If, contrary to all expectations, the Candidate should make choice of the Regalia, he hears a thundering voice exclaim, “Monster, retire! cease to pollute this holy place! Begone, fly, before it is too late.” At these words he is led out of the temple by the Brother who introduced him.—But should he chuse the white robe, how different will be the language! “Health and salutation to thy great and noble soul! Such was the choice we expected from you. But stop; it is not permitted to you to invest yourself with that robe, until you have learned to what you are in future destined by us.” 4
The Candidate is then ordered to be seated. The Code of the Mysteries is opened, and the Brethren in silence attend to the oracles of the Hierophant.
Now, reader, you who have been through so long a course of trials, questions, rituals, and insidious degrees; who have been led through all the preparatory labyrinth of illuminized education, if still you be in the dark as to
p. 472
the object of such precautions and artifices, follow me into this den which the Sect dares to call the holy place; seat thyself by the adept, and listen to their Oracles.—This is the master-piece of the founder. Hear with patience, though your indignation should be excited by his monstrous fertility in Sophism, in impiety, in blasphemy against your gospel and your God, treachery against your Magistrates, your country, and its laws, against your titles and your rights, against those of your ancestors and your progeny—Let Kings and Subjects, the rich and poor, the merchant and the labourer, let every class of citizens attend; let them hearken, and learn at length what hellish plots are contriving against them in the dark recesses of these diabolical dens. In vain shall the lethargic soul accuse us of credulity or groundless terrors. Those lessons which the Sect view as the master-piece of their code lie before me, such as they flowed from the pen of the Legislator, such as they were published by order of the Sovereign who seized the archives of the Sect, that all nations might learn the dreadful dangers with which they were menaced. 5 I have them again embellished by the compiler of the Sect, corrected and reviewed by the Council of the Areopagites, attested by the compiler as true and conformable to the copy signed and sealed with the signet of the Sect. 6
Read then, and rock thyself to sleep in the cradle of voluntary ignorance if thou canst, content with having assured thyself that every conspiracy against the existence of civil society or of all government whatever, every conspiracy against the existence of property, can be but a chimera.
It is to the Candidate, and in presence of the Brethren already initiated to these mysteries, that the Illuminizing President addresses the following discourse:
Discourse of the Hierophant for the Degree of Priest or Epopt of the Illuminees. 7 “At length (he says) the time of your reward succeeds to the trials of an assiduous preparation. At present you know yourself, and have learned to know others; you are what you ought to be, such as we wished to see you. It will now be your duty to conduct others.—What you already know, and what you are about to learn, will expose to your view the extreme weakness of human nature. In this advantage alone lies the true source of power which one man exercises over another. The dark clouds dissipate; the sun of light rises; the gates of the sanctuary unfold; a portion of our mysteries is going to be revealed to you. Let the gates of the temple be shut against the prophane; I will only speak to the Illustrious, to the Holy, to the Elect. I speak to those who have ears to hear, who have tongues which they can command, and who have minds sufficiently enlightened to understand.
“Surrounded by the Illustrious, you are about to enter into that class which bears an essential part in the government of our sublime Order. But do you know what it is to govern, can you conceive what this right can be in a secret society? To exercise such an empire, not over the vulgar or the grandees
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
