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p. 177
Mystic Christianity
THE true story of the life of
Jesus of Nazareth has never been unfolded to the world, either in the accepted
Gospels or in the Apocrypha, although a few stray hints may be found in some
of the commentaries written by the ante-Nicene Fathers. The facts concerning
His identity and mission are among the priceless mysteries preserved to this
day in the secret vaults beneath the "Houses of the Brethren." To a few of the
Knights Templars, who were initiated into the arcana of the Druses, Nazarenes,
Essenes, Johannites, and other sects still inhabiting the remote and
inaccessible fastnesses of the Holy Land, part of the strange story was told.
The knowledge of the Templars concerning the early history of Christianity was
undoubtedly one of the main reasons for their persecution and final
annihilation. The discrepancies in the writings of the early Church Fathers
not only are irreconcilable, but demonstrate beyond question that even during
the first five centuries after Christ these learned men had for the basis of
their writings little more substantial than folklore and hearsay. To the easy
believer everything is possible and there are no problems. The unemotional
person in search of facts, however, is confronted by a host of problems with
uncertain factors, of which the following are typical:
According to popular
conception, Jesus was crucified during the thirty-third year of His life and
in the third year of His ministry following His baptism. About A.D. 180, St.
Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, one of the most eminent of the ante-Nicene
theologians, wrote Against Heresies, an attack on the doctrines of the
Gnostics. In this work Irenæus declared upon the authority of the Apostles
themselves that Jesus lived to old age. To quote: "They, however, that they
may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, 'to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,' maintain that He preached for one
year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they
are forgetful of their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and
robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honourable than
any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He
excelled all others. For how could He have had His disciples, if He did not
teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a
Master? For when He came to be baptised, He had not yet completed His
thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus
Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed it: 'Now Jesus was, as it
were, beginning to be thirty years old,' when He came to receive baptism);
and, (according to these men,) He preached only one year reckoning from His
baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a
young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the
first stage of early life embraces thirty years, and that this extends onward
to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth
year a man begins to decline towards old age, which Our Lord possessed
while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and
all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the
disciple of the Lord, (affirming) that John conveyed to them that information.
And he remained among them up to the time of Trajan. Some of them, moreover,
saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same
account from them, and bear testimony as to the'(validity of) the statement.
Whom then should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemæus,
who never saw the apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the
slightest trace of an apostle?"
Commenting on the foregoing
passage, Godfrey Higgins remarks that it has fortunately escaped the hands of
those destroyers who have attempted to render the Gospel narratives consistent
by deleting all such statements. He also notes that the doctrine of the
crucifixion was a vexata questio among Christians even during the
second century. "The evidence of Irenæus," he says, "cannot be touched. On
every principle of sound criticism, and of the doctrine of probabilities, it
is unimpeachable."
It should further be noted that
Irenæus prepared this statement to contradict another apparently current in
his time to the effect that the ministry of Jesus lasted but one year.
Of all the early Fathers, Irenæus, writing within eighty years after the death
of St. John the Evangelist, should have had reasonably accurate information.
If the disciples themselves related that Jesus lived to advanced age in the
body, why has the mysterious number 33 been arbitrarily chosen to symbolize
the duration of His life? Were the incidents in the life of Jesus purposely
altered so that His actions would fit more closely into the pattern
established by the numerous Savior-Gods who preceded Him? That these analogies
were recognized and used as a leverage in converting the Greeks and Romans is
evident from a perusal of the writings of Justin Martyr, another
second-century authority. In his Apology, Justin addresses the pagans
thus:
"And when we say also that the
Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and
that He, Jesus Christ, Our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again,
and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe
regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. * * * And if we assert that
the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary
generation, let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say
that Mercury is the angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was
crucified, in this also He is on a par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of
yours, who suffered as we have now enumerated."
From this it is evident that
the first missionaries of the Christian Church were far more willing to admit
the similarities between their faith and the faiths of the pagans than were
their successors in later centuries.
