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GARDEN OF VENUS
A Mystery of Sex.
The Instituted Mysteries.
GATE AND SANCTUARY
Candidate and Master
Beyond the Threshold.
The Soul's Journey.
 GERMANIC MASONRY
German Grand Lodges.
French Sequence.
Modern German Grades.
Points of Doctrine and Practice..
 GOLDEN FLEECE
GRADES OF INSTALLATION
Recapitulation of Grades.
Lessons of the Grade.
brand Consecrator
Grand Eulogist.





GARDEN OF VENUS A Mystery of Sex.
The Instituted Mysteries.
GATE AND SANCTUARY
Candidate and Master
Beyond the Threshold.
The Soul's Journey.
 GARDEN OF VENUS, Pausanius tells us that in the Enclosure or Garden of Venus there was a subterranean method of descent which was natural and not to be removed, and to return by the same way was considered, in the higher philosophy, a possible and reasonable thing. It was an exceedingly narrow pathway and the ascent was very nearly impossible, but to those who could take it the way was always open. This parable is reproduced in one or another fonn by several Schools of the Mysteries, as by a Secret Order of the Garden. It is in this manner that the great intimations of Mysticism are said by its opponents to repeat themselves.
They do as a fact go over the same ground continually in the literature, but it is a ground of experience: the intimations are witnesses of experience, a concurrent testimony of many individual voices. It comes about for this reason that the positive philosophy is not merely of archeological or historical importance and that its study is something more than a curious departure in literary research.
A Mystery of Sex. _The legend to which I have alluded is perhaps the most profound and most secret which has come down to us from antiquity, and it contains within itself a plenary demonstration concerning the real knowledge of old transcendental philosophy on the subject of the Great Mystery_being the law which governs manifestation and the law that withdraws therefrom. The so-called descent or advent of the soul into matter is a mystery of generation: the ascent or liberation of the soul from the material world is another mystery of generation. He who understands the secret of the sexes has the key of all things. Physical generation.is the consequence of an act of love consummated on the material plane, and it brings souls into the manifestation of mortal life, symbolised as a Garden of Venus. Spiritual generation is the consequence of an act of love consummated in the spiritual plane, and it takes souls into the hiddenness of eternal life, as by an escape from the Garden of Venus. Wwhen it is said that the so-called ascent is very nearly impossible, though the way is always open, I suppose that this is to be understood primarily of the inhibiting insistence of sensuous life, but there is another and more profound reason. " To return by the same way,,, in the words of the parable, did not signify a permanent withdrawal from manifest existence, but the attainment in this life of a mystic state which is an experience in the eternal hiddenness and in some of its modes and degrees is well known to the expert doctors of the soul. The primary difficulty concerning it is that it postulates a great height of sanctity _that is to say, of Divine Love. But the act of love on the spiritual as on the physical plane has its fruition in an ejaculation and the ecstasy of this state on the spiritual side is such that all consciousness may be suspended thereby and nothing brought back from the experience but a conviction of perfect bliss, or the return of the soul into manifestation may be itself endangered.
The Instituted Mysteries. _When an old writer tells us that initiation is a process of going back to " that first pure and immaterial Being whom truly to know and to be able to approach with purity is the highest pitch of periection at which philosophy can arrive,,' the process indicated is that of the return upward from the Garden of Venus; but whether the Instituted Mysteries connoted by the word initiation could do more at their best than convey a shadow of the process in ceremonial pageant remains an open question. It is a great testimony to their value if they conveyed in Ritual. There are Rites and Ceremonies among us at this day, passing under the name of Masonry, which communicate in this secondary sense for those who have eyes to see. The ascent to Mansions of Bliss by the Ladder of Perfection in the GRADE OF ROSE-CROIX is an ascent from the Garden of Venus, when it is understood in the terms of the highest, as we should always understand our Rituals.
GATE AND SANCTUARY She place of initiation is a Sanctuary, and to know the me~g and purpose of initiation it is necessary that the Sanctuary should be entered. But we can enter by the Gate only. There is a rootsense in which this Gate is always the same and the Sanctuary is the same aLso. In different orders of initiation they are variously adorned and vested, for the modes of symbolism are many; yet there is invariably an outward sign that the Candidate is cry a threshold, and that beyond this threshold he shall pass into a world of knowledge from which he is debarred otherwi e. The difficulties of entrance vary also with the Rites, but those difficulties always exist; the conventions of their removal vary, but the conventions also exist. A certain preparation is requisite on the part of the Candidate which constitutes the spirit of his entrance; the details of preparation differsJ but the spirit is always the same; for by the hypothes~he enters always upon that which is Holy Ground, and in one or another way he is required to put off the common habits of earth, that he may mal~e ready for a new life. To understand adequately the meaning of this symbolical departure from the things that are behind him in his past to those that await him in the future ffi to take the first step towards knowledge of the real secret of initiation.
