amorc - new light on the hidden archive

8/9/2019 AMORC - New Light on the Hidden Archive

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G-70 1184 PRINTED IN U.S.A.

'Tfeut JLiy&t (M , t6e

rf'tcAicie

Rosicrucian Order, AMORC


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The articles in this booklet are of particular interest to

those studen ts who like history, for they are a colle ction o f

the traditions, concep ts, and legends out of which our

current ideas and beliefs have come. They are not neces-

sarily Rosicrucian in nature, but are presented by the

Rosicrucians for your reading pleasure. In many of the

ancient traditions there are truths hidden in allegorical

form, and each reader will discover a meaning suited to

his or her particular area of interest.

N e w L i g h t

on the

Hidden Archive

Research and Compilation by

Rosicrucian Research Library

Supreme Grand Lodge of AMO RC, Inc.

Printing and Publishing Departm ent

San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A.


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First Edition. 1984

Copyright 1984

Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC , Inc.

All Rights Reserved

No pa rt of th is pu bl ic at io n ma y be re pr od uc ed , st or ed in a re tr ie va lsystem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior writ-ten permission o f the publisher.

I N T R O D U C T O R Y

Wise Words From Rosicrucians

I no sooner come into the l ib rary . . .with so lofty a spirit

and swee t cont ent that I pity all our great ones and rich

men that know not this happiness.

Rob er t Burton

Whoever thou art that lovest to examine hidden doc-

trine, do not idle but take as thine example everything

that can profit thee.

Michael M aie r'

He who wishes to rejoice with out doubt in regard to the

truths underlying phenomena must know how to devote

himself to experiment.

Ro ge r Bacon

Truth does not chan ge becaus e it is, or is not, believed by

a majority of the people.

Bruno

Sa lo m on s House . . . the End of our Found ation is the

knowledge of Causes, and the secret motion of things.

Francis Bacon on the Rosicrucians

What the mind conceives man will eventually accomp-

lish. Stud y is the conscious effort to learn; the pleasure

to be gained is a secondary m otive . He who entertains anew avenue of thought about the cosm os is a metaphysi-

cian. He who demonstrates it is a scientist.

Validivar


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The Celtic Druids

' I 0 the classical writers the most astonishing

A aspect o f the beliefs of the Celts was theirlack of the fear of death. To the ancient Celt,deat h was a transi tion between two forms of life.Their afterworld was considered to be as inter-esting and full of adventure as this one. TheDruids, who kept the body of their higher teach-ings secret, were said to have made public theirbeliefs in imm ortali ty and reincarnat ion so tha twarriors would have no fear in battle. The fact

that the Druid s taught and wo rshipped in clear-ings within groves of oak trees also appeared

strange and frightening to observers from thelargely deforested Mediterranean world, who

worshipped in roofed enclosures.

The Druids were not only priests, they wereinstructors in a 20year learning process. The

whole of law and custom was memorized bythem. They computed the calendar, including

eclipses. None of their learning was put intowriting. Lesser orders of Druids were the divin-

ers, or socalled magicians, and the bards,

whose poetry of praise was the highest honor

sought by the warrior an d whose stinging satireswere their greatest fear.

The borderline condition was valued by theDruids, and objects or situations that were

associated with it were held sacred. The mistle-toe, a sturdy plant parasitic on oak trees, was

considered neither tree nor shrub nor vegeta-tion, and was so highly valued that it was har-

vested with a golden sickle. Dew was a waterneither from rain, nor well, nor stream, nor

ocean. Twilight was a time of neither night norday. Sam hain , the feast at year s end (today thedate o f Halloween), was the time between times,

be ing of nei the r on e yea r nor the next .

The word Druid has been translated as HolyOne, and the roots of the word seem to comefrom oak and wisdom; therefore, WiseOne of the Oak Gro ve. Strabo compared them

to the Magi of Persia and the Brahmins of India,

saying that they gave forth their philosophy inthe form of riddles.


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Stonehenge

THE megalithic circle on Salisbury Plain,

England, has captured the imagination ofgenerations of writers. It is now known to have

been bu il t more than a thousand years be for e

the Celts came to Britain, so speculations on its

Druidic origin were not borne out.

Correct ed r adio carb on dating has set its begin-

nings even earlier than Homeric Troy and

Mycenae. The k nowledge of the art of handling

great stone pieces seems to have traveled south-ward into Greece and Malta rather than in theopposite direction.

