Secret Societies and Subversive Movements | Page 6

remain exclusively in
their own keeping, although the desire for initiation might spring from
the highest aspiration, the gratification, whether real or imaginary, of
this desire often led to spiritual arrogance and abominable tyranny,
resulting in the fearful trials, the tortures physical and mental, ending
even at times in death, to which the neophyte was subjected by his
superiors.

The Mysteries
According to a theory current in occult and masonic circles, certain
ideas were common to all the more important "Mysteries," thus
forming a continuous tradition handed down through succeeding
groups of Initiates of different ages and countries. Amongst these ideas
is said to have been the conception of the unity of God. Whilst to the
multitude it was deemed advisable to preach polytheism, since only in
this manner could the plural aspects of the Divine be apprehended by
the multitude, the Initiates themselves believed in the existence of one
Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, pervading and governing
all things, Le Plongeon, whose object is to show an affinity between the

sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and
Greeks, asserts that "The idea of a sole and omnipotent Deity, who
created all things, seems to have been the universal belief in early ages,
amongst all the nations that had reached a high degree of civilization.
This was the doctrine of the Egyptian priests."[11] The same writer
goes on to say that the "doctrine of a Supreme Deity composed of three
parts distinct from each other, yet forming one, was universally
prevalent among the civilized nations of America, Asia, and the
Egyptians," and that the priests and learned men of Egypt, Chaldea,
India, or China "...kept it a profound secret and imparted it only to a
few select among those initiated in the sacred mysteries."[12] This
view has been expressed by many other writers, yet lacks historical
proof.
That monotheism existed in Egypt before the days of Moses is,
however, certain. Adolf Erman asserts that "even in early times the
educated class" believed all the deities of the Egyptian religion to be
identical and that "the priests did not shut their eyes to this doctrine, but
strove to grasp the idea of the one God, divided into different persons
by poesy and myth.... The priesthood, however, had not the courage to
take the final step, to do away with those distinctions which they
declared to be immaterial, and to adore the one God under the one
name."[13] It was left to Amenhotep IV, later known as Ikhnaton, to
proclaim this doctrine openly to the people. Professor Breasted has
described the hymns of praise to the Sun God which Ikhnaton himself
wrote on the walls of the Amarna tomb-chapels:
They show us the simplicity and beauty of the young king's faith in the
sole God. He had gained the belief that one God created not only all the
lower creatures but also all races of men, both Egyptians and foreigners.
Moreover, the king saw in his God a kindly Father, who maintained all
his creatures by his goodness.... In all the progress of men which we
have followed through thousands of years, no one had ever before
caught such a vision of the great Father of all.[14]
May not the reason why Ikhnaton was later described as a "heretic" be
that he violated the code of the priestly hierarchy by revealing this

secret doctrine to the profane? Hence, too, perhaps the necessity in
which the King found himself of suppressing the priesthood, which by
persisting in its exclusive attitude kept what he perceived to be the truth
from the minds of the people.
The earliest European centre of the Mysteries appears to have been
Greece, where the Eleusinian Mysteries existed at a very early date.
Pythagoras, who was born in Samos about 582 B.C., spent some years
in Egypt, where he was initiated into the Mysteries of Isis. After his
return to Greece, Pythagoras is said to have been initiated into the
Eleusinian Mysteries and attempted to found a secret society in Samos;
but this proving unsuccessful, he journeyed on to Crotona in Italy,
where he collected around him a great number of disciples and finally
established his sect. This was divided into two classes of Initiates--the
first admitted only into the exoteric doctrines of the master, with whom
they were not allowed to speak until after a period of five years'
probation; the second consisting of the real Initiates, to whom all the
mysteries of the esoteric doctrines of Pythagoras were unfolded. This
course of instruction, given, after the manner of the Egyptians, by
means of images and symbols, began with geometrical science, in
which Pythagoras during his stay in Egypt had become an adept, and
led up finally to abstruse speculations concerning the transmigration of