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

234 EGYPTIAN
EJThYE$
Egyptian Priests, Initiations of the . In
the year 1770, there was published at Berlin
a work entitled Crata Repoa; oder Einweihungen
der Egyptischen Priester, i . e., Crata Repoa;
or, Initiations of the Egyptian Priests . This
book was subsequently republished in 1778,
and translated into French under the revision
of Ragon, and published at Paris in 1821, by
Bailleul . It professed to give the whole
formula of the initiation into the mysteries
practised by the ancient Egyptian priests .
Lenning cites the work, and gives an outline
of the system as if he thought it an authentic
relation ; but GAdicke more prudently says of
it that he doubts that there are more mysteries
described in the book than were ever
practised by the ancient Egyptian priests .
The French writers have generally accepted
it as genuine . Forty years before, the Abbo
Terrasson had written a somewhat similar
work, in which he pretended to describe the
initiation of a Prince of Egypt. Moss, in his
Bibliography has placed this latter work under
the head of ` Romances of the Order" ;
and a similar place should doubtless be assigned
to the Crata Repoa . The curious
may, however, be gratified by a brief detail of
the system.
According to the Crata Repoa, the priest
of Egypt conferred their initiation at Thebes .
The mysteries were divided into the following
seven degrees : 1 . Pastophoros . 2 . Neocorns.
3 . Melanophoros. 4 . Kistophoros .
5. Balahate . 6. Astronomos . 7 . Propheta .
Th e first degree was devoted to instructions
in the physical sciences ; the second, to geometry
and architecture . In the third degree,
the candidate was instructed in the symbolical
death of Osiris, and was made acquainted
with the hieroglyphical language . In the
fourth he was presented with the book of the
laws of Egypt, and became a judge . The
instructions of the fifth degree were dedicated
to chemistry, and of the sixth to astronomy
and the mathematical sciences. In the
seventh and last degree the candidate received
a detailed explanation of all the mysteries
his head was shaved, and he was presented
with a cross, which he was constantly to carry, .
a white mantle, and a square head dress . To
each degree was attached a word and sign .
Anyone who should carefully read the Crata
Repoa would be convinced that, so far from
being founded on any ancient system of
initiation, it was simply a modern invention
made up out of the high degrees of continental
Masonry. It is indeed surprising that Lenand
Ragon should have treated it as if it
Wthe least claims to antiquity .
[It has been suggested that Crata Repoa
may be an anagram for Arcta Opera or
"close finished works."-E . L . H .1
Eheyeh asher Eheyeh . The pronunciation
of 11 1At "ITUit 1N1K, which means, I am that
I am, and is one of the pentateuchal names of
God . It is related in the third chapter of
Exodus, that when God appeared to Moses
in the burning bush, and drected him to go
to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel in
t, Moses required that, as preliminary
to s mission, he should be instructed in the
name of God, so that, when he was asked by
the Israelites, he might be able to prove his
mission by announcing what that name was ;
and God said to him, ii'i"IK (Eheyeh), I am
that I am; and he directed him to say, "I am
hath sent you ." Eheyeh asher eheyeh is,
therefore, the name of God, in which Moses
was instructed at the burning bush .
Maimonides thinks that when the Lord
ordered Moses to tell the people that 1'1K
(Eheyeh) sent him, he did not mean that he
should only mention his name ; for if they were
already acquainted with it, he told them nothing
new, and if they were not, it was not likely
that they would be satisfied by saying such a
name sent me, for the proof would still be
wanting that this was really the name of God ;
therefore, he not only told them the name,
but also taught them its signification . In
those times, Sabaism being the predominant
religion, almost all men were idolaters, and
occupied themselves in the contemplation of
the heavens and the sun and the stars, without
y idea of a personal God in the world .
r
ow, the Lord, to deliver hispeo ple from such
an error, said to Moses "Go and tell them
I AM THAT I AM hath sent me unto you,"
which name 71',1K (Eheyeh), signifying Being,
is derived from 1„1 (heyeh), the verb of existence,
and which, being repeated so that the
second is the predicate of the first, contains
the mystery . This is as if he had said, "Explain
to them that I am what I am: that is,
that my Being is within myself, independent
of every other, different from all other beings,
who are so alone by virtue of my distributing
it to them, and might not have been, nor could
actually be such without it ." So that '11K
denotes the Divine Being Himself, by which
he taught Moses not only the name, but the
infallible demonstration of the Fountain of
Existence, as the name itself denotes . The
Kabbalists say that Eheyeh is the crown or
highest of the Sephiroth, and that it is the
name that was hidden in the most secret place
of the tabernacle .
The Talmudists had many fanciful exercitations
on this word 1`1$, and, among
others, said that it is equivalent to D 1'. and
the four letters of which it is formed possess
peculiar propeeties . K is in Hebrew numerically
equivalent to 1, and I to 10, which is
equal to 11 ; a result also obtained by taking
the second and third letters of the holy name,
or 1 and 1 which are 5 and 6, amounting to
11 . But the 5 and 6 invariably produce the
same number in their multiplication, for 5 .
times 5 are 25, and 6 times 6 are 36, and this
invariable product of 1 and 1 was said to denote
the unchangeableness of the First Cause .
Again, I am, 1^1K, commences with $ or 1, the
beginning of numbers, and Jehovah,111`, with
or 10, the end of numbers, which signified
that God was the beginning and end of all
things . The phrase Eheyeh asher eheyeh is
of importance in the study of the legend of
the Royal Arch system . Some years ago,