The people who set upright the blocks of stone,each weighing an avera ge of 26 tons (23.66 met-

ric tons), and toppe d them with lintels of abou t6% tons (6.14 metric tons) were not utterly

uncultu red savages. They wove wool into cloth,

had tool kits for the working of leather, and may

even have produc ed linen from flax. They usedmetal for weapons, altho ugh beautifully craftedstone axes were still used. They lived at the

transition point between the Stone and Bronze

Ages.

The midsummer sunrise, midwinter sunset,

and the extreme positions of moonrise and

moonset may be calculated from the features ofStonehenge. Although its builders were notliterate, some kind of tally must have been used

to keep a record of their astron omical observ a-tions. Quite sophisticated calculating devices

using counters have been discovered in use in

modern illiterate societies.

The tallest stones in the Stonehenge complexare of sarsen stone, a very hard san dstone. Th ebl ues ton es, with the ir flecks of pi nk , were used

in the earliest stone assemblage, and are quitedistinctive. Until recently the only known source

for these stones was Mt. Prescelly in Pemb rok e-shire, but recent geological studies have found

tha t the same glacier that deposite d the stones inWales had also left some on Salisbury Plain

itself, so the speculations on the trans port of thestones by land and water were unnecessary. We

must also dismiss the charming idea that the


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medieval tales of the erection of the Stoneheng e

megaliths in some way reflected a traditionba sed on fact . The Giants Dance, as the

Arthurian chroniclers called Stonehenge, was,they relat ed, erec ted by fairy skills in Africa andthence magically transported to Kildare, Ire-land. To ob tain it, Ambrosius , King of Britain,

(a historical character) defeated its Irish defend-ers, and thanks to Merlins powers, it was car-

ried by land and by sea to the spot where it willstand forever. So much for romance!

Although all of Salisbury Plain was taken over

by the Romans to be used as imp er ia l wh eat

fields, where the grey stones stood high abovethe early green and ripened gold of the grain, noRoman traveler or historian is known to havemade mention of the monument. Perhaps,

knowing nothing of its antiquity, they dismissed

the stones as crudely made imitations of their

finely worked columns. Today we salute theachievement of the early Britons in creating

such a wonder in stone.

The Two Merlins

IN the ea rl y yea rs of th is mi llenium the lor dsand ladies of the var ious castles delighted inhearing tales of valor and enchan tment. A class

of wandering taletellers arose to entertain

them. The best of these continued a bardic tra di-

tion, repeating historical details clothed in the

form of poetic tribute to heroes and usually set

to music. Others contented themselves withpatching together fragments of old st or ies and

attri butin g to kno wn heroes of the past a variety

of exploits replete with invented magic won-ders. Whe n this material was set dow n by ch ro n-

i c l e r s , one inve ighed aga ins t the ly ingstorytellers without rime. From these con-fused sources, Geoffery of Monmouth, early in

the twelfth century attempted to relate events

concerning the Matter of Britain, the stories

of King Arthur, in some kind of historicalsequence. Tales of Merlin, the Enchanter, had

been ine xtricab ly wo ven int o his so ur ce mate-rial. So p opu lar was the Merlin aspect o f thehistory that Geoffrey wrote another book ab out


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Merlin, and wrote as well what pu rporte d to be

the Prophecies o f Merlin.These are described as

bei ng wh irling words of which the onl y al lu-

sions that could be easily adapted to eventsreferred to happenings in Geoffrey's own time.

These were immensely popular and, since their

obscurities could be interpreted variously, were

applied in political matters to lend the support

of prophecy to some cause or other. Eventually

the Church intervened and banned the Prophe-

cies o f Merlin at the Council of Trent.

The mater ial on Merlin was evidently originallydrawn from two sources. There was Merlin

Myrrdin f rom the Welsh and MerlinCelidonius

from the Scottish or Northern material. TheNorthern Merlin was a wild enchanter whos eproper habitat was the dee p forest s. He is sa id to

have gone mad when witnessing the carnage of a

gre at b attle. T he Welsh Merlin was said to be ahistorical charact er, a bard associated with oth-

ers including the legendary Taliesin. A combi-nation of traits from b oth these characters , plus

ano ther story about a child named Ambrosius,

were interlaced to form the literary figure of

King Arthurs advisor.

