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CONTENTS:
Teaching 1: Legends about the Esoteric Orders
Teaching 2: Esoteric Arabian Wisdom and the Veiled Woman
Teaching 3: The Ancient Egypt
Teaching 4: The Temple of Initiation
Teaching 5: Amon in the Hellenic Schools
Teaching 6: King Arthur, The Holy Grail, The Round Table and its Knights
Teaching 7: Ancient Initiatic Ceremonials of Knights
Teaching 8: The Knight of the Eternity
Teaching 9: Initiatic Trials
Teaching 10: Christian Military Orders
Teaching 11: The Court of Catherine de Médicis
Teaching 12: Astrological Oracles
Teaching 13: Scientistic Magic
Teaching 14: Martinism
Teaching 15: Saint Germain and the Rosicrucians
Teaching 16: The French Revolution and Liberal Lodges
Teaching 1: Legends about the Esoteric Orders
Michael, Chief of the Host of Fire, had purified a Holy Mount amid thunders, lightnings and flames. For centuries, a volcanic and powerful fire shone on this Mountain and, vomiting burning lava and red-hot stones formed an impenetrable circle.
If someone had tried to reach this place, he should walk East through unhealthy, marshy and inhospitable lands. Later he would find a green, uneven earth that softly descended on the shore of a lake of salt waters, immobile and transparent, which behind their meekness would hide the fury unleashed on stormy days.
Further on, an immense slop, a cliff of undetermined bottom, would totally discourage to find a road, a path, to reach the superb volcano standing far away ever crowned with fire and white clouds, which would hide its foot in the depth of the abyss.
After centuries and deluges upon the earth, the planet trembled several times by terrible convulsions. And the calm returned.
A snowy shroud covered the swamps. The salt lake, now dried, became a sandy desert; the cliff became more abrupt and the volcano of the Holy Mountain was apparently dead.
Where were Michael and his radiant hosts? Where his crown, of fire, flame, radiance and death?
The fiery power still was sleeping in the bosom of the Mountain, and even though flames were not visible, you could sense how life, the boiling life, was bubbling.
And one luminous day, oh marvelous day!, when the rainbow rode the winds from East to West, a procession of men in white put their feet for the first time put on those virgin places, never trodden by man.
But... were they really men? Or were Angels? Who were they?
Slim and beardless young men, of sleepy and feverish eyes, were at the head of the procession and walked slowly. A youthful emotion, expressed but still not entirely under control became visible by rapid movements of their heads, in spite of the slow march.
In the middle of the row there were beings more mature. Strong, serious, beautiful men, half-opened eyes and white hands, like the hands of death.
But at the end of this mystical procession, there were old men of white beard, snowy hair floating to the wind; they have just the external appearance of men.
Who could understand their language, a tongue whose words were uttered at the foot of the Mountain, when they had already formed a circle of men?
The old men speak the language of the gods, which just their disciples can understand. They indicate a path in the Mountain; hollows in stones, which should be cells and abodes; inlaid stones in the mount for their seats and sites; nets of eagles; nets of saints.
There was a solemn atmosphere ever announcing life or death. One of those beings held a big sealed book: the Book of the Divine Mother.
At sunset they chanted; music notes of a mystical hymn serenely soared from the earth to heaven, like the Mother’s cry that woke up and faced the eternity. The old men, floating on the air and covered by clouds and radiance, disappeared behind the veils of the night before the eyes of the disciples who stared at the shadows.
This was the Temple, sanctuary and school. They bored through the Mountain like a swarm of bees and entered the mountain. They built a round Temple upon the crater that still was hot, and wrote the Name and Sign of the Mother on the highest peak of the Mountain.
Esoteric teachings and achievements of every one of the disciples of those great Initiates of the first times were written on the walls of those rocky cells.
And when a disciple soared and went to his Master, he was substituted for another disciple in this cell, in the Temple of the Mountain.
How many years passed? How many men dwelt in that lonely place? How many souls reached the summit of the mount and understood the mystery of Mantras?
But a voice went round: Kaor is dead! No more fire on the Mountain. It shall fall tomorrow forever.
Those beings marched again to Egypt in solemn procession and white row.
Who would hold the world under control?
The noisy and destructive earthquake that sank Kaor in the abyss or the Song of Eternity chanted by those beings who walked forward, ever looking forward, toward a time to come, toward new men, toward new things: toward realization.
Sea and desert are brothers: they keep relics of past times and the history of lost civilizations. They are like God who hides under his robe marvels of his Presence as he passes through the world.
Strange races of men ever live on seashore or in the wild: they are somewhat savage, somewhat self-absorbed and distrustful of the rest of mortals. They watch over rocks and undulating sandbanks.
A race of men, totally different from all the rest, lived on an area of the desert, which keeps a portion of the lost Atlantis.
They had been worshippers of stone tables, bathed with milk and oil; later they followed the sect of the Prophet. But their true religion was different; to keep a black and square table, that was a memorial of a very ancient esoteric Table.
These men were descendants of the early Masters of the Mountains of Kaor.
Teaching 2: Esoteric Arabian Wisdom and the Veiled Woman
As you know, Eastern people not only admitted women in the Order; also women were fit to the supreme authority. And it was a woman who led the destinies of Hoggard’s Table approximately 2500 years before Christ.
It was a high entity who for the last time descended to the physical world in human form. Therefore, she had to be like a symbol, like a compilation of the mental era in transit, leaving way to the era of Christian feeling that was looming.
Abbumi, the woman with no body, for her body has been pure and perfect, was educated and prepared from her childhood to the priesthood of Wisdom.
He learnt seven languages, seven powers and seven magical formulas from the Knights of camels, white turbans and undulating cloaks.
May a living being aim at anything else? To become stronger and stronger in that mystical castle that is her only abode, where wisdom and knowledge are bread and love, and no human breath tarnishes those holy ramparts.
Abbumi’s mother had died when she came into being. Her father adored and venerated her, but their love was just an expressive understanding of the mind.
Her heart was cold and white like the summit of Mount Meru. Death, pain, misery and human delights were for Abummi illusory grimaces of the Mother’s veils.
May she count on the number of those chosen souls that for centuries conquered the fruit of the purest wisdom for the esoteric life?
Riding through the desert, two travelers go forward, lost in the mirage of the sands. Hunger, tiredness, despair, weakness and imminent madness shall kill them soon.
The compassionate Oschar begs help for them, but the Mother of the desert replies, “Let the law of the desert be honored in them”.
The compassionate Oschar asks again, “Permit me, Mother, to save these lives”.
She replies:
“Save their flesh, if you wish. And if you wish, save their souls”.
The Arabian runs in haste with his camels to save those beings lost in the desert and comes back with them to Hoggard.
Why does the Mother accept the entreaty of his disciple, receiving and visiting those foreigners?
A new feeling emerged in her. Her soul has stared at another soul that is looking at her, imploring and sorrowful. She feels pity and, frightened, wonders, “Is this the human love?”
Where is your wisdom, oh Mother?
Of what avail is those secrets that you know if you are unable to control in you these feelings of pity that are wildly riding on clouds of illusion?
Now Abbumi shall know the sorrows of men, their bitter hours, and she shall suffer and thinks how to help them.
The Hoggard is in mourning and the Holy Seal, abandoned. Sages are terribly sorry because the Mother does not kindle daily her lamp.
Down with the culprit!
In vain Oschar shall try to save him and warn to the Mother. A soul is worthier than a body, and the foreigner must die.
But this death did not return to Abbumi his ancient wisdom because has opened a new groove in her heart: the groove of feeling.
From then on a new current is begotten: by Wisdom and by Love.
From then on, the Esoteric Orders are divided into two great currents of force: the force of Knowledge where the polytheistic concept of God and the cult of sciences prevail, and the force of Love, where the monotheistic concept of God prevails, along with the cult of salvation of mankind.
Here we must repeat again an ancient and ever-present question: is there a God Creator, or is there not a God Creator? And in possession of clear personal ideas one has to respond conscientiously.
In the end of nineteenth century, on the antechamber of the funeral chapel of a famous biologist, his friends of different trends are gathered. A Catholic man, talking to an old gentleman, expressed his grief because the biologist was not reconciled with God. “Do you feel”, the gentleman asked, “that he is far from God?” The Catholic man said, yes, as an atheist, he guided many people through the path of disbelief. The gentlemen urged: “Is it possible that this great being, knowing man and nature in depth, can be far from God?”
But, are there atheists? No in reference to persons who say they are atheists, that do no reflect on this and perhaps are unable to do, but in relation to those who are very interested in this matter.
We can distinguish to types of believers in God.
The first type is of those who believe in a God Creator, outside them and different from them, inaccessible to them but with whom they can unite.
Of the second type are those who believe that the Self takes part in the Unity, of God, and tends to expand and fuse with Him.
We feel proper to outline the raison d’être of monotheistic and polytheistic currents.
You do not explain anything if you state that the former believe in only one God and the latter in several gods.
Aryan race, heir of the Atlanteans, in developing its individual and rational personality, needed to stick to the Self, and the projection of the Self resulted in monotheism. A perfect man needed a primordial and very perfect mould: God.
According to the link or opposition of the Self in regard to the world and to internal powers unknown to him, monotheism degenerated in a personal God. But the mind of the Aryan man, building a bridge between instinct and intuition and the power of reason, was able to construct infinite images like his own images, more or less perfect, and to create representations more or less exact of his divine mould, thus leading the souls to polytheism.
After the process of solidification of being, of the descent of the Self, this tends to join to other separate entities; it tends to expansion and, as a result of it, polytheism appears. It individualizes aspects of the Self to which the Self wants to join.
But always we have to consider that the Non-Manifested aspect is expressed by the Manifested aspect, and that the latter is a support of the former.
Aryan man, in perfecting his own ego, perfected his monotheistic belief, and in perfecting his chances of similarity, developed and perfected his polytheistic belief.
The polytheistic worship reached its summit in Egypt, before the personal worship of Osiris. Priests developed the mind to know more and more; they do not think of love like monotheists did, but like something loftier and divine. Many of these priests were of royal blood and the Pharaoh always married a woman of his blood. This occurred for millennia. Otherwise, they believed that they would lose the divine and royal power, and this actually occurred.
Along with the polytheism of Amon’s priests, the monotheistic worship prevails among the black nomads, as much in Asia as in Africa.
The esoteric teachings of both currents and a strict practice of their rites were kept and observed as much in Temples of Amon’s Priests as in Temples of Mitania, Kush, Punt and others.
But these two forces had to fight in order to prevail, and this occurred in the times of Iknaton, the first historic personality of the Egyptian era, when the so-called religious war of the two suns was waged.
In the times of the XVIII Dynasty, the first symptoms of a religious crisis appeared in Egypt, culminating with the fight of the two suns, Amon and Aton.
Tutmosis IV married an Asiatic princess of Mitania, and by this Asiatic influence several important religious changes took place, since when his grandson Amenophis IV occupied the throne (1375 b. C.), the fight against Amon’s Temple began, and as neither Amenophis nor his Asiatic wife take the traditional oath on God Amon, the former was later called the Heretic Pharaoh.
He came to the throne at the age of 12, openly worshipped the Only God whom he called Sun Aton, and later took the name of Iknaton (Aton is satisfied).
The esoteric monotheistic school, animated by the concept of fraternal unity, was gaining ground by the concept of the Only God; images were not worshipped, but a solar disk extending its rays whose ends are like hands that hold the Ank, sign of life. Amon’s school is suppressed and persecuted along with its great hierarchies and many gods, and its immense wealth is confiscated. Its priests were exiled or hidden. And the bald priests belonging to Amon’s school were substituted for the long-haired priests of Aton.
In this time, the art experiences a great evolution; symbolic and hieratic shapes are substituted for real living shapes; but now the size of the Pharaoh is bigger than the rest of figures. Teye, the mother of Iknaton, apparently got on well with these inclinations of her son, but not openly.
Merit-Aton, the first child, is born in the fifth year of Iknaton’s reign. In this time, other gods survived beside Aton. But this situation should not last, for the Pharaoh came into open conflict with Amon-Ra’s priests. This occurred shortly afterwards Tii’s death, and from this we can deduce that her activity was that of moderation.
For a better worship of his God, Iknaton decides to leave Thebes and build the City of Aton’s Horizon. Then, Thebes became a city of province with a weakened priesthood.
