"How adorable and astonishing are the _rays_ of that glorious _Light_, that sends forth its bright and brilliant beams from the Holy Ark of Alliance and Covenant!
"Let us with the deepest veneration and devotion adore the great Source of Life, that Glorious Spirit Who is the Most Merciful and Beneficent Ruler of the Universe and of all the creatures it contains!
"The secret knowledge of the Grand Scottish Master relates to the combination and trans.m.u.tation of different substances; whereof that you may obtain a clear idea and proper understanding, you are to know that all matter and all material substances are composed of combinations of three several substances, extracted from the four elements, which three substances in combination are, _Salt, Sulphur_, and _Spirit_. The first of these produces _Solidity_, the second _Softness_, and the third the _Spiritual_, vaporous particles. These three compound substances work potently together; and therein consists the true process for the trans.m.u.tation of metals.
"To these three substances allude the three golden basins, in the first of which was engraved the letter M. in the second, the letter G. and in the third nothing. The first, M. is the initial letter of the Hebrew word _Malakh_, which signifies _Salt_; and the second, G. of the Hebrew word _Geparaith_, which signifies _Sulphur_; and as there is no word in Hebrew to express the vaporous and intangible _Spirit_, there is no letter in the third basin.
"With these three princ.i.p.al substances you may effect the trans.m.u.tation of metals, which must be done by means of the five points or rules of the Scottish Mastership.
"The first Master"s point shows us the Brazen Sea, wherein must always be rain-water; and out of this rain-water the Scottish Masters extract the first substance, which is Salt; which salt must afterward undergo a _seven-fold_ manipulation and purification, before it will be properly prepared. This seven-fold purification is symbolized by the Seven Steps of Solomon"s Temple, which symbol is furnished us by the first point or rule of the Scottish Masters.
"After preparing the first substance, you are to extract the second, Sulphur, out of the purest gold, to which must then be added the purified or celestial Salt. They are to be mixed as the Art directs, and then placed in a vessel in the form of a SHIP, in which it is to remain, as the Ark of Noah was afloat, one hundred and fifty days, being brought to the first damp, warm degree of fire, that it may putrefy and produce the mineral fermentation. This is the second point or rule of the Scottish Masters."
If you reflect, my Brother, that it was impossible for any one to imagine that either common salt or nitre could be extracted from rain-water, or sulphur from pure gold, you will no doubt suspect that some secret meaning was concealed in these words.
The Kabalah considers the immaterial part of man as threefold, consisting of NEPHESCH, RUACH, and NESCHAMAH, _Psyche, Spiritus_, and _Mens_, or _Soul, Spirit_, and _Intellect_. There are Seven Holy Palaces, Seven Heavens and Seven Thrones; and Souls are purified by ascending through Seven Spheres. A _Ship_, in Hebrew, is _Ani_; and the same word means _I, Me_, or _Myself_.
The RITUAL continues:
"Multiplying the substance thus obtained, is the third operation, which is done by adding to them the animate, volatile _Spirit_; which is done by means of the water of the Celestial Salt, as well as by the Salt, which must daily be added to it very carefully, and strictly observing to put neither too much nor too little; inasmuch as, if you add too much, you will destroy that growing and multiplying substance; and if too little, it will be self-consumed and destroyed, and shrink away, not having sufficient substantiality for its preservation. This third point or rule of the Scottish Masters gives us the emblem of the building of the Tower of Babel, used by our Scottish Masters, because by irregularity and want of due proportion and harmony that work was stopped; and the workmen could proceed no further.
"Next comes the fourth operation, represented by the Cubical Stone, whose faces and angles are all equal. As soon as the work is brought to the necessary point of multiplication, it is to be submitted to the third Degree of Fire, wherein it will receive the due proportion of the strength and substance of the metallic particles of the Cubical Stone; and this is the fourth point or rule of the Scottish Masters.
"Finally, we come to the fifth and last operation, indicated to us by the Flaming Star. After the work has become a duly-proportioned substance, it is to be subjected to the fourth and strongest Degree of fire, wherein it must remain three times twenty-seven hours; until it is thoroughly glowing, by which means it becomes a bright and shining tincture, wherewith the lighter metals may be changed, by the use of one part to a thousand of the metal. Wherefore this Flaming Star shows us the fifth and last point of the Scottish Masters.