In some tales Merl in is descr ibed as the result of

a conspiracy of the demons to produce a son of a

virgin by demonic possession. This intent was

foiled by the sanctity of the mother, and thus thechild, baptized and Christian, w'as permitted touse his otherworldly powers in the service ofGod. Even though this explan ation placed Me r-

lin outsi de the class of wicked magicians , he wasusually given the trad itio nal bad ending reservedfor the practi tioners of the magic art s. He was

either locked within a tree or held in invisiblebondage by a beautifu l woman to whom Mer-

lin, in his infatuation, had given his secrets. Or

his body, placed in a tom b outsi de a chur ch, hadbee n sp iri te d awa y, but whether by demonic or

angelic powers the custodian of the church

could not say.

For some time modern critics considered the

whole of Geoffrey of M on mo ut hs account fic-tion, but studies into the period (about 550A.D.) when the AngloSaxons were temporar-


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ily beaten back from the southwest of Britainhave revealed traces of the warleader Artor,whose undoubted valor was the historic basis

for the whole cycle of narratives.

The Holy Grail

T O the modern reader, the legendary materialwhich consti tutes the background of the

history of the Holy Grail is briefly this: The cupfrom which Jesus drank at the Last Sup per was

used by Joseph of Arimathe a to collect some ofthe blood from the crucifixion. This cup was

carried by him to Britain where he built a

church. His descendants guarded the Grail intheir castle and were to continu e to do so as longas they led chaste lives. The chalice had great

spiritual powers and could be viewed only bythe pure in heart. The beauty and mystical sig-

nificance of the stories based on this material

are uplifting.However, the earliest written versions of theGrail stories are quite different, and they, in

turn, depend on an oral tradition that departs

even further from the modern forms.

The word grail,graalin old Fre nch, was not acomm on word. I t meant, according to an abbotof the peri od, a wide and slightly deep dish used

by the very rich for cos tl y del icacies. Ch retien deTroyes, whose work (about 1190) was the earli-est written Grail story, describes the graal as not

containing a salmon or other great fish, as might

have been expected in such an object; butinstead, the author places in the lordly dish a

single Com mun ion wafer.In the oral material which Chretien is setting

down and e labor ating on, the earlier stories canbe tra ce d to an Iri sh Welsh mytho logy. Bran(wh om we find asBronin later Grail t exts) was aking whose three great treasures were the serv-ing dish from which meals could be provided for

any number assembled and all would be satis-

fied; the drinking horn from which poured out

drink for all and changed any f ood into the mostdelicious form of whatever the partak er desired;and the spear that so longed to bathe in blood


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that, whenev er it was thro wn in battle, nine men

died and one of them a king. The Old Fren ch for

horn (an object not eas i ly recognized inChr eti en s period as a form of cup) was, to the

ear, identical with a declension of the word for

body. At a time when all were debating on

whet her the sanctified wafer in the Mass was the

Real Presence of Chris ts Body or the symbol of

it (a question of doctrine decided in the favor of

the Real Presence by the Fourth Lateran Co un -

cil in 1215), preachers were fond of recounting

tales of holy men subsisting for years with theCommunion wafer as their only sustenance.

Therefore it has been concluded that at somepoi nt the drinking hor n, cors, accompanyingthe graal was replaced by the wafer within theGrail, the cors(or corpus) of Jesus. The blo od-thirsty Celtic spear is trans formed into the lanceof Longinus which pierced Christs side and is

portrayed as accompanying the gra al and hav-

ing one or three drops of blood on its point.Later texts described the Grail as the dish thatcontained the Passover lamb at the Last Supper,

a chalice, or even a stone. The magical servingdish of the pagan tales lent to the Grail such

magical powers as providing a feast to the taste

of each diner, or grant ing to the land happinessand prosperity until some act of the king re-

versed the effect. The st on e in the early Parsi -

fal series of legends possibly alludes to the Phil os-op he rs Stone, the symbol o f transcen dental

alchemical power. Since the Holy Grail is de-

scribed, in one instance, as decorated by the

angels with precious stones, there is a linkage of

ideas.

Any or all of these aspects of this object of aspiritual quest have deep symbolical meanings.

