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    "num": 3,
    "slug": "02-hermes-the-mysteries-of-egypt",
    "title": "Hermes: The Mysteries of Egypt",
    "of": 9,
    "words": 11902,
    "text": "## Hermes: The Mysteries of Egypt\n\n\nThe Mysteries of Egypt\nO blind soul, arm yourself with the torch of the Mysteries and in terrestrial night you will discover\nyour luminous reflection, your heavenly soul. Follow this divine guide, letting him be your Genius.\n\nFor he holds the key to your past and future lives.\n\n-- Call to the Initiates, from The Book of the Dead\n\nListen to your inner selves and look into the infinity of space and time. There reverberate the song of\nthe stars, the voice of the numbers and the harmony of the spheres.\n\nEach sun is a thought of God, each planet a mode of that thought. In order that you may know divine\nthought, O souls, you painfully descend along the paths of the seven planets and their seven heavens\n\nand ascend once again.\n\nWhat do the stars do? What do the numbers say? What do the spheres revolve? O souls that are lost\nand saved, they relate, they sing, they revolve -- your destinies!\n\n-- Fragment from Hermes\n\n14. The Sphinx\n\nIn comparison with Babylon, mournful metropolis of despotism, in the ancient world Egypt was a\nveritable citadel of sacred knowledge, a school for its most illustrious prophets, a shelter and a\nlaboratory for the noblest traditions of humanity. Thanks to great excavations and remarkable\nresearch activities, the ancient Egyptians are better known to us today than any of the civilizations\nwhich preceded Greece, for Egypt reveals to us its history, written on pages of stone. Its monuments\nare being excavated, its hieroglyphs are being deciphered, but the deepest arcanum of its history is\nyet to be fathomed. This arcanum is the esoteric teaching of its priests. This teaching, scientifically\ncultivated in the temples, prudently veiled in its Mysteries, reveals to us simultaneously the soul of\nEgypt, the secret of its politics and its preponderant role in the history of the universe.\n\nOur historians speak of Pharaohs in the same manner as of the despots of Nineveh and Babylon. For\nthem, Egypt is an absolute and conquering monarchy like Assyria, differing from the latter only in\nthat it lasted several thousand years longer. Do they realize that in Assyria royalty crushed the\npriesthood in order to make of it a tool, whereas in Egypt the priesthood disciplined royalty and\nnever abdicated even in the worst times, standing up to kings, driving out despots and always\ngoverning the nation -- and this with an intellectual superiority, a profound and hidden wisdom\nwhich no teaching body has ever equalled in any country or in any age? I can hardly believe that\nthey do, for rather than draw innumerable conclusions from this essential fact, our historians have\nhardly seen it and do not seem to attach any importance to it. However, one must be an archeologist\nor linguist to understand that the implacable hatred between Assyria and Egypt comes from the fact\nthat these two peoples represented two opposite principles in the world, and that the Egyptian people\nowed their long survival to a religious and scientific framework stronger than all revolutions.\n\nFrom the Aryan epoch, throughout the troubled era which followed Vedic times to the Persian\nconquest and the Alexandrian age, (that is, over a period of more than five thousand years) Egypt\nwas the stronghold of pure and exalted teachings, whose totality constitutes the science of principles,\nand which can be called the esoteric orthodoxy of antiquity. It was possible for fifty dynasties to\nsucceed one another, for the Nile to deposit its alluvium over entire cities, for the Phoenician\ninvasion to flood the country and be repelled; -- in the midst of history's ebb and flow, beneath the\nseeming idolatry of its external polytheism, Egypt preserved the ancient foundations of esoteric\ntheology and its priestly organization. It stood firm against the centuries like the pyramid of Gizeh,\nhalf-sunk beneath the sands, but intact. Thanks to this immobility of the sphinx, keeping its secret, to\nthis resistance in granite, Egypt became the axis around which the religious thought of humanity\nrevolved in its passage from Asia to Europe. Judea, Greece and Etruria were so many spirits of life\nwhich formed different civilizations. But from whom did they draw their basic ideas, if not the living\nstorehouse of ancient Egypt? Moses and Orpheus created two opposite and remarkable religions, one\nwith its rigid monotheism, the other with its dazzling polytheism. But in what mold was their genius\nformed? Where did one of them find the power, energy, boldness to recast a half-savage people like\nbrass in a furnace, and where did the other find the magic to make gods speak to the soul of its\nfascinated barbarians like a well-tuned lyre? In the temples of Osiris, in ancient Thebes, which the\ninitiates called the city of the sun or the solar ark because it contained the synthesis of divine science\nand all the secrets of initiation.\n\nEvery year at the summer solstice when the floods of rain fall in Abyssinia, the Nile changes color\nand takes on that tint of blood, about which the Bible speaks. The Nile swells until the autumnal\nequinox conceals the outline of its banks. But standing upon their granite plateaus beneath the\nblinding sun, temples carved in the heart of the rock, necropoles, pylons and pyramids reflect the\nmajesty of their ruins in the Nile, now transformed into a sea. Thus the Egyptian priesthood passed\nthrough the centuries accompanied by its organization and symbols, secrets which for a long time\n\nwere impenetrable to science. In these temples, these crypts, these pyramids developed the famous\nteaching of the Word of Light, of the universal Word which Moses enclosed in his golden ark and of\nwhich Christ was to be the living torch.\n\nTruth is unchangeable in itself, it alone outlives everything, but it changes its habitations, its forms\nand its manifestations. \"The light of Osiris\" which once lighted the depths of nature and the heavenly\nvault for the initiates is extinguished forever in the abandoned crypts. Hermes' saying to Asclepios\nwas fulfilled: \"O Egypt! Egypt! -- In future generations there will remain only incredible tales about\nyou, and nothing will be left but words carved in stone.\"\n\nNevertheless, it is a ray from that mysterious sun of the sanctuaries which we would like to bring to\nlife once again by following the secret path of ancient Egyptian initiation, insofar as the esoteric\ninstitution itself and the fleeting reflection of the ages will allow.\n\nBut before entering the temple let us glance at the great phases through which Egypt passed before\nthe age of the Hyksos.\n\nAlmost as old as the framework of our continent, the earliest Egyptian civilization dates back to the\nancient red race.~\" The colossal sphinx of Gizeh near the great pyramid, is its handiwork. From the\ntime when the Delta (later formed by the alluvium of the Nile) did not yet exist, the huge symbolic\nanimal lay upon its granite hill, before the chain of the Lybian Mountains, looking at the sea, dashing\nagainst its feet where today the sands of the desert are spread. The sphinx, that first creation of\nEgypt, became the latter's principal symbol, its distinctive mark. The oldest human priesthood\ncarved it, a picture of calm and of the awe-inspiring majesty of nature. A man's head emerges from a\nbull's body with lion's paws, and folds its eagle wings at its sides. It is terrestrial Isis, a portrayal of\nthe living unity of nature's kingdoms, for the ancient priesthoods knew and taught that in the great\norder of evolution, human nature emerges from animal nature. In this composite of bull, lion, eagle\nand man are also contained the four animals of Ezekiel's vision, representing the four constituent\nelements of the microcosm and macrocosm: water, earth, air and fire, the foundations of esoteric\nscience. This is why, in subsequent centuries when the initiates saw the sacred animal lying on the\nsteps of the temples or in the recesses of crypts, they felt this mystery come to life within them and\nthey silently folded the wings of their spirits over inner truth. For before Oedipus, they knew that the\nanswer to the riddle of the sphinx is Man, the microcosm, the divine agent who includes within\nhimself all the elements and forces of nature.\n\nThe red race therefore, has left no other trace of itself than the sphinx of Gizeh, irrecusable proof that\nin its own way it had posed and solved the great problem.