"24th Degree - Prince of the Tabernacle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Albert)

Zoroaster, like Moses, claimed to have conversed face to face, as man with man, with the Deity; and to have received from Him a system of pure worship, to be communicated only to the virtue ous, and those who would devote themselves to the study of Philosophy. His fame spread over the world, and pupils came to him from every country. Even Pythagoras was his scholar.

After his novitiate, the candidate entered the cavern of initiation, and was received on the point of a sword presented to his naked left breast, by which he was slightly wounded. Being crowned with olive, anointed with balsam of benzoin, and other wise prepared, he was purified with fire and. Water, and went through seven stages of initiation, The symbol of these stages was a high
ladder with seven rounds or steps. In them, he went through many fearful trial's in which darkness displayed a principal part. He saw a representation of the wicked in Hides; and finally emerged from darkness into light. Received it a place representing Elysium, in the brilliant assembly of the initiated, where the Arch magus presided, robed in blue, he assumed the obligations of secrecy, and was entrusted with the Sacred Words, of which the Ineffable Name
of God was the chief.

Then all the incidents of his initiation were explained to him he was taught that these ceremonies brought him nearer the Deity and that he should adore the consecrated Fire, the gift of that Deity and His visible residence. He was taught the sacred characters known only to the initiated; and instructed in regard to the creation of the world, and the true philosophical meaning of the vulgar mythology; and especially of the legend of Ormuzd and Ahriman, and
the symbolic meaning of the six Amshaspands created by the former Bahman, the Lord of Light; Ardibehest, the Genius of Fire; Shariver, the Lord of Splendor and Metals; Stapandomad, the Source of Fruitfulness; Kkordad, the Genius of Water and Time and Amerdad, the protector of the Vegetable World, and the prime cause of growth. And finally he was taught the true nature of the Supreme Being, Creator of Ormuzd and Ahriman, the' Absolute First Cause, styled
Zeruane Akherene.

In the Mithriac initiation were several Degrees. The first, Tertullian says, was that of Soldier of Mithras. The ceremony oi reception consisted in presenting the candidate a crown, supported by a sword. It was placed near his head, and he repelled it, saying, "Mithras is my, crown." Then he was declared the soldier of Mithras, and had the right to call the other Initiates fellow soldiers or companions in arms. Hence the title Companions in the Royal Arch Degree of the American Rite.
Then he passed, Porphyry says, through the Degree of the Lion, the constellation Leo, domicile of the Sun and symbol of Mithras, found on his monuments. These ceremonies were termed at Rome Leontic and Helium and Coracia or Hiero-Coracia, of Heavens below the Lion, with the Hydra, and also appearing on the Mithras monuments.

Thence he passed to a higher Degree, where the Initiates were 'called Perses and children of the Sun. Above them were the Fathers, whose chief or Patriarch was styled Father of Fathers, or Pater Patratus. The Initiates also bore the title of Eagles and Hawks, birds consecrated to the Sun in Egypt, the former sacred to the God Mendes, and the latter the emblem of the Sun and
Royalty.

The little island of Samothrace was long the depositary of certain august Mysteries, and many went thither from all parts of Greece to be initiated. It was said to have been settled by the ancient Pelasgi, early Asiatic colonists in Greece. The Gods adored in the Mysteries of this island were termed CABIRI, an oriental word, from Caber, great Varro calls the Gods of Samothrace, Potent Gods. In Arabic, Venus is called Caber Varro says that the Great Deities whose Mysteries were practiced there, were Heaven and Earth. These were but symbols of the Active and Passive Powers or Principles of universal generation.

The two Twins, Castor and Pollux, or the Dioscuri, were also called the Gods of Samothrace; and the Scholiast of Apollonius, citing Mnaseas, gives the names of Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto, and Mercury, as the four Cabiric Divinities worshipped at Samothrace, as Axieros, Axiocersa, Axiocersus, and Casmillus.

Mercury was, there as everywhere, the minister and messenger of the Gods and the young servitors of the altars and the children employed in the Temples were called Mercuries or Casmillus, as they were in Tuscany, by the Etrusci and Pelasgi, who worshipped the Great Gods.

Tarquin the Etruscan was an Initiate of the mysteries of Samothrace; and Etruria had its Cabiri as Samothrace had. For the worship of the Cabiri spread from that island into Etruria, Phrygia, and Asia Minor and it probably came from Phoenicia into Samothrace for the Cabiri are mentioned by Sanchoniathon; and the word Caber belongs to the Hebrew, Phoenician, and Arabic languages.

