The Rosy Cross in Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Mediæval Monuments

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CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST

THE ROSY CROSS IN INDIAN, EGYPTIAN, GREEK, ROMAN, AND MEDIÆVAL MONUMENTS

THOUGH fire is an element in which everything inheres, and of which it is the life, still, according to the abstruse and unexplained ideas of the Rosicrucians, it is itself another element, in a second non-terrestrial element, or inner, non-physical; ethereal fire, in which the first coarse fire, so to speak, flickers, waves, brandishes, and spreads, floating (like a liquid) now here, now there. The first is the natural, material, gross fire, with which we are familiar, contained in a celestial, unparticled, and surrounding medium (or celestial fire), which is its matrix, and of which, in this human body, we can know nothing.

In 1867, in Paris, a suggestive philosophical book was published, under the title of Hébreu Primitif; Formation des Lettres, ou Chiffres, Signes du Zodiaque et Racines Hébraiques, avec leurs Dérivés dans les Langues de l’Orient et de l’Europe, par Ad. Lethierry-Barrois.

Ptha is the emblem of the Eternal Spirit from which everything is created. The Egyptians represented it as a pure ethereal fire which burns for ever, whose radiance is raised far above the planets and stars. In early ages the Egyptians worshipped this highest being under the name of Athor. He was the lord of the universe. The Greeks transformed Athor into Venus, who was looked upon by them in the same light as Athor (Apuleius, Cicero, Ovid; Ptolemæus, in tetrabibla; Proclus; Ennemoser, vol. i. p. 268, trans. by Howitt).

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[paragraph continues] Among the Egyptians, Athor also signified the night (Hesiod; Orpheus). 'According to the Egyptians', says Jablonski, 'matter has always been connected with the mind. The Egyptian priests also maintained that the gods appeared to man, and that spirits communicated with the human race.' 'The souls of men are, according to the oldest Egyptian doctrine, formed of ether, and at death return again to it.'

The alchemists were a physical branch of the Rosicrucians. The more celebrated authors (and authorities) upon the art and mystery of alchemy are Hermes (whose seven chapters and 'smaragdine table', as it is called, contain the whole alchemical system); Geber, the 'Turba', 'Rosary', Theatrum Chemicum, Bibliothèque Hermétique, Chymical Cabinet; Artephius, Arnoldus de Villa Nova, Raimondus Lullius, Trevisan, Nicholas Flamel, Zachareus, Basilius Valentinus, Cosmopolita, and Philalethes (Thomas Vaughan). Refer also to The Hermetical Triumph, or the Victorious Philosopher's Stone: London, 1723; Lucas’s Travels, p. 79; Count Bernard of Treviso. Two leading works, however, on the hermetic subject are La Chiave del Gabinetto ¹, Col. 1681, 12mo, by Joseph Francis Borri, an Italian; and Le Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes; imprimée à Paris, par Claude Barbin, 1671, 12mo, pp. 150. This book is the work of the Abbé de Villars, or is supposed to be so. J. V. Andrea, a writer upon hermetic subjects, was Almoner to the Duke of Wurtemberg, and wrote early in the seventeenth century. The Emperor Rudolphus the Second greatly encouraged learned men who had made acquaintance with alchemical

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lore. At the supposed revival of Rosicrucianism -in Paris, in March 1623, the Brethren were said to number thirty-six; of whom there were six in Paris, six in Italy, six in Spain, twelve in Germany, four in Sweden, and two in Switzerland. In 1616, the famous English Rosicrucian, Robertus de Fluctibus (Robert Fludd), published his defence of the society, under the title Apologia Compendiaria, Fraternitatem de Rosea-Cruce, Suspicionis et Infamiæ maculis aspersam abluens, published in 1616 at Frankfort. Since this time, there has been no authentic account of the Rosicrucians. We are now the first translators of Robert Fludd.

'Amongst an innumerable multitude of images and symbolical figures, with which the walls'--i.e. those of the caverns of initiation at Salsette--'are covered, the Linga or Phallus was everywhere conspicuous, often alone, sometimes united with the petal and calyx of the lotus, the point within the circle, and the intersection of two equilateral triangles' (Dr. Oliver, History of Initiation. See also Maurice on the Indian Initiations).

The Linga, or pillar, or stone of memorial, in its material form, is the perpetuation of the idea of the male generative principle, as the physical means, in conjunction with the Yoni (Ioni), or discus, of the production of all visible things. In this connexion, the addition to the name of Simon Peter (Petra, or Pietra, Cephas, Jonas, Bar-Jonas, Ionas) will be recalled as suggestive. There is a sacred stone in every Temple in India. The Stone, or Pillar, or 'Pillow', of Jacob was sacred among the Jews. It was anointed with oil. There was a sacred stone among the Greeks at Delphi, which was also anointed with oil in the mystic ceremonies. The stone of Caaba, or black stone at Mecca, is stated to have been there long before

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the time of Mohammed. It was preserved by him when he destroyed the dove and images. The obelisks at Rome were, and are, Lingas (or Linghas). In the Temple of Jerusalem, and in the Cathedral of Chartres, they are in vaults. They are the idea of the abstract membrum, or 'affluence', or MEANS. To the initiated mind they imply glory, not grossness.

Figs. 25-26 are the Crux Ansata of the Egyptians. This emblem is also found in India. According to Ruffinus and Sozomen, it imports the 'time that is to come'. It is a magical symbol. Fig. 27 is the imperial mound, and cross-sigma surmounting it.

Figs. 28-29 are symbols of Venus (Aphrodite), the deity of the Syrians and Phœnicians. They are phallic emblems.