Then he changes his own name, Amenophis (Amon’s Peace), for Iknaton.
The new city was built on an island, in the Nile River, about 250 kilometers South of the present Cairo.
Shortly afterwards Meket-Aton –Protected by Aton– is born.
The new city is established during the eight year. An-khes-en-pe-Aton –She lives for Aton– is born.
Nefer-neferu-Aton is born in the eleventh year. The new religion starts developing. The “Hymn to Aton” is written about this time.
The Nefertiti’s influence becomes patent.
Al-Ra is appointed High Priest of Aton.
Two new daughters are born during the thirteen and the fifteen year.
Teye, mother of Iknaton, visits the Temple in the City of Aton’s Horizon. Shortly afterwards she dies and is buried in Thebes.
Her death means the end of moderation: the name of Amon is systematically deleted, even in the tiniest objects. Of millions of known inscriptions, just some few remained.
Even in the tomb of Amenophis III his name was substituted for that of Nis-Maat-Ra.
Also there is a strange detail: he called Nefer-Ne-Feru-Ra to his fifth daughter, and Sotep-en-Ra to her fourth daughter; in both cases, “Ra” instead of “Aton”, as he did with his first four daughters. He wished a son. But after six “disappointments”, he even had his seventh disappointment. He had no other descendants that at least would survive the early childhood. His first daughter married an Egyptian noble named Smenk-ha-Ra.
At the request of the King of Babylon for every one of his sons, Amenophis granted his fourth daughter. His third daughter married Tutank-Aton, who later was the Pharaoh Tutankamon.
His second sick daughter died being young, as well as Beket-Aton, sister of Iknaton.
And because his health was poor, quite soon he built his tomb.
He has not a successor, and the prospect of his religion was somber.
Foreign affairs worsened his situation, such as disputes with Babylon and the Hittites, adventures of Asiru, and so on. Iknaton developed a strange passivity, and the loyal Risaddi, King of Byblos, did not count on his help.
Pharaohs celebrated the jubilee after thirty years of reign. Iknaton celebrated it at the age of 30, as if he wished to take back his reign to his birth date.
Now, at this age he was slim and emaciated. He decides to delete from any inscription not only the name of Amon but also those of all gods. Just Amon remained. This decision was not strictly observed. Even the names of Hathir, Etha, et cetera, and the plural “Gods”, were deleted.
Insofar as he deleted just the name of Amon, he had “one” clergy against him; later all priests were against him.
Seemingly Horenheb, the chief of the army, in disagreement with the pacifistic politics of Iknaton, secretly planned his future campaigns, perhaps in collusion with Meri-Ra, the High Priest of Aton.
With no descendants and with many people against him, even among his officials, he granted his trust to Smenkara, who married with high pomp his elder daughter when she was twelve years old.
He associated his son-in-law to the regency, and when he finally succeeded him, adopted as epithet “Beloved of Iknaton”.
An associate in the throne was an insufficient step. Syria was almost lost, and the considerable expenses derived from the construction of Aton’s Horizon exhausted the immense Egyptian treasure.
Doubtless he was aware of the impossible survival of Aton’s religion, and this actually occurred.
We only know that he died with the collapse of his empire. His mummy reveals the existence of a criminal attack. Apparently he was epileptic. Then he would be about thirty years old. Seemingly it was the year eighteen of his reign, but in certain inscription there is a mention to the nineteen year.
We do not know anything more about Nefertiti. Seemingly she survives one year to his husband. Tutankhaton, his son-in-law and successor, was persuaded to come back to Thebes, and then the City of the Horizon was definitively abandoned. Later, after a time of appeasement between Aton’s and Amon’s worships, the worship of Amon prevailed by the influence of Horenheb, the chief of the army.
Amon’s clergy entirely recovered its influence forty years after the death of Iknaton. They deleted his name, and people mentioned him as “the criminal”. Amenophis IV’s inscriptions remained untouched.
The Temple of Aton, in Karnac, is demolished. Iknaton is buried in the tomb of Teye. They open the tomb, take out the corpse and cut any reference to his name in his bands. They erase inscriptions. Finally his corpse is put back in the coffin.
The Fight of the Two Suns refers to this fight between Amon and Aton.
Curiously, this seed left by the followers of Aton crystallized in Osiris, incarnate and dead among men for the salvation of the world.
Teaching 4: The Temple of Initiation
They studied the Books of the Eternal Mother in this Temple, and in it as well the power and wisdom of Amon’s Priests by means of the Esoteric Schools of Amon as polytheism reached the summit.
The Temple of Amon, whose priests had a world-wide influence in spite of remaining permanently in it, may be placed about one hundred kilometers from Thebes, close to the Nile River. It was vast, square, and of white marble.
Men and women lived there in chambers entirely separated by high and wide walls. And as much men as women were completely detached from the world, actually dead to the external world. For many years they lived in chambers with no windows.
To enter the Temple, in spite of his vocation, the candidate rather had to be chosen. Certain candidates even were psychically attracted. They entered at the age of twelve.
Usually, the candidate took a quite solemn step by truly dying to the ordinary life; he was accompanied by his relatives in funeral procession and led to an external chamber of the Temple; in it just there was a hollow coffin and they deposited him therein.
Usually these candidates were of royal blood. This was important since Pharaohs, in the times of splendor, were initiated by priests who also were “royal” for their knowledge, power and blood.
There were seven chambers.
The coffin, with the candidate in it, was carried to the first chamber.
The aspirant, in case of culminating his career, had to pass through seven grades, whose particular duration was variable, and just some few reached the summit.
Teachings dealt as much with the physical aspect as with the intellectual aspect; never with one of them.
Each grade was successively achieved in the above quoted walled chambers.
The first grade –which may be called of “physical recovery and oblivion”– was in charge of very skilled priests.
There they deprived the neophyte of every worldly possession. Of course, of his clothes and every personal object. He underwent trials related to his sight and writing, and they extracted his finger-nails to liberate him from animal instincts.
Like in the case of novices of Christian Orders, they did not study. On the contrary, they were led to forget all their knowledge by means of potions not only to remove impurities from their bodies, but also to forget all that they had learnt.
These potions produced high fevers and loss of weight. Then the duration of this grade, between one week and several years, depended on the physical constitution of every one.
As soon as the candidate was purified and had forgotten all his knowledge: reading, writing, et cetera, and even his name, his family and every event of his life until that moment, he fell sound asleep again and they carried him to the second chamber.
The second grade can be described like “development of the intelligence”.
Bear in mind that a chosen and purified adolescent, without any notion of his former life, was able to enter.
It was a beautiful place, beyond imagination. Any contribution of science and power from a wealthy empire was there: palaces of incomparable marbles of the ancient Egypt, white, blue and green; they were so wonderful that the priests made use of them to study reflections of the sunlight. These palaces contained the most beautiful paintings, sculptures and works of art. Their gardens were beyond any description and their plants so well-cared that in certain cases a man was exclusively in charge of one plant. The spring flood of the Nile was used for cultivation. Except religion, they studied science and arts in this grade, and tended to develop intelligence and mind suppleness.
Be aware against any possible confusion between intelligence and spirituality: a spiritual being perhaps is in need of mind suppleness and, on the contrary, an intellectual being may be in need of spirituality.
In this grade, they taught the candidate how to discern. Later, of course the period of time was variable, the students possessed a surer judgment as much in the scientific aspect as in the aesthetic aspect.
When it was time to pass to the third grade –which may be termed of “memory and choice”– they hypnotized the student and he passed to the following chamber.
Of course, not all were able to take this step, because many aspirants would find that this step was extremely difficult.
Once the neophyte entered the Temple, he never went out; these beings remained like “priests-servants”; the embalmers belonged to this group. Those who did not go beyond the third grade were in charge of supplies and other aspects related to the material management of the Temple.
Now, in the third grade, they read the Books of the Divine Mother, study what we may term “psychology”, and again remember their former life.
But a seventy per cent would fail in this chamber.
By the study of the Teachings, many know that if the One is the only real, “the rest” was useless: for what to eat, or to sleep, or whatever except “It”?
Most of them give up and die.
Very few fail after the fourth grade. Devoted to the study of magic, they acquire psychic powers (clairvoyance, astral projection, et cetera) and intend to grant to others a chance to progress.
They start Contemplation in the fifth grade.
They study Theology in the sixth grade, and recognize that any union that one achieves is momentary because the personality is so linked with its environment.
When the priests apply a punishment, however severe it may be, they act with no fear because if the person punished is guilty, necessarily he shall expiate his fault through Karma, in such a way that a punishment just anticipated this Karma.
Now, the Temple is hidden under sands, and inaccessible by decision of the Moslems.
One of the powers of Amon’s priests was to die of ecstasy.
They did not fear anything because of their exceptional knowledge of the Hereafter; but there were misuses, and a severe regulation became necessary.
So, seven priests have to swear a self-inflicted death at certain moment; and the decision of one priest in this sense, meant also the death of the other six. This pact could be made for life or for certain period of time.
Ultimately, those priests on oath went to an isolated place and generally fasted for forty days, and sometimes, for twenty seven or eighteen days. By this practice they tried to weaken their physical bodies, managing it more easily. Meanwhile they remained concentrated on the highest conceivable entity.
Just after this fast, they concentrated on their centers, beginning by the lower.
The concentrated on every part of a center and reflected about its uselessness. These centers, void of any raison d’être, did not operate any more.
They acted this way successively with the other centers. But at the highest center they found that they were tightly tied to life. Then they made the backward survey, and after it they were able to take the great step.
Teaching 5: Amon in the Hellenic Schools
The esoteric school that might be called polytheistic reached its summit in Egypt, eventually decayed and its temples remained entirely buried in the sand.
Moslems impeded their search and just recently, hardly half a century ago, temples and sepulchers were excavated and entirely exoteric inscriptions deciphered. The esoteric inscriptions were mainly destroyed along with the Library of Alexandria.
But its immense knowledge did not disappear from the face of the earth, and until today it has flourished with a variety of forms and in different places, almost always in contrast with other forms of monotheism.
The rest of it, duly preserved, has been legated to mankind, first, through the Hellenic Schools.
When the priests of Amon were forced to be in exile and to take refuge in Greece, this country was inhabited by very primitive beings, devoted over all to meet their main needs.
The priests of Amon lived there for a short period of time that was sufficient to leave a seed.
When the priests of Amon returned to Egypt, at a time the priests of Aton –who were monotheistic– were forced to leave the country and also they took refuge in Greece.
Then the influence of the two can be studied in Greece and throughout centuries.
Both grand conceptions had very important philosophical derivations: the doctrine on grace would derive from the polytheistic conception, and the doctrine on freewill from Aton’s conception.
If we take for granted that everything is illusion and a reflection or emanation of the Non-Manifested Divinity, of course any thing –man, his mind, and his soul– are just a reflection absolutely dependent on a non-manifested aspect. Then one cannot do anything for a being, to change his destiny, however holy or criminal, wise or fool he may be. Ultimately, this conception leads to fatalism; a being is not free but like God, as a whole.
But believers in the freewill may hold: if man is divine and has any particle of divinity, then to certain extent he is self-determined.
Greek Initiatic Schools were very different from Egyptian Initiatic Schools. Now we shall deal with those Schools that followed the current of Amon, to the exclusion of the monotheistic trend.
First you notice certain dispersion as much in ends as in forms, in relation to Egyptian Schools.
The Egyptian priest studied the whole science and every aspect of wisdom. But the Greek deemed that an entire life is not enough to comprise totally all this.
The Egyptian Temple was one and immense; and the Greek Temple, even though it was complete like a center of religious, philosophical and pedagogical culture, was devoted to only one branch.
This was so, first for the physical individual constitution: the Egyptians were surprisingly stout, resistant and flexible, and these conditions were notably increased by means of drugs and surgery. They sexual appetite was moderate, over all among priests. But the Greek, even though they were beautiful, their endurance was poor; just some few of them would be able to stand the Egyptian plan.
Egypt was a kingdom very united with the Pharaoh; Greece was composed of numberless little kingdoms and cities. The entire Greece was divided.
Sex was the first problem among the Greek. Therefore, in many temples mainly they studied the transmutation in relation to celibates. These teachings failed because the lustful Greek thought, “If we raise our natural material acts and offer them to the Divinity, then those acts become divine”.
In some way, this was right. But at once the Greek misused this, especially on the pretext of transforming anti-natural acts into divine acts.
