for light. "Let men of narrow minds withdraw," he says, "with closed
ears. We transmit the divine mysteries to those who have received the
sacred initiation, to those who practise true piety, and who are not
enslaved by the empty trappings of words or the preconceived opinions of
the pagans."
To Philo, the Supreme Being was the Primitive Light, or the Archetype of
Light, Source whence the rays emanate that illuminate Souls. He was also
the Soul of the Universe, and as such acted in all its parts. He Himself
fills and limits His whole Being. His Powers and Virtues fill and
penetrate all. These Powers [Greek: Δυνάμεις, dunameis] are Spirits
distinct from God, the "Ideas" of Plato personified. He is without
beginning, and lives in the prototype of Time [αιων, aion].
His image is THE WORD [Greek: Λογος], a form more brilliant than fire;
that not being the _pure_ light. This LOGOS dwells in God; for the
Supreme Being makes to Himself within His Intelligence the types or
ideas of everything that is to become reality in this World. The LOGOS
is the vehicle by which God acts on the Universe, and may be compared to
the speech of man.
The LOGOS being the World of Ideas [Greek: κόσμος νοητός], by means
whereof God has created visible things, He is the most ancient God, in
comparison with the World, which is the youngest production. The LOGOS,
_Chief of Intelligence_, of which He is the general representative, is
named _Archangel, type_ and _representative_ of all spirits, even those
of mortals. He is also styled the man-type and primitive man, Adam
Kadmon.
God only is Wise. The wisdom of man is but the reflection and image of
that of God. He is the Father, and His WISDOM the mother of creation:
for He united Himself with WISDOM [[Greek: Σοφια], Sophia], and
communicated to it the germ of creation, and it brought forth the
material world. He created the ideal world only, and caused the material
world to be made real after its type, by His LOGOS, which is His speech,
and at the same time the Idea of Ideas, the Intellectual World. The
Intellectual City was but the _Thought_ of the Architect, who meditated
the creation, according to that plan of the Material City.
The Word is not only the Creator, but occupies the place of the Supreme
Being. Through Him all the Powers and Attributes of God act. On the
other side, as first representative of the Human Family, He is the
Protector of men and their Shepherd.
God gives to man the Soul or Intelligence, which exists before the body,
and which he unites with the body. The reasoning Principle comes from
God through the Word, and communes with God and with the Word; but there
is also in man an irrational Principle, that of the inclinations and
passions which produce disorder, emanating from inferior spirits who
fill the air as ministers of God. The body, taken from the Earth, and
the irrational Principle that animates it concurrently with the rational
Principle, are hated by God, while the rational soul which He has given
it, is, as it were, captive in this prison, this coffin, that
encompasses it. The present condition of man is not his primitive
condition, when he was the image of the Logos. He has fallen from his
first estate. But he may raise himself again, by following the
directions of WISDOM [Greek: Σοφια] and of the Angels which God has
commissioned to aid him in freeing himself from the bonds of the body,
and combating Evil, the existence whereof God has permitted, _to furnish
him the means of exercising his liberty_. The souls that are purified,
not by the Law but by light, rise to the Heavenly regions, to enjoy
there a perfect felicity. Those that persevere in evil go from body to
body, the seats of passions and evil desires. The familiar lineaments of
these doctrines will be recognized by all who read the Epistles of St.
Paul, who wrote after Philo, the latter living till the reign of
Caligula, and being the contemporary of Christ.
And the Mason is familiar with these doctrines of Philo: that the
Supreme Being is a centre of Light whose rays or emanations pervade the
Universe; for that is the Light for which all Masonic journeys are a
search, and of which the sun and moon in our Lodges are only emblems:
that Light and Darkness, chief enemies from the beginning of Time,
dispute with each other the empire of the world; which we symbolize by
the candidate wandering in darkness and being brought to light: that the
world was created, not by the Supreme Being, but by a secondary agent,
who is but His WORD the [Greek: Λογος], and by types which are but his
ideas, aided by an INTELLIGENCE, or WISDOM [Greek: Σοφια], which gives
one of His Attributes; in which we see the occult meaning of the
necessity of recovering "the Word"; and of our two columns of STRENGTH
and WISDOM, which are also the two parallel lines that bound the circle
representing the Universe: that the visible world is the image of the
invisible world; that the essence of the Human Soul is the image of God,
and it existed before the body; that the object of its terrestrial life
is to disengage itself of its body or its sepulchre; and that it will
ascend to the Heavenly regions whenever it shall be purified; in which
we see the meaning, now almost forgotten in our Lodges, of the mode of
preparation of the candidate for apprenticeship, and his tests and
purifications in the first Degree, according to the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite.