In an effort to solve some of
the problems arising from any attempt to chronicle accurately the life of
Jesus, it has been suggested that there may have lived in Syria at that time
two or more religious teachers bearing the name Jesus, Jehoshua
or Joshua, and that the lives of these men may have been confused in
the Gospel stories. In his Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon,
Bernard H. Springett, a Masonic author, quotes from an early book, the name of
which he was not at liberty to disclose because of its connection with the
ritual of a sect. The last part of his quotation is germane to the subject at
hand:
"But Jehovah prospered the seed
of the Essenians, in holiness and love, for many generations. Then came the
chief of the angels, according to the commandment of GOD, to raise up an heir
to the Voice of Jehovah. And, in four generations more, an heir was born, and
named Joshua, and he was the child of Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers of
Jehovah, who stood aloof from all other people save the Essenians. And this
Joshua, in Nazareth, reestablished Jehovah, and restored many of the lost
rites and ceremonies. In the thirty-sixth year of his age he was stoned to
death in Jerusalem * * *"
THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR.
From Jennings' The
Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries.
According to tradition, Arthur, when a
boy of fifteen, was crowned King of Britain, in A.D. 516. Soon after his
ascension to the throne he founded the Order of the Knights of the Round Table
at Windsor. Thereafter the Knights met annually at Carleon, Winchester, or at
Camelot, to celebrate Pentecost. From all parts of Europe came the brave and
the bold, seeking admission into this noble order of British knighthood.
Nobility, virtue, and valor were its requirements, and those possessing these
qualities to a marked degree were welcomed to King Arthur's court at Camelot.
Having gathered the bravest and noblest Knights of Europe about him, King
Arthur chose twenty-four who excelled all the others in daring and integrity
and formed of them his Circle of the Round Table. According to legend, each of
these Knights was so great in dignity and power that none could occupy a more
exalted seat than another, so when they gathered at the table to celebrate the
anniversary of their foundation it was necessary to use a round table that all
might occupy chairs of equal importance.
While it is probable that the Order of
the Round Table had its distinctive rituals and symbols, the knowledge of them
has not survived the ages. Elias Ashmole, in his volume on the Order of the
Garter, inserted a double-page plate showing the insignia of all the orders of
knighthood, the block set aside for the symbol of the Round Table being left
blank. The chief reason for the loss of the symbolism of the Round Table was
the untimely death of King Arthur upon the field of Kamblan (A.D. 542) in the
forty-first year of his life. While he destroyed his bitter enemy, Mordred, in
this famous battle, it cast him not only his own life but the lives of nearly
all his Knights of the Round Table, who died defending their commander.
p. 178
Within the last century several
books have been published to supplement the meager descriptions in the Gospels
of Jesus and His ministry. In some instances these narratives claim to be
founded upon early manuscripts recently discovered; in others, upon direct
spiritual revelation. Some of these writings are highly plausible, while
others are incredible. There are persistent rumors that Jesus visited and
studied in both Greece and India, and that a coin struck in His honor in India
during the first century has been discovered. Early Christian records are
known to exist in Tibet, and the monks of a Buddhist monastery in Ceylon still
preserve a record which indicates that Jesus sojourned with them and became
conversant with their philosophy.
Although early Christianity
shows every evidence of Oriental influence, this is a subject the modern
church declines to discuss. If it is ever established beyond question that
Jesus was an initiate of the pagan Greek or Asiatic Mysteries, the effect upon
the more conservative members of the Christian faith is likely to be
cataclysmic. If Jesus was God incarnate, as the solemn councils of the church
discovered, why is He referred to in the New Testament as "called of God an
high prim after the order of Melchizedek"? The words "after the order" make
Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been others of equal or
even superior dignity. If the "Melchizedeks" were the divine or priestly
rulers of the nations of the earth before the inauguration of the system of
temporal rulers, then the statements attributed to St. Paul would indicate
that Jesus either was one of these "philosophic elect" or was attempting to
reestablish their system of government. It will be remembered that Melchizedek
also performed the same ceremony of the drinking of wine and the breaking of
bread as did Jesus at the Last Supper.
George Faber declares the
original name of Jesus was Jescua Hammassiah. Godfrey Higgins has discovered
two references, one in the Midrashjoholeth and the other in the
Abodazara (early Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures), to the effect
that the surname of Joseph's family was Panther, for in both of these
works it is stated that a man was healed "in the name of Jesus ben Panther."
