CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH
Our engraving borrows from the West Front of Laon Cathedral,
France, a Catherine-Wheel (or 'Rose') Window. The twelve pillars, or
radii, are the signs of the Zodiac, and are
issuant out
of the glorified centre, or opening 'rose'--the sun, or 'beginning of
all things'. 'King Arthur’s Round Table' displays the
'crucified' Rose in its centre.
In the 'tables' (
Tablier, Fr. = Apron), alternating with
tying-knots, of the Order of the Garter--which 'Most Noble Order' was
originally dedicated, be it remembered, to the Blessed Lady, or to
the Virgin Mary--the microcosmical, miniature 'King Arthur’s
Round Table' becomes the individual female
discus, or organ,
waxing and waning, negative or in flower, positive or natural,
alternately red and white, as the Rose of the World:
Rosamond,
Rosa mundi. And here we will adduce, as our justification for
this new reading of the origin of the Order of the Garter, the very
motto of the princely order itself:
Honi soit qui mal y pense!
or,
'YONI' soit qui mal y pense!
What this 'Yoni' is, and the changes meant and apotheosized through
it, the discreet reader will see on a little reflection.
[2]
All the world knows the chivalric origin of
this Most Noble Order of the Garter
It arose in a princely act--rightly considered princely, when the
real, delicate, inexpressibly high-bred motive and its circumstances
are understood, which motive is systematically and properly
concealed. Our great King Edward the Third picked up, with the famous
words of the motto of the Order of the Garter, the 'garter'--or, as
we interpret it, by adding a new construction with hidden meanings,
the 'Garder' (or special
cestus, shall we call it?)--of the
beautiful and celebrated Countess of Salisbury, with whom, it is
supposed, King Edward was in love.
The following is from Elias Ashmole: 'The Order of the Garter by
its motto seems to challenge inquiry and defy reproach. Everybody
must know the story that refers the origin of the name to a piece of
gallantry: either the Queen or the Countess of Salisbury having been
supposed to have dropped one of those very useful pieces of female
attire at a dance; upon which old Camden says, with a great deal of
propriety, and a most just compliment to the ladies, "
Hæc
vulgus perhibet, nec vilis sane hæc videatur origo, cum
NOBILITAS
sub AMORE
jacet." The ensign of the
order, in jewellery or enamel, was worn originally on the
left
arm. Being in the form of a
bracelet to the arm, it might
possibly divert the attention of the
men from the reputed original; it might be dropped and resumed
without confusion; and the only objection I can see to the use of
such an ornament is the hazard of mistake from the double meaning of
the term
periscelis, which signifies not only a
garter,
but breeches, which our English ladies never wear: "Quæ
Græci περισχελῆ
vocant, nostri Braccas" (braces or breeches) "dicunt",
says an ancient Father of the Church.' The Garter, to judge thus from
Camden, was not a garter at all for the leg, but an occasional very
important item of feminine under-attire; and King Edward's knightly
feeling, and the religious devotion of the object, will be perceived
upon close and delicately respectful consideration.
There is great obscurity as to the character of Abraxas, the
divinity of the Gnostics. The Eons, or Degrees of Advance in the
Zodiacal Circle, are thirty in number to each of the Twelve Signs,
and consequently there are 360 to the entire Astronomical Circle, or
365, counting for each day of the solar year. The inscription upon
the Gnostic gems, CΕΟΥ, is probably intended
for ΘΕΟΥ; 'for the Arabs yet substitute
the
s for the
th in their pronunciation' (
Gnostics,
p. 233; Matter,
Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme). In this
'
s', and the '
th' standing for it, lie all the
mysteries of Masonry.
+, Christos, was designed for the guide of all that proceeds from
God. Sophia-Achamoth is the guide, according to the Gnostics, for all
proceeding out of 'matter'. St. Irenæus, whose period is the
end of the second century, draws all these startling inferences from
the Book of Enoch, and names 'Sophia' as signifying the Divine
Wisdom. The Ophite scheme seems evidently the Bhuddistic Bythos,
answering to the first Buddha. Sige, Sophia, Christos, Achamoth,
Ildabaoth, answer to the successive five others (
Gnostics,
p. 27; Bellermann’s
Drei Programmen über die
Abraxasgemmen, Berlin, 1820; Basilides; Tertullian;
De
Præscript.: 'Serpentem magnificant in tantum, ut ilium
etiam Christo præferant.' See Tertullian, Epiphanius, and
Theodoret.:
St. John iii. 14, also). We now refer the reader
to some significant figures towards the end of our volume, which will
be found according to their numbers.
Figure 289: The Abraxas-god, invested with all the attributes of
Phœbus. Green jasper; a unique type. The Egyptians call the
moon the mother of the world, and say it is of both sexes (Plutarch;
Spartian,
Life of Caracalla). The moon, in a mystic sense, is
called by the Egyptians male and female. The above is a gem in the
Bosanquet Collection. In the
exerque is the address, CΑΒΑΩ,
'Glory unto Thee!' On the reverse, in a
cartouche formed by a
coiled asp--precisely as the Hindoos write the ineffable name
'Aum'--are the titles ΙΑΩ.ΑΒΡΑCΑΞ
(
The Gnostics, p. 86).
Figure 311 represents Venus standing under a canopy supported on
twisted columns, arranging her hair before a mirror held up by a
Cupid; two others hover above her head, bearing up a wreath. In the
field, ΦΑΣΙΣ ΑΡΙΩΡΙΦ--'The
Manifestation of Arioriph'. Venus here stands for the personification
of the Gnostic
Sophia, or Achamoth, and as such is the
undoubted source of our conventional representation of Truth
(Montfauçon,
pl. clxi).
Reverse, figure 312, which represents Harpocrates
seated upon the lotus, springing from a double lamp, formed of two
phalli united at the base. Above his head is his title 'Abraxas', and
over that is the name 'Iao'. In the field are the seven planets. The
sacred animals--the scarab, ibis, asp, goat, crocodile, vulture,
emblems of so many deities (viz. Phre, Thoth, Isis, Merides,
Bebys, Neith)--the principal in the Egyptian mythology, arranged by
threes, form a frame to the design. Neatly engraved on a
large, bright loadstone (
The Gnostics, p. 211).
ORIGIN OF THE TRICOLOR
'THEORY OF SACRAMENTAL MYSTICISM',
ADAPTED FROM THE SPECULATIONS OF THE SOPHISTS OR GNOSTICS
|
Blue
|
White
|
Red
|
|
(B.V.M.)
|
(S.S.)
|
(Φ, Fire)
|
|
Baptism by water
|
Air or Light
|
|
|
Natural
|
Intermediate
|
Supernatural
|
|
|
Nexus
|
|
|
Bread ('Host')
|
and
|
Wine (cup denied to the Laity)
|
|
Body
|
|
Spirit: symbolical 'Blood
|
Sacramenta; 'Baptism and the Supper of the
Lord'
From the above cabalistic estimate of the virtues of colours, it
happens that the colour blue (sky-blue) is chosen as the colour for
the investiture of infants at baptism, and as the colour for
children's coffins. Blue or white (not white as meaning the 'S.S.' in
the sacred sense, but white as the
synthesis of material
elements, or of light, or of 'sinlessness in irresponsibility') are
children's colours at other times. There were two great ordeals--by
water, and by fire. The one is the occult trial-baptism by water in
the sinister or left-handed sense, applied to those suspected of
witchcraft. The other (more perfect and more perfecting) baptism is
by symbolical fire. Both rites were in use among the Egyptians.
(Refer to mystic heraldic
formulæ elsewhere in our
book.) The three ordeals (or sacraments) of the Ancient Mysteries
were by 'Water, Air, and Fire'. Thus, also, the Egyptian
Initiations: 'Cave, Cloud, Fire'. So, too, the Masonic Initiations.
With these meanings, royal coffins and investitures are always red
(Mars), as meaning 'royalty active'; or imperial purple (Jupiter, or
perhaps Mercurius--Thoth, Taut, Tat), as 'royalty passive', or
implying the 'lord of regions'.
According to the cabalistic view, 'Jacob's 'Ladder', which was
disclosed to him in a vision, is a metaphorical representation of the
powers of alchemy, operating through visible nature. The 'Ladder' was
a 'Rainbow', or prismatic staircase, set up between earth and heaven.
Jacob's Dream implied a history of the whole hermetic creation. There
are only two original colours, red and blue, representing 'spirit'
and 'matter'; for orange is red mixing with the yellow light of the
sun, yellow is the radiance of the sun itself, green is blue and
yellow; indigo is blue tinctured with red, and violet is produced by
the mingling of red and blue. The sun is alchemic gold, and the moon
is alchemic silver. In the operation of these two potent spirits, or
mystic rulers of the world, it is supposed astrologically that all
mundane things were produced.
The next following pages explain the mystic analogy between
colours, language; music, and the seven angelic adverse
intelligences, supposed by the Gnostics to be operative in the
'dissonance of creation'. These represent the descending half of the
'Machataloth', as the cabalistic Jews called the Zodiac united. The
whole is made up from abstruse sigmas, or the application of
Rosicrucianism on its hieroglyphic and representative side.
CHARTS 1-3.
HERALDIC AND FIGURATIVE CHART, ACCORDING TO THE
OLDEST HERALDIC SYSTEMS
(No. 1)
(Musical Notes also)
|
|
REGION ELEMENTARY
|
|
Y.
|
1--Violet (Red and Blue)--Most Refrangible Ray
Sanguine.
Sardonyx
Dragon's Tail
|
Matter qualified by Light
|
3--Cherubim
|
W.
|
2--Indigo (Opaque Blue)
Purpure. Amethyst (?).
Mercury(☿).
|
Matter 'coagulate' (as the sea)
|
|
U.
|
3--Blue (Azure)
Sapphire. Jupiter (♃).
|
Pure elemental matter (as the 'sky')
|
|
O.
|
4--Green (Yellow and Blue)
Vert. Emerald.
Venus (♀).
|
Living forms in matter (disclosed in light).
Fixed and
stationary natural forms, and their spirits
|
|
|
|
SECOND ÆTHERÆUM
|
|
I.
|
5--Yellow
Or. Topaz. Gold. Sol (☉).
|
Red inflamed, or Light
Fire in its flower, or glory
|
2--Seraphim
|
E.
|
6--Orange (Red and Yellow)
Tawny. Tenne.
Jacynth
Dragon's head
|
Fire inflaming, or 'flowering' (in stage of
flowering)
Blooming fire (as a being)
|
|
A.
|
7--Red--Least Refrangible Ray
Gules.
Ruby. Mars (♂).
|
Elementum Ignis
First affection, or results
(πῦρ)
Pyr-Fri-ga. ’Phrodite
|
|
Vowels
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIRST.--EMPYRÆUM
|
1--Teraphim
|
'JACOB'S LADDER', whereon he saw 'Angels', ascending and
descending: 'And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the ANGELS
of GOD ascending and descending on it' (Genesis xxviii.
12)
Also the Chromatic Scale of seven Musical Notes
|
'Linea viridis seu Benedicta Viriditas': the celebrated
'Seal of Solomon' (or 'Sword of Solomon') or 'Gladius of Saint
Michael the Archangel.' (With the celebrated 'Seal of Solomon',
he--Solomon--mastered the Genii). It is 'the most potent
Cabalistic, or Talismanic, sign.
|
HERALDIC AND FIGURATIVE CHART, ACCORDING TO THE
OLDEST HERALDIC SYSTEMS
(No. 2)
Prismatic Colours
|
|
|
|
1.--Blue
Ark.
Arc
(Patient)
 Sigma
|
Blue.--Material World, or 'Great Deep', or 'Ark', or
world made manifest, or sea, or 'C', or 'Patient', or Isis, or
Venus, or 'Regina Cœli', or 'Heva or
Eve'
חַדָּה
or
Th(ת)oth,
etc., etc., etc.
|
|
VALOIS
Therefore the 'Lis', or creature-forms in the 'deep', or
'blue'
|
2.--White
Produced
(Neuter)
|
White. Synthesis of the colours, or Light. (Green, when
living, inorganic forms--such as the 'herb of the field', or
trees, etc. Colour of the 'fairy races'. Smaragdine). Or White in
perfect light. 'Saint John'. Mystic Illumination. 'Saint-Esprit.'
|
|
BOURBON
Therefore 'White' with the 'Lilies' or creature-forms, in
'white' or the 'light'. Or Green (Charlemagne, Emperor, or Cæsar,
or Kaisar of the West), with the golden 'scarabs' or bees,
in lieu of the 'Lisses' or 'Lilies'. Napoleon the First and
Third. Scarabæus of Egypt. 'Lucifera'. 'Morning Star.'
|
3. Red
Producer.
