Breaking the

Code

of the
Secret
Societies
By Murl Vance
Though many of our finest American statesmen and leading Protestants belong, or have
belonged, to secret societies--Masons, Rosicrucian’s, etc.--the true nature of these
societies has long been concealed. The following statements, taken from books published
by these societies, fully confirm the astonishing claims of the author. Most of the works
cited were published for members only. Some of them were probably never seen by
anyone except members of these societies until the sudden death of two of their guardians
made possible the microfilming of much of the evidence. Many in these societies do not
know their true nature.

LUCIFER IS REGARDED AS THE REAL GOD

“A ray of Light, shot from the Deity, is the cause and principle of all that exists. It is at
once Father and Mother of All, in the sublimest sense…Lucifer, the Light-bearer!
Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the
Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble,
sensual, or selfish souls? Doubt it not! For traditions are full of divine revelations and
inspirations: and inspiration is not of one age nor of one creed. Plato and Philo, also, were
inspired.”--Morals and Dogma, Pike, pp.267,321. (Authorized Masonic publication).

We will show that all pagan deities represent Lucifer, the god of this world. This is also
the clear teaching of sacred scripture found in the following references. Lev.17:7;
Deut.32:17; 2 Chron.11:15; Psalm. 106:3438; 1 Cor.10:20; Rev.14:8; Rev.17:16;
Rev.18:18.

BLACK AND WHITE SQUARES

“The pavement (tessellated, having alternating black and white squares, found in every
Masonic lodge), alternately black and white, symbolizes, whether so intended or not, the
Good and Evil Principles of the Egyptian and Persian creed.”--id.p.14. (Good and evil,
the worship of God and Satan cannot be combined. No man can serve two masters.)

MASONRY IS A CONTINUATION OF THE PAGAN MYSTERIES

“Thus the knowledge now imparted by books and letters, was of old conveyed by
symbols… Masonry, successor of the Mysteries, still follows the ancient manner of
teaching. Though Masonry is identical with the ancient Mysteries, it is so only in this
qualified sense: that it presents but an imperfect image of their brilliance, the ruins only
of their grandeur.”--id.p.23. (A knowledge of the meaning of symbols unlocks the secrets
of the mysteries.)

PILLARS AROUND TEMPLES

In the ancient mysteries “all temples were surrounded by pillars, recording the numbers
of the constellations, the signs of the zodiac, or the cycles of the planets; and each one
was a microcosm or symbol of the universe.” (The connection of astrology with ancient
and modern mysteries, or secret societies, stamps Babylon upon them all, for Babylon
was the home of astrology; these societies must be counted among her daughters.)

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REASON FOR SECRECY

“Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals
its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations
and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to
conceal the Truth, which it calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.”--
id.p.104. (Light is concealed by those who love darkness.)

THE BUDDHA

“The first Masonic Legislator whose memory is preserved to us by history was

Buddha…” --id.p.277.

THEOSOPHY

“The mysteries embraced the three great doctrines of Ancient Theosophy.”--id.p.356.

“The ceremonies were performed at dead of night, generally in apartments underground,
but sometimes in the centre of a vast pyramid, with every appliance that could alarm and
excite the candidate.”--id.p.361.

Says one of the ancient initiates: “I approached the abode of death At midnight I saw the
bright light of the sun shining. I stood in the presence of the Gods, the Gods of Heaven
and of the Shades below; many stood near and worshipped.”--id.389.

THE STARS ARE THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD

“The sphere or Heaven of the fixed stars was that Holy Region, and those Elysian Fields,
that were the native domicile of souls, and the place to which they re-ascended, when
they had recovered their primitive purity and simplicity.”-- id.p.437. (That the stars are
souls of the righteous dead is still the teaching of the R.C. Church.)

“These two Divinities, the Active and Passive Principles of the Universe (also Good and
Evil) commonly symbolized the generative parts of man and woman… The Indian
Lingam was the union of both, as were the boat and mast.”

ORIGIN AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

“All initiation is but introductory to the great change of death… The body was deemed a
prison for the soul… In the same way they taught the origin of the soul, its fall to the
earth past the spheres and through the elements, and its final return to the place of its
origin the sacred fire which formed its essence…”

EQUINOXES AND MILKY WAY

“The equinoxes were the gates, through which souls passed to and fro, between the
hemispheres of light and that of darkness. The milky way…was, in the old theology,
termed the pathway of souls. It is, according to Pythagoras, vast troops of souls that form

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the luminous belt…. The Mithraic cave. displayed the zodiacal and other constellations,
and marked gates at the four equinoctial and solstitial points of the zodiac, whereat souls
enter into and escape from the world of generations.”--id.p.413. (Immortality of the soul
and astrology are found in all the mysteries, the very foundation of their secrets.)

SALVATION BY WORKS BASIS OF PAGANISM

“By doing and suffering, by virtue and piety and good deeds, the soul was enabled to at
length free itself from the body, and ascend along the path of the Milky Way, by the gate
of Capricorn and by the seven spheres…”--id.p.416 (Salvation by works.)

BASIS OF ASTRONOMY

“The theory of the spheres and of the signs and intelligences which preside there, and the
whole system of astronomy were connected with that of the soul and its destiny.” p.418.

“The Gnostics made souls ascend and descend through eight Heavens, in each of which
were certain Powers that opposed their return… The last of these Powers, nearest the
luminous abode of souls, was a serpent or dragon… Thus the secret science and
mysterious emblems of initiation were connected with the Heavens, the Spheres, and the
Constellations.”--id.p.441.

SIGNS OF ZODIAC IN ALL PAGAN RELIGIONS

“The two most famous divisions of the Heavens, by seven, which is that of the planets,
and by twelve, which is that of the signs, are found on the religious monuments of all the
people of the ancient world. The twelve Great Gods of Egypt are met with everywhere:
and they were later adopted by the Greeks and Romans; and the latter assigned one of
them to each sign of the Zodiac… The people of the North had their twelve Azes or
Senate of twelve great gods, of which Odin was chief. The Japanese had the same
number, and like the Egyptians divided them into classes, seven, who were the most
ancient, and five, afterward added: both of which numbers are well known and
consecrated in Masonry.”-- id.p.460.

FEAST DAYS OF CATHOLICISM ARE ASTROLOGICAL

“Astrology was practiced among all the ancient nations… It flourished at Rome… It was
a science in the middle ages, and even to this day is neither forgotten nor unpracticed.”--
id.p.463. (During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Encyclopedia, article: Astrology,
informs us, popes and kings had their private astrologers. It is everywhere admitted
that the Church’s holy days are largely astrological, including the “day of the Sun,” and
numerous scholars point out that many of the Church’s saints have astrological
connections. Is not the religion of Babylon as much alive today as it ever was?)

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ALTAR IN THE EAST AND THE CROSS FROM ASTROLOGY

“Traces of the worship of the Sun yet linger in all religions. Everywhere, even in our
Order, survive the equinoctial and solstitial feasts. Our ceilings still glitter with the
greater and lesser luminaries of the Heavens, and our lights, in their number and
arrangement, have astronomical references. In all churches and chapels, as in all Pagan
temples and pagodas, the altar is in the East… Even the cross had an astronomical origin;
and our Lodges are full of the ancient symbols.”-- id.p.483. (The cross was worshiped
throughout the world, long before Christ, as a symbol of the sun, since the streamers of
light from the sun, when viewed through partially closed lids, form themselves into a
cross.

SUN-GOD SYMBOLISED BY A BULL THE PITCHFORK

The sun-god was pictured anciently as a being with hoofs, horns, and a tail, being a
symbol of the sun as “the heavenly bull” which fertilizes the seed of earth by sunshine
and rain. The pitchfork represents the forked lightning bolt which the angry deity hurled
at the earth during the thunderstorm when he bellowed from the sky. Here is good reason
why the cross, the ancient symbol of the sun deity and the most cruel instrument of
torture ever invented by man, should not be worshiped. When Satan and his angels in the
form of human beings mingled with the crowd and led them in shouting Crucify Him,
Crucify Him did Satan succeed in getting man to offer his Creator as a sacrifice to the
god of this world, to the evil one himself? See Seymour, The Cross in Tradition, History,
and Art, and Blake, The Cross, Ancient and Modern.)

“Souls, the Ancients held emanated from the Principle of Light, partaking of its destiny
here below…”--id.p.492.

THE SERPENT

“One of the most famous… of the Symbols used in the Mysteries… was The Serpent, the
peculiar symbol also of this degree (the Knight of the Brazen Serpent Degree). The
Cosmogony of the Hebrews and that of the Gnostics designated this reptile as the author
of the fate of Souls.” (The author goes on to state that the serpent is found connected with
all the ancient gods, a fact substantiated by art and history)-- id.p.492.

SIGNIFICANCE OF CATHOLIC OR UNIVERSAL

“None has the right to object, if the Christian Mason sees foreshadowed in Krishna and
Sosiosch, in Mithras and Osiris, the Divine Word that, as he believes, became Man, and
died upon the cross to redeem a fallen race.”-- id.p.524. (Like Roman Catholics, Masons
everywhere claim to have
the Universal or Catholic religion, the religion which embraces all other religions. This
universality is here shown by the adopting of serpent-connected pagan deities as types of
Christ--the identifying of Satan and Christ as one deity.)

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THE FRATERNAL SUPPER A PART OF REINCARNATION

Speaking of “the fraternal supper, of bread which nourishes, and of wine which refreshes
and exhilarates: Many thousands who have died before us might claim to be joint owners
with ourselves of the particles that compose our mortal bodies; the bodies of the ancient
dead, the patriarchs before and since the flood, the kings and common people of all ages,
resolved into their constituent elements, and carried upon the wind over all continents and
continually enter into and form part of the habitations of new souls And thus in the bread
we eat, and in the wine we drink tonight, may enter into and form part of us the identical
particles of matter that once formed parts of the material bodies called Moses, Confucius,
Plato, Socrates, or Jesus of Nazareth. In the truest sense, we eat and drink the bodies of
the dead; and cannot say that there is a single atom of our blood or body, the ownership
of which some other soul might not dispute with us.”-- id.p.539. (Among its other
implications, this of course denies the resurrection of Christ.)

FREEMASONRY DERIVED FROM BABYLON

The following, from An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by Mackey and McClenachan,

will show still further how Masonry, like Catholicism, embraces the tenets, practices, and
symbols of paganism going back to ancient Babylon:

ADAD THE SYRIAN SUN-GOD

“Adad, the name of the principal god among the Syrians, and who, as representing the
sun, had an image surrounded by rays… The inventors of the high degrees of Masonry
have incorporated Adad as a name of God among their significant words.”

