Fritz Springmeier

84 ANCIENT MYSTICteaching in Masonry for those who will seek below thesurface.127. "The Ancients of Atlantis preserved not lessthan sixteen distinct Secret Orders, all of which constituted—whatwas known at the time of the adventof Poisedon to the Kingdom of Atlantis—as theMystic Brother or the Great White Circle. What isnow the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross was recognizedas the very highest of these Orders, by virtue of theirknowledge of the Secret Forces throughout Nature.This Order of men ruled the Destiny of nations andall Institutions.*128. "With the destruction of Atlantis,** this perfectionof order and organization was severed andhistory from this event only conveys scatteringglimpses of these various Orders—all of which, whilepreserving some remote impressions of their formerrelationship, have lost trace one of the other."129. Says John A. Weiss, M.D., in his "Obelisk andFreemasonry:" "According to our reading of history,the Priesthoods of Belus, or Baal in Assyria, ofOsiris in Egypt, of Jehova in Palestine, of Jupiter inGreece and Borne, of Ahura-Mazda in Persia, orBrahma in India, and of Teutates in Britain, werePrimitive Secret Societies, who instructed andgoverned the primitive families and races. It littlematters whether we call the members of those priesthoodsBelites, Pastophori, Levites, Curetes, Mage,Brahmins, or Druids; they were connected by Secret**See "The Philosophy of Fire."*See "The Rosicrucians; their Teachings."ORIENTAL MASONRY. 85Ties, and intercommunicated from the Indus to theTiber, from the Nile to the Thames. Hence thereever has been, is, and ever will be Freemasonry on ourplanet. Masonry was ever more or less connected withpriesthoods till about the thirteenth century of our era,when Masons declared themselves Freimaurer (Freemasons).Since about that period priesthoods haveever denounced and persecuted Freemasonry."130. "A thoughtful consideration of our principalceremony irresistibly leads us to the doctrine that wastypified by the Pastos in the King's Chamber of thegreat Pyramid, and connects with the main characteristicof all the Mysteries, which embodied the highesttruths then known to the Illuminated ones.131. "The twelfth century witnessed an outbreakof Mystic symbolism, perhaps unparalleled, in our era,and gave us the religious legends of the Holy Grail,which point to an Eastern origin ; this period coincideswith the greatest popularity of the Templars, whosefall is contemporaneous with the decadence noticed "bythe lecturer.132. Without pressing the argument, I may suggestthat some portion, at least, of our symbolism may havecome through a Templar source, Romanist, yet deeplytinged with Gnosticism; while at a later date theLollards, inheritors of Manichteism, and who were butone of the many religo-political societies with whichEurope was honeycombed, possibly introduced or revivedsome of these teachings. One thing is certain,that satisfactory renderings of our symbols can onlybe obtained by a study of Eastern Mysticism; Kabal-6aMASONRY IS CONNECTED TO THEANCIENT SYSTEMS OF PRIESTHOOD.