We can see the alteration of significance as theaut hor s viewed the material of the Grail legendunder the cultural influence of their own periodsof time and religious outlooks.


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Was the Rose Known to A ncient Egypt?

HE insignia of the RosicrucianOrder today is a Latin Cross,

botonee, wi th a single red rose at th ec ross po in t . T he sym bol i sm ofcrosses has been dealt with at lengthin Rosicruci an literature, but outside the secretteachings, the rose has had less such attention.Its universal symbolism has been love, youth,and beauty. To the Queen of Flowers has alsobeen ascribe d other symb olic meanings at var-ious periods of history. The idea of the rose as

an emblem of secrecy has an Egyptian origin,and today what is said subrosa is not to berepeated. The mystic rose of Dante was thesymbol of Paradise. Illustrations of this portion

of The Divine Com edy are worthy of study,

especially that of William Blake, who usedRosicrucian imagery in his drawings.

The hero of the Fama Fraternitatis, which

pub licize d the Ros icrucian frat ernity at theopening of the seventeenth century, was Chris-

t ian / tostmkreuz. The Imperator of the Order at

that period was Francis Bacon, who had ties tothe royal House of Tudor , whose badge was the

rose. In Germany at that time, the Rosicrucian

Johannes Valentin Andrea bore on his coat ofarms four roses and a cross. The rose was also aheraldic device of Martin Luther.

T he traditi onal beginnings of the Rosic rucian

Orde r were in Egypt. Under the Rom ans, Egypt

exported fresh roses to Italy for the use of the

wealthy patricians, growing them at Arsinoe onthe shores of Lake Moeris of mystic fame.

While the introduct ion o f the rose to Egyptianhorticulture (about 600 B.C.) is credited to Per-sian influence, a wall painting in the tomb of

Thutmose IV shows garlands of flowers which

at least one auth or i dentifies as roses. This phar

ao hs grandf ather, the Thu tmos e III whose car-touche is even today a Rosicrucian emblem,

established a botanical garden at his palace.Since he had campaigned in Syria where, in

season, the red rose perfumes the air, whatwould be more natural th an an at temp t to cult i-

vate it, as a rarity, in his private garden.


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Interest in the rose among students of occult

matters con tinued. The rose symbol is found inRosicrucian and the often interrelated alchemi-

cal literature. We find The Ros arium Philosop h oru m , that is, The Ros ary or RoseGa rden

of the Philosphers, as a title used not only byArnald of Vil lanova but by other anonymousalchemical authors. In The Hermetic Garden

of Daniel Stolcius we see the alchemical emb lempictur ing two eagles li ft ing a crown above aunicorn resting in a rose bush. The quatra in thatfollows this text begins:

You who seek the miracles of great things,Stand by while the lovely rose is flowering.

The Rosicrucian Robert Fludd used the sevenpe tal ed rose as his sym bo l.

The Meaning of the Number Seven

TH E Num be r Seven was described by H ippo

crates as having occult virtues, influencingall sublime beings. It is considered the number

of perfection. As the septenary it is founded on

the Seven Directions of Space: a pair for each

dimension, plus the center.

The ancient teachings of the Kabala state that

the seven lower Sep hiro th const itute the Ancientof Days, the forces of manifestation. In theJudeoChristian tradition we find: Wisdomsseven pillars; Moses, the seventh patriarch;

David, the seventh son of Jesse; the seven sac-

raments; seven capital sins; the Sabbath, theseventh day of the week, the day of rest; the

seven sorrows, seven joys, and seven glories of

the Blessed Virgin; and , symbolically, the seven

stars as angels of seven churches.

In the Islamic tradition the seven Salaams arethe verses of the Koran in which the wordSala am ( Peace) occurs. These are recited duringper iod s of danger or dist ress .

The anci ent nations identified seven of theirgods with the seven moving celestial bodies.M a n s body has seven divisions and seven func-

tions. The Number Seven is also called the Mas-ter of the Moon because the moon changes itsappearance every seven days. The Number


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Seven is perfect because it is composed of the

Number Three and Number Four, or God and

Nature combined in man. Pythagoras says the

Number Se ve n has a body composed of fourprin ci pl es and a so ul composed of three princ i-

ples. Religi on , myst ic ism, hi st or y, and mythol-

ogy are full of references to the sacred aspec t of

the Nu mb er Seven. We read of seven spirits set

be hind Osiris pl ace of p ur if ication in The Booko f the Dead. The seven colors of the rainbow,

the seven notes in music, and so much more canbe noted by the dis cern ing obse rve r.