Philo incorporated in his eclecticism neither Egyptian nor Oriental
elements. But there were other Jewish Teachers in Alexandria who did
both. The Jews of Egypt were slightly jealous of, and a little hostile
to, those of Palestine, particularly after the erection of the sanctuary
at Leontopolis by the High-Priest Onias; and therefore they admired and
magnified those sages, who, like Jeremiah, had resided in Egypt. "The
wisdom of Solomon" was written at Alexandria, and, in the time of St.
Jerome, was attributed to Philo; but it contains principles at variance
with his. It personifies Wisdom, and draws between its children and the
Profane, the same line of demarcation that Egypt had long before taught
to the Jews. That distinction existed at the beginning of the Mosaic
creed. Moshah himself was an Initiate in the mysteries of Egypt, as he
was compelled to be, as the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh,
_Thouoris_, daughter of _Sesostris-Ramses_; who, as her tomb and
monuments show, was, in the right of her infant husband, Regent of Lower
Egypt or the Delta at the time of the Hebrew Prophet's birth, reigning
at Heliopolis. She was also, as the reliefs on her tomb show, a
Priestess of HATHOR and NEITH, the two great primeval goddesses. As her
adopted son, living in her Palace and presence forty years, and during
that time scarcely acquainted with his brethren the Jews, the law of
Egypt compelled his initiation: and we find in many of his enactments
the intention of preserving, between the common people and the
Initiates, the line of separation which he found in Egypt. Moshah and
Aharun his brother, the whole series of High-Priests, the Council of the
70 Elders, Salomon and the entire succession of Prophets, were in
possession of a higher science; and of that science Masonry is, at
least, the lineal descendant. It was familiarly known as THE KNOWLEDGE
OF THE WORD.
AMŪN, at first the God of Lower Egypt only, where Moshah was reared [a
word that in Hebrew means Truth], was the Supreme God. He was styled
"_the Celestial Lord, who sheds Light on hidden things_." He was the
source of that divine life, of which the _crux ansata_ is the symbol;
and the source of all power. He united all the attributes that the
Ancient Oriental Theosophy assigned to the Supreme Being. He was the
[Greek: πλήρωμα] (Pleroma), or "_Fullness of things_," for He
comprehended in Himself everything; and the LIGHT; for he was the
Sun-God. He was unchangeable in the midst of everything phenomenal in
his worlds. He _created_ nothing; but everything _emanated_ from Him;
and of Him all the other Gods were but manifestations.
The Ram was His living symbol; which you see reproduced in this Degree,
lying on the book with seven seals on the tracing-board. He caused the
creation of the world by the Primitive Thought [[Greek: Εννοια],
Ennoia], or _Spirit_ [[Greek: Πνευμα], Pneuma], that issued from him by
means of his _Voice_ or the WORD; and which _Thought_ or _Spirit_ was
personified as the Goddess NEITH. She, too, was a divinity of _Light_,
and mother of the Sun; and the Feast of Lamps was celebrated in her
honor at Sais. The Creative _Power_, another manifestation of Deity,
proceeding to the creation conceived of in her, the Divine
_Intelligence_, produced with its Word the Universe, symbolized by an
egg issuing from the mouth of KNEPH; from which egg came PHTHA, image of
the Supreme Intelligence as realized in the world, and the type of that
manifested in man; the principal agent, also, of Nature, or the creative
and productive Fire. PHRE or RE, the Sun, or Celestial Light, whose
symbol was [Mystic Symbol: ○], the point within a circle, was the son of
PHTHA; and TIPHE, his wife, or the celestial firmament, with the seven
celestial bodies, animated by spirits of genii that govern them, was
represented on many of the monuments, clad in blue or yellow, her
garments sprinkled with stars, and accompanied by the sun, moon, and
five planets; and she was the type of Wisdom, and they of the Seven
Planetary Spirits of the Gnostics, that with her presided over and
governed the sublunary world.
In this Degree, unknown for a hundred years to those who have practised
it, these emblems reproduced refer to these old doctrines. The lamb, the
yellow hangings strewed with stars, the seven columns, candlesticks, and
seals all recall them to us.