Fig. 30 is the Phallus proper. It is the sigma of Zeus, Mithras, 'Baalim', Bacchus.

Figures numbered 31, 'Osiris': these various figures signify also Jupiter-Ammon. The rectangular marks denote the Scandinavian Tuisco, Thoth (Mercurius, or Hermes). Fig. 35 is the Indian form of the same idea.

The figure marked 36 is to be found on the breast of one of the mummies in the museum Fig. 35 of the London University.

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Figs. 35-39

Upon a monument discovered in Thebes, Anubis is represented as St. Michael and St. George are in Christian paintings, armed in a cuirass, and having in his hand a lance, with which he pierces a monster

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that has the head and tail of a serpent (A. Lenoir, Du Dragon du Metz, etc.: Mémoires de l’Académie Celtique, tome ii. pp. 11, 12).

Figure 37 is the 'Labarum'. The celebrated sign which is said to have appeared in the sky at noonday to the Emperor Constantine was in this form.

Figure 38 is the monogram of the Saviour. To show the parallel in symbolical forms, we will add some further authorities from the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem.

Figure 39, No. 1, is an evidently Corinthian foliation. It is from a pillar in the vaults of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. (Probably a Lotus-Acanthus.) No. 2 is evidently the 'Crux Ansata', combining the indications of 'Lotus' and 'Lily'. Here is a union of the classic, the Judaic, and Gothic forms, all presenting the same idea at once. Buddha was the sun in 'Taurus'; Cristna (Crishna, Krishna) was the sun in 'Aries'.

In regard to the origin of speech, of writing, and of letters, it may be remarked that the Egyptians referred the employment of a written symbol (to record and communicate the spoken word) to a Thoth; the Jews, to Seth or his children (Josephus, Ant. 1, 2, 3); the Greeks, to Hermes. But 'Thout' in Coptic (Pezron, Lexicon Lingua Copticæ, s.v. Gen. xix. 26 in the Coptic version), also ‏שת‎ in Hebrew, and Ερμῆς (Hermes) in Greek are all names for a pillar or post. This is the Homeric use of ἕρμα and έρμις (Il. ά, 486; Od. ή, 278; Kenrick's Essay on Primeval History, p. 119). Αρχα is the ship, navis (from thence come 'nave' and 'navel'), in which the germ of animated nature was saved. Thebes, or Theba, means the 'ark'. Carnac, or Karnak, in Egypt, is reckoned to be older than the days of Moses--at least dating from 1600 A.C.

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HERALDIC GENEALOGY OF THE 'FLEUR-DE-LIS', OR 'FLOWER-DE-LUCE'

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APOTHEOSIS OF THE SYMBOL
Fig. 40
4. Bee 6. Bee 7. Imperial Bee 8. Fleuron 9. Charlemagne 10. A Babylonian Gem

The opinion of M. Dupuis was (see his learned memoir concerning the origin of the constellations), that 'Libra' was formerly the sign of the vernal equinox, and 'Aries' of the nocturnal, autumnal equinox; that is, that since the origin of the actual astronomical system, the procession (precession?) of the equinoxes had carried forward by seven signs the primitive order of the Zodiac. Now, estimating the procession (precession?) at about 70½ years to a degree, that is, 2115 years to each sign, and observing that 'Aries' was in its fifteenth degree 1447 before Christ, it follows that the first degree of 'Libra' could not have coincided with the vernal equinox more lately than 15,194 years before Christ, to which, if you add 1790 years since Christ, it appears, that 16,984 years have elapsed since the origin of the 'Zodiac' (Volney, Ruins of Empires, 1st English edition, 1792, p. 360).

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All white things express the celestial and luminous gods; all circular ones, the world, the moon, the sun, the destinies; all semicircular ones, as arches and crescents, are descriptive of the moon, and of lunar deities and meanings.

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Fig 41

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'The Egyptians', says Porphyry, 'employ every year a talisman in remembrance of the world. At the summer solstice, they mark their houses, flocks, and trees with red, supposing that on that day the whole world had been set on fire. It was also at the same period that they celebrated the Pyrrhic or "Fire Dance".' (And this illustrates the origin of the purifications by fire and water.)

There are seven planets in the solar system. These seven planets are signified in the seven-branched candlestick of the Jewish ritual. The number is a sacred number. These seven 'prophets', or angels, have each twelve apostles, places, stella, 'stalls', or regions or dominions (stalls as 'stables'), for the exercise of their powers. These are the twelve divisions of the great Circle, or the twelve signs of the Zodiac. All this is Cabalistic, Magical, Sabaistical, and Astrological. The name Ashtaroth or Astarte has been derived from Ashre, aster, ast, star, or 'starred'; in the same way as the word Sephi-roth comes from the Hebrew root, 'roth'.

On the black sacred stone ('Kebla', or 'Cabar') at Mecca, 'there appears the figure of a human head cut', 'which some take to be the head of a Venus' (Enthumius Zyabenus, Mod. Un. Hist. i. 213; Sale's Discourse, p. 16; Bibliotheca Biblia, i. 613, 614).

Man’s ideas, outwards from himself, must always become more dreamlike as they recede from him, more real as they approach him.

Footnotes

188:1 Mark--the letters G and C are convertible: Thus Gab or Cab ('Gab' ala or 'Cab' ala). The 'Compte' de 'Gabalis' is, properly the 'Compte' de 'Cabalis', or the Count of the 'Cabala'.

193:1 See figs, 190, 191, 192, 195, post. See, also, pages preceding.