Candidate and Master ._Who is it therefore that enters, what are the conditions of his reception and by whom is he received ? It is speaking broadly_the natural man, man as we find him on earth, complete in his own degree, according to the lights of humanity, and also justified morally, since otherwise he would be unfit for reception. But he is incomplete from the standpoint of the modes of another order and is seeking initiation that he may superadd something to himself. The manner of his entrance is that which is proper to a Postulant praying for gifts, humbly soliciting advantages, and to illustrate this position he may permit himself to be denuded of vested dignities attaching to his place and grade in organised society. By the hypothesis, at least, those who receive him are those who can confer upon him that which he does not possess and of the want of which he is conscious. As regards himself, they stand therefore in a superior place, as something more by their office than the mere natural man; and that in which they differ from himself is that also which_ under certain conditions_they can dispense to him. In other respects he who gives may be less than he who receives.
Beyond the Threshold. _As the Gate of initiation has been from all time a part of the symbolism of the Mysteries, so the sanctuary has signified the Mystery itself and that illumination which it imparts to the Neophyte. By the use of these formula each particular fraternity is in communion with universal initiation and is a daughter of its immemorial past. The threshold is crossed by the Candidate as one who cannot walk alone, for as yet he has not eyes to see in the light of the secret knowledge. He is hoodwinked without pause he is blind within. He is thus admitted unawares into the Secret Presence of the Sanctuary and thereafter is restored to light; but it is to find himself encompassed only by signs and symbols, allegories of pageant and parables of liturgic speech. Once more they vary with the nature of the Fellowship, but some things are common to all. One recurring practice extends before him a symbolic mode of ascent_ it may be of Grade to Grade or otherwise. In some cases it is that of a spiritual mountain rooted on earth but its height ascending into heaven, and signifying not only the just man whose body is in this world while his soul is in the world to come, but also that line of transcension whereby the kingdom of earth is taken up into the kingdom of Heaven, being the place of the King in His beauty.
The Soul's Journey. Initiation in the proper understanding is a hieroglyphical abstract or itinerary of the reintegration of the soul in God, or a summary of that science which Thomas Vaughan termed both ancient and infinite. But this is a definition of the word at its highest, while those Orders and Sodalities which are met with in the open day _including Masonry under all its denominations and in all its Rites_ offer only a faded transfer of the radiant image. I am too well aware that the measure of this catholic affirmation cannot enter into the understanding of any rank and file in the brotherhoods. I speak here indeed only to a small assembly of the elect and of such as are capable of election, who know that they move through a world of shadows in the Rites to which they belong and that there is no Master-Builder who can speak over them the Word of Life. Doubtless those far vaster numbers which remain in the letter of the symbols, as in the porch of a spiritual temple, are in the outward grace of the symbols and are partaker~according to their capacity a certain denvative light, following an obscure leading. That age-long process of initiation which we understand as our daily life carries forward in this manner. Concerning the one and the other, the prayer of the Holy Sanctuary is that they may befit their partakers for the greater ends beyond.
GERMANIC MASONRY
German Grand Lodges.
French Sequence.
Modern German Grades.
Points of Doctrine and Practice..
 GERMANIC MASONRY In a short consideration of the Edectic Union I have marked out sufficiently the position of the German Fatherland so far as Freemasonry is concerned, and there is no call to enlarge upon it in this place, where our concern is chiefly with the past. There is no question that the Order entered Germany from England, while for my present purpose there can be little need to debate at any length as to the earliest foundations. Findel speaks of temporary Lodges existing about the year I730. Whatever meaning may be attached to such a description, the inference would be that they derived from an English source, owing to the intercomtnunication between the two countris brought about by the dynasty of Hanover. We hear also of a Lodge founded at Hamburg in I733 under a warrant of Lord Strathmore. The first is a matter of report and report is peculiarly worthless where Masonic history is concerned. Woodford is an authority for the second, but according to Gould there is no trace of any such foundation prior to I737 and none of any definite warrant till late in I740, when a Provincial Grand Master was appointed. Meanwhile the Lodge in question had initiated that Crown Prince of Prussia who was afterwards Fredenck the Great. To make an end of the early history, another fiction states that before I730 the Duke of Norfolk_as Grand Master in England_appointed a Provincial Grand Master for Lower Saxony before I730, a mythical person with an evidently mythical nam~Eredericas du Thom. Respecting facts and inventions alike, the Masonic colonisation of Germany is referable and referred to England, and that which went over is that which was practised here at the period. As such, it owed nothing whatever to German Steinmetzen, nor is~there any trace that Gennanic Masonry in the course of its subsequent history borrowed anything from this source. The kmd of influence to which it became open will appear in a few moments.