The Lion was the symbol of ATHOM-RE, the Great God of Upper Egypt; the
Hawk, of RA or PHRE; the Eagle, of MENDES; the Bull, of APIS; and three
of these are seen under the platform on which our altar stands.
The first HERMES was the INTELLIGENCE or WORD of God. Moved with
compassion for a race living without law, and wishing to teach them
that they sprang from His bosom, and to point out to them the way that
they should go [the books which the first Hermes, the same with Enoch,
had written on the mysteries of divine science, in the sacred
characters, being unknown to those who lived after the flood], God sent
to man OSIRIS and ISIS, accompanied by THOTH, the incarnation or
terrestrial repetition of the first HERMES; who taught men the arts,
science, and the ceremonies of religion; and then ascended to Heaven or
the Moon. OSIRIS was the Principle of Good. TYPHON, like AHRIMAN, was
the principle and source of all that is evil in the moral and physical
order. Like the Satan of Gnosticism, he was confounded with Matter.
From Egypt or Persia the new Platonists borrowed the idea, and the
Gnostics received it from them, that man, in his terrestrial career, is
successively under the influence of the Moon, of Mercury, of Venus, of
the Sun, of Mars, of Jupiter, and of Saturn, until he finally reaches
the Elysian Fields; an idea again symbolized in the Seven Seals.
The Jews of Syria and Judea were the direct precursors of Gnosticism;
and in their doctrines were ample oriental elements. These Jews had had
with the Orient, at two different periods, intimate relations,
familiarizing them with the doctrines of Asia, and especially of Chaldea
and Persia;--their forced residence in Central Asia under the Assyrians
and Persians; and their voluntary dispersion over the whole East, when
subjects of the Seleucidæ and the Romans. Living near two-thirds of a
century, and many of them long afterward, in Mesopotamia, the cradle of
their race; speaking the same language, and their children reared with
those of the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, and receiving
from them their names (as the case of Danayal, who was called
Bæltasatsar, proves), they necessarily adopted many of the doctrines of
their conquerors. Their descendants, as Azra and Nahamaiah show us,
hardly desired to leave Persia, when they were allowed to do so. They
had a special jurisdiction, and governors and judges taken from their
own people; many of them held high office, and their children were
educated with those of the highest nobles. Danayal was the friend and
minister of the King, and the Chief of the College of the Magi at
Babylon; if we may believe the book which bears his name, and trust to
the incidents related in its highly figurative and imaginative style.
Mordecai, too, occupied a high station, no less than that of Prime
Minister, and Esther or Astar, his cousin, was the Monarch's wife.
The Magi of Babylon were expounders of figurative writings, interpreters
of nature, and of dreams,--astronomers and divines; and from their
influences arose among the Jews, after their rescue from captivity, a
number of sects, and a new exposition, the mystical interpretation, with
all its wild fancies and infinite caprices. The _Aions_ of the Gnostics,
the _Ideas_ of Plato, the _Angels_ of the Jews, and the _Demons_ of the
Greeks, all correspond to the _Ferouers_ of Zoroaster.
A great number of Jewish families remained permanently in their new
country; and one of the most celebrated of their schools was at Babylon.
They were soon familiarized with the doctrine of Zoroaster, which itself
was more ancient than Kuros. From the system of the Zend-Avesta they
borrowed, and subsequently gave large development to, everything that
could be reconciled with their own faith; and these additions to the old
doctrine were soon spread, by the constant intercourse of commerce, into
Syria and Palestine.
In the Zend-Avesta, God is Illimitable Time. No origin can be assigned
to Him: He is so entirely enveloped in His glory, His nature and
attributes are so inaccessible to human Intelligence, that He can be
only the object of a silent Veneration. Creation took place by emanation
from Him. The first emanation was the primitive _Light_, and from that
the King of Light, ORMUZD. By the "WORD," _Ormuzd_ created the world
pure. He is its preserver and judge; a Being Holy and Heavenly;
Intelligence and Knowledge; the First-born of Time without limits; and
invested with all the Powers of the Supreme Being.
Still he is, strictly speaking, the _Fourth_ Being. He had a _Ferouer_,
a pre-existing Soul [in the language of Plato, a _type_ or _ideal_]; and
it is said of Him, that He existed from the beginning, in the primitive
_Light_. But, that _Light_ being but an element, and His _Ferouer_ a
type, he is, in ordinary language, _the First-born_ of
ZEROUANE-AKHERENE. Behold, again, "THE WORD" of Masonry; the _Man_, on
the Tracing-Board of this Degree; the LIGHT toward which all Masons
travel.