"You should pa.s.s practically through the five points or rules of the Master, and by the use of one part to a thousand, trans.m.u.te and enn.o.ble metals. You may then in reality say that your age is a thousand years."
In the oration of the Degree, the following hints are given as to its true meaning:
"The three divisions of the Temple, the Outer Court, Sanctuary, and Holy of Holies, signify the three Principles of our Holy Order, which direct to the knowledge of morality, and teach those most practical virtues that ought to be practised by mankind. Therefore the Seven Steps which lead up to the Outer Court of the Temple, are the emblem of the Seven-fold Light which we need to possess, before we can arrive at the height of knowledge, in which consist the ultimate limits of our order.
"In the Brazen Sea we are symbolically to purify ourselves from all pollutions, all faults and wrongful actions, as well those committed through error of judgment and mistaken opinion, as those intentionally done; inasmuch as they equally prevent us from arriving at the knowledge of True Wisdom. We must thoroughly cleanse and purify our hearts to their inmost recesses, before we can of right contemplate that _Flaming Star_, which is the emblem of the Divine and Glorious Shekinah, or presence of G.o.d; before we may dare approach the Throne of Supreme Wisdom."
In the Degree of The True Mason [_Le Vrai Macon_], styled in the t.i.tle-page of its Ritual the 23d Degree of Masonry, or the 12th of the 5th cla.s.s, the Tracing-board displays a luminous Triangle, with a great Yod in the centre.
"The Triangle," says the Ritual, "represents one G.o.d in three Persons; and the great Yod is the initial letter of the last word.
"The Dark Circle represents the Chaos, which in the beginning G.o.d created.
"The Cross within the Circle, the Light by means whereof He developed the Chaos.
"The Square, the four Elements into which it was resolved.
"The Triangle, again, the three _Principles_ [Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury], which the intermingling of the elements produced.
"G.o.d _creates_; Nature _produces_; Art _multiplies_. G.o.d created Chaos; Nature produced it; G.o.d, Nature, and Art, have perfected it.
"The Altar of Perfumes indicates the _Fire_ that is to be applied to Nature. The two _towers_ are the two furnaces, moist and dry, in which it is to be worked. The bowl is the mould of oak that is to inclose the philosophal egg.
"The two figures surmounted by a Cross are the two vases, Nature and Art, in which is to be consummated the double marriage of the white woman with the red Servitor, from which marriage will spring a most Potent King.
"Chaos means universal matter, formless, but susceptible of all forms.
Form is the Light inclosed in the seeds of all species; and its home is in the Universal Spirit.
"To work on universal matter, use the internal and external fire: the four elements result, the _Principia Principiorum_ and _Inmediata_; Fire, Air, Water, Earth. There are four qualities of these elements--the warm and dry, the cold and moist. Two appertain to each element: The dry and cold, to the Earth; the cold and moist, to Water; the moist and warm, to the Air; and the warm and dry, to Fire: whereby the Fire connects with the Earth; all the elements, as Hermes said, moving in circles.
"From the mixture of the four Elements and of their four qualities, result the three Principles,--Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt. These are the philosophical, not the vulgar.
"The philosophical Mercury is a _Water_ and SPIRIT, which dissolves and sublimates the Sun; the philosophical _Sulphur_, a _fire_ and a Soul, which mollifies and colors it; the philosophical Salt, an _Earth_ and a BODY, which coagulates and fixes it; and the whole is done in the bosom of the _Air_.
"From these three Principles result the four Elements duplicated, or the Grand Elements, _Mercury, Sulphur, Salt_, and _Gla.s.s_; two of which are volatile,--the Water [Mercury] and the Air [Sulphur], which is oil; for all substances liquid in their nature avoid fire, which takes from the one [water] and burns the other [oil]; but the other two are dry and solid, to wit, the Salt, wherein Fire is contained, and the pure _Earth_, which is the Gla.s.s; on both of which the Fire has no other action than to melt and refine them, unless one makes use of the liquid alkali; for, just as each element consists of two qualities, so these great duplicated Elements partake, each of two of the simple elements, or, more properly speaking, of all the four, according to the greater or less degree of each,--the Mercury partaking more of the Water, to which it is a.s.signed; the Oil or Sulphur, more of the Air; the Salt, of the Fire; and the Gla.s.s, of the Earth; which is found, pure and clear, in the centre of all the elementary composites, and is the last to disengage itself from the others.