(Agent.)
Obeliscus:
Mystic Figure
|
Red. Baal. Bel. Osiris. Phœbus-Apollo (in
manifestation). Aphrodite (sexless in this sense). The Producing
Power (Agent)
|
|
GAULOIS
Red. Therefore the 'Oriflamme' (or 'Fire of Gold') is red. And
from this original, the red of the Gauls and the red of England
is derived. Red is the national colour of the Welsh--as witness
the 'Red Dragon' (Rouge Dragon) of Wales, etc.
|
Also Triad of the Diatonic Scale
Musical
Harmony
'Music of the Spheres'
(Jacob's metaphorical
'LADDER')
|
|
|
|
HERALDIC AND FIGURATIVE CHART, ACCORDING TO THE
OLDEST HERALDIC SYSTEMS
(No. 3)
Rationale of the 'Tricolor', or the
three united, national, successive Colours of France.
1--Red. Fire. Gaulois. Represented by vertical lines, as
indicative of the aspiring rays of this noblest and most active
element. Salique, or Salic, from the Salii, or Priests of Mars.
|
Teraphim
|
In Heraldry, there are only two chief colours: Red (Gules), or
the 'Princedom' of this world; and Blue (Azure), or the 'Queendom'
of this world.'
|
2--White. Illumination. Light: synthesis of colours. It
is magic, or sacred, because it stands for the 'Third Person' of
the 'Triune'. It is the colour of the Bourbons. It also supplies
the field, or ground-colour, to the emblazonment of the order of
the 'Saint-Esprit', or of the H. G. It also refers mystically to
'Revelation' and to Saint John.
|
Seraphim
|
[3]
Also, in regard to the heraldic metals, Sol
is the sun, the procreative or producing power (Gold); and Luna,
the moon, Astarte ('receptive, or female power'), is the metal
argent (or silver).
|
3--Blue. It stands for the 'great deep' or for 'matter'
in the abstract': It is represented heraldically by horizontal
lines which stand for fluid-levels, whether of the sea or of the
air. This colour is assigned to the 'Blessed Lady', or 'Notre Dame
de Paris'. In heathen representations of the Ruling Feminine
Principle, it stands for the 'Virgin of the Sea'.
|
Cherubim
|
The colour azure, or blue, mystically signifies the 'deep' or
the world usurped, or won, out of chaos (Chronos, Saturn, or
Time); and it is represented by the Planet Jupiter (Zeus), as
'Lord of the Worlds'.
|
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST
Though fire is an element in which everything inheres, and of
which it is the life, still, according to the abstruse and
unexplained ideas of the Rosicrucians, it is itself another element,
in a second non-terrestrial element, or inner, non-physical; ethereal
fire, in which the first coarse fire, so to speak, flickers, waves,
brandishes, and spreads, floating (like a liquid) now here, now
there. The first is the natural, material, gross fire, with which we
are familiar, contained in a celestial, unparticled, and surrounding
medium (or celestial fire), which is its
matrix, and of which,
in this human body, we can know nothing.
In 1867, in Paris, a suggestive philosophical book was published,
under the title of
Hébreu Primitif; Formation des Lettres,
ou Chiffres, Signes du Zodiaque et Racines Hébraiques, avec
leurs Dérivés dans les Langues de l’Orient et de
l’Europe, par Ad. Lethierry-Barrois.
Ptha is the emblem of the Eternal Spirit from which everything is
created. The Egyptians represented it as a pure ethereal fire which
burns for ever, whose radiance is raised far above the planets and
stars. In early ages the Egyptians worshipped this highest being
under the name of Athor. He was the lord of the universe. The Greeks
transformed Athor into Venus, who was looked upon by them in the same
light as Athor (Apuleius, Cicero, Ovid; Ptolemæus,
in
tetrabibla; Proclus; Ennemoser, vol. i. p. 268, trans. by
Howitt).
Among the Egyptians, Athor also signified the night (Hesiod;
Orpheus). 'According to the Egyptians', says Jablonski, 'matter has
always been connected with the mind. The Egyptian priests also
maintained that the gods appeared to man, and that spirits
communicated with the human race.' 'The souls of men are, according
to the oldest Egyptian doctrine, formed of ether, and at death return
again to it.'
The alchemists were a physical branch of the Rosicrucians. The
more celebrated authors (and authorities) upon the art and mystery of
alchemy are Hermes (whose seven chapters and 'smaragdine table', as
it is called, contain the whole alchemical system); Geber, the
'
Turba', 'Rosary',
Theatrum Chemicum,
Bibliothèque
Hermétique,
Chymical Cabinet; Artephius, Arnoldus
de Villa Nova, Raimondus Lullius, Trevisan, Nicholas Flamel,
Zachareus, Basilius Valentinus, Cosmopolita, and Philalethes (Thomas
Vaughan). Refer also to
The Hermetical Triumph, or the Victorious
Philosopher's Stone: London, 1723; Lucas’s
Travels,
p. 79; Count Bernard of Treviso. Two leading works, however, on the
hermetic subject are
La Chiave del Gabinetto
[4]
Col. 1681, 12mo, by Joseph Francis Borri, an Italian; and
Le
Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes;
imprimée à Paris, par Claude Barbin, 1671, 12mo, pp.
150. This book is the work of the Abbé de Villars, or is
supposed to be so. J. V. Andrea, a writer upon hermetic subjects, was
Almoner to the Duke of Wurtemberg, and wrote early in the seventeenth
century. The Emperor Rudolphus the Second greatly encouraged learned
men who had made acquaintance with alchemical
lore. At the supposed revival of Rosicrucianism -in Paris, in
March 1623, the Brethren were said to number thirty-six; of whom
there were six in Paris, six in Italy, six in Spain, twelve in
Germany, four in Sweden, and two in Switzerland. In 1616, the famous
English Rosicrucian, Robertus de Fluctibus (Robert Fludd), published
his defence of the society, under the title
Apologia Compendiaria,
Fraternitatem de Rosea-Cruce, Suspicionis et Infamiæ maculis
aspersam abluens, published in 1616 at Frankfort. Since this
time, there has been no authentic account of the Rosicrucians. We are
now the first translators of Robert Fludd.
'Amongst an innumerable multitude of images and symbolical
figures, with which the walls'--i.e. those of the caverns of
initiation at Salsette--'are covered, the Linga or Phallus was
everywhere conspicuous, often alone, sometimes united with the petal
and calyx of the lotus, the point within the circle, and the
intersection of two equilateral triangles' (Dr. Oliver,
History of
Initiation. See also Maurice on the
Indian Initiations).
The Linga, or pillar, or stone of memorial, in its material form,
is the perpetuation of the idea of the male generative principle, as
the physical means, in conjunction with the Yoni (Ioni), or
discus,
of the production of all visible things. In this connexion, the
addition to the name of Simon Peter (Petra, or Pietra, Cephas, Jonas,
Bar-Jonas, Ionas) will be recalled as suggestive. There is a sacred
stone in every Temple in India. The Stone, or Pillar, or 'Pillow', of
Jacob was sacred among the Jews. It was anointed with oil. There was
a sacred stone among the Greeks at Delphi, which was also anointed
with oil in the mystic ceremonies. The stone of Caaba, or black stone
at Mecca, is stated to have been there long before
the time of Mohammed. It was preserved by him when he destroyed
the dove and images. The obelisks at Rome were, and are, Lingas (or
Linghas). In the Temple of Jerusalem, and in the Cathedral of
Chartres, they are in vaults. They are the idea of the abstract
membrum, or 'affluence', or MEANS. To the initiated mind they
imply glory, not grossness.
Figs. 25-26 are the
Crux Ansata of the Egyptians. This
emblem is also found in India. According to Ruffinus and Sozomen, it
imports the '
time that is to come'. It is a magical symbol.
Fig. 27 is the imperial mound, and cross-sigma surmounting it.
Figs. 28-29 are symbols of Venus (Aphrodite), the deity of the
Syrians and Phœnicians. They are phallic emblems.
Fig. 30 is the Phallus proper. It is the
sigma of Zeus,
Mithras, 'Baalim', Bacchus.
Figures numbered 31, 'Osiris': these various figures signify also
Jupiter-Ammon. The rectangular marks denote the Scandinavian Tuisco,
Thoth (Mercurius, or Hermes). Fig. 35 is the Indian form of the same
idea.
The figure marked 36 is to be found on the breast of one of the
mummies in the museum Fig. 35 of the London University.
Upon a monument discovered in Thebes, Anubis is represented as St.
Michael and St. George are in Christian paintings, armed in a
cuirass, and having in his hand a lance, with which he pierces a
monster
that has the head and tail of a serpent (A. Lenoir,
Du Dragon
du Metz, etc.: Mémoires de l’Académie Celtique,
tome ii. pp. 11, 12).
Figure 37 is the 'Labarum'. The celebrated sign which is said to
have appeared in the sky at noonday to the Emperor Constantine was in
this form.
Figure 38 is the monogram of the Saviour. To show the parallel in
symbolical forms, we will add some further authorities from the
Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem.
Figure 39, No. 1, is an evidently Corinthian foliation. It is from
a pillar in the vaults of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem.
(Probably a Lotus-Acanthus.) No. 2 is evidently the 'Crux Ansata',
combining the indications of 'Lotus' and 'Lily'. Here is a union of
the classic, the Judaic, and Gothic forms, all presenting the same
idea at once. Buddha was the sun in 'Taurus'; Cristna (Crishna,
Krishna) was the sun in 'Aries'.
In regard to the origin of speech, of writing, and of letters, it
may be remarked that the Egyptians referred the employment of a
written symbol (to record and communicate the spoken word) to a
Thoth; the Jews, to Seth or his children (Josephus,
Ant. 1, 2,
3); the Greeks, to Hermes.
But 'Thout' in Coptic (Pezron,
Lexicon Lingua Copticæ, s.v.
Gen. xix. 26 in the Coptic version), also שת in Hebrew, and Ερμῆς (Hermes) in Greek are all names for
a pillar or post. This is the Homeric use of ἕρμα and έρμις (
Il. ά, 486;
Od. ή, 278; Kenrick's
Essay on Primeval History, p. 119). Αρχα is the
ship,
navis (from thence come 'nave' and 'navel'), in which
the germ of animated nature was saved. Thebes, or Theba, means the
'ark'. Carnac, or Karnak, in Egypt, is reckoned to be older than the
days of Moses--at least dating from 1600 A.C.
HERALDIC GENEALOGY OF THE 'FLEUR-DE-LIS', OR
'FLOWER-DE-LUCE'
The opinion of M. Dupuis was (see his learned memoir concerning
the origin of the constellations), that 'Libra' was formerly the sign
of the vernal equinox, and 'Aries' of the nocturnal, autumnal
equinox; that is, that since the origin of the actual astronomical
system, the procession (precession?) of the equinoxes had carried
forward by seven signs the primitive order of the Zodiac. Now,
estimating the procession (precession?) at about 70½ years to
a degree, that is, 2115 years to each sign, and observing that
'Aries' was in its fifteenth degree 1447 before Christ, it follows
that the first degree of 'Libra' could not have coincided with the
vernal equinox more lately than 15,194 years before Christ, to which,
if you add 1790 years since Christ, it appears, that 16,984 years
have elapsed since the origin of the 'Zodiac' (Volney, Ruins of
Empires, 1st English edition, 1792, p. 360).
All white things express the celestial and luminous gods; all
circular ones, the world, the moon, the sun, the destinies; all
semicircular ones, as arches and crescents, are descriptive of the
moon, and of lunar deities and meanings.
'The Egyptians', says Porphyry, 'employ every year a talisman in
remembrance of the world. At the summer solstice, they mark their
houses, flocks, and trees with red, supposing that on that day the
whole world had been set on fire. It was also at the same period that
they celebrated the Pyrrhic or "Fire Dance".' (And this
illustrates the origin of the purifications by fire and water.)
There are seven planets in the solar system. These seven planets
are signified in the seven-branched candlestick of the Jewish ritual.
The number is a sacred number. These seven 'prophets', or angels,
have each twelve apostles, places,
stella, 'stalls', or
regions or dominions (stalls as 'stables'), for the exercise of their
powers. These are the twelve divisions of the great Circle, or the
twelve signs of the Zodiac. All this is Cabalistic, Magical,
Sabaistical, and Astrological. The name Ashtaroth or Astarte has been
derived from
Ashre,
aster,
ast, star, or
'starred'; in the same way as the word Sephi-roth comes from the
Hebrew root, 'roth'.
