Dedication
_This Special Student’s Edition of “The Initiates of the Flame” is
dedicated by the author to the One Thousand Students of the Classes of
1922, and is limited to one thousand copies of which this one is_
_Number 91_
[Illustration: _Multiplicatio._]
The
INITIATES
of the
FLAME
[Illustration]
He who lives the Life shall
know the Doctrine
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
Copyrighted, October, 1922
All rights reserved
Permission to copy or translate may be secured
upon application
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 7
Foreword 13
Chapter One
The Fire Upon the Altar 15
Chapter Two
The Sacred City of Shamballa 25
Chapter Three
The Mystery of the Alchemist 35
Chapter Four
The Egyptian Initiate 45
Chapter Five
The Ark of the Covenant 55
Chapter Six
The Knights of the Holy Grail 63
Chapter Seven
The Mystery of the Pyramids 73
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
The Cube Altar 14
The Everburning Lamp 16
The Masonic Censor 18
The Grave Digger’s Spade 20
The Candle 22
The Lotus 28
The Rod That Budded 30
The Philosopher’s Stone 34
The Five Pointed Star 38
The Marriage of the Sun and Moon 40
The Pillars of the Temple 42
The Serpent 44
The Masonic Apron 46
The Scepters of Egypt 48
The Sacred Scarab 50
The Priest before the Ark of the Covenant 54
The Rod that Budded, the Pot of Manna, and
the Tablets of the Law 58
The Holy Grail 62
The Stone and the Sword 64
The Rosicrucian Rose 66
The Sacred Spear 68
Cross Section of the Great Pyramid of Gizah 74
The Pyramid 76
The Sphinx 78
The Key and the Cross 82
The White Grail 86
The Black Grail 87
[Illustration]
The Initiates of the Flame
INTRODUCTION
Few realize that even at the present stage of civilization in this world,
there are souls who, like the priests of the ancient temples, walk the
earth and watch and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar of
humanity. Purified ones they are, who have renounced the life of this
sphere in order to guard and protect the Flame, that spiritual principle
in man, now hidden beneath the ruins of his fallen temple.
As we think of the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome and the
grandeur that was Egypt’s, we sigh as we recall the story of their fall;
and we watch the nations of today, not knowing which will be the next to
draw its shroud around itself and join that great ghostly file of peoples
that are dead.
But everywhere, even in the rise and fall of nations, we see through the
haze of materiality, justice; everywhere we see reward, not of man but of
the invincible One, the eternal Flame.
A great hand reaches out from the unseen and regulates the affairs of
man. It reaches out from that great spiritual Flame which nourishes all
created things, the never dying fire that burns on the sacred altar of
Cosmos--that great fire which is the spirit of God.
If we turn again to the races now dead, we shall, if we look, find the
cause of their destruction. =The light had gone out.= When the flame
within the body is withdrawn, the body is dead. When the light was taken
from the altar, the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a living
God.
Degeneracy, lust, and passion, hates and fears, crept into the souls of
Greece and Rome, and Black Magic overshadowed Egypt; the light upon the
altar grew weaker and weaker. The priests lost the Word, the name of the
Flame. Little by little the Flame flickered out, and as the last spark
grew cold, a mighty nation died, buried beneath the dead ashes of its own
spiritual fire.
But the Flame did not die. Like spirit of which it is the essence, it
cannot die, because it is life, and life cannot cease to be. In some
wilderness of land or sea it rested once again, and there rose a mighty
nation around that flame. So history goes on through the ages. As long
as a people are true to the Flame, it remains, but when they cease to
nourish it with their lives, it goes on to other lands and other worlds.
Those who worship this Flame are now called heathens. Little do we
realize that we are heathen ourselves until we are baptised of the Holy
Spirit, which is Fire, for fire is Light, and the children of the Flame
are the Sons of Light, even as God is Light.
There are those who have for ages labored with man to help him to kindle
within himself this spark, which is his divine birthright. It is these
who by their lives of self-sacrifice and service have awakened and tended
this fire, and who through ages of study have learned the mystery it
contained, that we now call the “Initiates of the Flame.”
