EPISODE 29 - WISAMIA’S FRIEND
Hans could not stay away from the Garden tavern. Somehow he knew Wisamia held the key to more understanding. That night he went and waited till she was able to come over and talk. She asked where the good father was and he said probably on the compound. She didn’t sit down but rather walked away. When she came back she had a man with her, he was around 30 with messy blonde hair and a wild look in his eyes. “This is Jeddah Smith, he lived on the ridge for years.” Hans jumped up and shook his and invited him to sit awhile. Jeddah looked around the room apparently to make sure no one he knew was there, then sat down opposite Hans timidly. Wisamia said that Jeddah knew more about the occult than any man around. He had studied with Kelpius for years as a young boy. Before Hans could engage the young man in light conversation to ease the transition to such heady topics, Jeddah started talking softly but very fast. Hans leaned over so as not to miss anything.
The builders existed before the Deluge (biblical flood), and its members were employed in the building of the Tower of Babel. The Masonic Constitution of 1701 gives an account of the origin of the sciences. In Genesis Chapter four a man called Lameck with two wives, Adah and Zillah. Adah had two sons, Jaball and Juball. Zillah had a son Tubal-cain and a daughter Naamah. They found Two Pillars of stone with the four sciences ascribed on them. The first stone called Marbell, that cannot burn, the other Laturus, that cannot drown in water. One of these pillars was later discovered by Hermes, son of Zeus, who communicated to mankind the secrets thereon. Adam forewarned his descendents that sinful humanity would be destroyed by a deluge. The patriarch Enoch, who lived to 365 years of age, constructed an underground temple consisting of nine vaults, one under the other. In the deepest vault he placed a triangular tablet of gold bearing the absolute Name of Deity. He also made two Deltas, one he placed on the altar in the deepest vault, the other he gave to his son Methuseleh. In form and arrangement these vaults epitomized the nine spheres of the Ancient Mysteries and the nine sacred strata of the earth through which the initiate must pass to reach the flaming Spirit dwelling in its central core. Enoch, fearing that all knowledge of the sacred Mysteries would be lost when the deluge came, erected two columns with allegorical symbols of the Great Knowledge. After ages an initiate builder while laying the foundation for another temple to the Great Architect of the Universe, discovered the long-lost vaults and the secrets contained within.
Henry VIII had archives of important character to be copied. One was the history of Peter Gower, a Greek who traveled for knowledge, in Egypt, Syria, anywhere the Phoenicians had planted Masonry. Peter Gower is the Anglicized form of Pythagoras, thus a link is made between the Mysteries of Greece and mediaeval Freemasonry, which had its origin in the East.
By 1000 B.C. Dionysiac Architects made their appearance and were considered the best craftsmen in the world. Extreme measures were taken to keep the secrets safe from the outside world. They were entrusted to build the most enduring builds in the western world. Even Solomon employed them in the building of the temple. Their work spread to all of Asia Minor , even to India. One of the most illustrious was Vitruvius, the great architect, who revealed some of the ancient knowledge of symmetry. Without proportion no temple can be designed. The human body for example has proportions of symmetry. The face, from the chin to the top of the forehead where the lowest roots of the hair line is the same length as from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. This length is 1/10 of the total height of the person. The head, from chin to the crown, is 1/8. From the middle of the breast to the crown is ¼. The length of the foot is 1/6. The forearm and breadth of the breast is ¼. At this point Hans was busy holding his palm up to his face and trying to line up his forearm with the width of his chest. Jeddah paused in his narration as he was used to people checking the validity of these symmetries. Wisamia got up to check in with her supervisor, the barkeep, to make sure there was nothing she had to do right then. When she returned a few minutes later Hans was finished with his verification process. Jeddah continued where he had left off.
Each chamber in the Mysteries through which the candidate passed had its own peculiar acoustics. In one chamber the voice of the priest was amplified until his words caused the room to vibrate, while in another the voice was diminished and softened to a degree that it sounded like distant tinkling of silver bells. Likewise, in some chambers shouting would barely be audible and in others whispering generated echoes a hundred times over. The supreme ambition of the Dionysiac Architects was to construct buildings that would reflect their purposes, that using straight lines and curves to create any desired attitude or emotion. The Ark of the Covenant had specifically designed chambers, so attuned to the vibrations of the invisible world that they caught and amplified the voices of the ages imprinted upon and eternally existent in the substance of the astral light.
