We have all no doubt heard of the
terrible physical tests applied in Egyptian Initiations and are aware that
violence amounting to torture was used in the Ancient Mysteries before the
Neophyte was considered fit to take the first steps in his Ascent of the
Mountain of God.
Though the methods of our Order are
different the Spirit is the same, and unless we have learned indifference to
physical suffering, and have become conscious of a Strong Will a will which
fears nothing fate can do to us, we can never receive a real Initiation.
These ceremonies in the lower grades
of Our Order are principally active in disciplining our minds; they lead us
to analyse and understand ourselves. They deal with the Four states of
Matter, the Four Elements of the Ancients which with their synthesis answer
to the five Senses. Our Senses are the paths through which our Consciousness
approaches the central power which for want of a more accurate word I will
call the Will.
It is the object of our lives as
initiates to bring this Will to such a state of perfection, strength, and
wisdom, that instead of being the plaything of fate and finding our
calculations entirely upset by trivial material circumstances, we build
within ourselves a fortress of strength to which we can retire in time of
need.
The natural Man is a chaotic mass of
contradictory forces. In the higher grades of the First Order, (by
presenting a perfectly balanced series of symbols to the senses) we
endeavour to impress upon the imagination of the initiates, the forms under
which they can obtain perfection and work in harmony with the world force.
In the 0° =00 Ceremony the principles
most insisted on are Secrecy and Brotherly Love. Apart entirely from the
practical necessity for secrecy in our Order, it is the fact that Silence is
in itself a tremendous aid in the search for Occult powers. In darkness and
stillness the Archetypal forms are conceived and the forces of nature
germinated. If we study the effects of calm concentration we shall find that
in silence, thoughts which are above human consciousness clothe themselves
with symbolism and present things to our imagination, which cannot be told
in words.
The more thought and concentration of
purpose that precedes an action, the more effective and effectual it will
be. Again in talking on subjects such as these, there is always a terrible
danger of personal influence or obsession coming into action. The Eagle does
not learn to fly from the domestic fowl ‘nor does the Lion use his strength
like the horse', and although knowledge is to be gained from every available
source the Opinion of others should receive the very smallest attention from
the true student of Life.
Free yourselves from your environments. Believe nothing without weighing and
considering it for yourselves; what is true for one of us, may be utterly
false for another. The God who will judge you at the day of reckoning is the
God who is within you now; the man or woman who would lead you this way or
that, will not be there then to take the responsibility off your shoulders.
‘The old beauty is no longer
beautiful; the new truth is no longer true,' is the eternal cry of a
developing and really vitalised life. Our civilisation has passed through
the First Empire of pagan sensualism; and the Second Empire of mistaken
sacrifice, of giving up our own consciousness, our own power of judging, our
own independence, our own courage. And the Third Empire is awaiting those of
us who can see—that not only in Olympus, not only nailed to the Cross,—but
in ourselves is God. For such of us, the bridge between flesh and spirit is
built; for such among us hold the Keys of life and death.
In this connection I may mention that the 00 =00 of the Grade of Neophyte
has a deep significance as a symbol; a o means nothing to the world—to the
initiate in the form of a circle it means all, and the aspiration of the
Neophyte should be ‘In myself I am nothing, in Thee I am all; Oh bring me to
that self, which is in Thee'.
Having so far considered some of the
thoughts that the practice of silence may bring you let us proceed to the
subject of brotherly love.
We must of course take the word, as we
take all higher teaching, as a symbol, and translate it for ourselves into a
higher plane.—Let me begin by saying that any love for a person as an
individual is by no means a Hermetic virtue; it simply means that the
personalities are harmonious; we are born under certain influences, and with
certain attractions and repulsions, and, just like the notes in the musical
scale some of us agree, some disagree. We cannot overcome these likes and
dislikes; even if we could, it would not be advisable to do so. If in
Nature, a plant were to persist in growing in soil unsuited to it, neither
the plant nor the soil would be benefited. The plant would dwindle, and
probably die, the soil would be impoverished to no good end.
Therefore brotherly love does not
imply seeking, or remaining in the society of those to whom we have an
involuntary natural repulsion. But it does mean this, that we should learn
to look at people's actions from their point of view, that we should
sympathise with and make allowances for their temptations. I would then
define Hermetic or Brotherly Love as the capacity of understanding another's
motives and sympathising with his weaknesses, and remember—that it is
generally the unhappy who sin.
A crime, a falsehood, a meanness often
springs from a vague terror of our fellows. We distrust them and ourselves.
It is the down-trodden and the weak
whom we have to fear; and it is by offering them sympathy and doing what we
can to give them courage, that we can overcome evil.
But in practising Hermetic Love, above
all things conquer that terrible sting of love—jealousy. The jealousy of the
benefactor, the jealousy of the lover, or the friend, are alike hateful and
degrading passions. Jealousy is deeply rooted in human nature nourished by
custom, even elevated to a virtue under the pretence of fidelity.
To see human nature at its very worst
you have only to listen to the ravings and threats of a person who considers
his monopoly of some other person's affection is infringed. This kind of
maniacal passion is the outcome of the egotism á deux, which has been so
fostered by romance.
But it is natural to wish to help and
be necessary to those we love, and when we find others just as necessary or
helpful, to feel bitterly that our ‘occupation' is gone; but these regrets
will be impossible to us when we can live in the world realising from day to
day more fully that the highest and best principle within us is the Divine
Light which surrounds us, and which, in a more or less manifested condition,
is also in others. The vehicle may be disagreeable to us, the personality of
another may be antipathetic, but latent light is there all the same, and it
is that which makes us all brothers. Each individual must arrive at the
consciousness of Light in his own way; and all we can do for each other is
to point out that the straight and narrow path is within each of us. No man
flies too high with his own wings; but if we try to force another to attempt
more than his strength warrants, his inevitable fall will lie at our door.
This is our duty towards our
neighbours; our duty towards God, is our duty towards ourselves; for God is
identical with our highest genius and is manifested in a strong, wise, will
freed from the rule of blind instinct.
He is the
Voice of Silence,
The
Preparer of the Pathway,
The
Rescuer unto the Light.