\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n21. In an inscription of the Fourth Dynasty, the Sphinx is spoken of as a monument whose origin\nwas lost in the darkness of time and which had been found by chance during the reign of this prince,\nburied in the sand of the desert, under which it was forgotten for long generations. And the Fourth\nDynasty carries us back four thousand years before Christ. Let one calculate the antiquity of the\nSphinx from this!\n\n15. Hermes\n\nThe black race which succeeded the southern red race in dominion over the world, made Upper\nEgypt its main sanctuary. The name Hermes-Toth, that mysterious first initiator of Egypt into the\nsacred doctrine, doubtless refers to an initial, peaceful mixture of the white race and the black race in\nthe regions of Ethiopia and Upper Egypt, long before the Aryan period. Hermes is a generic name\nlike Manu and Buddha. It designates man, a caste and a god at the same time. As a man, Hermes is\nthe first and great initiator of Egypt; as a caste, Hermes is the priesthood, the depositary of esoteric\ntraditions; as a god, Hermes is the planet Mercury, including in its sphere a category of spirits and\ndivine initiators; in brief, Hermes presides in the supraterrestrial region of celestial initiation. In the\nspiritual economy of the world all these things are bound together by secret affinities as by an\ninvisible thread. The name Hermes is a talisman which sums them up, a magic sound which calls\nthem forth. Hence its prestige. The Greeks, disciples of the Egyptians, called him Hermes\nTrismegistus, or three times great, because he was considered king, legislator and priest. He typifies\na period when priesthood, magistracy and royalty were united in a single governing body. Manetho's\nEgyptian chronology calls this period the reign of the gods. At that time there was neither papyrus\nnor phonetic writing, but sacred ideography already existed; the science of the priesthood was\ninscribed in hieroglyphs on the columns and walls of the crypts. Considerably improved, it later\npassed into the temple libraries. The Egyptians attributed to Hermes forty-two books dealing with\nesoteric science. The Greek book known by the name Hermes Trismegistus, indeed includes altered\nbut infinitely valuable fragments of ancient theogony which is like the fiat lux from which Moses\nand Orpheus received their first enlightenment. The doctrine of the fire-principle and of the word-\nlight contained in the Vision of Hermes will remain the climax and center of Egyptian initiation.\n\nWe shall attempt to rediscover this vision of the masters, this mystic rose which blooms only in the\ndarkness of the sanctuary and in the arcana of the great religions. Certain of Hermes' words, stamped\nwith ancient wisdom, are well adapted to prepare us for this. \"None of our thoughts,\" said he to his\ndisciple, Asklepius, \"can conceive of God, nor can any language define Him. The incorporeal,\ninvisible and formless cannot be comprehended by our senses. What is eternal cannot be measured\nwith the short measure of time; God therefore is ineffable. God indeed can transmit to a few elect the\nability to rise above natural things in order to perceive some radiation of His supreme perfection, but\nthese elect find no words to translate into everyday language the non-material vision which has made\nthem tremble. They can explain to humanity the secondary causes of the creations which take place\nbefore their eyes as images of universal life, but the First Cause remains hidden, and we shall not\nsucceed in understanding it except by experiencing death.\" Thus spoke Hermes about the unknown\nGod on the threshold of the crypts. The disciples who entered with him into their depths learned to\nknow Him as a living being.\"\n\nThe book speaks of his death as of the departure of a god. \"Hermes saw the totality of things, and\nhaving seen he understood, and having understood he had the power to manifest and to reveal. What\nhe thought, he wrote; what he wrote, he hid in great measure, keeping wisely silent and speaking at\nthe same time so that all the world to come might seek these things. And thus, having commanded\nthe gods, his brothers, to act like participants in a funeral procession, he ascended to the stars.\"\n\nIf it is absolutely necessary, one can isolate the political history of peoples, but one cannot isolate\ntheir religious history. The religions of Assyria, Egypt, Judea and Greece are understood only when\none grasps their point of connection with the ancient Indo-Aryan religion. Considered separately,\nthey are but so many puzzles and pantomimes. Viewed together and from above, they represent a\nsuperb evolution, where all the elements control and explain each other. In short, the history of a\nreligion will always be limited, superstitious and false; nothing is true except the total religious\nhistory of all mankind. At this level one no longer feels anything but the currents which encircle the\nglobe. The Egyptian people, of all humanity the most independent and isolated from external\ninfluences, could not escape this universal law. Five thousand years before our time, the light of\n\nRama, kindled in Iran, shone upon Egypt and became the law of Ammon-Ra, the solar god of\nThebes. This establishment enabled him to brave many revolutions. Menes was the first king of\njustice, the first Pharaoh to carry out this law. He was careful not to take from Egypt her former\ntheology, which was his also. He simply confirmed and expanded it by adding to it a new social\norganization. The priests were given the task of instruction as a first council; judges were assigned to\nanother; government to both; royalty was conceived of as their task, and subject to their control; the\nrelative independence of the nomes of provinces was the foundation of society. This can be called\nthe government of the initiates. As a keystone it had a synthesis of sciences known under the name\nof Osiris (O-Sir-Is), intellectual lord. The great pyramid was its symbol, as was the mathematical\ngnomon. The Pharaoh who received his initiation-name from the temple, who exercised sacerdotal\nand royal art on the throne, was therefore a far different person from the Assyrian despot whose\narbitrary power rested upon crime and blood. Pharaoh was the crowned initiate, or at least the pupil\nand instrument of the initiates. For centuries the Pharaohs were to defend the law of the Ram, which\nthen represented the rights of justice and international arbitration, against then despotic Asia and\nanarchic Europe.\n\nAround the year 2,000 B.C. Egypt underwent the most dreadful crisis a people can experience: that\nof foreign invasion and partial conquest. The Phoenician invasion was itself the result of the great\nreligious schism in Asia which had aroused the masses to insurrection. Led by shepherd-kings called\nHyksos, this invasion rolled its flood over the Delta and Middle Egypt. The schismatic kings brought\nwith them a corrupt civilization, Ionian indolence, the luxury of Asia, the customs of the harem and\ncrude idolatry. The life of Egypt was threatened, its culture and its universal mission were\nendangered. But Egypt possessed a spirit of life, that is, an organized body of initiates, depositaries\nof the ancient knowledge of Hermes and Ammon-Ra. And what did that spirit do? It withdrew to the\nheart of its sanctuaries, it gathered itself together, the better to resist the enemy. The priesthood\noutwardly bowed before the invasion and recognized the usurpers who brought the law of the Bull\nand the cult of Apis. But, hidden in the temples like a sacred depositary, the two councils kept their\nscience and traditions, the ancient pure religion, and with it the hope of a restoration of the former\ndynasty. It is at this period that the priests propagated among the people the legend of Isis and Osiris,\nof the dismemberment of the latter and his subsequent resurrection through his son Horus, who\nwould find his scattered limbs, carried away by the Nile. The imagination of the people was\nstimulated by the pomp of public ceremonies. Their love for the old religion was maintained by\nacting out the misfortunes of the goddess, her lamentation over the loss of her celestial husband and\nthe hope she placed in her son Horus, the divine mediator. But at the same time the initiates deemed\nit necessary to place esoteric truth beyond attack by covering it with a threefold veil. The spreading\nof the popular cult of Isis and Osiris corresponds with the inner scientific organization of the greater\nand lesser Mysteries. Moral tests were invented, the oath of silence was required, and the penalty of\ndeath strictly inflicted upon the initiates who divulged the least detail of the Mysteries. Thanks to\nthis strict organization, Egyptian initiation became not only the haven of esoteric doctrine, but also\nthe crucible of the revival of Egypt and the school for future religions. While the crowned usurpers\nruled in Memphis, Thebes was slowly preparing the regeneration of the people. From his temple,\nfrom his solar ark, came the savior of Egypt, Amos, who routed the Hyksos after nine centuries of\ndomination, restoring Egyptian science and the male religion of Osiris to their rightful place.