The Book of the Dead

THE Book o f the Dead is the title now com-

monly given to the great collection of funer -ary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes

copied for the benefit o f the dead. It was really

the great religious boo k of ancient Egypt. The

200 chapters were recited to the dead in orderthat they might reme mber and gain the power toenjoy the privileges of life in their heaven.

Thoth, whose role among the gods was like

that of the Recordin g Angel , was credited as

the author of the Book o f the Dead. Pictorial

presentation pl aye d a considerable part in thesepa py ri . The work is ful l of mag ica l re fe rences , as

its purpose is to guard the dead against the

dangers which they have to face in, first, the

underworld, and then in Tuat, the world of

the dead.

The deceased were threatened by many obsta-

cles and dangers in Amenti, or the underworld,

and in Tuat before reaching their final haven.On this journey through these worlds toward

the Egyptian heaven, the dead meet manybe ings who tr y to hin der the ir pro gr es s but fai lbe ca us e of the power of the Book o f Deadwhichthe deceased carry with them. They also had to

undergo judgm ent by Osiris, ruler of the und er-world, and to justify themselves before being

permitted to enter the real m of bli ss. Th is was

the one and only moment when even the Bookof the Dead was of no help. The souls of thedepart ed Egyptians were not masters of their


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fate when their hearts were weighed by Thothbe for e Osi ri s. It was at th is time that ea ch soul

had to repeat the Confession to Maat, so

familiar to every Rosicrucian. In repeating it,the soul declares that he has not committed anyone of a long list of sins. If what he has said istrue, he is allowed to go on to a happy land of

joy pr es id ed ov er by the go d Osi ri s. Th us , to th isend, every Egyptian of means had the priestsread the Book o f the Deadat his burial cere mo-nies and had that papyrus buried with hismummy.

Is Sir Francis Bacon A uthor of the

So-called Shakespeare Plays?

r~THERE is a widespread belief that FrancisA Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount St .

Albans, was the son of Queen Elizabeth by asecret marriage. Nicholas Bacon, a court offi-cial, raised t he child as his young er son. We may

note that only Anthony , the firstborn son, wasmenti oned in Nich ola s will. Quee n Elizabethwas openly delighted with Fra ncis childish pre-

cocity. Since the Shak espeari an plays containedpa ssa ge s that mi gh t ha ve been co nsider ed cr it i-

cal of political policy or hinti ng of a royal amb i-tion to a suspicious mind, Bacon prudently

allowed the plays that he wrote to be credited toa semiliterate actor, Shakespeare by name.

Baconian scholars have discovered in BaconsbookAdvancemen t o f Learningthe main cipherthat explains these circumstances throug h mes-

sages concealed in the Shakespeare plays andsonnets. Bacon used two other ciphers: the

Kaye Cyph er and the Simple Cyp her . I heSimple Cypher was used when he told of his

connections with the Rosicrucians; the KayeCypher when he told of intimate personal

affairs.

The socalled portrait of Shakespeare attachedto the Sonnets in 1640 can be shown to be amask sh adowing the features of Francis Bacon.The earliest printed works of Shakespeare, in

water mark and b orde r design, show figures andsymbols evidencing Bacons authorship. InWestmi nist er Abbey, such items as the scroll on


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a mo num ent and the designs on Sh akesp earesstatue there are significant. Numero us o ther cir-

cumstances of this nature have been broug ht tolight, but the best proofs are contained in thesonne t sequence ascr ibed to Shakespeare .

With out any ciphers, but just by close study, theautobiography of the BaconShakespeare per-sonage can be traced in them.

Rosicrucian records name Francis Bacon asthe Imperator at this period. His secret influ-

ence was felt in Europe as well as in England.

The Mysterious P ha is t os Disk

CRY PT OG RA PH Y is the ar t of writ ing or

deciphering ciphers or secret writings. Itwas an amateur cryptographer, Michael Ven

tris, who discovered that the script that had

defied the archaeologists and scholars of Mino anCrete was actually archaic Greek written in

Minoan characters.

