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Some years have passed away since it was decided to revive the Order
of the G.D. in the Outer, a Hermetic Society whose members are taught
the principles of Occult Science, and the practice of the Magic of Hermes;
the decease during the second half of the century of several eminent adepts
and chiefs of the Order, having caused a temporary dormant condition.
Prominent among these Adepts were Eliphaz Levi, the greatest of--modem
French Magi; Ragon, the author of several classical books on occult subjects;
Kenneth Mackenzie, author of the Masonic Encyclopedia; and Frederick Hockley,
famous for his crystal seeing and his Manuscripts. These and other contemporary
adepts received their knowledge and power from predecessors of equal and
of greater eminence, but of even more concealed existence. Many of them
received indeed the doctrines and system of Theosophy, Hermetic Science,
and Higher Alchemy from a long series of practical workers whose origin
is traced to the Fratres R.C. of Germany, which association was founded
by Christian Rosenkruetz and his brethren so far back as 1398.
Valentin Andrea, the German theologian and mystic, has left us in his
works, published in and after the year 1614, an account of the doctrines
and exoteric management of the R.C. Society. But even the revival of
mysticism was but a new development of the vastly older wisdom of the
Kabbalistic Rabbis, and of the most of all secret knowledge, the Magic
of the Egyptians, in which the Bible itself tells us that Moses, the
founder of the Jewish System, was "learned", that is, in which he had
been initiated.
Through the Hebrew Kabbalah, we have indeed become possessed of more
of the ancient wisdom than from any other source, for it must be born
in mind that the Hebrews were taught at one time by the Egyptians, and
at a later date by the Chaldean Sages of Babylon. It is a very curious
fact that the Classical nations, the Greek and the Roman, have handed
down to us but slight glimpses of the Ancient Magic, and this is the more
notable because Greece succeeded to the Mastership of Egypt, and Rome
to the Empire of both the Greeks and of the Jews. Greece indeed succeeded
to a share of the Mysteries of the Egyptians, for the Eleusinian Mysteries
were copies of those more ancient and solemn ceremonies of Isis, Osiris,
and Serapis, but they lacked the true Magic of Egypt and further the classics
retain but faint glimpses of even the Eleusion Secrets. And these glimpses
serve only to disclose the fact that the Eleusinian pupils were partly
ignorant of the Isiac Mysteries, a notable example of which is seen in
the use of the words, Knox Om Par, of which even they knew not the meaning,
the words being merely the Greek incantation of the real ancient Egyptian
words whose meaning has been a secret for centuries.
Hence the 0 = 0 grade of Neophyte is found to possess Egyptian characteristics
and symbolism, and further an attentive study of the Higher Grades will
reveal the source of much of the culture, and illustrate the language
of the late Eliphaz Levi, through whose adeptship and advocacy the study
of Occultism has been popularized.
The first Order is a group of four Grades to each of which in succession
Neophytes are admissible. When duly approved of by the Greatly Honored
Chiefs, after showing themselves possessed of sufficient aptitude and
knowledge. Beyond them above are three Grades of Adepts forming the
Second Order; these have the power of initiating students into the lower
grades, and of issuing Warrants for Temples such as that of Isis-Urania.
But highest of all in this most ancient scheme are the Great Rulers
of the whole system, who severally sustain and govern the Third Order,
which includes three magic titles of Honor and Supremacy. These represent
the Supernal Triad of the Sephiroth, and are shrouded and unapproachable
to the profane, and to all others but the Chiefs of the Adepti; in case
of a vacancy in this Order, the Chief most learned and most famous Adept
obtains by decree the coveted Supremacy.
The scheme of the G.D. then is formed upon the type of the Decad of
the Sephiroth, the ten emanations of Deity, as figured in the very ancient
Kabbalah of the Hebrews, whose professors were illuminated by the Higher
Magic of the Ancient World. The Grades of the First Order will be found
to be of Hebrew Design and inasmuch as the efflux of the time brought
on the revelation of the Christos, the Tiphareth, the Beauty of the
Microprosopus, so Christian design is reflected in the Higher Degrees.
The Neophyte Grade, and the lst, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Grades, which this
present Isis-Urania Temple is authorized to confer, after due examination
and approval in each case, possess Rituals and secrets which had been
received from the Greatly Honored Chief Adepts, and were placed by them
in the care of V.H. Frater 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream, an eminent Kabbalist,
Hermetic Student, and Magister of the Soc. Ros. in Anglia, for revision,
and to render them suitable for English students of the present day.
The wording and working arrangements have alone been revised; the foundation
of the Sephirotic scheme, and the relative dependence of its several
parts, the secret names, and references are untouched and unaltered
from the Cipher Manuscripts which were handed to V.H. Sapere Aude, 5
= 6, (whose motto at that time was Quod Scis Nescis), already an Adept
and an Honorary Magus of the Soc. Ros. in Anglia, some years before
by a most eminent and illuminated Hermetist (since dead),whose title
was Frater "Five Momor Lethi". He had been for many years in communication
with prominent British and Foreign Adepts, and he had enjoyed ample
access to the writing of Eliphaz Levi. This collection of the Manuscripts
has since been supplemented by a varied collection of Manuscripts chiefly
in cypher, which have been either given or lent to the Chiefs of the
Temple by our Continental Fratres and Sorores.
