-
Articles/Ads
Article ORIGINAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY FREEMASONRY. ← Page 4 of 9 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Original And Supplementary Freemasonry.
lamentations were made for a person who had been lost , or was dead ; and after search had been made , aiid he was discovered , the assembled brethren cried out , " We have found him , let us rejoice together ; " and joy and congratulation took place of sorrow , at the restoration and regeneration of him who had been lost . So , after the candidate had passed through an allegorical death , and had emerged from darkness into light , he was greeted with congratulation and rejoicing bthe initiatedand
y , received the traditions and instructions imparted to him by the officiating hierophant . ' Having thoroughly purified him ( the candidate ) , the hierophant now discloses to the initiated a region all over illuminated and shining with a divine splendour . The cloud and thick darkness are dispersed , and the mind , which before was full of disconsolate obscurity , now emergesas it wereinto day lete with light aud cheerfulnessout of
, , , rep , the profound depth into which it had been plunged . " SiOboeus , also , in giving an account of the initiation into the Mysteries from an ancient author , proposes to explain the exact conformity which exists between death on a real descent into hell , and the initiation , where these scenes were allegoricall y described ; also between a restoration to life , or a resurrection from the grave , and the mystic emerging
from Hades into the light and liberty of Elysium . " The mind , " says he , " is affected and agitated in death , just as it is in initiation into the grand Mysteries . And word answers to word ; for reXeurav is ' to die , ' and rckiLo-dai is * to be initiated . ' The first stage is nothing but errors and uncertainties , laborious wanderings , a rude and fearful march through night and darkness ; and now , when the aspirants have arrived ou the verge of death and initiation , every thing wears a dreadful aspect ; it is
all horror , trembling , sweating , and affrightment . But this scene once over , a miraculous and divine light displays itself , and shining plains and flowery meadows open on ail hands before them . Here they are entertained with hymns and dances , with the sublime doctrines of sacred knowledge , and with reverent and holy visions . And , now become perfect and initiated , they are free and no longer under restraint ; but , crowned and triumphant , they walk up and down the regions of the
blessed , converse with pure and holy men , and celebrate the sacred Mysteries at pleasure . " * Such is an outline of the rites which were practised at the initiation of an aspirant for the sacred . Mysteries ; after passing through which , he was pronounced to be perfect and happy . The most marked similarity , nay , identity , exists throughout them all , and their antiquity remounts up to the renewal of the human race under their second common father .
But if the learned doctors opinion be correct , that a distinct system , which he cads True Masonry , and of which the Mysteries were a spurious imitation , existed previously and ran a cotemporaneous course with these , we shall of course be able to find some historical evidence of its existence and practical cultivation by the immediate descendants of either Shem or Japhet . But the offspring of Japhet , we know , immediately established the Mysteries in their several locations , were the most zealous cultivators
e-f the Osiric and Cabiric rites , and the founders of the wide-spread system of mythology , which some writers call after them , lonism . To the descendants of Shorn , therefore , the ancestor of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Original And Supplementary Freemasonry.
lamentations were made for a person who had been lost , or was dead ; and after search had been made , aiid he was discovered , the assembled brethren cried out , " We have found him , let us rejoice together ; " and joy and congratulation took place of sorrow , at the restoration and regeneration of him who had been lost . So , after the candidate had passed through an allegorical death , and had emerged from darkness into light , he was greeted with congratulation and rejoicing bthe initiatedand
y , received the traditions and instructions imparted to him by the officiating hierophant . ' Having thoroughly purified him ( the candidate ) , the hierophant now discloses to the initiated a region all over illuminated and shining with a divine splendour . The cloud and thick darkness are dispersed , and the mind , which before was full of disconsolate obscurity , now emergesas it wereinto day lete with light aud cheerfulnessout of
, , , rep , the profound depth into which it had been plunged . " SiOboeus , also , in giving an account of the initiation into the Mysteries from an ancient author , proposes to explain the exact conformity which exists between death on a real descent into hell , and the initiation , where these scenes were allegoricall y described ; also between a restoration to life , or a resurrection from the grave , and the mystic emerging
from Hades into the light and liberty of Elysium . " The mind , " says he , " is affected and agitated in death , just as it is in initiation into the grand Mysteries . And word answers to word ; for reXeurav is ' to die , ' and rckiLo-dai is * to be initiated . ' The first stage is nothing but errors and uncertainties , laborious wanderings , a rude and fearful march through night and darkness ; and now , when the aspirants have arrived ou the verge of death and initiation , every thing wears a dreadful aspect ; it is
all horror , trembling , sweating , and affrightment . But this scene once over , a miraculous and divine light displays itself , and shining plains and flowery meadows open on ail hands before them . Here they are entertained with hymns and dances , with the sublime doctrines of sacred knowledge , and with reverent and holy visions . And , now become perfect and initiated , they are free and no longer under restraint ; but , crowned and triumphant , they walk up and down the regions of the
blessed , converse with pure and holy men , and celebrate the sacred Mysteries at pleasure . " * Such is an outline of the rites which were practised at the initiation of an aspirant for the sacred . Mysteries ; after passing through which , he was pronounced to be perfect and happy . The most marked similarity , nay , identity , exists throughout them all , and their antiquity remounts up to the renewal of the human race under their second common father .
But if the learned doctors opinion be correct , that a distinct system , which he cads True Masonry , and of which the Mysteries were a spurious imitation , existed previously and ran a cotemporaneous course with these , we shall of course be able to find some historical evidence of its existence and practical cultivation by the immediate descendants of either Shem or Japhet . But the offspring of Japhet , we know , immediately established the Mysteries in their several locations , were the most zealous cultivators
e-f the Osiric and Cabiric rites , and the founders of the wide-spread system of mythology , which some writers call after them , lonism . To the descendants of Shorn , therefore , the ancestor of