On the black sacred stone ('Kebla', or 'Cabar') at Mecca, 'there
appears the figure of a human head cut', 'which some take to be the
head of a Venus' (Enthumius Zyabenus,
Mod. Un. Hist. i. 213;
Sale's
Discourse, p. 16;
Bibliotheca Biblia, i. 613,
614).
Man’s ideas, outwards from himself, must always become more
dreamlike as they recede from him, more real as they approach him.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND
One of the Targums says that חיא,
a serpent, tempted Adam, or the first man, and not היח,
Eve, his wife. Here we have the object of adoration of the
Ophites--the female generative power--the Destroying, Regenerating
Power among the Ophites, and, indeed, the Gnostics generally. The
Serpent was called the Megalistor, or Great Builder of the Universe
(
Maia, or Bhuddist illusion). Here again we recognize, under
another name (Ophites), the Cyclopes, or the builders of the circular
Temples at Stonehenge and everywhere else. Mr. Payne Knight has
repeated an observation of Stukeley, that the original name of the
temple at Abury was the "Snake's Head".' And he adds, 'It
is remarkable that the remains of a similar circle of stones
(circular temple) in Bœotia had the same name in the time of
Pausanias' (Pausanias,
Bœot. cap. xix. s. 2).
The famous oracular stone, enclosed in the seat of St. Edward’s
chair (the Coronation Chair) in Westminster Abbey, was at one time a,
stone to which adoration was paid. It was possessed of imagined
miraculous gifts. This stone is asserted to be the same which the
Patriarch rested his head upon in the
Plain of '
Luza',
and is said to have been carried first to Brigantia, a city of
Gallicia, in Spain. From thence it was brought into, Ireland by Simon
Brech, the first King of the Scots, about 700 years
before Christ; and from there, about 370 years, after, into
Scotland, by King Fergaze (Fergus). In the year of Christ 850 it was
placed at the Abbey of Scone (in the county of Perth) by King
Kenneth; this being the place where the Scottish Kings were generally
crowned in those days. In the year 1297 this Scottish wooden throne
or chair, together with their crown and sceptre, was brought into
England by the English King Edward the First, and placed in
Westminster Abbey.
Si quid habent veri vel chronica, cana
fidesve,
Clauditur hac Cathedra nobilius ecce lapis,
Ad caput
eximius Jacob quondam Patriarcha
Quem posuit, cernens numina
mirapoli.
Quem tulit ex Scotis, spolians quasi victor
honoris,
Edwardus Primus, Mars velut armipotens;
Scotorum
Domitor, noster Validissimus Hector,
Anglorum Decus & gloria
militiæ.
Antiquities
of Westminster Abbey, 1711.
It is still supposed, in accordance with the ancient prophecies,
that the stone in the Coronation Chair has miraculous gifts, and that
the sovereignty of England depends upon it. This magical stone
carries with it the tradition (how or whence derived no one knows),
that it murmurs approval at the coronation when the rightful heir
assumes his or her seat on it; but that, on the contrary, it would
clap with terrific noise, and fire flash from it, implying protest
and denunciation, should an usurper attempt to counter-work or
control its mysteries. It still has hooks for the chain which in
former unknown times suspended it, when it was borne as a talisman of
victory at the head of the army--when doubtless it was regarded as a
Palladium of Prosperity, and a Divinity. It is also said that the
pre-eminence of London is connected with the preservation of London
Stone.
Both the ancient relic, London Stone, and the Coronation Stone in
Westminster Abbey, seem of the same character. They appear to have
been either worn down to their present smallness in the lapse of the
ages, or to have been mutilated at some unknown, remote
period--possibly thrown down and broken as objects of superstitious
reverence, if not of direct and positive idolatry, thus very probably
exciting indignation, which, as it found opportunity and scope for
its exercise, was successful in their demolition. In both these
stones we certainly .have only fragments--perhaps of Obelisks, or of
Jewish 'Bethel' Pillars or 'Stones'--for all these supposed magical
stones are of the same sacred family.
The supposed magical stone, enclosed in the wooden block at the
base of the Coronation Chair, has been reputed, from time immemorial,
to murmur its approval or disapproval of the royal occupant, only at
the moment when the Sovereign was placed in the chair for investiture
with the sacred
pallium or with the state robes, on the
occasion of the King's or the Queen's coronation.
In this respect the stone is very similar in its ascribed
supernatural gifts, and in this special oracular speaking-power, to
all sacred or magical stones; and more particularly to the famous
statue of Memnon in Egypt, which is said to give forth a long,
melodious tone with the first ray of sunrise, like that produced by
the wind through the Æolian harp. It is not quite clear whether
this sound is expected to issue from the stone in the royal chair at
Westminster when approval is intended, and the meaning of the stone
is benign, or whether sounds at all are to be heard only when
displeasure is to be expressed. This strange asserted power of the
sacred stone at Westminster to become vocal directly allies it with
ether oracular
stones all over the world. The prevalence everywhere, and in all
time, of the existence of special stones having this miraculous gift
is a striking and curious proof of the continual, invincible yearning
of man for supernatural direct help and direction from powers
exterior and invisible to him. He earnestly desires the possibility
of personal communication with that intelligent, unseen world, which
he cannot avoid thinking is close about him, surveying his doings.
Man tries to overcome the assurance that this invisible, recognitive,
responsive world, to betake himself to in his time of trouble, is, so
far as his senses insist, so hopelessly out of reach. He languishes
to think it attainable.
The oracular stone at Westminster seems only a piece of some
pillar or
lithos: but no one will attempt to dispute that it
is an object of prodigious antiquity, and that its history is very
remarkable and interesting. Its place of deposit, too, the shrine of
Edward the Confessor, is worthy of it; and both inspire deep
reverence--nay, an awful feeling.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-THIRD
We beg to premise that the following fears are not our belief, but
that they are educed from old traditions--old as England.
It is a very ancient idea, derived from the highest antiquity,
that the colour 'white'--which, considered in the mystic and occult
sense, is feminine in its origin--is fateful in its effects
sometimes; and that, as a particular instance of its unfortunate
character, it is an unlucky colour for the royal house of England--at
all events, for the king or queen of England personally--singular as
the notion would appear to be. We are not aware whether this sinister
effect of the ominous colour white is supposed to extend to the
nation generally. It is limited, we believe, to the prince or
sovereign of England, and to his immediate belongings. The name John,
which comes from
Iona, a remote feminine root, has also been
reckoned unfortunate for the king's name both in England and in
France. The reason of this does not appear to be anywhere stated. The
origin of the prophecy, also, as to the formidable character of the
colour white to England, is unknown; but it is imagined to be at
least as old as the time of Merlin. Thomas de Quincey, who takes
notice of the prophecy of the 'White King', says of King Charles the
First, that the foreboding of the misfortunes of this 'White King'
were supposed to have been fulfilled in his
instance, because he was by accident clothed in white at his
coronation; it being remembered afterwards that white was the ancient
colour for a victim. This, in itself, was sufficiently formidable as
an omen.' De Quincey's particular expressions are; 'That when King
Charles the First came to be crowned, it was found that, by some
oversight, all the store in London was insufficient to furnish the
purple velvet necessary for the robes of the king and for the
furniture of the throne. It was too late to send to Genoa for a
supply; and through this accidental deficiency it happened that the
king was attired in
white velvet at the solemnity of his
coronation, and not in red or purple robes, as consisted with the
proper usage.'
As an earlier instance of this singular superstition, the story of
that ill-fated royal
White Ship occurs to memory, as the
vessel was called wherein Prince William, the son of King Henry the
First, the heir-apparent, with his natural sister, the Countess of
Perche, and a large company of the young nobility, embarked on their
return to England from Normandy. It might be supposed that the
misfortunes of King Charles the First, which were accepted, at that
time of monarchical dismay, as the reading (and the exhaustion) of
this evil-boding prophecy, were enough; but there are some reasons
for imagining that the effects are not--even in our day--altogether
expended. The fatalities of the colour 'white' to English royalty
certainly found their consummation, or seemed so to do, in the
execution of King Charles the First, who was brought out to suffer
before his own palace of 'Whitehall'--where, again, we find 'white'
introduced in connexion with royalty and tragical events. Whitehall
is the Royal 'White' Palace of England. The 'White Rose' was the
unfortunate rose (and the conquered one) of the contending two Roses
in
this country. This is again a singular fact, little as it has been
remarked. We will pursue this strange inquiry just a little further,
and see if the lights of Rosicrucianism will not afford us a measure
of help; for it is one of the doctrines of the Rosicrucians that the
signatures, as they call them, of objects have a magical marking-up
and a preternatural effect, through hidden spiritual reasons, of
which we have no idea in this mortal state-in other words, that magic
and charming, through talismans, is possible; common sense being not
all sense.
The colour white is esteemed both of good and of bad augury,
according to the circumstances and the periods of its presentation.
In relation to the name of our present King, the supposedly
unfortunate prefix 'Albert' has been practically discarded in favour
of 'Edward' only. This name of Edward is an historical, triumphant,
and auspicious name; for all our Edwards, except the weak King Edward
the Second, have been powerful or noteworthy men. Now, very few
people have had occasion to remark, or have recalled the fact as
significant and ominous in the way we mean, that the word 'Albert'
itself means 'White'. The root of 'Albert' is, in most languages, to
be found in 'white';
albus, white;
alp, white;
Albania,
the 'white' country. We here recall the '
snowy camëse',
to which Byron makes reference as worn in
Albania. 'Albion'
(of the 'white' cliffs), Alb, Al, El, Æl, all mean 'white'.
Examples might be multiplied. Αλφος,
αλπε,
albus, 'white', are derived from
the Celtic
alp; and from thence came the word 'Alps', which
are mountains always white, as being covered with snow. '
Albus,
"white", certainly comes from the Celtic
alp, or
alb' says the historian Pezron; 'for in that language, as well
as in many others, the
b and the
p frequently
interchange; from whence the ancient Latins, and the Sabines
themselves, said
Alpus for white. I consider it therefore as
certain', continues Pezron, 'that from
Alpus the word Alps
came, because the mountains are always white, as being covered with
snow; the words "Alp" or "Alb", and their
compounds, meaning white everywhere. I conclude, also, that from the
Pen of the Celtæ, Umbrians, and Sabines, which signifies
a "head", "top", or "high place", they
made
Penninus Mons, the Apennines, vast mountains in Italy.
Thus these celebrated words proceed certainly from the Gaulish
tongue, and are older by several ages than the city of Rome.' The
following are all Teutonic or German words:
alb,
alf
(Qy. Alfred?), and
alp, which' all signify 'white' as their
original root. Thus much for white.
White is also a colour not auspicious to the Prussian royal
family, although, again, in a contradictory way, the ensigns of
Prussia (Borussia, or 'of the Borussi') are, as armorists well know,
the original 'white and black' of the Egyptians, which were adopted
by the Teutons and the Templars. These white and black tinctures are
heraldically
argent and sable: Luna, or
pearl, for
'tears'; Saturn, or
diamond, for 'sadness, penance, and
ashes'. In these strange senses, the Rosicrucians accepted colours as
in themselves talismanic, powerfully operative through their
planetary 'efficients', or 'signatures', as the astrologers call
them. These ideas, more or less pronounced, have prevailed in all
ages and in all countries, and they lurk largely in suspicion through
our own land. We are all aware, in England, of the objection to the
colour 'green' in certain cases. It is the spirit-colour, a magic
colour, the colour of the 'fairies', as the cabalistic, tutelary,
miniature spirits are called, who are supposed to be very jealous of
its use. In Ireland, green, is universally regarded with distrust;
but with veneration, in the spiritual sense. It is the national
colour; for the Patroness of Ireland is the female deity, the. Mother
of Nature, known in the classic mythology as Venus--equally Venus the
graceful and Venus the terrible, as the Goddess of Life and of Death.
The various
verts, or greens, are the 'colour-rulers' in the
emblazonry of the Emerald Isle. The presiding deity of the Land of
Ierna, or of Ireland, is the mythic 'Woman', born out of the
fecundity of nature, or out of the 'Great Deep'. This is the genius
(with certain sinister, terrible aspects, marked out grandly in the
old forms) 'who is 'impaled' or 'crucified'--in its real, hidden
meaning--upon the stock, of 'Tree of Life', indicated by the Irish
Harp. Her hair, in the moment of agony, streams Daphne-like, as 'when
about to be transformed into the tree', behind her in the wind, and
twines, in the mortal, mythical stress, into the seven strings of the
magic Irish Harp, whose music is the music of the spheres, or of the
Rosicrucian, assumed penitential, visible World. These seven strings
stand for the seven vowels, by means of which came speech to man,
when the 'new being', man (this is cabalistic again, and therefore
difficult of comprehension), 'opened his mouth and spake'. The seven
strings of the Irish Harp, it will be remembered, are blazoned
'Luna', or the 'Moon'--the feminine moon--according to the practice
of the old heralds, in regard to all royal or, ruling achievements,
which are blazoned by the names of the planets. The seven strings of
the Irish Harp mean also the seven pure tones in music; these, again,
stand for the seven prismatic colours; which, again, describe the
seven vowels; and these, again, represent their seven rulers, or the
seven planets, which have their seven
spirits, or 'Celestial Flames', which are the seven Angels or
Spirits of God, who keep the way round about 'the Throne of the
Ancient of Days'.
