THE THIRD DEGREE .

An Interpretation by

W. Bro.Ernest H. Shackleton of the Templars Lodge No. 4302.

THE RAISING OF OSIRIS

"Truth is within ourselves.  It takes no rise 
From outward things, whate'er you may believe,
There is an inmost centre in ourselves 
Where Truth abides in fullness; and to know 
Rather consists in finding out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape 
Than by effecting entrance for a light
Supposed to be without."

ROBERT BROWNING, "Paraceisus."

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God.

And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.


In whom all the buildings fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple
in the Lord.
In whom we also are building together an habitation of God through the
Spirit.

EPHESIANS 11, 19-22.

We are surrounded by great mysteries, of which the wisest amongst us
knows no more than the simplest, and by great facts which are entirely
unaffected by the babble of men.

COL. CONDER.

The G.A. has set up the Throne upon which the lapse of ages has no
power to impair, and has indelibly inscribed in its secret places the immune
path of the just in character of light, embodied in the varying motions of the
heavenly orbs.

W. MARSHAM ADAMS.

The past which is no longer in existence, the future which is not yet is
contained as a germ in the present. 
He who contemplates nature must live in those ages as yet uncreated as
well as in those which have passed away.  The future as well as the past
are even more real than the present, which does not exist, since from one
second to another time climbs up into the future only to fall back into the
pit of the past.  Eternity is the only reality.

The future is as real as the past. The world to come is in the mind's eye as
substantial as the world of long ago. The world to come is there, in the
future eternity, just as the world of long ago is there, in the eternity of the
past, and all is present in the Absolute.

C. FLAMMARION.

To Him who did the Temple rear,
Who lived and died within the Square
And now lies buried none knows where
Save we who Master Masons are.


FIRST SECTION, THIRD LECTURE.


To Him who most things understood,
To Him who found the stones and wood,
To Him who nobly shed his blood In doing well his duty,
Blest be that age, and blest each morn,
On which these three great men were born,
Who Israel's Temple did adorn,
With Wisdom, Strength and Beauty.

THIRD SECTION, THIRD LECTURE.

There is no death unto Thy servant but a passage.

RITUAL OF THE TOMB (Book of the Dead).

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

DANIEL 12, 3.

The House I build is great, for great is our God above all gods.

KING SOLOMON.

The thought processes which accompanied the Ritual of the Mysteries were
greatly more important than the Ritual itself.
Truth is the ground of Science, the centre wherein all things repose, and
is the type of Eternity.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

PART I

There are some who claim an origin based on the deeper mysticism of the
Craft and who trace its descent from the remotest sources of Ancient
Wisdom.  There are others who are concrete in their views and see on the
material things, and there is a third who bridge the gap between these two
and see that in our Rituals there lies embodied in the symbolism
philosophic ideas.  The mystic teaching undoubtedly stretches far back and
true symbols are earthly representations of spiritual truths -a making visible
of an idea.

Freemasonry has so much in common with all the ancient religions and
mysteries, the age-old teaching is so perpetually true that nothing can alter
it in all time, either in its exoteric form or on it esoteric side which is the
inner and spiritual.  It is by way of these old symbols that we leave this
material world and gain truth absolute.  Seeking to build the bridge
between the world and the unseen, to unravel the great mystery of the
purpose of life, whence we have come, whither we are going and why. 

For many thousands of years there have existed these old Mystery
Religions which seem to have come from the far-off, remote places of the
East and permeated through the Ancient Races and peoples of the world,
spreading westward to the great centres of the old civilisations of the
Mediterranean world, which very gradually, almost imperceptibly raised the
conception of man to a very high level of spirituality.  They covered a very
great range of ideas, a varied assortment of characters and outlooks, suited
to all stations of life, to all grades of intelligence, culminating in the
Eleusinian and the Samathracian, the Mysteries of Mithra, and perhaps the
greatest of them all the Egyptian Mysteries of the Dead, with their
complicated rites and ceremonies, and their wonderful rituals.

They supported the hope of man through many centuries, possessed many
great moral and spiritual values, and so powerful a hold did these mysteries
obtain on the imagination of the people and so deeply did they become
engrained on their lives and actions that much from them still persists in
this modern age in various phrases of thought and practice in everyday life.

As we endeavour to recapture the past and pierce the inexorable silences
of perished centuries and to understand the everlasting problem which
confronts man now, just as it did then, as we glimpse their struggles to
bring man into touch with the Eternal, we trace their notions of secrecy, of
symbolism, of mystical brotherhood, of sacramental grace, of the three
phases of purification, illumination and resurrection to perfection.

The great River of Truth, into which all these tributaries flow, is still running
in full flood, with our Brethren of the Craft absorbing its tenets and
increasing its force more and more, as the years fly past, striving at a
perfect humanity, and passion of the Deity, a Fellowship of suffering as the
precondition to participation in the Divine.

In the Ancient days by the appreciation of the unity of all Life, the
mysterious Harmony of the least and nearest with the greatest and most
remote, the conviction that the life of the Universe pulsated in all its parts,
by their cosmic consciousness they inculcated the great lessons of
humbleness and adoration due from the Creature to his Creator.  How
much of this Cosmic aspect have we retained in our Lodge to-day? So
much that our every movement serves but to emphasise those unalterable
truths.

They pictured a great quest for a vision of the Divine, of efforts to solve the
greatest mystery of all, the mystery of the G........., as Cicero has put it "so
that men might live with joy and die with better hope." The problem of the
nature of the soul, of immortality and the way of purification and the
preparation in life for the Life Everlasting.

