PART 2 - The Lowly Initiate
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All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing. For things have been coordinated, and they combine to form the same order. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one God who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, one common reason in all intelligent animals, and one truth.
At the end of thirty-two months of study at a college (Latin:collegium, “the connection of associates”) or university (Latin:universitas, “the whole, aggregate”),[ii] the degree candidate seldom thoughtfully considers the esoteric meaning of the graduation ceremony. All participants don academic-style caps and gowns. The cap, described as a “mortarboard,” has a peculiar flat, square-sectioned top over an eggshell-like head cover with a tasseled string hanging over one edge. During the ritual, the graduate must ascend an elevated stage from the left to meet an individual wearing a black, five-sided, Tudor-style cap. This dean or head artisan offers a scroll or diploma (Greek: δίπλωµα, “folded paper”) indicating the degree earned with his left hand, and he shakes the graduate’s hand with his right. Descending the stage from the right, participants move the tassel string from one side of the mortarboard in an arc from the right to the left, mimicking the arching path of the sun from horizon to horizon, and forming the lower portion of the Masonic square and compass symbol.
What the new graduate may not know is that he or she is merely partaking in an initiation ceremony, and to one with understanding, the meaning of the ritual confirms the participant’s vulgar (Latin vulgus, “the common people, the multitude, a crowd, the throng”) status. This initiation is not to some higher intellectual class; it simply allows an offering of humble symbolic mortar to the artisans as a lowly apprentice or hod carrier. The priesthood of those who are able to bestow degrees considers the graduates as base laborers involved merely in carrying supplies to the more skilled bricklayers or stonemasons of the mystic “work.”
Consider the individual symbolic components of the graduation. The hawk or hod that the graduation cap symbolizes is a tool used to temporarily hold mortar so that a bricklayer can apply it to a surface using a different tool. Like the cap, it consists of a board about nine inches square, but with a perpendicular handle fixed centrally on the opposite side. In a similar manner as the dean who hands the diploma to the graduate, the bricklayer artisan holds the hawk horizontally with the left hand and applies the material on the hawk with a tool (engages the “tool,” who is the graduate) held in the right.
Most people today are unaware of the fortunate time in which they live. Literature, mythology, and volumes of historical research have been made available to everyone on earth. There are etymology tools available for Latin, ancient Greek, and Hebrew. The works of Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Pythagoras, Strabo, and Josephus can be rapidly searched for specific words, and the words themselves can be deciphered from their original language down to the letter. In contrast, a person fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew who might have had access to all the libraries of Europe during the Renaissance would have been unable to duplicate the amount of research in a lifetime that the average person could do today from his or her computer in the course of a few months.
Imagine how much Isaac Newton would value what most people take for granted if he had lived today. Such a wealth of freely obtainable information back in the seventeenth century would have been unfathomable. While the availability of information is miraculous in the sense of its mere existence, it is unfortunate that the activities of the average person living today are centered primarily on the base pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.
Since the Middle Ages, mythology has been an important part of a classical education, along with the required language skills in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Pythagoras taught that thinking skills were necessary for the serious study of philosophy and theology (i.e., mythology). A student prepared by first studying grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and then moving on to the quadrivium, or the “four subjects”—arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music.[iii] The intellectual pursuit of knowledge of the highest rank or class (classical works) was the mythology of the ancient Mediterranean world. It was the highest class of knowledge and was sacred in the sense that students could approach it only after they had proven worthiness. After this stage, the student then required an equally worthy mentor.
Today, typical college graduates complete a course of study with the singular goal of becoming sufficiently enabled to do some job. They are lucky to have received anything more than just a cursory survey of ancient mythology. Today, the serious study of these subjects is left out intentionally. It must be this way because of the fact that current information available is levels of magnitude greater than it was during the last two thousand years, and learning about and understanding the meaning behind mythology, as it was once taught, is only for the chosen few.
The great secret concerning the whole human race has been, at its quintessential base, required to be kept secret to all but those worthy.I…do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that I will always hail, ever conceal, and never reveal, any of the arts, parts, or points of the hidden mysteries of Ancient Free Masonry, which may have been, or hereafter shall be, at this time, or any future period, communicated to me, as such, to any person or persons whomsoever, except it be to a true and lawful brother Mason, or in a regularly constituted Lodge of Masons.All this I most solemnly, sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast resolution to perform the same, without any mental reservation or secret evasion of mind whatever, binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea, at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly violate this my Entered Apprentice obligation.[iv]
The belief that the study of philosophy and mythology is the highest form of intellectual pursuit has never waned; the value of the quest for knowledge of the highest class has not been forgotten. A select group has had the answers to questions and concepts that the majority of people have never once considered. The keepers of the knowledge restrain it, because its nefarious source instructs them to do so.
Realizing the importance that the ancients attributed to the classics leads to the question: What can be gained through their understanding? A good way to prepare for the answer at this point is to pose the questions that this book will address:
- Is there meaning behind the various classical architectural forms used throughout the world and specifically in Washington, DC?
- Why is the Greek goddess Athena so often represented in art and architecture? When did she first appear in history?
- What is the meaning behind the triangle reference to Athena that the Pythagoreans so often used?