There is in most countries an objection to Friday, although it is
the Mohammedan sacred day or Sabbath. Friday is the day of the
'Green'. Emeralds, or
smaragds, are proper to be worn on
Friday, and bring good fortune, as exercising occult influences on
this particular day.
The breastplate of the Jewish High-Priest had its oracular gems,
which were the Urim and Thummim. The reputed enchanter, Apollonius
Tyaneus, is said, for the purposes of his magic, to have worn special
rings, with their appropriate gems, for each day of the sevenfold
week, to command the particular spirits belonging to the different
days. The Hermetic Brethren had certain rules that they observed in
relation to this view of the power of precious stones to bring good
or bad fortune through the planetary affinities of certain days,
because they imagined that the various gems, equally as gold and
silver, were produced through the chemic operation of the planets,
working secretly in the telluric body. They thought that gold and
silver, and all the gems, had but one foundation in nature, and were
simply augmented, purified, and perfected through the operation of
the hermetic or magnetic light--invisible and unattainable under
ordinary circumstances, and unknown, except to the alchemists. All
yellow gems, and gold, are appropriate to be worn on Sunday, to draw
down the propitious influences, or to avert the antagonistic effects,
of the spirits on this day, through its ruler and name-giver, the
Sun. On Monday, pearls and white stones (but not diamonds) are to be
worn, because this is the day of the Moon, or of the second power in
nature. Tuesday, which is the day of Mars,
claims rubies, and all stones of a fiery lustre. Wednesday is the
day for turquoises, sapphires, and all precious stones which seem to
reflect the blue of the vault of heaven, and that imply the lucent
azure of the supposed spiritual atmosphere, wherein, or under which,
the Rosicrucian sylphs dwell--those elementary children who,
according to the cabalistic theogony, are always striving for
intercourse with the race of Adam, seeking a share of his particular
privilege of immortality, which has been denied to them. Thursday
demands amethysts and deep-coloured stones of sanguine tint, because
Thursday is the day of Thor--the Runic impersonated Male Divine
Sacrifice. Friday, which is the day of Venus, has its appropriate
emeralds, and reigns over all the varieties of the imperial, and yet
strangely the sinister, colour green. Saturday, which is Saturn's
day, the oldest of the gods, claims for its distinctive talisman the
most splendid of all gems, or the queen of precious stones, the
lustre-darting diamond, which is produced from, the black of Sab,
Seb, or Saturn, the origin of all visible things, or the 'Great
Deep', or 'Great Mother', in one sense.
This is the day on which all green gems, and the colour green,
should be universally used. Friday is the 'woman’s day' of the
sevenfold weekly period; and therefore, as some ill-natured people
might say, it is the unlucky day. Certain it is, however, that
although it presents the exact contradiction of being especially the
woman’s day, few or no marriages would be celebrated on this
day, as popularly bearing the mark of ill luck, which suppositions
few would like Openly to defy, or, according to the familiar
expression, 'fly in the face of'. May is also forbidden for
marriages, although it is the 'woman’s month', or month in
which 'May-day' occurs, and in which
'May-poles' used to be set up everywhere. (See figures of May-poles
later in our book.)
But to return to the ill-omened colour to England, white, and to
the important shape in which we find it to appear in the name borne
by our present--'King Albert Edward;' inheriting his name 'Albert'
from perhaps the most lovable prince whom this country has ever known
as casting in his destinies, by marriage, with it, but whose end--in
the prime of life, and in the fullness of his influence--was surely
unfortunate enough, when the eyes of hope of all Europe, in various
respects, were fixed upon him! The name 'Albert' has happily,
however, been passed over in the person of the King as a name laid
aside; and he is known by the name--the propitious name--of Edward
only, 'Edward the Seventh'.
The 'White Lady of Berlin' and her mysterious appearances from
time to time are well known to the writers of modern romantic
biographical story. Whom she is supposed to represent seems to be
unknown to all. Those who have recorded her fitful revelations of
herself venture no surmise; but she is considered in some way the
evil genius of the Hohenzollern family, much in the same manner as
the unaccounted-for figure might have been regarded who revealed
himself to Brutus on the Plains of Philippi, and who announced the
crowning misfortunes of the next day. The Irish have a name for this
supernatural appearance in the 'banshee', or the speaker, or
exponent, of fate. The 'White Lady of Berlin' is supposed to be seen
by some person in the palace before any pre-eminent disaster
supervenes, occurring to a member of the royal house. The glimpses of
this White Lady are only momentary and delusive--so vague, indeed, as
to be readily contradicted or explained away (perhaps willingly) even
by the supposed
seers themselves. It is also a fact not a little curious, when we
come to consider it by the side-glance, as it were, that the colour
white (the English unfortunate colour), besides being that of the
'White Rose' and of 'Whitehall', is that white of the unlucky
Stuarts, whose history through centuries, both in Scotland and in
England, was but one long catalogue of mishaps, woes, and disasters.
Prince Charles Edward and his famous 'white cockade', and the evil
fortunes of all his followers and of the Jacobite cause in general
in' 1715 and 1745, emblemed in the virgin, holy colour white, supply
a touching, nay tragical, page in public and in private history.
Lastly, we may adduce as a supposed exemplification of the terrible
general effects of this evil-boding name albus, and colour white, in
France, the history of all the Bourbons, whose colour is white in
particular, from the first of that name who displayed his snowy
banner, and who fell by the dagger of an assassin, to the last
Bourbon in modern history, whose fate we will not attempt to
forecast, nor in any manner to seem to bespeak. Merlin, whose
prophecy of the dangers, at some time, of 'white' to the kingdom of
England was supposed to refer to the invasion of this country by the
pale Saxons, whose device or token was the 'white horse', until
further associations of white and misfortune in England came to
dispel the idea, may even still have his original prophetic forecast
unfulfilled. The colour white, or some strange, at present
unimagined, association of 'white', may yet lie, like a dream,
perdu
in the future (of the chances of which no man can speak), to justify
Merlin at once, and to astonish and bewilder, by the long-delayed
evolvement of the centuries in which at last the realization and the
misfortune become simultaneously apparent: for which, and for the
possibilities
of which, we will terminate in the adjuration of the sublime
Romans, those masters in the art of augury and of divination, 'Absit
omen! But thus much we have chosen to explain about the colour white,
in justification of the ideas of the Rosicrucians as to the
supernatural power of colours; and as to the magical qualities of
those occult influences which they determined, in their philosophical
vocabularies, strangely and mysteriously to call the 'signatures of
things'.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH
From the name of the Temple, now Stonehenge, comes the name of
Ambresbury, which stands a few miles from it. This is called the
'Ambres of the Abiri'. It is two words, and means the 'Ambres of the
Dii Potentes', or of the אבירי,
or 'Cabiri'--for they are the same.
The star of the
Légion d’Honneur bears the
inscription '
Napoléon, Empereur des Français'.
This order was instituted by the Emperor Napoleon the First, after
the discovery and dissolution of the Secret Society, or Brotherhood,
of which General Pichegru, Georges Cadoudal; the famous Moreau, and
other noted revolutionary men were members. This order possessed, it
is stated, a talisman or mystic head, which served as a recognitive
mark, and was supposed to be a sort of bond to the brotherhood. After
their death, their secret insignia were discovered; and it has been
stated that the Emperor Napoleon, whose attention was instantaneously
arrested by great and unusual ideas or supernatural suggestions, in
suppressing this mystic symbol or head, adopted it in another form,
and substituted his own head in profile, as the
palladium, or
talisman, for his new order of the 'Legion of Honour'.
The saffron robe of Hymen is of the colour of the
Flame of Fire. The Bride, in ancient days, was covered with a veil
called the '
Flammeum'; unless made under this, no vow was
considered sacred. The ancients swore, not by the altar, but by the
flame of fire
which was upon the altar. Yellow, or
flame-colour, was the colour of the Ghebers, or Guebres, or
Fire-Worshippers.
The Persian lilies are yellow; and here will
be remarked a connexion between this fact of the yellow of the
Persian lilies and the mystic symbols in various parts of our book.
Mystic rites, and the symbolical lights, which mean the Divinity of
Fire, abound at Candlemas-day (February 2nd), or the Feast of the
Purification; in the torches borne at weddings, and in the typical
flame-brandishing at marriage over almost all the world; in the
illuminations at feasts; in the lights on, and set about, the
Christian altar; at the festival of the Holy Nativity; in the
ceremonies at preliminary espousals; in the Bale, or Baal, fires on
the summits of the mountains; in the watch-lights, or votive
sanctuary-lights, in the hermitage in the lowest valley; in the
chapelle ardente, in the Romish funereal observances, with its
abundance of silent, touching lights around the splendid
catafalque,
or twinkling, pale and ineffectual, singly at the side of the
death-bed in the cottage of the peasant. Starry lights and
innumerable torches at the stately funeral, or at any pompous
celebration, mean the same. In short, light all over the world, when
applied to religious rites, and to ceremonial, whether in the ancient
or in the modern times, bespeaks the same origin, and struggles to
express the same meaning, which is Parseeism, Perseism, or the
worship of the deified FIRE, disguised in many theological or
theosophic forms. It will, we trust, never be supposed that we mean,
in this,
real fire, but only the inexpressible something of
which real fire, or rather
its flower or glory (bright light), is the farthest off--because,
in being visible at all, it is the grossest and most inadequate
image.
All this strange, dreamy, ethereal view of a vital, accessible
something, entirely separate from the suggestions of mere sensation,
is Gnosticism, or Bhuddism, in its own profoundest depth. It follows
on similarly to the 'intoxication,' or suffusion with the very
certainty of the presence of God, which, in the poetic sense, was
said to fill the mind of even the supposed arch-atheist Spinoza.
The Rosicrucians, through the revelations concerning them of their
celebrated English representative, Robertus de Fluctibus, or Robert
Fludd, declare, in accordance with the Mosaic account of
creation--which, they maintain, is in no instance to be taken
literally, but metaphorically--that two original principles, in the
beginning, proceeded from the Divine Father. These are Light and
Darkness, or form or idea, and matter or plasticity. Matter,
downwards, becomes fivefold, as it works in its forms, according to
the various operations of the first informing light; it extends
four-square, according to the points of the celestial compass, with
the divine creative effluence in the centre. The worlds spiritual and
temporal, being rendered subject to the operation of the original
Type, or Idea, became, in their imitation of this Invisible Ideal,
first intelligible, and then endowed with reciprocal meaning outwards
from themselves. This produced the being (or thought) to whom, or to
which, creation was disclosed. This is properly the 'Son', or Second
Ineffable Person of the Divine Trinity. Thus that which we understand
as a 'human mind' became a possibility. This second great, only
intelligible world, the Rosicrucians call 'Macrocosmos'. They
distribute it as into three regions or spheres;
which, as they lie near to, or dilate the farthest from, the
earliest opening divine 'Brightness', they denominate the Empyræum,
the Ætheræum, and the Elementary Region, each filled and
determinate and forceful with less and less of the First Celestial
Fire. These regions contain innumerable invisible nations, or angels,
of a nature appropriate to each. Through these immortal regions,
Light, diffusing in the emanations of the cabalistic Sephiroth,
becomes the blackness, sediment, or ashes, which is the second fiery,
real world. This power, or vigour, uniting with the Ethereal Spirit,
constitutes strictly the 'Soul of the World'. It becomes the only
means of the earthly intelligence, or man, knowing it. It is the
Angel-Conqueror, Guide, Saviour born of 'Woman', or 'Great Deep', the
Gnostic Sophia, the 'Word made flesh' of St. John. The Empyræum
is properly the flower, or glory (effluent in its abundance), of the
divine Latent Fire. It is penetrated with miracle and holy magic. The
Rosicrucian system teaches that there are three ascending hierarchies
of beneficent Angels (the purer portion of the First Fire, or Light),
divided into nine orders. These threefold angelic hierarchies are the
Teraphim, the Seraphim, and the Cherubim. This religion, which is the
religion of the Parsees, teaches that, on the Dark Side, there are
also three counter-balancing resultant divisions of operative
intelligences, divided again into nine spheres, or inimical regions,
populated with splendidly endowed adverse angels, who boast still,
the relics of their lost, or eclipsed, or changed, light. The
elementary world, or lowest world, in which man and his belongings,
and the lower creatures, are produced, is the flux, subsidence,
residuum, ashes, or deposit, of the Ethereal Fire. Man is the
microcosm, or 'indescribably small copy', of the whole great
world. Dilatation and compression, expansion and contraction,
magnetic sympathy, gravitation to, or flight from, is the bond which
holds all imaginable things together. The connexion is intimate
between the higher and the lower, because all is a perpetual
aspiration, or continuous descent: one long, immortal chain, whose
sequence is never-ending, reaches by impact with that immediately
above, and by contact with that immediately below, from the very
lowest to the very highest. 'So true is it that God loves to retire
into His clouded Throne; and, thickening the Darkness that
encompasses His most awful Majesty, He inhabits an Inaccessible
Light, and lets none into His Truths but the poor in spirit.' The
Rosicrucians contended that these so 'poor in spirit' meant
themselves, and implied their submission and abasement before God.