In almost all the old Mysteries there was a great multiplicity of Gods, of
aspects of the manifold forces of the Universe and of the trials and
struggles of nature but gradually there came the perception that all these
mysteries led to the realisation that there was only "ONE," that all is but a
manifestation of that "ONE" and there developed an "intuitional faith." The
Ritual of the Brotherhoods promoting the equality of mankind.

Educated men like Plutarch, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Julian and Proclus, who
were members of the Mysteries expressed something of the ideas of those
mysteries in their writings and teachings without disclosing any of the
details of the Ceremonies.

It is a fact that there was a strong bond of fellowship among the members
which made the burden of life more tolerable.

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, the march of mankind
being towards God.  That there is in man a religious instinct the satisfaction
of which but quickens that instinct and lays bare the greater need, but there
is a native idealism and spirituality in our being which transmutes the acts
of worship into uplifting sacraments.

In their beginnings they were simple enough, they arose from the
observation of the patent facts of recurring death and resurrection in nature.

The sun being of supreme importance to man and from the beginning of
Time has been a Centre of Ritual Ceremonies which primitive man in his
will to live, being the source from which all his sustenance emanates.  He
formed a sympathetic Magical Ritual wherein having asked for what he
desires he performs a play to illustrate what it is he wants done.  These
pantomimic ceremonies are probably the first form of dramatic art and may
be  said to have begun in this way.  Leading from all this there sprang up
propitiation rites, of sacrifices to please a supposedly angry Deity.

Numbers, letters and grammatical shapes, colours and even sounds came
to be used as symbols of secrets and to possess magical properties, which
could be invoked to aid in forming spiritual images in the minds of the
ritualists piercing the darkness of a natural H....... w....... penetrating the
earth illusion to probe for that which is lost.

It is not, I believe, that our present-day ritual is a direct derivation from the
exact forms used in the remotest antiquity, but beyond doubt, in my mind,
I feel that the connection remains unbroken in that the high doctrines and
mystical knowledge implicit in our Ritual were used by the great Masters
and that our Craft is carrying on in its truest form the essentials of a great
inherent faith and purpose, to arouse and develop that vital and immortal
principle on the growth of which the true Raising of any and every
Candidate depends.  An endeavour to awaken the mentality of the soul
consciousness into an awareness of the Divine.

A wonderful Mystery Teaching has evolved from these first plays forming
the basis of all philosophies and true sciences, a teaching of the evolution
of the Soul and of its journeys, the history of the one is the history of us all,
and within the life of an individual Brother is transacted the whole of that
great drama which portrays the Birth and destiny of himself, destined to fill
a part in the building erected by the G.A.O.T.U.

Primitive man has had, from the very beginning, a distinct natural
conception of a Great Creator, a God behind the gods.

That God is man, just as man partakes of the nature of God, the twain are
one and indivisible in essence, major and minor, condensed and dissipated
instances and emanations of that great all-pervading Spirit which
interpenetrates all matter, of which, indeed, matter itself is merely the
palpable and visible type.

These simple truths, were well understood by the truly learned priesthood
of Egypt, and to-day it is our constant endeavour to restore the esoteric
processes by which man communicated spiritually and personally with his
Creator, and to centre within himself the power to enable him to hope that
at last he would dwell with Him after the separation caused by the material
barrier which would be broken down after death.  The descent into Hell and
the resurrection and divine rebirth of the Soul are the most powerful
restatements and corroborations of the Mysteries which the mind can
conceive. As they have put it "Life is desirable, yet, in the confines of this
perishable body, it is only a preparation, a stage upon the road to death,
man having vanquished for ever his terror of the unknown, there remains
but one step further and ge will despise all earthly joys, his eyes being fixed
upon the vision of eternal bliss.

To-day, perhaps, we enjoy more elevated conceptions of God, and a purer
and clearer intuition, but the old symbolism must still express their vision,
there can be no others.

Perhaps it is by these simple, true, and more direct methods of divine
communications, of which we glean such lovely lights from our Sacred
Scriptures, to early man God was much more real than to his successors,
they were in touch with the simplicities of an earlier form of religion or
divine knowledge, they were better able to discern the direct and
unpolluted principles of communication between mankind and the Deity. 
One is impressed with the fact that early man not only valued personal
communication with his Creator, but made use of it in his daily life.  It
governed all his actions and considerations, conscious and sub-conscious.

In the enacted passion drama of the resurrection of Osiris the Initiate read
the promise of his own triumph over death when the soul would ascend
through all the spheres to the highest Heaven.  He believed that in some
way he would be brought into companionship with his Brothers in the
Eternal Hereafter, he saw in the figurative death and resurrection a symbol
of his own deathlessness, and brought about a real hope of a unity with the
M.H. "who wishes to be known and is known to his own."

There was something, whether doctrine, symbol or divine drama, which
could not be imparted except by initiation to those duly qualified to receive,
a supernatural revelation which gave the recipient a new outlook upon life,
the world and the Deity.

It was a profound intuition of the Spirit in Love or foretaste of that mystic
experience in which we know as we are known in the progressive
satisfaction of the two eternal passions of selfhood, the desire for love and
also for knowledge.

There was a sacred tradition of ritual and cult usages expounded by the
great teachers and handed down by a succession of Masters.

Plato informs us that the Orphic mysteries promised escape from ills
beyond death.

There is a Syrian Stone of Witness, a valuable historical monument set up
at Cho-Ang to commemorate the coming of the Luminous Religion, to the
Eternal memory of the Law of Light and Truth, from it we learn that the
teachings about the Invisible World of the Dead sprang from a Common
Root far back in world history, even from the Creation and Deluge Brick
Tablets of Ancient Sumer.

