The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

THE MYSTERIES OF BACCHUS. 103
by scenes in which were depicted the ever-verdant plain s
and the souls of the just were exhibited in
of Elysium ;
the enjoyment of those pure delights which constitute
the reward of piety and virtue. The hero-gods passed
in review before him, and he enjoyed the exhilarating
vision, animated further by a hymn which was chanted
on the subject of the prevailing mythology.
At this stage of the initiation the hierophant delivered
a lecture on the nature and design of the mysteries ;
accompanied by certain significant tests, the insignia of
the Order, which served to distinguish the initiated from
the rest of the world. The aspirant then underwent a
lustration, 45 and having been purified, he was introduced
into the sacellum, brilliantly illuminated and shining with
46 a divine splendour, as a
striking symbol of the mind of the
initiated, now emerged from pristine darkness into a full
scientific and moral illumination ;
47 for he was greeted by
the envied appellation of Epopt, being fully instructed in
the nature and attributes of the divinity 48 and the doctrine
before them. Here they are entertained with hymns and dances, with
the sublime doctrines of sacred knowledge, and with reverend and
holy visions. And now become perfect and initiated, they are FREE,
and no longer under restraints :
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." (Warb.
Div. Leg., vol. i., p. 235.)
45
46
Sopat. in divis. Quaest.
Apuleius, (Metam., p. 273,) says that at the close of his initiation
he saw the sun at midnight shining with a glorious brightness, (nocte
medio vidi Solem candido coruscantem lumine). Even Plato denominates
the illuminated sacellum, /uaxa()iav 6yir f a beatific vision.
(Pheed., p. 1224.)
47 Themist. Orat, in Patrem. apud Warb. Div. Leg., vol. i., p. 231.
48 "
tells us
Augustine in the eighth book, de Civitate Dei, (c. 5,)
that Alexander wrote to his mother, that even the gods of the higher
rank, Jupiter, Juno, Saturn, &c., were men ; and that this secret was
laid open to him by Leo the great priest of Egyptian sacred things ;
requiring the letter to be burnt after it had revealed this to her. The
like Cyprian affirms, only he saith it was written to his mother insigni
tfolumine, in a famous volume, that the memory of their greater kings
was preserved, and hence arose the custom of sacrificing ;
the priest
confessing to him this secret. And, that we may not suspect these
Christian writers, Tully, in his Tusculan Questions, not far from the
beginning, owns that those who are initiated must know that they
worshipped men's souls departed from their bodies into heaven ; and
that majorum gentium dii were such ; and that almost all heaven was
filled with men. I doubt not but Alexander, Cicero, and Atticus, and