RITES OF ADONIS CLOSEST TO MASONRY

“Adonis, Mysteries of…They bear a nearer analogical resemblance to the Institution of

Freemasonry than to any of the other mysteries or systems of initiation of the ancient
world… These mysteries, in common with all the other sacred initiations of the ancient
world, had been originally established to promulgate among the initiates the once hidden
doctrine of a future life… The inquiring Freemason will thus readily see the analogy in
the symbolism that exists between Adonis in the mysteries of the Biblemites at Byblos
and Hiram the Builder in his own institution.”

“The mysteries of Adonis are said to have been first established at Babylon…Adon--lord
or master--was one of the titles given to the sun Adonai is used as a significant word in
several of the high degrees of Masonry.” (All the world has drunk of her wine!)

ALL-SOULS DAY

“All-Souls Day... The 2nd of November. A festival in the Romish Church for Prayers in
behalf of the faithful dead. It is kept as a feast day by Chapters of Rose Croix.” (This holy
day is but one of a multitude of points on which Catholics, Masons, and Rosicrucians
unite.)

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MASONRY NOT FROM SOLOMONS TEMPLE

“Antiquity of Freemasonry: Freemasonry… is the successor of the Building Corporations

of the Middle Ages, and through them, with less certainty but with great probability, of
the Roman Colleges of Artificers. Its connection with the Temple of Solomon, as its
birthplace, may have been accidental… a mere arbitrary selection by its inventors--and
bears, therefore, only an allegorical meaning… As a secret association, containing within
itself the symbolical expression of a religious idea, it connects itself with all the Ancient
Mysteries.”

ASTRONOMY CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH FREEMASONRY

“Astronomy… With Astronomy the system of Freemasonry is intimately connected…

The Lodge itself is a representation of the world: it is adorned with the images of the sun
and moon the blazing star shines in the east.”

“Babylonish Pass… A degree given in Scotland by the authority of the Grand Royal Arch
Chapter”.

MASONIC BAPTISM NOT FROM CHRISTIANITY

“Baptism, Masonic… The Masonic baptism has no allusion whatsoever to the sacrament
of the Church. It is simply a lustration or purification by water, a ceremony which was
common to all the ancient initiations.”

BEL OR BAAL IS THE CHIEF DEMON OF BABYLON

“Bel... Bel is the contracted form of Baal, and was worshiped by the Babylonians as their
chief deity. The Greeks and Romans so considered and translated the word by Zeus and
Jupiter. It has with Jah and On, been introduced into the Royal Arch system as a
representative of the Tetragrammaton…” (It must be remembered that another name for
Bel in Babylon was Enlil a word meaning CHIEF DEMON!)

USE OF BIBLE

“Bible… The Bible is used among Masons as the symbol of the will of God, however it
may be expressed. And therefore, whatever to any people expresses that will may be used
as a substitute for the Bible in a Masonic Lodge. Thus in a Lodge consisting entirely of
Jews, the Old Testament alone may be placed upon the altar, and Turkish Masons make
use of the Koran. Whether it be the Gospels to the Christian, the Pentateuch to the
Israelite, the Koran to the Mussulman, or the Vedas to the Brahman, it everywhere
Masonically conveys the same idea--that of the symbolism of the Divine will revealed to
Man.”

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CIRCLING THE ALTAR

“Circumambulation… In ancient Greece, when the priests were engaged in the rite of
sacrifice, they and the people always walked three times round the altar while singing the
sacred hymn. In making this procession, great care was taken to move in imitation of the
course of the sun… The rite of circumambulation undoubtedly refers to the rite of sun
worship… and although the dogma of sun-worship does not of course exist in
Freemasonry, we find an allusion to it in the Rite of circumambulation, which it
preserves, as well as in the position of the officers of a Lodge and in the symbol of a
point within a circle.”

THE COCK

“Cock… The cock is used in the Jewel of the Captain-General of an Encampment of

Knights Templars… The cock was the emblem of the sun…”

INFLUENCE OF THE CRUSADES ON FREEMASONRY

“Crusades… There was between Freemasonry and the Crusades a much more intimate
relation than has generally been supposed. In the first place, the communications
frequently established by the Crusaders, and especially the Knights Templars, with the
Saracens, led to the acquisition, by the former, of many of the dogmas of the secret
societies of the East, such as the Essenes, the Assassins, and the Druses. These were
brought by the knights to Europe, and subsequently were incorporated into the high
degrees.”

“Darkness… In the Ancient Mysteries, the aspirant was always shrouded in darkness…
Darkness was originally worshiped as the first-born… In Dr. Olivers Signs and Symbols
there is a lecture On the Mysterious Darkness of the Third Degree.’ This refers to the
ceremony of enveloping the room in darkness when that degree is conferred…”

GODS LAW NOT BINDING

“Decalogue... The ten commandments as delivered from Mount Sinai… They are not
obligatory upon a Mason as a Mason, because the Institution is tolerant and cosmopolite”
(That is, its universal or catholic nature embraces all religions and does not require
adherence to the tenets of any one religion.)

DRUIDISM SIMILAR TO MASONRY

“Druids… The doctrines of the Druids were the same as those entertained by Pythagoras.
They taught the immortality of the soul… and the object of their mystic rites was to
communicate these doctrines in symbolic language, an object and a method common
alike to Druidism, to the Ancient Mysteries, and to Modern Freemasonry.”

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BABYLON MYSTERIES CAME VIA EGYPT

“Egyptian Mysteries... Egypt has always been considered as the birthplace of the
mysteries… From Egypt this system of symbols was disseminated through Greece and
Rome and other countries of Europe and Asia giving origin, through many intermediate
steps, to that mysterious association which is now represented by the Institution of
Freemasonry.”

PLACE OF FIRE IN FREEMASONRY

“Fire-worship... Of all the ancient religions, fire-worship was one of the earliest, next to
Sabaism (sun and star worship); and even of this it seems only to have been a
development, as with the Sabaists the sun was deemed the Universal Fire. ‘Darius,’ says
Quintus Curtius, ‘invoked the sun as Mithras, the sacred and eternal fire.’ This religion
was not only very ancient, but also very universal. And in the high degrees of Masonry,
as in the ancient institutions, there is a purification by fire, coming down to us insensibly
and unconsciously from the old Magian cultus.”

SIGNIFICANCE OF G IN MASONRY

“G… In every Masonic Lodge, a letter G may be seen in the East.” (Masonic writers
declare that this G stands for: Gnosis, Generation--a phallic conception--Geometry, and
God. It is usually rayed or pictured as the center of a sun.) See fig.4.

CHANNELED THROUGH GNOSTICISM

“Gnostics… sought to mingle the notions of the Jewish Egyptian School, the speculations
of the cabalists, and the Grecian and Asiatic doctrines with the simpler teachings of the
new religion which they had embraced… Many of the symbols still used by
Freemasonry--such, for instance, as the triangle within a circle, the letter G, and the
pentacle of Solomon--have been traced to a Gnostic source.”

GRAND PONTIFF

“Grand Pontiff… The nineteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.”
(Masonry, too, has her high priests.)

THE BLESSING HAND

“Hand… In Freemasonry, the hand as a symbol holds a high place. (The “Blessing
Hand”--with two fingers and thumb extended) adopted by the Roman Church… seems to
have been borrowed from the symbols of the Phrygian and Eleusian priests… who used it
in their mystical processions… Mark Master Masons… will recognize it as a symbol in
their own ritual… The church explains this position of the extended thumb and two
fingers as representing the Trinity; but the older symbol of the Pagan priests… must have
had a different meaning.”

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HIGH HILLS

“Highest of Hills… The Brethren used to meet on the highest of hills and in the lowest of
valleys Introduced at first, undoubtedly with special reference to the ancient worship ‘on
high places,’ and the celebration of the mysteries in the caverns of initiation, it is now
retained.”

HO-HI OR HE-SHE

“Ho-hi. A combination of two Hebrew pronouns, ho, meaning ‘he,’ and hi, meaning
‘she’... HO-HI, therefore denotes the male and female principle, the vis genitrix, the
phallus and lingam, the point within the circle; the notion of which, in some one form or
another of this double gender, pervades all the ancient systems as the representative of
the creative power. Thus one of the names given by the mythological writers to the
Supreme Jupiter was arrneothlus, the man-woman… All the Pagan gods and goddesses,
however various their appellations, were but different expressions for the male and
female principle… They may all be included in the one great Hermaphrodite.” (Many
pagan peoples picture their supreme god as half man and half woman…. The writer goes
on to declare that in the mysteries, the yod-he-waw-he of the Tetragrammaton, the IHVH,
is considered as but HOHI in reverse, since the Hebrew waw represents o as well as v.)

INCENSE BURNING

“Incense… The Roman Catholic Church has borrowed the usage from the ancients; and
the burning of incense in certain sacred rites is also practiced in Masonry, especially in
the high degrees.”

MEANING OF I.N.R.I.

“I.N.R.I… The Rosicrucians used them as the initials of one of their hermetic secrets:
Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, ‘By fire, nature is perfectly renewed.’”

JESUITS & MASONRY

“Jesuits… In the last century the Jesuits were charged with having an intimate
connection with Freemasonry… It cannot be denied that, while the Jesuits have had no
part in the construction of pure Freemasonry, there are reasons for believing that they
took an interest in the invention of some degrees and systems… Almost a library of
books has been written on both sides of this subject in Germany and in France.”

VARIOUS DEGREES

“Knight of the Brazen Serpent… The twenty-fifth degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite.”

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“Knight of the East… The Knights of the East are said to derive their origin from the
captivity of the Israelites in Babylon.” (Let us point out here that the Jews who remained
in Babylon became the leaders of later astrology and the mysteries.)

“Knight Jupiter… The seventy-eighth degree of the collection of Le Page.”

“Knight of the Sun… The twenty-eighth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite… The jewel is a golden sun, having on its reverse a hemisphere with the six
northern signs of the zodiac. There is but one light in the Lodge, which shines through a
globe of glass.”

666 SACRED TO SUN WORSHIP

“Magic squares… Magic squares and their values have been used in the symbolism of
numbers in some of the high degrees of Masonry.” (The 6 x 6, magic square or seal of the
sun as it is everywhere called, totals 666 and goes back, says Budge in the Amulets and
Superstitions, to Babylon. In Babylon every god had a sacred number, and the numbers 6,
111, 36, and 666 have long been sacred in sun worship. It would appear that in a broader
sense, the number 666 refers to any system of religion based on sun worship and in
particular to any individual that heads such a system. When the evidence is all in, there
may be a far stronger proof than Vicarius Filii Dei alone, for applying this number.)

“Meridian Sun... The sun in the south is represented in Masonry by the Junior Warden.”

MITHRAISM & MASONRY

“Mithras, Mysteries of… There are none of the Ancient Mysteries which afford a more
interesting subject of investigation to the Masonic scholar than those of the Persian god
Mithras… (in these mysteries) the aspirant… was introduced into a cavern representing
the world, on whose walls and roof were inscribed the celestial signs. (Mithraism, the
system of astrological worship which came from Babylon to the West by way of Persia,
was the official religion of Rome for 200 years. Certainly the Masons, by their own
admission, have drunk of this wine.)