We find there Asari-Marduk, the appointed Avenger and Triumphant
Redeemer of Mankind, who "raises the dead to life, who commands that a
great ship be built to cross the great Waters of Death to attain Life and
Immortality." Then at a later age the Egyptian God of the Ferry Boat which
the Pyramid Texts describe as the "Boat of the Sun," opening the Gate of
the "Three Constant Principles" to introduce Life and destroying Death. 
Also in the School of the Great Boat was taught the Law of the True God
and the "Three One" teaching.  That for which you look, and which you see
not, is called I; that towards which you listen, yet hear not, is called Hi;
what your hand seeks and yet feels not, is called Wei.  These Three are
inscrutable and being united form only ONE.  Form without Form, Image
without Image, an indefinable Being.  Precede It, and ye find not Its
beginning, follow It and ye discover not Its end." "Remember that a journey
of a thousand Ii commences with a single step - and that the country to
which we wend our way is Spiritual and is accessible only to those who are
spiritual, the Realm of Boundless Light and Inexhaustible Life."

The Cosmos was an image of God as also was man.  God is in all and
through all, and by a knowledge of the ALL one attains a knowledge of
God, whose nature is revealed in the mysteries of creation, generation,
decay, rebirth and universal law.

Marcus Aurelius says "All things are intertwined, the one with the other, and
sacred is the bond; there is practically nothing alien to one to the other, for
all things have been marshalled in order and constitute one Cosmos.  For
there is both one Cosmos of all things, and One God through all and one
Substance, and one Law, and one Common Reason of Intelligent Beings
and one Truth." God was conceived as the World or again as the Spiritual
element or vital Force of the World.

Such was a fixed article of faith in the Mysteries, they professed to bring the
initiated into union with the God of all, and to impart to him a knowledge
of the Secrets of Nature in all its phases.

Anrich speaks of the Mysteries, "even in those far-off days, that they
possessed the authority of a venerable and immemorial antiquity." They
gave greater satisfaction first of all to the senses and emotions, in the
second place to the intelligence and finally and chiefly to the conscience. 
There was beauty in their ritual, truth in their doctrines, and a superior good
in their morality.  Illustrating the purification of the soul in its ascent from the
world of Sense to the world of the Spirit.

The doctrine of man as a microcosm of the macrocosm, is one to which
frequent expression is given in the mystic-astrological-theology.  Plotinus
argues that the reverent contemplation of the world brings the soul into
contact with God.

The Rites were portrayals of the Mystery of Redemption, wherein every
Candidate as he progressed in the Ceremonies believed that he became
"twice-born," a new man and passed in a real sense from death unto life. 
In the Hermetic revelation it was asserted "There can be no salvation
without regeneration."

Apuleius speaks of "a voluntary death" of "approaching the realm of death"
in order thereby to attain his Spiritual birthday, whose followers were "as it
were, Reborn."

Proclus in a description of the rites of Dionysos says "The Priests
commanded that the Candidate should be buried except for the head in the
most secret of all initiations, for to such a figurative death a new life
succeeded by a spiritual resurrection."

In the Mithraic, after washings, branding on the forehead and a sacred
meal the Ceremony of R ... followed, and the Candidate was re-united with
the former Companions.

After the R...... of a Candidate Hermes closes the Dialogue with the
significant words which contain the gist of the whole experience - "Thou
hast come to a spiritual knowledge of Thyself and our Father," and the
Candidate hears the Prayer of Praise for Regeneration - which ends, "I have
become inspired of God and arrived at the Circle of Truth."

In the Temple of the Third Degree of the Egyptian Mysteries, the Great
Pyramid, known as the "Light" the Papyrus of Sinahit calls the Brethren the
"Princes of the Circle."

The Ritual of Ancient Egypt, the Secret Doctrine of the Light was a majestic
conception of time and space, of life and eternity, of the earliest Wisdom,
and of sublime thoughts on the departure of mortals to everlasting life.

Masham Adams has traced for us in the Great Building the Chamber of
Initiation, the Chamber of Darkness of Second Birth, the Middle Chamber
of Justice, the Chamber of the Moon and the Great Temple of Resurrection,
the Hall of Truth and the Double Hall of Truth within, which is the Chamber
of the Open Tomb, the Sacred Place of Heaven.

The Creed of Egypt is one of Resurrection and Judgement.

The whole progress is full of references to "Going in" "Coming out" of
"Going in after coming out" passing Gates, Gateways, Doors and Stairs. 
All stages of Spiritual growth.  How a Candidate on his Entrance into Light
is instructed in Wisdom, to be justified in the Tribunal of Truth, and
rewarded with the Jewels of Immortality, after having passed in Judgement
before the 42 Judges of the Dead, known as the Gods of the Horizon, each
Judge supreme in his particular province.

From the dimmest ages, from these old tombs, from the Temples, now
even crumbling away, comes the evidence with clearness that there is a
judgement beyond the grave, and the Fatherhood of the Unseen God who
is the Morning, the Sun at Noon, the Moon in the evening.  Dawn, Noon
and Sunset are the three distinct forms co-existing perpetually, co-equally,
so also did the three divine persons co-exist perpetually and co-equally in
the substance of the Uncreated Light.

The springs of our entire existence are hidden, mystery is the beginning,
mystery is the ending, mystery is the whole body of our life.  We cannot
breathe nor sleep, nor eat, nor move, far less think or speak, without
exercising powers which are to us inconceivable, by means of processes
which to us are inscrutable.  Who is so ignorant as not to know these
things; who so learned as to make them clear?

The whole of the Ritual deals with the Entrance into Light and of living after
Death, of a Passing over the Celestial Road after having made the Passage
through the Tomb across the Fields of Aahlu - the Territory of Initiation - to
meet the Timeless One - to become Yesterday-To-day-and-To-morrow, a
Dweller in Eternity.