Unskilled in these ancient subtleties of their profession, modern architects often create architectural absurdities, ignorant of the symbolic importance. So banks, office buildings and department stores end up with phallic symbols as adornments. Christian churches can end up with Brahmin or Mohammedan domes or styled like Jewish synagogues or a Greek temple in honor of Pluto. Although stigmatized as pagans, Dionysiac craftmen were almost universally employed in the erection of Christian abbeys and cathedrals, whose stones to this day carry distinguishing marks and symbols of their builders, to the point of having squares and compasses in the hands of the saints and prophets. The checkerboard floor pattern is the old tracing board for masons from the beginning. Dionysians influenced early Islamic culture and their interlaced triangles (Seal of Solomon) can be seen conspicuously in Mohammedan mosques. They gave us a legacy of the unfinished Temple of Civilization, a vast, invisible structure that initiates have labored continuously since the inception of the fraternity, of which the temple on the brow of Mount Moriah was but an impermanent symbol. They believed that immortality could be achieved by becoming a part of the creative agencies of Nature.
Hans stopped Jeddah to ask how it is that a Rosicrucian is so well versed in Freemasonry. Jeddah looked at him as if it should quite obvious the ties between the two. Hans looked back at him, showing no sign of understanding the connection. Jeddah asked Hans to state the main theme of the Rosicrucians. Hans said it was the duality of man. When Jeddah asked Hans to explain Hans just said Adam was both man and woman before the fall, where he insisted in knowing carnally a woman and lost his ability to create new beings and worlds just by speaking. Jeddah then asked Hans to say what the main focus of Freemasonry was. Hans said it was that the universe had exact proportion to it and knowing those sacred measurements and their relationship to each other was the key to all knowledge. The connection still didn’t leap into mind, so Hans asked again what is the connection between the two. Jeddah either because he wasn’t sure himself, he wanted Hans to figure it out, or he didn’t want to admit that all he knew he was told; did not answer Hans. Hans became frustrated and asked that they meet again tomorrow at the same time to further discuss the subjects at hand. Jeddah said that would be agreeable to him and the two men left.
When Hans got home, Rebecca was in the drawing room writing. She looked up briefly and noticed Hans had a frown on his face. She asked him what was on his mind. He told her about the Rosicrucians on the rim of the gorge, alchemy, Freemasonry, and scores of other stories he had been told in the last few days. Seabreeze listened quietly until he was done then asked him if he was able to place everything into a newly formed ideology of his making yet. He said he wasn’t even close to doing so. She laughed and said that men have spent lifetimes putting the pieces together so they fit and are internally true and reasonable in a given belief system for centuries. She asked Hans how he expected to divine the truth of the Kabbala, Freemasonry, Atlantis, Islam, and a half dozen other major schools of thought into a neat concise two sentence summary, then dismiss all of them to pursue some new knowledge. Hans said he didn’t expect to tie it up in a neat little package, he would be happy if he could just get past feeling inadequate and dim witted. He went on to tell her the kinds of questions he’d like to ask plainly of someone and have answered in a straightforward fashion that made sense. But before he could get started she asked if they could do it some other time when she was caught up on her articles. He said she was never caught up on her writing and turned and went upstairs without another word. She knew she should have spent some time with him but was afraid that the whole evening would go by and she would not have helped him work through any of the difficult ideas and would expose her disinterest in ever finding out the “truth.” She knew they were drifting apart but had neither the interest nor desire to stop it from getting any worse. Hans felt it too and didn’t know how to get her back involved in their marriage, at least, he had this new thirst for knowledge to occupy his time. It wasn’t like he didn’t love her anymore because he did and he was reasonably sure she looked him too. As Hans was falling asleep he thought about the initiate that found Enoch’s tablets of allegorical symbols while building a new temple and wondered if the initiate didn’t rediscover the wisdom of the ages at all, but merely assigned his own meanings to the symbols he saw.
