THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

Nowhere has this faith ever been more vivid or victorious than among
the old Egyptians.[35] In the ancient _Book of the Dead_--which is,
indeed, a Book of Resurrection--occur the words: "The soul to heaven;
the body to earth;" and that first faith is our faith today. Of King
Unas, who lived in the third millennium, it is written: "Behold, thou
hast not gone as one dead, but as one living." Nor has any one in our
day set forth this faith with more simple eloquence than the Hymn to
Osiris, in the Papyrus of Hunefer. So in the Pyramid Texts the dead
are spoken of as Those Who Ascend, the Imperishable Ones who shine as
stars, and the gods are invoked to witness the death of the King
"Dawning as a Soul." There is deep prophecy, albeit touched with
poignant pathos, in these broken exclamations written on the pyramid
walls:
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Thou diest not! Have ye said that he would die? He diest not;
this King Pepi lives forever! Live! Thou shalt not die! He
has escaped his day of death! Thou livest, thou livest, raise
thee up! Thou diest not, stand up, raise thee up! Thou
perishest not eternally! Thou diest not![36]
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Nevertheless, nor poetry nor chant nor solemn ritual could make death
other than death; and the Pyramid Texts, while refusing to utter the
fatal word, give wistful reminiscences of that blessed age "before
death came forth." However high the faith of man, the masterful
negation and collapse of the body was a fact, and it was to keep that
daring faith alive and aglow that The Mysteries were instituted.
Beginning, it may be, in incantation, they rose to heights of
influence and beauty, giving dramatic portrayal of the unconquerable
faith of man. Watching the sun rise from the tomb of night, and the
spring return in glory after the death of winter, man reasoned from
analogy--justifying a faith that held him as truly as he held it--that
the race, sinking into the grave, would rise triumphant over death.
I
There were many variations on this theme as the drama of faith
evolved, and as it passed from land to land; but the Motif was ever
the same, and they all were derived, directly or indirectly, from the
old Osirian passion-play in Egypt. Against the background of the
ancient Solar religion, Osiris made his advent as Lord of the Nile and
fecund Spirit of vegetable life--son of Nut the sky-goddess and Geb
the earth-god; and nothing in the story of the Nile-dwellers is more
appealing than his conquest of the hearts of the people against all
odds.[37] Howbeit, that history need not detain us here, except to say
that by the time his passion had become the drama of national faith,
it had been bathed in all the tender hues of human life; though
somewhat of its solar radiance still lingered in it. Enough to say
that of all the gods, called into being by the hopes and fears of men
who dwelt in times of yore on the banks of the Nile, Osiris was the
most beloved. Osiris the benign father, Isis his sorrowful and
faithful wife, and Horus whose filial piety and heroism shine like
diamonds in a heap of stones--about this trinity were woven the ideals
of Egyptian faith and family life. Hear now the story of the oldest
drama of the race, which for more than three thousand years held