For ages they have labored with mankind to help him to uncover the light
within himself, and on the pages of history they have left their seal,
the seal of Fire.
Unhonored and unsung they have labored with humanity, and now their
lives are used as fairy stories to amuse children, but the time will yet
come when the world shall know the work they did, and realize that our
present civilization is raised upon the shoulders of the mighty demigods
of the past. We stand as Faust stood, with all our lore, a fool no wiser
than before, because we refuse to take the truths they gave us and the
evidence of their experiences. Let us honor these Sons of the Flame, not
by words, but by so living that their sacrifice shall not be in vain.
They have shown us the way, they have led man to the gateway of the
unknown, and there in their robes of glory passed behind the Veil. Their
lives were the key to their wisdom, as it must always be. They have gone,
but in history they stand, milestones on the road of human progress.
Let us watch these mighty ones as they pass silently by. First, Orpheus,
playing upon the seven stringed lyre of his own being, the music of the
spheres. Then Hermes, the thrice greatest, with his emerald tablet of
divine revelation. Through the shades of the past we dimly see Krishna,
the illuminated, who on the battlefield of life taught man the mysteries
of his own soul. Then we see the sublime Buddha, his yellow robe not
half so glorious as the heart it covered, and our own dear Master, the
man Jesus, his head surrounded with a halo of Golden Flame, and his brow
serene with the calm of mastery. Then Mohammed, Zoroaster, Confucius,
Odin, and Moses, and others no less worthy pass by before the eyes of the
student. They were the Sons of Flame. From the Flame they came, and to
the Flame they have returned. To us they beckon, and bid us join them,
and in our robes of self-earned glory to serve the Flame they love.
They were without creed or clan; they served but the one great ideal.
From the same place they all came, and to the same place they have
returned. There was no superiority there. Hand in hand they labor for
humanity. Each loves the other, for the power that has made them masters
has shown them the =Brotherhood= of all life.
In the pages that follow we will try to show this great thread, the
spiritual thread, the thread of living fire that winds in and out through
all religions and binds them together with a mutual ideal and mutual
needs. In the story of the Grail and the Legends of King Arthur we find
that thread wound around the Table of the King and the Temple of Mount
Salvart. This same thread of life that passes through the roses of the
Rosicrucians, winds among the pedals of the Lotus, and among the temple
pillars of Luxor. THERE IS BUT ONE RELIGION IN ALL THE WORLD, and that
is the worship of God, the spiritual Flame of the universe. Under many
names He is known in all lands, but as Iswari or Ammon or God, He is the
same, the Creator of the universe, and fire is His universal symbol.
We are the Flame-Born Sons of God, thrown out as sparks from the wheels
of the infinite. Around this Flame we have built forms which have hidden
our light, but as students we are increasing this light by love and
service, until it shall again proclaim us Suns of the Eternal.
Within us burns that Flame, and before Its altar the lower man must bow,
a faithful servant of the Higher. When he serves the Flame he grows, and
the light grows until he takes his place with the true Initiates of the
universe, those who have given all to the Infinite, in the name of the
Flame within.
Let us find this Flame and also serve it, realizing that it is in all
created things, that all are one because all are part of that eternal
Flame, the fire of spirit, the life and power of the universe.
Upon the altar of this Flame, to the true creator of this book, the
writer offers it, and dedicates it to the one Fire which blazes forth
from God, and is now hidden within each living thing.
[Illustration]
FOREWORD
_THE GREATEST OF MYSTERY SCHOOLS_
_The World is the schoolroom of God. Our being in school does not make us
learn, but within that school is the opportunity for all learning. It has
its grades and its classes, its sciences and its arts, and admission to
it is the birthright of man. Its graduates are its teachers, its pupils
are all created things. Its examples are Nature, and its rules are God’s
laws. Those who would go into the greater colleges and universities must
first, day by day, and year by year, work through the common school of
life, and present to their new teachers the diplomas they have won, upon
which is written the name that none may read save those who have received
it._
_The hours may seem long, and the teachers cruel, but each of us must
walk that path, and the only ones ready to go onward are those who have
passed through the gateway of experience_,
_GOD’S GREAT SCHOOL FOR MAN_.