German Grand Lodges. _Masoliic progress in the Fatherland will be represented sufficiently for my purpose by an enwneration of the names and dates of its Grand Lodges, my authority for which shall be the excellent account of Gould in his CONCISE HISTORY.
(I) GRAND NATIONAL MOTHER LODGE OF THE THREE GLOBES in Berlin, I740, originating from the PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE at Hamburg.
(2) GRAND NATIONAL LODGE OF GERMAN FREEMASONS in Berlin, I770, founded by Zinnendorf, who had been Grand Master of the THREE GLOBES.
(3) GRAND LODGE OF PRUSSIA, other ROYAL YORK OF FRIENDSHIP, Berlin, I798, originating fFom the THREE GLOBES.
(4) GRAND LODGE OF HAMBURG, I81I, deriving from the PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE of I740.
(5) GRAND NATIONAL LODGE OF SAXONY at Dresden, I8II.
(6) GRAND LODGE OF THE SUN at Bayreuth, I8II, having a somewhat broken or indirect denvation from the ROYAL YORK OF FRIENDSHIP.
(7) GRAND MOTHER LODGE OF THE ECLECTIC UNION at Franlcforten-the-Main, I823, referable in respect of claim to the year I738 and to the PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE of tile same city in conjunction with that of Wetzlar.
(8) GRAND LODGE OF CONCORD at Darmstadt, I846.

Gould enumerates also five Independent Lodges of some histoncal importance, existing under their own obedience and all regarded as regular:
(I) MINERVA OF THE THREE PALMS, Leipsic, being the old THREE COMPASSES of I74I;
(2) BALDWIN OF THE LINDEN, Leipsic, I776, deriving from the GRAND NATIONAL LODGE of Berlin;
(3) ARCHIMEDES OF THE THREE TRACING_BOARDS, Altenburg, founded in I742 and practically independent from I786, though it joined the ECLECTIC UNION for a period of five years;
(4) ARCHIMEDES OF ETERNAL UNION, Gera, I804, denving from Altenburg;
(5) KARL OF THE WREATH OF RUE, Hildburgshausen, onginally established in I786 and independent from I8IS, or a little earlier.
French Sequence. There was an early influence of France on Germanic Masonry, and it may be illustrated sufficiently for my purpose by the names of the early Lodges, as for example LES TROIS GLOBES, LES TROIS COLOMBES, ROYALE YORK DE L,AYITS, LES TROIS ANGLES, etc. It is to France also that Prussia owed the beginnings_the seed at least and more possibly than this of the RITE OF THE STRICT OBSERVANCE. MY views as to the importance of this foundation and the singular consequence of its final development, for which it returned to France, have been expressed in several places. Upon Germany itself its marks were also left, for as the OBSERVANCE drew within its mighty arde nearly all that was memorable in personalities, so there were many who caune out of it as those who have passed through a great education, with awakened minds in the world of symbolism, and they made their contributions to the subject independently by means of other systems. Zinnendorf was an active member of the OBSERVANCE and his influence remains to this day.
There were several others whose seals at a later period were set on some of the Rites: some of them abandoned the Templar system and some varied the fonn in which it was presented. We may never know certainly_by the evidence of histoncal fact_the exact circumstances under whidl that influence on Masonry orated. There was a memorable occasion on which Baron von Hund laid his hand on his sword and appealed to his knightly honour as evidence for the truth of his story, and could we be satisfied with such testimony_other unaccredited_the Templar system emoted at Paris in or about I743. But we cannot be so satisfied, nor with the alleged Templar elements in that CHAPTER OF CLERMONT which is referable to the year I754. We seem passing towards surer ground in arriving at the year I758 and the COUNCIL OF EMPERORS, but_as seen by implication already_there is no means of knowing whether the Grade of KADOSH existed ab origin in their system, or was added later. I believe personally_and know of no counter-view_that the Templar theory arose in France, and as I have said elsewhere that von Hund received something in that country which he elaborated afterwards on his own authority, possibly with the assistance of a Roll of Templar Provinces and a succession of mythical Grand Masters. There are otherwise several French Templar Grades, independently of the German STRICT OBSERVANCE. Modern German Grades. _In the German High Grades the Templar claim has been abandoned, but the marks and characters remain, in derivations from ECOSSAIS and ST. ANDREW GRADES. It should be mentioned in this connection that at least until recent years the Masonic system of the THREE GLOBES comprised Seven Degrees, being
(I) Blue Masonry,
(2) Écossais, and
(3) Chapter Masonry, that of the GRAND NATIONAL LODGE was extended to Ten Degrees, capable of similar subdivision; that of the RoYAL YORK added SCOTTISH MASTER only to the Craft Degrees. The GRAND LODGE at Bayreuth and the MINERVA at Leipsic had also High Grades, the activities of the rest being conined` within the measures of the Craft.