He created after his own image, six Genii called _Amshaspands_, who
surround his Throne, are his organs of communication with inferior
spirits and men, transmit to Him their prayers, solicit for them His
favors, and serve them as models of purity and perfection. Thus we have
the _Demiourgos_ of Gnosticism, and the six _Genii_ that assist him.
These are the Hebrew Archangels of the planets.
The names of these _Amshaspands_ are Bahman, Ardibehest, Schariver,
Sapandomad, Khordad, and Amerdad.
The fourth, the Holy SAPANDOMAD, created the first man and woman.
Then ORMUZD created 28 _Izeds_, of whom MITHRAS is the chief. They
watch, with _Ormuzd_ and the _Amshaspands_, over the happiness, purity,
and preservation of the world, which is under their government; and they
are also models for mankind and interpreters of men's prayers. With
_Mithras_ and _Ormuzd_, they make a _pleroma_ [or complete number] of
30, corresponding to the thirty Aions of the Gnostics, and to the
_ogdoade, dodecade_, and _decade_ of the Egyptians. _Mithras_ was the
Sun-God, invoked with, and soon confounded with him, becoming the object
of a special worship, and eclipsing _Ormuzd_ himself.
The third order of pure spirits is more numerous. They are the
_Ferouers_, the THOUGHTS of Ormuzd, or the IDEAS which he conceived
before proceeding to the creation of things. They too are superior to
men. They protect them during their life on earth; they will purify them
from evil at their resurrection. They are their tutelary genii, from the
fall to the complete regeneration.
AHRIMAN, second-born of the Primitive Light, emanated from it, pure like
ORMUZD; but, proud and ambitious, yielded to jealousy of the First-born.
For his hatred and pride, the Eternal condemned him to dwell, for 12,000
years, in that part of space where no ray of light reaches; the black
empire of darkness. In that period the struggle between _Light_ and
_Darkness, Good_ and _Evil_, will be terminated.
AHRIMAN scorned to submit, and took the field against ORMUZD. To the
good spirits created by his Brother, he opposed an innumerable army of
Evil Ones. To the seven _Amshaspands_ he opposed seven _Archdevs_,
attached to the seven Planets; to the _Izeds_ and _Ferouers_ an equal
number of _Devs_, which brought upon the world all moral and physical
evils. Hence _Poverty, Maladies, Impurity, Envy, Chagrin, Drunkenness,
Falsehood, Calumny_, and their horrible array.
The image of Ahriman was the Dragon, confounded by the Jews with Satan
and the Serpent-Tempter. After a reign of 3000 years, Ormuzd had created
the Material World, in six periods, calling successively into existence
the Light, Water, Earth, plants, animals, and Man. But Ahriman concurred
in creating the earth and water; for darkness was already an element,
and Ormuzd could not exclude its Master. So also the two concurred in
producing Man. Ormuzd produced, by his Will and Word, a Being that was
the type and source of universal life for everything that exists under
Heaven. He placed in man a pure principle, or Life, proceeding from the
Supreme Being. But Ahriman destroyed that pure principle, in the form
wherewith it was clothed; and when Ormuzd had made, of its recovered and
purified essence, the first man and woman, Ahriman seduced and tempted
them with wine and fruits; the woman yielding first.
Often, during the three latter periods of 3000 years each, Ahriman and
Darkness are, and are to be, triumphant. But the pure souls are assisted
by the Good Spirits; the Triumph of Good is decreed by the Supreme
Being, and the period of that triumph will infallibly arrive. When the
world shall be most afflicted with the evils poured out upon it by the
spirits of perdition, three Prophets will come to bring relief to
mortals. SOSIOSCH, the principal of the Three, will regenerate the
earth, and restore to it its primitive beauty, strength, and purity. He
will judge the good and the wicked. After the universal resurrection of
the good, he will conduct them to a home of everlasting happiness.
Ahriman, his evil demons, and all wicked men, will also be purified in a
torrent of melted metal. The law of Ormuzd will reign everywhere; all
men will be happy; all, enjoying unalterable bliss, will sing with
Sosiosch the praises of the Supreme Being.
