SIDE by side with this Masonic mystery have come down to us various papyri of sacred writings, which have been called the Ritual of ancient Egypt or "The Book of the Dead," and it is to this we now turn for an explanation of the mysteries of the monument. Not only in the pyramid, however, were these rites and ceremonies practised and carried out, but at other temples in Egypt-Memphis, Heliopolis, the temple of the Sphinx; but none of these were perfect in later dynastic times, nor did they have the whole of the symbology like the pyramid itself. It is only the Temple of the Pyramid and the Papyrus that show any theopneusty. A number of different papyri that have been written at various times by separate scribes have been found. We believe if we could obtain the whole "Papyri of the Pyramid" we should find a perfect ritual of the various eschatological ceremonies. We have no doubt that a great part of the writings have been lost, but there is quite sufficient evidence extant to explain the secret. Although the language is symbolical to a very great extent, we have it on other evidence that the secrets of the Eschatology were not written, but were declaimed and learnt orally; all that they had written being recorded in the "Pietra Libra" or "Book of Stone," which the High Priests read once a year to the people. All the secrets were passed on from generation to generation, and taught orally by the priests alone. We can only conjecture that some explanation of these secrets was written on papyrus, symbolically, so that they should not be lost for ever, at some far remote period when internal changes were taking place in the country, which we read of in history, and that they might die without having transmitted them orally, being considered divine laws. The "Ritual or Book of the Dead" is what is written and known as their religious belief, as far as their writings have been discovered. At the same time be it understood that to [394] [395] understand the Ritual of the Resurrection you must go back for their Eschatology to the lesser mysteries of their Mythology and Astronomical Mythology, and even before, back to the original Sign-language, which was the language of the mythology, and which was the primitive mode of representing external nature and its animistic powers. The types here called totemic were extant as a means of rendering these powers when there were no gods or goddesses yet divinised. Powers of nature were perceived to be at work throughout all the earth and celestial bodies; their powers were superhuman from the first and they were represented by appropriate and equivalent zootypes, but the powers and not the types were the object of supreme regard. The types were not the object of worship. The Gods and Goddesses were after represented by totemic types, but they were not conceived to be the types, and in all cases there were obvious reasons for the representation, but it was the powers and not the types that were ultimately divinised.
In the Eschatology the same types were reapplied to the human soul which were imaged in the flesh by Horus, who died bodily, entered Amenta in mummy form, and rose again in glory as Horus the divine. The true interpretation of the Egyptian picture, copied by Demon at Philae, is "I am the Resurrection and the Life." From the beginning to the end of the Ritual it is based, first on the mythologies, and then the rendering of these becomes eschatological. We must recognise the different phases and discriminate these-to read the Ritual correctly and try and fathom the thinking minds of the old Egyptian priests. The main difference betwixt the Mythos and the Eschatology is that one is represented in the earth of time, the other in the earth of eternity. It is the Egyptian Book of Life, it is the Pre-christian Word of God, and it purports to contain the gnosis of salvation from the second dead, together with the ways and means of attaining eternal life, and these were enacted in the drama of the mysteries. After this life on earth there was a resurrection after passing the Tuat in Amenta-the earth of eternity for the human soul evolved on this earth. It was then that the claim to the resurrection in spirit and to life eternal in heaven had to be made good and established by many long and painful experiences, by which the soul was perfected eventually as an ever-living spirit. The words of promise had to be performed and made true before [396] the Ma-Kheru of immortality could be earned and endless continuity of life be assured.