\n\nThus the Mysteries saved the soul of Egypt under foreign tyranny, for the good of mankind. For such\nwas then the strength of their discipline, the power of their initiation, that they contained Egypt's best\nmoral force and highest spiritual achievements.\n\nAncient initiation rested upon a concept of man, both healthier and nobler than ours. We have\ndissociated the training of the body, soul and spirit. Our physical and natural sciences, progressive in\nthemselves, set aside the principle of the soul and its diffusion in the universe; our religion does not\nsatisfy the needs of the spirit; our medicine wishes to know neither soul nor spirit. Modern man\nseeks pleasure without happiness, happiness without knowledge and knowledge without wisdom.\n\nThe ancients did not allow one to separate these things. In every domain they took into account\nman's threefold nature. Initiation was a gradual training of every human being toward the lofty\nheights of the spirit, from which one can survey life. \"In order to attain mastery,\" said the sages of\nthat age, \"man needs a total remolding of his physical, moral and spiritual being. But this remolding\nis only possible through the simultaneous exercise of the will, intuition and reason. Through the\ncomplete cooperation of these three, man can develop his faculties to an incalculable degree. The\nsoul has senses which are asleep; initiation awakens them. Through profound study and constant\napplication, man can put himself in conscious touch with the hidden forces in the universe. Through\na great effort he can attain direct spiritual perception, can open to his vision paths of the after-life\nand can make himself capable of advancing along these paths. Only then can he say he has\nconquered fate and here on earth has acquired his divine freedom. Only then can the initiate become\nan initiator, prophet and theurgist, that is, a seer and creator of souls. For only one who controls\nhimself can control others; only one who is free can set free.\"\n\nThe ancient initiates thought in this manner. The greatest among them lived and acted accordingly.\nTherefore initiation was something very different from an empty dream and far more than a simple\nscientific precept; it was the creation of a soul through itself, its development to a higher level and its\nefflorescence in the divine world.\n\nLet us place ourselves in the age of the Rameses during the time of Moses and Orpheus, around the\nyear 1300 B.C., and attempt to reach the heart of Egyptian initiation. The sculptured monuments,\nHermes' books and the Jewish and Greek tradition enable us to call the progressive stages of\ninitiation to life again and to form an idea of the highest revelation of Egyptian spiritual\ndevelopment.\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n22. \"Scientific esoteric theology,\" says Mr. Maspero, \"is monotheistic since the period of the Ancient\nEmpire. The affirmation of the fundamental unity of the Divine Being is expressed in formal terms\nand with great force in the texts which date back to this period. God is the Unique One, Who exists\nin essence, the only One Who lives in substance, the Sole Generator in heaven and on earth Who is\nnot engendered. Father, Mother and Son at the same time, He engenders, gives birth and exists\nperpetually; and those three persons, far from dividing the unity of the divine nature, contribute to its\ninfinite perfection. His attributes are immensity, eternity, independence, all-powerful will and\nboundless kindness. \"He creates his own members, who are gods,' say the old texts. Each of these\nsecondary gods, considered identical with the One God, can form a new type from whom other\ninferior types emanate in turn and by the same process.\" -- Histoire ancienne des peuples de\nl'Orient.\n\n16. Isis — Initiation -- The Trials\n\nIn the time of the Rameses, Egyptian civilization was shining in the fullness of its glory. The\nPharaohs of the twentieth dynasty, pupils and sword-bearers of the sanctuaries, bore the battle\nagainst Babylon like real heros. The Egyptian archers harassed the Lybians, Bodons and Numdis to\nthe center of Africa. A fleet of four hundred sailboats pursued the league of the schismatics to the\nmouth of the Indus. Better to withstand the attack of Assyria and its allies, the Rameses had laid out\nstrategic routes as far as Lebanon, and had built a system of forts between Mageddo and Karkemish.\nEndless caravans moved through the desert from Radasieh to Elephantine. Architectual activity\ncontinued without a break and occupied workers from three continents. The nypostyle room of\nKarnak, each pillar of which reaches the height of the Vendome Column, was repaired; the Temple\nof Abydos was adorned with sculptural wonders, and the Valley of the Kings with grandiose\n\nmonuments. Building went on at Bubast, Luksor and Speos Ibsambul. At Thebes a victory pylon\ncommemorated the taking of Kadesh. At Memphis the Rameseum arose, surrounded by a forest of\nobelisk statues and gigantic monoliths.\n\nIn the midst of this feverish activity, this glittering life, more than one foreigner seeking the\nMysteries, coming from the distant shores of Asia Minor, the Mountains of Thracia, landed in Egypt,\nattracted by the reputation of its temples. When he arrived in Memphis, he was struck with\namazement. Monuments, spectacles, public festivals, all gave him the impression of wealth and\ngrandeur. After the ceremony of royal consecration, which took place in the secrecy of the sanctuary,\nhe would see the Pharaoh leave the temple before the crowd and climb upon his shield carried by\ntwelve flag-bearing officers of his staff. Before him twelve young Levites carried the royal insignia\non gold-braided cushions: the ruler's sceptre with a ram's head, the sword, bow and collection of\narms. Behind him came the royal household and the priestly schools, followed by the initiates in the\nmajor and minor Mysteries. The pontiffs wore the white tiara and their chests glowed with the fire of\nsymbolic jewels. The dignitaries of the crown wore decorations of the Lamb, Ram, Lion, Lily and\nBee, suspended from massive chains, intricately worked. The guilds brought up the rear of the\nprocession with their emblems and flying banners. At night magnificently decorated boats carried\nthe royal orchestras over artificial lakes. On the boats dancers and musicians were outlined in\nhieratic poses.\n\nBut this overwhelming pomp was not what the traveler was seeking. A desire to penetrate the secret\nof things, a thirst for knowledge, is what brought him from so far away. He had been told that magi\nand hierophants, in possession of divine science, lived in the sanctuaries of Egypt. He too wanted to\nfathom the secret of the gods. He had heard a priest of his country speak of The Book of the Dead, of\nits mysterious scroll which was placed beneath mummies' heads like a viaticum, and which related in\nsymbolic form the voyage of the soul after death, according to the priests of Ammon-Ra. With avid\ncuriosity and a certain inner fear mixed with doubt, he had followed this long voyage of the soul into\nthe after-life, witnessing expiation in a burning region, the purification of its sidereal covering, its\nencounter with the evil pilot seated in a boat with his head turned aside, and with the good pilot who\nlooks forward. He observed the soul's appearance before the forty-two terrestrial judges, its\njustification by Toth and finally its entry and transfiguration in the light of Osiris. We can imagine\nthe power of this book, as well as the total revolution that Egyptian initiation sometimes effected\nupon human minds, from this passage of The Book of the Dead:\n\n\"This chapter was found at Hermopolis in blue writing on an alabaster stone, at the feet of the god\nToth (Hermes) in the time of King Menkara, by Prince Hastatif, when he was on a trip to inspect the\ntemples. He carried the stone into the royal temple. O great secret! He no longer saw, he no longer\nheard, when he read that pure and holy chapter; he no longer went near any woman and no longer ate\nmeat or fish.\"\n\nBut what truth was there in this disturbing account, in these hieratic pictures, behind which glistened\nthe terrible mysteries of after-life? \"Isis and Osiris know,\" he was told. But who were these gods\nabout whom one spoke only with one's finger upon one's lips? It was to learn this that the stranger\nknocked at the door of the great temple of Thebes, or of Memphis.