Ventris availed himself of the cryptographictechniques usually employed today for breaking

enemy military codes. Champollion, in a pre-

vious generat ion, used the three language

inscriptions on the battered Rosetta stone togain the key to decipher Egyp tian hieroglyphics.

No su ch keys are adequate to unrid dle the my s-

terious coils of imprinted pictorial symbols on

the Phaistos Disk.

The Disk is of ceramically.fired clay, abo ut 16

centimeters (6Vi)in diameter, an d is impressedon each side with characters stamped within

roughly sketched spirals. It was found in one of

the lesser rooms of the palace comple x at P hais-

tos, Crete in 1908. Wh en t he great fire raged that

destroyed the palace, the Disk fell among the

ashes and charred debris. It already existed.


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then, at the date of the conflagration, about1700 B.C.

The idea of printing on paper to create bookswas conceived in China, and PiSheng inventeda kind of movea ble type fo r this purp ose in 1041

A.D. Gutenberg made the independent inven-

tion of movea ble type in Germ any in 1488 which

began the printing industry in Europe. Th emaker of the Phaistos Disk, 3,000 years earlier

than Gut enb erg s press, used a form of movabletype, tha t is, a set of carved stamp s to press a

character in clay. Fortyfive stamps were usedfor the 241 imprintings on the Disk. With its

discovery at Phaistos, proo f came to light of an

invention o f antiquity, completely lost to subse-quent civilizations, that was twice reinventedonce in far Cathay, and again at the earliest

dawn of the Renaissance in Europe.

What message was it meant to convey? Cer-

tainly n othing as ephemer al as lists of supplies

in the king s ware hou se on a cert ain date, or itwould not have been harde ned in a po tte rsfurnace.

The coiled shape has suggested to some a rela-

tionship to an initatory path in early or primi-

tive rites of rebirth. Many uses, either magical

or practical, have been theorized. By using anarbitrary scheme of relat ionship to Greek,

awkward (and dissimilar) messages have been

constructed.

Leon Pomerance, taking the symbol of a r ing

enclosing seven dots as representing the Plei-

ades, and the two symbols most frequently

acco mpan ying it to be the constellations known

as the Serpents Tail and the Eagle, found adirect relat ionship to the heavens as they

appear ed in Minoan years. If these represent

star groups, how do they relate to ship and fish

and flowering plants? A key seems to have been

found to unlock some of the meaning of the

enigmatic Phaistos Disk.

The presence of hidden things, whether con-

cealed in hieroglyphic script, buried unsuspectedunder the earth, or lying undetected within our

innermost selves is always a challenge and a


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triumph for those who undertake a quest fordiscoveries.

(Illustration of the Phaistos disc is from The Alphabet: a Key to the

Histor y o f M an ki nd , by David Diringer. Philosophical Library. 200West 57 St.. New York, NY. Reproduced by permission.)

Divination fo r Water

T^ \O W SI N G, in the sense of the use of a divining rod to locate water, is a respected art in

many count ry districts today. Ther e can be little

do ubt of the selfconfidence of men (less often,

women) who offer a moneyback g uarantee thatwater will be found at the indicated spot, with aslidingscale of refund if the exact dep th has notbeen pr ed ic ted .

The dowser is presu med to have learned to con -tact a certain strata of the unconscious mindand permit it to cause all but undetectable con -tractions in the muscles of the forearm. Thismovement is amplified in the rod, usually a

forked stick. Some combination of observationand sensitivity to magnetic fields may enter thesubjective awareness to active the syndrome. It

has been observed that in the company of hos-tile unbelievers it can be difficult or even imp os-

sible to attain the attunement of mind so that

the muscle response can take place.

Folklore claims the superiority o f wood from awaterseeking tree like the willow, but a work-ing dowser commented If you are in an apple

orcha rd, use apple woo d. Even a bent wire coat

hanger has been used successfully to locatewaterpipes at Rosicrucian Park.

The Mysteries

WATER, Fire Air, and Earth are described

as the four principles by the Rosicrucians

and as the four elements by the alchemiLooking elsewhere in the archives, we find hid-den aspects of these deeply significant Four.

Hidden Water comes forth from subterra-nean regions in pools, fountains, and wells.

Mineral springs draw up with their waters sub-stances that offer a hidden source of healing

either as beverage or bath. Myth tells of a pool, the


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headwa ter for a stream, where salmon may eat a

hazelnut from the Tree of Wisdom. Who catchesand eats such a salmon will have knowledge of

events past and to come, but he will pay a greatpr ice fo r su ch secret things.