THE MOON IN MASONRY

“Moon… In Egypt… Isis was the moon; In Syria… Ashtoreth; The Greeks adored her as
Diana and Hecate; in the mysteries of Ceres… the officer nearest the altar (represented)
the moon… Masons retain her image in their rites.”

A CONTINUATION OF THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES

“Mysteries, Ancient… Each of the pagan gods had, besides the public and open, a secret
worship paid to him… In all these mysteries we find a singular unity of design, clearly
indicating a common origin… The ceremonies of initiation were all funereal in their
character… The rites were practiced in the darkness of night, and often amid the gloom
of impenetrable forests or subterranean caverns… ‘All the mysteries,’ says Plutarch,
‘refer to a future life and the state of the soul after death.’ If there is any other more direct

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connection between them it must be sought for in the Roman Colleges of Artificers, who
did, most probably, exercise some influence over the rising Freemasons of the early
ages…”

SACREDNESS OF NUMBERS

“Numbers... The symbolism which is derived from numbers was common to the
Pythagoreans, the cabalists, the Gnostics, and all mystical associations…It is not,
therefore, surprising that the most predominant of all symbolism in Freemasonry is that
of numbers… They are the primary causes upon which the whole system of the universe
rests… Plato also indulged in a theory of symbolic numbers, and calls him happy who
understands spiritual numbers and perceives their mighty influences. Numbers, according
to him, are the cause of universal harmony, and of the production of all things. The
Neoplatonists extended and developed this theory, and from them it passed over to the
Gnostics; from them probably to the Rosicrucians, to the Hemetic philosophers, and to
the Free Masons.” (We have already noted under Magic Squares that 6, 36, 111, and 666
were sacred to the sun, considered as the source and cause of all things. Other sacred
numbers were 7, sacred to the seven planets, 12, sacred to the 12 signs of the zodiac, the
12 months of the year, and the 12 hours of the day; 19, sacred because it was the sum of
the two above; 24, sacred to the 24 hours of the day; 27, 28, and 30 all sacred to the lunar
zodiac, to the month, and to motherhood; 36, sacred to the 36 dekans or rulers of the
zodiac, etc. Though the subject of sacred numbers is far too extensive for this paper, let
us note that all pagan sacred numbers have astrological connections and are, therefore,
based upon Babylonian concepts.)

“Odd Numbers… Thus it is evident that the Masonic theory of sacred numbers was
derived, not, as it has been supposed, from the school of Pythagoras, but from a much
older system.”

EAST OR SUNRISING

“Orientation… St. Charles Borromeo… directs that the rear or altar part of the church
shall look directly to the east… There is no doubt that the Masonic was derived from the
ecclesiastical, that is, Lodges were first built east and west because churches were; nor
can we help believing that the church borrowed and Christianized its symbol from the
Pagan reverence for the place of sun rising.” (Nearly all early churches are orientated,
each to the place in the east at which the sun rises on the particular saint’s day to which
the church is dedicated. Since the sun rises at different points during the year, churches
dedicated to different saints, under this system, are not parallel with each other.)

PARACELSUS

“Paracelsus… devoted his youth to the study and practice of astrology, alchemy, and
magic… Much of the cabalistic and mystical science of Paracelsus was incorporated into
Hermetic Masonry by the founders of the high degrees.”

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PHALLIC OR SEX WORSHIP

“Phallic Worship… Here, I think, we undoubtedly find the remote origin of the point
within a circle, an ancient symbol which was first adopted by the old sun worshippers,…
the sun as the generator and the earth as the producer--and afterwards modified in its
signification and incorporated into the symbolism of Freemasonry.”

ROMAN COLLEGE OF ARTIFICERS ANOTHER CHANNEL

“Roman Colleges of Artificers… Krause… claims an almost absolute identity between the
Roman Colleges of Numa, seven hundred years before Christ, and the Lodges of the
nineteenth century… It cannot be doubted that Krause is correct… But when we view
Freemasonry in a higher aspect we must go beyond the Colleges of Rome, which were
only operative associations, to that older type to be found in the Ancient Mysteries.”
(Yes, back to Egypt and Babylon.)

THE SECRET OF THE ROSE

“Rose… The symbolism of the rose among the ancients was twofold. First, as it was
dedicated to Venus as the goddess of love, it became the symbol of secrecy, and hence
came the expression ‘under the rose.’… Again, as it was dedicated to Venus as the
personification of the generative energy of nature, it became the symbol of immortality…
The two symbols of a rose resting on a cross always indicate the secret of immortality…
The rose was the emblem of the female principle, and the cross or triple phallus of the
male, the two together, like the Indian lingam, symbolized universal generation.”

CLOSENESS OF MASONRY AND ROSICRUCIANISM

“Rosicrucianism… There are sufficient coincidences of character between the two

(Masonry and Rosicrucianism) to render the history of Rosicrucianism highly interesting
to the Masonic student.”

THE SUN DOMINANT IN MASONRY

“Sun…. Hardly any of the symbols of Masonry are more important in their signification
or more extensive in their application than the sun… The sign of authority was indicated
by the three-forked lightning of Jove, the trident of Neptune, and the three-headed
Cerberus of Pluto.” (This is where the “heavenly bull,” the horned, tailed, and hoofed sun
god, got his pitchfork, “the weapon of the gods,” which the angry deity hurled at the earth
during the thunderstorm. Everywhere we meet with the evidence that the sun was
considered only as a visible manifestation of the great Serpent—or Lucifer--with which it
is ever connected in ancient art and text.) In India “Surya, Indra, and Agni are but
manifestations of God in the sun, the bright sky, and the fire derived from the solar
light… To the sun, too, as the regenerator or revivifier of all things, is Phallic worship,
which made a prominent part of the mysteries, to be attributed. From the Mithraic
initiations, in which sun worship played so important a part, the Gnostics derived many

13
of their symbols. These again, exercised their influence upon the medieval Freemasons.
Thus it is that the sun has become so prominent in the Masonic system…”

THE TALISMAN AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

“Talisman… We do not need a better instance of this transmutation of Gnostic talismans

into Masonic symbols than a plate (on which is found) a human figure of two hands and
two heads, surrounded by the sun, the moon, and five stars representing the seven planets.
One of the heads is that of a male, the other of a female. The hand attached to the male
part of the figure holds a compass, that to the female, a square. The square and compass
thus distributed seem to indicate that originally a phallic meaning was attached to these
symbols as there was to the point within the circle, which in this plate also appears in the
centre of the globe. The compass held by the male figure would represent the male
generative principle, and the square held by the female, the female productive principle.
The subsequent interpretation given to the combined square and compass was the
transmutation from the hermetic talisman to the Masonic symbol.”

LETTER TAU SYMBOL OF JUPITER OR NIMROD

“Tau… This tau, tau cross, or tau mark, was of very universal use as a sacred symbol
among the ancients… The tau of the ancient Gauls, was among the Druids a symbol of
their supreme god, or Jupiter.”

ASTROLOGY

“Astrology… A science demanding the respect of the scholar, notwithstanding its

designation as a ‘black art.’… It is a study we considered in, and forming an important
part of, the ceremonies of the ‘Philosophus,’ or fourth grade of the First Order of the
Society of the Rosicrucians…”

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS AND MASONRY

“Egyptian Hieroglyphs... The extent of parallelism between the innumerable hieroglyphs

on the tombs and monuments of India and Egypt and symbols and emblems of
Freemasonry, taken together with their esoteric interpretation, has caused very many
well-thinking Masons to believe in an Indian or Egyptian origin of our speculative
institution of the present day.“(Many others give Chaldea as the original home.)

EGYPTIAN SERPENT

“Mehen… An Egyptian mythological serpent, the winding of whose body represented the
tortuous course of the sun in the nocturnal regions.” (The serpent, represented, in other
words, the sun god as the ruler of the underworld or hades.)

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ST. JOHNS DAY

“Oannes… The Masons hold their grand festival on the day of St. John, not knowing that
therein they merely signify the fish god Oannes, the first Hermes and the first founder of
the Mysteries…” (Dagon was another name for this god of the summer solstice.)

POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE AND NUMBER SIX

“Point Within a Circle… One of the oldest symbols among the Egyptians, and found
upon their monuments, which was a circle centered by an A U M, supported by two erect
parallel serpents… At times this circle is represented by the Ananta (Sanskrit, eternity, a
serpent with his tail in his mouth). The parallel serpents were of the cobra species. It has
been suggestively said that the Masonic symbol refers to the circuits or circurnambulation
of the initiate around the sacred Altar, which supports the three Great Lights as a central
point, while the brethren stand in two parallel lines.” (This symbol is an extremely
interesting one, since it apparently explains the two pillars of the Masonic temple. The
author further declares that these two serpents represented Power and Wisdom, names
also given to the two pillars, which are frequently shown capped by serpents in Masonic
art. But this is not the only point of interest in the two erect cobras. We have already
noted that the figure 6 was from very early times sacred to the sun, frequently pictured as
a coiled serpent in the sky. We have noted that from earliest times the figure 6 was
connected with and represented by the serpent. The two ancient Chaldean words for 6
were VV (pronounced waw, wow, and viv by later writers, the vowels being supplied)
and SS (sas or shash). The history of our own letters V and S show that both letters
descend from serpent hieroglyphs. Two erect cobras, it is interesting to note, with the V
on each hood, make VV, the waw or 6. The same two cobras in their erect striking
position form two perfect Ss, the SS of sas, 6. We are repeatedly told by the mystery
writers themselves that their mysteries are connected with the letters S and V, and we
find that the Gnostics worshiped the waw and called it God. See La Doctrine Gnostique
de la Lettre WAW by Dupont-Sommer, and The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries,
Jennings, on these points. The serpent ever crawls through the Mysteries.)

NUMBER SEVEN--SOLS DAY AND SUN IN MOON

“Seven... The sun was naturally the great central planet of the ancient seven, and is ever
represented as the central light of the seven in the branched candlestick. (The pagan
seven-branched candlestick is a totally different symbol from the Scriptural candlestick.
The former frequently is shown with the symbols of the seven planets upon it, with the
sun as the central candle; the latter, of course is the symbol of perfection of the seven
days of completed creation. Catholic art frequently shows a sun-cross with three candles
on each side.) Of the days of the week one was known as Sols day, or Sunday Sols day
dates from time immemorial, and was always a sacred one. In a phallic sense, when the
sun has been in conjunction with the moon, he only leaves Luna after impregnation.”
(The latter statement refers to the suns monthly conjunction with the moon in each of the
twelve houses of the zodiac, a conjunction which in the Babylonian astrological system
was thought to influence the monthly ovum cycle. The sun-in-the moon is one of the
most frequent representations in Chaldean, Egyptian, and Medieval art, and has exactly

15
the same significance as the point-within-the circle of Masonry and the other Mysteries
and the lignam-yoni of Hindu worship.)

