Legend
The Hermetic Cross of Praise, its History and Symbolism
I have undertaken to describe some—for it would be impossible, if not presumptuous, to attempt the whole, even of the most ordinary—acceptation in which the occult jewel exhibit has been taken by the numerous Oriental, Aryan, and Occult Fraternities and Philosophies. Its attributes, ndeed, are so various—so truly symbolical—and, from its simplicity of form, so modest, that to the majority of archaeologists, and to the herd of occult students, it has remained a ealousy reserved enigma. To the herald—usually so interpretative of symbols—the device has remained a mystery, and in the few works of an heraldic nature in which it has been delineated, it has been passed over with brevity. Some authorities have regarded it as a magical sign of unknown antiquity, others have associated it with merchants’ marks of the mediaeval age of adventure and traffic; others, again, have attributed to it—as Weaver, in his Funeral Monuments, has done—special significance in relation to burial rites and ceremonies. It has occasionally been found as an operative Mark Mason’s sign on great structures, both in the Orient and the Occident; and the most recent archaeological researches, those of Dr. Henry Schliemann, at the ancient site of Troy, have proved it to be a well-known religious emblem of that ancient polity. Following at a vast distance of time the steps of Eneas, we find it upon the earliest and latest structures of Royal, Republican, and Imperial Rome; and Raoul Rochette, Pitra and De Rossi find it on the Catacombs of Christian Rome, and these term it the crux dissimulata.
But it is not alone to periods of which we have long had familiar historical cognizance that we are enabled to refer this remarkable device. It is found alike in the Old World and the New—on the monuments of Egypt, the wedge-cut bas-reliefs of Assyria, the rock caverns of India, and the Cyclopean walls of Peru, as well as in the forest cities of Pre-Columbian America—it is associated with the medieval Rosicrucians, and perpetuated by the operative Guild-Masons on the cath edrals and fortresses of Central Europe.
On the present occasion, however, we are not only concerned with the fact of its presence, but with an enquiry into its actual meaning and bearing upon science, considered in the light in which it is regarded by students of the Occult Philosophy.
That it is which I have the honor this evening to describe o you, and although I do not anticipate that I can do more han point out to you a portion of its wonderful meaning, yet I am sure you will join with me in satisfaction at the preservation, almost in its original lineal form, of one of the most important symbols known to mankind.
The very fact of its simplicity has singularly led to its conservation, and its obscurity has prevented its degradation. Its dignity from the times of Hermes has ever been preserved, and as I shall presently show you, it has been associated with naught but pregnant meanings of the most elevated order. Although hallowed by antiquity, it is associated in the minds of those who bear it as a symbol with nothing save Youth, Hope, Praise and Eternal Adoration of the Grand Architect of the Universe.
And now let me appeal to you, Fraters, on the subject of symbols in general. Let me ask you whether in much of our quaint symbolism—whether as Rosicrucians, Masons, Genealogists, Archaeologists, or as professors of this or that form of religious belief—we do not find a sad process of deterioration? Whether some of the usual symbols we esteem do pot rather savor of mere earthly and immediate or finite objects and ends? Whether, in other words, we cannot usually trace most of them back to mere mundane necessities and wants, which being satisfied, expire of themselves, and, as it were, symbolically vanish and form no part of our memories, or—what is more important—our lives? Not so with this glorious symbol of Infinite Wisdom and Love, of Faith, Hope and Charity, of true Universal and Cosmical Brotherood.
Confined to no creed, unconcerned with the mere petty disputes and shades of opinion of mankind, sanctified by its own actual existence as the most universal denominator of the Unknown and Unseen Master of All—symbol alike of His Beneficence and our Weakness, of His Generosity and our need of His encircling and permeating Love, and our utter yearning for Stability—it may be truly said that this mystic Cross points to a Heaven of Infinite Happiness, of Infinite Activity, of Infinite Use.
