Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Part 50

The Chaldean Triad consisted of Bel, [the Persian Zervana Akherana], Oromasdes, and Ahriman; the Good and Evil Principle alike outflowing from the Father, by their equilibrium and alternating preponderance to produce harmony. Each was to rule, in turn, for equal periods, until finally the Evil Principle should itself become good.

The Chaldean and Persian oracles of Zoroaster give us the Triad, Fire, Light, and Ether.

Orpheus celebrates the Triad of Phanes, Ouranos, and Kronos. Corry says the Orphic Trinity consisted of Metis, Phanes, and Ericapaeus; Will, Light or Love, and Life. Acusilaus makes it consist of Metis, Eros, and aether: Will, Love, and Ether. Phereycides of Syros, of Fire, Water, and Air or Spirit. In the two former we readily recognize Osiris and Isis, the Sun and the Nile.

The first three of the Persian Amshaspands were BAHMAN, the Lord of LIGHT; Ardibehest, the Lord of FIRE; and Shariver, the Lord of SPLENDOR.

These at once lead us back to the Kabala.

Plutarch says: "The better and diviner nature consists of three; the Intelligible (_i.e._ that which exists within the Intellect only as yet), and Matter; [Greek: t? ???t??] and [Greek: ???], and that which proceeds from these, which the Greeks call Kosmos: of which Plato calls the Intelligible, the Idea, the Exemplar, the Father: Matter, the Mother, the Nurse, and the receptacle and place of generation: and the issue of these two, the Offspring and Genesis."

The Pythagorean fragments say: "Therefore, before the Heaven was made, there existed Idea and Matter, and G.o.d the Demiourgos [workman or active instrument], of the former. He made the world out of matter, perfect, only-begotten, with a soul and intellect, and const.i.tuted it a divinity."

Plato gives us Thought, the Father; Primitive Matter, the Mother; and KOSMOS, the Son, the issue of the two Principles. Kosmos is the ensouled Universe.

With the later Platonists, the Triad was Potence, Intellect, and Spirit, Philo represents Sanchoniathon's as Fire, Light, and Flame, the three Sons of Genos; but this is the Alexandrian, not the Phnician idea.

Aurelius says the Demiourgos or Creator is triple, and the three Intellects are the three Kings: He who exists; He who possesses; He who beholds. The first is that which exists by its essence; the second exists in the first, and contains or possesses in itself the Universal of things; all that afterward becomes: the third beholds this Universal, formed and fashioned intellectually, and so having a separate existence.

The Third exists in the Second, and the Second in the First.

The most ancient Trinitarian doctrine on record is that of the Brahmins.

The Eternal Supreme Essence, called PARABRAHMA, BRAHM, PARATMA, produced the Universe by self-reflection, and first revealed himself as BRAHMA, the _Creating_ Power, then as VISHNU, the Preserving Power, and lastly as SIVA, the _Destroying_ and _Renovating_ Power; the three Modes in which the Supreme Essence reveals himself in the material Universe; but which soon came to be regarded as three distinct Deities. These three Deities they styled the TRIMURTI, or TRIAD.

The Persians received from the Indians the doctrine of the three principles, and changed it to that of a principle of Life, which was individualized by the Sun, and a principle of Death, which was symbolized by cold and darkness; parallel of the moral world; and in which the continual and alternating struggle between light and darkness, life and death, seemed but a phase of the great struggle between the good and evil principles, embodied in the legend of ORMUZD and AHRIMAN.

MITHRAS, a Median reformer, was deified after his death, and invested with the attributes of the Sun; the different astronomical phenomena being figuratively detailed as actual incidents of his life; in the same manner as the history of BUDDHA was invented among the Hindus.

The Trinity of the Hindus became among the Ethiopians and Abyssinians NEPH-AMON, PHTHA, and NEITH--the G.o.d CREATOR, whose emblem was a ram--MATTER, or the primitive mud, symbolized by a globe or an egg, and THOUGHT, or the LIGHT which contains the germ of everything; triple manifestation of one and the same G.o.d (ATHOM), considered in three aspects, as the _creative power, goodness_, and _wisdom_. Other Deities were speedily invented; and among them OSIRIS, represented by the Sun, ISIS, his wife, by the Moon or Earth, TYPHON, his Brother, the Principle of Evil and Darkness, who was the son of Osiris and Isis. And the Trinity of OSIRIS, ISIS, and HORUS became subsequently the Chief G.o.ds and objects of worship of the Egyptians.