The Rosicrucians held that, all things visible and invisible
having been produced by the contention of light with darkness, the
earth has denseness in its innumerable heavy concomitants downwards,
and they contain less and less of the original divine light as they
thicken and solidify the grosser and heavier in matter. They taught,
nevertheless, that every object, however stifled or delayed, in its
operation, and darkened and thickened in the solid blackness at the
base, yet contains a certain possible deposit, or jewel, of
light--which light; although by natural process it may take ages to
evolve, as light will tend at last by its own native, irresistible
force upward (when it has opportunity), can be liberated; that dead
matter will yield this spirit in a space more or less expeditious by
the art of the alchemist. There are worlds within worlds--we, human
organisms, only living in a deceiving, or Bhuddistic, 'dreamlike
phase' of the grand panorama. Unseen and unsuspected (because in it
lies magic), there is an inner magnetism, or divine aura, or
ethereal spirit, or possible eager fire; shut and confined, as in a
prison, in the body, or, in. all sensible solid objects, which have
more or less of spiritually sensitive life as they can more
successfully free themselves from this ponderable, material
obstruction. Thus all minerals, in this spark of light, have the
rudimentary possibility of plants and growing organisms; thus all
plants have rudimentary sensitives, which might (in the ages) enable
them to perfect and transmute into locomotive new creatures, lesser
or higher in their grade, or nobler or meaner in their functions;
thus all plants and all vegetation might pass off (by side-roads)
into more distinguished highways, as it were, of independent,
completer advance, allowing their original spark of light to expand
and thrill with higher and more vivid force, and to urge forward with
more abounding, informed purpose--all wrought by planetary influence,
directed by the unseen spirits (or workers) of the Great Original
Architect, building His
microcosmos of a world from the plans
and powers evoked in the
macrocosm, or heaven of first forms,
which, in their multitude and magnicence, are as changeable shadows
cast off from the Central Immortal First Light, whose rays dart from
the centre to the extremest point of the universal circumference. It
is with terrestrial fire that the alchemist breaks or sunders the
material darkness or atomic thickness, all visible nature yielding to
his furnaces, whose scattering heat (without its sparks)
breaks all doors of this world’s kind. It is with immaterial
fire (or ghostly fire) that the Rosicrucian loosen contraction and
error, and conquers the false knowledge and the deceiving senses
which bind the human soul an in its prison. On this side of his
powers, on this dark side (to the world) of his character, the
alchemist (rather now become the Rosicrucian) works in invisible
light, and is a magician. He lays the bridge (as the Pontifex or
Bridge-Maker) between the world possible and the world impossible:
and across this bridge, in his Immortal Heroism and Newness, he leads
the votary out of his dream of life into his dream of temporary
death, or info extinction of the senses and of the powers of the
senses; which world’s blindness is the only true and veritable
life, the envelope of flesh falling metaphorically off the now
liberated glorious
entity--taken up, in charms, by the
invisible fire into rhapsody, which is as the gate of heaven.
Now, a few words as to the theory of alchemy. The alchemists
boasted of the power, after the elimination and dispersion of the
ultimate elements of bodies by fire (represented by the absent
difference of their weights before and after their dissolution), to
recover them back out of that exterior, unknown world surrounding
this world: which world men reason against as if it had no existence,
when if has real existence; and in which they were in ignorance in
their 'Pre-State', as they will be (perhaps also in ignorance) in
their 'After-State'. In respect of which state ('before' and 'after'
this life), all people, in all time, have had an idea. It is
'Purgatory', if is '
Limbus', it is 'Suspension in Repose', it
is as the 'Twilight' of the Soul before and after the 'Day' of Full
Life, or complete consciousness. These ideas are as equally Christian
as Pagan. How little is all this supposed in the ignorance of the
moderns!
It is this other world (just off this real world) into which the
Rosicrucians say they can enter, and bring back, as proofs that they
have been there, the old things (thought escaped), metamorphosed into
new things. This act is
transmutation. This product is
magic gold, or 'fairy gold', condensed as real gold, This growing
gold, or self-generating and multiplying, gold, is obtained by
invisible transmutation (and in other light) in another world out of
this world; immaterial to us creatures of limited faculties, but
material enough, farther on, on the heavenly side, or on the side
opposite to our human side. In other words, the Rosicrucians
claim not to be bound by the limits of the present world, but to be
able to pass into this next world (inaccessible only in appearance),
and to be able to work in it, and to come back safe (and selfsame)
out of it, bringing their trophies with them, which were gold,
obtained out of this master-circle, or outside elementary circle,
different from ordinary life, though enclosing it; and the
elixir
vitæ, or the means of the renewal or the perpetuation of
human life through this universal, immortal medicine, or
magisterium,
which, being a portion of the light outside, or magic, or breath of
the spirits, fleeing from man, and only to be won in the audacity of
God-aided alchemic exploration, was independent of those mastered
natural elements, or nutritions, necessary to ordinary common life.
The daily necessary food which is taken for the sustenance of the
body was, as the Rosicrucians contended, the means of dissolution, or
death daily passing through and the real cause of the destruction of
the body, by the slowest of all processes, but yet, in instalments,
the effectual one. They asserted that man
dies daily in his
own native bodily corruptions. These singular philosophers ventured
the assertion that God did not, in the beginning, intend that man’s
life should be terminated by diseases, nor that he should be made
subject to accidental, violent means of end. In the abstract sense,
and apart from our knowledge of man as man, the Rosicrucians
contended that diseases are not
necessarily incidental to the body, and that death may be said to
have become an imported accident into the scheme of things; our ideas
being erroneous as to the original design in regard of us.
Man was to have lived as the angels, of an impregnable, impassable
vitality, taking his respiration, not by short snatches, as it were,
but as out of the great cup of the centuries.
He was to be the
spectator of nature--not nature
his spectator. The real
objects of the adepts were, in truth, to remain no longer slaves to
those things supposed to be
necessities, but, by the
assistance of Heaven, to remove back to Heaven’s original
intention; to rise superior to the consequences of the original
Curse, and to tread under foot, in vindicating the purpose of God,
that mortal (however seductive), sexual, distinctive, degradation
entailing dissolution, heired from Adam, or from the First
Transgressor. That poverty and celibacy (under certain limitations)
must be the obligations of the true Brothers of the 'R. C.' will at
once be seen from the above reasons, however wild and
mistaken--barely even comprehensible. This is the real original
reason for the monastic state--defying and denying nature.
The original curse was entailed upon mankind by eating of
The fruit
Of that forbidden 'Tree', whose mortal taste
Brought
death into the world, and all our woe.
What that 'Tree' was, and what are its votive, idolatrous (in the bad
sense) symbols in the old world and in the new, we think we have
abundantly shown--at least, in the occult, shadowy idea. Why,
supposing that the alchemists ever possessed the power of universal
gold-making, they fail of producing any,
or of offering one of their rich gifts to the world, is at once
answered in these two conclusive, obvious facts: Firstly, that if
this power of gold-making, or of transmutation, were a recognized
possibility, like any other art allowed or authorized, it would
inevitably become penal or impossible, in order to preserve the
existing value of gold, the richest metal; and the professor of the
art would be at once put out of sight. Secondly, if supposed to be
true, and not fable, like any ordinary art or science, the man who
had arrived at such a stupendous secret would be sacrificed or
martyred in the insatiate haste of the people to compel him to
produce gold, in order to satisfy
them--that gold, moreover,
which will destroy, but can never satisfy. 'Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon.' These things the alchemists too well know, and therefore
they (if any exist now) hide, as they have always hidden, and deny,
as they have always denied; being desirous of stealing through the
world unknown and of serving God alone, whose inaccessible great
glory, as we see, has been imitated in the golden lights of the
inexpressibly grand (in the worldly and mortal sense), apostate
constructions of the magnificent Mammon, Lord of the Treasures of
this World, for which men offer themselves willing victims even to
Him, King of the Visible, whose semblance is that of the most
brilliant yellow element--Fire--
Or, 'Golden Flame', the
'Flower' of the Fire.
The alchemists maintain that the metals are produced in the secret
operations of the planets, that grow them daily in the bowels of the
earth; that the sun and moon, red and white, fire and water, light
and darkness, male and female, night and day, are active in the
generation of the precious metals, of which gold is due wholly to the
invisible operation of the sun and moon, and silver is referable to
the
whitening or bleaching lucidity of the moon; that gold is produced
quicker or slower according to the faster or slower operations of
nature; that it vivifies and vegetates, bears bright seed and
multiplies, germinating as fructifying in the matrix, or the
laboratories of the earth; that gold is produced with infinite pains,
as it were, by these chemic operations of nature, very slowly under
certain circumstances, but very rapidly under other more favourable,
more powerful conditions; that it is possible for the adept to act as
the midwife of nature, and to assist in her deliverance, and in the
birth of gold, in these occult senses; that the work of nature being
thus expedited by this alchemical art, the hitherto thwarted
intention of Providence is effected in the predetermined liberation
of the divine gold, 'Lux', or light, which is again united to its
radix or producing-point, in. heaven. A spark of the original light
is supposed by the Rosicrucians to remain deep down in the interior
of every atom.
The Rosicrucian Cabala teaches that the three great worlds
above--Empyræum, Ætheræum, and the Elementary
Region--have their copies in the three points of the body of man:
that his head answers to the first; his breast, or heart, to the
second; and his ventral region to the third. In the head rests the
intellect, or the magnetism of the assenting judgment, which is a
phenomenon; in his heart is the conscience, or the
emotional
faculty, or the Saviour; and in the umbilical centre reside the
animal faculties, or all the sensitives. Nutrition is destruction in
the occult sense, and dissolution is rescue in the occult sense;
because the entity, or visible man, is constructed in the elements,
and is as equally ashes, or condemned matter, as they are; and
because the fire that feeds the body (which is its natural
respiration or
maintenance) is in itself that which (however slowly) destroys it.
Man lives upon the lees of nature, or (in the Bhuddistic view) upon
the 'gross purgations of the celestial fire', which is urging itself
clear through the operation of the divine rescuing spirit in it. It
follows that metaphysically all the wonderful shows of life are
phantasmata only, and their splendours false and a show only.
But as these shows are the medium and the instruments of life,
without which intelligence (in the human sense) would be impossible,
this celestial 'Second Fire' has been deified in the acknowledgments
of the first inhabitants of the world, who raised pillars and stones
in its honour as the first idol. Thus man bears in his own body the
picture of the 'Triune'. Reason is the head, feeling is the breast,
and the mechanical means of both feeling and reasoning, or the means
of his being Man, is the epigastric centre, from which the two first
spring as emanations, and with which the two first form ultimately
but 'one'. The invisible magnetic, geometrical bases, or latitudes,
of these three vital points, whose consent, or coincidence, or
identity, forms the 'microcosm', which is a copy of the same form in
heaven, answer magically to their stellar originals. This is
astrological 'ruling' by pyramidal culmination; and by trilinear
descent or efflux, to an intersecting point in the latitudes of the
heavens and in the man’s body, at which upper and lower, or
heaven and earth; interchange; and Man is therefore said to be made
'in the image' of the Archetype, who has 'descended' to man, who has
'ascended' to Him. This is the 'hinge-point' of the natural and the
supernatural, upon which the two wings of the worlds real and unreal
revolve. The starry heavens, through whose astrological cross-work
complications (as in a snap) all these infinite effects are produced,
and on whose (for, taking gravitation away, they are the same) floor of lights, or
cope or dome of signs or letters, all the 'past, present, and future'
has been written by the finger of God (although to man they are ever
rearranging), can be read by the competent as Fate Natural and
supernatural, though one is only the reversed side of the other, as
'darkness is only the reversed side of light, and light is only the
reversed side of darkness',
[5]
are mistaken by man for opposites, although they are the same: man
living in this state in darkness, although his world is light; and
heaven in this state being darkness, although this state is light.
