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

EGYPTIAN
EGYPTIAN 233
curious reader, you ma be eager to know
what was then said andydone. I would tell
you were it lawful for me to tell you ; you
should know it if it were lawful for you to
hear . But both the ears that heard those
things and the tongue that told them would
reap the evil results of their rashness. Still,
however, kept in suspense, as you probably
are, with religious longing, I will not torment
you with long-protracted anxiety . Hear
therefore, but believe what is the truth . 1
approached the confines of death, and, having
trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I returned
therefrom, being borne through all the elements.
At midnight I saw the sun shining
with its brilliant light ; and I approached the
presence of the gods beneath and the gods
above, and stood near and worshiped them .
Behold, I have related to you things of which,
though heard by you, you must necessarily
remain ignorant ."
The first degree, as we may term it, of
Egyptian initiation was that into the mysteries
of Isis . What was its peculiar import,
we are unable to say. Isis, says Knight, was,
among the later Egyptians, the personification
of universal nature . To Apuleius she says :
"I am nature-the parent of all things, the
sovereign of the elements, the primary
progeny of time ." Plutarch tells us that on
the front of the temple of Isis was placed this
inscription : "I, Isis am all that has been, that
is, or shall be, and no mortal bath ever unveiled
me ." Thus we may conjecture that
the Isiac mysteries were descriptive of the
alternate decayin and renovating powers of
102) it is true,
says that during the mysteries ofIsis were
celebrated the misfortunes and trag~'cal death
of Osiris in a sort of drama ; and Apuleius
asserts that the initiation into her mysteries
is celebrated as bearing a close resemblance
to a voluntary death, with a precarious
chance of recovery . But Higgins gives no
authority for his statement and that of
nature . Higgi ns (An eal., ii .,
Apuleius cannot be constrained; into any reference
to the enforced death of Osiris . It is,
therefore, probable that the ceremonies of this
initiation were simply preparatory to that of
the Osirian, and taught, by instructions in the
physical laws of nature, the necessity of moral
purification, a theory which is not incompatible
with all the mystical allusions of
Apuleius when he describes his own initiation.
The Mysteries of Serapis constituted the
second degree of the Egyptian initiation .
Of these rites we have but a scanty knowledge .
Herodotus is entirely silent concerning them
and Apuleius, calling them "the nocturnal
orgies of Serapis, a god of the first rank," only
intimates that they followed those of Isis, and
were preparatory to the last and greatest
initiation . Serapis is said to have been only
Osiris while in Hades ; and hence the Serapian
initiation might have represented the death of
Osiris, but leaving the lesson of resurrection
for a subsequent initiation. But this is merely
a conjecture .
In the mysteries of Osiris, which were the
consummation of the Egyptian system, the
lesson of death and resurrection was symbolically
taught ; and the legend of the murder
of Osiris, the search for the body, its discovery
and restoration to life is scenically represented
. This legend of initiation was as follows :
Osirist a wise king of Egy pt, left the care of
his kingdom to his wife lsis 7 and traveled
for three years to communicate to other
nations the arts of civilization . During his
absence, his brother Typhon formed a secret
conspiracy to destroy him and to usurp his
throne . On his return, Osiris was invited by
Typhon to an entertainment in the month of
November, at which all the conspirators were
present . Typhon produced a chest inlaid
with gold, and promised to give it to any person
present whose body would most exactly
fit it . Osiris was tempted to try the experiment
; but he had no sooner laid down in the
chest, than the lid was closed and nailed down,
and the chest thrown into the river Nile. The
chest containing the body of Osiris was, after
being for a long time tossed about by the
waves, finally cast up at Byblos in Phoenicia,
and left at the foot of a tamarisk tree . Isis,
overwhelmed with grief for the loss of her
husband, set out on a journeyand traversed
the earth in search of the body .
adventures, she at length discovered the spot
whence it had been thrown up by the waves
and returned with it in triumph to Egypt. It
was then proclaimed, with the most extravagant
demonstrations of joy, that Osiris was
risen from the dead and had become a
god. Such, with slight variations of details
by different writers, are the general outlines
of the Osiric legend which was represented in
the drama of initiation . Its resemblance to
the Hiramic legend of the Masonic system will
be readily seen, and its symbolism will be
easily understood. Osiris and Typhon are
the representatives of the two antagonistic
principles-good and evil, light and darkness,
life and death .
There is also an astronomical interpretation
of the legend which makes Osiris the sun and
Typhon the season of winter, which suspends
the fecundating and fertilizing powers of the
sun or destroys its life, to be restored only by
the return of invigorating spring . ~
The sufferings and death of Osiris were the
great mystery of the Egyptian religion . His
being the abstract idea of the Divine goodness,
his manifestation upon earth, his death, his
resurrection, and his subsequent office as
judge of the dead in a future state, look says
Wilkinson, like the early revelation of a ftuture
manifestation of the Deity converted into a
mythological fable .
Into these mysteries Herodotus, Plutarch,
and Pythagoras were initiated, and the former
two have given brief accounts of them . But
their own knowledge must have been extremely
limited, for, as Clement of Alexandria
(Strom., v ., 7) tells us, the more important
secrets were not revealed even to all the
priests, but to a select number of them only .