It was found that the Indian Tribes of America have a somewhat similar
Ceremony, the opening words to the Candidate run :-

Now listen to me, what I am about to say to you.

If you take heed of what I say to you, so shall you continue always your life.

Now to-day I make known to you the Great Spirit That which he says, the
Great Spirit, now this I impart to you -

Even if they say that they saw me dead, in this he shall be placed,

Raised again, in this place, he puts his trust.

It shall never fail

My child this shall give you life.

After a perambulation of the L. four times, the Candidate is rendered
unconscious, and during the time of his trance, his spirit is said to have left
his bodily frame and to have been upon a journey to the "Spirit Land."

On the return of the Spirit the Candidate revives and he is then taught to
do what is right.

So, Brethren, we have come to a consideration of the loveliest of our Craft
Rituals, the Passion Play of the Craft, the Degree of Liberation, to that which
leads us to the hope of a life to be lived in that Higher Lodge of the
Almighty Architect, where He rules, the Supreme Master of All.

Masonry is in its essence a ceremonial method of approach to Truth.  The
Ceremonies of Freemasonry are, as it were, shadows of mighty Realities,
Realities which belong to the Worlds Invisible.

The Initiate is taught first in glyph and symbols the main outlines of the task
that lies before him, after the ascension of the Winding Stairs of evolution,
his knowledge widens out into a knowledge of the mysteries of the
Universe itself.  In the old Three-fold interpretation the nature of man is
Body, Soul and Spirit - the Three Grades - Literal, Allegorical, Mystical.  So
we have the first teaching - the Body or Corporeal teaching.  Then,
secondly, the Brightening of the Intellect, which if pursued with keenness
and zeal develops the Strength and the Courage to mount that perilous
ladder that reaches up from the Altar of every Masonic Lodge throughout
the world to that seven-pointed Blazing Star of Union with the True and
Living God.

The Philosophic Masonry as taught in the Holy Place of the Temple of
Wisdom.  Turning to Art, Philosophy and Science, learning that the Lodge
is built to the Plan of the Great Universe itself.  Learning that the G.G. is
One in Essence, yet Three in Function.  That he descends into the Sq. of
Matter until it is aglow with His hidden life, where is that Middle Chamber
into which all must pass to receive, without scruple and without diffidence,
their wages for the good deeds accomplished on earth.

We left our Brother, on the Path leading to this final Degree, a Dweller on
the Threshold, of that which will bring him to the "Great Light" and into the
"Hall of Wisdom," when he is about to approach the Chamber of the King,
the Chamber of the Open Tomb, "When he entereth through the Pylons,
when he shall walk up the Great Staircase into the House of the Hidden
Place." The Gateway of Tat and Tattu of the Egyptians leading to the Higher
World of Amenti, the world where the Soul was blended with Immortal Spirit
and thereafter Established for Ever. From the "Seen" to the "Unseen."

The Lodge has been opened in the 1st Degree and ascended to the 2nd
Degree and he has answered the questions, the proofs of his knowledge
so far obtained, and he has been entrusted with the P... G... and P... W....

Having climbed the mount of Initiation, passed across the Valley of the
Sprouting Corn and learnt to live with knowledge, he reached the Mount of
the Fellowcraft and has now crossed the second Valley of Purification and
preparation for the Third Great Mount - and in crossing this plane he meets
a new Force, a consuming agent, which at this stage is necessary for all
the aspects of our mortal life must be entirely purified and there must be
absolute annihilation of any remaining attraction for "Worldly Possessions"
so that a Candidate stands forth as a subject "transmuted" cleared of all
those veils, or obstructions which might shadow the kingdom within.

Having in mind that as progression in the Degrees takes place it is by these
P. W.s - renunciation - of all possessions, of freedom itself, replacing them
by a complete trust in God.  Then a giving up of all time to a study of the
deeply Hidden Mysteries of Nature and Science, and entering into a
fullness of that plenitude, a fullness of vitality emphasised by an E. of C.
near a F. of W.... and then onwards to the final releasing of all possessions
to pass through the fire of transmutation so that the Fire of the Spirit may
inhabit every corner of our being uncontaminated by any possible contact
with any worldly force.  So that he can enter that Sublime Experience and
we must realise that the very word Sublime means that we can ascend to
the top, to the very lintel of the porch, a process which arouses sentiments
of awe and reverence and a sense of vastness and power outreaching
human comprehension.

Just as Supreme means a passing beyond this state into that which is over
the lintel and above all.

In the ordinary parlance to "sublime" anything means to pass it from the
solid state, into a gaseous state, and again condense it to solid form,
purifying it in the process.

Our Candidate passes out to be prepared and the W.M. proceeds to call
the Lodge into life on the Higher Plane.

The I.G. working with his Brother Tyler being responsible for keeping the
Lodge closed yet open to those worthy of admittance, exercises that
Fortitude, which he needs to carry out his task.

The Sword of the T. in this Degree should be as of old, The Flaming Sword,
Guarding the entrance to the Heavenly Mansion.

The S.D., the reasoning element in Man, is the Officer who has to act with
a measure of Infinite Wisdom, yet with a degree of restraint, foresight and
care necessary to wise action, must possess the virtue of Prudence, is the
Conductor, a Messenger of the Gods, whose duty it is to conduct the Souls
of the departed to the Nether-world.  Hermes in olden times was a
conductor of souls and was known as the Good Shepherd. In the minds of
the Ancients the idea of death was inseparable from the thought of the
Shepherd of Souls.

