The Great Initiates : HERMES : Osiris. Death and Resurrection

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« THE GREAT INIITATES », part I

Edouard SCHURE

Kessinger Publishings Rare Reprints

ISBN 0-7661-3146-7

 

 

HERMES, chapter IV : OSIRIS. DEATH AND RESURRECTION

 

 

And yet he had reached only the threshold of truth, for now long years of study

and apprenticeship were to begin. Before rising to the celestial Isis he must

know the terrestrial Isis and become learned in physical and androgonic science.

His time was spent in meditation within his cell, the study of hieroglyphs in

the halls and courts of the immense temple, and the lessons of the masters. He

learned the science of minerals and plants, the history of mankind and of

nations, medicine, architecture, and sacred music. This long apprenticeship was

to end not only in knowing, but in becoming. He was to gain strength by

renunciation. The sages of the past believed that man cae into possession of

truth only in condition that it became a part of his inmost being, a spontaneous

act of the soul. In this profound task of assimilation, however, the pupil was

left to himself. His masters gave him no help; often did he wonder at their

coldness and indifference. Attentive supervision was kept over him, he was bound

down to observe inflexible rules, absolute obedience was exacted of him, but no

revelation was made to him beyond certain limits. The only reply he received to

his uneasy questionings was " Wait and work " .

 

Then followed sudden feelings of revolt and bitter regret, and frightful

suspicions came to him. Had he become the lave of audacious impostors or of

black magicians who, were dominating his will ? Truth had taken to flight and

the very gods were forsaking him; he was alone, a prisoner in the temple. Truth

appeared to him in the form of a sphinx, which now said to him : " I am Doubt! "

And the wined beast, with its impassive woman's head an lion's claws, carried

him off to the burning sand of the desert, there to tear and rend him.

 

These nightmares were followed by hours of divine calm and foresight, during

which he understood the symbolical meaning of the tests he had gone through on

entering the temple. For, alas! The gloomy well into which he had almost fallen

was not so black as the abyss of unfathomable truth; the fire he had passed

through was less dreadful than the passions which still consumed his flesh; and

the murky, ice-cold water into which he had had to plunge was less cold than the

doubt into which, in its evil hours, his spirit sank and was swamped.

 

In one of the halls of the temple, he saw arranged into two rows the sacred

paintings which had been explained to him as representing the twenty two arcane,

on the night of the tests. These arcana, of which he was permitted to obtain a

glimpse on the very threshold of occult science, were the columns of theology;

though to understand them, he must pass through the whole initiation. None of

the masters had since mentioned them again to him; he was permitted only to walk

down the hall and meditate on the signs. Here he spent many a long, solitary

hour. By means of these figures, chaste as light and grave as eternity, the

truth that can neither be seen nor felt slowly filtered into the heart of the

neophyte. In the mute company of these silent and nameless divinities, each one

of whom seemed to preside over some sphere of life, he began to experience

something new : at first, a descent to the very depths of his being, then a kind

of detachment from the world which caused him to soar above terrestrial objects.

At times he would ask one of the magi: " Shall I some day be permitted to scent

the Rose of Isis and see the Light of Osiris ? " The reply was : " That does not

depend on us. Truth is not given; it is found in oneself or not found at all. We

cannot make an adept of thee, thou must become thyself. Long does the lots press

upwards beneath the surface of the stream, before spreading out its petals to

the light. Hasten not the unfolding of the divine flower. If it is to come, it

will come in its due season. Work and pray. "

 

With feelings of mingled sadness and joy, the disciple returned to his studies

and meditations. He experienced the austere though tender charm of that solitude

through which passes, as it were, a breath of the being of beings. Thus months

and years passed by. He felt a slow transformation, a complete metamorphosis

taking place in himself. The passions which had beset his youth vanished like

shadows, and the thoughts which now surrounded him smiled on him like immortal

friends. What he felt from time to time was the engulfing f his terrestrial ago

and the birth of a purer and more ethereal one. With such feelings he would

fling himself down before the steps of the closed sanctuary. Then all desire and

revolt, and even regret left him, and there was only an absolute yielding of his

soul to the gods, a complete surrender to truth. " Oh Isis! " he said in his

prayer, " since my soul is nothing else than a tear of thine eyes, grant that it

may fall like dew on other souls, and that, when I die, I may feel their perfume

ascending to thee. I am now ready for the sacrifice. "

 

After one of these silent prayers, the disciple, in a state of semi-ecstasy, saw

the hierophant, enveloped in the warm light of the setting sun, standing by his

side, like a vision that had issued from the ground. The aster seemed to read

every single thought of the disciple, to penetrate the entire drama of his inner

life.