\n\nServants led him beneath the portico of an inner court, whose great pillars seemed like gigantic lotus\nsupporting the solar ark, the Temple of Osiris, with their strength and purity. The hierophant\napproached the new arrival. The majesty of his countenance, the tranquillity of his face, the mystery\nof his dark, impenetrable eyes, filled with an inner light, were already enough to disquiet the\npostulant. That gaze pierced like an awl. The stranger felt that he was facing a man from whom it\nwould be impossible to hide anything. The priest of Osiris questioned the newcomer about the city\nof his birth, his family and the temple which had instructed him. If in this brief but penetrating\nexamination he was considered unworthy of the Mysteries, a silent but irrevocable gesture pointed to\n\nthe door. But if the hierophant found in the aspirant the sincere desire for truth, he asked him to\nfollow him. They passed through porticos and inner courts, then through a corridor carved in the\nrock, open to the sky and bordered with stelae and sphinxes, until they reached a small temple which\nserved as an entrance to the underground crypts. The door was disguised by a life-sized statue of\nIsis. The goddess, seated in an attitude of meditation and contemplation, held a closed book in her\nlap. Her face was veiled. Beneath the statue one could read, \"No mortal has lifted my veil.\"\n\n\"This is the door to the hidden sanctuary,\" said the hierophant. \"Look at these two columns. The red\none represents the ascension of the spirit into the light of Osiris. The black one signifies its captivity\nin matter, and this fall can continue into annihilation. Whoever approaches our science and teaching\nrisks his life. Madness or death is what the weak or the wicked find; the strong and the good alone\nfind life and immortality. Many reckless ones have entered this door, and have not come out alive. It\nis an abyss which leads only the fearless to the daylight once again. Therefore, consider carefully\nwhat you are about to do, the dangers you will face, and if your courage is not equal to every ordeal,\ngive up the quest. For once this door is closed behind you, you will no longer be able to turn back.\"\n\nIf the stranger persisted in his wish, the hierophant would lead him into the outer court and commend\nhim to the temple servants, with whom he was required to spend a week, obliged to perform the most\nmenial tasks, listening to the hymns and performing ablutions. He had to observe the strictest\nsilence.\n\nWhen the evening of the ordeals arrived, two neocoros, or assistants, led the candidate for the\nmysteries to the door of the secret sanctuary. They entered a dark corridor without any visible exit.\nOn the two sides of this dismal room, in the torchlight, the stranger saw a row of statues with men's\nbodies and animals' heads, -- lions, bulls, birds of prey, and serpents -- which seemed to watch his\nprogress while they mocked him. At the end of this sinister passage, which was crossed in complete\nsilence, a mummy and a human skeleton stood opposite each other. And with a silent gesture, the\ntwo neocoros showed the novice a hole in the wall in front of him. It was the entrance to a corridor\nso low that it could be entered only by crawling on hands and knees.\n\n\"You can still turn back,\" said one of the assistants. \"The door of the sanctuary is not yet closed. If\nyou do not turn back now, you must continue on your way and cannot return.\"\n\n\"I shall go forward,\" said the novice, summoning all his courage.\n\nHe was then given a little lighted lamp. The neocoros turned around and closed the door of the\nsanctuary with a loud bang. The novice could no longer hesitate; he had to enter the corridor. Hardly\nhad he eased through by crawling on his knees when he heard a voice at the end of the tunnel,\nsaying, \"Fools who covet knowledge and power perish here!\" Because of a strange acoustical\nphenomenon, this sentence was repeated seven times by echoes at various points. Nevertheless, he\nhad to move forward; the corridor became wider, but inclined downward more sharply. At last the\ndaring traveller found himself before a shaft which led into a hole. An iron ladder disappeared into\nthe latter; the novice took a chance. As he hung upon the lowest rung of the ladder, his frightened\ngaze looked downward into a terrifying abyss. His poor naphtha lamp which he gripped convulsively\nin his trembling hand, cast its dim light into endless darkness. What should he do? Above him, --\nimpossible return; below, -- a drop into the blackness of awful night. In his distress he noticed a\ncrevice on his right. Stretching forward with one hand on the ladder, and his lamp held out with the\nother, he saw steps. A staircase! Safety! He climbed upward, escaping the abyss. The staircase cut\nthrough the rock in the form of a spiral. Finally, the aspirant found himself in front of a bronze\ngrating leading into a great hall, supported by huge caryatids. On the wall could be seen two rows of\nsymbolic frescoes. There were eleven groups on each side, softly lighted by the crystal lamps which\nthe beautiful caryatids bore in their hands.\n\nA Magus called a pastophor, a guardian of sacred symbols, opened the grating for the novice and\nwelcomed him with a kind smile. He congratulated him upon having successfully passed the first\ntest. Then, leading him across the hall, he explained the sacred paintings. Under each of these\npaintings was a letter and a number. The twenty-two symbols represented the twenty-two first\nMysteries and constituted the alphabet of secret science, that is, the absolute principles, the universal\nkeys which, employed by the will, become the source of all wisdom and power. These principles\nwere fixed in the memory by their correspondence with the letters of the sacred language and with\nthe numbers associated with these letters. Each letter and each number expressed in this language a\nternary law, having its repercussion in the divine world, the intellectual world, and the physical\nworld. Just as the finger touching the string of a lyre causes a note of the scale to resound and all its\nharmonics to vibrate, so the spirit which contemplates all the virtualities of a number, the voice\nwhich utters a letter with the knowledge of its meaning, evokes a power which echoes in the three\nworlds.\n\nThus the letter A which corresponds to number /, expresses in the divine world, Absolute Being\nfrom which all beings emanate; in the intellectual world, the unity, origin, and synthesis of numbers;\nin the physical world, Man, the head of related beings, who, through expansion of his faculties, rises\ninto the concentric spheres of infinity. The arcanum was represented among the Egyptians by a\nMagus in a white robe, a scepter in his hand and wearing a gold crown. The white robe meant purity,\nthe scepter, authority and the gold crown, universal light.\n\nThe novice was far from understanding everything he heard that was strange and new, but great\nperspectives opened before him at the words of the pastophor before the beautiful paintings, which\nlooked at him with the impassive gravity of the gods. Behind each of them he glimpsed a series of\nthoughts, and pictures suddenly were called forth. He surmised for the first time the interior of the\nworld through the mysterious chain of causes. Thus, from letter to letter, from number to number,\nthe teacher explained to the pupil the meaning of the arcana, and led him past Jsis Urania to the\nChariot of Osiris, past the Thunderstruck Tower to the Flaming Star, and finally to the Crown of the\nMagi. \"Mark well,\" said the pastophor, \"what this crown means: all will which is joined to God in\norder to manifest truth and to effect justice after this life, enters into participation with divine power\nover beings and things, attaining the everlasting reward of liberated spirits.\" While listening to the\nteacher's words, the neophyte experienced a mixture of surprise, fear and rapture. These were the\nfirst lights of the sanctuary, and the truth seen in part, appeared to him to be the light of a divine\nrecollection.\n\nBut the trials were not over. When he finished speaking, the pastophor opened a door leading to\nanother long, narrow corridor, at the end of which glowed a red-hot furnace. \"Why that is death!\"\nexclaimed the novice, looking at his guide fearfully. \"My son,\" said the pastophor, \"death frightens\nonly weak minds. I once crossed this fire like a bed of roses.