The J.D. midway in these forces, possessing a large degree of
understanding, who commences the flow of the forces in the Lodge needs
that virtue of Temperance.  In the Hebrew Mythology the bearers of the sign
of the Dove were the revealers of the Will or the voice of the M.H.

The D. of C. the Officer of Law and Order in the Lodge, the Quality of
justice.

The E. symbolising the place of the Supreme Being of Divine Life, the W.M.
as an earthly Deputy to the M.H. just as in the old days Osiris represented
His Father at the East Gate, a Son of the Divine.

The S.W. has charge of the F.C. and he it was who instructed the
Candidate in the Hidden Mysteries of Nature and Science, in the Egyptian
allegory it is he who enters the underworld to watch the Judgement Scene,
to witness the weighing of the Heart on those Great Scales, and at the
conclusion of the trial to reward those found perfect by Osiris and to open
to them the Gates of Life.  He still marks the Setting Sun, he rules the end
of any process, to judge the end, he sits in the place of beginnings, since
the end is only the unwinding of the beginning.

Three steps of the Sun, morning noon and night from the East to open and
give life to the day; at meridian, in the South to give continuance of life to
all created things; then in the West to close the day, never really to set but
to pass through that Western Gateway which is but the Gateway of Dawn. 
A symbol, might it not be Brethren, of everlasting Eternity.

The J.W.'s function is still to mark and know the Sun at the point of its
highest Light and Exaltation. He calls the Brethren to rest and refreshment
and to the Labours of the Day.  He is the first Tester and passes those who
are fit on the material plane.  He himself is proved by the Square and
Compasses.

The Temple in this Degree is considered in some of the Mysteries to be a
type of the Kingdom of God, and that the Souls of Men are to be prepared
here for that place of Blessedness.  There is no repentance, no tears nor
prayers, the Stones must now be all Square fitted here for their place in the
Temple, being Living Stones, proved and tried.

There is an additional Tool displayed in the E. in the old days - it
symbolised "Death by  violence."

Having created the atmosphere, the W.M. asks the J.W., as the Bodily
aspect of the Lodge, as a Master whence he comes, and he learns that he
proceeds from the E. and S.W., the Soul, is proceeding towards the W. and
they have been induced to leave their points to commence and carry on a
search, and in the pursuit of which they need instruction and assistance so
that they can find that which is lost.  The genuine secrets of a M.M. which
have been lost as a result of a tragedy.

They all unite in hoping to find that which they seek with the C. to start on
the true Quest to recover the lost Word which implies the total refashioning
of our human nature, it is the whole sum of our endeavours as Masons.

To seek with all our might and intelligence for that which is lost and we
leave the E. and journey to the W., that is to say we leave the abode of
Light and go forth on the Mystic Quest, passing out into the limitations of
an exterior existence for purposes of experience.

We learn that we may only hope to find the Word on the C., the Seat of the
Indwelling Divinity, that One Point round which a M.M. cannot err.  This P.
within the C. and its use there are hidden mysteries upon mysteries.

When the C. has been found then has the heart of all things been attained
to, and this mortality has put on immortality.

These words serve only to convey the meaning of things seen but they
must be understood imaginatively and not literally.  All our emotions and
thoughts engendered by our Ritual bring us into contact with Him, the Point
of Infinity, which can be approached from many directions, yet there can
be no difference in effect between entering an absolute point from one
direction than from another for an absolute Point has no dimension.  Is it
not the position in which adjustment and equilibrium are attuned? Always
swayed by opposites, there is no rest for man until he reaches the Point in
the C., knows that he is that very P. immutable, unmanifest, a free man,
finding his C., bounded by a Circumference in which all its limits are
boundless and are his Masters', in and around him, the Measureless Circle
of Infinity.

The W.M. will assist in the Search but he prays for aid from the M.H. and
the L. is opened on the C., the Great Lights are set, the Symbol of the C.
coming into full play.

The Lodge then experiences a change and there appears a new aspect in
the midst of them.  The E. still keeps its steady Light to mark the way to the
great undimmed world of the Spirit.

Our Candidate is prepared - both sides now, for each has become
perfected in its separate sphere and with the combination of both he is
enabled to face the coming events with the confidence he could not
possess were they not in perfect balance.

The alarm is sounded and our Candidate comes seeking admission with
a new force added to the Help of the Almighty and the Square, he has the
united aid of the Square and the Comps., one of the great Lights which he
has absorbed into his being during his time as a F.C. He utters the "Words
of Power," Mantras, as they are called in the East, Living Forces in the
Invisible Worlds. These powerful aids are acknowledged and he enters led
by his Conductors.  He stands in the Double Hall of Truth-Truth in Death,
Truth in Life, Truth in justice, Truth in Mercy, Truth in Splendour.

In the olden Egyptian Mysteries it was the desire of all Initiates to reach the
Elysian Fields, or Fields of Reeds, wherein there were 7 Halls which he had
to pass.  Three Gods guarded the door of each Hall, a Doorkeeper, a
Watchman and a Questioner, perhaps our Tyler, I.G. and Deacon of to-day,
and each door required a word (a spell) to enable the Candidate to enter.

As in the 1st he had entered the Divine World in the Darkness of Ignorance
as a Rough Ashlar, and then into the Geometrical Temple of the World of
Divine Thought and Illumination, he is now in the Temple of the Divine Spirit
which is there around him though he perceives it not.  Three modes in
which such knowledge may be communicated to those prepared to receive
it, by simple instruction, by distant vision and by personal participation,
each an advance upon that which precedes.

The lovely prayer is sent forth by the Brethren to the Almighty and Eternal
God, the Great Ruler of the Universe and humbly we ask that our
Candidate may be given the necessary Strength so that he may abide
under His protection on the great trial he is about to face.