These doctrines, the details of which were sparingly borrowed by the
Pharisaic Jews, were much more fully adopted by the Gnostics; who taught
the restoration of all things, their return to their original pure
condition, the happiness of those to be saved, and their admission to
the feast of Heavenly Wisdom.
The doctrines of Zoroaster came originally from Bactria, an Indian
Province of Persia. Naturally, therefore, it would include Hindu or
Buddhist elements, as it did. The fundamental idea of Buddhism was,
matter subjugating the intelligence, and intelligence freeing itself
from that slavery. Perhaps something came to Gnosticism from China.
"Before the chaos which preceded the birth of Heaven and Earth," says
Lao-Tseu, "a single Being existed, immense and silent, immovable and
ever active--the mother of the Universe. I know not its name: but I
designate it by the word _Reason_. Man has his _type_ and _model_ in the
Earth; Earth in Heaven; Heaven in Reason; and Reason in Itself." Here
again are the _Ferouers_, the _Ideas_, the _Aions_--the REASON or
INTELLIGENCE Εννοια, SILENCE Σιγή, WORD Λογος, and WISDOM Σοφια of the
Gnostics.
The dominant system among the Jews after their captivity was that of the
Pharoschim or Pharisees. Whether their name was derived from that of the
Parsees, or followers of Zoroaster, or from some other source, it is
certain that they had borrowed much of their doctrine from the Persians.
Like them they claimed to have the exclusive and mysterious knowledge,
unknown to the mass. Like them they taught that a constant war was waged
between the Empire of Good and that of Evil. Like them they attributed
the sin and fall of man to the demons and their chief; and like them
they admitted a special protection of the righteous by inferior beings,
agents of Jehovah. All their doctrines on these subjects were at bottom
those of the Holy Books; but singularly developed; and the Orient was
evidently the source from which those developments came.
They styled themselves _Interpreters_; a name indicating their claim to
the exclusive possession of the true meaning of the Holy Writings, by
virtue of the oral tradition which Moses had received on Mount Sinai,
and which successive generations of Initiates had transmitted, as they
claimed, unaltered, unto them. Their very costume, their belief in the
influences of the stars, and in the immortality and transmigration of
souls, their system of angels and their astronomy, were all foreign.
Sadduceeism arose merely from an opposition essentially Jewish, to these
foreign teachings, and that mixture of doctrines, adopted by the
Pharisees, and which constituted the popular creed.
We come at last to the _Essenes_ and _Therapeuts_, with whom this Degree
is particularly concerned. That intermingling of oriental and occidental
rites, of Persian and Pythagorean opinions, which we have pointed out in
the doctrines of Philo, is unmistakable in the creeds of these two
sects.
They were less distinguished by metaphysical speculations than by simple
meditations and moral practices. But the latter always partook of the
Zoroastrian principle, that it was necessary to free the soul from the
trammels and influences of matter; which led to a system of abstinence
and maceration entirely opposed to the ancient Hebraic ideas, favorable
as they were to physical pleasures.
In general, the life and manners of these mystical associations, as
Philo and Josephus describe them, and particularly their prayers at
sunrise, seem the image of what the Zend-Avesta prescribes to the
faithful adorer of Ormuzd; and some of their observances cannot
otherwise be explained.
The Therapeuts resided in Egypt, in the neighborhood of Alexandria; and
the Essenes in Palestine, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. But there was
nevertheless a striking coincidence in their ideas, readily explained by
attributing it to a foreign influence. The Jews of Egypt, under the
influence of the School of Alexandria, endeavored in general to make
their doctrines harmonize with the traditions of Greece; and thence
came, in the doctrines of the Therapeuts, as stated by Philo, the many
analogies between the Pythagorean and Orphic ideas, on one side, and
those of Judaism on the other: while the Jews of Palestine, having less
communication with Greece, or contemning its teachings, rather imbibed
the Oriental doctrines, which they drank in at the source and with which
their relations with Persia made them familiar. This attachment was
particularly shown in the Kabalah, which belonged rather to Palestine
than to Egypt, though extensively known in the latter; and furnished the
Gnostics with some of their most striking theories.
It is a significant fact, that while Christ spoke often of the Pharisees
and Sadducees, He never once mentioned the Essenes, between whose
doctrines and His there was so great a resemblance, and, in many points,
so perfect an identity. Indeed, they are not named, nor even distinctly
alluded to, anywhere in the New Testament.