The name Panther establishes a direct connection between Jesus and
Bacchus--who was nursed by panthers and is sometimes depicted riding either on
one of these animals or in a chariot drawn by them. The skin of the panther
was also sacred in certain of the Egyptian initiatory ceremonials. The
monogram IHS, now interpreted to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus
Savior of Men), is another direct link between the Christian and the Bacchic
rites. IHS is derived from the Greek ΥΗΣ, which, as its numerical value (608)
signifies, is emblematic of the sun and constituted the sacred and concealed
name of Bacchus. (See The Celtic Druids by Godfrey Higgins.) The
question arises, Was early Roman Christianity confused with the worship of
Bacchus because of the numerous parallelisms in the two faiths? If the
affirmative can be proved, many hitherto incomprehensible enigmas of the New
Testament will be solved.
It is by no means improbable
that Jesus Himself originally propounded as allegories the cosmic activities
which were later con fused with His own life. That the Χριστός, Christos,
represents the solar power reverenced by every nation of antiquity cannot be
controverted. If Jesus revealed the nature and purpose of this solar power
under the name and personality of Christos, thereby giving to this
abstract power the attributes of a god-man, He but followed a precedent set by
all previous World-Teachers. This god-man, thus endowed with all the qualities
of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every man. Mortal man achieves
deification only through at-one-ment with this divine Self. Union with the
immortal Self constitutes immortality, and he who finds his true Self is
therefore "saved." This Christos, or divine man in man, is man's real
hope of salvation--the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal
humankind. As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and Orpheus in all likelihood were
originally illumined men who later were confused with the symbolic personages
whom they created as personifications of this divine power, so Jesus has been
confused with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He preached.
Since the Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was
the first duty of the initiate to liberate, or "resurrect, " this Eternal One
within himself. He who attained reunion with his Christos was
consequently termed a Christian, or Christened, man.
One of the most profound
doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned the Universal Savior-God who
lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven through His own nature. This
concept was unquestionably the inspiration for the words attributed to Jesus:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by
me." In an effort to make a single person out of Jesus and His Christos,
Christian writers have patched together a doctrine which must be resolved back
into its original constituents if the true meaning of Christianity is to be
rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos represents the perfect man
who, having passed through the various stages of the "World Mystery"
symbolized by the thirty-three years, ascends to the heaven sphere where he is
reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of Jesus as now preserved is--like
the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff--part of a secret initiatory ritualism
belonging to the early Christian and pagan Mysteries.
During the centuries just prior
to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan Mysteries had gradually fallen
into the hands of the profane. To the student of comparative religion it is
evident that these secrets, gathered by a small group of faithful philosophers
and mystics, were reclothed in new symbolical garments and thus preserved for
several centuries under the name of Mystic Christianity. It is
generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of this knowledge and
also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus was undoubtedly
initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where Pythagoras had studied six
centuries before.
The Essenes--the most prominent
of the early Syrian sects--were an order of pious men and women who lived
lives of asceticism, spending their days in simple labor and their evenings in
prayer. Josephus, the great Jewish historian, speaks of them in the highest
terms. "They teach the immortality of the soul," he says, "and esteem that the
rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for." In another place he
adds, "Yet is their course of life better than that of other men and they
entirely addict themselves to husbandry. " The name Essenes is supposed
to be derived from an ancient Syrian word meaning "physician," and these
kindly folk are believed to have held as their purpose of existence the
healing of the sick in mind, soul, and body. According to Edouard Schuré, they
had two principal communities, or centers, one in Egypt on the banks of Lake
Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. Some authorities
trace the Essenes back to the schools of Samuel the Prophet, but most agree on
either an Egyptian or Oriental origin. Their methods of prayer, meditation,
and fasting were not unlike those of the holy men of the Far East. Membership
in the Essene Order was possible only after a year of probation. This Mystery
school, like so many others, had three degrees, and only a few candidates
passed successfully through all. The Essenes were divided into two distinct
communities, one consisting of celibates and the other of members who were
married.
The Essenes never became
merchants or entered into the commercial life of cities, but maintained
themselves by agriculture and the raising of sheep for wool; also by such
crafts as pottery and carpentry. In the Gospels and Apocrypha, Joseph, the
father of Jesus, is referred to as both a carpenter and a potter. In the
Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas and also that of Pseudo-Matthew, the child Jesus
is described as making sparrows out of clay which came to life and flew away
when he clapped his hands. The Essenes were regarded as among the better
educated class of Jews and there are accounts of their having been chosen as
tutors for the children of Roman officers stationed in Syria. The fact that so
many artificers were listed among their number is responsible for the order's
being considered as a progenitor of modern Freemasonry. The symbols of the
Essenes include a number of builders' tools, and they were secretly engaged
THE GREAT GEORGE AND COLLAR OF THE GARTER.