The prayers of the First and the Last.

Again Brethren we have the elevation of ideas and of Strength, for in the 1st
Degree we prayed to the Almighty Father, Supreme Governor of the
Universe, our Helper in Danger or Difficulty, Almighty God, our Great
Creator, demanding awe and reverence, our needed Helper in executing
all our lawful undertakings, our Comforter and Supporter in emergencies
and Beneficent and Intelligent Creator of the Material Universe.  The Infinite
in terms of Creative Power.  The Immutable Good.

In the 2nd the G.G. of the Universe, Merciful Lord, the Almighty as
executing wonderful works, God to Whom we must all Submit and Whom
we ought humbly to adore.

Sacred Majesty of Truth.

Now in this world of the Spirit we worship the M.H. Almighty and Eternal
God, Architect and Ruler of the Universe, Lord of Life and Divine Creator.

Supreme Beauty.

It is perhaps now, there is instilled in the mind of our Candidate an
understanding that the Lodge portrays the workings of Divine Life, a deeply
living thing and an indication of the purpose of the Cosmos.  The Four
Quarters, the Cycle of the Sun, the 7, one at each point, guardians of the
work, enabling by their efforts our Candidate to reach a High conception
of his Creator, forming a bridge to the Eternal, reaching downwards to lift
to the Highest, the columns, the power of the Universe, and he commences
his journey through the under-world, vividly portrayed here in the
circumambulations passing towards the S. via the N. with his right hand to
the centre, again in the course of the Sun, the first with the proof to the
Three, and the Test by the J., the second with the proof on the higher
plane, and the Test by the S.W., and of this particular test, we may recall
from the distant past of Egypt that the "Luminous Sun was suspended so
that Light might invade the Hidden Place or Place of Darkness, casting out
the delusions of the Devil and destroying Death, leading on to the
Everlasting, that both the Living and the Dead might ascend to the Bright
Palace of Light, of Heaven."

Then again, with those convincing proofs and the additional ones he has
just obtained, showing that he has passed the trial of fire.

In the olden times an Initiate underwent a trial by Water, which terminated
in a form of Baptism, of washings and purifications, and this was followed
by a trial by air, that being symbolised by temptations, often very real,
which reach the intellect from without such as ambition, pride, avarice, and
these call forth the warning given in the presentation of our 2nd D. W......
T..Is and finally he had to come through an actual trial of fire, terrifying and
vividly presented.

The S.W. again presents him as a properly prepared Candidate for the
Ceremony and sets him on the course to the E.

Man in this state can only progress through the medium of the Soul and it
is fitting that the S.W. should be the medium through which the instruction
from the far-off E. are transmitted.

The S.D., his conductor, now takes him from the West and with that W. far
behind him he stands Square and crosses over and faces N., the place of
eternal darkness, crosses again and faces the place of the Sun and yet
again he crosses and faces the E. the place of Eternal Wisdom and
Understanding and he strides towards the Light of that great E., having
gathered in him the Strength to Establish and by that Stability he is enabled
to pass on to that last and greatest trial which now awaits him.

The seven S.... to immortality.

To his dismay perhaps he finds that although he has stepped over he is not
yet in that presence he so desires but ought to gather still more strength
for the vows which are demanded of him.  This crossing symbolises man
becoming by true knowledge, a Master of his fate.  He stands near a "Light"
which is the "Shadow of God."

In the Presence of the M.H. in the full conviction within himself he says he
will obey all S..... s and will maintain and uphold the Pts. of F. which he is
just becoming aware of for the first time.

You remember, Brethren, so fearful were the ancient races of the East that
any part of the body might become parted from the whole, that these
age-old penalties which threatened this dire happening were of enormous
strength and none would run the slightest risk of violating them, to some
extent these very threats gave rise to the very elaborate ritual which grew
up in the old Egyptian practice of embalming and carefully preserving the
body for its great trials of the journey to the new life. The few of mutilation
is much emphasised in the Book of the Dead, their Ritual used on these
occasions.  We find that after taking out certain parts of the body they were
mummified and put into Canopic jars with lids shaped as emblems of the
Four Sons of Horus, the head of an Ape, a Man, a Jackal and a Hawk. 
These represented the Four Cardinal Points N., S., E. and W.  Rather
significant when we remember the Four Cardinal Winds and the threat of
scattering, and to some of you these emblems speak even more deeply.

In this Book we find the words "Let not my heart be torn away from me."
"Let not my head be taken off or my tongue torn out." "Let me not be
severed."

It is interesting to note, Brethren, the Ceremony that was observed among
the Ancient Hebrews when making a covenant.  The allusions are indeed
remarkable.  After an animal had been selected, his throat was cut across
with a single blow.  The next ceremony was to tear the breast open and
pluck out the heart, and if there was the least imperfection the body would
be considered unclean. The animal was then divided into two parts and
placed N. and S., that the parties to the covenant might pass between them
from E. to W. and the carcase was then left as a prey to the fowls of the
heaven and to the beasts of the earth.

The movement of the Emblematical Lights are now brought to their final
position, the spiritual strength surmounting the two aspects of the former
positions.  The first the Square of Matter above the other two, just as the
K.s are all on the one level and show but one plane of emotion.