Hidd en Fire , like all fire, is ultimately derived

from the Sun. The alchemists referred to it asan Element w hich ope rate s in the center o f all

things and which we may understand as sym-bolic al of life a nd ener gy . The idea of t he spa rk

hidden in flint to be drawn forth by striking therock with steel has been used as an analogy to

such su dden mystic experiences as P au ls visionon the road to Damascus.

Hidden Air has to do with invisibility. Thegreat and sometimes calamitous force of thewind is a hidden one, visible to us only in itseffects. Air had a direct associ ation with Breath,and Breath with Spirit. Hidden A ir can thusrepresent the spiritual working within the self.

Hidden Earth describes the essential qualityof this, the most common and least known ofthe Elements. Earth hides much in its depths.

revealing only a surface, and in the greatest part,

itself is hidden. This aspect of Earth is a part of

most o f the mysteries. Frequentl y the secret and

sacred ceremonies of antiquity, whose finalrevelations were never made known to the un-

initiated, took place in caves, grottoes, or insome representation of the same. At Eleusis the

candidates went into a cave, even as Perse-

phone, in th e my stery stor y the y celebrat ed,went into the underworld ruled by Pluto. In theIsis mysteries the candidate learned the secretname of Osiris, king of the Egyptian under-

world. The cave was a part of the legendaryhistory of Mithras and of Zagreus, the CretanDionysius. The Orphic rites were exoterically

bas ed on Orp heus de sce nt int o Ha des, wher ethe beauty of his music caused the Lord of theUnderworld to relent and allow his beloved tofollow him to the world of the living again, onthe unfulfillable conditi on that Orpheu s shouldnot look back until he had reached the surface.

The esoteric side of all the mysteries dealt withsuch profound themes as life, procreation, anddeath, the harmonious interworkings of the


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great round of the seasons, or immortality andregeneration.

Symbolical Birds and Beasts

THE legends of Isis, upon which her myster-ies were based, show her as the Faithful

Wife who sought after and reassembled the scat-

tered parts of her hus ba nd s body; as the GreatEnchantress who reunited the body and con-

ceived a child by it; and as the ProtectingMother who hid the infant Horus from the

murderous Set, and who gained for her sonsome of the magical powers of Ra, the Sungod.

Some of the symbolism atta ched to the Isis idea

is understa ndabl e only within the Egyptian cul-

tural milieu. It will seem strange to Europeans

who have a revulsion for the scavenger birds

the vulture, kite, buzzard , and to a lesser degree,

the crow' and raventhat the wings of Isis and

the feathered crown worn on occasion by bothIsis and her sister, Nephthys, are from the kite

or vulture.

It was as kites that they perched on the syca-more coffin o f Osiris. To the Egyptian , the idea

of a scavenger bird as a protec tor of health and

wellbeing is founded on the facts of sanitation.With out the services of the winged ones who cansense death, decaying flesh would be a serious

hazard.

In the ballads of Scotland, the crow, called

corbie, is used for ghastly effect, but the Vik-

ings considered ravens to be sacred to Odin.

This god was renowned for wisdom and alsoruled death. His ravens went forth every day

abo ut the whole earth and returned to rep ort allthat occurred. In an America n India n myth, thecrow brings light or fire to mank ind . The raven

(or the crow) in some tribes represents the chiefdeity, while it has been noted that buzza rds were

respected and reverenced by California tribes.

The thunderbird is a concept common to many

American Indian tribes. Considered by some

tribes fearsome or even evil, it creates thunderwith its wings, w hile lightni ng dar ts f rom its eyesor from its tongue. Other legends give the thun


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derbird beneficent powers, and it figures inChipp ewa myt hs as that being who by the flap-

pin g of its wings brought the dr y land fo rth from

the waters. In the Far West it is the raven whoperforms this feat .

Perhap s if we consider these birds that are con -

nected so intimately with death as symbols of

the act of releasing the vital forces from a bodyand transforming them into something winged,

we may understand the thinking that can con-sider a vulture as a bird associated with the

Great Moth er and Enchantress.