[Illustration: The Cube Altar:
Of the elements of the earth is this altar composed. It is the great
cube of matter. On or in this altar burns a Flame. It is this Flame that
is the spirit of all created things. =Man, know thyself.= Thou art the
Flame, and thy bodies are the living altar.]
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRE UPON THE ALTAR
As far back as our history goes we find that fire has played an important
part in the religious ceremonial of the human race. In practically every
religion we find the sacred altar fires, which were guarded by the
priests and vestals with greater care than their own lives. In the Bible
we find many references made to the sacred fires which were used as one
form of devotion by the ancient Israelites. The Altar of Burnt Offerings
is as old as the human race, and dates from the time when the first man,
lifting himself out of the mists of ancient Lemuria, first saw the sun,
the great Fire Spirit of the universe. Among the followers of Zoroaster,
the Persian Initiate, fire has been used for centuries in honor of the
great Fire God, Ormuzd, who is said by them to have created the universe.
[Illustration: The Everburning Lamp:
Know that the Flame that burns within thee and lights thy way is the
ever burning lamp of the ancients. As their lamps were fed by the purest
of oil, so thy spiritual Flame must be fed by a life of purity and
altruism.]
There are two paths or divisions of humanity whose history is closely
related to that of the Wisdom Teachings. They embody the doctrines of
fire and water, the two opposites of nature. Those who follow the path of
faith or the heart, use water, and are known as the Sons of Seth, while
those who follow the path of the mind and action are the Children of
Cain, who was the son of Samael, the Spirit of Fire. Today we find the
latter among the alchemists, the hermetic philosophers, the Rosicrucians,
and the Freemasons.
It is well for us to understand that we ourselves are the cube altar upon
which and in which burns the altar fire. For many centuries the Initiate
of fire has been nourishing and guarding the Spiritual Flame within
himself, as the ancient priests watched day and night the altar fires of
Vesta’s temple.
The ever burning lamp of the alchemist, which having burned thousands of
years without fuel in the catacombs of Rome, is but a symbol of this same
spiritual fire within himself. In the picture we see the ever burning
lamp which was carried by the Initiate in his wandering. It represents
the spinal column of man, at the top of which is flickering a little
blue and red flame. As the lamp of the ancients was fed and kept burning
by the purest of olive oil, so man is transmitting within himself and
cleansing in the laver of purification the life essences, which, when
turned upward, provide fuel for the ever burning lamp within himself.
[Illustration: The Masonic Censor:
As the perfume rising from the incense burner was acceptable in the
sight of the Lord, so may our words and actions ever be a sweet incense
acceptable in the sight of the Most High.]
Upon the altars of the ancients were offered sacrifices to their gods.
The ancient Hierophant offered up sacrifices of spices and incense. The
Masonic brother of today still has among his symbols the incense burner
or censer, but few of the brothers recognize themselves in this symbol.
The ancients symbolized under such things as this the development of the
individual, and as the tiny spark burning among the incense cubes slowly
consumes all, so the Spiritual Flame within the student is slowly burning
away and transmuting the base metals and properties within himself, and
offering up the essence thereof as the smoke upon the altar of Divinity.
It is said that King Solomon, when he completed his temple, offered bulls
as a sacrifice to the Lord, by burning them upon the temple altar. Those
who believe in a harmless life wonder why so many references are made in
the Bible to animal sacrifice.
The student realizes that the animal sacrifices are those of the
celestial zodiac, and that when the Ram or the Bull was offered upon the
altar, it represented the qualities in man which come through Aries, the
celestial Ram, and Taurus, the Bull in the zodiac. In other words, the
Initiate, passing through his tests and purification, is offering upon
the altar of his own higher being the lower animal instincts and desires
within himself. Among the Masonic brothers we also find what is called
the Symbol of Mortality. It is a spade, a coffin, and an open grave,
while upon the coffin has been laid a sprig of acacia, or evergreen.
In the picture we see the spade of the grave digger, which has been
considered the symbol of death for centuries.