Many of these beings notably developed their intelligence, and returned many times to the physical world. But intelligent and skilful men have failed because they were tied to certain vice (gamble, drink, women), and shall not be able to excel to be in the position of overcoming these facets.
Second, they studied magic and psychic powers.
We may say the Greek, in relation to his love of the form, had very different needs from the Egyptians. A sexual act had a double meaning, and very few went beyond the first grade.
No news about the third grade.
Those who reached the third grade, that is, the philosophical grade, kept silence.
Many works by Greek philosophers survived up to our days: but the works by Plato and his followers reflected the trend of Amon and of the Grace; and the works by Aristotle and others reflected the trend of Aton and the freewill.
Plato’s influence decayed for several centuries, but came to life again in Jamblicus and Plotinus. This doctrine, of the Grace, had much influence on the Christian Church, especially through Saint Augustine. Naturally, this Church would be monotheistic. But, in thirteen century, the Aristotelian doctrine is notably established by Saint Thomas Aquinas.
But after the death of Cleopatra, some religious treasures of the glorious Temple of Amon remained beyond the reach of the Roman conquerors, and were carried with great secrecy to an almost inaccessible place in the African desert, surrounded by high mountains. They were carried by faithful disciples, whose descendants have kept them up to our days. These disciples have ever successfully defended their treasure: neither Moslems were able to discover it.
Amon’s memory was not deleted in the East. Julia Domma, a daughter of a priest of Fire, in Emera, Syria, married the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and in her court she was surrounded by a chosen group of beings, whose works are remembered up to our days.
Plato was studied again in the Renaissance by outstanding Florentine sages in fifteen century.
The Esoteric Schools of knowledge and love continuously remain in conflict and constant fusion and exchange because these two forces must join together through struggle, at the end of the era of Pisces, to form one expression of the Divine.
Teaching 6: King Arthur, The Holy Grail, the Round Table and its Knights
In full Christian flourishing, the Esoteric Schools first were the heritage of Initiated Knights, and later, of Military Orders.
The Hellenic and Roman esotericism, which had watered abundantly the principles of Christendom through Neoplatonism, entirely disappeared.
When in 500, philosophical schools were prohibited by Justinian, the esoteric masters went to Persia and there prepared the seed that would become the Islamic religion and manifold esoteric schools as well.
But during the First Crusades, Christian Knights contacted again the Moslem Esoteric Schools.
These teachings were assimilated over all by Norman Knights, very religious men who joined a fervent Christian faith to doctrines of their Druid, Gallic and Iberian ancestors. As early as in 1100 they made flourish a Christian esoteric knighthood.
Legends about the errant Knight, Holy Grail, and Knights of the King Arthur’s Round Table come from those times.
These esoteric groups are not Christian as a whole but in essence, and live separately; later Military Orders and Esoteric Schools are formed.
When the Initiated Knights entered the brotherhood, they took solemn oath of fidelity until death, of opposition to any injustice and of perpetual defense of the poor, destitute and helpless.
This oath was the first public ceremony of the neophyte.
Promise is a divine gift and just the Gods can promise to men; but for a human being it is difficult to promise, because by nature the strongest will fails; so it was said: “You shall not swear”. But when a man swears, since oath is divine, implicitly he is obliged to transform his human nature into divine nature.
Since Divine Wisdom cannot be food for ordinary men, the secret became indispensable to impede that unskilled hands could lift the Divine Veil.
The Bible says, “As soon as you see the face of God, you die”, because the study if the Eternal Wisdom entail to possess a proper spiritual development that a person must acquire, little by little, under the Initiates’ guide. Also, in the ceremony of oath, the neophyte sees the face of his companions for the first time, and the vision of the Face is symbol of that hidden wisdom, just revealed to some few.
When the new adept swears, he enters the Great Spiritual Current –Spiritual, Mental and Psychical– produced by the Esoteric Order, and his violent expulsion from this Great Current where he voluntarily is would be harmful.
To get to this first step in the Ceremonial, the adept has forced the door of the sanctuary, because nothing can be achieved without efforts.
The assistant brings a horn with wine, which must be of a deer. This horn is symbol of the lower nature, while the wine is the creational power in its lower aspect.
Noah drinks the juice of grapes, falls sound asleep and his sons make fun of him. Man has to enter the innermost depths of the lower nature and of the subconscious to know those forces that move and lead all things.
The Initiate instructs the neophyte to extend his arm over the horn, and at a time he extends his own arm; the two right hands together, wounded by the sword, let drop their blood to mix with the wine.
Blood is invaluable. All physical substances are in it, along with the entire power and the entire poison of life; it is the only substance in direct contact with the astral ether, in such a way that is coagulated as soon as the vital power stops animating it and, as it were, materializes. Blood is, then, symbol of the lower nature that, by self-sacrifice, blends with the lower nature to redeem and raise it toward its liberation. Properly, this is the redemption made by Christ who sheds his own blood on the Cross, repeated every day in the Chalice during the Mass.
But it is Will that can make this redemption driven by love. The strong will of the cold steel sword that has made the incision.
Later, alternately, Initiate and Neophyte sip the precious liquor. Mankind may return to its pristine spiritual glory by this indispensable fusion of higher parts with lower parts. Again the mystery of the Holy Eucharist finds here its explanation: the close union and inseparability of Spirit and Matter.
The neophyte tied to the Order by his oath, at the same time ties the Order to him. Love and union match values and pairs of opposites, and efforts made by one are rewarded by the gift of the other.
After the oath, the keeper of the keys comes and breaks the horn.
When the Initiated Knight gives the robe to members of the Order, he touches with his sword the right shoulder of men and the left shoulder of women, which symbolizes transmutation by purification, and gives them a rose. This open flower represents vortices of astral forces in active and developed state.
Members wear white, orange and black robes. White robes were for Pages and Maidens, because they must be really pure and innocent to tread on the mud of the world. Orange robes for Squires and Young Ladies, symbolizing pride and glory of the Order. Black robes for Knights and Ladies, meaning they are dead to the world and just live in the Eternal.
Men, their robes up to their knees, wear them over their armors, for spirituality must not interrupt the action. Women wear robes up to their feet, which represent modesty and discretion.
All wear white robes of circular borders, since “circle” means “manifested God”.
Also they wear a circular hood, indicating Spiritual Power. In the beginning of the Christian Church, when it was purely spiritual, Popes wore white hood; but when they acquired material power, they substituted it for a crown of gold. In the antiquity, the crown was for kings like visible and material power, and the hood for High Priests, like invisible and spiritual power. On the left side of the robe, on the level of the heart, there was a red cross, meaning that the adept was able to control the lower elements.
During the ceremony, after the oath taken by the neophyte, the assistants raised the hood that covered his face, and this way they were visible before the new member.
Pages and Maidens, besides their hoods, wear a little circular cap whose color was the same of the robes, which represented submission.
Squires and Young Ladies bear a helmet with a golden butterfly in its center, which gets out of the cocoon, meaning the soul whose aspiration is the knowledge of everything.
Knights and Ladies also wear a helmet and, in the center of it, there is the head of a golden serpent of forked and protruded tongue, for the straight serpent is symbol of Supreme Wisdom, with a cross above.
Their clothes indicate intrinsic and personal powers of the adept, while their attributes manifested his active powers. There were four basic attributes: ring, sword, necklace and seal, related to the four basic powers of a human being, deposited in the physical body, in the solar plexus, in the splenic center, in the throat center and in the pineal gland, respectively.
Also, they made use of brown and white horses like their vehicles. In the evolution of lower beings, a horse reached the highest level of development and is a link of union between the animal kingdom and the human kingdom. It represented the instinctive nature, controlled and subjugated by the will of man. Lower nature should not be destroyed, but led and guided.
In the Order, a brown horse meant instinct controlled but sensible to lower attractions continuously dragging it toward the world. The Squire has controlled his passions, but continuously returned to men in order to help them. A white horse means instinct that has been entirely controlled. The Knight keeps this horse just for his personal use or for works that are seemingly Divine according to Humanity.
Here we may cite the apparition of Saint James the Apostle in the battlefield to defend and lead to victory the hosts of Ramiro against the Moors of Secret and Initiatic Orders of those days: The warrior appeared in white rob at the combat with attributes of Knights of Secret and Initiatic Orders of the time, riding a white horse, and holding a shining armor, a flaming sword and a banner with a red cross.
This Great Being, mistaken by the Spaniards for a saint man, was just an Initiated Knight who appeared riding his horse and well-equipped to lead them to victory, as if he were a demigod.
Ring, sword, necklace and seal are related to the four main Tarot’s figures. Ring is related to diamonds (gold, in Spanish cards), sword to swords, necklace to cups and seal to clubs.
Ring is related to solar plexus and means power to control, that is, self-control and control of elements, forces of nature and the rest of men that did not reach the same level of spiritual progress. The brilliant and gold represent the power of the sun and of its rays over the entire planet.
The sword is related to the splenic plexus and means force, and also fear that has been overcome; the individual being is finally liberated by his power that he uses like cold and sharp steel on his environment.
In Psalm 44, the Psalmist sings to the beauty of the King and does not forget to advice, “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh”, as if he explained that this force lies on the splenic plexus.
The round necklace, on which the name of every member of the Order is written, expresses the power of vibration, word and rhythm, and is related to the throat plexus that, properly developed, enables the student to perceive voices and astral sounds.
The seal, totally of gold, with the sign of Ank carved in it, represents the creational power, like fire, root point of the mind, the farthest reaches of the Spirit with the manifested substance.
These attributes do not belong to all members of the Order: the seal is only of the Great Master; and just the Initiate possesses the creational power, the transmutation power. The adept reached the Initiation alone, without any external help, like the image of God reflected in Himself.
The ring is of Knights and Ladies; its high magnetism indicates that these men and women have solved the internal problem of diversity. They know that just one force rules over human and universal destinies, and voluntarily lead this force to achieve their aspirations.
The sword was also of Squires and Young Ladies; they just passed forcefully from the world of the psyche to the world of the soul. Just a brave person can cross the circle of fear and possess the force that is latent in the sacrum plexus of every individual.
All members of the Order wear necklace, which symbolized psychic power within the reach of all those who are properly skilled and trained.
The necklace is related to cups, representing the female matrix and material aspect of things. The seal, with clubs, represents the male lingam and creational and spiritual aspect of things. The word represents the union of spirit and matter, and the result of club and cup. The ring, with diamonds (gold), represents control of the mind and of manifested things.
Teaching 7: Ancient Initiatic Ceremonials
of Knights
For ancient Initiates, the year is the movement of the sun through the twelve zodiacal houses, the way of the soul, from birth to death, in its quest for perfection. So for them annual festivities are important because symbolize different steps and aspects of the material and spiritual life.
Arbitrarily, Julius Caesar reduces some hours of the year and sums up all of them together in one day every four years, in the leap year. But the students of esotericism ever protested against this decision that affects the true Mystical Year.
A true year is like a daiva year among the Hindu: 365 days, 5 hours, 30 minutes, 31 seconds; and Dom Alfonso the Sage, king of Castille, assigned to the year 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 16 seconds.
Even the beginning of the present year does not coincide with the year of the ancients: the true years begins in the equinox of spring.
The Mystical Year is divided into four parts, such as the spiritual life of the Initiated Knights does.
The first part, which begins in the equinox of spring, begins with the festivity of the reopened Book of the Mother. It is the return to those things that have been left, for their sublimation.
Nature opens the book of her manifestation and shows her wisdom through flowers that emerge from the bosom of the earth like a foretaste of its fruits. In the magical ritual, it represents the continuous change of all things, the descent of the spirit on the matter, and the sacrifice of a being that possesses more for the sake of a person that possesses less, by distributing his possessions.
Symbolically, someday the disciple shall kill his enemy as soon as he becomes stronger. So this first part of the Mystical Year also symbolizes the reincarnation and law of consequences by which one returns to the root cause.
Those beings who reach a very high grade of spiritual evolution periodically feel the impulse to come back and stay among men to share with them their values and to give them love; and even to become smaller in order transform them into bigger beings.
The Knights, all together, receive the message that the Masters have transmitted to the Great Master.
Much shall be demanded from him who has received much.