The ancient Etruscans (a race that emigrated from the Rhaetian Alps into Italy, along whose route evidences of their migration have been discovered, and whose language none have yet succeeded in reading) acknowledged only one Supreme G.o.d; but they had images for His different attributes, and temples to these images. Each town had one National Temple, dedicated to the three great attributes of G.o.d, STRENGTH, RICHES, and WISDOM, or _Tina, Talna_, and _Minerva_. The National Deity was always a Triad under one roof; and it was the same in Egypt, where one Supreme G.o.d alone was acknowledged, but was worshipped as a Triad, with different names in each different home. Each city in Etruria might have as many G.o.ds and gates and temples as it pleased; but three sacred gates, and one Temple to three Divine Attributes were obligatory, wherever the laws of Tages (or Taunt or Thoth) were received. The only gate that remains in Italy, of the olden time, undestroyed, is the Porta del Circo at Volterra; and it has upon it the three heads of the three National Divinities, one upon the keystone of its magnificent arch, and one above each side-pillar.

The Buddhists hold that the G.o.d SAKYA of the Hindus, called in Ceylon, GAUTAMA, in India beyond the Ganges, SOMONAKODOM, and in China, CHY-KIA, or Fo, const.i.tuted a Trinity [TRIRATNA], of BUDDHA, DHARMA, and SANGA,--_Intelligence, Law_, and _Union_ or _Harmony_.

The Chinese Sabaeans represented the Supreme Deity as composed of CHANG-TI, the _Supreme Sovereign_; TIEN, the _Heavens_; and TAO, the _Universal Supreme Reason_ and _Principle of Faith_; and that from Chaos, an immense silence, an immeasurable void without perceptible forms, alone, infinite, immutable, moving in a circle in illimitable s.p.a.ce, without change or alteration, when vivified by the Principle of Truth, issued all Beings, under the influence of TAO, Principle of Faith, who produced one, one produced two, two produced three, and three produced all that is.

The Sclavono-Vendes typified the Trinity by the three heads of the G.o.d TRICLAV; and the Pruczi or Prussians by the Tri-une G.o.d PERKOUN, PIKOLLOS, and POTRIMPOS, the Deities of _Light_ and _Thunder_, of _h.e.l.l_ and the _Earth_, its fruits and animals: and the Scandinavians by ODIN, FREA, and THOR.

In the KABALAH, or the Hebrew traditional philosophy, the Infinite Deity, beyond the reach of the Human Intellect, and without Name, Form, or Limitation, was represented as developing Himself, in order to create, and by self-limitation, in ten emanations or out-flowings, called SEPHIROTH, or _rays_. The first of these, in the world AZILUTH, that is, within the Deity, was KETHER, or the _Crown_, by which we understand the Divine Will or Potency. Next came, as a pair, HAKEMAH and BAINAH, ordinarily translated "Wisdom" and "Intelligence," the former termed the FATHER, and the latter the MOTHER. HAKEMAH is the active _Power_ or _Energy_ of Deity, by which He produces within Himself Intellection or Thinking: and BAINAH, the pa.s.sive _Capacity_, from which, acted on by the Power, the Intellection flows. This Intellection is called DAATH: and it is the "WORD," of Plato and the Gnostics; the _unuttered_ word, _within_ the Deity. Here is the origin of the Trinity of the Father, the Mother or Holy Spirit, and the Son or Word.

Another Trinity was composed of the fourth Sephirah, GEDULAH or KHASED, _Benignity_ or _Mercy_, also termed FATHER (_Aba_); the fifth, GEBURAH, _Severity_ or Strict _Justice_, also termed the MOTHER (_Imma_); and the sixth, the SON or _Issue_ of these, TIPHARETH, _Beauty_ or _Harmony_.

"Everything," says the SOHAR, "proceeds according to the Mystery of the Balance"--that is, by the equilibrium of Opposites: and thus from the Infinite Mercy and the Infinite Justice, in equilibrium, flows the perfect Harmony of the Universe. Infinite POWER, which is Lawless, and Infinite WISDOM, in Equilibrium, also produce BEAUTY or HARMONY, as Son, Issue, or Result--the Word, or utterance of the Thought of G.o.d. Power and Justice or Severity are the _same_: Wisdom and Mercy or Benignity are the same;--in the Infinite Divine Nature.