\" And the gate of the hall of secrets\nclosed behind the postulant. Upon approaching the fiery furnace, he saw it reduced to an optical\nillusion created by a light interlacing of resinous wood placed over iron lattice work in quincunxes.\nA path through the middle allowed him to pass by quickly. The trial by water followed the trial by\nfire. The aspirant was forced to go through a stagnant black pool, lighted by naphtha flames which\nflashed up behind him in the room of fire. After this, two assistants led him, still trembling, into a\ndim grotto where a soft couch could be dimly seen, lighted by the mysterious flickering of a bronze\nlamp hanging from the vault. He was dried, his body was bathed in exquisite essences, he was\ndressed in fine linen and was left alone after being told, \"Rest and wait for the hierophant.\"\n\nWeak with fatigue, the novice stretched himself upon the sumptuous bed. After his varied emotions\nthis moment of calm seemed sweet. The sacred paintings he had seen, all those strange faces, the\nsphinx, the caryatids, again passed before his eyes. But why did one of the paintings keep coming\nback to him like an hallucination? Again and again he saw arcanum X represented by a wheel\nsuspended on its axis between two columns. On one side sits Hermanubis, genius of good, --\n\nhandsome as a young Ephebe; on the other, Typhon, genius of evil, falls head downward into the\nabyss. Between the two, on top of the wheel, sits a sphinx holding a sword in its paw.\n\nThe tones of lascivious music which seemed to come from outside the grotto, caused this picture to\nfade. The sounds were light and undefinable, of a sad, penetrating languor. A metallic tinkling\nreached his ear, mixed with vibrations of the harp and the sounds of a flute, along with panting sighs\nlike a torrid breathing. Wrapped in a dream of fire, the stranger closed his eyes. Upon reopening\nthem, he saw an overwhelming vision of life and infernal seduction a few steps away from his bed.\nA Nubian woman, clothed in transparent dark-red gauze, a necklace of amulettes at her neck, similar\nto the priestesses of Mylitta, was standing there embracing him with her glance, holding a cup\ncrowned with roses in her left hand. She was of the type whose intense, strong sensuality embodies\nall the powers of the female animal: high, prominent cheekbones, nostrils dilated, full lips like a\ndelicious ripe fruit. Her dark eyes shone in the dusk. The novice had leapt to his feet in\nastonishment, not knowing whether he should tremble or rejoice, instinctively crossing his hands on\nhis chest. But the slave moved toward him, slowly lowering her eyes. In a low voice she murmured,\n\"Are you afraid of me, noble stranger? I bring you the reward of conquerors, the forgetfulness of\ntroubles, the cup of happiness.\" The novice hesitated; then, as though overcome with lassitude, the\nNubian woman sank upon the bed, enveloping the stranger in a pleading look as in a humid flame.\nWoe to him if he did not defy her, if he bent over that mouth, if he became drunk with the heavy\nperfumes arising from these bronzed shoulders! Once he had touched that hand and had placed his\nlips upon that cup, he was lost. He turned upon his bed, entwined in a burning grasp . . . But after the\nwild satisfying of his desire, the liquid he had drunk plunged him into a deep sleep. When he awoke,\nhe found himself alone and in anguish. The lamp cast a ghost-like light upon his disordered bed. A\nman was standing before him; it was the hierophant. He said to him:\n\n\"You were victorious in the first trials. You triumphed over death, fire and water, but you have not\nlearned to conquer yourself. You who seek the heights of the mind and knowledge succumbed to the\nfirst temptation of the senses and fell into the abyss of matter. One who is a slave to the senses lives\nin darkness. You preferred darkness to light; therefore remain in darkness. I warned you of the\ndangers to which you were exposing yourself. You saved your life, but you have lost your freedom.\nYou are to remain a slave of the temple, under penalty of death.\"\n\nIf, on the other hand, the aspirant had overturned the cup and repelled the temptress, twelve\nneocoros armed with torches would have come to lead him triumphantly into the sanctuary of Isis\nwhere Magi, ranked in a semi-circle and dressed in white, awaited him in a plenary assembly. In the\ndepths of the temple he would see the colossal statue of Isis in cast metal, splendidly lighted, a gold\nrose at her breast, and wearing a crown of seven rays. She held her son Horus in her arms. The\ngoddess and the hierophant clothed in velvet, would receive the newcomer, and under the most\nawesome oaths, make him pledge silence and submission. Then he greeted him in the name of the\nentire assembly as a brother and future initiate. Before the august teachers, the disciple of Isis\nthought himself in the presence of the gods. Grown beyond himself, he entered for the first time into\nthe sphere of truth.\n\n17. Osiris -- Death and Resurrection\n\nNevertheless he was admitted only to the threshold. Long years of study and apprenticeship began.\nBefore rising to Isis Uranus, he had to know terrestrial Isis, had to learn the physical sciences. His\ntime was divided between meditations in his cell, the study of hieroglyphics in the halls and courts of\nthe temple, as large as a city, and in lessons from his teachers. He learned the science of minerals\nand plants, the history of man and peoples, medicine, architecture and sacred music. In this long\napprenticeship he had not only to know, but to become. He had to acquire strength through\n\nrenunciation. The ancient wise men believed that man possesses truth only if it becomes a part of his\ninnermost being, a spontaneous deed of his soul. But in this intense work of assimilation, the pupil\nwas left to himself. His teachers did not help him in anything, and often he was amazed at their\ncoldness and their indifference. He was carefully supervised, he was subjected to inflexible rules,\nabsolute obedience was required of him, but nothing was revealed to him beyond certain limits. His\nuncertainties and his questions were answered by \"Wait and work.\" Then, sudden revolts, bitter\nregrets and horrible suspicions surged up in him. Had he become the slave of bold impostors or\nblack magicians who were subjugating his will to an infamous purpose? Truth was fleeing, the gods\nwere abandoning him, he was alone, a prisoner of the temple. Truth appeared to him in the form of a\nsphinx. The sphinx said to him, \"I am Doubt!\" And the winged beast, with its head of an impassive\nwoman and its lion's paw, carried him away to tear him apart in the burning desert sand.\n\nBut hours of calm and divine forbearance followed these nightmares. Then he understood the\nsymbolic meaning of the trials he had gone through upon entering the temple. For, alas! The dark\nwell into which he had almost fallen was less dark than the abyss of unfathomable truth; the fire he\nhad passed through was less to be feared than the passions which still burned his flesh; the black,\nfreezing water into which he had to plunge was less cold than the doubt into which his mind sank\nand became engulfed in his evil moments.\n\nIn one of the halls of the temple, arranged in two rows, were those same sacred paintings which had\nbeen explained to him in the crypt during the night of ordeals, and which represented the twenty-two\narcana. These arcana, which could be partly seen at the threshold of esoteric science, were the very\npillars of theology, but it was necessary to have gone through the entire initiation in order to\nunderstand them. Since then none of the leaders had spoken to him of them again. He was allowed\nonly to walk in this room and meditate upon the signs. He spent long, solitary hours there. Through\nthese figures, pure as light, serious as Eternity, invisible and impalpable truth slowly entered the\nheart of the neophyte. In the silent society of these quiet, nameless divinities, each of which seemed\nto preside over a sphere of life, he began to feel something new: First, a descent into the depths of\nhis being, then a sort of detachment from the world, which made him soar above things. Sometimes\nhe asked one of the Magi, \"One day will I be allowed to smell the rose of Isis, to see the light of\nOsiris?\" He was told, \"That does not depend upon us; truth is not given. Either one finds it in\noneself, or one does not find it. We cannot make an adept of you; you must become one yourself.\nThe lotus grows under the river a long time before it blossoms. Do not rush the blossoming of the\ndivine flower! If it is to come, it will appear in its own time. Work and pray!