The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

INTO THE GOTHIC MYSTERIES. 175
and guarded by Heimdal, the light-eared door-keeper
36
of the gods, armed with a naked sword and when the
j
term of his penance was completed, he was instructed to
search for the body of Balder, 37 and to use his utmost
endeavours to raise him from death to life. Being,
therefore, prepared for this dangerous expedition, he was
solemnly recommended to the protection of the gods.
He then descended through nine subterranean passages,
dark, damp, and dismal, attended by the usual guide.
Under a full persuasion that his mysterious conductor
possessed the pow.er of raising the dead and commanding
the elements, every sight presented before his eyes, every
sound which assailed his ears, in his progress through the
regenerating medium, was invested with the awe and
terror attached to a supernatural occurrence. If the
glare of burning torches gleamed through a fissure of the
rock and imparted a temporary illumination to the dark
cavern through which he passed, it presented to his
inventive imagination the god descending in a sheet of
flame. If a sound resembling distant and continued
thunder was heard to reverberate through the hollow
of the
passages, it was referred to the dreadful " twilight
gods," 38 when all nature shall be involved in universal
36 This place of penance was termed the Celestial Fort, said to be
situated at the foot of the bridge Bifrost (Edda. Fab. 7), or the
Rainbow, which reached from earth to heaven, and which celestials
only could ascend. The sentinel was possessed of a trumpet of so
loud a blast, that the sound might be heard through all the worlds.
(Edda. Fab.' 37
15.)
Edda. Fab. 29.
38 The twilight of the gods is thus described in the Edda (Fab. 32).
"In the first place, will come the grand, 'the desolating' winter;
during which the snow will fall from the four corners of the world ;
the frost will be very severe ; the tempest violent and dangerous ; and
the sun will withdraw his beams. Three such winters shall pass
away, without being softened by one summer. Three others shall
follow, during which war and discord will spread through the whole
globe. Brothers, out of hatred, shall kill each other; no one shall
spare either his parent, or his child, or his relations. See how it is
described in the Voluspa: 'Brothers becoming murderers, shall stain
themselves with brothers' blood ; kindred shall forget the ties of
consanguinity life shall become a burden ;
; adultery shall reign
throughout the world. A barbarous age ! an age of swords ! an age of
tempests ! an age of wolves ! The bucklers shall be broken iu pieces ;
and these calamities shall succeed each other till the world shall fall
to ruin.' Then will happen such things as may well be called prodigies.
The wolf Fenris will devour the sun : a severe loss will it be found to
mankind. Another monster will carry off the moon, and render her