It is only by going back to the original and following on step by step that we can gain a true idea of what the Egyptian religion was at the time of its purest Eschatology. So many writers on this subject have simply described the "Osirian doctrines," and in doing this have followed the Greek and Latin writers, stumbling about in the dark and falling into holes they cannot get out of, until they call upon the Egyptians to bring them a ladder, therefore it is hardly to be wondered at that so little is known of the meaning of all the religious ceremonies and observances which were the dramatic performances of their belief in the resurrection of the dead, and everlasting life, and which were certainly carried on in perfect ceremonies in pre-dynastic times, perhaps more difficult to understand because the priests and scribes of the later dynasties had so altered and corrupted the original particularspartly because the scribes at the time of the New Empire (B.C. 1700-700) were unable to read correctly the hieratic characters which formed the names of some of the kings of the early Archaic period, and partly because nearly all Egyptologists believe and are still under the impression that there were a large number of gods instead of the different powers and different types of the One God-God in the Spirit, Ra; God in mummy form, Osiris; and God as Son, Child Horus. This was the latest form of their Trinity, and the earliest, Horus I, Sut and Shu. But what ages had passed ere the Egyptian Mythology of Horus, Sut and Shu had passed by evolution into the higher Eschatology of Ra, Osiris and the Child Horus ! ! and how long, probably thousands and thousands of years, had it taken the earliest form of man to observe the powers of nature-to image these in signlanguage-to formulate his totemic ceremonies into a mythology, and then astro-mythology, before this was perfect, and all these various types and powers of the One God, and not the many as most people suppose?
It is only by studying the "Ritual or Book of the Dead" that anyone can really understand the meaning and significance of the Great Pyramid-in fact, here lies the Ritual, written in stone. This Ritual of the Resurrection was the Egyptian Book of Life, and the account which this scripture gives of itself is that it was a revelation made by Ra, the Holy Spirit. It was given to Horus the [397] Son, who converses with the Father in Heaven. Horus speaks it as the word of God and as the Sayer of the Sayings to those who are living on earth and to the "breathless ones in Hades." "I utter his Word to thee," says Horus, who personates the Word in his first advent, and, in the second, is the word made truth as Horus-ma-Kheru. One of the most beautiful ideas of the Egyptians was that of representing the eternal Father by the evercoming Son, as in the Child Horus, who was the type of eternal youth as an external child. This was the child of a mother who was the eternal virgin, and thus youth or youthfulness had been imaged by the pre-anthropomorphic types of the calf, the lamb, the branch of a tree and the shoot of the papyrus plant. The doctrines of the Incarnation, the Virgin birth, the Resurrection, the Father-God who is identical with his own son, and others, believed to be specifically Christian, were Egyptian ages and ages before the present era began. "The Book of the Dead" contains a true decipherment of the symbolic language found depicted in stone in the pyramid itself, teaching their belief as to what occurred to the spirit after leaving the body, and what it had to pass through before it could reach the Grand Lodge above, and thus pointing out and laying down a guide to our thoughts and actions while in this sublunary abode; also in Amenta, so that the departed soul might be able to pass through the various ordeals encountered hereafter, namely, by learning to obey the principles of Truth, Justice and Morality in this life.
In Chapter XV, Hymn 3, of "The Book of the Dead," it says "Freedom for ever from perdition is derived from this book, and upon it I firmly take my stand."