From Ashmole's Order of the
Garter.
The Order of the Garter was
probably formed by Edward III in imitation of King Arthur's Knights of the
Round Table, which institution was hopelessly scattered after the battle of
Kamblan. The popular story to the effect that the Countess of Salisbury's
garter was the original inspiration for the foundation of the order is
untenable. The motto of the Order of the Carter is "Honi soit qui mal y pense"
(Shamed be he who thinks evil of it). St. George is looked upon as the Patron
of the order, for he typifies the higher nature of man overcoming the dragon
of his own lower nature. While St. George is supposed to have lived during the
third century, it is probable that he was a mythological personage borrowed
from pagan mythology.
p. 179
in the erection of a spiritual
and philosophical temple to serve as a dwelling place for the living God.
Like the Gnostics, the Essenes
were emanationists. One of their chief objects was the reinterpretation of the
Mosaic Law according to certain secret spiritual keys preserved by them from
the time of the founding of their order. It would thus follow that the Essenes
were Qabbalists and, like several other contemporary sects flourishing in
Syria, were awaiting the advent of the Messiah promised in the early
Biblical writings. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, are believed to have
been members of the Essene Order. Joseph was many years the senior of Mary.
According to The Protevangelium, he was a widower with grown sons, and
in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew he refers to Mary as a little child
less in age than his own grandchildren. In her infancy Mary was dedicated to
the Lord, and the Apocryphal writings contain many accounts of miracles
associated with her early childhood. When she was twelve years old, the
priests held counsel as to the future of this child who had dedicated herself
to the Lord, and the Jewish high priest, bearing the breastplate, entered into
the Holy of Holies, where an angel appeared to him, saying, "Zacharias, go
forth and summon the widowers of the people and let them take a rod apiece and
she shall be the wife of him to whom the Lord shall show a sign." Going forth
to meet the priests at the head of the widowers, Joseph collected the rods of
all the other men and gave them into the keeping of the priests. Now Joseph's
rod was but half as long as the others, and the priests on returning the rods
to the widowers paid no attention to Joseph's but left it behind in the Holy
of Holies. When all the other widowers had received back their wands, the
priests awaited a sign from heaven, but none came. Joseph, because of his
advanced age, did not: ask for the return of his rod, for to him it was
inconceivable that he should be chosen. But an angel appeared to the high
priest, ordering him to give back the short rod which lay unnoticed in the
Holy of Holies. As the high priest handed the rod to Joseph, a white dove flew
from the end of it and rested upon the head of the aged carpenter, and to him
was given the child.
The editor of The Sacred
Books and Early Literature of the East calls attention to the peculiar
spirit with which the childhood of Jesus is treated in most of the Apocryphal
books of the New Testament, particularly in one work attributed to the
doubting Thomas, the earliest known Greek version of which dates from about
A.D. 200: "The child Christ is represented almost as an imp, cursing and
destroying those who annoy him." This Apocryphal work, calculated to inspire
its readers with fear and trembling, was popular during the Middle Ages
because it was in full accord with the cruel and persecuting spirit of
mediæval Christianity. Like many other early sacred books, the book of Thomas
was fabricated for two closely allied purposes: first, to outshine the pagans
in miracle working; second, to inspire all unbelievers with the "fear of the
Lord." Apocryphal writings of this sort have no possible basis in fact. At one
time an asset, the "miracles" of Christianity have become its greatest
liability. Supernatural phenomena, in a credulous age interpolated to impress
the ignorant, in this century have only achieved the alienation of the
intelligent.
In The Greek Gospel of
Nicodemus it is declared that when Jesus was brought into the presence of
Pilate the standards borne by the Roman guards bowed their tops in homage to
him in spite of every effort made by the soldiers to prevent it. In The
Letters of Pilate the statement also appears that Cæsar, being wroth at
Pilate for executing a just man, ordered him to be decapitated. Praying for
forgiveness, Pilate was visited by an angel of the Lord, who reassured the
Roman governor by promising him that all Christendom should remember his name
and that when Christ came the second time to judge His people he (Pilate)
should come before Him as His witness.