Music (although it is unheard by man) is necessarily produced in
the ceaseless operations of material nature, because nature itself is
penitential and but the painful (and musical) expression between two
dissonant points. The Bhuddist contends that all forms are but the
penance of nature. Music is life, and life is music. Both are pain,
although made delightful. Phenomena are not real.
Thus colours to the human are negative as music addressed to the
ear, the musical notes negative as colours addressed to the eye, and
so on of the other senses, although they are all the same in the
imagination, without the
sensorium--as dreams show. And life
and the world, in this view, are all imagination: man being made in
idea, and only in his own belief. This, again, is only pure
Parseeism; and the whole will be rightly regarded as the most
extraordinary dream of philosophy--as depth of depths beyond idea.
Schubert, in his
Symbolism of Dreams, has the following
passages, which we have before adduced and
made use of for illustration: 'It may be asked whether. that
language, which now occupies so low a place in the estimation of men,
be not the actual waking language of the higher regions, while we',
adds the philosopher, coming out with something very strange, 'awake
as we fancy ourselves, may be sunk
in a sleep of many thousand
years, or, at least, in the echo of their dreams, and only
intelligibly catch a few dim words of that language of God, as
sleepers do scattered expressions from the loud conversation of those
around them.'
The following is a fair view of the Rosicrucian theory concerning
music.
The whole world is taken as a musical instrument; that is, a
chromatic, sensible instrument. The common axis or role of the world
celestial is intersected--where this superior diapason, or heavenly
concord or chord, is divided--by the spiritual sun, or centre of
sentience. Every man has a little spark (sun) in his own bosom. Time
is only protracted consciousness, because there is no world out of
the mind conceiving it. Earthly music is the faintest tradition of
the angelic state; it remains in the mind of man as the dream of, and
the sorrow for, the lost paradise. Music is yet master of the man’s
emotions, and therefore of the man.
Heavenly music is produced from impact upon the paths of the
planets, which stand as chords or strings, by the cross-travel of the
sun from note to note, as from planet to planet; and earthly music is
microscopically an imitation of the same, and a 'relic of heaven';
the faculty of recognition arising from the same supernatural musical
efflux which produced the planetary bodies, in motived projection
from the sun in the centre, in their evolved, proportional,
.harmonious order. The Rosicrucians taught that the
'harmony of the spheres' is a true thing, and not simply a poetic
dream: all nature, like a piece of music, being produced by melodious
combinations of the cross-movement of the holy light playing over the
lines of the planets: light flaming as the spiritual ecliptic, or the
gladius of the Archangel Michael, to the extremities of the
solar system. Thus are music, colours, and language allied.
Of the Chaldæan astrology it may figuratively be said that,
although their knowledge, in its shape of the 'Portentous Stone'--in
this instance, their grave-stone--shut up the devils in the depths of
the 'Abyss', and made the sages their masters (Solomon being the
Priest or King, and his seal the 'Talisman' that secures the 'Deep'):
Man, on account of his having fallen into the shadow and the
corruptions of EXISTENCE, needs that mighty exterior HAND (before
which all tremble) to rescue him back into his native original Light
or Rest. All the foregoing is pure Bhuddism.
Thinkers who have weighed well the character of those supposed
infractions of natural laws which have admitted, as it were
philosophically, the existence of other independent, absent, thinking
spirits, communicating intelligibly in this world of ours, insist
'that it is impossible to suppose that the partitions between this
world and the other world are so thin as that you can hear the movers
in the other through.'
Nevertheless thoughtful people are equally able to convict modern
philosophical realists of absurdity, when the former adduce the
following insurmountable objection against them: 'When we tell you of
a supernatural thing', say the supernaturalists to the realists; 'you
directly
have recourse to a natural thing in which to find it.'
This is contrary to common dense; and therefore the realistic arguer
has no right to dispose
in this manner of that which is supernatural; for his objections
are futile and vain, and his arguments contradict themselves. Spirit
and matter, when sought to be explained, are totally opposed; and
hence, arises the reason why there can never be any belief of
impossible things, and only the conviction that such things have been
in the mind, notwithstanding the insurmountable contradiction of the
senses.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIFTH
In a very elaborate and interesting book, published in the year
1867, the title of which, at length, is the following:
Life and
Work at the Great Pyramid, by C. Piazzi Smyth, Professor of
Practical Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh, and Astronomer
Royal for Scotland. Edinburgh, 1867: the conclusions (though a
mistake) which we now supply from the author are offered as
definitions, after infinite care, of this important name or word,
'PYRAMID'. 'Pyramid' is derived in this book from two Greek terms.
πυρός, 'wheat'; μετρον,
'measure'; or from Coptic roots, signifying
pyr, 'division';
met, 'ten'. However, we offer to deduce this term 'Pyramid'
from quite another source. The present writer originally sought to
do. this in the year 1860, in a dissertation on the origin and
purpose of the 'Pyramids of Egypt'. It is well known that the letters
P and
F are radically the same letter (as is evidenced
by their peculiar pronunciation in certain countries), and that they
are interchangeable. In Professor Smyth's book, Πυρός
is wrongly translated 'wheat'. It signifies 'product', or 'growth',
or 'elimination'; in other words, and in the symbolical sense, it
means 'sun-begotten', or 'fire-begotten'. The Coptic derivation
(re-read by a new light) is the true one. Thus we obtain another
reason upon which we rely as the real interpretation of the name of
the pyramid, or obelisk, or great original altar or upright, raised
in thedivinity working secondarily in nature. Πυρ is fire
(or Division produced by fire); Μετρον
is Ten (or measures or spaces numbered as ten). The whole word means,
and the entire object bearing this name means, the original Ten
Measures or Parts of the Fiery Ecliptic or Solar Wheel, or the Ten
Original Signs of the Zodiac. Therefore the Pyramids are
commemorative altars raised to the divinity Fire.
The
Ophites are said to have maintained that the serpent of
Genesis was the Λογος, and the
'Saviour'. The
Logos was Divine Wisdom, and was the Bhudda, or
Buddha, of India. The Brazen Serpent was called Λογος,
or the 'Word', by the Chaldee Paraphrast (Basnage, lib. iv. ch. xxv).
It is very certain that, in ancient times, the serpent was an object
of adoration in almost all nations. The serpent-worshippers seem to
have placed at the head, or nearly at the head, of all things (Maia),
and most intimately connected with the serpent, a certain principle
which they called 'Sophia'. This is clearly a translation of the word
'Bhudda' into Greek. It also reminds us that the old Bhuddas are
always under the care of the Cobra-Capella. This is evidenced in all
the Memnonian or Egyptian heads; and in the asp (or fleur-de-lis),
more or less veiled or altered, displayed as the chief symbol upon
the universal Sphynxes. The serpent, in one view, was the emblem of
the evil principle, or destroyer. But, as we have seen before, the
'destroyer' was the 'creator'. Hence he had the name, among his
numerous appellations, of ΟΦΙΣ; in Hebrew,
אוב,
Ob; and as he was the 'logus', or 'linga', he was also ΟΨ,
and in Hebrew מרא∙מ.
Query, hence, Συφαρ, a seraph or
serpent?--see Jones's
Lexicon (
in voce), and Σοφος,
wise. The Συφ and Σοφ are both
the same root. The famous 'Brazen Serpent', called Nehustan, set up
by Moses in the Wilderness, is termed in the Targum
a 'Saviour'. It was probably a 'serpentine crucifix', as it is
called a cross by Justin Martyr. All the foregoing is allegorical,
and hides deep Gnostic myths, which explain serpent-worship, united
with the adoration paid to a perpendicular.
The three most celebrated emblems carried in the Greek mysteries
were the Phallus, Ι; the Egg, Ο and the Serpent, Φ;
or otherwise the Phallus, the Ioni or Umbilicus, and the Serpent. The
first, in each case. is the emblem of the sun, or of fire, as the
male, or active, generative power. The second denotes the passive
nature, or feminine principle, or the element of water. The third
symbol indicates the destroyer, the reformer, or the renewer (the
uniter of the two), add thus the preserver or perpetuator--eternally
renewing itself. The universality of the serpentine worship (or
phallic adoration) is attested by emblematic sculpture and
architecture all over the world. This does not admit of denial. Its
character and purpose are, however, wholly misunderstood. Not only is
the worship of the serpent found everywhere, but it everywhere
occupies an important station; and the farther back we go, the more
universally it is found, and the more important it appears to have
been considered. The Destroyer or Serpent of Genesis is correctly the
Renovator or Preserver. In Genesis there is a 'Tree of Knowledge' and
a 'Tree of Life'. Here we have the origin of the
Ophites,
Ophiones, or Oriental emblematical serpent-worshippers, to
account for whom, and for whose apparently absurd object of
adoration, our antiquaries have been so much perplexed. They
worshipped the Saviour-Regenerator under the strangest (but the
sublimest) aspect in the world; but not the devil, or malific
principle, in our perverse, mistaken ideas, and with the vulgar,
downward, literal meanings which we apply. The mythic and mimetic art
of the
Gnostics is nowhere more admirably or more successfully displayed
than in their hieroglyphs and pictured
formulæ. Even in
the blazonry and in the collars and badges of chivalry (which seems
so remote from them), we find these Ophite hints. The heathen temples
and the modern ritualistic churches alike abound in unconscious
Gnostic emblems. State ceremony harbours them; they mix with the
insignia of all the orders of knighthood; and they show in all the
heraldic and masonic marks, figures, and patterns, both of ancient
and of modern times. The religion of the Rosicrucians is also
concealed, and unconsciously carried forward, perpetuated, and
ignorantly fostered, by the very persons and classes who form,
contrive, and wear decorations with special mysterious marks, all the
world over. Every person, in unconsciously repeating certain figures,
which form an unknown language, heired from the ancient times;
carries into futurity, and into all parts of the world, the same
carefully guarded traditions, for the knowing to recognize, to whose
origin the sun, in his first revolution, may be figuratively said to
be the only witness. Thus the great inexpressible 'Talisman' is said
to be borne to the 'initiate' through the ages.
Proposals were published some years ago for a book entitled, 'The
Enigma of Alchemy and of Œdipus resolved; designed to elucidate
the fables, symbols, and other mythological disguises, in which the
Hermetic Art has been enveloped and signalized in various ages, in
ecclesiastical ceremonies, masonic
formulæ, astronomical
signs, and constellations--even in the emblazonments of chivalry,
heraldic badges, and other emblems; which, without explanation, have
been handed down, and which are shown to have originated in the same
universal mystic school, through each particular tracing their
allusion to the means and
mechanism.' This intended work was left in MS. by its anonymous
author, now deceased, but was never published. The unknown author of
it produced also in the year 1850, in one vol. 8vo, a book displaying
extraordinary knowledge of the science of alchemy; which bore the
name
A Suggestive Enquiry into the Hermetic Mystery; with a
Dissertation on the more celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers.
This book was published in London; but it is now extinct, having been
bought up--for suppression, as we believe--by the author's friends
after his decease, who probably did not wish him to be supposed to be
mixed up in such out-of-the-way inquiries.
The Vedas describe the Persian religion (Fire-Worship) as having
come from Upper Egypt. 'The mysteries celebrated within the recesses
of the "hypogea"' (caverns or labyrinths) 'were precisely
of that character which is called Freemasonic, or Cabiric. The
signification of this latter epithet is, as to written letters, a
desideratum. Selden has missed it; so have Origen and Sophocles.
Strabo, too, and Montfauçon,
have been equally astray. Hyde was the only one who had any idea of
its composition when he declared that "It was a
Persian word,
somewhat altered from
Gabri of
Guebri, and signifying
FIRE-WORSHIPPERS".' See O’Brien’s
Round Towers of
Ireland, 1834, p. 354). Pococke, in his India in Greece, is very
sagacious and true in his arguments; but he tells only half the story
of the myths in his supposed successful divestment of them of all
unexplainable character, and of exterior supernatural origin. He
supposes that all the mystery must necessarily disappear when he has
traced, and carefully pointed out, the identity and transference of
these myths from India into Egypt and into Greece, and their gradual
spread westward. But he is wholly mistaken; and most other modern
explainers are equally
mistaken. Pococke contemplates all from the ethnic and realistic
point of view. He is very learned in an accumulation of particulars,
but his learning is 'of the earth, earthy'; by which we mean that,
like the majority of modern practical philosophers, he argues from
below to above, and not, in the higher way, from above to below, or
(contrary to the inductive, or Aristotelian, or Baconian method) from
generals to particulars, or from the light of inspiration into the
sagacities of darkness, as we may call unassisted world’s
knowledge--always vain.