Points of Doctrine and Practice.. _The following additional particulars should perhaps be added to a notice of this kind, though we have no means of knowing, nor does it indeed signify, whether they are still in force.
(I) Many months might elapse between the pro posal of a Candidate for initiation and his actual reception, because his character and suitability were subjects of dose examination.
(2) The space of five years might intervene before an ENTERED APPRENTICE attained the full stature of a MASTER MASON.
(3) Prior at least to I9I4 the true Prussian Grand Lodges were so far militantly Christian that they rejected applicants of non-Christian belief.
(4) The High Grades in particular were evidently not less expressly Christian than those that work in England, which notwithstanding it appears that when Lord Ampthill and others visited the Prussian Grand Lodges in I9I2 they were assured that nonEhnstian Brethren under the English Constitution would be admitted as visitors, if they came with proper vouchers; but obviously their reception would be within the limits of the Craft Degrees.
(5) In I905S a bond of recognition was established between the two French Grand Lodges and the Grand Obediences of Germany, after the separation which followed the FraIIcePrussian War.
GOLDEN FLEECE
MACKEY
The concern or experiment of Freemasonry being analogical in nature and essence with that of other Orders and Sodalities in the farthest past, there is some justification for affirming that in its significance our Masonic Badge is more ancient than the Golden Fleece and that our honourable institution_ though in truth under many transformations _has subsisted from time immemorial. The statement obtains in the same manner as does that of St. Augustine when he said that Christianity has been always in the world, though if has not been known always under that name. I am not concerned, however, with justifying the occasional levies made by the Craft Degrees on an antiquity which they did not share. The Quest of the Golden Fleece and Argonautic symbolism at large are part of the clerical properties taken over by alchemists, and when the time came for Hermetic and A1chemical Rites to be grafted on the Masonic Tree, the Golden Fleece and the Argonauts assumed new vestures in Ritual. It came about in this manner that a Grade called KNIGHT OF THE ARGONAUTS figured in several collections, as in the HERMETIC RITE OF MONTPELLIER, which passes as one of the creations of Abbe Pernety. I have dealt fully with the subject of alchemical Grades and Orders in Book V of my SECRET TRADITION IN FREEMASONRY, and as there is nothing of real moment that can be added thereto, I do not propose to retrace the ground in the present place. Moreover, the Grade is not available in any of its codices.
Those who will be at such pains concerning it may consult, however, Pernety s FABLES , where the mythical quests and attainments are explained as delineating the process of the Great Work of metallic transmutation. According to this scheme, Jason is the successful alchemist who converts base metal into gold; but as Pernety was not in a position to instruct his Candidate so that he could go and do likewase, he may either have supplied him with Masonic moralities arising out of Hermetic symbolism or with dark counsels drawn from the books of the Masters.
GRADES OF INSTALLATION
Recapitulation of Grades.
Lessons of the Grade.
brand Consecrator
Grand Eulogist.
 GRADES OF INSTALLATION
The Forty-third Grade of the RITE OF MEMPHIS, according to the second revision of nomenclature and anangement, was called ADEPT INSTALLATOR. It had not appeared under this title previously, nor is it found in the third and final classification of s862. When the time came for an abortive attempt to establish the system in England as an ANTIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE of thirty- three Degrees the twentyfirst was entitled GRAND INSTALLATOR. It is in the charge of a CONSISTORY, a denomination which seems to be interchangeable with that of SUBLIME COUNCIL. The form of Opening is a servile imitation of the tenns adopted in the case of HERMETIC PHILOSOPHER, SO that the work of installation goes on without break or intenuption, except when the Experts, Mystagogues and disciples are yielding to the demands of " exhausted nature.,, As regards the labours involved they are defined as " investigation of the religious dogmas of remote antiquityéé, and the Candidate is advised that in combination with two immediately succiing Ceremonies the Grade of GRAND INSTALLATOR is intended to prepare hi;m for " officiating in the Public Ceremonials of the Rite,', as well as to teach him that " our doctrine and faith ,, are of " the most remote antiquity.,, Hereof is the Icind of Installation.