TRIANGLE AND SQUARE

“Triangle and Square… The two triangles, one white and the other black, interlacing,
typify the mingling of the two apparent powers in nature, darkness and light, error and
truth, ignorance and wisdom, evil and good, throughout human life.” (This symbol,
frequently called, “The Seal of Solomon” and “The Eastern Star,” sacred throughout the
mysteries of the world, again shows the nature of the universal religion, the attempt to
combine the worship of God with the worship of Satan, to revere good and evil at the
same time. The symbol has the same significance as the tessellated pavement of the
Masonic Lodge floor.)

THE SERPENT

“The emblematical serpent had a place in the most ancient systems of primitive Masonry,
and was a symbol almost coeval with its institution on this globe by the first created man.
(in other words, it goes back to the Garden of Eden.) Universally esteemed as a legitimate
emblem… it has been retained among the symbols in the Masonic system; and yet its
origin and secret reference are not even, if known, satisfactorily accounted for in any of
the lectures usually given. Many and various are the speculations that have been indulged
in to account for the introduction of the serpent as a symbol in the secret associations of
man.”--The Traditions, Origin, and Early History of Freemasonry, Pierson, p.353. (The
first 384 pages of this Masonic book have the heading Coincidences with the Mysteries).

SOLOMON HAD NO CONNECTION WITH FREEMASONRY

“The universal sentiment of the Masons of the present day is to confer upon Solomon,
King of Israel, the honor of being their ‘first Grand Master,’ but Legend of the Craft had
long before though there was a tradition of the temple extant, bestowed, at least by
implication, that title upon Nimrod, the King of Babylonia and Assyria. It had attributed
the first organization of a fraternity to him…”--id. (This is getting the history of secret
societies back to the source from whence they drew their doctrines, ancient Babylon.
There is not the slightest evidence that Solomon ever had anything to do with secret
societies. The evidence is strong that in the mysteries, the word Solomon is merely used
as s synonym for the subtle, wise one, the one whose heart was lifted up because of his
wisdom and beauty. This concept is in strict accord with the system of concealing their
secrets ever used by the mystics.)

“Masonry… possesses legends not found in Holy Writ.” (Here again, tradition takes over
as in Catholicism.)--id.p.13.

“The identity of the Masonic Institution with the ancient mysteries is obvious from the
striking coincidences found to exist between them.”--id.p.13. (Frequent references to the
mysteries are also found in early Catholic works, references which state that these

16
mysteries are connected with symbols and rituals used by the Church. On this point see,
for example, Picarts Ceremonies. R.C.)

ONLY THOSE IN THE INNER CIRCLE KNEW THE INNER SECRETS

“It is well known that there was a species of knowledge in the Egyptian mysteries which
was communicated to none but those who were intended for the throne or priesthood.”
(Let us state right here that the only mystery of the mysteries is the identity of the god
being worshiped and the meaning of the symbols and rites used in that worship. St. Paul
strips all the disguise off the god in l Cor.10:20)

“Freemasonry embraces the universal system in which all men agree.”--id.p.32 (it, like
the Church, claims to be catholic or universal.)

CIRCLING THE ALTAR

“In the rite of circumambulation we find another ceremony borrowed from the ancient
Freemasonry that was practiced in the mysteries… In making this procession, great care
was taken to move in imitation of the course of the sun… In the mysteries, the candidate
invariably represented the sun descending southward toward the reign of the evil
principle, Ahriman, Siva, or Typhon (darkness and winter) then figuratively to be slain,
and after a few days to rise again from the dead and commence to ascend to the
northward.”-- id.p.32,33.

THE ORIGIN OF THE CROSIER-THUNDERBOLT

“The royal sceptre of Egypt was surmounted by the head of a jackal, as an emblem of the
power of Osiris. The Tau, or handled cross, was also a staff and a sacred symbol. The
same idea was conveyed equally by the sceptre of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the
thyrus of Bacchus, the club of Hercules, the caduceus of Mercury, the mace of Thor, the
staff of the Brahmans, the Druids wand, and the Persian crosier.”--id.p.42. (To this list we
must add the dorje of the Hindu gods and the staff of the American Indians. Chaldean
texts speak of their gods as “he who holdeth the lightning bolt in his fists,” this bolt ever
being called the weapon of the gods. A careful analysis of the various weapons in the
hands of pagan deities will reveal that each is but another symbol of the thunderbolt,
pictured in Babylonian art as a three pronged fork--the devils pitchfork, the weapon of
the “prince of the power of the air.” That the author of all destructive storms really
controls the lightning bolt is evidenced by Revelation 13:13. The bolt was frequently
represented as a fiery serpent coming from a cloud, and it is interesting to note that
medieval staffs or crosiers are frequently pictured with serpent heads and multitudes of
them have the fiery knobs on the edge. The spiral, among the ancients, was a symbol of
the roll of thunder accompanying the bolt. Both the god and the earthly representative of
the god claimed to control the bolt and ever hold it as a symbol of power. For pictures of
serpent-headed, fire-knobbed church staffs, see Les Crosses Limousines. Pagan gods and
priests ever hold the staff, and on some of the coins of the Pontifex Maximus in Rome
long before Christ, the staff is clearly the lightning bolt. The Church itself admits that the

17
pastoral staff or shepherds crook may not be the antecedent for the present staff. See
Cath. Ency., art. Crosier.)

HILLS AND SECRET CAVERNSTHE YEZIDIS

“Hills or mountains were always considered the peculiar abode of the Deity; and hence
the Masonic tradition that our ancient brethren held their lodges most frequently on the
highest of hills. The veneration for hills or secret caverns induced the construction of
temples for divine worship in such situations. The custom was imitated in the early ages
of Christianity, for our ancient churches are usually erected on hills either natural or
artificial; and beneath the foundations of those which are cathedral or collegiate, crypts
were usually constructed for private devotion and other secret purposes.”--id.p.53. (The
open demon worshipers of Mesopotamia today, the Yezidis, still venerate the high places,
and daily are required to kiss the spot where the sun first touches in the morning and last
touches in the evening, just as they also kiss the figure of a serpent to be found at the door
of their sanctuaries. See Devil Worship, Joseph).

“It is evident that the sun, either as an object of worship or of symbolization, has always
formed an important part of both the mysteries and the system of Freemasonry.”--p.87.

“That all the mysteries throughout the world were the same in substance, being derived
from one source, and celebrated in honor of the same deities, though acknowledged under
different appellations, is further evidenced from the fact that they are traced to the plains
of Shinar before the dispersion of mankind.p.233. (Babylon is the mother of the
mysteries, and all the world has drunk of her wine.)

“Under the same influences of toleration, even those who embraced Christianity mingled
together the old and the new, Christianity and philosophy, the Apostolic teachings and
the traditions of mythology.”--id.p.252.

THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER REPRESENTS THE SUN

“The Worshipful Master in the east, to represent the rising sun, as the sun rules the day
with undeviating regularity, so ought the Master to rule with equal precision… Hence we
find that the Masters authority in the lodge is despotic as the sun in the firmament. The
old regulations of Masonry provide that the Rulers and Governors, supreme and
subordinate, of the ancient lodge are to be obeyed in their respective stations by all the
brethren with all humility, reverence, love and alacrity.”--id.pp.287,288.

“The system of Masonry, as in its original inception, still claims to be a system of

religion in which all men can unite…” (It is catholic or universal, embracing all
religions).

“The Temple of Solomon is one of the most prominent symbols of Masonry… This fact,
however, furnishes no proof whatever of the existence of the institution in the days of
King Solomon, and should not be allowed to mislead the Masonic student in his search
for Truth.”--id.p.156, in Steinbrenners supplement to Piersons volume.

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A PRETENDED ANIMOSITY BETWEEN CATHOLICISM AND MASONRY

“The following old book is a very extraordinary one; as the design and tendency of it will
puzzle most persons who are acquainted with the nature of the antagonistic relations
which are supposed to exist between the Church of Rome and the Rosicrucians (italics
mine). The book is exceedingly scarce and valuable: Rosa Jesuitica, order Jusuitische
Rottaesellen, das ist, Eine Frag ob die Zween Orden, der ganandten Ritter von der
Neerscharen Jesu, und der RosenCreuzer ein einiger Ordensen: per J.P.D. as S.
Jesuitarum Protectorum. Prague, 1620. The Rosicrucians, Jennings, chap. 20. (Other
Masonic and Rosicrucian authors speak of the pretended animosity between their twin
organizations and the Church of Rome. Though this animosity is at times unquestionably
real, the fact remains that the doctrines, symbols, and rituals of Masonry- Rosicrucianism
and Catholicism are essentially the same. (Recently the compiler of the paper fell into
conversation with a 32nd degree Mason regarding the antiquity of the Masonic system.
We discussed the unity between Masonry and the mysteries of the early American
Indians, those of Hindu temples today, those of Greece, Rome, Persia, and Babylon. They
are all one universal system, declared the Mason. And Ill tell you one thing more, he
added. We get along well with the high officials of the Church. Most people think that
Catholics and Masons are like this (crossing his fingers at right angles). This is not true.
We started out like this (placing the base of his two fingers together, with the tips slightly
apart), we are going along like this (making the two fingers parallel), and we are going
back like this (placing the tips of the fingers together). It appears that few Masons know
that in joining this secret society, they are being indoctrinated into all the mysteries of the
Church, they are being led on a parallel course with the very organization which they
oppose.)

THE ORDER OF TEMPLARS

“…And we cannot but claim that even if a direct descent from the Templar Order after its
suppression by the pope… cannot be proved by historic documents, still there is reason to
admit the existence of a continual connection, a practical succession, making the modern
Templary… the representative of the chivalric Order; perpetuating its doctrinal teaching
of the Catholic faith, preserving and appropriating the general features of its ceremonies,
its oblations, its usages… In other words, Templary in our day and generation is a revival
of the old Order… It seeks to reproduce… the holy teachings of the historic days of the
Templars pristine practice… The true Templar will recognize his duty to contend
earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Striving to reproduce, represent, and
perpetuate in an avowed Christian society or organization, the principles, the usages, the
ceremonies of the great religious and knightly organization of medieval days, we exhibit
true Templarism.”--History of Freemasonry and Concordat Orders, Stillson.

