Rudolf von Sebottendorff - Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons: The Islamic Teachings at the Heart of Alchemy

Libelli habeant sua fata but all sorts of opposing events prevented its appearance. Now a not completely voluntary stay in Switzerland is giving me the opportunity to revise the manuscript and prepare it for the press.

And it was good that the book did not appear earlier. Souls have become more receptive. There is one discovery after another now, and each is a deathblow to the materialistic philosophy and bogus monism. Just yesterday I read that they were successful in splitting the nitrogen atom, dividing it into hydrogen and helium.

Those who have been paying attention to events in the Orient over the last few years must continually wonder in amazement: How is it possible that a people such as the Turks, who arent even a homogenous people, have been able to develop such perseverance, turn it against a world of enemies, and eventually carry it to victory? Anyone knowing how exhausted the people already were by the ongoing burdens of war, which only a Muslim can bear, when they entered the World War must also be amazed by their patience and endurance under the most difficult conditions. What is then the difference between Germany, which has almost had to succumb under the yoke of a horrendous peace, and Turkey, which rejected a similar peace and fought on to obtain different conditions?

The modern intellectual, schooled in materialism, will thanklessly strive to find the underlying reason for this because he is always focusing on externalities. He can in no way understand that it is the spiritual guidance and training alone, which every Muslim strives for from his youth forward, that have borne him through these hard times. We are experiencing the shameful spectacle of a great part of the German people throwing themselves into the arms of the Bolsheviks expecting every sort of benefit from those who have declared materialism to be God, and we see that Turkey, this small, weakened land, certainly made use of the aid the Bolsheviks afforded them, but that they were far from throwing themselves into the arms of Bolshevism. On the contrary, it finds no place among them.

We see that one people, which had been counted as one of the most intellectually advanced, decided to take just such a step backward, while another peoplepreviously scorned as being inferiorclearly recognized this step as ruinous and declined to participate, and not only rejected the step in its particulars, but in its entirety as well.

Just tether your ass and commend it to God, goes a Turkish proverb. The West has always been of the belief that Islam is stagnant as a religion. Nothing is further from the truth; Islam is more viable than the Christian religion. It has proven its viability. The following exploration clearly shows us the wellspring of the power of Islam; it is up to us to make the wellspring useful to the Christian religion as well. It was living water from this wellspring that brought everything to fruition in the early period of the Church, and which produced the most glorious flowering of the Middle Ages; only rationalism and materialism blocked this wellspring.

I will not be committing any sacrilege or profanation if I reveal this wellspring. Whoever reads through this book attentively, and resolves to do the exercises shown here, can in no way misuse the powers acquired, for only the one who is upstanding, courageous, and determined will be able to persevere to the end and profit from the exercises. By profit I do not mean, of course, external success; that only makes its entrance when a person has become good in his very core.

The exercises of the Oriental Freemasons are nothing other than work on oneself, for ennobling, and for the acquisition of higher knowledge. From the subsequent explanations it will become clear that they contain the secret of the Rosicrucians and alchemists, and demonstrate the preparation of the stone, which is what the seeker is longing for.

I said: Nothing other but that is the highest, the most unique thing that the seeker for knowledge can strive after. I will not require faith in my words from the reader, but rather I will prove my explanations. I will prove that Oriental Freemasonry authentically preserves to this day the ancient doctrines of wisdom, which modern Freemasonry has forgotten, for it must be said here at the beginning that the Freemasonic Constitution of 1717 was a detour from the right way.

Laws made from the outside cannot provide for the salvation of humanity. These laws are always being obliterated by other laws and are always having to be replaced by different lawsbut rather it is the work from the inside out alone that can bring us salvation. Those who can consciously live according to the divine laws will perceive this as a duty, not as something coerced, and will act for the highest benefit of mankind, which will actually be the highest benefit to the individual as well. The divine laws are, however, absolutely unambiguous.

The only requirement I make of readers is that they be aware of their unity within God. Without this awareness the exercises are useless. Whoever still believes in the old monism, as propagated by Bckner and Haeckel, is just requested, if true knowledge is indeed being sought, to read without prejudice an opponent of this view, such as Surya: Wahrer und Falscher Monismus.

And now go forth, you little book, the hour is auspicious. I began this introduction on the third of February 1924 at 12:30 midday at latitude 46 north and longitude 9 east. Righteously bring salvation to the multitude through true knowledge.

Islam means submission; that is, submission to the will of God. The believer can just commend himself to the will of God simply because it is the will of God. He feels secure and does not ask why this is so or why that is differenthe fulfills the divine law simply because it is the revealed law of God. He accepts his fate as being immutable and, at the most, attempts by means of prayer to implore for mercy from God when the burden becomes too great for him. But the sign of the true believer will consistently be that he does not ask for release from the burden, but rather for the strength to be able to bear it. Lead us in the way of those who do not err, the Prophet prescribes to those who pray.

This faithful condition is what is most worthy to strive after according to all religious systems. Actually the one who is faithful is also the most happy, is the one the Prophet values most highly, and represents this as the only goaland therefore this religion is called Islam.

Now, besides belief there is something else that makes it equally possible for a person to yield to his fate; it is no longer faith but knowledgeknowledge of the divine laws. The one who knows no longer fulfills this law blindly, but rather knowingly. The truly wise one is very near to the believer, but is superior to the believer.

The Prophet created a very wise institution to open the way to knowledge for everyone who truly seeks it. According to this system in the Quran he provided explicit signs that point the way to knowledge and that have to reveal the law of creation to one who gains knowledge from within ones own being. The highest form of knowledge will always lead the wise to yield to divine providence without complaintthat is, to Islam through knowledge.