\"\n\nAnd the disciple returned to his studies and to his meditation with a quiet joy. He enjoyed the strict,\nsweet charm of the solitude where a breath of the Being of Beings passes. Thus the months and years\nflowed by. He felt a slow transformation, a complete metamorphosis taking place within him. The\npassions which had attacked his youth moved away from him like ghosts, and the thoughts which\nnow encircled him were kind, like immortal friends. What he experienced now was the swallowing\nup of his earthly self and the birth of another, purer, more ethereal self. In this mood he would fall\nprostrate before the steps of the closed sanctuary. Then there was no longer any revolt, no desire of\nany kind, no regret in him. There was only a perfect surrender of his soul to the gods, a complete\noblation to truth. \"O Isis,\" he would say in his prayer, \"since my soul is but a teardrop from your\neyes, may it fall as dew upon other souls, and in dying may I feel their perfume arise to you! Here\nam I, ready for the sacrifice!\"\n\nAfter one of these silent prayers, the disciple in a semi-ecstasy saw the hierophant standing near him\nlike a vision from the sun, enclosed in the warm colors of sunset. The master seemed to read all the\n\ndisciple's thoughts, to penetrate the entire drama of his inner life.\n\n\"My son,\" he said, \"the time is approaching when truth will be revealed to you, for already you have\nhad a foretaste of it in going down into your innermost depths, and there finding the life divine. You\n\nare to enter the great, ineffable communion of the initiates, for you are worthy of it by the purity of\nyour heart, by your love of truth and your power of self-denial. But no one crosses Osiris' threshold\nexcept by way of death and resurrection. We shall accompany you into the crypt. Be not afraid, for\nyou are already one of our brothers!\"\n\nAt dusk the priests of Osiris, bearing torches, accompanied the new adept into the lower crypt,\nsupported by four pillars, placed upon sphinxes. In a corner was an open marble sarcophagus.\"\n\n\"No man,\" said the hierophant, \"escapes death, and every living soul is destined to resurrection. The\nadept goes through the tomb alive, that afterward he may enter into the light of Osiris. Lie down,\ntherefore, in this coffin and wait for the light! Tonight you will go through the door of Fear and you\nwill reach the threshold of Mastery.\"\n\nThe initiate lay down in the open sarcophagus. The hierophant extended his hand over him in\nblessing and the procession of initiates left the cave in silence. A little lamp placed on the ground\nflickeringly lights the four sphinxes which support the thick columns of the crypt. A choir of deep\nvoices is heard, low and muffled. Where does it come from? It is the funeral chant! He is breathing\nhis last; the lamp casts a final light, then is extinguished entirely. The adept is alone in the darkness.\nThe coldness of the tomb falls upon him, freezing all his limbs. Gradually he experiences the painful\nsensation of death and falls into a lethargy. His life passes before him in successive scenes like\nsomething unreal and his earthly consciousness becomes more and more vague and diffuse. But as\nhe feels his body disintegrate, the ethereal part, the fluid of his being, is disengaged. He enters into\nan ecstasy ...\n\nWhat is that shining, far distant point which appears imperceptible against the black background of\nthe shadows? It is coming closer, it is growing larger, it is becoming a five-pointed star, whose rays\ninclude all the colors of the rainbow, and which shoots into the darkness discharges of magnetic\nlight. Now there is a sun which attracts it into the brightness of its incandescent center. Is it the\nmagic of the masters which produces this vision? Is it the invisible which becomes visible? Is it a\nforeboding of celestial truth, the flaming star of hope and immortality? It is disappearing, and in its\nplace a flower blooms in the night, a flower not of matter, but sensitive and endowed with soul! It\nopens before him like a white rose; it spreads its petals, he sees its living leaves tremble and its\nshining calyx blush. -- Is this the flower of Isis, the Mystical Rose of Wisdom which enclosed Love\nin its heart? But now it is evaporating, like a cloud of perfume. Then the ecstatic one feels flooded\nwith a warm, caressing breeze. Having assumed strange forms, the cloud condenses and becomes a\nhuman figure, the figure of a woman, the Isis of the hidden sanctuary, but younger, smiling and\nradiant. A transparent veil is wrapped around her and her body shines through it. In her hand she\nholds a scroll of papyrus. She softly approaches, leans over the initiate lying in his tomb, and says, \"I\nam your invisible sister; I am your divine soul, and this is the book of your life. Its written pages\ncontain your past lives, its blank pages, your future lives. One day I shall unroll all before you. You\nknow me now. Call, and I shall come!\" As she speaks, a ray of tenderness streams from her eyes. . . .\nO presence of my angelic counterpart, ineffable promise of the divine, wondrous fusion in the\nimpalpable Beyond! ...\n\nBut everything bursts; the vision fades. With a horrible rending, the adept feels himself hurled into\nhis body as into a corpse. He returns to a state of conscious lethargy; bands of iron fetter his limbs; a\nterrible weight presses upon his brain; he awakens . . . Standing before him is the hierophant,\naccompanied by the Magi. They surround him, make him drink a cordial, and he arises.\n\n\"You are resurrected!\" exclaims the prophet. \"Come and celebrate with us the agape of the initiates,\nand tell us of your journey in the light of Osiris. For henceforth you are one of us.\"\n\nLet us accompany the hierophant and the new initiate to the observatory of the temple, in the warm\nsplendor of an Egyptian night. It is there that the head of the temple gave the recent adept the great\nrevelation, by relating to him The Vision of Hermes. This vision was not written on any papyrus. It\nwas indicated in symbolic signs on the stelae of the secret crypt, known to the one prophet. From\npontiff to pontiff, the explanation was orally transmitted.\n\n\"Listen carefully,\" said the hierophant. \"This vision includes the eternal history of the world and of\nall things.\"\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n23. For a long time archeologists have seen in the sarcophagus of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh the\ntomb of King Sesostus, on the testimony of Herodotus, who was not an initiate, and to whom the\nEgyptian priests hardly confided anything except trifles and folk tales. The kings of Egypt, however,\nhad their tombs elsewhere. The strange inner structure of the Pyramid proves that it was to be used\nfor initiation ceremonies and secret practices of the priests of Osiris. The Well of Truth which we\ndescribed, the ascending staircase and the room of the arcana are found there. The room called the\nKing's Chamber, which contains the sarcophagus, was the one where the adept was led on the eve of\nhis great initiation. These same arrangements were reproduced in the great temples of central and\n\nupper Egypt.\n\n18. The Vision of Hermes\nOne day Hermes fell asleep after having reflected upon the origin of things.\" A heavy torpor took\nhold of his body, but as the latter became numb, his spirit ascended into space. Then it seemed to\nhim that an immense being, without definite form, called him by name.\n\"Who are you?\" asked Hermes, startled.\n\"I am Osiris, Sovereign Intelligence, and I can unveil everything. What do you wish?\"\n\"To look at the source of beings, O divine Osiris, to know God!\"\n\"You will be satisfied.\"\nImmediately Hermes was flooded with a blissful light. Upon its diaphanous waves the captivating\nforms of all beings passed. But suddenly the terrifying shadows of sinuous shapes descended upon\nhim. Hermes was plunged into a humid chaos filled with smoke and a dismal moaning. Then a voice\narose from the abyss. It was the cry of light. Suddenly a faint fire burst forth from the humid depths\nand reached the ethereal heights. Hermes arose with it, and found himself once again in space. In the\nabyss the chaos became ordered; the choirs of the stars stretched out over his head, and the voice of\n\nthe light filled infinity.\n\n\"Did you understand what you saw?\" Osiris asked Hermes in his dream, suspended between earth\nand heaven.\n\n\"No,\" replied Hermes.\n\n\"Well then, you will know. You have just seen what is for all time. The light you first saw is divine\nintelligence, which contains everything, including the archetypes of all beings. The gloom into\nwhich you were plunged is the material world where men of earth live. But the fire which you saw\nflame forth from the depths, is the Divine Word. God is the Father, the Word is the Son, their union\nis Life.