“It is in India that we find some of the clearest indications of the meaning of our symbols.
There the ancient gods still hold sway, and the ancient wisdom has been handed down
from generation to generation by the priestly caste, from times contemporary with ancient
Egypt.”--id.p.10.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SERPENT AND THE SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON

“The serpent is the symbol of Wisdom and Perseverance. It also points out that the
multitude is not to be admitted into the revelation of the higher truths, ‘which often lead
weak minds to insanity and death.’ The seven-knotted wand represents the seven degrees
of the Order and also the various sacred and mysterious sevens, such as the seven
celestial cities, seven inferior worlds, etc., but above all, to the initiated it is intended to
remind them of the seven emanations of the Eternal Unity.”--id.p.80. (The use of a sacred
seven is widespread in the mysteries. The Babylonians represented the seven planets as
seven evil emanations of the sun-god and pictured them as a giant serpent or dragon of
the sky whose seven heads are yoked on his seven necks. This seven-headed dragon is
found in the Orient today connected with the worship of China and India. Buddha is
shown seated on a seven-headed serpent in the San Francisco Museum, and the Yezidis of
Mesopotamia worship the seven planets as seven Satans and declare that one of them,
Lucifer, rules the world today. Throughout the mysteries, the soul is made to pass
through the seven heavens, the seven abodes of these seven planets which ever, it is
claimed, by their evil influence in the zodiac, bring misfortune, misery, and death to man.
Herodotus tells us that Babylonian temples had seven ascending chambers, each
dedicated to one of the seven planets, and among the American Indians we find a temple-
pyramid dedicated “to the seven-snake.” The seven hills of Rome originally were named
after the seven planets and each had at its summit a temple dedicated to its god.
Mithraism had its seven degrees of initiation or orders, the Church has her seven priestly
orders, and Masons apparently have the same. The seven-stepped ladder of the mysteries,
Masons tell us, represent the souls passage through the seven hells of the seven planets.
Certainly the Revelator had a good reason for connecting the seven headed dragon with
Lucifer and for declaring that all the world worships this beast. The principle of demon
worship, that of placating the Evil One by sacrifice and offering is ever with us.)

Masons have “Monitorial instructions in the HOLY ORDER OF HIGH PRIESTHOOD

IN ROYAL ARCH MASONRY.”-- title page of Guide to the Royal Arch Chapter,
Gould, (Many are of the opinion that Masonry and Rosicrucianism are fraternal, not
religious, orders. This opinion is far from being in accord with the facts.)

“When the Middle Ages became dark, and through the all prevailing religious and
superstitious practices of the hierarchy of Rome, learning was driven from the homes of
the people and strictly confined to the clergy… the monks and priests were the only
persons who possessed a knowledge of the history of man. To them we are largely, if not
wholly, indebted for our knowledge of the Mysteries of the various ancient nations; and
when we compare the philosophy of the ‘religious idea’ as it existed during the middle
centuries, and the forms and ceremonies of the Roman rituals, we are convinced that they
were almost entirely derived from the practices of Oriental religious observances… A
recent clergyman of the Church of England says, ‘Christianity is, in fact, the reintegration
of all scattered religious convictions, and this accounts for the adoption by the Church of
so many usages belonging primarily to Paganism…’”-- Stillson, op. cit p. 103.

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THE REAL MEANINGS ARE CONCEALED

“To pretend to explain their symbols, and make the explanations themselves enigmatic,
has been the common custom of all lovers of mystical philosophy and all teachers of
divine truths. The outer explanation, for the profane and unwise Initiates; the inner, for
the Adepts--has always been their law. The written and published interpretations by the
Alchemists, of the terms, names, and phrases used by them, were intended to conceal the
real meaning from all but the, Adepts…”--Lecture on Masonic Symbolism, Pike. (Here is
the explanation of why many in the secret societies do not understand their true nature--
many of the initiates are never taken into the inner circle and given the true meaning of
the symbols, rites, and doctrines.)

THE PENTAGRAM

“The holy and mysterious pentagram, called in the Gnostic schools the Blazing Star
(L’Etoile flamboyante), is the sign of intellectual Omnipotence and Autocrasy. It is the
star of the Magi; it is the sign of the Word made flesh, and according to the direction of
its rays, this absolute symbol represents Good or Evil, Order or Disorder, the blessed
Lamb of Ormuzed (Ahuro-Mazdao), and Saint John, or the accursed Goat of Mendes. It
is initiation or profanation; it is Lucifer or Vesper, the morning or the evening star. It is
Mary or Lilith, victory or death, light (day) or darkness (night). When the Pentagram
elevates two of its points, it represents Satan, or the goat of the Mysteries; and when it
elevates one of its points only, it represents the Saviour, goodness, virtue.”--Stillson, op.
cit., p.101.

THE KEYS OF SOLOMON

“The absolute cabalistic alphabet, which connected the first ideas with allegories,
allegories with letters, and letters with numbers, was what was then called the Keys of
Solomon.”--id.p.101. (The keys are carried as a symbol of one who has mastered the
mysteries in secret societies throughout the world. There may be far more to the keys
carried by the Pope than appears on the surface. Williams, in his Catholic Church in
Action (R.C., approved), tells us that all the symbols and accessories used by the Pope
have a meaning, and that this meaning comes from paganism or Judaism. If this, then, is
the source of the papal keys, they have nothing to do with Christian symbolism.)

THE RIGHT TRIANGLE

Speaking of a right triangle (much used in the mysteries): “…The perpendicular

represents the masculine nature, the base the feminine, and the hypotenuse the offspring
of both. Accordingly the first will apply to Osiris, or prime cause; the second to Isis, the
receptive power; and the last to Orus, or effect of the other two.”--id.p.49. (Stillson) (it is
simply amazing how many Masonic symbols, by their own admission, have a phallic
significance.)

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THE MYSTERIES WERE DERIVED FROM ONE ORIGINAL SYSTEM

“The Ancient Mysteries… It is, however, very certain that while there are various changes
to be found in the Mysteries of the different nations of the Orient, it is also as certain that
there was a great similarity in them all; so much so that we may conclude that either they
were all independent copies from a great original system, or that they were propagated
one from another, until they were spread over the whole of Asia, Europe, and that part of
Africa peopled from Asia and in constant intercourse therewith.”-- id.p.56.

THE MYSTERIES REPRESENTED

THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF NIMROD

“The Mysteries, in all their forms were funereal. They celebrated the mystical death and
revivification of some individual, by the use of emblems, symbols, and allegorical
representations.”--id.p.73. (They all teach Thou shalt not surely die. (They undoubtedly
symbolized the death and resurrection of Nimrod. See The Two Babylons BY HISLOP.

“The progress of the candidate through the seven stages of initiation was in a circle,
referring to the course of the planets round the sun; or more probably, to apparent motion
of the sun himself, which is accomplished by a movement from east to west by the south;
in which course every candidate in Masonry should be conducted.”-- id.p.91.

THE THRONE OF THEIR GOD WAS IN THE SUN AND IN FIRE

“In Mithraism or the Persian mysteries “The throne of the Deity was believed to be in the
sun; but was equally supposed to be in the fire.”--id.p.92. (Medieval church and mystery
writers frequently place the tetragrammaton or name of God in the sun.)

THE JEWS IN BABYLON IMBIBED THE CHALDEAN MYSTERIES

“It has been thought by some writers that during the captivity in Babylonia the Jews
imbibed the notions of the Orient on all religious and mysterious subjects; and also that
they became strongly tinctured in their philosophical speculations, with the then
prevailing Magism of the Zoroastrians.”--id.p.93. (Of one thing there is agreement, it
seems, by all historians of these mysteries: the Jews who remained in Babylon became
the chief propagators of the mysteries and the combining of the worship of God with the
worship of Satan.)

THE SECRETS WERE HIDDEN IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

“All the secrets of Masonry are concealed in the Hebrew or Chaldee language.--
Rosicrucians, Jennings, p.90. (Another writer declares that the same race which
attempted to destroy the mysteries was the one which did its utmost to preserve them--a
case of Babylonian Jews attempting to preserve what Christ and His apostles were
attempting to destroy.)

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“We believe, by all that we can learn from various ancient writers, that magical rites,
incantations, and deceptive practices were introduced earlier than the days of Zoroaster,
and that they spread far and wide from the main centre in Chaldea…”--id.p.99.

Among the cabalists, “the name of the Devil as Evil is composed of the letters upside
down of the very name of the Deity, or the Good.”--id.p.99.

666 IS THE SUMMARY OF ALL ANCIENT MAGIC

“The author of the Apocalypse that--of the Christian Kabala has made up the number of
the Beast, that is to say of Idolatry, by adding a 6 to the double senary (66--666)… It is
therefore the summary of all the magic of the ancient world; the entire programme of the
human genius, which the divine genius of the Gospel wished to absorb or supplant.”--
id.p.101. (In calling John the Revelator that___ the author seems to feel, along with a
number of other writers on the mysteries, that John was an initiate of the mysteries who
betrayed their secrets here, in giving the number 666. Though we of course cannot accept
the latter charge, that a worshiper of Christ should join a society that worships Satan, or
that Christ himself, from whom John got his information, was a member of an
organization which did what He refused to do when the devil sought His worship, yet it is
interesting to note that in the mysteries, this number, which has had a widespread pagan
use since the time of Babylon as a sacred number, should be recognized by Masonic
writers as a number summarizing pagan idolatry and demon worship. Its application to
the man who is at the head of a system of religion which has gathered up all the threads
of ancient mans religion, none being lost, can be substantiated, we believe, on grounds
even stronger than in one of his titles.)

ORIENTAL ORIGIN OF PAPAL CEREMONIES

M. Gilliot says: “The use of the temple, of churches dedicated to saints and adorned with
branches of trees on certain occasions; incense, lamps, tapers, votive offerings made upon
convalescence, holy water, asylum festivals, and ember seasons; calendars, processions,
the benediction of land, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the marriage ring, turning to
the East, devotion to images, even, may be, the strains of the church, the ‘Kyrie Eleison,’
all of these customs and many others are of Oriental origin, sanctified by the adoption of
the Church. (Gilliot, L’Orient, L’Occident, etc.) This is essentially the fetishism of the
heathen world transferred to the Church.”--id. p.104. (One thing sure, either Newman
copied Gilliot, or the reverse, in this quotation. Gilliot, we note, gives the Orient and not
just paganism in general, as the source of the Church’s rites and symbols, a fact which
brings their origin a little closer to Babylon, their original home.)

MASONIC DEGREES ARE TAKEN FROM THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

“When we critically examine the rituals of all the degrees, from the Entered Apprentice
to the Master in Blue Masonry, and all the succeeding degrees from whatever rite they
may have been derived, we discover in the forms, the language, and the secret words,
everything has been taken from the Hebrew. Every word is cabalistic… The cabalists
were the inventors of the rituals of the original degrees…”--id.pp.104,105.

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THE MASONIC GOD ABRAXAS IS SATAN

Speaking of Abraxas, the god of the Gnostics and one of the god-names much used by
Masons: “Abraxas… On his head is the immortal lotus; there are four wings, and with
each wing is an arm… It is supposed that this is the Angel of Punishment, the agent of
retributive punishment, whose office it is to distribute battle and murder and sudden death
among the sons of men. In fine, it may possibly be the representation of SATAN.”--id.p.1
17. (This is one of the most direct references to the fact that the god of Light, worshiped
in the mysteries, the luci-fer or light bearer, is none other than the god of this world,
Lucifer himself.)