Recapitulation of Grades. _With thus object in view it is proposed to red before in the various experiences through which he has passed already, from the time that he served in Masonry as an ENTERED APPRENTICE. They are s= art as
(I) Primitive Craft Traditions of the Semitic branch of humanity;
(2) Geometry, together with the natural atid mechanical sciences;
(3) the study of theosophical emblems. It is now his duty " to make a practical application of these in conducting the Installation of the Officers of subordinate bodies of the ANTIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE. I present the above statements in their literal terms without adjudicating on the adaptation of Craft Traditions, Geometry and Theosophy to the formal appointment and investiture of Grade functionaries. We are dealing with an ill-starred Rite, and the canons of sane procedure are not to be expected therein
Lessons of the Grade. _The Charge after Obligation affirms:
(I ) that symbols and emblems were the primitive language of the people of the East;
(2) that their metaphysical envelope is the basis of the religious dogma and philosophy of Masonry;
(3) that they lead the intelligent initiate to discover the essence of truth and " what is good and just in each thing ',;
(4) that Masonry is divided primarily into three Degrees, because there were three divisions in ancient Temples_meaning nave, chancel, and sanctuary;
(5) that the First Degree teaches morality and love, the Second natural science, and the Third knowledge of the dogma of life beyond the grave otherwise, elementary principles, scientific instruction, and sacred theosophy;
(6) that this Triad was symbolised of old by " the rough and perfect ashlar, and the white marble stone of true die or square,,;
(7) that the mosaic pavement signifies the doctritie of good and evil;
(8) that the two Pillars mark the solstitial points;
(9) that the Blazing Star is Sothis or Sirius;
(IO) that the seven Steps represent the seven properties of Nature_attraction, repulsion, circulation, heat, light, sound and corporeity. It is obvious that significations like these are arbitrary in the highest degree, and that most of them lead nowhere.
brand Consecrator ._By the hypothesis, however, the Candidate has earned his qualification to install Officers belonging to inferior Grades, and his next step is that of GRAND CONSECRATOR, in which capacity he will be able to consecrate Temples. To this end " a full knowledge of symbolism is of the,greatest importance, " and here is how he is instructed.
(I) The Grand aim of the RITE OF MEMPHIS S to raise a Temple to Wisdom, and there is apparently a Transparency or Tracing-Board, which represents this emblematic edifice.
(2) Benevolence is seated in the first portico, on the front of which the image of the sun is emblazoned above the Ineffable Name.
(3) The intenor of the Temple has bas reliefs, representing the history of man, as also personifications of Beauty and Nature.
(4) An Orator addresses the Candidate in the person of the Eternal, giving a general description of the earth and animated things.
(5) These are sand to be the language which God " holds to our senses.,'
(6) The Candidate is called therefore to contemplate the world which we inhabit and the starry heavens.
(7) The Universe is a book which is open to all men, and is that road which leads to the Divine Temple.
(8) He is told in fine that when death has detached him from earth he will shine as an angel of light, above the cohorts of passion.
Hereof is the consecration of this Grade, that those who are blessed thereby may bless and consecrate in turn. Hereof also is the Fourty-fourth Grade of the RITE OF MEMPHIS_according to the revision which I have mentioned end the Twenty-second of the PRIMITIVE RITE. As regards the extemalised Temple which the Candidate is supposed to contemplate, I have given only some points of its descnption. It could not be contained by a Tracing-Board, nor indeed by the largest Lodge-Room of freemasons, Hall. It is obvious, however, that the Grade never existed except on paper.
Grand Eulogist. _And now as to the third of this senes, it is called GRAND EULOGIST with characteristic ineptitude, and the Candidate who has learned ex hypothcsi how to install and consecrate is here and now taught how he should bury the dead, pronouncing suitable panegyrics over the graves of Brethren. For this purpose he hears much about the Funerary Ritual of Egypt, and is counselled to realise that " beyond the tomb commences our true activity,,' in a " kingdom of certitude ,, which is our real country. The universal respect for the dead is held to be a proof that all nations, even the most barbarous, admit the sentence of God and the immortality of the human soul. There is finally a diatnMe against atheism_a sterile rehearsal of hackneyed notions in tams of everlasting commonplace.