The Feast of Lanterns, or Dragon-Feast, occurs in China at their
New Year, which assimilates with that of the Jews, and occurs in
October at the high tides. They salute the festival with drums and
music, and with explosions of crackers. During the Feast, nothing is
permitted to be thrown into water (for fear of profaning it). Here we
have the rites of Aphrodite or Venus, or the Watery Deity, observed
even in China, which worship, in Protean forms, being also the
worship of the Dragon or Snake, prevails, in its innumerable
contradictory and effective disguises, over the whole world. How like
are the noises and explosions of crackers, etc., to the tumult of the
festivals of Dionusus or Dionysius, to the riot or rout of the
Corybantes amongst the Greeks, to the outcry and wild music of the
priests of the Salii, and, in modern times, to the noises said to be
made at initiation by the Freemasons, whose myths are claimed to be
those (or imitative of those) of the whole world, whose Mysteries are
said to come from that First Time, deep-buried in the blind,
unconscious succession of the centuries! In the Royal-Arch order of
the Masons, as some have said, at an initiation, the 'companions'
fire pistols, clash swords, overturn chairs, and roll cannon-balls
about. The long-descended forms trace from the oldest tradition;
the origin, indeed, of most things is only doubt or conjecture,
hinted in symbols.
The Egyptian Deities may always be recognized by the following
distinctive marks:
Phthas, Ptah, by the close-fitting Robe, Four Steps, Baboon,
Cynocephalus.
Ammon, Amn, by a Ram's Head, Double Plume, Vase, Canopus.
The Sun-God (Phre or Ra) has a Hawk's Head, Disc, Serpent, Uræus.
Thoth, or Thoyt, is Ibis-headed (means a scribe or priest).
Sochos, or Suches, has a Hawk. Hermes Trismegistus (Tat) displays
a Winged Disc.
The Egyptians, however,
never committed their greater
knowledge to marks or figures, or to writing of any kind.
Figure 313: the Gnostics have a peculiar talisman of Fate (Homer's
Αισα). This is one of the rarest types to be
met with in ancient art. In Stosch's vast collection, Winckelmann was
unable to find a single indubitable example. It is of brown agate,
with transverse shades, and is an Etruscan intaglio or Gnostic gem.
The Gnostics, p. 238, makes a reference to this figure.
Later in our book (figs. 191, 300, 301) we give a figure of the
'Chnuphis Serpent' raising himself aloft. Over, and corresponding to
the rays of his crown, are the
seven vowels, the elements of
his name. The usual triple 'S.S.S.' and bard, and the name 'ΧΝΟΥΒΙC',
are the reverse of, this Gnostic gem. It is a beautiful intaglio on a
pale plasma of the finest quality, extremely convex, as it has been
found on examination.
In the Ophic planetary group (
Origen in Celsum, vi. 25)
Michael is figured as a lion, Suriel as a bull, Raphael as a serpent,
Gabriel as an eagle, Thautabaoth
as a bear, Eratsaoth as a dog, Ouriel as an ass. Emanations are
supposed to pass through the seven planetary regions, signified by
these Chaldæan names, on their way to this world. It was
through these seven planetary spiritual regions, or spheres, filled
with their various orders of angels, that the Gnostics mythed the
Saviour Jesus Christ to have passed secretly; disguising Himself and
His Mission in order to win securely to His object. In evading
recognition, in His acceptable disguises, through these
already-created 'Princedoms of Angels', He veiled His purpose of His
Voluntary Sacrifice for the Human Race till He was safe, in His
investment in 'Humanity' for the accepted 'Propitiation'--through the
'Virgin' for production only; not for 'office'.
There was deep mystery in the Gnostic method of teaching that,
although the 'Sacrifice' (the source of sacrifice in all faiths) was
complete and real and perfect, the Saviour did not--nor could--suffer
bodily or be nailed
really, and
die upon the
Cross, but that He suffered in appearance only, and vicariously--the
Scripture being misread. The Gnostics maintained that Simon the
Cyrenean--who, the Evangelist states, bore His Cross--did really bear
it as the culprit, and suffered upon it. As human and divine are
totally different, this could not impair the efficacy of the
'Crucifixion', for the substitution of persons was miraculous and
remote (of course) from human sense.
THE ROSICRUCIANS
PART II
CHAPTER THE FIRST
We have asserted, in an earlier part of our book, that the
pyramidal or triangular form which fire assumes in its ascent to
heaven was, in the monolithic typology, used to signify the Great
Generative Power. The coarse sensuality which seems inseparable from
modern ideas about the worship of the pillar or upright had no place
really in the solemn ancient mind, in which ideas of religion largely
and constantly mingled. We must not judge the ancients by too rigid
an adherence to our own prepossessions--foolish and inveterately
hardened as they continually are.
The adoration paid to this image of the
phallus, which has
persisted as an object of worship through all the ages, in all
countries, was only the acknowledgment, in the ancient mind, of
wonder at the seemingly accidental and unlikely, but certainly most
complete and effectual, means by which the continuation of the human
race is secured. The cabalistic arguers contended that 'Man' was a
phenomenon; that he did not, otherwise than in his presentment, seem
intended; that there appeared nothing even in the stupendous chain of
organisms that seemed specially to hint his approach, or to explain
his appearance (strange as this seems), according to likelihood and
sequence; that between the highest of the animals and the being
'Man' there was a great gulf, and seemingly an impassable gulf; that
some 'after-reason', to speak according to the means of the
comprehension of man, induced his introduction into the Great Design;
that, in short, 'Man' originally was not intended. There is a deep
mystery underlying all these ideas, which we find differently
accounted for in the various theologies.
We are here only speaking some of the abstruse speculations of the
old philosophers, whose, idea of creation, and of the nature of man
and his destiny, differed most materially--if not wholly--from the
acceptable ideas which they chose to inculcate, and which they wished
to impress upon ordinary minds. Thus their deeper speculations were
never committed to writing, because they did not admit of,
interpretation in this way; and if so handed down or promulgated,
they would have been sure to have been rejected and disbelieved, on
account of the impossibility of their being believed. In indicating
some of the strange notions propounded by the Sophists, and, if
possible, still more remarkably by the early Christian Fathers, we
desire to disclaim any participation with
them. Our personal belief of these theories must not be
necessarily supposed from our seeming to advocate them. There is no
doubt that they were very acute
Fig 46: Pyramid; Fig. 47: Tower or
'Tor'; Fig 48: Tower; Fig. 49: Tower of Babel; Fig. 50: Pyramid; Fig
51: Scarabæus.
and profound persons who undertook the examination and
reconcilement of the philosophical systems at the introduction of
Christianity.
The succeeding array of phallic figures will be found interesting,
as tracing out to its progenitor or prototype that symbol which we
call the 'upright'. This architectural descent we shall call the
'Genealogy of the Tower or Steeple'.
The Architectural Genealogy of the 'Tower' or 'Steeple' (so to
speak) is full of suggestion, and is closely connected with the story
of the phallus.
The insignia on the heads of the cobras in the friezes of the
Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace are coloured on the Right,
White, on the Left,
Red. These imply masculine and
feminine ideas.
Figs.
52-54
Fig. 52: Egyptian Colossus; Fig. 53:
Pyramid; Fig. 54: Egyptian Seated Figure (British Museum)
Fig. 42 is the Winged Human-headed Lion. It comes from the Nineveh
Gallery. It may be recognized as the Winged Bull, and also as the
Winged 'Lion of St Mark'.
The 'Lion', 'Bull', 'Eagle', 'Man', are the symbols of the
Evangelists; the 'Man', or 'Angel' standing for St. Matthew, the
'Lion' for St. Mark, the 'Bull' for St. Luke, and the 'Eagle' for St.
John. In these strange aspects the Evangelists figured in many
ancient churches, and on most fonts. These representative forms are
also said to have been the 'Four Cherubim' of the Ark of the Hebrews.
Hermetically they signify the 'four
elements', or the four corners or angle-points of the 'Lesser' or
'Manifested World', or the 'Microcosm' of the Cabalists.
Figs.
55, 56
Fig. 55: Colossal Head (British Museum)
Fig. 45 represents an Obelisk at Nineveh, now in the British
Museum. Jacob's Pillar, the Sacred Stone in Westminster Abbey,
'Bethel', etc., 'Gilgal', have a mythic alliance with the obelisk.
Regarding the pyramids the following may be advanced: Murphy, the
delineator of the Alhambra, considered the Pointed Arch to be a
system founded on the principle of the Pyramid. The pointed or
vertical Saracenic or Gothic arch presents the form of the upper
portion of the human φαλλος.
The Saracenic arch denotes the union of the Linga and Yoni.
In fig. 56 we have the sun rising from between the horns of Eblis
(here taken for the pyramids). This is a poetical superstition of the
Arabians, who therefore turn to the
North to pray it
contradiction to
Figs
57-59
Fig. 58: Figures on the Egyptian
Sarcophagus in the British Museum.
the practice of the Persians, who adore the rising sun. The
Arabians avert in prayer from this malific sign of the 'horns',
because the sun is seen rising from between them; and when disclosing
from between these mythic pillars, the sun becomes a portent.
Fig. 57 is an Egyptian seal, copied by Layard (
Nineveh and
Babylon, p. 156). Subject: the Egyptian god Harpocrates, seated
on the mythic lotus, in adoration of the Yoni, or הוה,
or
havah.
The Druidical Circles, and single stones standing in solitary
places, are all connected with the mystic speculations of the
Rosicrucians.
The eminences, St. Michael's Mount and Mont St.-Michel, were
dedicated by the Phœnicians to the Sun-God (Hercules), as the
'Hydra' or 'Dragon-slayer'.
Figs.
60-62
Figs. 60, 61: Heads of Ships: a.
Fiddle-head; b, c, d. Gondola; e.
Ceres’ Reaping-hook, also Saturn; f. Blade and
Fasces; g. Beak of Galley; h. Glaive; i.
Prow of Grecian Galley. Fig. 62: Stonehenge
|
These mounts in the Channel are secondary 'Hercules’ Pillars',
similar to Calpe and Abyla.
The Architectural Genealogy of the 'Tower' or 'Steeple' displays
other phases of the alterations of the 'upright'. All towers are
descendants of the biblical votive stones, and in multiplying have
changed in aspect according to the ideas of the people of the country
in which they were raised. This Architectural Genealogy of the
'Tower' or 'Steeple' gives many varieties. The changes in the
Tower or Upright, and furnish evidence how it passed into the
Christian times, and became the steeple. When thus changed and
reproduced, according, to the
Figs.
63-69
Fig. 63: Druidical Stone in Persia; Fig. 64:
Druidical Circle at Darab, in Arabia Fig. 65: 'Kit's
Cotty-house', Kent; Figs. 66. 67 Ancient British Coin, mentioned
by Camden; Figs. 68 and 69: St.
Michael or the Sun (Hercules) Fig. 68: England: St. Michael's
Mount, Mount's Bay, Cornwall. 'Dragon', Horns, or Fires. (Moloch
or Baal) British Channel, 'Dragon-mouth' (Galilee from the West)
Fig. 69: France, Normandy: Mont St.-Michel. ('Montjoie!'
'Montjoy!'--old Battle-cry of the Gauls.) 'Dragon'. Horns, or
Fires. (Moloch or Baal).
|
Figs
70-75
Fig. 71: Round Tower Devenish, Ireland; Fig. 70
Round Tower, Ireland; Fig. 72: Obeliscus; Fig. 73: Obelisk; Fig.
75: Two Round Towers.
|
architectural ideas of the builders of the different countries.
where the same memorial pillar was raised, it assumed in time the
peculiarities of the Gothic or pointed style. The steeples of the
churches, the figures of which we give indicate the gradual growth
and expansion of the romantic or pointed architecture, which is
generally called Gothic; and they prove how the upright, or original
phallic form, was adopted and gradually mingled in Christian
architecture--in reality at last becoming its dominant feature.
Figs.
74, 77, 76, 78
Fig. 74: Propylon, Thebes; Fig. 77: The 'Cootub
Minar', near Delhi, supposed to have been built circa 1220; Fig.
78: Antrim Round Tower; Fig. 76: Round Tower at Bhaugulpore,
India.
|
Fig. 96 represents one of the Western Towers of St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, which is one of the double
lithoi (or
obelisks), placed always in front of every temple, Christian as well
as heathen. It is surmounted by the 'fir-cone' (
thyrsus) of
Bacchus, and the sculptured urns below it are represented as flaming
with the mystic fire.