Then the Point of the Soul comes into evidence and the K.s change to
emphasise that a variation of the order has taken place and now the
Square of Matter is below the last two, the Soul and the Spirit working
above that Matter and are now in full force and so again the K.s follow the
same change.  With this combination our Candidate is at Liberty to work
with their united force, from the Centre to the uttermost limit, from the dawn
of reverence in the human heart down to the most perfect ritual of the latest
race, this rite has existed for the single purpose of bringing the Soul's
knowledge into the brain consciousness.  This physical consciousness
does not know the Soul's life, but the steps and symbols and words of the
ritual show it the way, the participant lives it, and its real meaning dawns
on the brain.  By its insistence and continuity it awakens the light in the
mind.  Thus it bridges the gap, and re-establishes in the mortal mind the
memory of his real and divine source.

So we come to, perhaps, the loveliest part of this Degree, the retrospect,
having become entitled by virtue of what has gone before to demand that
last trial.

In the light of understanding the root-matter of the Craft Grades is root of
a truly figurative mystery, which is that of the NEW MAN, and Solomon's
Temple built of old in Israel is its symbol.  Between J. and B. the E.A. is
brought through a Gate of Birth into new life of the mysteries, being the life
of self-realisation in the Divine Order of Being, and his Task thereafter is to
learn by the Faith of inward experience that the Order is God realising
Himself to that which can receive revelation. Here is the 1st Degree in
which our Candidate passes from the Court of the Temple and stands on
the farther side, contemplating that which is before him.

As a F.C. he is called to the leading of such a life as will give the
knowledge of Doctrine, otherwise the Science of the Holy Place, or
alternatively the New Life which is growth in the knowledge of God, learning
that God rewards those who seek Him out.

A M.M. begins on the hither side of the Veil of Palms and Pomegranates
and ends in the holy of Holies, when in a state of "D," figuratively and
mystically, the Candidate, abstracted from the world without, in suspension
of physical senses, and removed from the self-centre, beholds in an inmost
Sanctuary the Abiding Divine Presence, the Glory of God.  He knows then
another Centre and this is God within him, and in this State of Mystical D.
he will learn the legend of the Master Builder.

In the Eleusinian Mysteries the Pomegranate was considered the food of
the Dead and figured prominently in their ceremonies.

In the Great Allegory of Masonry, the Master is a type of Martyr, the dying
God, whose mystery is, and has, from time immemorial, been celebrated
all over the world. The legend itself goes back to remote antiquity and is full
of significant meaning, as if to tell us that no man can tell another of the
secret, for each in his turn must discover it for himself.  "One" to the many
- to the "ONE."

H. himself could not give it although he knew it.  The very simplicity of this
great legend has entered so deeply into the hearts of its initiates that it has
become one of the greatest legends in existence.

Attacked by Ignorance on one side, by Superstition on the other and finally
by Fear was he overcome, and the three ruffians gained nothing by their
acts.

These opposites, these direct enemies of all mankind, these forces against
which all the teaching of our Craft is concentrated, these tenets which are
the glory of our Ancient Institution for the moment obscured in the hearts
of these three who had not recanted, who had forsaken the wisdom they
had been shown, and had allowed Ignorance to gain its old mastery over
them, had let their Faith be shaken and Superstition reign in its place and
lost the love which had been alight within them to an arrant Fear, their hold
loosened, the forces of evil astride in their minds, enticing them with the
temptation that by an easy method they could gain the last great step
without the labour, which they felt incapable of exerting and had not the
depth of character to perform, falling into the abyss of the illusion of
attaining a crown without the merit to command it, and attaining
"nothingness," while the Master gains "all."

Is not the lesson so clearly defined, if Wisdom is lost, if Faith is absent, and
Love is dead can there be any hope for us? Can there be a re-union with
the former companions of our toils? Are we fit to be weighed in the great
scale, cannot anyone speak for us on the great Day? Can we take the
Square on our breast and the Plummet as well, placed there by those who
send us on our journey, can they say "it is well done"?

In the Rites of the Druid an Initiate had to wait 20 years for completion of
the Rite when he was placed in a coffin, in which he remained enclosed,
apertures being made for the circulation of air, for three days to represent
death.  From this he was liberated on the third day to symbolise his
restoration to life.  After the Mystical Death he was pronounced regenerated
or born again.  Then followed nine circumambulations in the course of the
sun.

In the West Country working the Brethren form up in single file and walk in
a circle round the G....... three times three chanting as they walk.  Then
these words are spoken:-

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days
come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shaft say, I have no pleasure
in them.

"While the Sun, or the Light, or the Moon, or the Stars, be not darkened,
nor the clouds return after the rain.

"In the day when the keepers of the House shall tremble, and the strong
men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few,
and those that look out of the windows shall be darkened.

"And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding
is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters
of musick shall be brought low.

"Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in
the way, and the almond shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a
burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his home, and the
mourners go about the streets.

"So ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the
pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel be broken at the cistern.

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return
unto God who gave it."

Man is Body plus Soul, by this circumstance he is elevated above the level
of mere earthly existence.  Part being heavenly, and part earthly, he now
occupies the borderland between two different realms, with citizenship in
both, the soul as the vital energy, the principle of Life in matter, linking the
human with the Divine.

Life must be lost before it can be found again and the ordeal of the
darkness which he now undergoes is saddened when he learns to his
dismay that with all the perseverance, all the strength he has acquired with
so much labour as an E.A. fail him, for it proves a slip.

The knowledge, the wisdom on which he has founded a good life, fails, for
it too proves a slip.

But on the charity, love and fellowship, he can and is R . . . on the 5 Pts.
of F.

By passing through that valley of isolation, of loneliness and despair, by the
Death of that individual bodily self, by the slaying of that mental structure,
and by a realisation that it is by help from above, outside himself it is
possible.

On the restoration to the Comps. of his former toils he learns the Word
revealing to his returning consciousness. The Master Builder is at work on
the Temple of God and Man, a Holy House based on experience and the
Building of a Sanctuary within.