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR A MASONIC ORDER

When the immense wealth of the Knights Templars was confiscated and the Order
suppressed, “some fled into Spain and Portugal and united with a new Order they assisted
to create, on the same principles as their old one… called the Order of Christ… Others
entered into religious houses… When the Knights were ordered to be sent to religious
houses to perform penance and prayer for their alleged crimes, they conducted
themselves with such propriety that they were all released, but some of them preferred to
remain and live in the monasteries. Many (retained) the symbolic religious training of
their old Order assisting to preserve and perpetuate the precepts and principles of the
Order to the present time.

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS A SECRET SOCIETY

“It is well to bear in mind the ancient Templars were priests, and that to strike or injure a
Knight of St. John of Jerusalem was sacrilege. Many conflicting opinions and surmises
have been advanced as to how, why, and when the Templar system was introduced into
Freemasonry… The ancient Templars, like the Jesuits, never communicated their
proceedings to strangers. Some of them, in their secret conclaves, were even concealed
from the greater part of their own members… It is difficult to understand how
Freemasonry and the Order of the Temple could ever have become amalgamated.

“Templar Freemason. Toward the end of the seventeenth and commencement of the
eighteenth century numerous works were written by the learned to make manifest the
practices of occult philosophy, and it is claimed, that, from the dispersed members of the
combined Orders of St. John and the Templars, in Scotland, the secret ceremonies,
principles and customs of those Orders were attained and privately promulgated. This led
to the revival, in the last century, of the obsolete chivalric orders, but under the mistaken
supposition that they were of Masonic origin.”-- id.pp.765769.

THE “G” IN THE CENTRE OF BLAZING STAR

“The G which Freemasons place in the centre of the blazing star signifies Gnosis and
Generation, the two sacred words of the ancient Kabala. It also means the Grand
Architect, for the Pentagram, on whatever side we view it, represents an A. All the

24
Mysteries of Magic, all the symbols of the Gnosis, all the figures of Occultism, all the
cabalistic keys of prophecy, are summed up in the sign of the Pentagram, which
Paracelsus pronounces the greatest and most potent of all signs. Those who heed not the
sign of the Cross tremble at the sight, of the Star of the Microcosm.”--id.p.102. (see fig.
2,4.)

THE PENTAGRAM = GOOD AND EVIL AND IS ALSO A PHALLIC SYMBOL

The pentagram is very frequently embellished with an Alpha and Omega in Masonic art.
“The A and the O were the good and the evil Principle of the Median Magi of Zoroaster,
and Manes, the Light, and the Shadow or Darkness. Also they represented the Male
Energy and Female Productive Capacity; whence, in the Kabalah, the Sephira Benignity
is represented as Male, and the Sephira Severity as Female.”—Egypt, the Cradle of
Ancient Masonry, deClifford, p.621. (Phallicism and Good-Evil are thus combined in this
one sign.) (See Fig.7.)

ROSICRUCIANISM IS ALSO FROM SUN WORSHIP

In the Rosicrucian Manual, by H. Spencer Lewis, Imperator of the Rosicrucian Order of

North and South America with headquarters at San Jose, California, 1941, we find a
statement that the organization is not a religious order. The falsity of this statement is
proved by the following facts from the same book:

Publications of the Society: “The Mystical Life of Jesus The secret Doctrines of Jesus,
Unto Thee I grant (Secret Teachings of Tibet), Mystics at Prayer, Mansions of the Soul,
The Technique of the Master, The Word Went Forth”--p.VI.

“Therefore AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis)… is a part of the
international Rosicrucian Order… the only Rosicrucian movement in North America
having membership and representation in the ‘International Council, Antiques Arcanus
Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis’ with its international siege social and secretariat
general in Europe and its sacred Sanctums and monasteries in India and other lands in the
Orient, with the Holy Assembly of Masters in Tibet.” p.7. (Strange words to use in
describing the nature of a society which is strictly nonreligious, according to a statement
on this same page!)

On page 12 we find among the titles of H. Spencer Lewis: “Ordained Priest of the
Ashrama in India; Honorary Councillor of the ‘Corda Fratres,’ Italy; Sri Sbohita, Great
White Lodge, Tibet.”

On p.14 is a picture of “Master Kut-Hu-Mi, the Illustrious, D…G… M… of Tibet,

Beloved Hierophant of the RC.”

On p.15 is a picture of “A Modern Alchemist in His Laboratory… Past President of

French Alchemical Society and High Officer of La Rose-Croix of France, who
demonstrated the Rosicrucian Doctrines and produced gold by transmutation.”
(Alchemists are an astrological religious group with spiritualistic leanings.)

25
In the AMORC Constitution, art. XIV we find two feast days listed, celebrated with
“sacred music,” the first to occur “when the sign of ‘Aries’ rises on the horizon on that
day in March when the Sun just enters the sign of ‘Aries.’” The second is to come “on or
about the 23rd of September… when the Sun enters the sign of Libra.” (These holy days,
we note, like those of Catholicism have astrological connections.)

THE SECRET ROOM IN THE MASONIC TEMPLE

On page 29: “The Chamber of a Temple. This is a Secret Room It is the Chamber of the
Cross, the Abiding Place of Life and Death, the Tomb of Silence, the Place of Terror… It
should be reverenced and kept undefiled by the uninitiated. Nothing should ever occur in
it to profane it… The Threshold should never be crossed without due reverence being
shown by the trespasser, standing upon the Threshold and making the Sign of the Cross,
while facing the interior of the Lodge. It represents the Passage from Darkness to Light,
and from finite life to infinite life… The Temple… The term Temple is applied to our
buildings, devoted to the worship of God and Gods laws… Our Temples are sacred…
The Temple of God is universal, non-sectarian, charged with Cosmic powers and
vibrating forces, and designed by the Master Architect to continue His creative work…”

THE LODGE IN THE MASONIC TEMPLE

p.30. “The Lodge. Within our sacred Temples there are many Chambers, the principal
one being the Lodge… It is the Soul of the Temple…the Holy Sanctum, the abiding place
of the Presence of God. The East is the most important point of direction in the Lodge to
all Rosicrucians… The diurnal rising of the Sun… after a period of transition from
ebbing life at the West, to its dismal darkness of the North, likewise teaches man that life
is continuous and immortal, rising again and again in the East, the South, and the West…
For this reason, the East is always respected and saluted, as the ‘place of Divine
Illumination and Resurrection.’”

THE ALTAR OF THE GRAND MASTER

p.31. “The Altar. In the East of the Lodge is situated the Altar of the Master, who
represents the Greater Light Sacred and Holy shall the Altar be… The Shekinah. In the
center of the Lodge, where the four points of the horizon would meet, is the Heart and
Soul of the Temple. This point is occupied by the Sacred Triangle… representing “the
Presence of God in our Midst’”-- p.32: “The Shekinah receives its power through the
Sacred, Mystical, Vibrations generated in the East of the Lodge.”
THE SANCTUM AND THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

p.32. “The Sanctum… is located between the Shekinah and the Altar. The Holy Place
occupies all the space between the Eastern edge of the Shekinah and the Western line of
the Altar… When the Sanctum is entered for any legitimate purpose, he who enters it
must… immediately face the East… and make the Sign of the Cross.’ In leaving the
Sanctum, he who entered it must not only leave by the same point of entrance, but the
exit must be made by stepping backward, and always facing the East.”--p.33.

26
THE WORSHIPFUL GRAND MASTER

p.33. “The Grand Master shall be addressed as: The Most Worshipful Grand Master…
The Matre. The Mother of each Lodge holds therein a position akin to that of the Master.
Her station is in the West, where the Sun retires in glory, and life closes its material
activities and finds sweet repose… Never may we be too proud to kneel before the warm
heart and kind smile of our Matre, and find in her sweet repose and Peace Profound at
any time.”

THE VESTAL ALTAR

p.34. “The vestal fire… In the days of old, every Lodge was furnished with a Vestal Altar
-- on which a Holy Fire burned continuously day and night… In our Lodges of today
incense is burned to represent the ancient Vestal Fire.

THE VESTAL VIRGIN

p.34. “The Vestal Colombe. The Vestal of each Lodge is the ritualistic ‘Colombe.’ Aside
from her ritualistic work, she should see that the blue light or incense fire are lighted for
each convocation.”--p.35. “Colombes must be less than 18 years of age when appointed
to office, and not younger than 13 years of age. Each must serve until 21 years of age,
during which time she must retain her virtue (remaining unmarried)… Colombes are, in
fact, ‘Brides of the Order’ during their term of office.”

THE MACROCOSM--THE UNIVERSAL GOD

On p.136 is “The Hermetic Rose Cross,” a picture of a very elaborate and involved cross
containing the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the 12 signs of the zodiac, the symbols
of the 7 planets and other astrological and alchemistic symbols, and the usual 6-pointed
“Seal of Solomon,” consisting of two triangles, one superimposed on the other. At the
tips of each of the seal’s rays is a symbol of one of the 7 planets, with that of the sun
being in the center. This seal, the text informs us, is a symbol of the macrocosm the latter
a term used by cabalists and other mystics to refer to the god of the universe or the
universal god. We should point out here that Babylonians and many of the peoples which
followed them worshiped the 7 planets as “the giant serpent of the sky whose 7 heads are
yoked on his seven necks”--in other words as a 7-headed dragon. John the Revelator
correctly identifies this dragon as a symbol of Lucifer. Can anything be clearer than the
fact that the secret societies--Masons, Rosicrucians, Alchemists, cabalists, Gnostics, and
the rest--who worship this “Macrocosm” are giving their allegiance to the Evil One and
not to God?

Inside the rose-cross just described is a small rose cross which the text declares is a
symbol of the microcosm or man, “made in the image,” we are everywhere told in the
literature of the secret societies, of the macrocosm. Small wonder that the Scriptures
declare “Ye are of your father, the devil,” for in the symbol of the microcosm, man
claims to be made in the image, not of the Creator, but of the dragon!

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THE LETTERS--I.N.R.I.

Four pentagrams also appear on the cross, and on the tips of the rays of the sun shining
from behind the cross are the letters INRI which the text interprets as the initial letters of
a Latin motto meaning “Nature is completely renewed by fire.” The letters upon the
smaller rays, the text goes on, “represent evocative names of Latin, Egyptian, and Greek
origin.” The concluding sentence of the description of this rose-cross declares, “The
Complete symbol of Encyclopedic Rose Cross symbolizes all the majesty, power, beauty,
and protection of the Rosicrucian Order.”

DEATH IS A TRANSITION—REINCARNATION

Rosicrucian’s speak of death as a “transition,” or as a transition to the Higher Initiation,”

(p.130), thus continuing the pagan teaching of the immortality of the soul, current in all
pagan religions since the time of Babylon.