In the double symbolism of Pyramid and Ritual lie the chief difficulties of decipherment and the strongest evidence of their correspondence. For, as the departed in his progress was ultimately to become united in the fulness of intimacy with the Soul of All, his Creator, so it was necessary that he should progress in the knowledge of the mysteries which envisage alike the spiritual and material creation. To know Horus in his forms of manifestation was the secret of power; to understand Horus in all his names, all his places, conferred the Crown of Illumination. But in the attainment of that knowledge there were many stages which must be traversed by the finite mortal; many grades which must be achieved by the holy departed, when the mouth of the [398] tomb, the Portal of Eternal Day, had been opened for him, and the catechumen of divine wisdom had been adulated as the Postulant of Immortality. The Postulant, with upraised arms, must be recreated in incorruption, and the soul must be born anew before the Postulant could be initiated into things divine; or, as the Ritual says: "The Ka with upraised arms is the soul to be ultimately attained by the manes perfected." As we have it, the Initiate must pass through the fiery ordeal to be proved as adept, like Paul, who was epopt and perfect, thus showing that Paul was a Mason and initiated into the highest degree. The Adept must be justified in the Tribunal of Truth before he could emerge from the shadow of the Halls of Death into the immediate presence of the Source of Light. The justified must become the Illuminate. The Illuminate must be consummated as master before he could obtain the innermost mansion in the divine house. For each of such grades, according to the creed of Egypt, the Creator has assigned a distinct locality in the universe of space, and each of these localities is described symbolically in "The Book of the Dead" or Ritual, and inscribed masonically in the features and dimensions of the Pyramid. Not to everyone, therefore, did the secrets of the Pyramid lie open, nor could there be a more unpardonable offence than the profanation of its secrets. And as it was the character of that religion to be concealed, and as the manifestations of the Creator are deeper and more secret yet than His works, so it was essential that the sacred symbols relating to Him should not betray their deepest mysteries, even to the Initiate; but should reserve their most sacred meaning for the Illuminate after full probation. In other words, the Initiate was taught step by step, and it was pointed out to him that only by perseverance in a right and true line of conduct could he pass to the next stage, and finally obtain the Crown of Triumph; he must lead such a life as corresponds with our tenets and teachings. Does not this point out to us the analogy between our teachings and our own forms and ceremonies, even all the various names of the G.A.U. in each degree as we advance? The passage of the C- in the 18° through the D.R. represents the passage of the soul through the Tuat and Amentet in the Egyptian Eschatology.
In studying the Ritual of ancient Egypt it is by the power of sense and reason, joined together, that we study the secret properties and powers which are therein expressed and portrayed, [399] and though our senses are sometimes liable to be deceived, yet, when they are rightly disposed and fitly exercised about their proper objects, with the first assistance of reason, they give us sufficient evidence of truth; of course, many errors are derived from our weakness of reason and incapacity to judge of things either from a diseased or weakened brain through old age, or those whose genius is very low, whose judgment is always weak; who are "ever" indulging the dictates of "sense and humour," but "are simply large children"; these stand exposed to everlasting mistakes in life, and live and die in the midst of prejudices. The creed of Egypt, therefore, as taught by the Theopneustics, was this that we have a body,(1) within the body a soul, and within the soul a spirit. The body entirely belonged to this earth, the soul and spirit to heaven; although the spirit had to join the Great Architect of the Universe first, before it could return to its soul. When the body or material part died, the soul and spirit were liberated, and had to travel through many dangers and difficulties, also to undergo various trials, as depicted by the symbology which we find in the pyramids and ancient stones, before the spirit could regain the Mansion of Bliss and the abode of the Great Architect of the Universe. The spirit became separated from the soul before divine judgment took place, and after the spirit was justified the regeneration of the soul took place. In the Eschatology of the Egyptians they had a Trinity and Unity, and they believed in punishment as well as Everlasting Happiness. The doctrine of Immortality and Everlasting Life, and the belief in the Resurrection of the "Spiritual Body" are the brightest and most prominent features of the Egyptian religion, and this we find was their belief before the time of the first King of the first dynasty. A study of the religious formularies of all periods proves that the great fundamental ideas of the Egyptians remained unchanged from the earliest to the latest historical times, and it seems that they must have been received by the earlier Egyptian priests of Dynastic times in much the same form as that in which they handed them on.
At first they were "recited" only and not written, and it
(1 The Dynastic Egyptians believed in:
1. A Physical Body-The Khat.
2. A Soul or-Ba.
3. A Heart or-Ab.
4. A Double or-Ka.
5. An Intelligence or-Khu.
6. A Power or-Sekhem.
7. A Shadow or-Khaibit.
8. A Spiritual Body or-Sah.
9. A Name or-Rem. By some divided again or added to.)
[400] is probable that they existed in this form for a very long period.
The variety of names given to God and the Holy Spirit has led persons, who ought to know better, to assert that in ancient Egypt each separate name indicates a separate god or goddess; hence they stigmatise these early people as idolaters and image worshippers of many deities. These various names merely express the infinitely various powers and types of the divine. The reader need not be reminded that in the Jewish sacred books numbers of names are given to the Deity which appear in the Hebrew text, but are concealed from the English reader under the general title of God.
