
Flying Roll XIII
Secrecy and Hermetic Love
By S.S.D.D.
We have all no doubt heard of the terrible physical tests applied in
Egyptian Initiations and are aware that violence amounting to torture
was used in the Ancient Mysteries before the Neophyte was considered fit
to take the first steps in his Ascent of the Mountain of God.
Though the methods of our Order are different the Spirit is the same,
and unless we have learned indifference to physical suffering, and have
become conscious of a Strong WiU, a will which fears nothing fate can
do to us, we can never receive a real Initiation.
These ceremonies in the lower grades of Our Order are principally active
in disciplining our minds; they lead us to analyse and understand ourselves.
They deal with the Four states of Matter, the Four Elements of the Ancients
which with their synthesis answer to the five Senses. Our Senses are the
paths through which our Consciousness approaches the central power which
for want of a more accurate word I will call the Will.
It is the object of our lives as initiates to bring this Will to such
a state of perfection, strength, and wisdom, that instead of being the
plaything of fate and finding our calculations entirely upset by trivial
material circumstances, we build within ourselves a fortress of strength
to which we can retire in time of need.
The natural Man is a chaotic mass of contradictory forces. In the higher
grades of the First Order, (by presenting a perfectly balanced series
of symbols to the senses) we endeavour to impress upon the imagination
of the initiates, the forms under which they can obtain perfection and
work in harmony with the world force.
In the 0° =0° Ceremony the principles most insisted on are Secrecy
and Brotherly Love. Apart entirely from the practical necessity for secrecy
in our Order, it is the fact that Silence is in itself a tremendous aid
in the search for Occult powers. In darkness and stillness the Archetypal
forms are conceived and the forces of nature germinated. If we study the
effects of calm concentration we shall find that in silence, thoughts
which are above human consciousness clothe themselves with symbolism and
present things to our imagination, which cannot be told in words.
The more thought and concentration of purpose that precedes an action,
the more effective and effectual it will be. Again in talking on subjects
such as these, there is always a terrible danger of personal influence
or obsession coming into action. The Eagle does not learn to fly from
the domestic fowl ‘nor does the Lion use his strength like the horse',
and although knowledge is to be gained from every available source the
Opinion of others should receive the very smallest attention from the
true student of Life.
Free yourselves from your environments. Believe nothing without weighing
and considering it for yourselves; what is true for one of us, may be
utterly false for another. The God who will judge you at the day of reckoning
is the God who is within you now; the man or woman who would lead you
this way or that, will not be there then to take the responsibility off
your shoulders.
‘The old beauty is no longer beautiful; the new truth is no longer
true,' is the eternal cry of a developing and really vitalised life. Our
civilisation has passed through the First Empire of pagan sensualism;
and the Second Empire of mistaken sacrifice, of giving up our own consciousness,
our own power of judging, our own independence, our own courage. And the
Third Empire is awaiting those of us who can see—that not only in
Olympus, not only nailed to the Cross,—but in ourselves is God.
For such of us, the bridge between flesh and spirit is built; for such
among us hold the Keys of life and death.
In this connection I may mention that the 0° =0° of the Grade
of Neophyte has a deep significance as a symbol; a o means nothing to
the world—to the initiate in the form of a circle it means all,
and the aspiration of the Neophyte should be ‘In myself I am nothing,
in Thee I am all; Oh bring me to that self, which is in Thee'.
Having so far considered some of the thoughts that the practice of silence
may bring you let us proceed to the subject of brotherly love.
We must of course take the word, as we take all higher teaching, as a
symbol, and translate it for ourselves into a higher plane.—Let
me begin by saying that any love for a person as an individual is by no
means a Hermetic virtue; it simply means that the personalities are harmonious;
we are born under certain influences, and with certain attractions and
repulsions, and, just like the notes in the musical scale some of us agree,
some disagree. We cannot overcome these likes and dislikes; even if we
could, it would not be advisable to do so. If in Nature, a plant were
to persist in growing in soil unsuited to it, neither the plant nor the
soil would be benefited. The plant would dwindle, and probably die, the
soil would be impoverished to no good end.
Therefore brotherly love does not imply seeking, or remaining in the society
of those to whom we have an involuntary natural repulsion. But it does
mean this, that we should learn to look at people's actions from their
point of view, that we should sympathise with and make allowances for
their temptations. I would then define Hermetic or Brotherly Love as the
capacity of understanding another's motives and sympathising with his
weaknesses, and remember—that it is generally the unhappy who sin.
A crime, a falsehood, a meanness often springs from a vague terror of
our fellows. We distrust them and ourselves.
It is the down-trodden and the weak whom we have to fear; and it is by
offering them sympathy and doing what we can to give them courage, that
we can overcome evil.
But in practising Hermetic Love, above all things conquer that terrible
sting of love—jealousy. The jealousy of the benefactor, the jealousy
of the lover, or the friend, are alike hateful and degrading passions.
Jealousy is deeply rooted in human nature nourished by custom, even elevated
to a virtue under the pretence of fidelity.
To see human nature at its very worst you have only to listen to the
ravings and threats of a person who considers his monopoly of some other
person's affection is infringed. This kind of maniacal passion is the
outcome of the egotism á deux, which has been so fostered by romance.
But it is natural to wish to help and be necessary to those we love,
and when we find others just as necessary or helpful, to feel bitterly
that our ‘occupation' is gone; but these regrets will be impossible
to us when we can live in the world realising from day to day more fully
that the highest and best principle within us is the Divine Light which
surrounds us, and which, in a more or less manifested condition, is also
in others. The vehicle may be disagreeable to us, the personality of another
may be antipathetic, but latent light is there all the same, and it is
that which makes us all brothers. Each individual must arrive at the consciousness
of Light in his own way; and all we can do for each other is to point
out that the straight and narrow path is within each of us. No man flies
too high with his own wings; but if we try to force another to attempt
more than his strength warrants, his inevitable fall will lie at our door.
This is our duty towards our neighbours; our duty towards God, is our
duty towards ourselves; for God is identical with our highest genius and
is manifested in a strong, wise, will freed from the rule of blind instinct.
He is the Voice of Silence,
The Preparer of the Pathway,
The Rescuer unto the Light.
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