 

" My son, " he said, " the hour draws nigh when truth shall be revealed to thee.

Already hast thou divined it by descending into the depths of thy own nature,

and finding divine life therein. Thou art about to enter into the mighty,

ineffable communion of the initiates, for thou art worthy by thy purity of

heart, thy love of truth and power of abnegation. No one, however, crosses the

threshold of Osiris, without passing through death and resurrection. We will

accompany thee into the crypt. Fear not, for thou art already on of our

brethren. "

 

At the twilight hour, the priests of Osiris, with torches in their hands,

accompanied the new adept into a low crypt supported by four pillars which

themselves rested on statues of the sphinx. In one corner was an open marble

sarcophagus.

 

" No man " said the hierophant, " escapes death; every living soul is destined to

resurrection. The adept passes living through the tomb, and enters in this life

into the light of Osiris. Do thou therefore lie in this coffin and await the

light. This night thou shalt cross the portals of Dread and attain to the

threshold of Mastership. "

 

The adept placed himself in the open sarcophagus, the hierophant stretched out

his hand to bless him, and the procession of the initiates silently quitted the

vault. A small lamp, placed on the ground, still casts a flickering light over

the four statues of the sphinx which support the stout columns of the crypt. A

low, muffled chorus of deep voices is now heard. Whence comes it ? It is the

funeral chant!...... Now it dies away, the lamp flickers for the last time and

dies out completely. The adept is alone in the darkness; the cold of the

sepulchre, falling on him, casts a chill through every limb. He passes gradually

through all the painful sensations of death, and falls into a lethargic

condition. His life passes before him in successive scenes, like something

unreal, and his earthly consciousness becomes ever more vague and diffuse. But

in proportion as he feels his body melting away, the etheric, fluid part of his

being is released and he enters into a state of ecstasy….

 

What is that shining spot in the distance, scarcely perceptible through the

black darkness? As he draws near, it increases in size and becomes a star, whose

five rays have all the colours of the rainbow as it sends out into the blackness

discharges of electric or magnetic light. Now it is a sun which attracts him by

the whiteness of its incandescent centre. Is it the magic of the masters which

has produced this vision ? Or is it the portent of celestial truth, the blazing

star of hope and immortality ? It disappears; and in its place a bud opens its

petals in the night, a flower that is not of matter, though sensitive and

endowed with a soul. For it opens before him like a white rose; it spreads out

its petals and he sees a quiver come over its living leaves, and its blazing

calyx grow redder than ever. Is it the flower of Isis, the mystic Rose of Wisdom

which confines Love in its heart ? Now it fades away like a cloud of perfumes.

Then the ecstatic being feels a warm, caressing breath flow over it. After

assuming strange forms, the cloud condenses and becomes a human figure, the form

of a woman, the Isis of the occult sanctuary, though younger, smiling and

luminous. A transparent veil twists in spirals around her and her body shines

through it. In her hand she holds a papyrus scroll. Softly she draws near, leans

over the initiate lying in his tomb and says to him : " I am thy invisible

sister, thy divine soul, and this is the book of thy life. Some of the pages are

filled with records of thy past existences, the blank pages are for thy future

lives. Some day, I will unroll them all before thee. Thou knowest me now, call

me and I will come! " While she speaks, a ray of tender love darts forth from her

eyes….. Oh! Thou presence of y spiritual self, ineffable promise of the divine,

marvellous blending into the impalpable beyond!.....

 

And now everything breaks up, the vision is effaced. A frightful rending takes

place, and the adept feels himself precipited into his body as into a corpse. He

returns to the state of conscious lethargy; iron bands seem to hold down his

limbs; a terrible weight crushes into his brain; he awakes…. And finds standing

before him the hierophant accompanied by the magi. They surround him, give him a

cordial to drink, and he rises to his feet.

 

" Thou hast now returned to life " said the prophet. " Come and celebrate with us

the lovefeast of the initiates nd tell us of thy voyage into the light of

Osiris. For henceforth, thou art one of us " .

 

Let us know transport ourselves and the newly-appointed initiate on to the

observatory of the temple, in the warm splendour of an Egyptian night. It was

there that the chief of the temple gave the new adept the mighty revelation

relating to him the vision of Hermes. This vision was written on no papyrus, but

marked in symbolical signs on the stelas of the secret crypt, known to the

prophet alone. Its meaning was transmitted orally from pontiff to pontiff.

" Listen " , said the hierophant, " this vision contains the eternal history of the

world and the circle of things " .