\"\n\n\"What wondrous sense has opened within me?\" asked Hermes. \"I no longer see with the eyes of the\nbody, but with those of the spirit. How is this?\"\n\n\"Child of dust,\" said Osiris, \"it is because the Word is within you! What in you hears, sees, acts, -- is\nthe Word itself, the sacred fire, the Creative Word.\"\n\n\"Since that is so,\" said Hermes, \"let me see the life of the worlds, the way of souls, whence man\ncomes and whither he returns.\"\n\n\"Let it be as you desire.\"\n\nHermes again became heavier than a stone and fell through space like an aerolite. Finally he saw\nhimself at the top of a mountain. It was night; earth was dark and bare; his limbs seemed heavy as\niron.\n\n\"Lift up your eyes and behold!\" said Osiris' voice.\n\nThen Hermes saw an amazing sight. Infinite space and the starry heaven enveloped him in seven\nluminous spheres. In a single glance Hermes saw the seven heavens above him like seven\ntransparent, concentric globes, whose sidereal center he occupied. The last had the Milky Way as an\nenclosure. In each sphere a planet with a Genius of different form, sign and light revolved. While the\nawestruck Hermes viewed their scattered efflorescence and their majestic movements, the voice said\nto him:\n\n\"Look, listen, and understand. You see the seven spheres of all life. Through them the fall of souls\ntakes place, and also their ascension. The seven Genii are the seven rays of Word-Light. Each of\nthem governs a sphere of the Spirit, a sphere of the life of souls. The one nearest you is the Genius of\nthe Moon with disquieting smile and wearing a silver sickle. He presides at births and deaths. He\ndisengages souls from bodies and draws them into his ray. -- Over him, pale Mercury shows\ndescending or ascending souls the way with his staff, which contains knowledge. -- Higher still,\nbright Venus holds the mirror of Love where souls alternately forget and recognize each other.\nAbove her the Genius of the Sun raises the triumphal torch of Everlasting Beauty. -- Yet higher,\nMars brandishes the sword of Justice. -- Sitting on his throne over the azure sphere, Jupiter holds the\nscepter of supreme power, which is Divine Intelligence. -- At the boundary of the world, under the\nsigns of the zodiac, Saturn bears the globe of Universal Wisdom.\"\"\n\n\"I see,\" exclaimed Hermes, \"the seven regions which make up the visible and invisible world. I see\nthe seven rays of the Word-Light, of the only God, Who penetrates and governs them by these rays.\nBut, O my Master, how is the journey of man made through all these worlds?\"\n\n\"Do you see,\" asked Osiris, \"glowing seeds fall from the regions of the Milky Way in the seventh\nsphere? They are the seeds of souls. They live like light-vapors in the region of Saturn, happy,\nwithout care, not knowing their happiness. But in falling from sphere to sphere they are clothed in\never heavier coverings. In each incarnation they acquire a new corporeal sense, in conformity with\nthe environment in which they are living. Their vital energy increases, but as they enter denser\nsheaths they lose the memory of their heavenly origin. Thus is effected the descent of the souls\nwhich come from the divine ether. More and more captivated by matter, more and more intoxicated\n\nby life, like a shower of fire they rush with trembling voluptuousness through regions of pain, love\nand death, into their earthly prison, where you yourself are moaning, held by the charged center of\nthe earth, where divine life seems to you a vain dream.\"\n\n\"Can souls die?\" asked Hermes.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the voice of Osiris. \"Many perish in the fatal descent. The soul is the daughter of\nheaven and its journey is a test. If in its wild love of matter it loses the memory of its origin, the\ndivine spark which was in it and which would have become brighter than a star, returns to the\nethereal region, a lifeless atom, and the soul disintegrates in the whirlpool of crude elements.\"\n\nAt these words of Osiris, Hermes trembled, for a roaring storm enveloped him in a black cloud. The\nseven spheres disappeared beneath thick vapors. He saw human specters uttering strange cries,\ncarried away and torn to pieces by phantoms of monsters and animals, amidst groans and endless\nblasphemies.\n\n\"This,\" said Osiris, \"is the fate of irremediably base and wicked souls. Their torture ends only with\ntheir destruction, which is the loss of all consciousness. But see, the vapors disperse, the seven\nspheres reappear beneath the firmament! Look this way! Do you see that host of souls trying to\nclimb back into the lunar region? Some are pushed down to earth like flocks of birds in the blast of\nthe storm. With a great stirring of wings others reach the higher sphere which draws them into its\nrevolving. Once they have arrived they recover the vision of divine things. But now they are not\ncontent with reflecting the latter in a dream of powerless bliss. They become infused with the\nlucidity of conscience lighted by grief and with the strength of will acquired in battle. They become\nluminous, for they possess the divine in themselves and reflect it in their acts. Therefore, strengthen\nyour soul, O Hermes, and quiet your clouded mind by watching these distant flights of souls mount\nto the seven spheres and scatter like hosts of sparks! For you too can follow them; it is sufficient to\nwill it, in order to lift oneself. See how they gather into divine choirs, each under its chosen Genius!\nThe most beautiful live in the solar region, while the most powerful rise as far as Saturn. Some even\nrise to the Father, themselves becoming powers among Powers. For there where everything ends,\neverything eternally begins, and the seven spheres intone in unison, Wisdom! Love! Justice!\nBeauty! Splendor! Knowledge! Immortality!' \"\n\n\"That,\" said the hierophant, \"is what ancient Hermes saw, and what his successors handed down to\nus. The words of the wise man are like the seven notes of the lyre which contain all music, together\nwith the numbers and laws of the universe. Hermes' vision resembles the starry sky whose endless\ndepths are strewn with constellations. For the child, it is only a vault with golden nails; for the wise\nman, it is infinite space where worlds revolve with their rhythms and wondrous cadences. This\nvision contains the eternal numbers, evocative signs and magic keys. The more you learn to consider\nand understand it, the more you will see its boundaries widen, for the same organic law governs all\nthe worlds.\"\n\nAnd the prophet of the temple expounded the sacred text. He explained that the doctrine of Word-\nLight represents divinity in the static state, in its perfect equilibrium. He pointed out its threefold\nnature, which at the same time is intelligence, strength and matter; spirit, soul and body; light, word\nand life. Essence, manifestation and substance are three terms which reciprocally imply one another.\nTheir union constitutes the divine and intellectual principle par excellence, the laws of ternary unity\nwhich dominate creation from the highest to the lowest.\n\nHaving thus led his disciple to the ideal Center of the universe, to the generating Principle of being,\nthe master expanded him over time and space and showed him a multitude of efflorescences. For the\nsecond part of the vision represents divinity in the dynamic state, that is, in active evolution. In other\nwords, it involves the visible and invisible universe, the living heaven, the seven spheres attached to\n\nthe seven planets, which symbolize seven principles, seven different conditions of matter and spirit,\nseven varied worlds which each man and each generation must pass through in their evolution\namidst a solar system. The seven Genii, or the seven cosmogonic gods signified the seven higher,\ndirecting spirits of all the spheres, themselves arisen from an ineluctable evolution. Each great god,\ntherefore, was for an ancient initiate the symbol and patron of legions of spirits which reproduced his\ntype in a thousand variants and which in their sphere could exert an influence upon man and earthly\nthings. The seven Genii of Hermes' vision are the seven Devas of India, the seven Amshapands of\nPersia, the seven mighty Angels of Chaldea, the seven Sephiroth\"® of the Kabbala, and the seven\nArchangels of the Christian Apocalypse. And the great septenary which enfolds the universe not only\nvibrates in the seven colors of the rainbow and in the seven tones of the musical scale, but it is also\nevident in the being of man, who is threefold in essence but seven-fold in his evolution.