"The four Elements and three Principles reside in all the Compounds, Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral; but more potently in some than in others.
"The Fire gives them Movement; the Air, Sensation; the Water, Nutriment; and the Earth, Subsistence.
"The four duplicated Elements engender THE STONE, if one is careful enough to supply them with the proper quant.i.ty of fire, and to combine them according to their natural weight. Ten parts of Air make one of Water; ten of Water, one of Earth; and ten of Earth, one of Fire; the whole by the Active Symbol of the one, and the Pa.s.sive Symbol of the other, whereby the conversion of the Elements is effected."
The Allusion of the Ritual, here, is obviously to the four Worlds of the Kabalah. The ten Sephiroth of the world Briah proceed from Malakoth, the last of the ten Emanations of the world Aziluth; the ten Sephiroth of the world Yezirah, from Malakoth of Briah; and the ten of the world Asian, from Malakoth of Yezirah. The Pa.s.s-word of the Degree is given as _Metralon_, which is a corruption of METATRON, the Cherub, who and Sandalphon are in the Kabalah the Chief of the Angels. The Active and Pa.s.sive Symbols are the Male and Female.
The Ritual continues:
"It is thereby evident that, in the Great Work, we must employ ten parts of philosophical Mercury to one of Sun or Moon.
"This is attained by _Solution_ and _Coagulation_. These words mean that we must dissolve the body and coagulate the spirit; which operations are effected by the moist and dry bath.
"Of colors, _black_ is the Earth; _white_, the Water; _blue_, the Air; and _red_, the Fire; wherein also are involved very great secrets and mysteries.
"The apparatus employed in "The Great Work" consists of the Moist bath, the Dry bath, the Vases of Nature and Art, the bowl of oak, _lutum sapienti_, the Seal of Hermes, the tube, the physical lamp, and the iron rod.
"The work is perfected in seventeen philosophical months, according to the mixture of ingredients. The benefits reaped from it are of two kinds--one affecting the soul, and the other the body. _The former consist in knowing G.o.d, Nature, and ourself_; and those to the body are wealth and health.
"The Initiate traverses Heaven and Earth. Heaven is the World manifest to the Intelligence, subdivided into Paradise and h.e.l.l; Earth is the World manifest to the Senses, also subdivided into the Celestial and that of the Elements.
"There are Sciences specially connected with each of these. _The one is ordinary and common; the other, mystic and secret_. The World cognizable by the Intellect has the Hermetic Theology and the Kabalah; the Celestial Astrology; and that of the Elements, Chemistry, which by its decompositions and separations, effected by fire, reveals all the most hidden secrets of Nature, in the three kinds of Compound Substances.
This last science is styled "Hermetic," or "The operating of the Great Work.""
The Ritual of the Degree of Kabalistic and Hermetic Rose, has these pa.s.sages:
"The true Philosophy, known and practised by Solomon, is the basis on which Masonry is founded.
"Our Ancient Masons have concealed from us the most important point of this Divine Art, under hieroglyphical characters, which are but enigmas and parables, to all the Senseless, the Wicked, and the Ambitious.
"He will be supremely fortunate, who shall, by arduous labor, discover this sacred place of deposite, wherein all naked the sublime Truth is hidden; for he may be a.s.sured that he has found the True Light, the True Felicity, the True Heavenly Good. Then may it truly be said that he is one of the True Elect; for it _is the only real and most Sublime Science of all those to which a mortal can aspire_: his days will be prolonged, and his soul freed of all vices and corruption; into which" (it is added, to mislead, as if from fear too much would be disclosed), "_the human race is often led by indigence_."
As the symbolism of the Hall and the language of the ritual mutually explain each other, it should be noted here, that in this Degree the columns of the hall, 12 in number, are white variegated with black and red. The hangings are black, and over that crimson.
Over the throne is a great Eagle, in gold, on a black ground. In the centre of the Canopy the Blazing Star in gold, with the letter Yod in its centre. On the right and left of the throne are the Sun in gold and the Moon in silver. The throne is ascended to by _three_ Steps. The hall and ante-room are each lighted by _ten_ lights, and a single one at the entrance. The colors, black, white, and crimson appear in the clothing; and the Key and Balance are among the symbols.