According to Philo of Alexandria, the Supreme Being, Primitive Light or Archetype of Light, uniting with WISDOM [S???a], the mother of Creation, forms in Himself the types of all things, and acts upon the Universe through the WORD [????? ... Logos], who dwells in G.o.d, and in whom all His powers and attributes develop themselves; a doctrine borrowed by him from Plato.

Simon Magus and his disciples taught that the Supreme Being or Centre of Light produced first of all, three couples of united Existences, of both s.e.xes, [[Greek: S?????a?] ...Suzugias], which were the origins of all things: REASON and INVENTIVENESS; SPEECH and THOUGHT; CALCULATION and REFLECTION: [[Greek: ????] and [Greek: ?p????a, F???] and [Greek: ?????a, ????s??] and [Greek: ?????s??] ... Nous and Epinoia, Phone and Ennoia, Logismos and Enthumesis]; of which Ennoia or WISDOM was the first produced, and Mother of all that exists.

Other Disciples of Simon, and with them most of the Gnostics, adopting and modifying the doctrine, taught that the [Greek: ?????a] .. Pleroma, or PLENITUDE of Superior Intelligences, having the Supreme Being at their head, was composed of eight Eons [[Greek: ??????] .. Aiones] of different s.e.xes;.. PROFUNDITY and SILENCE; SPIRIT and TRUTH; the WORD and LIFE; MAN and the CHURCH: [[Greek: ?????] and [Greek: S???; ??e?a]

and [Greek: ????e?a; ?????] and [Greek: ???; ?????p??] and [Greek: ?????s?a] ... Buthos and Sige; Pneuma and Aletheia; Logos and Zoe; Anthropos and Ekklesia].

Bardesanes, whose doctrines the Syrian Christians long embraced, taught that the unknown Father, happy in the Plenitude of His Life and Perfections, first produced a Companion for Himself [[Greek: S??????]

... Suzugos], whom He placed in the Celestial Paradise and who became, by Him, the Mother of CHRISTOS, Son of the Living G.o.d: _i.e._ (laying aside the allegory), that the Eternal conceived, in the silence of His decrees, the Thought of revealing Himself by a Being who should be His image or His Son: that to the Son succeeded his Sister and Spouse, the Holy Spirit, and they produced four Spirits of the elements, male and female, Maio and Jabseho, Nouro and Rucho; then Seven Mystic Couples of Spirits, and Heaven and Earth, and all that is; then seven spirits governing the planets, twelve governing the Constellations of the Zodiac, and thirty-six Starry Intelligences whom he called Deacons: while the Holy Spirit [_Sophia Achamoth_], being both the Holy Intelligence and the Soul of the physical world, went from the Pleroma into that material world and there mourned her degradation, until CHRISTOS, her former spouse, coming to her with his Divine Light and Love, guided her in the way to purification, and she again united herself with him as his primitive Companion.

Basilides, the Christian Gnostic, taught that there were seven emanations from the Supreme Being: The First-born, Thought, the Word, Reflection, Wisdom, Power, and Righteousness.

[Greek: ???t??????, ????, ?????, F???ts??, S??a, ???a??], and [Greek: ???a??s???] Protogonos, Nous, Logos, Phronesis, Sophia, Dunamis, and Dikarosune; from whom emanated other Intelligences in succession, to the number, in all, of three hundred and sixty-five; which were G.o.d manifested, and composed the Plenitude of the Divine Emanations, or the G.o.d Abraxas; of which the Thought [or Intellect, [Greek: Nou?] ... Nous]

united itself, by baptism in the river Jordan, with the man Jesus, servant [[Greek: d???????]. Diakonos] of the human race; but did not suffer with Him; and the disciples of Basilides taught that the [Greek: ????], put on the appearance only of humanity, and that Simon of Cyrene was crucified in His stead and ascended into Heaven.

Basilides held that out of the unrevealed G.o.d, who is at the head of the world of emanations, and exalted above all conception or designation [[Greek: ? ?at???ast??, ????t??]], were evolved seven living, self-subsistent, ever-active hyposatized powers:

FIRST: THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS.

1st. NOUS [Greek: ????] The Mind.

2d. LOGOS [Greek: ?????] The Reason.

3d. Phronesis [Greek: F????s??] The Thinking Power.

4th. Sophia [Greek: S?f?a] Wisdom.