Their Priests, here on earth, did not worship images nor serpents nor bulls, as many have stated, which was an ancient error of the Greeks, made in complete ignorance of the primitive modes of representation; these were only symbolical types, representing their belief in the great A O in Heaven. It was by teachings, by signs, symbols and ceremonies that the soul and spirit were prepared here for the future, and taught dramatically what they had to encounter and Pass through after the material body had ceased to exist.
In the papyri of the old hieroglyphics we find the origin of all our sacerdotal stories and the manner of the evolution of the same. Then a blank occurs, and until the papyri, written in Hieratic and Demotic, containing the stories of the priests of Memphis and the sayings of Jesus, were found, we lost the thread that connects the old with the new Eschatology, but here, in the Demotic, more especially, we have the "bridge" which connects the Old with the New and Better Covenant. Many may contend that these are partly copied from our "New Covenant"; but these tales in Demotic are simply the same as we find written in the oldest hieroglyphics, in every particular, and any student will perceive the fallacy of any argument against this, although we find that it is adopted by many writers, ignorant or otherwise, who appear anxious that the records of the past should not be solved, but to all earnest students the oldest tales in the ancient hieroglyphics and those found in the Demotic ,writings and the Eschatology of the present day, are identical. They are simply repetitions of the story, written thousands of years before the date when the supposed present covenant was made. That this [401] is not mere supposition can be proved by the comparison of the one with the other, and the history of the same. The recently published "Tales of the Priests of Memphis," from the Demotic Papyri, prove that the missing link has been forged. There are many other papyri still in the British Museum, the translation of which, when completed, will demonstrate this fact more clearly. Certain religious texts are little more than transcripts of old Egyptian in Demotic spelling, and the present stories in Demotic are as closely related as possible to the new Egyptian of the 12th century B.C. as to the Biblical Coptic of the 4th and 5th century A.D.
The ancient Hebrews, Muhammadans and Syrians, borrowed from the Egyptians their ideas, but they never properly understood the Eschatology, which they most profoundly perverted from the original. Dr Budge, in his book, "The Gods of Egypt," says: "It cannot be too strongly insisted on that all the oldest gods of Egypt are of Egyptian origin, and that the fundamental religious beliefs of the Egyptians are also of Egyptian origin, and that both the gods and their beliefs date from pre-dynastic times, and have nothing whatever to do with the Semites or Aryans of history." He asks: What is the meaning of Ashem? (1) It has for its determinative a Hawk, perched on a standard, etc., and goes on to say that the Hawk was undoubtedly the first creature worshipped by the pre-dynastic Egyptians. We maintain that it was not worshipped by them. It was a type representing Horus I - and moreover, these ancient people, at the tune of their Eschatology, never worshipped animals or birds or serpents at all, and it is a great mistake to think so. Dr Budge, in the abovenamed book, commences very late indeed, and evidently does not understand the primordial or ignores it for reasons of his own. The early gods and their powers are evolved from their astronomical mythology, and without this it is impossible to understand or come to a true idea of how the Priests, in the dynastic times, changed names and added to the originals. The earliest Stellar Mythos, the Ritual and Great Pyramid must be studied together, to arrive at a true and correct value of the religion of these early people.
It is not of much use commencing with Osirian doctrines to get a true and definite knowledge of the gods of Egypt, because,
(1 We have already answered this in another part of this work.)