LUXOR TEMPLE--EGYPT

On p.130 we read that Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, deceased leader of the Order, was a
member of 14 or more of the highest “esoteric, mystical, and philosophical societies of
the world, including the Rose-Croix Kabalistique de France. The Martinist Order… the
Rose-Croix Alchemical Society of France, the Unknown Samaritans of Europe, the
Brahmanist Brotherhood, the Egyptian Rites of Memphis and Mizraim, and others; he
was one of the few initiates to be received in a mystery temple of Luxor, Egypt, in 1929.”

Other quotations follow:

THE SACRED SOUND OF AUM

It is a mystical fact that the continued, or occasional, and proper pronunciation of certain
vowel sounds, such as ‘Oom’ or ‘Aum,’ will produce certain psychic effects.”--p.134.
(Aum is a sacred word or sound in Buddhism and Hinduism as well as in the secret
societies.) Hindus place the Aum in the circle of the serpent with his tail in his mouth.
The same mystic word is concealed, we note, in the double M Monogram of Mary used
by Roman Catholics.

“What is the ultimate goal of Rosicrucian study and preparation? When the student is
ready the Master will appear… What Master, What teacher? Surely not an earthly
Master, for such do not require the preparation and development necessary for Cosmic
illumination…Only a Cosmic Master would meet the requirements of one who is ready.”
(One of the chief aims of ancient initiation was for the devotee to cross the threshold of
Proserpine and meet his god face to face. it appears here that this is the same aim of
Rosicrucianism.)-- p.140.

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THE DEPUTY GRAND MASTER

“Where are the Great Masters and how are they contacted?... The Master K-H-M is
Deputy Grand Master of the Great White Lodge of the Great White Brotherhood. He was
at one time known on earth as Thutmose III of Egypt… He was referred to in the Zend-
Avesta as the Illuminator and was also known in Egypt as the Kroomata… from which
comes our Rosicrucian word used in our rituals and salutations: Cromaat. (It is interesting
to note that if we take the initials of the title of our Order: The Ancient and Mystical
Order Rosae Crucis, and reverse them, we have CROMAAT.)”--p.141. (Here is
spiritualism of the first rank. The Great White Lodge of the Great White Brotherhood
apparently refers to the realm of ghosts, or spirits of the dead.) But more:

REINCARNATION OF GREAT MASTERS

“The Master K-H-M (Often called ‘K-H’) passed through a number of reincarnations and
was an important character on this earth many times… At the present time he abides on
the earth plane again and is at a secret monastery and temple near Kichinaargha…”--
p.141. (It is very likely that this organization lists Christ as one of these incarnations.)

Under the heading “The Length of Time for Mastership” we learn that it may take a
whole lifetime before the student will manifest occult or mystic powers.”-- p.151. (The
student is ever led on and on, ever seeking a smutty kernel in a stack of straw. He wastes
his entire life seeking that which when found has no value!)

DEFINITIONS OF SECRET SOCIETY TERMINOLOGY

In the Rosicrucian Dictionary toward the latter end of the book we find:

“ASTROLOGY… An ancient science based upon close observation of the coincidence

of human characteristics with the date and hour of birth; time and careful analysis have
proved the coincidences to be based upon fundamental laws… All mystics should have a
knowledge of the fundamentals of this old and evolving science.”--p.160

“AVATAR… one whose soul-personality is highly advanced or spiritually developed

through numerous cycles of incarnations on this plane… One obviously cannot attain
avatarship in one incarnation.

“BLACK MAGIC… A term used, anciently, to indicate mysterious practices--or secret

methods--methods and practices which today we understand and know to have been
strictly scientific though little known.

THERE IS NO DEATH

“DEATH… The soul is immortal and cannot be destroyed… After transition, the
material part of man, the body, does not cease to live, but is in fact still vibrant with spirit
energy Hence neither body nor soul ever dies, and there is no death.”--p.164. (Thou shalt
not surely die!)

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MAN IS GOD

“GOD… To Rosicrucians there is but one God… It is the God of our hearts, a phrase
found throughout our ritual and meditation practices In ancient rituals we find this as part
of the Rosicrucian pledge; Man is God and Son of God, and there is no other God but
Man.”--p.169.

“KNOWLEDGE… The Rosicrucians ever held that one could not know of anything
except through personal experience… Nothing is accepted by him on faith and he has no
beliefs.”--pp.1723.

Under “MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM” we learn that the latter means the great
world or universe, and that the former is the “small world… as above, so below.”--p.175.
(The same idea is expressed by the zodiacal man to be found in every almanac, the
mystics teaching that each part of mans body is the image of the great macrocosm or
zodiacal god of the sky. The Jesuit Kircher in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus pictures the god
of the zodiac deified as a being with hoofs, horns, and a tail.)

“REINCARNATION… The Rosicrucian doctrine of reincarnation is unique in some

respects, yet it represents the one religious or ethical doctrine more universally held in the
world today than any other… The Soul Essence is unseparated from the universal Cosmic
or Divine Essence, only a part of which resides in each being during an earthly
incarnation… Each personality can incarnate many times, the limit being unknown.
Rosicrucians know that the Personality never retrogrades or enters the bodies of lower
animals, but it occasionally enters a body of a different sex.”--p.187.

“RELIGION… The knowledge of God and Gods way leads to a real religious devotion
on the part of Rosicrucians, and the Mystic is always a true student of essential theology,
But aside from uniting with sectarian churches in order to assist in the great work they are
doing, the Rosicrucian is broad and tolerant in his religion and finds God in everything
and every one of His creatures.”--p.187. (Compare this with AMORC is strictly
nonreligious.”--p.7.)

“SHEKINAH… In the Rosicrucian Temples it is a triangular altar, thirty-six inches high

and thirty-six inches wide on each of its three sides…The Shekinah represents the
presence of the Concentrated Power of the Holy Assembly of the Cosmic in the center of
the Temple.”-- p.188. (We have noted the sanctity of 7--the seven planets--and of 12 the
12 signs of the zodiac as found on the sacred Hermetic Rose Cross on p. 136. It is very
likely that in the dimensions of the Rosicrucian Shekinah we have the sacred 36 rooms
into which the Babylonians divided the zodiac, a division which, incidentally, has
followed down through astrology since that time. Plutarch, writing contemporaneously
with John the Revelator, makes numerous references to the sacred 36 in the mysteries.
The numbers from 1-36 added together give us 666, and this is one of paganisms sacred
numbers. St. Augustine and other Medieval Church writers make much over certain
sacred numbers which are the sum of the numbers included in other sacred numbers.)

30
“SOUL… The Soul in man is the God in man, and makes all mankind a part of God.”--
p. 188.

WHO IS THE GOD PAN?

“UNIVERSE… The word is significant to a mystic because it indicates the Cosmogony

of one cell, and if the word is worthy of being used at all it should be used to indicate that
all that exists in a universe; or within one great cell, the Macrocosm, a replica of the
smallest cell, the Microcosm… Mystically, the idea of an universe as a cell, with God
and all of His human expressions within it, gives the foundation for the general idea of
one God…”--p.191. (This of course is Pantheism. God is identified with the universe. An
examination of how this god of the Universe, or Pan, is pictured by the ancients reveals
some rather startling things. “Pan,” says Dwight in his Heathen Mythology,--p.23,
“represents the universe.” His seven pipes represent the seven planets, and the great all-
god of paganism is ever pictured with phallic characteristics, with goat features, hoofs,
horns, and a tail. Plutarch calls him Cosmos, another name for the universe deified. A
careful study of this goat-god will convince anyone that he is but a representation of the
god of this world, Lucifer himself.)

“QUES… Do the Rosicrucians have any ‘coming world master?’ Ans. No The next great
Master to come to each being will be the Master Within, and not some foreign person of
the tongue, affiliated with one school, and limiting his redemption to those who are
within a certain fold.”--p.196. (This rules out completely, Christ and His second coming.)

ALL RELIGIONS MAY JOIN

“The religious convictions of the Rosicrucian are as diversified as the races and types of
persons in the organization… There are high officers and members in the organization
who are priests, clergymen, rabbis, and directors and workers in every one of the various
religions…”--p.196. (italics mine)

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS THE MOST SACRED OATH

“The Sign of the Cross… is the most sacred and binding of any… In course of law…
when one is called upon to pledge to an oath or statement, by placing the hands upon the
Holy Bible, or by raising the hand, the Sign of the Cross should be used in preference. In
America, when taking an oath, one is privileged to use whatever form is the most sacred
to the maker of the oath; this permits the Rosicrucians to vow their allegiance to an
obligation or swear to any statement, in court or out of it, by making the Sign of the
Cross, in preference to any other form IT CALLS UPON THE MAKER TO TELL THE
TRUTH REGARDLESS OF ALL COSTS AND ALL CONSEQUENCES, mindful of
the Terror of the Threshold and warning of your Conscience.”--pp. 38,39. (This places
the sign of the cross above the Bible in sanctity)

Page 13 shows a picture of Mrs. May Banks-Stacey, First Grand Matre of the Order in
the United States, holding a cross and prayer beads in her hand. (The cross and prayer
beads have been used in pagan rituals since the time of Egypt.)

31
“It is well known that the preservation of Gnostic symbols by Freemasons was, and
remains so to this day, exceedingly sedulous.”-- Rosicrucians, Jennings, p.71 (This
author devotes a chapter to the “Connection Between the Templars and Gnosticism,” not
only in a general sense but with the Ophites or serpent worshipers in particular.)

THE ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE--THE SERPENT OR SATAN

Masons have seven officers named after the “angels” of the seven planets and
distinguished by the astrological signs of these planets. Each wears a bracelet of a
different metal, the same metals it seems which were dedicated to the seven planets in the
seven-storied Babylonian and Persian temple towers. Collectively, these seven planetary
officers are known as “The Seven Malakoth,” and are found in the Twenty-Eighth
Degree. “Among the Ophites, and indeed the Gnostics generally, the serpent was called
the Megalistor, or Great Builder of the Universe. (The standard title of “god” in Masonic
literature is “Grand Architect of the Universe,” evidently a reference to the same deity.
One of the titles of the Egyptian serpent-god Cneph is Architect of the Universe.Deane,
Worship of the Serpent, p.120)

“With the tail in the mouth, serpents were the emblems of the eternal creator or renovator
of the universe.” (see Fig.5)

“…It is admitted that Roman Catholic, if not Jesuitical, features are to be found in some
of the high degrees.”---History of Freemason, Mackey and Singleton, vol.2,p.286.

“In the Rose Croix and some other of the High Degrees we find the influence of a Roman
Catholic spirit in the original rituals… We must, I think, refuse to accept the theory
which makes a friendly connection between Freemasonry and Jesuitism though there was
a time when it was received as a part of the authentic history of Freemasonry.”
-- id.p.292.