They are standing and receive the order with their swords unsheathed and covered by their white robes. The Knight appointed to achieve certain Great Work in the world embraces his comrades and gives them his kiss of peace; and after the blessing of the Great Master, riding his white horse goes in secrecy to fulfill his mission, when the others kindle a big fire on the mount to guide the redeeming Knight during his journey through the darkness of the world; then the rest of Knights return to their studies, exercises and concentration, and wait for their own time.
The sword wrapped by the robe represents the Divine Mother, the Supreme Will covered by the Veil of Ahehia, the manifested wisdom that the Knight must strive to discover. His descent to the lower worlds and his unblemished passage through them become indispensable to achieve the supreme realization.
His journey represents the wheel of lives and deaths; and the big fire on the mount, the higher part of man, high ideal and spiritual vocation, which ever stays with him.
Christians imitated this beautiful Initiatic Ceremony with big fires of Saint John and with the festivity of the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary.
Even after their knighthood, the ancient Medieval Knights wandered through the world seeking adventures, ever wishing to find the woman of their dreams or the cup of the Holy Grail.
Wagner offers wonderful images: Lohengrin is the Initiated Knight that leaves the castle of the Knights Monsalvat and goes to defend the maiden that was falsely accused.
Even today the Tables open their course on this date: the time of festivity and joy is over: and the time for discipline, work and sacrifice returned. The Book of the Teaching, which remained closed, is open again; every one sacrifices the best of himself for the sake of others. Also in this date the new Tables begin, always with the sacrifice of the sponsoring Table.
The second part of the year begins with the summer solstice. Fruits are mature and wheat may become bread. The Knights can prepare their feast to consummate the Mystical Wedding of Union between matter and spirit. This ceremony represents the alliance of spirit and soul, that is, of coincidental principles that finally meet and become one.
The solemn Full Moon ceremony is held at this part of the hemisphere in May, but is repeated in a more simple way during the year.
During the Full Moon night all members of the Table are together as if they were only one. The feast is at night, because the night is the mother of mysteries, intimacies and weddings. It is held at Full Moon, for Full Moon indicates that, although the past is dead, it contacts the present to become perpetual in the time to come. Those souls who once were united by the same ideal, although dead, shall meet and be together again.
The feast takes place at a square room, whose table is like a horseshoe. The Great Master is in the center, and the rest of Knights to his right and in order.
The table must be arranged as follows: a straight line should be traced on it by means of a white cord, and plates should be placed on this line. Cups should be placed on another line of orange cord; bottles, on another parallel line of black cord; and platters, also on another parallel line of white cord.
In the antiquity, plates were of silver, perchance to explain that certain metals, such as silver and gold, remove the animal magnetism; every place had to be personal of every one.
In all times, the cup was of especial wood, and made of a very subtle vegetal fiber; hence all those marvelous legends about the Chalice of the Lord and the Holy Grail.
Wine, as we said, represents the lower nature; the Initiate drinks the juice of grapes, knows how to transmute and transforms lower values into higher values.
After the feast, there was a solemn toast, as if the happy and festive part of every soul wished to become only one expression of beauty in order to last like a guiding entity.
After the toast, the Great Master would break his cup.
A table is always a sign of agreement and alliance. In all religions, the altar is the table of the Gods. God comes to an agreement with Jacob, and as a memorial of this agreement, they raise an altar, or mystical table.
Christ established the Eucharistic Sacrament during the paschal feast; usually the early Christians celebrated a fraternal feast.
A table reunites all family members at the time to have a meal. It is the hour of togetherness, of a father along with his children and of a satisfied mother because her family is together. It is the hour to perpetuate the family alliance.
In Full Moon, during the feast, also the sun –image of the Spiritual Sun– is on its nadir; also the sun has descended from above to the underworld seeking her beloved woman, like Orpheus going down to the underworld for her wife Eurydice and for a new alliance, a new agreement and a new wedding.
Members of the Order should observe all these ceremonies with fervor and understanding, because otherwise these ceremonies shall be in vain. Every one should try an alliance with his companions, a union of souls, a union of feelings and ideals, and then this union shall be the future victorious soul of the Spiritual Ideal.
At the end of the work, its celebration took place on the equinox of autumn since the earth has yielded its fruit. Its name was “Festivity of the King” because Knights gave a party in honor of their Chief and of the Initiated Knight.
In winter solstice, the Knights had the festivity of Renunciation; the most advanced left the community and climbed the Mount toward the Castle of the Perfect. This is the most rhythmic and poetic ceremony of all, perhaps because in this fourth part of the year the last visible ceremony in the physical plane takes place.
Always there is someone that excels and reaches a state of inner liberation in every way of life and in every group. These select souls, even keeping their physical body, understand that have nothing to do among men, and an irresistible desire of loneliness drives them to seek an isolated life devoted to contemplation.
It is well-known the Indian belief that these extraordinary beings live in desolate places, hidden in high mountains.
The Theosophical Society based its entire Work on messages from these Masters of the Himalayas.
A splendid ceremony takes place in the ancient Orders to symbolize this one-way mystical journey. When a Knight of high perfection feels the impulse to abandon all external things, the Great Master assembles the Knights and all together they sing the Hymn of Liberation. At once two Ladies, holding a blue cloth, enter with their faces covered by a veil, which is a symbol of the new worlds that the chosen Knight has to conquer, holding a blue cloth in the hands. They take out the white robe of the Knight and line it with blue cloth; later the Knight cuts with his sword the right end of the robe, divides it into seven parts and gives them to the seven remaining Knights like a his souvenir.
This is an image of the Eternal Knight, of the Everlasting Knight; nobody knows if he dies or not. He has been able to control his lower and higher principles at will.
But where do these chosen beings live? In what area of the world do they live?
These secret places, where the Initiatic Orders had, or have their official seat, are not located at random, but correspond to the seven plexuses of forces in the planet. On the earth there are seven sites, not sea sites, whose animal magnetism is much more intense than in other places. Of course, always in mountain areas; there are numberless holy mountains.
A magnetic place on the earth is in Tibet and, especially, in the area of Shambhala, where the Yellow Lamas have their main seat; the most magnetic place in Europe is on the mountain of Monserrat, Catalonia, where –even today– the Rosacrucian Brothers celebrate their astral meetings. In America there are several magnetic places of this kind; one of them can be found in desolate mountains of San Luis Province, and other on the lake Hueche Lauquen, both in Argentina. Lohengrin describes one of these places and calls it Monsalvat and, to make it more inaccessible, describes it surrounded by waters and calls it “unknown place”.
But really did these initiatic castles exist in the antiquity? Actually they existed; and all medieval castles are a copy of them: of those castles founded by Initiated Knights.
Castles of this kind, or ruins of them, can be found in Catalonia and South Galicia, Flanders, Normandy and Scotland; and wonderful samples of them, in North Germany, but of later construction.
Of course, the Ancient Order had to possess their isolated places and castles where the Initiated Knight stayed confined.
Here we shall not refer to the mountain of Kaor, because just ruins of the early Temple may remain there, but we may describe how these secluded spots could have been. At a height of more than one thousand meters, on an unknown and almost uninhabited area, a building totally surrounded by ramparts and water was erected; no member of the Order knew this place, except those who would inhabit it and the Great Masters. No woman, no foreigner could tread this isolated place. In the moat around the castle, they fed to white and black swans, which symbolized the Eternity, manifested and non-manifested. These lonely Knights, these pure guards of the Eternal Wisdom, lived there in such a pure and serene way that just in hours of inner ecstasy and perfect prayer one can glimpse the meaning of this.
These places may have disappeared, but an inaccessible and isolated place still remains for the Knights: the impregnable castle of the Inner Sanctuary.
The four seasons of the year also symbolize the four great eras of the Aryan race since its birth.
The first part of the race is from the birth of the Atlantean-Semite race, 850,000 years ago, to the final stagnation of the Aryan race, 118,769 years ago (1941).
The second stage corresponds to this time: from the establishment of the Aryan race to the war of 1,500 years, 25,868 years ago (1941).
The third stage is from the war of 1,500 years to the sinking of Poseydonis, the last Atlantean relic, 11,000 years ago.
The fourth stage is from the sinking of this island up to our present days.
These four stages also recall those four stages of the Esoteric Schools.
The first splendid, golden stage was of the Initiated Masters. It is from that time the Temple of Kaor, 25,868 years ago, to the sinking of Poseydonis, 11,000 years ago.
The second stage represents a time of power and supremacy, the golden era, from the sinking of Poseydonis to the reign of Amenophis IV, 3,311 years ago (1941).
The third stage is the esoteric priestly era. In this stage, the Esoteric Schools already had completed their reserve of knowledge. It lasted from Amenophis IV to the foundation of the Teutonic Order by Hernan von Salza, 1197.
The fourth stage corresponds to the era of the Christian Knights, of action and sacrifice, and lasts from the esoteric foundation of the Teutonic Order up to our present days.
Also it symbolizes the year in the life of man, with four main periods of time: childhood, adolescence, manhood and old age.
The Mystical Year also must foster the true meaning of years, months, days and hours. A fool does not pay attention to them and suddenly finds himself white-haired and empty-handed.
But a sage measures his time. He knows that every hour past is a chance less for his spiritual progress. Like a year, also his chances in life pass by, along with good opportunities, energy and mental clarity in youth, as well as gifts within his reach to become perfect.
So, the Initiatic ceremonials of the Knights, in the Mystical Year, keep a lofty rhythm, measure and stability in the frame of time: this material of which life is made, according to the legend written by the ancients on the luminous faces of their clocks.
Teaching 8: The Knight of the Eternity
The physical Order is an image of the Astral Order.
Certain souls renounce in the Astral World to the peace and bliss of higher planes in order to continue their work for the sake of Mankind and, especially, for the sake of their brothers of the Order, those who fight for the same purpose and the same ideal: self-reformation and sanctification of the souls.
These invisible Knights may be souls not incarnated for long on the earth, and also Knights who passed away and now join to this chosen group.
A beautiful legend states that when the first Knight dies, his mission is to remain on the Threshold of the Eternity, to wait for his companions and to point out them the way.
Usually this expecting Knight continuously dwells between the astral plane and the threshold of cold and darkness, looking with his clairvoyant eyes at the imminent hour of the wayfarer. As soon as he sees how death wraps in its thick veils his dying brother, he assembles and materializes all his companions around the dying Knight so that he may cross the threshold led by the hand and helped by holy company.
This consolation of the soul from a friend that distracts his attention facilitates his passage from one place to the other and then he does not suffer to much this dimensional change.
But there is something more. In the world there are places in which the Knights of the Tables mystically meet the mortal Knights who know how to move in their astral bodies. This takes place in points of the planet that, because of its extraordinary magnetism or by magnetism accumulated for centuries in Temples that exist there, become fit to the solemn realization.
Beyond Gobi desert, on the highest mountains of Pamir, there is one of these places. Some people believe that there the ancient mount of Kaor stood; there the astral Knights, in mystical assemblies, still fill the air with holy chants and sublime concentrations.
In Tibet, on a high plateau, upon a square and black massif, also these astral assemblies are held. In Europe they are held on the mountain of Monserrat and on the high mountains of Scotland; and in Africa, in Cape of Good Hope.
Also several points of this kind are located in America. The main point is in Colorado Canyon, the United States; and another point is on a high volcano, now extinct, the Lanin, which in the South mirrors on the quiet waters of the lake Hueche-Lauquen.
In the antiquity there was an important magnetic centre on the mountains of San Luis Province, Argentina, and still we are told about the existence of a Holy Temple there located, but this centre has been almost entirely displaced Southwards.
Seemingly, the so subtle atmosphere of these places becomes more ethereal than physical. In those regions, the “puna” (mountain sickness) that kills the body is non-existent, but certainly there is certain “puna” that destroys those souls which are neither so strong nor so brave to face the trials before their arrival at the place of the meeting.
But the East always is the grand point of concentration. When the Knights of the earth and heaven go to the Holy Temple, which only exists in the fourth sub-plane of the astral world, their focus and quest is centered in Pamir, in the ancient Kaor and, from there, in the Eternity.
Their last earthly visions that they perceive during these journey are of high plateaus, inaccessible peaks and virgin levels unknown to any mortal; as soon as the Knight, his feet on the mystical stair of ropes, looks behind, the last aura that he sees is the yellow light from the East, from India and from Tibet.
The vibrations transform the mantras of the Knights into currents of life, into an eternal language, which runs from one side to the other of the new world. Even here the divine self-sacrificed Knights are expecting and extending their arms to the astral Knights from the earth and from the physical body and helping across the flame of Hes.
