Chapter 4

Now we will review some of the ancient writings of the various mystic schools of the Orient that were standard at just about this time in our historical review. By 1350 BC we find several systems of mystical and religious philosophy very well established in various lands.

The real leaders in each one of these various mystical schools were connected directly with the White Brotherhood and this fact alone prevented the leaders in the different lands, who represented their different schools, from being rivals or opponents, although the followers of these various leaders were opponents to some degree.

Among the oldest of the Aryan writings we have the beautiful Brahmanic books of India called the Vedas, or Books of Holy Knowledge. The original writings of these books were never allowed to be changed, even so far as a single word was concerned.

Many of the foreign words in these hymns are difficult to translate into English, or to translate into thought expressions in keeping with modern consciousness.

Here is the Rig-veda which contains the old hymns regarding creation and adoration to God and the other principles taught by the White Brotherhood which were embodied by the Hindu school of Philosophy.

1. O worship by himself Agni, the high-priest of the sacrifice, the deity, the sacrificial priest who presents oblations to the deities and is the possessor of great riches.

 

2. May Agni, lauded by the ancient and modern Rishis, conduct the deities hither (i.e., in this sacrifice.)

 

3. Through Agni, the worshipper comes by wealth which multiplies daily, which is the source of fame and which secures heroes.

 

4. O Agni, the sacrifice, around which thou residest, is unimpeded and reaches the celestials of heaven.

 

5. May Agni, the presenter of oblations, the attainer of success in works, ever truthful, highly illustrious for many noble deeds, divine, come hither with the celestials.

 

6. Whatever good, O Agni, thou mayest confer upon the giver of oblations, that indeed, O Angrias, belongs to thee.

 

7. Bowing into thee mentally, O Agni, we approach thee daily, both morning and evening.

 

8. Thee, the radiant, the protector of sacrifice unobstructed by Rakshasas, the perpetual illuminator of truth and increasing in thine own room.

 

9. Like unto a father to his son, O Agni, be easily accessible unto us; be ever present with us for our well-being.

 

 

 

1. Come hither, O Vayu, Thou beautiful one! Those Somas are ready; drink of them; hear our call!

 

2. O Vayu, the prayers celebrate thee with himself, they who know the feast-days, and have prepared the Soma.

 

3. O Vayu, the satisfying stream goes to the worshipper, wide-reaching, to the Soma-drought.

 

4. O Indra and Vayu, these libations of Soma are brought out, come hither for the sake of our offerings, the drops of Soma long for you.

 

5. O Indra and Vayu, you who perceive the libations, you who are rich in booty; come then quickly hither!

 

6. O Vayu and Indra, come near to the work of the sacrificial quick; this is my prayer, O ye men!

 

7. I call Mitra, endowed with holy strength, and Varuna, who destroys all enemies; who both fulfill a prayer accompanied by fat offerings.

 

8. On the right way, O Mitra and Varuna, you have obtained great wisdom, you who increase the right and adhere to the right;

 

9. These two sages, Mitra and Varuna, the mighty, wide-ruling, give us efficient strength.

 

Hymn 3

1. Aswins, cherishers of pious deeds, have outstretched hand for accepting the oblations, long-armed, desire for sacrificial viands.

 

2. Aswins, of many acts, guides of devotion, endowed with intellect, accept our eulogistic words with unaverted minds.

 

3. Aswins, destroyers of diseases, shorn of falsehood, leaders in the van of heroes. Come to the mixed libations of Soma, extracted and placed on lopped Kus'a-grass.

 

4. Indra of variegated splendor, come hither; these libations ever pure and extracted by fingers, are seeking thee.

 

5. Indra, drawn by the devotion of the sacrificer and invoked by the intelligent priest, come hither and accept the prayers of the priest as he offers the libations.

 

6. Indra, by tawny horses, come hither speedily, to accept the prayers of the priest; in this sacrifice of extracted Soma juice, accept our proffered offspring.

