The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

76 HISTORY OF INITIATION
astonishment during the tedious process of initiation,
was now converted to a moral purpose, and explained
in a series of disquisitions, calculated to
inspire an irrevocable
attachment, alike to the mysteries, and to the
persons of their administrators.
The candidate was taught that the benign influence
of the superior light derived from initiation, irradiates
the mind with some rays of the divinity and ; inspires it
with a degree of knowledge which is unattainable without
this distinguished privilege. He was instructed to
adore93 94 the consecrated fire, the gift of the deity, as his
visible residence. 95 He was taught the existence of two
independent and equally powerful principles,
the one
essentially good, the other irreclaimably evil 9G and the
;
cosmogony was this : Ormisda, the supreme source of
light and truth, 97 created the world at six different
periods. 98
First, he made the heavens; second, the
waters; third, the earth; fourth, trees and plants; fifth,
93
Kamsay on the Theology of the Pagans, p. 276.
9*
Hyde, Eel. vet. Pers., p. 160.
J-JLJ VAC, JLliCJL. VOL. _L 01O., J.UU.
JJ.
5 The throne of the deity was believed to be in the Sun, (Hyde ut
supra, p. 161,) which was the Persian paradise; but he was equally
supposed to be resident in the Fire. In the Bhagvat Geeta, (p. 54,)
Krishna " God is
_says,
in the fire of the altar ; and some of the devout,
with their
offerings, direct their worship unto god in the
fire." The
priest alone was allowed to appear in the presence of this Shekinah ;
and he was obliged first to purify himself by washing from head to foot,
and being clothed in a white garment, as an emblem of ceremonial
cleanness. He then approached the sacred element with the utmost
veneration ; was careful not to pollute it by the use of any metal tool,
but used an instrument made of the purest wood divested of its bark.
Even his breath was supposed to convey pollution ; (Vallancey, Anc.
Hist. IreL, p. 203,) and, therefore, while offering up his petitions for
the public good, he covered his mouth with a linen cloth to prevent
the
possibility of profanation. The veneration of the Persians for
Fire was
^so unbounded, that its pollution was strictly forbidden,
even in private dwellings ; the richest noble, equally with the meanest
slave, would not dare so much as to spit in the fire and ; if his dwell-
ing, aud ( every thing it contained were perishing by this devouring
element/ he was prohibited from controlling its progress by the use
of water, which was also held sacred by the people, and was allowed
merely to smother it by throwing earth, stones, or any other similar
anticombustible substance on it. The Parsis of Guzerat still practise
the same superstition. (Strabo, 1. 15. Perron's Zendavcsta,
vol. 11., p. 567. Notes on Richardson's Dissertation, p. 277 )
Vid. Berhani Kattea, cited by Wait. Orient. Ant , p 85.
te
Porph. in vit. Pyth.
Perron. Zendavesta, vol. iii., p. 384. Prid. Con., vol. i., p. 225.