The Knights of the Threshold, watchmen of the Eternity, resplendent in their silver aura of sacrifice, always hold their shining cups filled with nectar for the souls, which only those who have given all for love are able to take.
In the ancient Mysteries of Eleusis, their rites were related to this astral Initiation. Also the Egyptian priests represented this Realization leading the aspirant through four trials. The Christians imitate the ancients and repeat these ceremonies in connection with raiment and taking of vows.
The Esoteric Orders deemed useless to repeat visibly these entirely superfluous ceremonies, because just a Being who is prepared for them can participate, but just in the astral worlds. Also, many times these rites accidentally appear in the ordinary life of the disciple.
The first Golden Ceremonial refers to the four trials that a candidate must overcome to arrive at the gates of the Temple, where he shall be consecrated as Knight of the Eternity.
The symbol of these four trials is four Knights watching over the entry to the higher planes. They are like the riders of the Apocalypse, like Zanoni’s specter at the threshold and like the terrible wild beasts watching over the entry to the Scandinavian Edda; in short, they are those elemental principles that maintain, drive, rule and destroy the physical life: passion, uncertainty, fear and separateness.
Seemingly passion is asleep in those who are seeking the Path; like domestic pets, instincts escaped before the rays of the first knowledge, of the first glimpses and of the first victories. The aspirant almost forgot all of them. Sometimes, after years and years, they do not show sign of life; but one day, suddenly, they come out, this time transformed into terrible wild beasts. This return of passions of being –the unavoidable Law of Consequences determined by the material deposit that formed the flesh– is symbolized by the earth, and its name is trial of Earth.
If the searcher becomes conversant with astral planes, he shall cross over the large marsh. How horrible astral marsh! The hesitant foot continuously sinks; but if the Masters let him to get to there it is because they know that he shall be able to cross it safe and sound. His disgust for worldliness, in its astral form, shall kill passions one by one. And as soon as he reaches the other shore, the instinct shall never rule over him.
The second trial is that of air. He must climb invisible stairs to reach the Temple. His astral body must become conversant with the fourth dimension. Suddenly, frightfully, his body assumes immense proportions and at once becomes smaller and seemingly disappears.
Also this mystical stairs appear before him in form of hanging ropes, without any support. Uncertainty is frightful: continuously he believes that he shall fall in the abyss, and remains suspended until he understand that there is not void there. As he climbs there is a hurricane. This hurricane is image of the passage from one astral state to other higher state.
The third trial is that of water: the trial of fear. Before he arrives at the Holy Mount, he must cross over the surrounding lake; there it is impossible to swim (courage is equivalent to the exercise of swimming). As soon as the imposing Mount overwhelms the soul, fear triumphs and the astral body sinks in a water that does not drown, but freezes and paralyses any perception. Invisible Masters and Protectors ever are with the candidates in these trials; otherwise the most advanced hardly could surpass them. Fear is the lethal enemy of man, and he cannot think of arriving very far if he does not overcome totally this fear.
The fourth trial in this first part of the Golden Ceremonial is that of fire. Think for a moment of a person who all his life dreamt of achieving an ideal and is about to reach it when he understands that finally he shall achieve it after he dies.
The Temple is surrounded by inextinguishable flames. The Knights shall not cross over these flames safe and sound; just “The Knight” can do. He sought his realization in vain. Realization is beyond personality. Any concept of separateness must be deleted if he wishes to cross over this fire that destroys and consumes everything, except the Spirit, except the Unity.
The second part of the Golden Ceremonial represents the three indispensable mental temptations to recognize the Divine Mother and to become one with Her.
These temptations are not for ordinary beings, but just for great souls.
Before His Divine mission on earth, Jesus must undergo these trials and overcome them; because the adept rules over passion of the flesh, over thirst of domination and over eagerness for wealth.
After incalculable fights, the adept has crossed over the circle of fire; now his image is the image of all beings, and his seamless robe is a reflection of all manifested powers.
It is the hour for the mystical wedding. The Divine Mother shall raise her veil to show her Face to the desired friend.
Three feminine images, of dazzling beauty, are introduced to the Initiate; they are in red, blue and yellow. The Divine Mother, in white and veiled, conspicuously emerges on the horizon of fire.
“What did you come to seek, oh Pilgrim, through so many dangers and trials?”
None else than You, oh Eternal Mother.
But... Who am I?”, the Mother says.
“You are the sum of life, beauty, charm and triumph in the eternity.”
But for the last time, the three women tempt him and again make use of the doubt to pierce his soul.
They say, “You do not know who is behind those white veils. Why do you not ask her to reveal her presence such as she is? Look at us such as we are: realization, enchantment, life and variability.”
“Do not ask of me so great trials...”, the veiled woman says.
But the doubt has entered the heart of the Knight, and he urges her to undress.
He says, “Even though you may have the most horrible forms, I shall recognize you because you are the dream of my multiple lives”.
“So be it”, the Mother says.
This is the trial of choice.
The white veils drop, and even the shroud does. And before the amazed eyes of the Knight the most frightening image appears, beyond any description. There is an old and decrepit body, of incalculable years, with a dry, wrinkled flesh; and a glance that has nothing to do with a human glance.
The three women laugh and say, “Here is your beloved woman!”.
Then the Mother says, “Choose, between them and me.”.
If the Knight is able to stand the trial of choice, he kneels down before the Mother and worships her in her form of destruction. And then this nightmare disappears and the Divine Mother recovers her aspect of eternal youth and beauty.
A High Entity leads this Ceremony in the Astral Table, the same Entity that has been organizing the Esoteric Orders for many generations and that now does not takes a physical body on the Earth. This Entity periodically rules over the Astral Table. Last time she incarnated like a woman, preserves a feminine aspect in the astral plane and represents to the Universal Mother.
Now the Temple is totally in the dark; this darkness is so thick and so impenetrable that is beyond any description.
The back stone of the Mother has been removed.
In the dark, you just can see the sleeping body of the Mother in her eternal coffin. Sighs, silent shadows and unknown steps fill the temple. And gradually, outlined images and shadows of those who were powerful, who ruled over the earth and who come to do homage to the Queen of every form and power.
“I can grant the exact calculation. I can grant indispensable limitless pride to triumph. I can indicate the safest roads to destroy and transform man into master of the world. I am a shadow, but some day I was called king of kings, chief, dominator and usurper.”
“If you wish, we shall teach you all our secret arts, and we shall make you owner of everything in the world.”
“But, what shall I give in return for it?”, the aspirant asks. Apparently the Chief of these wandering specters replies, like Satan to Jesus, “All these things I will give thee, if you wilt fall down and worship me”.
He must reply like Christ, “Get thee thence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve”.
Then you shall worship only the Divine Mother and the dark will fall away. Happily he overcame the trial of the thirst of domination.
But still he has to undergo the last mental trial: the thirst of wealth. Not only thirst of material wealth, but also of wealth of knowledge.
The Mother shall show all the gold hidden in the earth and all the gold of intelligence and knowledge, and will tell, “Take it; it is yours”.
He must reply, “You are my only aspiration and my only desire”.
Then the Astral Knights come close and dress him with an armor of engraved letters of gold that read as follows: “You have overcome”.
The Holy Assembly of Astral Knights, assembled in a mystical circle, on the desolate mountain of Kaor, celebrates the thirst and last part of the Golden Ceremonial for the sake of the new chosen soul.
Here is the radiant Knight, going forward with his escort.
Now his cuirass does not protect his physical body, but an armor of wonderful and magnetic vibrations surrounds his astral body with dazzling gleam. Here all these material attributes and initiatic symbols became His new sources of power and magnificence.
Now His name is not written on the necklace, but engraved on astral matter for all the Eternity.
The old Knight can rule over the Universe here at his feet.
His radiant sword is Foa at his disposal.
Look at the shining ring in his finger: it is a source of astral powers descending from heaven to the earth.
The seal of power is that marvelous serpentine current going up and down in his astral body and reflecting all colors.
If human voices could repeat the Chants of the expectant Knights, their translation would be as follows: “Blessed you, who has reached the Last Day and has been chosen for Eternal Husband of the Divine Mother. She married you. Therefore, be ready for the trial of the Spirit”.
On the earth, below this invisible meeting, there is amazement and admiration. The sunset says goodbye and reveres the Astral Knights with a blood-red covering the sky.
It is the last hour: hour of the spirit, hour to understand all, and rush later in the limitless darkness and join Him who cannot be named.
Frightened elementals of the air escape through a red horizon of thunderbolts and lightnings.
The Eternal Image of the Veiled Woman emerges from the old, dead crater.
Some few moments from now, She and He will be everlastingly united. United: where and how?
The Initiated Knight walks toward Her; the Saint Companions remain behind. The voice (if one may call it so), speaks, “You do not know how long I have expected this moment; of fleeting creature, you do not know that I am expecting you since the beginning of the universe. Neither the worlds nor the plan of the cosmos had been made or outlined when you were and I was too. But I was light and you were darkness. Since then I have loved you over all things, and because I loved you, I killed you. Perchance did you ever see the statue of Kali, dancing over the dead body of her husband, holding a bleeding knife? This is not only a symbol: it is a truth. I killed you. Still I remember with clarity the real legend of the Genesis, when for love I came to you with temptation, and I killed you with this temptation. Since I was the Divine, my union with mankind was impossible without destruction. For your sake I made the Universe, the planetary chains and millions of worlds crowning your head. And I have been looking for you through these worlds and these cycles. Meanwhile you wandered running after the illusion, seeking me in this illusion. For your love I have destroyed worlds that I made and I have put war and blood on the earth; to re-conquer you I have assumed every crime and every evil, and I have destroyed any impediment to our union by a movement of my hand. How many times I wept and called you, but you did not recognize me! How many times on purpose I assumed several forms and aspects, but in spite of it you did not remember me and even you rejected me! For you I left the Divinity and went down to the depth of human sorrow and misery, because I believed that by being like you I would conquer you again. I taught you legends and doctrines, and I wished to die like a God for your love. But even so you did not recognize me! For our re-union, the Divinity had to become human, but also it was indispensable to Deify mankind, oh my Redeemer!
A thick veil covers the intuition of the Initiated Knight: he does not understand. He speaks, “Why so much suffering and so much evil to become what we were? Why these ups-and-downs, this descent of Divinity to Humanity, to become the same? Why crime, horror and misery.
In fact, oh Knight, you never stopped being what you were and you never have been what you believe. Like a childish game, the Divine Being, Eternal Light, wants to be reflected on the darkness. There is neither ascent nor descent. Just there is illusion that produces light through its reflection on the darkness. Worlds are nothing more than shadows of God. Neither good nor evil exist; neither crime nor sorrow exists. Those who die, come again to being, and evil of today is good of tomorrow. A civilization is destroyed and falls because a new better civilization is being gestated. A criminal weapon pierces the body of a man because a new body, more beautiful, is ready for him. Also, the spirit is untouchable and free of any harm; here it suffer and wanders, and experiences changes and transformations because it believes so. But as soon as the spirit recognizes itself, at whatever point or stage of the way where he may state, “I am It”, illusion disappears and this spirit recovers its pristine Divinity and Essence”.
“Well, then I wish to destroy the illusion once for all: I want to be such as I am”.
Eternal symbol of the Circle and the Cross: the Holy Ank, shines on the sky, which now is covered by the cloak of the night.
The lips of the immortal wife are united with those of the immortalized Knight.
The echo of Chants of the Knights resounds on the Universe.
“I knew you from the beginning and I loved you from the beginning. The two were One.”
When the eyes try to perceive the peak to glimpse those Perfect Lovers, they have disappeared.
Just the flame emerges brilliantly on the summit of the Mount.
Teaching 10: Christian Military Orders
Now if you consider the teachings of Amon, not in his refuge but among men that fight and suffer, you shall observe during the first century before Christ the existence of numerous Schools, none of them purely devoted whether to the concept of “Non-Being” or to that of “Being.”
One of these trends prevails in them. In order to classify them, we would have in general: on the one hand, the doctrine of Amon, polytheistic, Platonistic and idealistic; and on the other, the doctrine of Athon, monotheistic, Aristotelian and materialistic.
