The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN PERSIA. 73
ments of the wicked in Hades. 77
Turning from this scene
of woe, he was passed through some other dark caverns
73
threaded the
and passages ;
until, having successfully
labyrinth, consisting of six79
spacious vaults, 80 connected
by winding galleries, 81 each opening with a narrow stone
portal, the scene of some perilous adventure and ; having,
been tri-
by the exercise of fortitude and perseverance,
umphantly borne through this accumulated mass of
the doors of the seventh vault, or
difficulty and danger ;
Sacellum, were thrown open, and his darkness was
changed into light. 82 He was admitted into the spa-
77 Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. vii., p. 675.
78 Tale of Eustam, in Fab. Pag. Idol., vol. iii., p. 328.
79 In conformity with these seven subterranean caverns, the Persians
held the doctine of seven classes of demons. First, Ahriman,
their chief; second, the spirits who inhabit the most distant regions
of the air ; third, those who traverse the dense and stormy regions
which are nearer the earth, but still at an immeasurable distance ;
fourth, the malignant and unclean spirits who hover over the surface
of the earth; fifth, the spirits of the "vasty deep," which they
agitate with storms and tempests; sixth, the subterranean demons
who dwell in charnel vaults and caverns, termed G-hools, who devour
the corrupted tenants of the grave, and excite earthquakes and convulsions
in the globe ; and seventh, the spirits who hold a solemn
reign of darkness in the centre of the earth. (Vid. Maur. Ind. Ant.,
vol. iv., p. 642.) From this doctrine probably emanated the Mahometan
belief of seven hells, or stages of punishment in the infernal
regions, (Vid. Signs and Symbols, p. 153,) and seven heavens, in the
highest of which the Table of Fate is suspended, and " guarded from
demons, lest they should change or corrupt anything thereon. Its
length is so great, as is the space between heaven and earth its
;
breadth equal to the distance from the east to the west; and it
is made of one pearl. The divine pen was created by the finger of
God that is also of ; pearls, and of such length and breadth that a
swift horse could scarcely gallop round it in five hundred ! years It
is so endowed, that, self-moved, it writes all
things, past, present,
and to come. Light is its ink and the ; language which it uses, only
the angels can understand." (Maracci, in Southey's Thalaba, vol.
ii.,
p. 247.) The seven hells of the Jewish Rabbies were founded on the
seven names of hell contained in their Scriptures. (Basnage, Hist.
Jews, p. 389.) All these fancies might safely date their origin from
the hebdomadal division of time observed by the Creator, and enjoined
on man by divine authority.
30
Signs and 81
Symbols, Lect. 8. Porph. de Ant. Nymph., p. 262.
82
Ibid., p. 253. The progress of the candidate through the seven
stages of initiation being in a circle, referred to the course of the planets
round the sun or more ;
probably, the apparent motion of the sun himself,
which is accomplished by a movement from east to west by the
south.
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