SECOND: THE ACTIVE OR OPERATIVE POWER.

5th. Dunamis [Greek: ???a??] Might, accomplishing the purposes of Wisdom.

THIRD: THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES.

6th. Dikaiosune [Greek: ???a??s???] Holiness or Moral Perfection.

7th. Eirene [Greek: ??????] Inward Tranquility.

These Seven Powers ([Greek: ????e??].. Dunameis), with the Primal Ground out of which they were evolved, const.i.tuted in his scheme the [Greek: ???t? ??d???][Prote Ogdoas], or First Octave, the root of all Existence. From this point, the spiritual life proceeded to evolve out of itself continually many gradations of existence, each lower one being still the impression, the _antetype_, of the immediate higher one. He supposed there were 365 of these regions or gradations, expressed by the mystical word [Greek: ??a?a?] [Abraxas].

The [Greek: a?a?a?] is thus interpreted, by the usual method of reckoning Greek letters numerically.... [Greek: a,1..,2..?,100..a,l..?] 60..[Greek: a,l..?], 200==365: which is the whole Emanation-World, as the development of the Supreme Being.

In the system of Basilides, Light, Life, Soul, and Good were opposed to Darkness, Death, Matter, and Evil, throughout the whole course of the Universe.

According to the Gnostic view, G.o.d was represented as the immanent, incomprehensible and original source of all perfection; the unfathomable ABYSS ([Greek: ????].. buthos), according to Valentinus, exalted above all possibility of designation; of whom, properly speaking, nothing can be predicated; the [Greek: ??at???ast?] of Basilides, the [Greek: ??]

of Philo. From this incomprehensible Essence of G.o.d, an _immediate_ transition to finite things is inconceivable. _Self-limitation_ is the first beginning of a communication of life on the part of G.o.d--the first pa.s.sing of the hidden Deity into manifestation; and from this proceeds all further self-developing manifestation of the Divine Essence. From this primal link in the chain of life there are evolved, in the first place, the manifold powers or attributes inherent in the divine Essence, which, until that first self-comprehension, were all hidden in the Abyss of His Essence. Each of these attributes presents the whole divine Essence under one particular aspect; and to each, therefore, in this respect, the t.i.tle of G.o.d may appropriately be applied. These Divine Powers evolving themselves to self-subsistence, become thereupon the germs and principles of all further developments of life. The life contained in them unfolds and individualizes itself more and more, but in such a way that the successive grades of this evolution of life continually sink lower and lower; the spirits become feebler, the further they are removed from the first link in the series.

The first manifestation they termed [Greek: p??t? ?at?????? ?a?t?? prote katalepsis heautou] or [Greek: p??t?? ?ata??pt?? t?? ?e??] [_proton Katalepton tou Theou_]; which was hypostatically represented in a [Greek: ????] or [Greek: ?????], [_Nous_ or _Logos_].

In the Alexandrian Gnosis, the Platonic notion of the [Greek: ???]

[Hule] predominates. This is the dead, the unsubstantial--the boundary that limits from without the evolution of life in its gradually advancing progression, whereby the Perfect is ever evolving itself into the less Perfect. This [Greek: ???] again, is represented under various images;--at one time as the darkness that exists alongside of the light; at another, as the void [Greek: ????a, ?e???] ....Kenoma, Kenon, in opposition to the Fullness, [Greek: ?????a ...Pleroma] of the Divine Life; or as the shadow that accompanies the light; or as the chaos, or the sluggish, stagnant, dark water. This matter, dead in itself, possesses by its own nature no inherent tendency; as life of every sort is foreign to it, itself makes no encroachment on the Divine. As, however, the evolutions of the Divine Life (the essences developing themselves out of the progressive emanation) become feebler, the further they are removed from the first link in the series; and as their connection with the first becomes looser at each successive step, there arises at the last step of the evolution, an imperfect, defective product, which, unable to retain its connection with the chain of Divine Life, sinks from the World of Eons into the material chaos: or, according to the same notion, somewhat differently expressed [according to the Ophites and to Bardesanes], a drop from the fullness of the Divine life bubbles over into the bordering void. Hereupon the dead matter, by commixture with the living principle, which it wanted, first of all receives animation. But, at the same time, also, the divine, the living, becomes corrupted by mingling with the chaotic ma.s.s. Existence now multiplies itself. There arises a subordinate, defective life; there is ground for a new world; a creation starts into being, beyond the confines of the world of emanation. But on the other hand, since the chaotic principle of matter has acquired vitality, there now arises a more distinct and more active opposition to the G.o.d-like--a barely negative, blind, unG.o.dly nature-power, which obstinately resists all influence of the Divine; hence, as products, of the spirit of the [Greek: ???], (of the [Greek: p?e?a ??????].. Pneuma Hulikon), are Satan, malignant spirits, wicked men, in none of whom is there any reasonable or moral principle, or any principle of a rational will; but blind pa.s.sions alone have the ascendency. In them there is the same conflict, as the scheme of Platonism supposes, between the soul under the guidance of Divine reason the [Greek: ????... Nous], and the soul blindly resisting reason--between the [Greek: p?????a] [p.r.o.noia] and the [Greek: a?a??] [anage], the Divine Principle and the natural.

