Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
eyna , and the cavern , which Pausanias informs us was artificial , was so contrived that the stream flowed out of it . When any person wished to consult the oracle , he was first washed in this consecrated water by two youths , each of whom bore the title of Mercury or Casmilus . He was then directed to drink of the streams of Lethe and Mnemosyne
, the first of which removed from his recollection all profane thoughts , and the second enabled him to remember whatever he might see in the cave . Afterwards he was dressed in a linen robe , and conducted in solemn procession to the oracle . The mouth of the cavern was shaped like an oven , being extremely harrow and steep , and the method of
descending into it was by means of a small ladder . Arriving at the bottom , the votary found another cave , the entrance into which was yet more strait than that of the former . Here he prostrated himself upon the ground , holding in either hand the offerings to Trophonius . These consisted of cakes mixed with honey , which were always offered to the infernal deities . Immediately his feet were seized , and his
whole body was dragged into the cavern by the agency of some invisible power . Here he beheld such visions , and heard such voices , as seemed best to the tutelary deity of the place . The response being given , he forthwith felt himself conveyed out of the cavern , in the same manner as he had been drawn in , his feet in both cases being foremost . As
soon as he-once more emerged to open day , he was con ducted by the officiating priests to the chair of Mnemosyne , and strictly interrogated with respect to what he had seen or heard . Generally speaking , however , through the operation , doubtless , of superstitious terror , the votary was drawn up in a swoon . In this case , he was carried to the temple of
the good Genius , till he should have come to himself again ; after which , he was required to write down the answers of the oracle in a book kept specially for that purpose . Pausanias adds , that he gave this account from his own personal knowledge , for that he had had curiosity to descend himself into the cave , and to consult the god . " *
Here we have a lively specimen of the Hades of antiquity , and its terrors . The above adventure forms an abstract of the process of initiation , where the deities passed in review
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
eyna , and the cavern , which Pausanias informs us was artificial , was so contrived that the stream flowed out of it . When any person wished to consult the oracle , he was first washed in this consecrated water by two youths , each of whom bore the title of Mercury or Casmilus . He was then directed to drink of the streams of Lethe and Mnemosyne
, the first of which removed from his recollection all profane thoughts , and the second enabled him to remember whatever he might see in the cave . Afterwards he was dressed in a linen robe , and conducted in solemn procession to the oracle . The mouth of the cavern was shaped like an oven , being extremely harrow and steep , and the method of
descending into it was by means of a small ladder . Arriving at the bottom , the votary found another cave , the entrance into which was yet more strait than that of the former . Here he prostrated himself upon the ground , holding in either hand the offerings to Trophonius . These consisted of cakes mixed with honey , which were always offered to the infernal deities . Immediately his feet were seized , and his
whole body was dragged into the cavern by the agency of some invisible power . Here he beheld such visions , and heard such voices , as seemed best to the tutelary deity of the place . The response being given , he forthwith felt himself conveyed out of the cavern , in the same manner as he had been drawn in , his feet in both cases being foremost . As
soon as he-once more emerged to open day , he was con ducted by the officiating priests to the chair of Mnemosyne , and strictly interrogated with respect to what he had seen or heard . Generally speaking , however , through the operation , doubtless , of superstitious terror , the votary was drawn up in a swoon . In this case , he was carried to the temple of
the good Genius , till he should have come to himself again ; after which , he was required to write down the answers of the oracle in a book kept specially for that purpose . Pausanias adds , that he gave this account from his own personal knowledge , for that he had had curiosity to descend himself into the cave , and to consult the god . " *
Here we have a lively specimen of the Hades of antiquity , and its terrors . The above adventure forms an abstract of the process of initiation , where the deities passed in review