These Schools were founded by “Renigar”, renegades, which should not be taken in a derogatory sense, because these beings, many of them Initiates, left more ancient and pure Schools, united their own ideas with ideas of their ancient School and others, and founded a new School. Usually, other “Renigar” abandoned these Schools and at a time founded other Schools.
It should be especially noticed that so many Schools flourished shortly before and after Christ. We must emphasize their eclectic character. They prepared the field for the dissemination of the extraordinary labor of Jesus.
The Solar Initiates, before Christ, came to the world in an inaccessible form to ordinary people. On the contrary, Jesus came to redeem all.
The same occurred with secret societies; they were almost impenetrable.
Jesus showed, first, that he was Man. And he made the great sacrifice of giving His Body.
Also, by his resurrection and ascension to Heaven, he showed that man was able to ascend to God, that hope must reach everybody, and that every one can realize his God.
But if Christendom had not counted on a very efficient divulger as Paul of Asher, it would not be so much divulged, because its doctrine was esoteric.
Paul gave to peoples notions that apparently were inaccessible to them. He cast pearls before swine; and sowed lavishly. He knew that he would pay by his own blood the disclosure of these secrets. He carried on imperturbably: he knew that his karma would not come and be active up to his last word.
Paul takes Christ as the exemplar, as the man that helps to his purpose. But always he mentions Him as the Redeemer. He does not mention Man. Also he suggests that, after the union of Man with his Savior, even there is a greater chance: something like a Buddhist Nirvana.
His work was triple:
1) He opened a channel between Divinity and Humanity, the entire Humanity. A symbol of this is the wound at the side of Christ, and his blood ever emanating from it. As a consequence of it, since then the esoteric societies were never as hermetic as before; always there is certain “leak” by which some secrets of these societies become known. The blood of Christ is shed over the entire world.
2) He established that man gets his salvation by the act of the Redeemer. Now man must not expect the Grace. Now he knows that also the Divinity was made flesh for him.
3) He is a true pioneer of what still is a hope: the union of polytheism with monotheism; that is, purity of the polytheistic conception with the accessibility of all men to the monotheistic concept. In short: Redemption of all men.
Polytheism as a guardian of the esotericism.
Christendom in its beginning and establishment as monotheistic religion absorbs the esotericism that just in the dynasty of the Ptolemies had been openly inserted in the monotheism.
In the first Christian century, the pure esotericism had been introduced in the Gnostic Church that denied the supreme authority of the Old Testament. Later, when the Gnostic Church is destroyed, the Orthodox Church takes the esotericism.
As you see, then Christendom had received an immense spiritual wealth.
After the redeeming sacrifice of Christ –an event that the people could understand through Paul and the doctrine of the Doctors, especially Saint Augustine– Christendom had a very powerful influence. Its expression, the Church, acquired very great prevalence, as much economic as political. But it prevailed spiritually from sixth to tenth century.
The Church needed a renewal, and after the favorable and direct renewal made by the Crusades, there was other renewal, more furtive and deeper (as a consequence of the Crusades): the esoteric societies are now in Europe.
Seven great beings carried the knowledge kept in the East. Europe needed knowledge, and these beings carried with them an institution so far unknown: the University.
In those times, every University dealt with only one branch of knowledge: Bolonia, right; Salerno, medicine; et cetera.
The Military Orders, especially the Teutonic Order, carried with them many secrets, and hence much knowledge.
Then two great spiritual forces meet in Europe: the Church and the just-arrived secret societies: he former somewhat spiritually declining; the latter, strong in a not quite active millennium.
The monotheistic notion of the Church had changed to a certain extent: the personal God, realizable by man, now was not Christ but the Church, or the “Dogma”. The contact with esoteric societies would vivify its spiritual content.
This unity in action culminated when Gilbert, a monk, great mystic and occultist, was raised to the Pontifical Throne with the name of Silvester II (d. 1003).
Now the two suns, Amon and Aton remained united.
So, the Cardinals’ College was a true college of sages. They had to educate the ecclesiastics. The regular clergy had not any contact with the people: they lived a pious life for themselves. Clergy hardly knew the indispensable Latin to celebrate Mass.
The Orders of Knights could not deal with it because their members were laymen. Then, a Cardinal –later, Pope Gregory IX– organized a religious Order whose rules were partially taken from those of Military Orders.
Asin the latter, there were three grades related to the three forms of the Church to make its work: Mystique, Apostolate and Teaching. Convents should have schools.
They choose a being like Francis of Assisi because his spirit is more adaptable to these plans. He had fame of sanctity. Gregory IX somewhat cunningly sanctioned certain constitutions that he wrote by himself. Francis did not agree entirely but, doubtless, the purpose of the Pope was good. The success of this Order is well-known, as well as that of other Orders founded later.
Seemingly this union of the Church with secret societies was invincible. But there was a division, so far latent, between Papacy and Empire. Some esoteric societies were on the side of the former, and others, on that of the latter. In fact, these trends were not pure, but those who were for the Papacy were rather idealistic followers of Non-Being as the supreme expression. Here is the motto of the Nominalists during the Middle Ages: “All is one Voice”. And the “realists” were against them.
Here is the really notable importance of the esoteric societies: Herman von Salza, Great Master of the Teutonic Order, negotiated an agreement between the Pope Boniface VIII and the Emperor Frederick II. Later, in 1544, Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg and First Duke of Prusia, fostered especially the education in all cities of the Prusian State, and founded school with classes of Latin, as well as the Gymnasium of Könisberg and the University in the same city. He instructed to print books in German for his Court (catechisms, et cetera), and his servants were free to study. Also he preserved the treasure of Esoteric Teachings inherited from his brothers in religion, and limited them to some few sages. So, Esoteric Associations came into being among Lutherans; these Associations were very hermetically kept and an excellent document of them is “Chemical Wedding”, by Johann Valentinus Andreae (Andrae), the surmised founder of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis.
Teaching 11: The Court of Catherine de Médicis
The Inquisition suppressed the Military Orders, subjected other Orders to a sort of bondage, and destroyed any psychical research; then, the languishing Esoteric Orders incarnated in alchemists of the Renaissance, who had sought refuge in several European Courts, especially in that of France.
Catherine de Médicis reunites them around her, and the esoteric wisdom is preserved.
Extremely ambitious, Catherine de Médicis intends to re-establish the greatness of the Royal House and makes use of any system, whether good or bad, to get it. She is an authoritarian and fatalistic woman, and none can lead her: neither Catholicism nor Protestantism. She is submissive just before an astrolabe, magical mirrors and earthly circles. Always enigmatic and mysterious, good, bad or cruel (many times guided by occult sciences), alternately or simultaneously, wife, mother and dictator. Without any characteristic physical or moral weakness of her sex, she possesses the highest qualities of a leader of State.
Cornered between Huguenot republicanism and Catholic tradition, she is able to preserve the throne of the Valois by means of combinations whose art so far produces envy in the most skilled politicians. She is the strong authority, inflexible and clairvoyant, of quick decisions, fearless before ambushes, affronts and terrible actions against her. She exclaims, “more enemies dead, less enemies”; this sentence of a letter to De Cordes totally sums up her character of mother who places her dignity of Queen-Mother over any feeling.
Of moderate coquetry, she just loves her husband and her children. And she is tender with the latter just until an age when they cannot weaken her authority; and as soon as they are able to govern, her love falls away. But she collapses before Henry III, her son, who pays by ingratitude her profound affection. Therefore, her only ideal, duty dignity and pride is the crown of France. The scepter contains all her joys in spite of her daily struggles and perpetual duplicities that she has to create and destroy. Naturally formed by her contact with the revolutionary mob, Catherine belongs to fiery political Médicis, who live in conflict since her childhood, amid hatreds unleashed by her despotic father.
Men have been brutal with her: at the age of nine, prisoner in a convent, Battista Cei suggests to tie her naked to the ramparts of Florence, between two battlements, and Bernardo Castiglione deems that this proposal is insufficiently degrading, and to finish the discussion suggests her ignominious rape by the foreign soldiers. Before this, may Catherine deem that the existence is represented by the beauty of good, generosity and human mercy?
Her marriage is not happy. Henry II feels that she is just a useful being to perpetuate the race. His loving vibration and his tender admiration and submission is entirely for Diana of Poitiers. Catherine is the obliged complement, imposed by political demands and concerns of the throne.
To preserve the goodwill of his husband, Catherine comes to a compromise with his mistress. Her sterility –her obsession– first forces her to consult the physicians of the Court but, by because of their ignorance, she has to trust to the Great Mysteries that are so attractive by her atavism of family and race. She unites her consults to diviners and Tarots with magical and medicinal potions of any kind.
When apparently everything is in vain, Giovanni Fernel appears; he is a tireless and wise physician that sacrifices his wealth, pleasures and good physical condition both to the medical science of his time and to mathematics with exemplary conviction and unselfishness. Sick people going to his house are really so numerous that sometimes he must remain standing up while eating and listening at those persons, rich and poor, with enormous patience.
By the Fernel’s remedy prescribed to Catherine –seemingly, cohabitation for a while– she gives birth to her first son, ten years after their marriage. But later they have nine children more.
If during the first years of her reign passively she stands her rival, Diana of Poitiers, as soon as Catherine is mother, her jealousy remains behind and since then is a submissive and devoted mother who just takes care of her children. But on the occasion of Saint Quintin’s disaster, she reappears and, when all despair, she knows how to encourage, gets from the Parliament an important amount thanks to her smartness and eloquence, and conquers the minds of all in only one day.
But her entire power lies on his faith that she is a predestined woman who has masters to guide her. She dies of a sudden pneumonia, without great suffering, surrounded by her assistants, on January 15, 1589.
Twenty years later, her coffin of lead is carried to the royal sepulcher erected by her in the Basilica of Saint Denis, for in times of her death she was buried on earth with little pomp, and this was not usual with personalities in those days.
Henry III properly understood the tremendous loss caused by her death, and fortunately Catherine did not witness the collapse of her entire political work, some few months after her decease with the fall of the Valois.
This being whose life was so turbulent and so overwhelmed by her desire of ruling, as much intriguing as diplomatic, indulgent and implacable, superstitious and credulous, Catholic and Huguenot, shy and shrewd, always indiscernible, even possesses indisputable qualities of energy, fine intelligence and clairvoyance, which enabled her to be fearless before dangers and ups and downs of political and religious struggles, even though, fearing as much the humans as the time to come, she consulted oracles of astrologers and magi.
But her greatest merit is that she permitted the activities of men like Nostradamus, Girolamo Cardano, the Ruggeris, and others.
Teaching 12: Astrological Oracles
Now, at this strange Court of Catherine of Médicis, in sixteen century, we shall refer to the most important astrological oracles of her time, and to Luca Gaurico and Nostradamus, closely related to the Médicis’ family.
Luca Gaurico –master of Julius Caesar Scaliger, a learned philologist of Padua– is a world-wide well-known scientific. Born in a poor family, on March 12, 1476, South of Italy, he earns his living as a teacher of great lords. Later he studies judicial astrology and the influence of the stars on the human destiny; he contributes to this science with a new method of forecast by the horoscope.
Gaurico becomes famous because of several fully-justified predictions, and the highest personages come and consult him. Giovanni II Bentivoglio, a tyrant of Bolonia, consults him about his destiny as Chief of State, and Gaurico goes into exile because of his oracle, but before it he must suffer seven times the torment of “mancuerda”, whose consequences he will undergo several years later. But on November 1506, when Bentivoglio opens the gate of the city to the Pople Julius II, again he approves the divinatory art of Luca Gaurico who becomes more popular. When he raises the horoscope of the Pope Paul III, Luca Gaurico foretells with surprising precision the sickness and death of this Pontiff, who dies the day indicated by Gaurico, on November 20, 1549. But Paul III does not wait for the fulfillment of this prophecy and grants to Gaurico the Bishopric of Civita Castellana and the grade of Knight, but four years after the death of this Pope, he abandons these duties and finally settles in Rome.
In Médicis’ family, astrologers are always welcome, and not surprisingly Catherine’s parents consulted Gaurico who, just as he predicted the Bishop Hamilton that the torment would be the end of his Bishopric, so he foretold to Giovanni de Médicis, great-uncle of Catherine, Cardinal at the age of fourteen, that he would become Pope, as in fact it occurred twenty years later, under the name of Leo X. To another uncle of Catherine (Giulio de Médicis) he predicted his extreme activities, important political struggles and numerous descendants. As you know, Giulio de Médicis, chosen Pope under the name of Clement VI, is famous as much for his fights with Charles V and Henry VIII, of England, as for his love affairs and his 29 bastards.