[402] before Osiris, they had the religion of Amen Ra, and before this that of Atum and Horus I. We must at least go back as far as then to obtain any originals. The hawk and other birds and animals, etc., were all depicted to represent the various attributes of "The Great God." They had no other way of doing it at that time. It would be the work of a lifetime to trace out all the proofs of the earliest people from the time they took the form of man by evolution; the lowest degenerate race of human beings, who had no idea of a life hereafter or a supreme being, and from that time onwards, formed a mythology and astro-mythology, totemic ideas and ceremonies, and Stellar mythos, etc.; and it gives a poor and incorrect idea indeed of these people when you commence with the latter part of the Solar Mythos, which is beginning to change and decay, as such, by the perversion of the texts by the Priests. That the earliest Egyptians had, and believed in, only One Great God is quite evident. As the text of the Creation says: "I am the Great God, self-created." Various names and attributes were given to all his members and his powers, which have been mistaken by Egyptologists as separate gods, which was not so, as the earliest texts will show. At the same time it is not to be wondered at as the scribes did the same in later times-i.e. they confounded the names of the various attributes of each member and each power to separate gods, and so the later texts have become somewhat mixed.
DEVIL WORSHIP, TREE WORSHIP, PHALLIC WORSHIP, ETC.
These are quite incorrect terms, and in this case "Worship" is a word employed by writers who are ignorant of Sign-language in general-such phrases as the above do not explain anything.
The tree was a type of the abode-the Roof Tree, the Mother of Food and Drink, the Giver of Life and Shelter, etc. Others we have explained previously.
The Egyptian Ritual is written in the language of animals, and never was it read in the past, and never will it be in the future, unless the thinking can be done in the Ideographic types of thought. Merely reading the hieroglyphics, as phonetics, is but a first lesson in Sign-language.
Dr Budge states: "The Priests and upper classes certainly held views and religious beliefs which differed from those of the [403] husbandman, but it is a significant fact that it was not the religion and mythology o f the dynastic Egyptians, but that o f the indigenous Pre-dynastic Egyptians." (1)
The best educated Priests were as much attached to forms and traditional symbols as the people themselves, and they were most unwilling to give up any part of them; but the symbolism was misunderstood by the ignorant classes, and produced serious errors. The uneducated loved a plurality of gods, whilst the Priests and educated people, who could read and understand books, adopted the idea of ONE GOD, the creator of all beings in heaven and on earth. But when all is said against the Egyptian religion which can be said, the fact remains that it is not the religion itself, but the myths, wherewith generations of foolish Priests obscured the pure beliefs in monotheism and immortality, which existed in Egypt from the earliest times of the pre-dynastic Egyptians. If modern religions were judged in the adverse manner in which the religion of ancient Egypt has been judged, none would escape similar condemnation.
The monotheistic character of the Egyptian religion rests on too firm a foundation to be overthrown, and notwithstanding the elaborate system of symbolic ceremonials, which was so prominent a feature of their worship, it has always maintained its place in the minds of those who were sufficiently educated to understand the ideas which the symbols thereof represented, and of which we have been the custodians, bringing them on to the present day in Freemasonry.
Many think that the god Ra was a different god from Osiris, but Ra was the spirit form, and Osiris the mummified form of the same god-both one and the same in two different forms-the same as Ra-Tem, the Father and Son, and an earlier form still, Ptah-Tem. The first form we have in the Stellar Mythos was Horus I. Later, his name became Amsu or the risen Horus. He was the first man-god, as he rose from the dead; then his name was changed to Amsu, and he established himself for ever. Osiris was Solar and a much later cult. The different changes from the originals are not difficult to understand even in our day, when one thinks of the various sects and different doctrines preached by the Christian Priests, all under Christianity.
We must remember that the Priests of Heliopolis had lost
(1 Italics are ours.)
[404] much of the original meaning and key from those even at Henensu, and the Priests of Thebes, who followed, still more.
In Horus I we have the essence of the primeval god, Nu or Atum. He was the great spirit and divine body in heaven. He, it is stated, fought and vanquished the traditional fiend, Sut, who dared to wage war against him, and was the establisher of right and wrong throughout the world. He made the earth and the heaven and all that therein is.
Horns is here represented as Atum, the Son of Ptah, shedding his own blood and being portrayed as a Creator of mankind(1) Atum, as shown here, was the Creator by the blood shed in a voluntary sacrifice, and superseded the Mother.
Ptah in the character of Sekari, the Silent Sufferer, "the coffined one," was the deity that opened up the nether world for the resurrection in the earliest Solar Mythos.