Another creature that has elicited a wide range

of emotional reactions is the domesticated cat.Reverenced in Egypt where their services in

defending the granaries from rodents wereapprecia ted, they were frequently painfully killed

in later times in Europe to destroy evil spiritswith which popu lar imaginat ion had associated

them. The cat is valued in India, yet a Buddhist

legend says that only the cat was too occupiedwith its own affairs to appea r and give tribute tothe dying Buddha.

The Mohammedans feel kindly toward felines,following the example of the Prophet, who is

said to hav e cut off a corn er of his robe so as not

to disturb his sleeping pet.

The snak e has an enemy in the cat. T his was

reflected in Egyptian myth by Ras taking thefor m of a cat in battl ing the wicked Ape p in

serpent form. The snake is probably the mostambi val ent of all ani mal symbols. It is ass o-

ciated with healing, especially during temple

sleep, and yet is deathdealing. The serpent

Apep was evil; yet the Uraeus, the co bra c rown

of the pharaohs, was originally the Eye of Ra,which led a semiindependent life. As the

Uraeus, the Eye was ruler of the world, and thepha raoh wo re its re presentat ion no t on ly to

indicate his own rulership but to gain its aggres-

sive protection.

Symbols must be understoo d in relation to their

particular se tt ing . Th ey ha ve an obvious outer

significance, of which study and medita tion will

reveal other and deeper layers of meaning.

These may, for the discerning mind and under


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standing heart, have a message for our inner-most selves.

A Final Wise Word o f Benison

Vouchsafe to all such . .. (who have) Engagedthem in this Mysterious knowledge the Full andEntire Accomplishments of a True and PiousP h i losophy , [ t o w i t , L ea rn ing , H um i l i ty ,Judgement, Courage, Hope, Patience, Discre-tion, Charity & Secrecie].

Elias As hmo le, Ro sicrucian and Alch em is t

T h e R os i cru ci a n L i b ra ry

1 R osicr ucian Quest ions and Answer s wit h Complet e

Hist or y of t he Or der

I I R o s i c ru c i a n P r i n c ip l e s f o r t h e Ho m e a nd B u s i ne s s

I II T h e M y s ti c a l L i f e o f J e s u s

I V T h e S ec r et D oc tr in e s of Je s u s

V Un to Th ee 1 Gra nt

(Secr et T eachings of T ibet )

VI A Th ou sa nd Ye ar s of Ye ste rda ys

(A R ev elat ion of R eincar nat ion)

VII Sel f M as te ry and Fa te w ith the Cy cl es of Li fe

(A Vocational Guide)

VII I Ro sic ruc ian Ma nu al

I X M y st ic s at P r ay e r

X B eh ol d th e S ig n

(A Book of Ancient Symbolism)

X I M a n s io n s o f t he So u l

(A Cosmic Concept ion)

XI I Lem ur ia T he Lost Cont inent of t he Pacific

XIII T he T echnique of t he Mast er

X I V T h e S y m b o l ic P r o p he c y of th e Gr e at P y r am i d

X V I T h e Te c h n iq u e o f T h e D i sc i pl e

XVII Ment al Poisoning

X V II I G l an d s T h e M i r ro r of S el f

X X I I T h e Sa n ct ua ry o f S e lf

X X II I S ep he r Ye zi ra h

X X V S on of th e S un

X X V I T he Conscious Int er lude

X X V I I E s s a y s of a M o d e r n M y s t i c

X X V I I I C o s m ic M i s si o n F u lf i ll e d

X X I X Whisper ings of Self

X X X H e rb al is m T hr o ug h th e A g es

X X X I Egypt 's Ancient Her it age

X X X I I Y e s te r d ay Ha s M uc h t o T e ll

X X X I I I T h e Et e rn a l F r u i ts of K no w l e dg e

X X X I V C a re s T ha t I nf es t

X X X V Ment al Alchemy

X X X V I M e s sa g es f r om t he C e le s ti a l S an c tu mX X X V I I I n S e ar ch of R e a li ty

X X X V I I I T h ro u g h t he M i n d s Ey e

X X X I X M y s t i ci s m T h e U l ti m a te E x pe r ie n c e

X L T he Conscience of Science and Ot her Essays

X U T h e U n i v e r s e o f N u m b e r s

X L I I Great Women Initiates

(Ot her v olumes will be added fr om t ime t o t ime.

Write for complete catalogue.)

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