As the Apparent Heir of France, Catherine wishes to know the destiny of her husband. Following the rules of Ciocla-Avicenna triplicities, Gaurico sums up his observations and states that the Heir would exert the royal power, first marked by a duel, and finally by another duel that would put a stop to his reign and her life. Also he explains in detail the kind of wound that would produce the death of Henry II during this duel. But the danger of this duel was impossible because of the social condition of the Prince, and then this prediction of the famous astrologer was scarcely believed. But Gaurico insisted on his statements, printed in France in 1552, that is, seven years before the well-known duel in which Henry II would find his death. Also he had sent a letter to the King repeating with full details his prediction and advising him to avoid any single combat in closed field, over all around his 41 years of age, since a wound n his head, at this age, could produce his blindness or his death; this letter hardly affects Henry II.
But obsessed by this prediction, Catherine calls the most famous sages of her time whether to control the horoscope of the astrologer or to conjure the danger. So, she goes to Gabriele Simeoni, a Florentine astrologer and mediocre writer. But Simeoni was over all an ambitious pedant whose conclusions about Gaurico’s horoscope were trivial statements with the only purpose of maintaining the blind trust of Catherine in the astrological science.
But in Catherine’s court there is another being who, since the sixteen century until our days, has received the most enthusiastic admiration and the hardest epithets, author of certain strange “Centuries”: Michel de Notredame, better known by his Latin name Nostradamus.
Doubtless, the 80 printings of this mysterious book, “Centuries”, denote that it is the work of a little vulgar brain, not exempt of candid or clairvoyant readers. But beyond all doubt, apart from the superstition or exaggeration of Nostradamus’ apologists, his name really deserves to take part in the list of great intellectuals of the sixteen and seventeen century, beside Jean Aime Chavigny and Balthazar Guynaud.
Physician at the age of 22, in Montpellier, this close friend of Julius Caesar Scaliger lectures for long in the Faculty of Medicine.
Later, still in the field of medicine, get enthusiastic about astrology, studies old texts of literature, translates astrological documents of the antiquity and rectifies many astronomical calculations; so, his renown is such that the Duke and the Duchess of Savoy consult him in Salon-de Craux, his usual place of residence.
In 1555 he publishes his first three Centuries, and later he adds the 53 first quatrains of the Fourth Century, and a letter to Cesar of Nostradamus, his son.
The same year, Henri II learns of these “Centuries” and of his destiny predicted by Nostradamus in the book, and is amazed at the coincidence between this prediction and a previous forecast of Luca Gaurico. On August 15, 1555, he calls Nostradamus to the court, and the fortune-teller confirms these presages of death with the following verse whose translation reads more or less as follows:
The young Lion shall surpass the old lion
On the battlefield in a single combat
In golden box he will pierce his eyes
Two clashes, just one, later (rupture) to die
Of cruel death.
We must recognize that, in spite of this seemingly enigmatic writing, events proved to be so detailed and accurate like that of Gaurico.
Gaurico dies on March 15, 1558, and Nostradamus finally is appointed attaché to the Court of France as Physician-astrologer, becomes adviser of the King, and Catherine de Medicine, who is congenial to him, often consults him for personal matters and also for steps that Henri II has to take. Following the advice of the fortune-teller, she makes every effort day by day to watch over the safety of the King for his necessary protection. Also she is obsessed by those two predictions related to the life of her husband.
Preparations for two royal celebrations are about to end. They refer to the weddings of Isabel of France, elder daughter of Henri II and her daughter Marguerite with the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoy, Hilibert-Emmanuel, respectively. Meanwhile, violent political-religious discussions follow one another in the Parliament; relationships of Henri II with Diana de Poitier and occult practices of his wife are censured; as a result of it, Du Bourg, Du Faur and other three consultants and one president are arrested; a Bishop and the Inquisitor of Paris preside over a commission to judge the magistrates under arrest; and Henri II severely punishes those persons who are declared heretics.
On June 30, 1559, about 9 a.m., the King instructs to open the tournaments with bugle calls. After the lunch, he decides to take part in them as “tenant”, that is, as a defender, in combats in closed field, and sends for his weapons. After two fights, the one with De Savoy and the other with De Guise, it is the turn of the young Count of Montgomery, Lord of Lorges. After their three runs, the King asks De Veilleville, his subsequent “tenant”, permission to a complementary “revanche” with the Count of Montgomery. King and Count meet near the middle of the way. The spears collide against their chests and break. After they reach individually the opposite end to the respective entry, they have to come back galloping to the starting point, which forces them to a new encounter.
But when the two come back, the Count of Montgomery does not throw away the piece of the broken spear as usual, while the King has thrown his own. The Count advances quickly, with the broken spear ahead when suddenly the eye-shade of the royal helmet is raised and the spear hits with violence the head of Henri II; the piece of the spear enters the right eye of the king and goes out through his ear.
So, accidentally, “in a single combat”, the prophecies of Gaurico and Nostradamus are fulfilled, and the King dies on July 10, 1559, after 11 days of agony.
If Nostradamus is neither an astrologer nor a clairvoyant, and prophesies by means of magical mirrors, or is an “extra-lucid” seer, as certain authors state, it is true that his oracle is strictly real and thoroughly fulfilled by fatality in the form and time also foretold by Luca Gaurico in relation to the death of the King when Catherine de Médicis, always so anxious about the future, made her consult.
Teaching 13: Scientistic Magic
Scientistic Magic of Renaissance and of the Catherine de Médicis’s times led however to restore the Esoteric Orders.
Halls and bars of Paris, where social unrest, curiosity and also intellectual curiosity of the times is reflected, swarm with occultists of good faith and charlatans among which, fearing the ones and the others, is Eteilla Alliette, a fortune-teller and so-called disciple of the Count of Saint-Germain.
In Baroness of Obericirch’s sayings, adepts, prophets and everything related to them never aroused so much attention and were so numerous. Conversations deal almost exclusively with these peculiar subjects and excite even the most serious imaginations. Nostradamus’ “Centuries” are re-published and eagerly read. According to Luchet, more than thirty Euopean Princes, over all Nordic, belong to different lodges, and one of them is the Tsar Paul of Rusia, a fervent adept of occult sciences.
Theosophists (who discard any theurgical magic) and Kabbalists (who continue traditions of high magic, perhaps in a way somewhat fantastic) are called “enlightened”. Every tendency counts on prominent personalities: Swedenborg and Lavater for the theosophists, while Dom Pernetty and Martinez de Pasqualis apparently were the most zealous preservers of Kabbalistic practices. Claude de Saint-Martin belongs successively to both tendencies.
Swedenborg, a well-known sage in his time, and a member of the most important scientific academies of Europe, and even a philosopher and mystic, describes his visions and journeys through the “Other World”, publishes his relationships with angels, and founds groups and lodges that, in due time, partially must become the Swedenborgian Church, the first spiritualist sect.
Dom Pernetty, a former Benedictine priest and enthusiastic navigator who goes round the world with Bouganville, from the North went to Berlin, and later founded in Avignon the Order of his Kabbalistic oracle: “The Holy Word”.
Lavater, a Protestant minister (that sends to the “Good Mother, the Catholic Church, all those who do not find peace in the Reformed Church”) is an enlightened being, full of kindness, beneficent with the exiled during the Revolution, and author of “Physiognomonia”, where he approached again the very old thesis that one can know the “inner man” by means of his physiognomy. His influence was immense on the great of the earth.
“I have seen” –Mirabeau describes– “Lavater’s letters to Kings under this protocol, ‘my dear, my very dear’, and I have seen the answer of those Kings admiring and obeying him, and paying respect for him, and even I have seen his followers revering him like a God on the earth”. Lavater describes a ceremony in the Church of the Enlightened, in Copenhagen, lead by Charles of Hesse, and by it one knows that the works in that lodge are not led by a Kabbalistic oracle but by a phosphorescent luminosity that, by conventional signs, responds “yes” or “no” to questions asked by the adepts, enabling them to make decisions inspired by a heavenly intervention. In 1754, Martinez de Pasqualis, a Rosicrucian, founds a particular Masonic rite: “Elus-Cohen” (“The Chosen Cohen”), whose most well-known lodges were those of the Philaleteans (alchemists), of the enlightened, in Avignon, and of the Academy of True Masons, in Montpellier.
The consolidation of the Esoteric Orders occurs in eighteen century.
Martinez de Pasqualis represents the modern prototype of Founder of Esoteric Orders.
At the age of 18, he starts for Portugal to the East; from there he returns many times; seemingly he lives in Turkestan (or Hazret), on the plateau of Pamir; his last return is at the age of 42, when he begins his mission as a Founder, for ten years, during which he fills all France and neighbor countries with secret societies, which would be the scene of the great Revolution that is in preparation.
Just two manuscripts containing his teachings remain: “Treatise on the reintegration of beings to their early state, virtues, and spiritual and divine powers”; this treaty is composed of several sections, which do not describe the present state of things, but the re-establishment of man and beings in general in their primordial state. This writing offers the sure and masterly thought of de Pasqualis.
The first school founded in France is that of Bourdeaux, with a body of symbols completed by theurgic practices to get help from Higher Entities in the development of the evolutionary plan. These theurgic operations are really important in this school, and all of them form a true worship, whose final result is to lead man toward the above-mentioned reintegration.
The purpose of this contact with Higher Entities is to enable man to hear the Word within, and according to his disciple Saint-Martin, his Master had very great powers in this sense.
His life is quite mysterious; he arrives at a city without any apparent reason, and leaves it, but none knows when or how. He never seeks fame or money. He lives a humble life and many times is in financial straits, but always with dignity and lodging in his house members of the Order that come from Bourdeaux. From Bourdeaux he went to Lyon, and later to Paris, founding new lodges in every one of these cities.
The first lodge is founded in 1754 and Saint-Martin joins to it by advice of several officers of the garrison who are members of the lodge.
His most well-known disciples are Cazotte, D’Hauterive and the Abbé Fournié.
The Abbé Fournié tells how after a casual meeting, de Pasqualis says: “You should come with us, we are good people. You will open a book, and after you look at the first page, that of the center and that in the end, and you will know its content if you read only some few words”.
“You see people of any kind walking by the street; those people do not know why they walk; you will know”.
He daily instructed: “raise yourself ceaselessly toward God, continuously increase your virtues, and work for the general good.”
According to this Abbé, one day, while praying to God for His assistance in his terrible internal fights, he heard the voice of his master, dead two years before and, as soon as he looked at the direction of the voice, he saw Martinez de Pasqualis along with the Abbé’s parents, who had died some years ago, and also a sister, deceased 20 years ago, and a being who was not of the human kind. Some few days later he saw Jesus Christ crucified, and finally, in the third time, Jesus, glorious and triumphant over the world appeared, walking before him with the Virgin and several persons more.
His visions continue but he keeps silence because of the unbelief and scorn of his contemporaries.
When the Revolution of 1789 breaks out, Cazotte shares its same principles but with higher purity; terrified by its excesses, he conceives of numerous ways to counteract them by the same honesty and clarity of his religious proselytism, but is arrested because his ideas are discovered in certain letters corresponded with his secretary of the civilian list, called Ponteau.
D’Hauterive, a close friend of Saint-Martin, along with another de Pasqualis’ disciple, for three years studies astrology, magnetism, somnambulism, signs and ideas, beginning and origin of forms, Holy Scriptures, et cetera.
The Marchioness de Croix is an outstanding disciple, and her mystical gifts enable her to reach a state between ecstasy and vision.
Another disciple, Willermoz, perceives Martinez de Pasqualis in a vision; the Master warns about revolutionaries who would confiscate all his books and teachings; so, two days before, Willermoz saves two big trunks where he preserves zealously a wisdom that later would form the foundations of secrets societies, spiritualism, et cetera.
In the so-called School of the North, the most conspicuous members are the Prince of Hesse, the Count of Berraztorff, the Countess of Reventlow and the well-known Lavater, who was so famous in Switzerland.
Later, Reventlow and Lavater leave the School, likely at the request of Liebisdorf, a close friend of Saint-Martin; then they follow the purer mystique of Saint-Martin that is different from his Master Martinez de Pasqualis’ teachings, whose schools rather deal with theurgic practices.