The Architectural Genealogy of the 'Tower' or 'Steeple' in fig.
97, exemplifies a parallel of growth between all the uprights, and
exhibits
figs.
79-85
Fig. 79: Round Tower, Peru;
Fig. 80: Persian
Round Tower (From Hanway);
Fig. 81: Round Tower, Central
America;
Fig. 82: Mudros of Phœnicia (Dr Hyde);
Fig.
83: Mahody of Elephanta (Capt. Pyke);
Fig. 84: Muidhr of
Inismurry;
Fig. 85: Pillar-stone, Hill of Tara.
|
their changes of form, and proves their reproduction through the
centuries, both in the East, and more particularly in the western
countries of Europe. In the lower portion of this fig. 97 we have a
further outline-configuration of various towers and steeples,
displaying the new character given, and the gradual variations of the
'Tower', in the first instance, and afterwards of the 'Steeple'; both
being reproductions of the first idea of the
lithos, upright,
or
phallus: the 'Idol' imitative of the 'Flame of Fire'.
Figs.
86-91
Fig. 86: Brixworth Church, Northamptonsh.,
supposed circa 670.
Fig. 87: Tower in Dover Castle,
circa 400
Fig. 88: Turret at the east end of St.
Peter's Church, Oxford, circa 1180
Fig. 89: Little
Saxam Church, Suffolk, circa 1120
Fig. 90: Rochester
Cathedral (Turret), 1180
Fig. 91: Bishop's Cleeve Church,
Gloucestershire, circa 1180
|
The two pillars in fig. 102 are monuments in Penrith Churchyard.
These are the familiar double, 'Runic' uprights, pillars, or spires.
All the minarets and towers in the East display in the peculiar
curves of their summits the influence of the same phallic idea, as an
attentive examination will prove.
There seems to be little or no reason to doubt that the
much-disputed origin of the pointed Gothic arch, or lancet-shaped
arch, and the Saracenic or Moorish horseshoe arch, is the union and
blending of the two generative figures, namely, the 'discus' or
round, and the upright and vertical, or 'phallic', shape, as
indicated in the diagrams . These forms, in their infinite variety,
are the parents of all architecture.
Figs.
92-96
Fig. 92: Almondsbury Church, Gloucestershire,
circa 1150
Fig. 93: (Decorated Period) Salisbury
Cathedral, Central Spire, 1350
Fig. 94: St. Mary's Church,
Cheltenham, circa 1250
Fig. 95: Bayeux Cathedral,
Normandy, circa 1220
Fig. 96: St Paul's Cathedral
|
The Zodiac itself is, in certain senses, a Genesis, or 'History of
Creation'. The 'Twelve Signs' may be interpreted as the 'Twelve Acts'
of the Divine Drama. Some of the Mosques in the East are surmounted
with twelve minarets, and the number twelve occurs frequently in
connexion with the theology of the Moslems.
Fig: 115A is a scale enrichment, introduced into architecture, to
symbolize the Female Deity, or 'Virgin born of the Waters'.
Figs.
97, 98, 99, 102
Fig. 98: Waltham, Essex (one of the Eleanor
Crosses) Fig. 99: Ancient Cross, Langherne, Cornwall; Fig. 102:
Memorial Stones.
|
The spectator looks to the faces of the figure marked 116.
Fig. 117 is a Masonic, Mosaic, or Tesselated Pavement. (Query,
whether this pavement of black and white squares is not the origin of
the ancient Chess Table, or Chess-Board?) The game of Chess, with the
board upon which it is played, is probably 'Masonic' in its
invention.
Figs.
100, 101, 103
Fig. 100: Ancient Cross, Margam, South Wales
Fig.
101: Ancient Cross, St. Patrick, County of Louth
Fig. 102:
Group of Minarets or Towers, selected from Examples in Oriental
Towns
|
In old representations of the cathedral church of Notre Dame at
Paris, the symbols of the masculine divinity--such as the sun and
some others--are placed over the right hand, or masculine western
tower, flanking the Galilee, or Great Western Porch; thus
unmistakably hinting, its meaning. Over the corresponding left hand,
or female tower, are placed the crescent horns of the moon, and some
other indications, announcing its dedication to the female deified
principle.
In all Christian churches--particularly in Protestant
Figs.
104-108, 110, 110A, 112-114
Fig. 104: Column (Campanile of San Marco, at
Venice)
Fig. 105: Domes at Jerusalem
Fig. 106: Top of the
'Phallus', Mosque of Ibu Tooloon, Cairo
Fig. 107: Small
Mohammedan Mosque
Fig. 108: Mosque of Omar
Fig. 110:
Moorish Tower
Fig. 110A: Curves of a Moorish or Saracenic
Horseshoe Arch
Fig. 111: Cathedral of Cordova: form of the
Arches
Fig. 113: Patterns of Moorish Doors
Fig. 114:
Moresque Arch
Fig. 115: Alhambra
|
churches, where they figure most conspicuously--the two tables of
stone of the Mosaic Dispensation are placed over the altar, side by
side, as a united stone, the tops of which are rounded.
Fig. 118, on p. 250, represents the separated original 'Lithoi',
when united. They then form the 'Double Tables' (or 'Table') of
Stone. In the 'Latter'; or 'Christian (+) 'Dispensation', the 'Ten
Commandments are over the Altar', composed of the 'Law' (Five
Commandments to the Right); and the 'Gospel' (Five Commandments to
the Left).
The ten commandments are inscribed in two
Fig.
109, 111, 114A, 115A
Fig. 109: Russian Cathedral, Moscow
Russian
architecture is strongly infused with the eastern picturesque
spirit. The curves of its domes and the forms of its steeples are
all oriental.
Fig. 111: The Phallus and Discus, as seen in
fig. 110A, united
Fig. 114A: Query, Aquarius?
Fig. 115A,
Scale Enrichment
|
groups of five' each, in columnar form. The five to the right
(looking from the altar) mean the 'Law'; the five to the left mean
the 'Prophets'. The right stone is masculine, the left stone is
feminine. They correspond to the two disjoined pillars of stone (or
towers) in the front of every cathedral, and of every temple in the
heathen times.
The pomegranate is a badge of the Plantagenets; in its form it
resembles the crescent moon; it is a symbol of the female influence
in nature. There is here an unexpected concurrence with the crescent
moon. and star of the Orientals; for above the pomegranate--which is
figured sometimes as the crescent moon in the heraldic insignia of
the Plantagenets--the six-pointed star appears in the hollow of the
Figs.
116-118
Fig. 116: 1: Rosicrucian 'Macrocosmos'
2:
Rosicrucian 'Microcosmos'
A: Jachin (יָכִין)
B:
Boaz (בעז)--Isis
Fig.
118: The union of | and of -- is consequently +, or the 'Cross'
|
crescent, with its points in the curvilinear or serpentine form.
The crescent moon of Egypt and that of Persia is the thin sickle of
the new moon reclining on her back, and seemingly with the star
issuant from between her horns; which is evidently an Egyptian
hint coming from the old hieroglyphic times. This mysterious crescent
and star is the badge of the sect of Ali among the Mohammedans, and
it plays a most important part in augurial or religious heraldry. The
standards of Egypt, Persia, and Arabia are
gules, or Mars, or
the fiery colour. It is
the ardent, or masculine, or red colour of Ali. The colours of
Turkey, on the other hand, are strictly those of Mohammed, and
unconsciously honour the female element in displaying the green, or
the
vert, or the woman's colour, or Friday colour, that of the
Mohammedan Sabbath. This green is the
vert, or 'Venus', of
Mecca . The Turkish standard divides
party-per-pale the
masculine red of the sect of Ali with the green of the Hadgi;
allotting to the former the place of honour, or the dexter side of
the emblazonment.
The Christian altar is divided, as a hieroglyphic, into two halves
or sides, before which the representative priest extends his hands,
standing before it with his right hand (meaning the 'Law') to the
right, and his left hand (meaning the 'Prophets') to the left; the
first of which signifies the masculine (Jewish), and the second the
feminine (Christian--because the Saviour was 'born of a woman'),
mystic celestial power.
Some monograms or hieroglyphic expressions, meaning the 'Salvator
Mundi,' show the Roman letter 'I' (Jesus) in front, in large size;
the letter 'H' (which is feminine, and Greek in its origin, meaning
here 'Man,
as born of Woman') much smaller; and behind,
interlacing and combining the first two letters, is the single curved
or cursive 'S', which stands for 'S.S.', the Holy Spirit, or the
Third Person of the Trinity. The whole, in another way, is 'Jesus
Hominum Salvator'. Nearly all the sacred monograms, with the
intention of making the letter denoting the 'Man' prominent, present
the letter 'I' large; in the heraldic language
surtout, or
'over all'. The monogram of the Saviour is sometimes seen in the
'Ark', or '
vesica piscis,' which is a pointed oval figure,
familiar in Gothic architecture,
and shaped like a boat or a shuttle,
counter-changing the
letters and the closing arcs, white and black--the black occupying
the left or female side according to the ideas of the Templars. The
standards of these soldier-monks were white and black, either oblong
or forked.
There are two columns of that heavy, severe order, however grand
and impressive, which distinguishes the early Norman period of
architecture in England, in regard to which, though abounding in
far-off hermetic suggestions, we have seen no notice in antiquarian
quarters. These two columns comprise a part of the colonnade in the
White Tower, or central tower, of the Tower of London. The capital of
the first column is square, but it is rounded at the angles by a cut
to the
hypotrachelium, or base-ring, of the capital . The tops
of these cuts are formed by volutes similar to the horns of the
Corinthian and Ionic capitals. The male volute is to the right, and
is a spiral volve, from which issues a dependent budding flower
dropping seed. The volve to the left, which is a series of rings
enclosing a point, is female. A twisted perpendicular, like a horn,
projects from the base on this left side. The capital of the other
column presents a not unusual Norman form of two truncated-tables or
faces rounded below and divided in the middle. These we interpret as
meaning the 'woman' and the 'man', side by side, and left and right.
These glyphs in the two capitals of the columns signify 'Jachin' and
'Boaz', and stand for the 'First Man,'
and the 'First Woman'. The mysterious letter 'Tau', which is the same
as the Runic Hammer of Thor, and which in truth is a 'Cross,'
occupies the centre-point, or, heraldically, the 'honour-point', of
the first column to the right. The master-masons were celebrated in
their art of concealing myths, or hinting them
cautiously in the most difficult and far-off resemblances. The
curious reader is referred to our illustration, figs. 119, 120.
The character of the 'Head' which the Templars were charged with
having worshipped in their secret 'encampments', or 'mystic lodges',
has been the subject of much dispute. Some say it was the head of
Proserpine, or of Isis, or of the 'Mother of Nature' presented under
certain strange aspects. Others assert that the figure was male, and
that of Dis or Charon, according to the classic nomenclature. The
object was reputed to be a talisman, and it is called by some the
head of Medusa, or the snake-haired visage, dropping blood which
turned to snakes, and transforming the beholder to stone. It was this
head, or one of a similar description, which was supposed to serve as
the talisman or recognitive mark of the secret fraternity or society,
headed by Pichegru and others, which was suppressed by Napoleon, and
the members of which were tried and condemned as aiming at
revolutionary objects. Why Napoleon adopted this mysterious supposed
magical head, as he is said to have done, on the suppression and
destruction of this revolutionary body--to which we refer
elsewhere--and why he chose to place his own head in the centre-place
before occupied by this imagined awe-inspiring countenance, and
adopted the whole as the star of his newly founded 'Legion of
Honour', it is very difficult to say. In the East there is a
tradition of this insupportable magic countenance, which the
Orientals assign to a 'Veiled Prophet', similar to the mysterious
personage in
Lalla Rookh.
End Section Two
Next
Section
Back to Contents
End Notes
[1] This is a curious direct assertion that the Saviour of the World was feminine.
[2] See post, and through a subsequent Chapter, for particular facts--very important in the authentic history of the 'Garter'.
[3] These are the two chief metals of the Alchemists, and the two chief
mystic symbols of the Rosicrucians. Red is blazoned by the old
priestly heralds, or augurs, by the name of the Planet Mars. Vert (or
Verd), and Argent, or silver (Hermes, or Thoth, or Taut, or Luna, or
Astarte, indifferently), are represented by the Planet Venus and by
the Moon.
[4] Mark--the letters G and C are convertible: Thus Gab or Cab ('Gab' ala or 'Cab' ala). The 'Compte' de 'Gabalis' is, properly the 'Compte' de 'Cabalis', or the Count of the 'Cabala'.
[5] '
Comte de Gabalis': Rosicrucian.