The original Trinity was first evolved at the time of Horus I, and all that followed were, and are, copies, prototypes, under different names, and there are no facts to prove this to be the contrary, and there is nothing that Dr Budge or any other Egyptologist can show to prove their assertions that Horns I. came to Egypt with his followers. The whole of the Ritual and other texts, taken in conjunction with the astro-mythology, prove what we state. We must remember that there is unquestionable proof to show that the pre-dynastic Egyptians had worked out and perfected their Eschatology 10,000 years before the dynasties began. One must go back to their astro-mythology to obtain the clue of all the meaning of what we read, as the Egyptians always brought on everything and made use of it in some way, and so knowing this from Horns I and Stellar Mythos, we can trace all the other gods, so called, which had various names and attributes, back to the one original Trinity and the meaning and origin of our sacred Triangle. Upon the foundation of Horns I all that followed must be built up.
The great fight between light and darkness arose at the time when the sun's rays were struggling to penetrate the thick watery vapour which surrounded the earth's surface before it had sufficiently condensed to make solid matter. In the earliest mythology Sut was first assigned the supreme power; he was indeed the king of darkness. and darkness was all that overspread
(1 The Mexican name is Zipe Totec, which means Our Lord, the flayed one.)
[405] the face of the earth; but as time went on the thick vapour began to condense in solid form, and the sun's rays penetrated farther and farther until they reached the solid crust and turned all the darkness on the face of the earth into light and day. The battle between Horus I and Sut had commenced and ended in victory henceforth for Horus I, and he was the supreme power, and Sut was cast out into utter darkness (night), and so, as Horus was assigned the place of the god at the apex or top of the triangle, Sut was placed at the bottom or South.
The reason why the great serpent fiend was chosen as a type to represent the evil and wicked one was because these huge reptilian monsters were numerous at that time, and primitive man must have felt the great danger he was always exposed to from these reptiles. He also observed that they came out at night in the darkness, and sought for prey and food, and when the sun arose and drove away the darkness, these fiends also retired to sleep and disappeared until the night again returned; and of all these they probably chose the biggest and most dangerous one to themselves as a type of "The Great Evil One," and as there were others of less size and less danger, these were chosen to represent the lesser "Evil Ones," so we have Beelzebub, the Chief of the Devils, and Satan as one of the lesser in the Christian doctrine. That primitive man did not exist at the time when the sun's rays first began to penetrate and fertilise the earth must have been a fact, but inasmuch as he afterwards knew how the world was created and the stages that intervened from the time that it was given off by the parent Sun, until his time, as records stated herein show; all the above would be associated with his mythology, and after that his astro-mythology. Hence the origin of the legend which has been handed down from time immemorial by all nations and all creeds, differing perhaps a little in names and circumstances as time and evolution have progressed, but in essence the same, and the foregoing is the origin. Many writers have not understood that most, if not all nations, at all times, have made animals as symbols of gods and divine powers, and still do, as we see here in our own churches. The figures of a lamb, lion, eagle, ox, and others, in the sculptured work of our churches, is sufficient proof alone, and any future generation, finding these, might say with just as much truth as these Egyptologists and others have, that we worshipped animals, [406] etc., and that it must be so, because they were found depicted in the remains of our churches and sacred books.
