Hall - Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire

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Text originally published in 1956 under the same title.

Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

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MELCHIZEDEK AND THE MYSTERY OF FIRE:

A TREATISE IN THREE PARTS

BY

MANLY P. HALL

Contents

The elaborate rituals of the ancient Mysteries and the simpler ceremonials of modern religious institutions had a common purpose. Both were designed to preserve, by means of symbolic dramas and processionals, certain secret and holy processes, by the understanding of which man may more intelligently work out his salvation. The pages which follow will be devoted to an interpretation of some of these allegories according to the doctrine of the ancient seers and sages.

Every man has his own world. He dwells in the midst of his little universe as the lord and ruler of the constituent parts of himself. Sometimes he is a wise king, devoting his life to the needs of his subjects, but more often he is a tyrant, imposing many forms of injustice upon his vassals, either through ignorance of their needs or thoughtlessness concerning the ultimate disaster that he is bringing upon himself. Mans body is a living temple and he is a high priest, placed there to keep the House of the Lord in order. The temples of the ancients were patterned after the human form, as a study of the ground plan of either the sanctuary at Karnak or of St. Peters Church at Rome will prove. If the places of initiation were copies from the body of man, the rituals which were given in the various chambers and passageways symbolize certain processes taking place in the human body.

Freemasonry is an excellent example of a doctrine intimating, by means of pageants and dramas, that the regeneration of the human soul is largely a physiologic and biologic problem. For this reason the Craft is divided into two parts, speculative and operative Masonry . In the lodge room. Masonry is speculative, for the lodge is only a symbol of the human organism. Operative Masonry is a series of mystic activities taking place within the physical and spiritual organisms of those who have assumed its obligations.

The possession of the occult keys to human salvation through the knowledge of self is the goal for which the wise of all ages have labored. It was the hope of possessing these secret formulae that strengthened the candidates who struggled valiantly through the dangers and disappointments of the ancient initiations, sometimes actually giving their lives in the quest of truth. The initiations of the pagan Mysteries were not childs play. The Druid priests consummated their initiatory ritual by sending their candidates out upon the open sea in a small unseaworthy boat. Some never returned from this adventure, for if a squall happened to arise, the boat was immediately capsized.

In Central America at the time when the Mexican Indian Mysteries were in their glory, candidates seeking light were sent into gloomy caverns armed with a sword and were told that if for a second they relaxed their vigilance they would meet a horrible death. For hours the neophytes wandered, beset with strange beasts which seemed even more terrible than they actually were because of the darkness of the caverns. At last, wearied and almost discouraged, the wanderers found themselves on the threshold of a great lighted room cut from the natural rock. As they stood, not knowing which way to turn, there was a whir of wings, a demoniacal cry, and a great figure with the wings of a bat and the body of a man passed swiftly just over the candidates heads, swinging in its hands a great sword with razor-like edge. This creature was called the Bat God. Its duty was to attempt to decapitate the ones seeking entrance to the Mysteries. If the neophytes were off their guard or too exhausted to defend themselves, they died on the spot, but if they had presence of mind enough to ward off this unexpected blow or jump aside in time, the Bat God vanished and the room was immediately filled with priests who welcomed the new initiates and instructed them in the secret wisdom. The identity of the Bat God has been the basis of many arguments, for while it appears many times in Mexican art and in the illuminated codices, no one knew who or what it actually was. It could fly over the heads of the neophytes and was the size of a man, but it lived in the depth of the earth and was never seen save during the Mysteries, although it occupied an important position in the Mexican Indian Pantheon.

The Mysteries of Mithras were also tests of real courage and perseverance. In the rites the priests, disguised as wild beasts and weird composite animals, attacked the aspirants who were passing through the gloomy caverns in which the initiations were given. Bloodshed was not unusual and many lost their lives striving for the Great Arcanum. When the Emperor Commodus of Rome was initiated into the Mithraic Cultus, being a remarkable swordsman, he defended himself so valiantly that he killed at least one of the priests and wounded several others. In the Sabazian Mysteries a poisonous serpent was placed upon the breast of the candidate, who failed in his initiation if he showed any sign of fear. These incidents from the rituals of the ancients give an inkling of the trials through which seekers after truth were forced to pass in order to reach the sanctuary of wisdom. But when we estimate the wisdom which they received if successful, we realize that it was worth the dangers, for from between the pillars of the gates of Mystery came forth Plato and Aristotle and hundreds of others, bearing true witness to the fact that in their day the Word was not lost.

The tortures of initiation and the severe mental and physical tests were intended to serve as a process for eliminating those unfit to be entrusted with the secret powers which the priests understood and communicated to the new initiates at the time of their raising. Those who hung on crosses for nine hours until they became unconscious, as Apollonius of Tyana, initiated in the Great Pyramid, would never reveal the secret teachings through fear of bodily torture, and such as obeyed the order of Pythagoras that unless they remained silent, speaking to no man for five years, they could not enter his school, were not likely to reveal through thoughtless indiscretion any part of the Mystery which it was forbidden that the foolish should know. Because of the great care used in selecting and testing applicants and the remarkable ability to read human nature displayed by the priests, there never was one who betrayed the more important secrets of the temple. For that reason the Word remained lost to all save those who still complied with the requirements of the ancient Mysteries, for the law was, to such as live the life the doctrine is revealed.