Stories like the foregoing
represent the incrustations that have attached themselves to the body of
Christianity during the centuries. The popular mind itself has been the
self-appointed guardian and perpetuator of these legends, bitterly opposing
every effort to divest the faith of these questionable accumulations. While
popular tradition often contains certain basic elements of truth, these
elements are usually distorted out of all proportion. Thus, while the
generalities of the story may be fundamentally true, the details are
hopelessly erroneous. Of truth as of beauty it may be said that it is most
adorned when unadorned. Through the mist of fantastic accounts which obscure
the true foundation of the Christian faith is faintly visible to the
discerning few a great and noble doctrine communicated to the world by a great
and noble soul. Joseph and Mary, two devout and holy-minded souls, consecrated
to the service of God and dreaming of the coming of a Messiah to serve Israel,
obeyed the injunctions of the high priest of the Essenes to prepare a body for
the coming of a great soul. Thus of an immaculate conception Jesus was born.
By immaculate is meant clean, rather than supernatural.
Jesus was reared and educated
by the Essenes and later initiated into the most profound of their Mysteries.
Like all great initiates, He must travel in an easterly direction, and the
silent years of His life no doubt were spent in familiarizing Himself with
that secret teaching later to be communicated by Him to the world. Having
consummated the ascetic practices of His order, He attained to the
Christening. Having thus reunited Himself with His own spiritual source,
He then went forth in the name of the One who has been crucified since before
the worlds were and, gathering about Him disciples and apostles, He instructed
them in that secret teaching which had been lost--in part, at least--from the
doctrines of Israel. His fate is unknown, but in all probability He suffered
that persecution which is the lot of those who seek to reconstruct the
ethical, philosophical, or religious systems of their day.
To the multitudes Jesus spoke
in parables; to His disciples He also spoke in parables, though of a more
exalted and philosophic nature. Voltaire said that Plato should have been
canonized by the Christian Church, for, being the first propounder of the
Christos mystery, he contributed more to its fundamental doctrines than
any other single individual. Jesus disclosed to His disciples that the lower
world is under the control of a great spiritual being which had fashioned it
according to the will of the Eternal Father. The mind of this great angel was
both the mind of the world and also the worldly mind. So that men should not
die of worldliness the Eternal Father sent unto creation the eldest and most
exalted of His powers--the Divine Mind. This Divine Mind offered Itself as a
living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having given Its
spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners of
rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every living thing. Man
was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across which he might pass
and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this Divine Mind and
served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness, liberated this
Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine source.
And because He had brought to them this knowledge, the disciples said one to
another: "Lo, He is Himself this Mind personified!"
THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE AND
LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL
According to legend, the body
of the Christos (the Spiritual Law) was given into the keeping of two men, of
whom the Gospels make
JAKOB BÖHME, THE TEUTONIC THEOSOPHER.
From William Law's Translation
of The Works of Jakob Böhme.
Jakob Böhme was born in the year 1575 in
a village near Gorlitz, and died in Silesia in 1624. He had but little
schooling and was apprenticed at an early age to a shoemaker. He later became
a journeyman shoemaker, married and had four children One day while tending
his master's shoe shop, a mysterious stranger entered who while he seemed to
possess but little of this world's goods, appeared to be most wise and noble
in spiritual attainment. The stranger asked the price of a pair of shoes, but
young Böhme did not dare to name a figure, for fear that he would displease
his master. The stranger insisted and Böhme finally placed a valuation which
he was all that his master possibly could hope to secure for the shoes. The
stranger immediately bought them and departed. A short distance down the
street the mysterious stranger stopped and cried out in a loud voice, "Jakob,
Jakob come forth." In amazement and fright, Böhme ran out of the house. The
strange man fixed his yes upon the youth--great eyes which sparkled and seemed
filled with divine light. He took the boy's right hand and addressed him as
follows--"Jakob, thou art little, but shalt be great, and become another Man,
such a one as at whom the World shall wonder. Therefore be pious, fear God,
and reverence His Word. Read diligently the Holy Scriptures, wherein you have
Comfort and Instruction. For thou ust endure much Misery and Poverty, and
suffer Persecution, but be courageous and persevere, far God loves, and is
gracious to thee." Deeply impressed by the prediction, Böhme became ever more
intense in his search for truth. At last his labors were reworded. For seven
days he remained in a mysterious condition during which time the mysteries of
the invisible world were revealed to him. It has been said of Jakob Böhme that
he revealed to all mankind the deepest secrets of alchemy. He died surrounded
by his family, his last words being "Now I go hence into Paradise."