In tracing from the foregoing the history of man and the creation of this earth from its parent sun, which no doubt was evolved from its sun, and the evidence of the history as we find of the past, be it on written papyri, or marks, signs or symbols, wherever found in any part of the world, delineated on stones or otherwise, proves that at first man could not write, and had but few words to express his thoughts; he could only think in things as he saw them-and draw them. Analysing the oldest records of creation we can find, we come to the opinion there is a very definite statement, as one would have expected primitive man to have handed down orally from generation to generation. Taking the oldest records of the history of the creation we can find and our present scientific knowledge, which we know from actual observation and proofs, we can but arrive at the conclusion "that there must be some one great eternal power who governs the universe, a divine being whom we call' God,'" and of whose form or power we have no conception; that by His will He created all things; that our parent sun was at first a huge mass of fiery vapour given off from another sun, around which it travels and takes 25,827 years to do so, and as it has been cooling it has given off our planetary system, all ever rotating at immense speed. This earth, as well as the other planets, have given off other bodies as adjuncts of themselves for purposes which the divine Creator foresaw-the moons. The earth, when given off, was one huge mass of fiery vapour, which went whirling round and round for countless ages until the heated vapour condensed to water, and this watery mass to solid crust, the interior gradually cooling, which it will continue to do until the whole is one mass of solid matter. As soon as this heated watery vapour had cooled sufficiently to allow the sun's ray to penetrate it and fertilise any organic matter, the Great Almighty, by His divine power and will, created germs of life, which fertilised and increased from the lowest form of organic life to the present highest cultivated man and woman. The oldest hieroglyphic texts of the creation tell us that vegetable and creeping things existed first, and science and evolution teach us the same. Man was not evolved from the Lemur for ages and ages, and at first he had no idea in his primitive state of a superior being or life hereafter.
[407] Examples of these primitive little red men may still be found in the Congo Pygmy, Veddah of Ceylon, the Pygmies in forests of South America and mountain fastnesses of China, and lowest form of Negro. Gradually man began to observe and think and to work out a mythology, and as he progressed in this, an astromythology, ending in their Eschatology.
That the ancient Egyptians believed in evolution there can be no doubt, for in the "Story of the Creation" Khepera is made to say:- "I made a foundation in (or by) my own heart, and then came into being multitudes of things, of things from things, of what was produced from the things which they produced," which is a most emphatic manner of stating that everything that is came into being as a result of the act of the God in laying a foundation in his own heart, and that when once the creative process had been set in motion they continued the operation of their own accord, apparently without any direct interference from the original creative power, by spiritual and natural laws made by the Divine Creator. They mapped out the celestial heavens and depicted them by terrestrial; they used various animals and compounds of various things they could see and observe to express the different powers, etc., because they had no words or articulate sounds to otherwise express their meanings; often we find a compound animal to show the various powers they wished to express that this was symbolical of. They were too great observers of all nature to make symbols of anything without a meaning.
At this time we find the records of these
very ancient people tell us that they knew the whole planetary
system, the distance from the earth to the sun, the precession
or rather recession of the Pole stars, or Little Bear, etc., and
left full records of the same in the building of the Great Pyramid.
The time that it took these people to do this must have been at
least the observing of the sun to travel twice around its centre-two
great yearsover 50,000 years, and how much more it is impossible
to say. After this we have the Lunar and Solar Mythos, and from
the latter practically all our different religions have been evolved;
the difference from the original being principally substituting
one name for another and adding to it, to suit the exigencies
of the times and will of the Priests. Now we know that the old
originals were right in their calculation of the heavenly bodies,
and ideas [408] of how worlds are emaned, much more accurately
than our astronomers of 100 years ago, therefore, whence all this
correct knowledge? Was it by evolution into a very high type of
man who possessed the power of observation, and had obtained the
powers of calculation, the same as our highest scientists of the
present day, and who died out, or was it that the divine G.A.U.