After his mission in Europe, de Pasqualis sails to the island of Santo Domingo, and dies in Puerto Príncipe in 1799.
The close disciples of de Pasqualis continue the works of the Order until 1782, during which the Martinists form an alliance with the Baron Bund’s Order of the Strict Observance; the archives are entrusted to J.B. Willermoz for the creation of the Reformed Rite. These negotiations continue until their interruption in 1789 by the Revolution.
Martinez de Pasqualis, like a draught over Europe, prepares the French Revolution: he forms a necessary aspiration and creates secret societies of a kind that later would be devoted to politics, like the Carbonari in Italy, the Enlightened in France, and later, certain lodges like that of Lautaro, which bring the revolutionary ferment to America, while those lodges founded by his disciple Saint-Martin purify their ritual and just seek the knowledge and Divine Union.
Teaching 15: Saint Germain and the Rosicrucians
Before the French Revolution, the Esoteric Orders finally are divided into two. Those of Rosicrucian type, entirely Hermetic, and followers of the Anointed King (Monarchy), and those more liberal, in favor of the popular movement and free thought. Saint-Germain is the last of these inaccessible Rosicrucian mystics.
In Casanova’s words, Saint-Germain, a mediocre physicist, was very charming, and also a Rosicrucian. Here is his description: “It was difficult to speak better than him. His tone was decisive, but so refined that never displeased. He was wise, and spoke perfectly the majority of languages, was a great musician, a great chemist, of pleasant figure and a master to get docility from all women”.
He speaks different languages, plays violin and clavichord to perfection (Rameau is astonished), ad is a painter whose colors have such a shine that Letour and Van Loole often asked of him the secret without success.
According to Countess de Adhemar’s “Memories”, entitled “Souvenirs de Marie Antoinette” (Paris, 1821), the Count Saint-Germain renders important services in France to the King Louis XV; for twenty years, he is as much active in European Courts as in that of France, and is seen in different occasions and after long absences ever preserving the same aspect of a man at the age of 40. The same Countess tells about her deep impression, in 1821, when in her old age she sees the Count preserving the same aspect of a man at the age of 40, his fresh skin and young like when they saw him for the first time.
He is a great alchemist and knows how to crystallize in an artificial way the carbon, for as an Initiate he is aware of the science that transmutes metals.
But let us see the other side of the medal. Seemingly he is not only a man of the world. His science, glamour and power are useful for something more than to astonish people, and takes advantage of them for a far more serious plan.
Under the wise inspiration of Choiseul, France continues the politics of Louis XV, who is the first to understand the danger of an emerging Prusia. Now, England is in favor of Prusia. Saint-Germain tries to influence the King in favor of the English and offers to negotiate peace with England. Doubtless Louis XV, advised by Choiseul, understands his mistake and officially disapproves his agent. But Saint-Germain’s influence is so great that the King again listens at him and appoints him as a spy.
Why this great dillettante and alchemist works for the King of Prusia? The Rosicrucians will respond. The Count is a Rosicrucian and does his best to convince the King. We are told that by virtue of the mysterious disappearance of the Procurator Chatelot in 1780, Saint-Germain revealed to the Prefect of Police the secret of the enigma. Following his indication, they found the corpse. On this occasion, seemingly he stated to the King: “Become a Rosicrucian and I respond to your questions about how to solve this matter”. If so, the Crown of France could be saved and the King would be an Initiated King.
Saint-Germain, as a Rosicrucian, is aware of numerous subjects, of the philosopher’s stone and of alchemical recipes.
Frightened by the turn of the events, Saint-Germain foretells day by day what is happening in the backstage. Marie Antoinette and the King are warned. Without success, Saint-Germain tries to counteract the advices of the courtesans, among them those of Maurepas, which would produce (and certainly produced) the events of 1793 and the bloody time of terror in France. Seemingly this time of terror, now considered, may be a necessary and sorrowful trial for a new France of principles of freedom, equality and fraternity eventually in force. But it is not exactly so. If it is something necessary, it is so just in the last moment of Louis XVI’s reign, by virtue of the state of things and the absence of any other solution. But if the King had paid attention to Saint-Germain’s advices, all this social change that France had to undergo by karma, would be carried out by means of an intelligent evolution, not by means of a violent revolution.
According to the Rosicrucians, later, the Count will come back to the public life in Europe, even though none knows under what name or aspect, and that at present he lives, in a physical body, at a castle of Hungary.
Chaltes Webster Leadbeater, a Rosicrucian member, tells how he met Saint-Germain in the Corzo of Roma, in 1901 and that on this occasion they conversed during one hour in Pinciano Park. We are told that this Initiate deals with the political situation in Europe and is in charge of spiritualistic world movements, ceremonially developed, like Masonry and very especially like Co-Masonry or Scotch Mixed Masonry that, world-wide extended, has its seat in Paris under the distinctive title of “The human right”, which should not be mistaken for the pseudo-Masonry called “by adoption”.
Teaching 16: The French Revolution and Liberal Lodges
In France and in spite of prohibitions, Masonry and its secret sessions had notably increased during the first half of eighteenth century.
They were divided into several lodges. In Paris, there where certain flourishing lodges: The Polar Star, The Brothers-Artists, The Reunion of Foreigners, and others. In all of them there were courses of ancient sciences and philosophy, discussions on physical and moral problems, and practice of an evangelic Christendom.
Also other rites and forms of Masonry were quickly disseminated in France and other countries until 1700.
Martinez de Pasqualis, from 1767 to 1771, swiftly establishes in France numberless centers of pure occultism: Rite of Chosen Cohen” (“Elus-Cohen”), called “Martinists”, later divided into two branches: the Theurgical, led by Willermoz, and the Mystic, led by the Count of Saint-Martin, the two disciples of de Pasqualis.
A little later, in 1781, Cagliostro founds the Masonry of Egyptian Rite, and women are admitted.
Also in Paris there was the feminine Masonic Lodge, The Condor, a “branch of adoption” founded in 1775 and led by the Duchess of Borbon, devoted to charity works. The most prestigious ladies of the Court joined to this branch, from the Prince of Lamballe and the Countess of Polgnac to the very Empress Josephine, who entered in 1804.
Now nobles and sages enter all together these different lodges, in spite of being prohibited by laws and by the Roman Church. Sometimes in other States, these lodges are led by the very Princes, and Frederick the Great is one of them. These centers study philosophies and also the mysteries of the Kabbalah and Bible, make physical and theoretical alchemical investigations, and even actively socialize.
The French Revolution –which would execute the Terror in 1793– is devised by sages and nobles in these lodges.
Paris, in eighteen century, will be the centre of this strange activity that is occult and political at a time. Men like Cagliostro will come from Germany, where there are a lot of Masonic lodges operating as brothers, to prepare the fatal attack against the old order in Paris; there, mysterious personages come and go: they astonish the world by their secret science, heal the sick, sow gold and diamonds, later have secret meetings with the King, Ministers, Cardinals and Queens, disappear, die and reappear, and one recalls how the Rosicrucian Order determines for its action magical media, the use of the philosopher’s stone (apparently just granted to Rosicrucians of second grade as Cagliostro), the gift of tongues, the obligation of changing country, name and habits, and even of pretending a false death. So their action will be considerable, and all of them operate in a subtle way but with a clear-cut sense.
The figure of Saint-Germain conspicuously appears in the early stages of the French Revolution. Seemingly his mission is to grant to the Encyclopaedists a basis to renew ideas and laws, and also to save the French Monarchy, closely watching over its entire process of fall, and ever expecting a chance of salvation; but circumstances were not propitious and he just could continue his comforting mission of advice.
As we have seen, all these groups aim at the same purpose: to cultivate mind and spirit, but socially two currents, basically different, are established.
The contemporary Masonry, Martinism and its two branches, and Cagliostro’s rite tend to a constitutional formula, to freedom and to equalization of all beings. And these groups are operating, transformed and with different names, in diverse countries: Carobonari, in Italy; Hunters, in Canada; Lautaros, here, and they are centers of freedom of the peoples.
But these groups, now dealing with problems of life, are away of the spirit and, ultimately, the very Masonry moved from liberalism to positivistic nationalism, and from there, to materialism. The tree has yielded its glorious fruit of freedom and can die.
But other Esoteric Schools wished to maintain the old spirit of chosen individualism, of superiority of spiritual activities over material activities, and of a heritage of kings and initiated priests. They wished to revive and follow traditions of the Templar Knights, and Saint-Germain inspired those groups.
In Paris, Masons were called “Reunited Friends”, and choose among them a group named “Phileletes” (searchers for the truth).
That is why Cagliostro refused to go to the Masonic Conference of Paris, in 1775, if any writing of the “Reunited Friends” were not burnt.
The latter, inspired by Saint-Germain, deal with a severe reformation, led by Baron Hund, founder of the Order of Strict Observance, in 1751. After his death, the Baron was succeeded by the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, a close friend of Saint-Germain.
Now let us see an historic personage of eighteen century: a fine silhouette, slack and pompous gowns Pompadour-styled, witty smile, powdered wig and spots painted on her face. Here is a somewhat forgotten personality, the Countess of Adhemar.
Certain persons who played important parts in favor of mankind just appear between shadows and oblivion. Almost unnoticed, they enter the scene of the world at certain moment, hold a lamp to illuminate a great event and then quietly disappear as they came; the characteristic mission of certain souls has been to educate, love, encourage, guide or work within on a Great Work carried by others to a happy end. One of these souls was the Countess of Adhemar.
As we said, we do not know much about her. The Count of Adhemar occupied several important positions in different European Courts, among them an Embassy in the Court of England, always along with his wife. But something is ignored: the true character, the real inner orientation of the Countess; and all the rest is supposition.
But an indisputable fact illuminates her life: her friendship with the Count of Saint-Germain, whom he called by a tone between frivolous and respectful: man of miracles. She had refused the democratic tendency of the nobles in the Court entering Masonry all together, and was very strong enemy of the new ideas, and for this reason she was quite respected but not favored by the Queen Marie Antoinette. Like the Count of Saint-Germain and the Baron Hund, she was a fervent Catholic (they refused to leave the Church for they wanted to re-establish the Order of the Templar).
Of course, she never realized the high purposes of the Count of Saint-Germain, who not only wished to save the throne of France from the great disaster, but traveled through the Courts of Europe seeking a King, the eventual Initiate of the United States of Europe, a King of Kings.
The Countess, a little frivolous and a little credulous, took part in the projects of the Count, and did not realize the part played by her, but all this was an impossible idealization of a golden age.
Revolution and people triumph in France and gradually the world and these great beings disappear in the shadows.
The Countess of Adhemar, now an old woman, cannot move in her easy chair. A strange visitor entered the room.
Her tired and half-blind eyes do not perceive in the shadow, and sees the visitor as if in a dream: it is the Count of Saint-Germain, aristocratic and youthful as usual. She is astonished. She knows quite well his prophecy; now she sees him for the sixth and last time, and her end is near.
“And now?...” , the Countess begins with quavering voice.
“And now?...”, the Count continues. “We have finished. We have failed.”
Failed? The Bourbons came back, and France seemingly is redeemed!
He laughs... He does not look at France. He looks at a time to come, and at the world, at that beautiful century of freedom before him. All flags flutter to the sun of the magi of the peoples.
No, Countess; we did not finish. The Initiated King is dead. I return to my Earth (rather, to “my heaven”), and my cohort comes with me; I came for you.
And while flags of this century liberator of peoples flutter to the sun of may, the ancient Initiate, followed by his cohort, goes toward his Land of Promise, toward his Heaven.
CONTENTS:
Teaching 1: Legends about the Esoteric Orders
Teaching 2: Esoteric Arabian Wisdom and the Veiled Woman
Teaching 3: The Ancient Egypt
Teaching 4: The Temple of Initiation
Teaching 5: Amon in the Hellenic Schools
Teaching 6: King Arthur, The Holy Grail, The Round Table and its Knights
Teaching 7: Ancient Initiatic Ceremonials of Knights
Teaching 8: The Knight of the Eternity
Teaching 9: Initiatic Trials
Teaching 10: Christian Military Orders
Teaching 11: The Court of Catherine de Médicis
Teaching 12: Astrological Oracles
Teaching 13: Scientistic Magic
Teaching 14: Martinism
Teaching 15: Saint Germain and the Rosicrucians
Teaching 16: The French Revolution and Liberal Lodges
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