The next morning, he awoke with all the nagging doubts that he took to bed the night before. Did the sons of Seth really start the sciences and did these sciences have eternal truths in them that gave mortal man a true glimpse of the One God? Do all belief systems show a person just one facet of the truth that has thousands of facets but only one true essence? Do all men of knowledge really think they have all the answers? Was there really an Atlantis and were there ever really Gods like the Greeks and the Romans perceived them? Are legends more than just fancy stories that seem to tell an eternal truth about man or the Gods? Do the heavens hold the truth about the origin of man and God? Isn’t every belief system merely an explanation of all things around us? Is there one truth with hundreds of partial truths around it? Hans finally quit thinking altogether and rested up for the afternoon meeting with Jeddah. He thought Jeddah’s eyes made him look as if he went diving for the Philosopher’s Stone in the river and found it.
Jeddah was on time, and the two men sat down and Jeddah began immediately his recitation. The name Solomon can be divided into three syllables, SOL-OM-ON, symbolizing light, glory, and truth. The Temple of Solomon is, therefore, first of all “the House of Everlasting Light”. According to the Mystery teachings, there are three Temples of Solomon—as there are three Grand Masters, three Witnesses, and three Tabernacles of the Transfiguration. The first temple is the Grand House of the Universe, in the middle sits the sun (SOL), surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, and illuminated by three lights (stellar, solar, and lunar). The second house is symbolic of the human body. Apostle Paul wrote, “Know ye not, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” The third symbolic house is the Soular House, an invisible structure, the comprehension of which is a supreme Freemasonic secret. The mystery of this intangible edifice is concealed in the allegory of the Wedding Garment described by St. Paul, the Robes of Glory of the High Priest of Israel, the Yellow Robe of the Buddhist monk, and Albert Pike’s Robe of Blue and Gold in his Symbolism.
According to ancient Rabbins, Solomon was an initiate of the Mystery schools and the temple which he built was actually a house of initiation containing amass of pagan philosophic and phallic emblems. The pomegranates, the palm-headed columns, the Pillars before the door, the Babylonian cherubim, and the arrangement of the chambers all indicate that they were patterned after the sanctuaries of Egypt and Atlantis.
Masonry came to Northern Africa and Asia Minor from the lost continent of Atlantis, not under the name Masonry but under the general designation Sun and Fire Worship. The ancient mysteries did not cease to exist when Christianity became the most powerful religion, they simply assumed the symbolism of the new faith, perpetuating through its emblems and allegories the same truths that have always existed. Without the mysterious keys carried by the Egyptian, Brahmin, and Persian cults the gates of Wisdom cannot be opened.
According to Jewish law (Talmud), Solomon understood the mysteries of the Qabbalah, as well as alchemy and necromancy. He could control daemons and used the invisible worlds to gain his wisdom. According to Josephus, Solomon was in no way inferior to the Egyptians in magic and in the art of expelling daemons. Mediaeval alchemists were convinced that King Solomon understood the secret processes of Hermes where it is possible to multiply metals. He called upon the invisible world to supply him with vast amounts of gold and silver which most people believe were mined by natural methods.
The mysteries of the Islamic faith are now in the keeping of the dervishes-men. Jelaluddin, the great Persian poet and philosopher is accredited with founding the Order of Mevlevi, or the “dancing dervishes.” The movements signify the motions of the celestial bodies and result in a rhythm which stimulates the centers of spiritual consciousness within the dancer’s body.
Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world’s living religions. Its symbolism lies hidden in the Pyramids of Egypt, the crumbled ancient sanctuaries of Brahmin’s Vedas, the temples of Thebes and Karnak, and in ancient Greek buildings. Glimpses have been offered up to mankind by Zoroaster, Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle. Men have sought true knowledge since time began and those secrets await those with the courage and will power to unlock the Mysteries of the Ages.
As suddenly as Jeddah had started talking, he quit talking and just sat there staring into the distance. Hans didn’t say anything for fear of disturbing the young man, but after a few minutes he had to say something even if it started another string of stories. He asked if Rosicrucian beliefs were in line with Freemasonry. Jeddah just kept staring and finally Hans got up and left, not looking back once.
TO BE CONTINUED