Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

232 EGYPTIAN
EGYPTIAN
chief Masonic symbol . Some have abominated
this theory on the ground of alleged
polytheism existing among the Egypt but
this existed only at a later day m the life of
the nation, as it also existed among the corru
ted Jews in its worst form, for which see
2 ' ch. 17-21 .
Bro . Thomas Pryer presents this evidence
• a monotheistic belief, of pristine purity,
among the early Egyptians, ages prior to
Abraham's day . We give the hieroglyphs
• their interpretation :
May
thy soul
attain (come)
to
Kmgi m (Spirit of God, one of the
forms of AMoN, the Creator),
The Creator (the idea denoted by a
man building the walls of a city)
• all
mankind (literally men and women .)
1~
r
P1
%X, 1
May thy soul attain to KHNUM, the Creator of
all mankind.
How prophetical were the Books of Hermes,
"0 Egypt, Egyptl a time shall come,
when, in lieu of a pure religion, and of a pure
belief, thou wilt possess naught but ridiculous
fables, incredible to posterity ; and nothing
will remain to thee, but words engraven on
stone, the only monuments that will attest thy
piety."
Egyptian Masonry. See Cagliostro.
Egyptian Months. Named Thoth, Paophi,
Athyr, Choiak Tybi, Mechir Phamenoth
Pharmuthi, 1'ashons, Payni, Epiphi,
• 1V1'esore . The above twelve months,
commencing with March 1st, were composed of
thirty days each, and the five
entary
days were dedicated to Hesirisu=),
Hor
(Horns), Set (Typhon), His (Isis), and Nebti
(Nephthys) . The sacred year commenced
July 20th ; the Alexandrian year, August 29th,
B .c . 25 .
Egyptian Mysteries. Egypt has always
been considered as the birthplace of the mysteries.
It was there that the ceremonies of
initiation were first established . It was there
that truth was first veiled in allegory, and
the dogmas of religion were first imparted
under symbolic forms . From Egypt "the
land of the winged globe"-the land of
science and philosophy, "peerless for stately
tombs and magnificent temples-the land
whose civilization was old and mature before
other nations, since called to empire had a
name"-this system of symbols was disseminated
through Greece and Rome and other
countries of Europe and Asia, giving ongm,
through many intermediate steps, to that
mysterious association which is now represented
by the Institution of Freemasonry .
To Egypt, therefore, Masons have always
looked with peculiar interest as the cradle of
that mysterious science of symbolism whose
peculiar modes of teaching they alone, of all
modern institutions, have preserved to the
present day .
The initiation into the Egyptian mysteries
was, of all the systems practised by the ancients,
the most severe and impressive . The
Greeks at Eleusis imitated it to some extent,
but they never reached the magnitude of its
forms nor the austerity of its discipline . The
system had been organized for ages, and the
priests, who alone were the hierophants-the
explainers of the mysteries, or, as we should
call them in Masonic language, the Masters
of the Lodges-were educated almost from
childhood for the business in which they were
engaged . That "learning of the Egyptians,"
in which Moses is said to have been so skilled,
was all imparted in these mysteries. It was
confined to the priests and to the initiates ;
and the trials of initiation through which the
latter had to pass were so difficult to be endured
that none but those who were stimulated
iiy the most ardent thirst for knowledge
dared to undertake them or succeeded in submitting
to them .
The priesthood of Egypt constituted a
sacred caste, in whom the sacerdotal functions
were hereditary. They exercised also an important
part in the government of the state,
and the kings of Egypt were but the first
subjects of its priests . They had originally
organized, and continued to control, the
ceremonies of initiation . Their doctrines
were of two kinds-exoteric or public which
were communicated to the multitude, and
esoteric or secret which were revealed only to
a chosen few ; and to obtain them it was necessary
to pass through an initiation which was
characterized by the severest trials of courage
and fortitude .
The principal seat of the mysteries was at
Memphis, in the neighborhood of the great
Pyramid. They were of two kinds, the
greater and the less ; the former being the
mysteries of Osiris and Serapis, the latter
those of Isis . The mysteries of Osiris were
celebrated at the autumnal equinox those of
Serapis at the summer solstice, ana those of
Isis at the vernal equinox .
The candidate was required to exhibit
proofs of a blameless life . For some days
previous to the commencement of the ceremonies
of initiation, he abstained from all
unchaste acts, confined himself to an exceedingly
light diet, from which animal food was
rigorously excluded, and purified himself by
repeated ablutions .
Apuleius (Met. lib. xi.), who had been initiated
in all of them, thus alludes with cautious
reticence, to those of Isis : "h a priest,
all the profane being removed to a distance,
taking hold of me by the hand, brought me
into the inner recesses of the sanctuary itself,
clothed in a new linen garment. Perhaps,