THE EGYPTIAN INITIATE
Many ages have elapsed since the Egyptian Priest King passed through
the pillars of Thebes. Ages before the sinking of Atlantis, thousands
of years before the Christian Era, Egypt was a land of great truths.
The hand of the Great White Brotherhood was held out to the Empire of
the Nile, and the ancient pyramid passages resounded with the chants
of the Initiates. It was then that the Pharaoh, now called half-human,
half-divine, reigned in ancient Egypt. Pharaoh is the Egyptian word for
king. Many of the later Pharaohs were degenerate and of little account.
It is only the early Pharaohs we now list among the Priest Kings.
[Illustration: The Masonic Apron:
In the triangle we see spirit descending into the square of matter. Let
us so purify matter that spirit may shine through it and make of us
lights to guide the footsteps of humanity.]
Try to picture for a moment the great Hall of Luxor--its inscriptive
columns holding up domes of solid granite, each column carved with the
histories of the gods. There at the upper end of the chamber sat the
Pharaoh of the Nile in his robes of state; around him his counsellors,
chief among them the priest of the temple. An imposing spectacle it was:
the gigantic frame of the later Atlantean, robed in gold and priceless
jewels; on his head the crown of the North and South, the double empire
of the ancient; on his forehead the coiled serpent of the Initiate, the
serpent which was raised in the wilderness that all who looked upon
it might live; that sleeping serpent power in man, which coiled head
downward around the tree of life, drove him from the garden of the Lord,
but which raised upon the Cross, became the symbol of the Christ.
The Pharaoh was an Initiate of Scorpio, and the serpent is the transmuted
Scorpio energy, which working upward in the regenerated individual is
called the Kundalini. This serpent was the sign of Initiation. It meant
that within him the serpent had been raised, for the true Pharaoh was a
priest of God, as well as a master of men. There he sat upon the cube
altar throne, indicating his mastery over the four elements of his
physical body--a judge of the living and of the dead, who in spite of
all his power and glory, having about him the grandeur of the world’s
greatest empire, still bowed in humble supplication to the will of
the gods. In his hands he carries the triple sceptre of the Nile, the
Shepherd’s Crook, the Anubis-headed Staff and the Flail or Whip. These
were the symbols of his work. They represent the powers which he had
mastered. With the whip he had subjugated his physical body; with the
Shepherd’s Crook he was the guardian and keeper of his emotional body;
with the Anubis-headed Staff he was master of his mind and worthy to
wield the powers of government over others, because, first of all, he
obeyed the laws himself.
[Illustration: The Sceptres of Egypt:
These are the three bodies that are the tools with which we are to build
our temple. When they are mastered they are the living proof of our right
to kingship.]
With all his robes of state and with the scarab upon his breast, and with
the All-seeing Eye above his throne, there was still nothing as precious
or as sacred to the ancient Egyptian Priest King as the triangular
girdle or apron which was the symbol of his initiation. The apron of
the ancient Egyptian carried with it the same symbolism as the Masonic
apron of today. It symbolized the purification of the bodies, when the
seat of the lower emotions, Scorpio, was covered by the white sheepskin
of purification. This symbol of his purification was the most precious
belonging of the ancient Pharaoh; and this plain insignia, worn by many
others below him in rank and dignity, but equal to him in spiritual
purification, was the most precious of all things to the Priest King.
There he sat, written upon him in the words of the Initiate, the symbols
of his purification and mastery, a wise king of a wise people. And it
was through these Priest Kings that the Divine worked, for they were of
the order of Melchisedec. Through them was formed that doctrine which
degeneracy has not been able to entirely obliterate, which we know as the
divine right of kings--divine because through spirituality and growth God
was able to manifest through them. They were conscious instruments in the
hands of a ready writer, willing and proud to do the work of those with
whom through knowledge and truth they had attuned themselves.
[Illustration: The Sacred Scarab:
In this form the ancient Egyptians worshiped Khepera, the rising Sun, and
the sacred scarab was buried with the dead as the symbol of resurrection.
For as the sun rises from the darkness of night, so the divine spirit
rises from the body that is no more. The life is eternal.]
But the time came, as in all nations, when selfishness and egotism
entered the heart of king and people alike, and slowly the hand from the
Great White Brotherhood that fed ancient Egypt was withdrawn, and the
powers of darkness transformed the land of glory into one of ruins, and
the names of mighty kings were buried beneath the oblivion of degeneracy.
Mighty cataclysms shook the world, and out of the land of darkness the
Great White Brotherhood carried the chosen people into the promised land;
Egypt, the land of glory, disintegrated into dust.
The great temples of the Pharaohs are ruins, and the temples of Isis are
but broken heaps of sandstone. But what of the priest kings who labored
there in the days of its glory? They are still with us, for those who
were leaders before are leaders now, if they have continued to walk the
path. Although his sceptre is gone, and his priestly vestments have
moulded away, the Priest King still walks the earth with the dignity and
the power and the childish simplicity that before made him great. He no
longer wears the robes of his order. Although he bears no credentials,
he is as much a priest king now as then, for he still bears the true
insignia of his rank. The coiled serpent has given place to knowledge
and love. The hand that bestowed the riches of the past does little
acts of kindness now. Although he no longer carries the sceptres of
self-mastery, still he manifests that mastery in his daily life. Although
the altar fires within the temple at Karnac have long been dead, the
true fire within himself still burns, and before that he still bows as
he bowed in the days of Egypt’s glory. Although the priest no longer is
his counsellor, and the wise ones of his country no longer aid him in
governmental problems, still he is never alone, for the priests in white
and the counsellors in blue still march with him and whisper words of
strength when he needs them.
Have you seen people that somehow you liked regardless of appearances?
Have you seen other charming people whom you hated in spite of their
charms? Have you seen learned people who were fools or impressed you
as such, or people who knew little and yet you felt were wise? Those
are the insignia of rank, which the loss of title or position cannot
destroy. Kings with or without crowns they were--not puppets dressed
in tawdry tinsel. And they still are kings and will be to the end of
time, and they still manifest their rank, not by their superiority, and
their high-headedness, but by the soul qualities which they radiate from
themselves. The purity of their lives still radiates outward from those
who wore the apron of the Initiate, for while that triangular apron with
its serpent drawn upon it has long since rotted away, still the spiritual
counterpart of that symbol radiates in their daily lives, proving beyond
all dispute that they were Priest Kings and are today. We find them in
every walk of life--in high places and down in the mire of life. But
wherever we find them, they are still the mouthpieces of the gods, and
through them comes the promise to all who strive. They are kings, not of
the earth but of heaven, and in the life of our own Master we find one
who joined himself to those who served, and was a true King even when
his only crown was a wreath of thorns.
Still in the pyramid of Gizeh, the initiations continue; still the
Initiate receives the insignia of his rank. Before that Fire within
himself he makes his vows, and upon the burning altar of his own higher
being he lays his crown and his sceptre, his robes and his diamonds, his
hates and his fears, and sanctifies his life as a Priest King, and swears
to serve none but his own higher self, the god within. His robes are his
soul body; and his crown is his life, and in the streets of life he is
enthroned. The dusky towers and factory chimneys around him fade into
the templed pillars of Luxor, and with a lunch pail on his arm, his face
brown with honest dirt, he is as much a king as when the crown of the
double Nile rested upon his brow, and the priest of the temple made him
one with his God and his fellowman.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Priest before the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spirit
over the Mercy Seat.]