The secret hereof is the Immanent Presence of God and the realisation of
that Presence.

Thus is Craft Masonry understood at the highest, this is the state in which
man sees his soul uplifted by Eternal Spirit, and a mastery of Spiritual
building for those who know the Builder, and He is G. within them.

This regeneration, the new life thereafter, the leading of that life, to an
experience which is called Death and then a R....... in G. These are the
three stages of intuitive experience presented in Ritual Form, not a mere
spectacle but ceremonial activities in which the Candidate takes such a part
that it is impossible for them to be performed without him, after this manner
is their purport brought home personally in the most living and actual
manner, the whole message is of necessity within measures of symbolism,
and can only pass "like sparks from Heaven."

The old, old lesson that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, is thus presented
to us in Freemasonry in its own peculiar dramatic, symbolic manner, on the
Centre in the silence is peace attained.

Every M.M. must descend into the silence of the G.... and pass through a
figurative Death to a higher life, before he can be given the Ss. which,
properly understood, take him into a new world, the world of the mystic and
the seer, where the bond of fellowship binds all together, where differences
vanish and where the pairs of opposites, symbolized by the two hands join
together united in a world which transcends the earthly knowledge. 
Though he travel ever so far westwards he will not find the Genuine Ss. of
a M.M. save in the Centre of his own heart.

It is in the 5 Pts. of F. that he hears, and only in a whisper of the Death of
the Builder, of the Mind, of the Creator of beautiful Form, this is all he is
told, the Genuine Ss. cannot even be whispered.  They are in the silence
and only he himself can find them, on his C., which is the C., for there is
only one C. for all men, equally distant from all and equally near to each.

The gloom which rests on the prospect of futurity cannot be pierced but
with strong eternal Faith founded in Truth having performed tasks and
enlisting that vital and immortal principle which is divine, within us we can
lift our eyes to that Great Star.  The Star was given to the followers of Horus
after he had been led by it into Paradise.  The Book of the Dead gives the
deceased knowledge of the Powers of the East, of whom the Morning Star
is one, and this Star became his guide through the Elysian Fields.

In the papyrus copied from a sarcophagus of a King, an illustration of
which is found at the beginning of this paper, we see Anubis ministering to
Osiris on his bier. At the head stands Isis in an attitude of supplication. Her 
prayers are answered, for Anubis is Raising him by the Grip of the Lion
from his figurative tomb, to everlasting life - symbolised by the Crux Ansata.
His Star is established, "Unto him that overcometh will I give the Morning
Star." He has attained it in the East, and he there breaks the darkness for
ever, he becomes a Conqueror of that D....... and has fought and won.  To
a thinking Brother, who has realised that in this lovely ritual, in the spiritual
thought processes it invokes, there is embodied the one great aim of all the
work which is the attainment of an awareness of "AT-ONE-MENT" so that
deep within him he may experience a glow of spiritual happiness which
may abide with him for all time, and expand to that feeling of Brotherliness
to all within its Circle.

Does not H.A. stand for something greater, vaster, nobler, and more terrible
than a mere man of honour, who rather than betray his sacred trust, laid
down his Life?

The L... of a M.M. is but D..... visible is an eloquent hint of the withdrawal
of that guiding light, reduced to a glimmering ray in the E. which has led
him so far, but now he learns he must lose his very life to save it - the third
and final renunciation - but deep within the heart of every being is the Light
"the Light that Lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

It is not a symbol but rather a reality, the key note of which has to be
power, power to enter into and express this reality, the "Light" he is.  From
the Darkness of the Tomb come the symbols of frail Mortality, which in their
solemn silence speak to the human heart with a power no eloquence can
equal. They awaken feelings too deep for mortal voice.  They raise
thoughts too high for human speech.  They propound a problem no
science can solve.  They conceal a secret which all will know yet none
reveal.  In their dread presence the human soul hangs o'er the infinite
abyss and gazes into the misty realms of Eternity.  So the way lies before
us, we are all embarked upon this long pilgrimage going forward towards
the one goal.  As we realise the immensity of this work we begin to
understand the tremendous significance and value of our earthly life.

Yet

by FAITH by the KNOWLEDGE vouchsafed us in the V.S.L. by continuing
to do our duty and by a realisation that "the vital and immortal principle" will
give us an invincible confidence that we can defeat all evil influences and
attain the greater glory in the hereafter.

We lift our eyes and see that Bright Morning Star of Peace to us all.  The
God of Wisdom and of Speech in the Ancient Times was the Bright
Morning Star, a Star which shines over a Federation of Faiths.  The Morning
Star in the Egyptian Mysteries represented Horus of the Resurrection rites.

In the Light of this allegory the Masonic Ear of Corn which has borne so
important a part previously, takes on a new meaning.  A symbol above all
symbols - representing the mystery of death and resurrection, to an ear of
corn we owe the early development of this great doctrine, the hope which
has sustained millions in the hour of grief and anguish.  In the Tibetian
Mysteries, at this stage of the Ceremony, the Candidate is shown a figure
of a Deity holding in his hand two beautiful ears of corn.  He is told they are
the Seed and the Grain, allegorical of Life and Death.

To it we owe the sublime and exalted teachings of the earliest of the
mysteries by which the mystic learns the secret of going back to God;
which secret is enshrined in the Ceremony.  "The dead die not, for as the
corn dies to rise transformed and beautiful, so shall mortal man shed the
husk he calls his body; and, soaring upwards, shine with the stars for ever
and ever. A Festival of Renewal." In the words of a poet:-

"So shalt thou conquer space, and lastly climb
The walls of Time;
"And by the golden path the great have trod
Reach up to God."
END OF PART I