p. 180
but brief mention. These were
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both devout men who, though not listed
among the disciples or apostles of the Christos, were of all men chosen to be
custodians of His sacred remains. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the initiated
brethren and is called by A. E. Waite, in his A New Encyclopædia of
Freemasonry, "the first bishop of Christendom." just as the temporal (or
visible) power of the Holy See was established by St. Peter(?), so the
spiritual (or invisible) body of the faith was entrusted to the "Secret Church
of the Holy Grail" through apostolic succession from Joseph of Arimathea, into
whose keeping had been given the perpetual symbols of the covenant--the
ever-flowing cup and the bleeding spear.
Presumably obeying instructions
of St. Philip, Joseph of Arimathea, carrying the sacred relics, reached
Britain after passing through many and varied hardships. Here a site was
allotted to him for the erection of a church, and in this manner Glastonbury
Abbey was founded. Joseph planted his staff in the earth and it took root,
becoming a miraculous thorn bush which blossomed twice a year and which is now
called the Glastonbury thorn. The end of the life of Joseph of Arimathea is
unknown. By some it is believed that, like Enoch, he was translated; by
others, that he was buried in Glastonbury Abbey. Repeated attempts have been
made to find the Holy Grail, which many believe to have been hidden in a crypt
beneath the ancient abbey. The Glastonbury chalice recently discovered and by
the devout supposed to be the original Sangreal can scarcely be accepted as
genuine by the critical investigator. Beyond its inherent interest as a relic,
like the famous Antioch chalice it actually proves nothing when it is realized
that practically little more was known about the Christian Mysteries eighteen
centuries ago than can be discovered today.
The origin of the Grail myth,
as of nearly every other element in the great drama, is curiously elusive.
Sufficient foundation for it may be found in the folklore of the British
Isles, which contains many accounts of magic cauldrons, kettles, cups, and
drinking horns. The earliest Grail legends describe the cup as a veritable
horn of plenty. Its contents were inexhaustible and those who served it never
hungered or thirsted. One account states that no matter how desperately ill a
person might be he could not die within eight days of beholding the cup. Some
authorities believe the Holy Grail to be the perpetuation of the holy cup used
in the rites of Adonis and Atys. A communion cup or chalice was used in
several of the ancient Mysteries, and the god Bacchus is frequently symbolized
in the form of a vase, cup, or urn. In Nature worship the ever-flowing Grail
signifies the bounty of the harvest by which the life of man is sustained;
like Mercury's bottomless pitcher, it is the inexhaustible fountain of natural
re source. From the evidence at hand it would indeed be erroneous to ascribe a
purely Christian origin to the Grail symbolism.
In the Arthurian Cycle appears
a strange and mysterious figure--Merlin, the magician. In one of the legends
concerning him it is declared that when Jesus was sent to liberate the world
from the bondage of evil, the Adversary determined to send an Antichrist to
undo His labors. The Devil therefore in the form of a horrible dragon
overshadowed a young woman who had taken refuge in sanctuary to escape the
evil which had dcstroyed her family. When Merlin, her child, was born he
partook of the characteristics of his human mother and demon father. Merlin,
however, did not serve the powers of darkness but, being converted to the true
light, retained only two of the supernatural powers inherited from his father:
prophecy and miracle working. The story of Merlin's infernal father must
really be considered as an allegorical allusion to the fact that he was a
"philosophical son" of the serpent or dragon, a title applied to all initiates
of the Mysteries, who thus acknowledge Nature as their mortal mother and
wisdom in the form of the serpent or dragon as their immortal Father.
Confusion of the dragon and serpent with the powers of evil has resulted as an
inevitable consequence from misinterpretation of the early chapters of
Genesis.