The Dioscuri, tutelary Deities of Navigation, with Venus, were invoked in the Mysteries of Samothrace. The constellation Auriga, or Phaeton, was also honored there with imposing ceremonies. Upon the Aeronautic expedition, Orpheus, an Initiate of these Mysteries, a storm arising, counseled his companions to put into Samothrace. They did so, the storm ceased, and they were initiated into the Mysteries there, and sailed again with the assurance of a fortunate voyage, under the auspices of the Dioscuri, patrons of sailors and navigation.

But much more than that was promised the Initiates. The Hierophants of Samothrace made something infinitely greater to be the object of their initiations to wit, the consecration of men to the Deity, by pledging them to virtue and the assurance of those rewards which the justice of the Gods reserves for Initiates after death. This, above all else, made these ceremonies august, and inspired everywhere so great a respect for them, and so great a desire to be admitted to them that originally caused the island to be styled Sacred. It was respected by all nations. The Romans, when masters of the world, left it its liberty and laws. It was an asylum for the unfortunates and a sanctuary inviolable.

There men were absolved of the crime of homicide, if not committed in a temple. Children of tender age were initiated there, and invested with the sacred robe, the purple tincture, and the crown of olive, and seated upon a throne, like other Initiates. In the ceremonies was represented the death if the youngest of the Cabiri, slain by his brothers, who fled into Etruria, carrying with them the chest or ark that contained, his genitals and there the Phallus and the
sacred ark were adored. Herodotus says that the Samothracian Initiates understood the object and origin of this reverence paid the Phallus, and why it was exhibited in the Mysteries. Clement
of Alexandria says that the Cabiri taught the Tuscany to revere it. It was consecrated at Heliopolis in Syria, where the mysteries of a Divinity having many points of resemblance with.
Atys and Cybele were represented. The Pelasgi connected it with Mercury; and it appears on the monuments of Mathias; always and everywhere a symbol of the life-giving power of the Sun at the Vernal Equinox. In the Indian Mysteries, as the candidate made his three circuits, he paused
each time he reached the South, and said, "I copy the example of the Sun, and follow his beneficent course." Blue Masonry has renamed the Circuits, but has utterly lost the explanation; which is, that in the Mysteries the candidate invariably represented the Sun, descending
Southward toward the reign of. The Evil Principle, Ahriman, Sita, or Typhon (darkness and winter); there figuratively to be slain, and after a few days to rise again from the dead, and commence to ascend to the Northward. Then the death of Sita was bewailed; or that of Cama, slain by Iswara, aid committed to the waves on a chest, like Osiris and Bacchus; during which the candidate was terrified by phantoms and horrid noises.

Then he was made to personify Vishnu, and perform his avatars, or labors. In the first two he was taught in allegories the legend of the Deluge in the first he took three steps at right angles, representing the three huge steps taken by Vishnu in that avatar; and hence the three steps in the Master's Degree ending at right angles.

The nine avatars finished, he was taught the necessity of faith, as superior to sacrifices, acts of charity, or mortifications of the flesh. Then he was admonished against five crimes, and took a solemn obligation never to commit them. He was then introduced into a representation of Paradise; the Company of the Members of the Order, magnificently arrayed, and the Altar with a fire blazing upon it, as an emblem of the Deity.

Then a new name was given him, and he was invested in a white robe and tiara, and received the signs, tokens, and lectures. A cross was marked on his forehead, and an inverted level, or the Tau Cross, on his breast. He received the sacred cord, and divers amulets or talismans; and was then invested with the sacred Word or Sublime Name, known only to the initiated, the Trilateral A. U. M.

Then the multitude of emblems was explained to the candidate; the arcana of science hidden under them, and the different virtues of which the mythological figures were more personifications. And he thus learned the meaning of those symbols, which, to the uninitiated, were but a maze of unintelligible figures. Godhead, the happiness of the patriarchs, the destruction by the Deluge, the depravity of the heart, and the necessity of a mediator, the
instability of life, the final destruction of all created things, and the restoration of the world in a more perfect form. They inculcated the Eternity of the Soul, explained the meaning of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, and held the-doctrine of a state of future rewards and punishments: and they also earnestly urged that sins could only be atoned for by repentance, reformation, and voluntary penance; and not by mere ceremonies and sacrifices.

The Mysteries among the Chinese and Japanese came from India, and were founded on the same principles and with similar rites. The word given to the new Initiate was O-Mi-To Fo, in which we recognize the original name A. U. M., coupled at a much later time with that of Fo, the Indian Buddha, to show that he was the Great Deity Himself.

The equilateral triangle was one of their symbols; and so was the mystical Y; both alluding to the Triune God, and the latter being the ineffable name of the Deity. A ring supported by two serpents was emblematical of the world, protected by the power and wisdom of the Creator; and that is the origin of the two parallel lines (into which time has changed the two serpents), that support the circle in our Lodges.

Among the Japanese, the term of probation for the highest Degree was twenty
years.