[Illustration: The Grave Digger’s Spade:
Let us take the spade that now digs our grave through the passions and
emotions of life and use it to unearth the secret room far below the
rubbish of the fallen temple of the human soul.]
In the Book of Thoth, that strange document which has descended to man at
his present stage of evolution as a deck of playing cards, we find a very
wonderful symbolism. Of all the suits of cards, that of the spade is the
only suit in which all the court cards face away from the pip. In all the
other kings and queens, the faces are looking at the little marker in the
corner of the card, but in the spade suit, they look away from it. Now
it is said that the spade has been taken from the acorn, but the occult
student has a different idea. He sees in the spade, which has for ages
been the symbol of death, a certain part of his own anatomy. If you will
again turn to the picture of the spade, you will see, if you have ever
studied anatomy, that the grave digger’s spade is the spinal column, and
the spade-shaped piece which is used on the deck of cards, is nothing
more nor less than the sacrum bone.
[Illustration]
This bone forms the base of the spinal column, and is also the spear of
the Passion. Through it and the foramana which pierce it, pass the roots
of the spinal nerve, which indeed are the roots of the Tree of Life. It
is the center through which are nourished and fed the lower vertebrae
of the spine, and the sacrum and coxygeal bones that dig the graves for
all created things. This point has been beautifully symbolized by the
grave digger’s spade, which has been used by the brothers of many mystic
organizations for ages. The currents and forces working through these
lower spinal nerves must be transmuted and lifted upward to feed the
altar fire at the positive or upper end of the spine.
[Illustration: The Candle:
This is the light that has gone out. It is the candle that is hidden
under the bushel. This is the true light that forever dispels the
darkness of ignorance and uncertainty. Let the light shine forth through
a purified body and a balanced mind. For this light is the life of our
brother creatures.]
The centering of thought or emotion upon higher or lower things, as the
case may be, determines where thin life energy will be expended. If
the lower emotions predominate, the flame upon the altar burns low and
flickers out, because the forces which feed it have been concentrated
upon the lower centers. But when altruism predominates, then the lower
forces are raised upward and pass through the purification which makes
possible their being used as fuel for the ever burning lamp. Thus we
see why it was a great sin to let the lamp go out, for the pillar of
flames which hovers over the Tabernacle, purified and prepared after the
directions of the Most High, is the Spiritual Flame that, hovering above
man, lights his way wherever he may go.
The sun of our solar system, that is, the Spiritual Sun behind the
physical globe, is one of these Flames. It began no greater than ours,
and through the power of attraction and the transmuting of its ever
increasing energies it has reached its present proportions. This flame
in man is the “light that shineth in darkness.” It is the Spiritual
Flame within himself. It lights his way as no exterior light can. This
radiating out from him brings into view, one by one, the hidden things
of the cosmos, and his ignorance is dispelled in exactly the same
proportion as his light is spread, for the darkness of the unknown can
only be removed by light, and the greater the light, the further back
the darkness is driven. This is the Lamp of the Philosopher, which he
carries through the dark passageways of life, and by the light of which
he walks among the stones and along the narrow cliff edge without fear.
But although he gain all other things and have not this light within
himself, he cannot know where he goes; he cannot watch his footsteps; and
he cannot dispel his ignorance with the light of truth.
Therefore let each student watch the fire that burns upon his altar.
Let him also make that altar, his body, as beautiful and harmonious as
possible, and let him also sacrifice upon that altar the frankincense
and myrrh, his actions and his deeds. As in the Tabernacle he offers all
upon the altar of divinity, so let him day by day dispel the symbols of
mortality--the coffin and the open grave by which he prepared himself
through the mastery of the lower emotions within himself--and recognize
that no matter how crystallized or dead his life may be, the fact that
he exists at all proves that the sprig of acacia, the promise of life
and immortality, is somewhere within himself; and although the flame of
life may appear faint or cold, if he will supply the fuel by his daily
actions, he will kindle the altar flame once more within himself, which,
shining forth, will also help his brother to kindle this flame, which is
a living sacrifice to the living God.