Arthur while an infant was
given into the keeping of Merlin, the Mage, and in his youth instructed by him
in the secret doctrine and probably initiated into the deepest secrets of
natural magic. With Merlin's assistance, Arthur became the leading general of
Britain, a degree of dignity which has been confused with kingship. After
Arthur had drawn the sword of Branstock from the anvil and thus established
his divine right to leadership, Merlin further assisted him to secure from the
Lady of the Lake the sacred sword Excalibur. After the establishment of the
Round Table, having fulfilled his duty, Merlin disappeared, according to one
account vanishing into the air, where he still exists as a shadow
communicating at will with mortals; according to another, retiring of his own
accord into a great stone vault which he sealed from within.
It is reasonably certain that
many legends regarding Charlemagne were later associated with Arthur, who is
most famous for establishing the Order of the Round Table at Winchester.
Reliable information is not to be had concerning the ceremonies and initiatory
rituals of the "Table Round." In one story the Table was endowed with the
powers of expansion and contraction so that fifteen or fifteen hundred could
be seated around it, according to whatever need might arise. The most common
accounts fix the number of knights who could be seated at one time at the
Round Table at either twelve or twenty-four. The twelve signified the signs of
the zodiac and also the apostles of Jesus. The knights' names and also their
heraldic arms were emblazoned upon their chairs. When twenty-four are shown
seated at the Table, each of the twelve signs of the zodiac is divided into
two parts--a light and a dark half--to signify the nocturnal and diurnal
phases of each sign. As each sign of the zodiac is ascending for two hours
every day, so the twenty-four knights represent the hours, the twenty-four
elders before the throne in Revelation, and twenty-four Persian deities
who represent the spirits of the divisions of the day. In the center of the
Table was the symbolic rose of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the
symbol of resurrection in that He "rose" from the dead. There was also a
mysterious empty seat called the Siege Perilous in which none might sit
except he who was successful in his quest for the Holy Grad.
In the personality of Arthur is
to be found a new form of the ever-recurrent cosmic myth. The prince of
Britain is the sun, his knights are the zodiac, and his flashing sword may be
the sun's ray with which he fights and vanquishes the dragons of darkness or
it may represent the earth's axis. Arthur's Round Table is the universe; the
Siege Perilous the throne of the perfect man. In its terrestrial sense,
Arthur was the Grand Master of a secret Christian-Masonic brotherhood of
philosophic mystics who termed themselves Knights. Arthur received the
exalted position of Grand Master of these Knights because he had faithfully
accomplished the withdrawal of the sword (spirit) from the anvil of the base
metals (his lower nature). As invariably happens, the historical Arthur soon
was confused with the allegories and myths of his order until now the two are
inseparable. After Arthur's death on the field of Kamblan his Mysteries
ceased, and esoterically he was borne away on a black barge, as is so
beautifully described by Tennyson in his Morte d'Arthur. The great
sword Excalibur was also cast back into the waters of eternity--all of
which is a vivid portrayal of the descent of cosmic night at the end of the
Day of Universal Manifestation. The body of the historical Arthur was probably
interred at Glastonbury Abbey, a building closely identified with the mystic
rites of both the Grail and the Arthurian Cycle.
The mediæval Rosicrucians were
undoubtedly in possession of the true secret of the Arthurian Cycle and the
Grail legend, much of their symbolism having been incorporated into that
order. Though the most obvious of all keys to the Christos mystery, the Grail
legend has received the least consideration.
THE NIMBUS AND AUREOLE IN SYMBOLISM.
From Audsley's Handbook of
Christian Symbolism.
The golden halos around the
heads of pagan gods and Christian saints refer both to their being bathed in
the glory of the sun and also to the fact that a spiritual sun within their
own natures is radiating its glow-ray and surrounding them with
celestial splendor. Whenever the nimbus is composed of straight radiant lines,
it is solar in significance; whenever curved lines are used for beams, it
partakes lunar nature; whenever they are united, it symbolizes a, harmonious
blending of both principles. The circular nimbus is solar and masculine, while
the lozenge-shaped nimbus, or vesica piscis, is lunar and feminine. The
same symbolism is preserved in the circular and lozenge-shaped windows of
cathedrals. There is a complete science contained in the shape, color, and
adornments of the halos of saints and martyrs. A plain golden ring usually
surrounds the head of a canonized saint, while God the Father and God the Son
have a far more ornate aureole, usually adorned with a St. George Cross, a
flowered cross, or a lilied cross, with only three of the arms visible.
Next: The Cross and the Crucifixion