The Syrian Gnosis a.s.sured the existence of an active, turbulent kingdom of evil, or of darkness, which, by its encroachments on the kingdom of light, brought about a commixture of the light with the darkness, of the G.o.d-like with the unG.o.dlike.

Even among the Platonists, some thought that along with an organized, inert matter, the substratum of the corporeal world, there existed from the beginning a blind, lawless motive power, an unG.o.dlike soul, as its original motive and active principle. As the inorganic matter was organized into a corporeal world, by the plastic power of the Deity, so, by the same power, law and reason were communicated to that turbulent, irrational soul. Thus the chaos of the [Greek: ???] was transformed into an organized world, and that blind soul into a rational principle, a mundane soul, animating the Universe. As from the latter proceeds all rational, spiritual life in humanity, so from the former proceeds all that is irrational, all that is under the blind sway of pa.s.sion and appet.i.te; and all malignant spirits are its progeny.

In one respect _all_ the Gnostics agreed: they _all_ held, that there was a world purely emanating out of the vital development of G.o.d, a creation evolved directly out of the Divine Essence, far exalted above any outward creation produced by G.o.d's plastic power, and conditioned by pre-existing matter. They agreed in holding that the framer of _this lower world_ was not the Father of _that higher world_ of emanation; but the Demiurge [[Greek: ?e???????]], a being of a kindred nature with the Universe framed and governed by him, and far inferior to that higher system and the Father of it.

But some, setting out from ideas which had long prevailed among certain Jews of Alexandria, supposed that the Supreme G.o.d created and governed the world by His ministering spirits, by the angels. At the head of these angels stood one who had the direction and control of all; therefore called the Artificer and Governor of the World. This Demiurge they compared with the plastic, animating mundane spirit of Plato and Platonists, the [Greek: de?te??? ?e??].. Deuteros Theos; the [Greek: ?e?? ?e??t??]..., Theos Genetos, who, moreover, according to the Timaeus of Plato, strives to represent the IDEA of the Divine Reason, in that which is _becoming_ (as contradistinguished from that which _is_) and temporal. This angel is a representative of the Supreme G.o.d, on the lower stage of existence: he does not act independently, but merely according to the ideas inspired in him by the Supreme G.o.d; just as the plastic, mundane soul of the Platonists creates all things after the pattern of the ideas communicated by the Supreme Reason [[Greek: ????]

... Nous--the [Greek: ? ?st? ????].... ho esti zoon--the [Greek: pa??de??a]. paradeigma, of the Divine Reason hypostatized]. But these ideas transcend his limited essence; he cannot understand them; he is merely their unconscious organ; and therefore is unable himself to comprehend the whole scope and meaning of the work which he performs. As an organ under the guidance of a higher inspiration, he reveals higher truths than he himself can comprehend. The ma.s.s of the Jews, they held, recognized not the angel, by whom, in all the Theophanies of the Old Testament, G.o.d _revealed_ Himself; they knew not the Demiurge in his true relation to the hidden Supreme G.o.d, _who never reveals Himself_ in the sensible world. They confounded the type and the archetype, the symbol and the idea. They rose no higher than the Demiurge; they took him to be the Supreme G.o.d Himself. But the spiritual men among them, on the contrary, clearly perceived, or at least _divined_, the ideas veiled under Judaism; they rose beyond the Demiurge, to a knowledge of the Supreme G.o.d; and are therefore properly His worshippers [[Greek ?e?ape?ta?].. Therapeutai].