The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

78 HISTORY OF INITIATION
and represented the manner in Which the year was governed
by the successive recurrence of summer and winter,
or light and darkness the six ; summer, and the like
number of winter months, 106
also to the twelve
pointing
signs of the zodiac, which were emblazoned on the roof
of the Mithratic cavern. The mysterious emblem which
served to typify these perpetual contests for superiority
l(f7
was, two serpents contending for an egg, m the former
being' symbolical of the powers of light and darkness,
and the latter of the world. 109
On these legends many wild and improbable fictions
were engrafted. The Archimagus related to the initiated
how the world had been seven times created and destroyed;
110 how Simorgh, the omniscient griffin, 111 who had
106 Thus every month was under the peculiar guardianship of a
genius, from whom it received its name ; (Rich. Dissert., p. 183,) and
a particular day of each month was dedicated to him by festal rites
and ceremonies.
107 The deity was frequently represented as involved in the folds
of a serpent, (Mont. Ant. Supplem., p. 211,) in reference to the solar
superstition, for the serpent was a symbol of the sun, and hence it
was often depicted in the form of a ring with its tail in its mouth, as
a striking emblem of the immortality of the deity, for whom this
reptile was often substituted. Much may be seen on this subject in
Signs and Symbols, Lect. 2.
108
Vid. Montfauc. 1'Antiq. Expl., torn, ii., p. 2, where is a plate of
this emblem, which has been copied by Maurice into the fourth
volume of his Indian Antiquities.
109 Calmet says, that the Persians " offered sacrifices of thanksgiving
to Oromazes ; and to Ahrimanes sacrifices to avert misfor-
?
tunes. They took an herb called Omomi, which they bruised in a
mortar, invoking at the same time the god of hell and darkness ; they
mingled with it the blood of a wolf which they had killed, and carried
this composition to a place where the rays of the sun never entered,
here they threw it down and left it." (Diet, in v. Demons.)
u
Orient. Coll., vol. i., p. 119. This doctrine is set forth in an
ancient Persian book, called the Desatir, which has been recently
discovered and translated into English.
"In the beginning of each
Grand Period, a new order of things commenceth in the lower world.
And, not, indeed, the very forms, and knowledge and events of the
Grand Period that hath elapsed, but others precisely similar to them
will again be produced. And every grand period that cometh, resembleth
from beginning to end the grand period that is past. At
the conclusion of a grand period, only two persons are left in the
world, one man and one woman ; all the rest of mankind perish : and
hence mankind derive their origin from the woman and man who sur-
vive, and from whose loins numbers issue in the new grand period."
(Book of Abad, and Commentary.)
111
Rich. Dissert., p. 170. "In Mr. Fox's collection of Persic