The Otigin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

The system of eloA'ating deceased mortals to the skies , and investing them with divine attributes , ivas introduced into Egypt by Hermes , the reputed inventor of our Anaglyph . Ancl it is curious to observe that the angels are called stars by God Himself , * the stars representing them not only in the glory and brig htness of their nature , as St . Paul saith , t one star differeth from another star in glory , but also in the great multitude of them—the hosts of heaven being , like the stars , innumerable .

Now , as it ivas ivoll knoAvn that Jehovah had appeared on earth in the human form , to communicate his will to Adam , Enoch , and Noah , the Hermesians feigned that he had been incarnate in those persons , AVIIO ivere hence considered in the light of transmigratory representatives of the Deity ; ancl hence the Seers , ivhich is here symbolised , not only by a circle , but by the chief figure , the compound Scarab , ivas reputed to represent Osiris or Noah , the great father of mankind , from Avhom Hermes received his

mysterious knoivledge . And Noah ivas a type of Christ , as Osiris , symbolised by our anaglyph , was an incarnation of the Deliverer expected by ihe Egyptians . The destroyer Typhon ivas also identified by the Egyptians ivith the Sun . J He represents fire as ivell as water , and ivas Avorshipped in conjunction ivith a star . And hence , probably , originated that ancient Christian belief that the souls of the damned should be alternately plunged into floods of fire and . fields of ice , ivhich is alluded to by Virgil as well as Milton . The former says :

" aliis , sub gurgite vasto , Infectum eluitur scelus , aut exuritur igni . " ' The latter : " From beds of raging fire , in ice to starve Their soft ethereal warmth . "

It is for the above reasons that ive find in the hands of Osiris and other Egyptian Seraphim the ansatic cross , or the cross and circle united . I am in doubt whether the prima facia signification of this symbol be not grossly phallic ; but Ave are quite certain that it signified life—the giver of life—life everlasting , and not unfrequently the Mediator , AAIIO is the author and bestower of eternal life . AgainIsis ivas deified in the lanet Venusivhich ivas alwa 3 's pourtrayed as attended

, p , by a star , although her residence ivas placed in the moon , Avhose various phases , imitated in the above planet , ivere considered a supernatural manifestation of the Deity ; and , as ive have already seen , she ivas usually symbolised by a crescent or lunette . Tbus Sanchoniatho tells us that Astarte , in her travels , caught a brilliant star as it descended from the heavens , and consecrated it as a deity at Tyre .

In conformity ivith the above practice , the Egyptians , in the language of the Mysteries , ivhich Tamblichus identifies with that ivhich Ai-as used by Adam in Paradise , figured Harpocrates , Orus , and Osiris , the first as a child , to designate the sun at its rising ; the second as a young man , to represent the sun at his meridian strength ; ancl the third as an old man , to represent his declination in the ivest . The people ivere soon induced to offer sacrifices to these n'orthies in their presumed character of Mediatorsbut the truththat they ivere onldead menivas preserved in

; , y , the Spurious Freemasonry . Thus Bishop Cumberland says that some ivho had been initiated into the greater mysteries , " have truly told us that this worship of such great men , as ivere the founders of arts and civil government , was the grand secret of it , which was not communicated even to those that ivere initiated into the lesser mysteries . " § To be continued .