Although it might be necessary in a mixed audience to speak with great reserve, it is quite unnecessary here; and, hence, I may without hurting individual feelings, unhesitatingly state what would shock many of our learned clergy, that the inhabitants of Syria and the builders of Jerusalem, were not the first monotheists. It is necessary for me to state this, because it is only of comparatively late years that we have been able to read with confidence and certainty the religious books of the Egyptians, among whom the Hermetic Cross of Praise was an object of the most jealous care. To those who would assign a peculiarly sacked character to the Hebrew Scriptures, I have only to say that this other knowledge of the monotheistic character of early—not late— Egyptian belief should be a comfort and not a matter for revolt. No matter however we find what I may term later Egyptian history may be related to that of the line of Judah, it remains an absolute fact that the One God was worshipped by the inhabitants of Chami-land.
It is desirable, before returning to the Hermetic Cross, that I should establish this position, and 1 cannot do so better than by appealing to the Hermetic records themselves, with which every king of the two countries, namely, Upper and Lower Egypt, was forced to be familiar.
The majority of these sacred writings have come down to our time, and breathe a genuine spirit of devotion to the Creator and Preserver of All. To this great Being they attributed a human form and human vicissitudes—to Him they departed on the mysterious voyage whither we are all bound, and in Him they trusted for ultimate justification. To attain to an adequate knowledge of Him was the object of all their mysteries, and an almost abject purification—if anything can be abject which js performed in reference to the Most High—was enjoined upon all seekers after the One Great God.
I am not going to enlarge upon the Tauric worship of the Egyptians; to them Taurus, the Bull of the West—as taught in their astronomy—was all-important, and that constellation stood in the place of a guide; to him Hermes or Thoth, was the first minister, and from this Hermes we obtain the Hermetic Cross of Praise and Adoration. The later monotheists, with a knowledge of their own backslidings. did not dare to justify the ways of God, known to the Egyptians as Osiris—Hes-iri—and symbolized in their writings as the All- seeing Eye and the Great White Throne; but the disciples of Hermes, in their simple reliance upon his magnanimity, did so, and each Egyptian citizen on his demise became for an indefinite though a limited period a vindicator of the glory of the Great Predecessor. The very first chapter of the Book of the Dead, contains a reference to the mysterious —source of all things—the restoration of man after the deluge otherwise the giver of life to the year—the obscurity and night of which we get dim glimpses in Oriental records as well. Thus it became a fact, religioualy speaking, that the Bull should be worshipped, living or dead, by the Brahmins of India and the Chami of Egypt. May I not ask whether by these lights we do not likewise gain a glimpse into the mysteries of Mithra, and thence their importation at a comparatively modern date into Hindostan?
Although it may seem beside the question, yet it is also recorded in the Book of the Dead, that there was a question of “justifying the Meek One”—the very words used. May that not have been in the mysteries the appellation, as it is in the record I quote of Osiris, of the Sun the revivifying source? We find solar worship common among all races, and as-the Visible Symbol of the Master it is unquestionably worthy. May it not have been a feeling of gratitude for its rays which prompted the sentiment of adoration?
The adoration of millions has been accorded to the Hebrew psalmody, and its beauty no one will question; but it might be as well to place beside it one of the beautiful chapters of the Book of the Dead:—
I have come forth with justification against my enemies; |
There may arise a question in the minds of some here to-night, as to what this parade concerning the Egyptians may have to do with the Hermetic Cross of Praise.
To this I am prepared with an answer. First, I must remind my hearers that this Book of the Dead was certainly composed during the very earliest ages of Egyptian monarchy, and absolutely mentions Men-ke-ra, or Mencheres, the fourth <... continues on page 3-199 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Hermetic Cross of Praise, its History and Symbolism by Mackenzy, Kenneth R.H., Fater, Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 17, December 30, 1875, pp. 200-1
Sources
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Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 17, December 30, 1875, pp. 200-1