THE DARK AGES OF RELIGION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3464, 7 April 1930, Page 2

THE DARK AGES OF RELIGION.

MYSTERIES OF INITIATION TO EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD.

No laud is more steeped in tile occult than Egypt, the “mother of magic,” whose temples of ojd brought forth those shadowy sorceries known as her “Mysteries,” which laid the foundation of all the science of the soul, and were to be transmuted into our highest philosophy of this life and the next.

The “Mysteries” have long remained merely a name for the initiations of her wise priesthood, and for the secret rites and marvels enacted in the temples. Light slowly breaks in on the dark places of Egyptian philosophy, and now, like a shaft of sunlight in the dark recesses of a labyrinth, comes Mr Lewis Spence’s new work on the traditions of the Nile, the outcome of ■lO years of study and contemplation (“The Mysteries of Egypt”). It is in part a plea for tile excellent habit of contemplation, fo«' the better cultivation of what the author names the

••very wisdom of the higher things.” In striving for the vision without which a people must perish, we may well go back to the wisdom of ancient Egypt, so sored in her 5000 years of Empire, so calm, dignified, and contented. No people were at once so pious a.nd so happy. The actual significance of the “Mysteries” practised in the. temples of Osiris and Isis was a preparation for the highgr life. In the beginning there was a less delated intention—the material well-being of the astral body rather than a desire for a closer spiritual communion with the gods. Later belief refined the barbarous notion that the ghost—Ka—of the dead needed food and liquor. The religion of Egypt was devoted to the proper manner of reaching the paradise sphere, and the “Mysteries” aimed at higher instruction in preparation for the other world. They were secret, because of the dread of drawing the wrath of the god.i if the mysteries were mu veiled to any hut the prepared and faithful. Herodotus, who was among the initiated. said that it would be impious for him to divulge what he knew. Aeschylus and Aristophanes aroused indignation by divulging the secrets or the later Greek “Mysteries.” The author recalls a modern instance, how some years ago the priests of the Jurupari cult in Brazil, scandalised by the display of relics of that deity by French missionaries, decreed the massacre of every tenth woman in the tribe—the secrets being withheld from women. That the “Mysteries” go back to the remotest past is suggested by their existence in some form among the most primitive peoples in Asia, America, Africa, and Australia, rites all deeply tinged with magic of prehistoric ori-

gin. To the Egyptian priests, tho temples were the gods’ resting-places on earth. Inexpressibly loity was the inn and communion in these shrines: no spot or stain of nmcleanness oi- evil was tolerated. There would be exhiottions which might be described as oi sex appeal, but really designed to Irec a novitiate from licentious passions »y (•ratifying the sight, and at the same Time vanquishing desire by the awl M sanctity of the rites.

The '“Mysteries” were symbolic of a (spiritual ascension towards unity with the Divine. They were concerned with Lne transmigration of souls Here, the ngvntiau doctrine differed from the Hindu or Buddhist in that , trans-mi-gration was confined to a period ol >! . 000 years, and was considered an evd to he avoided, the way of escape Wing through initiation into the “Mysteries”—perhaps by dramatic representation winch magically rendered the actual happening unnecessary. The thought processes which accompanied the ritual were far more important than all the fantastic rites. The aim and cud was a knowledge ol the Supreme Mind. There were the “Mysteries _ o Isis” and the “Mysteries of Osins, A novitiate first underwent preparation at the hands of the priests, the rite of baptism, and spent long days in ascetic mediation. Taken at' last into the sanctuary, lie would there witness the performance of what is called, the Osinau drama, enduring for 21 hours, a sort of mystery play on the life of Osiris. Finally the neophytes would be granted a vision of Osisis and Isis face to Face, thus attaining union with the gods. The “Mysteries of Osiris” crystallised ideas concerning the wanderings and lamentations of Isis (like those of Hooter and Persephone), the. finding of the body of Osiris, and the rebirth pf the god as the cornplant. They enshrined the idea of a mystical bread more blessed than all earthly bread. By magis art, the priests created an atmosphere of terror. In one version of what happened we find the trembling initiate in utter darkness broken by Hashes of light revealing monstrous phantoms and spectres. From gloomy corners of the temple came the hissing of serpents and the howling of wild beasts, made more- dreadful by reverberating echoes. Suddenly a dazzling light would flood the scene; thunder rolled, lightning flashed, statues became animated and admonished the novice, scenes of terror multiplied, the spirits of the dead approached, and, at last, the gods. Those preaching statues, doors which could not he opened without making th under-claps, mirrors which, presented images multiplied or reversed were reinforced 1 by the effects of drugs —belladonna, hemp, opium. The novice would drink of the "Well of Oblivion” lo banish past thoughts, then of the ••Well of Recollection.” so that he might remember the visions he beheld. In toxicai ion, mortifications and fasts solitude and darkness, played their parts in inflaming the imaginalon, until the moment came when, horrorstricken, the neophyte prostrated him self before the awl id presence of Die gods. We are told of an artificial survival, of the cult of Isis in certain circles in Paris and America, where it has been rc-cslablisbed by persons dimly an(juaiiuod with the aU'-mui ritual, and not inspired by the same intentions athe founders. They should read Mr Spence’s hook, and meditate on 1 1 rue meaning oi tin- •‘Mvsteries.