These Manuscripts provide the Adepts who possessed of the secret of
their occult meaning with the ability to extend the Order of the G.D.
in the Outer subject to the approval of the Chiefs of the Second Order.
This approval having been obtained from the G.H. Soror "Sap: Dom. Ast"
in Germany, the Fratres "Quod Scis Nescis", "S Rioghail Mo Dhream ",
and "Magna est Veritas", the Supreme Magus of the Soc. Ros. in Anglia,
were duly instructed to extend the Order in England, and this Temple
was consecrated as a successor to Hermanubis No. 2 which had ceased
to exist, owning to the decease of all of its Chiefs.
The Temple No. 1, of Licht, Liebe & Leben is a group of Continental
Mystics who have not been in the habit of performing ceremonies in open
lodge, but have conferred the Grades chiefly in private, and in the presence
of only two or three members. For this reason there is no accurate record
of the names and rank of all their members, and very great reticence is
shown by them in their communications.
Very soon after the formation of this Temple No. 3, permission was
granted for the consecration of the Osiris Temple No. 4 at Weston Super-Mare
under the rule of our Very Honored Frater "Crux dat Salutem", and the
West of England has been assigned to him as a province. Almost at the
same time, the Horus Temple No. 5 under the rule of the Very Honored
Frater "Vota Vita Mea" was also consecrated at Bradford in Yorkshire.
These three Temples have now members not only in this country, but in
the United States, Hindustan, Palestine, Denmark, etc.
It will be convenient if I now give you the name of our order in the
several languages:
In Hebrew the title is Chabrath Zerek Aour Bokhr, which means Society of the Shining Light of Dawn.
While yet Latin was in universal use among persons of culture, the name was
Aurora.
In Greek, Eos Chryse.
In French L'Aude Doree.
In German the title is Die Goldene Dammerung.
Reference may now be made to the Rosicrucian Society which was reconstructed
by Frater Robert Wentworth Little, a student of the Mysteries, assisted
by Fratres Dr. W.R. Woodman, Captain F.G. and Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie. This
Society, which has branches in England, Scotland, and the U.S., perpetuates
the form of Rosicrucian initiation, which was conferred a hundred hears
ago in England, and is mentioned by Godfrey Higgins, in his famous work
"The Anacalypsis, or an attempt to withdraw the veil of the Saitic Isis."
Frater Little was a student of the works of Levi, and was also an eminent
Freemason and the Rosicrucian Society as revised by him was made by intention
and permission essentially Masonic, thus severing all connection with
the many eminent Adepts who have not been craftsmen.
History narrates to us the splendid mental achievements of Basil Valentine,
Artephius, Nicholas Flamel, Pastellus, Petrus of Abano, Cardan, Gaffarelli,
Jacob Bohen and Robert Fludd. The Society in the same manner fails to
recognize any worth for Occult research in women. This also is an innovation
upon the scheme of the Ancient Mysteries in many of which, notably those
of Isis, Priestesses and Virgin Prophets were prominent ministers.
I wish indeed to call especial attention to the fact that in several
instances of the Ancient Manuscripts written in Cipher, where reference
is made to the Fratres and Sorores, the words "her" or "him" occur, thus
clearly showing that in older times, as at the present day, women rose
to high rank and attainments in the Secret Knowledge of the Order.
History is by no means silent in respect to the success of woman in Occult
researches; mention may be made of Pernelle, the wife and fellow-worker
of Nicholas Flamel, of Martin Bertheran, companion to the Baron Jean de
Chatelet, who died about 1645, and of the widow lady (afterwards symbolized
by him as Sophia - Heavenly Wisdom), fellow student and inspirer of Johann
Georg Gichtel who died in 1700, famous as a Mystic Theosophist. The Occultists
of today to not need to be reminded of the Great Hermetists and Theosophists
of our day, of Dr. Anna Kingsford, of whom death prematurely robbed us.
She was indeed illuminated by the Sun of Light, and no one who ever heard
her lecture, and discuss the Hermetic Doctrines will ever forget her learning,
or her eloquence, her beauty, or her grace. Of Madame Blavatsky, the leader
of the Theosophical Society, a modern prophet of Esoteric Buddhism - no
occult system, however wide apart may be his or her own favored path to
wisdom, can fail to recognize in her a master-mind in a woman's frame.
The Soc. Ros. in Angela is, to some extent, exoteric in its lower Grades,
but its concerns are regulated by Adepts of eminence (an inner circle)
who still hold the Secret Knowledge of R.C. and in addition, the special,
concealed secret information in the English Society, in which, of course
the Members of the G.D. have no claim nor part, although they move along
parallel lines.
The Soc. Ros. and its branches in the several countries, and the G.D.
Order, both descend from the same parents and predecessors; the one developed
into a masculine and Masonic system; the other retaining the ancient and
more extended basis of the admission of all bona-fide students; rich or
poor, and without regard to sex, may alike go on and prosper without interfering
with the tranquillity of the other, and can lead true and patient students
who can Will - Dare - Learn, and Be Silent to the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom,
and Perfect Happiness.
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