BABYLON THE SOURCE OF MASONRY

“And, again, the Legend of the Craft vindicates its character and correctly clothes an
historical fact in symbolic language, when it portrays Babylonia, which was undoubtedly
the fountain of all Semitic science and architecture, as also the birth-place of Operative
Masonry.”--id. vol. 1, p.62 (The Bible declares, history proves, and the initiates admit
that all the world has drunk of Babylon’s wine.)

THE FIRST GRAND-MASTER WAS NIMROD

“The universal sentiment of the Masons of the present day is to confer upon Solomon,
King of Israel, the honor of being their “first Grand Master.” But the Legend of the Craft
had long before, though there was a tradition of the temple extant, bestowed, at least by
implication, that title upon Nimrod, the King of Babylonia and Assyria.”--id.p.63.

“The new religious truths among the Pagan peoples were therefore concealed from
common inspection and taught only in secret societies, admission to which was obtained

32
only through the ordeal of a painful initiation, and the doctrines were further concealed
under the veil of symbols whose true meaning the initiated only could understand.”--
id.p,170. (The new truths here mentioned refer in particular to the immortality of the
soul.)

THE SERPENT ON A CROSS

In various Masonic books we read of “The Knight of the Brazen Serpent,” the 25th grade
of the craft. “In the East is a transparency on which is painted a cross, with a serpent
round it and over the arms. (it must be remembered that Moses serpent in the wilderness,
a type of Christ when “He became sin for us,” became an object of idolatrous worship by
the Israelites. Christ was crucified as an Evil Being, not as God, as bearing our sins while
on the cross, the symbolism of the serpent which has been a type of the evil one among
all peoples since the Garden of Eden became for the moment a type of Christ. God
ordered the brazen serpent destroyed, and the Sin-Bearer is no longer on the cross. Both
the serpent and the cross from earliest times have been connected with sun worship, and
the placing of this brazen serpent in the East, the place of the sun in all the mysteries, can
be nothing less than a resurrection of the old idolatry, if indeed it ever died!)

LEADING ANGELS CONTROL THE 7 PLANETS

The true nature of this brazen serpent and its connection with the Babylonian mysteries is
evidenced by another random quotation: “Knight of the Brazen Serpent. The seven
planets of old astronomy illuminate the Court of Sinai, according to the symbolism of this
Grade, and its center is the Burning Bush. There are also twelve pillars, in
correspondence with the twelve signs of the zodiac… The planetary lights are referred to
traditional angels in the following order; (1) The archangel Saphael is the president of the
Moon (2) Raphael, whose rule extends over Mercury . (3) Hamaliel is the governor of
Venus (4) The Sun its archangel is Zerachiel (5) Auriel is in correspondence with the fire
and light of God, and it is he who is Lord of Mars. (6) Jupiter is under the influence of
Gabriel (7) Saturn is under the rule of Michael… Attributions of this kind are drawn in
more cases from the dregs and lees of cabalism and differ in every text.” (The “spirits,”
“angels,” or “gods” of the seven planets are worshiped throughout the mysteries. It will
be noticed that each of these “angels” has a name ending in el, one of the most ancient
and widespread words meaning god. This fact becomes highly significant when we find a
Medieval book on astrology in which the el is separated from each of the words by a
hyphen thus: Sapha-el, Rapha-el, etc., thus indicating that each name signifies god. We
are forced to conclude that worship of the Babylonian “giant serpent of the sky whose
seven heads are yoked on his seven necks”--the seven heads of the planetary dragon--has
continued to the present day in the mysteries just as the Yezidis of Mesopotamia still
worship these same seven planets, the dispensers of evil, as seven devils, the chief of
whom, they declare, is “Seitan” or Lucifer.

Though the nature of this reproduction precludes the inclusion of many of the medieval
works on the meaning of symbols--most of them being in Latin or some other foreign
tongue--which the writer has microfilmed, we append a few of the simpler symbols with

33
their significance as assigned by the mystics: (See the two pages for pictures at close of
this chapter.)

THE TWO PRINCIPLES REPRESENTED BY THE TWO PILLARS

1. The two pillars of Masonry are surmounted by serpents in the “Knight of the Brazen
Serpent” degree (the 25th). These pillars refer to the two principles ever to be found in
the mysteries, good and evil, light and darkness, male and female, God and Satan.

THE TRIANGLE

2. The “Seal of Solomon” is not always shown with its lower triangle in black, as here,
but is frequently so pictured. The symbolism is the same as that of the two pillars, and
Masons frankly state that the triangle pointing down refers to evil, to the realm of
darkness, to the god of the underworld. The symbol of the sun is sometimes placed in the
center of this double triangle, with the symbols of the other six planets around the tips,
thus making this seal but another presentation of the seven gods of the planets who were
invested with the government of the universe” (Chaldean Magic, Lenormant, p.26), the
same “seven gods of the vast heavens, the seven gods of the great earth, the seven gods of
the igneous spheres they are strangers to benevolence, they listen neither to prayers nor
wishes… The enemies! the enemies! they are seven.”--id.pp.1719.

THE SUN IN THE MOON AND THE MASS

3. The sun-in-the-moon. This symbol is found everywhere in Babylonian and Egyptian art
and in the mysteries which succeeded them, and is perpetuated also in the “sacrifice of
the mass” with the monstrance or sun as the Church’s writers sometimes call it, in the
center of which a round wafer, representing the suns disk, is placed “in its lunette” or
moon. (See Monstrance and Lunette in Catholic dictionaries and encyclopedias, and
Soleil--sunin larger French dictionaries.) The sun in the moon is a symbol of the union of
male and female and is based upon the astrological conception that the monthly
conjunction of the sun and moon in the houses of the zodiac was a sort of phallic
marriage ceremony affecting the maternal ovum cycle on earth. Medievalists picture this
monthly conjunction of sun and moon in a manner far too crass for publication.

THE “G” IN THE SUN

4. The G in the sun, found everywhere in Masonic temples and art, signifies, according to
their own interpretation God, Gnosis, Generation, and Geometry. It means God, they say,
to the beginner, but the revelation of “the far deeper meaning” is reserved for the later
grades.

SERPENT WITH TALL IN MOUTH AND THE NUMBER 666

5. The serpent with his tail in his mouth is worldwide in the secret societies and
symbolizes the circuit of the sun god throughout the universe, the universe itself,

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unending time, immortality, the zodiac and all its gods, regeneration, and the union of
male and female (signified by the tail in the mouth). This symbol was widely used by
Gnostics who connected it with Abraxas, the sun god of the year, and with the number
666 as the summary number embracing the whole of paganism and its gods. The symbol
here given, taken from Montfaucon’s Antiguity Explained, is Gnostic and contains the
Greek letter-numbers 600, 60, and 6, almost exactly in the same form as some Greek texts
of the number in Revelation. The Gnostics also frequently place in this encircling serpent
the letters SSS--S being the older form of the stigma, or 6. The lines through the centers
of the letters is significant, lines anciently being used frequently, though not always, in
conjunction with letters to indicate that they were to be read as numbers, not as words.
The Z(zeta) in the mysteries stands for both the serpent and the 6 and Masonic books so
state. The mystery of why the stigma was dropped from the alphabet and why the 7th
letter, the zeta, stands for both 6 and 7 is beyond the scope of this paper. (The Revelator
declares that this number is the number of “the beast” as well as of “a man.” We do not
reject for one instant the validity of finding the number in a title, but suggest that the
number in its astrological and pagan use may not only be highly significant, but may also
greatly strengthen the older interpretation.

THE GREAT SEAL

6. The “Great Seal of the American Supreme Council, AMORC Rosicrucian, from p.49
of the Rosicrucian Manual. It consists of a cross and triangle within a circle. The 12 rays
of the circle symbolize the 12 signs of the zodiac, and the 7 exterior circular orbits
symbolize the 7 planets. The triangle pointing down is everywhere in the mysteries a
symbol of the god or gods of the underworld.

TRIANGLES AND ALPHA AND OMEGA

7. The sacred pentagram of the mysteries. This symbol is the one which, like the
tessellated pavement of the Masonic Lodge with its alternating black and white squares,
Masons tell us stands for good or evil, male or female, God or Satan, depending upon
whether having one ray or two rays pointing upward. From “Egypt, the Cradle of Ancient
Mason,” p.621, we learn that the Alpha and the Omega on this pentagram represents
Good and Evil, Light and the Darkness, Male Energy and Female Productive Capacity.
(Here again we see the ever-present tendency to take the beautiful symbolism of the
Scriptures and change it into vulgar and profane paganism, just as the 7 branched
candlestick, symbol of perfection and creation, is used in the secret societies as a symbol
of the 7 planets.)

THE ALL-SEEING EYE

8. The All-seeing Eye is found everywhere in the mysteries, beginning with Babylon, and
is one of the oldest symbols of the sun god who looks upon the upper world during the
day and upon the lower world or Hades during the night. It is widely used in Masonic
temples and in Masonic art, and sometimes covers the front wall in Catholic churches,
being found frequently also in Catholic art. In the mysteries the eye is at times clearly a

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phallic emblem, a symbol perfectly in keeping with worldwide sun-serpent-phallic
worship.

CONCLUSION: In general the same symbols, rituals, and doctrines are found in ancient
pagan mysteries, in their medieval copies, in modern secret societies, and in the
“Universal Church” (Catholicism) which embraces them all. All of them focus on the
immortality of the soul, the future state, and the placation of an angry deity or deities ever
seeking to destroy mankind, and all are colored, in their origins, by astrology, the
Babylonian system of worship and appeasement. The serpent, worshiped in Babylon as
the “incarnation of wickedness and guile” (Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, Religion of the
Ancient Babylonians, p.283.) ever crawls through these mysteries and through Medieval
church art. A Chaldean text declares, “I will give the dead power over the living”
(Lenormant, Chaldaean Magic, p.37), a doctrine of all the secret societies which has been
perpetuated by the Church’s saints who are believed to control the fate and misfortune of
mankind--saints who guide the mariner on his way, help the merchant in his transactions,
assist the mother in bringing forth her children, and alleviate the sufferings of the sinner
in purgatory. The secret societies, the pagan mysteries, gods and teachings, and the
Church which has gathered up all the threads of ancient mans religion, “none being lost,”
all bear the unmistakable stamp “Made in Babylon.” All are included in the message of
the Revelator, chapters 1418, to “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins.”

May the reader of this paper have wisdom to use its information to win those who have
become entangled in demon worship neither hardening by accusations nor arousing
animosity unduly among those who have no desire to return to the worship of God; may
he tread on the serpents tail only when absolutely necessary but also fearlessly, knowing
that the Master has given His servants power over the serpent; and may he be able to
place a broad line of demarcation between the worship of the Creator and the worship of
the god of this world who revolted because he could not be the creator, so that there will
be no confusion in anyone’s mind as to the true nature of secret societies, whether found
in Paganism, Protestantism, or Catholicism.

Murl Vance

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