- Why are the characters and story of the Trojan War still remembered today even though the city of Troy had been thought fictional up to its discovery in 1868?[v]
- Why have the sacred symbols of ancient mystery religions of the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Anatolian civilizations been so readily adopted by the Greeks and Romans, and why do they remain in Freemasonry?
- What was the Roman cult of Mithras all about?
- How do the answers to these questions give insight to the meaning of the enigmatic symbols on the dollar bill, the currency of the United States?
We have the advantage of the information-rich time in which we live to help answer these questions. In addition, this exploration will begin with the unique perspective that there was a common beginning for every mythological legend and that there was a fundamental entity involved. The realization of the who, and the nature of the source, is extremely vital to gaining understanding of the history and destiny of our world. This source has suppressed the understanding of the highest class of knowledge, since it would be counterproductive to one of its paramount goals: to have as many as possible forget or never believe that acreator exists. Understanding the events of the past concerning man and the entity known as the “giver of knowledge” requires a belief in the God who created him. Conversely, learning that the giver of knowledge truly exists might well manifest into an unshakable faith in that creator God.
Like a maze, the stories in myth over the many millennia have been intentionally obfuscated in order to hide the secrets from the vulgar. Often, the paths that lead to the discovery behind the meaning of the stories, characters, and ideas in myth often come to abrupt ends where the student must retrace his steps back to alternate paths in order to gain understanding. The paths of a maze mimic the method of exploration and discovery used in this book, and are consistent with the nature of the subjects covered. In the account of Theseus and the Minotaur, Theseus was given a ball of thread known as the “clue” that led him through the Labyrinth. This book will be the thread or clue through the maze, where each subject explored will add to the unraveling of confusion and lay out a path so that anescape to understanding is possible.
In education, the practice of exposing the student to information in a global fashion but leaving out the various, meaningful relationships between concepts until enough has been surveyed to come suddenly to a more complete understanding is known as the gestalt (German: “essence or shape of an entity’s complete form”) method, from the nineteenth-century philosopher, Christian von Ehrenfels (1859–1932).[vi] Through exploration, the seeker of truth will find everything needed for a gestalt moment when understanding suddenly coalesces. This is the path through the maze where each subject explored brings new choices of direction.
The Minotaur of myth, the half-man, half-bull monster, is said to have waited in the center of the Labyrinth of Knossos. We shall see that we do not need to kill the Minotaur to find our way out of the maze as Theseus did. We can do much more: We can understand what the complex maze of mythology represents, as well as the mystical identities of the characters involved and how they relate to our existence.
The information in this book offers a path showing the way that offers freedom from ignorance, and is quite different from that desired by an initiate to the mystery schools. The clues provided are meant for the nonelite and nontapped, as the goal is contra to those of the elite.
The great secret concerning the human race that has been kept hidden to all but those who are worthy concerns the process of becoming “god-like.” Going farther and finding the origin of the genesis of this secret will bring us to the understanding of the true path, which leads to eternal life.
The door we must open to gain entrance to the Labyrinth is also the place of the genesis of humanity, the Garden of Eden.[vii]
Locus amoenus—Eden
The locus amoenus or “place of delight” was an idyllic place of romance, comfort, and safety. The Latin term endured into medieval romance literature and typically consisted of three elements—trees, grass, and water—usually depicted within a walled enclosure.
According to the Judeo-Christian theology, God created humanity in the Garden of Eden:
And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:7–8)
It was in the garden (Hebrew: gan, גַּן, “enclosed garden, enclosure,” from the root, ganan, גָּנַן, “to defend, cover, surround”) where God walked with His new creation in harmony. The perfection of this state where man and God coexisted was the absolute definition of paradise. “Eden” in Hebrew means “delight.”
Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphoseon Libri, “Books of Transformations”) was written by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC—AD 18), or Ovid, and is considered one of the most influential works of literature in Western culture. It is made up of 250 myths that chronicle the history of the world from Creation to the glorification of Julius Caesar. The first English translation of the original Latin hexameter was by William Caxton in 1480.
In Metamorphoses, Ovid described various situations occurring in “pleasant gardens” (locus amoenus) that would change to sites of violence or calamity (locushorridus), accentuating the pain and loss experienced by the characters involved. The book of Genesis describes the first garden that underwent a change from perfection to calamity:
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8–9)
There was only one command from God to man concerning what he should not do, and that was to refrain from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16–17)
Adam and Eve could not have understood death, since the Tree of Life was accessible and since they had never seen, heard of, or experienced death in any way. Eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil caused the transformation from locus amoenus to locus horridus.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)
God would not have made Adam and Eve incapable of appreciating His creation or His presence. He did not create paradise and somehow limit its inhabitants’ abilities to experience joy, peace, love, vitality, the appreciation of beauty, and harmony with Him. The tree did not simply offer the knowledge of evil, but evil along with good. In other words, the fruit did not cause the earth to become a place of absolute evil or outer darkness, but a place likened to one where the subtlety of evil would be allowed to infect it.
According to the account in Genesis, a creature that obviously had been created before man entered the realm of heaven on earth in order to convince Eve to try the fruit of the tree. In Hebrew, the name for the creature isNachash. It is important to understand that Nachash was the creature’s name before it appeared to Eve in the garden.
Credit to raidersnewsupdate.com
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