\"\n\n\"Thus,\" said the hierophant in conclusion, \"you have come to the threshold of the great arcanum.\nDivine life appeared to you in the form of phantoms of reality. Hermes acquainted you with the\ninvisible heaven, the light of Osiris, the hidden God of the universe, who breathes in millions of\nsouls, animates the wandering globes and vitalizes bodies in labor. Now it is up to you to move\nforward, choosing your path in order to climb to pure Spirit. For you belong henceforth to the\nresurrected living. Remember that there are two principal keys to knowledge. This is the first: The\noutside is like the inside of things; the small is like the large; there is but a single law, and he who\nworks is One. Nothing is small, nothing is large in the divine economy.' This is the second: Men are\nmortal gods, and gods are immortal men.' -- Happy is the one who understands these words, for he\npossesses the key to everything. Remember that the law of mystery conceals the great truth. Total\nknowledge can be revealed only to our brothers who have gone through the same tests as we. It is\nnecessary to mete out truth according to individual capacities; one must veil it for the weak, whom it\nwould drive mad, and hide it from the wicked, who can grasp only bits with which they make\nweapons of destruction. Seal it in your heart and let it speak in your works. Knowledge will be your\nstrength; faith, your sword; silence, your impenetrable armor.\"\n\nThe revelations of the prophet of Ammon Ra, which opened to the new initiate such broad horizons\nin himself and the universe, doubtless produced a deep impression when they were spoken atop the\nobservatory of a temple of Thebes, in the clear calm of an Egyptian night. The pylons, the rooftops\nand white terraces of the temples lay sleeping far below among the dark masses of the nopal and\ntamarind trees. In the distance, monoliths, colossal statues of the gods, were sitting like incorruptible\njudges on their silent lake. Three pyramids, geometric figures of the tetragram and the sacred\nseptenary, were fading on the horizon, their triangles scarcely seen in the delicate, grey mist. The\nvast firmament was filled with stars. With what new eyes he looked at these stars, pictured for him\nas future abodes! When at last the golden boat of the moon emerged from the dark mirror of the\nNile, which disappeared on the horizon like a long bluish serpent, the neophyte thought he saw the\nboat of Isis which sails upon the river of souls, carrying them to the sun of Osiris. He remembered\nThe Book of the Dead, and the meaning of all these symbols now became clear to him. After what he\nhad seen and learned, he could well believe that he was in the twilight kingdom of Amenti, the\nmysterious place of pause between terrestrial and celestial life, where the dead, at first sightless and\nspeechless, little by little find again both vision and voice. He too was going to make the great\njourney, the journey through infinite worlds and existences. Hermes had absolved him and deemed\nhim worthy. He had told him the solution of the great riddle: \"A single soul, the great soul of\nEverything, in dividing itself gave birth to all the souls which struggle mightily in the universe.\"\n\nArmed with this great secret he climbed into Isis' boat. It set sail. Lifted into the ethereal spaces, it\nfloated into interstellar regions. Already the broad rays of a tremendous dawn spread themselves\nover the blue sails of the celestial horizon. Already the choir of glorious spirits, of the Akhimu-Seku\nwho have reached eternal rest, were singing, \"Arise, Ra Hermakuti! Sun of Spirits! Those who are in\nyour boat are in exaltation! They utter exclamations in the boat of millions of years! The great,\ndivine cycle is overflowing with joy in giving glory to the sacred boat. Rejoicings take place in the\n\nmysterious chapel. O Arise, Ammon Ra Hermakuti! -- Sun which creates itself!\" And the initiate\nresponded with the proud words, \"I have reached the land of truth and justification. I am resurrected\nlike a living god. I share the glory of the choir of the gods who inhabit the heaven, for I am one of\nthem!\"\n\nSuch proud thoughts and such bold aspirations well might haunt the soul of the adept in the night\nfollowing the mystical ceremony of resurrection. The next day on the avenues of the temple in\nglaring daylight, the night seemed to him no more than a dream, but what an unforgettable dream, --\nthat first trip into the impalpable and invisible! Again he read the inscription of the statue of Isis,\n\"No mortal has lifted my veil.\" But a corner of the veil had been raised, nevertheless, but only to\ndrop immediately, and he had awakened in the land of the tombs. Ah, how far he was from the\nenvisioned goal! For the journey is a long one, in the boat of millions of years! But at least he had\npartly seen the final goal.\n\nEven though his vision of the other world may have been only a dream and a childish picture of his\nimagination, still clouded by the mist of earth, nevertheless could he doubt that other consciousness\nhe had felt unfold in him, that mysterious counterpart, that celestial self which had appeared to him\nin its astral beauty like a living form, and which had spoken to him in his sleep? Was it a soul-sister,\nwas it his Genius, or was it only a reflection of his inner spirit and a foretaste of his future being?\nMarvel and Mystery! One thing was certain: it was a reality, and if this soul was but his, it was real.\nWhat would he not do to find it again! He would live millions of years before he would forget that\ndivine hour when he had seen his other, his pure and radiant self!\n\nThe initiation was completed. The adept was a consecrated priest of Osiris. If he was an Egyptian he\nremained connected with the temple; if a foreigner, sometimes he was allowed to return to his\nhomeland, there to establish a cult or to fulfill a mission. But before leaving he solemnly swore to\nmaintain absolute silence about the secrets of the temple. Never was he to betray to anyone what he\nhad seen or heard, nor to reveal the teaching of Osiris except under the triple veil of mythological\nsymbols or Mysteries. If he broke this pledge, violent death would overtake him sooner or later,\nhowever far away he was. But silence had become the shield of his strength.\n\nAfter his return to Ionia, to his restless city, observing the impact of raging passions among this\nmultitude of men who lived like madmen, without knowing themselves, often he recalled Egypt, the\npyramids, the Temple of Ammon Ra. Then the dream of the crypt would return to him, and as, back\nthere, the lotus floats upon the waves of the Nile, so always this shining vision arose above the mire\nand troubled river of this life. At designated times he heard the voice of the shining vision, and it\nwas the voice of heavenly light, awakening in his being an intimate harmony as it said to him, \"The\nsoul is a veiled light. When it is neglected, it becomes dark and is extinguished. But when the\nconsecrated oil of love is poured upon it, it shines forth as an immortal lamp!\"\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n24. The Vision of Hermes is found at the beginning of the Books of Hermes Trismegistus under the\nname Poimandres. Ancient Egyptian tradition has come to us only in a slightly altered Alexandrian\nform. I have tried to reconstruct this major fragment of Hermetic teaching in the setting of the higher\ninitiation and the esoteric synthesis it represents.\n\n25. These gods had other names in the Egyptian language, but in all mythologies the seven\ncosmogonic gods correspond in their meaning and attributes. They have their common root in\nancient esoteric tradition. Since Western tradition has adopted the Latin names, we use them for\ngreater clarity.\n\n26. There are Ten Sephiroth in the Kabbala. The first three represent the divine Trinity, the seven\nothers, the evolution of the universe.\n\n27. These are the Egyptian terms for this septenary constitution of man, as found in the Kabbala:\nChat, material body, Anch, vital force, Ka, the ethereal counterpart or astral body, Hati, animal soul,\nBai, rational soul, Cheybi, spiritual soul, Ku, the divine Spirit.\n\nOne will find the development of these fundamental ideas of esoteric doctrine in the sections on\nOrpheus and on Pythagoras.\n\n28. In Egyptian doctrine, man was considered as having consciousness in this life only of the animal\nsoul and rational soul, called hati and bai. The higher part of his being, the spiritual soul and divine\nSpirit, Cheybi and Ku, exist in him in the state of unconscious seed and develop after this life when\nhe himself becomes an Osiris.",
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