gave divine inspiration to the highest class of man then existing,
for a guide to future generations, that they might know that there
is a life hereafter, and that we on this earth are only a minute
speck, an infinitesimal part of the universe, of which the One
Great God is the centre who governs all things? To our mind the
latter must have been so, but at what time or what age of the
life of the earth we cannot tell, probably during or at the time
of the so-called Stellar Mythos did the divine Creator give His
message to man, and that a chosen people should continue to possess
the true knowledge and secrets through all time and all lands,
although often separated by wars and other causes; yet the sacred
symbols have lost nothing of their lustre; they are all religiously
preserved, and although many writers and critics have said that
as our ceremonies, now worked in allegory, are all of modern delineation,
yet we find in the oldest ancient Egyptian Ritual the ceremonial
working of the Brotherhood very little different, and that from
the most ancient times the Brotherhood have been knit together
in one indissoluble bond, and so met, taught and instructed their
successors in the wisdom they had acquired by and through the
G.G. and that means have been adopted for the preservation of
these throughout all time, and it is worthy of remark here that
Freemasonry conforms to the practice of the Egyptians in prohibiting
to slaves a participation of its mystic rites. The Romans brought
many of their forms, ceremonies, signs and symbols to Italy when
they took Egypt. But the Romans never understood or knew the true
Eschatology of the Ritual. Many of the Christian Fathers gave
to the Virgin Mary the title of "Theotokos," or Mother
of God, forgetting no doubt that it was an exact translation of
Neter Mut 
a very old and common title
of Isis.
No doubt the Romans took their canonising
of Saints from the Egyptians, who used to "canonise"
their kings, but they did this because he was the representation
of Horus I. He was not believed to be of the seed o f the God
Horus, but was set up as the [409] type of the earthly representation.
We must differ in this from Dr Budge. In Abyssinia, where the
oldest Christian churches are and the earliest Christian doctrines
are found, it is of importance to note that the priests use the
Fly-flap (it is an exclusively sacerdotal privilege to carry one)
the same as the Egyptian priests, which can be seen from monuments
still extant in Egypt (Egyptian Frescoes), and almost everything
in fact connected with religion here, has its prototype, in ancient
Egypt-the Sistrum-the Fly-flap-the Crutch and others are all brought
from the valley of the Nile, and are still preserved here at the
present time, although Western Christians have altered or ceased
to use them. Even the custom of painting all the faces of pictures
the same as we find amongst the Central Americans, Zapotecs and
Mexicans-the good in white and the bad in black-the prototype
of Horus I in white light and day; and the bad in black, representing
Sut -night and darkness-good and evil. Their churches are also
built to represent the ancient Egyptianthe outer part for the
common people, an inner part for priests and high personages,
and a still inner-Holy of the Holies-for the High Priests alone.
The Jews copied these also from the Egyptians, and still use the
double triangle 
as a Sacred
sign on their Holy Vestments and Sacred Scroll. The cross on the
church of Amba Derho is a form of the Ank-cross, with the Seven
Glorious Ones. The seven 
being Ostrich
eggs and representing the Seven Pole Stars of the old Stellar
Mythos - the Seven Lights - Seven Golden Candlesticks.
There are sacred groves surrounding the churches, and the priests dance and play the Sistrum, and carry the Ark as did the old Egyptian priests. The Abyssinian Christians still cling with extraordinary tenacity to the very earliest rites and ceremonies of their doctrines, and neither Jesuits nor Roman Catholics have been able to make the least impression on them to fall into line with the up-to-date doctrines, etc., now preached by the Western Christians. Their word "Tabout" or "Ark of the Covenant" is the Egyptian "Tebut" (Egyptian for Ark). Bent, in his book, [410] writing on the sacred city of the Ethiopians, describing the houses at Aksum, says that they are round, and about twenty feet in diameter, thatched roof, and in nearly every case surmounted by an ornament, which he saw only at Aksum (the oldest sacred city in Abyssinia). It looks like a huge raspberry growing on a stalk out of a plate, with a handle at the top and a cross surmounting it. He also states that he has no doubt that it has some symbolical and religious meaning, but could not tell what it wasit is the Egyptian Ank-cross.
We abstain from any theological arguments because we contend that Masonry is the pure Eschatology of the originals, which has survived all the upheavals and battles of the past, and has been brought down from generation to generation, pure and unsullied, and is now once more being spread over land and sea to the good of all those who believe in it. The ancient Egyptians never lost anything, but "brought on" all their doctrines, adding new ones as evolution took place, and we have done likewise, simply supplying new names for the old, but leaving the essence the same. Further than this, we can only say that no amount of research nor any discovery has, as yet, yielded any information about the home, origin and early history of "The Book of the Dead," more than that which we have given.
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