 

7. Viswadevas, protectors, spiritors of man, granters of sufficient rewards, come to the extracted Soma juice of the worshipper.

 

8. May Viswadevas, the givers of rain, come speedily to the libation, as the rays of the sun come diligently to the days.

 

9. May Viswadevas, who are exempt from deterioration, omniscient, shown of wealth, givers of wealth, partake of this sacrifice.

 

10. May Saraswati, the purifier, the giver of food, the bestower of wealth, in the shape of sacrifice fruits, seek viands in our sacrificial rite.

 

11. Saraswati, the inspirer of truthful words, their instructors of the right-minded, has accepted our sacrifice.

 

12. Saraswati, makes manifest by her deeds a huge river, and in her own form enlightens all her undertakings.

 

History of Writing

 

This brings us to one of the important mysteries first evolved by the Brotherhood, which is the origin of writing. As soon as man was able to speak intelligently, in order to convey ideas, the most learned came together in each nation or place to decide what words were to be used to express certain ideas, and how they were to be pronounced. This was the way that language came into existence and, of course, some groups of men had to be the essential authorities for each tribe or nation in order to standardize language.

Among the ancient languages that became standardized were the Sanskrit and the Zend. When the Sanskrit and Zend languages were standardized, the alphabet was used as a key to the idea they wished to express.

Today the alphabet is the key to the spelling of words and the letters in our present-day alphabet, especially in English, do not have any connection with the ideas being expressed.

In the original words of man two great principles were discovered. First, that all sounds made by the human voice caused certain vibratory effects; and second, they found that these vibrations effect not only the words, but certain parts of the spiritual body of man.

Certain sounds were used only in connection with spiritual or religious things, and many other sounds for commonplace things. For instance, the letter R was used only in connection with things of royalty, rulership or religious ceremonies under the rule of a master.

Therefore, whenever these people wished to create a new word pertaining to some of these ideas, they would start the word with the letter R, or have the R sound very prominent in the word.

As a result, we have today such words as royalty, rule, religion, regulate, right.

When they wished to express an idea connected with divinity or the supreme God or divine power, they would use the letter D as the first part of the word.

Thus we find such foreign words as dius, deus, dios, and in English, divinity, divine and so forth. Even the word Zeus, the man of a mythological god, is a part of the word deus.

The A sound, always pronounced ah, was limited to use in words that pertained to the radiating force from God. There- fore, the Egyptian word RA, being a combination of R and A, meant a ruling life force or the symbol of ruling life force.

R always carried the connotation of a mystical ruler and they used the letter M to represent the mother of a similar moving power.

We have the MA, meaning a mother force ruling in the universe, and from the word MA have come mother and material and other words indicating the same idea.

When a word contained some of the holy letters or divine signs, they would leave out those sounds in their writings and use only the letters that did not have any divine or mystical power in them, because they thought it disrespectful to use the divine sounds too freely or too often. And that was why in writing the name of God, only the letters YH, WH or JAO, IAO were used as a short abbreviation.

As we continue now with the history of the White Brotherhood:

In Egypt at the time of the Exodus, the tribes were suffering from various plagues or conditions which made them feel that they wanted to leave Egypt and go on their way to another land. Many of the things recorded in the Bible story show that these people and their leaders performed mystical demonstrations in order to convince the Egyptians of their desire to leave the land.

The records of the Brotherhood show that finally they appealed to Amenhotep, who was also highly advanced in the mystical principles; he showed great kindness to the leaders and offered to help them, with the understanding that they must make it appear to the pagan priesthood that he was not helping them, or else their priesthood would interfere.

Among the miracles that are described in the Bible, there are some that need a little explanation. We find references, for instance, to the pillar of fire which gave them light by night, and the pillar of cloud which guided them by day, and references to the Rod with which certain miracles were performed.

According to the records of the White Brotherhood, these same demonstrations were made later, or in other places at other times. For instance, the rites of Bacchus, which were brought from Egypt, contained statements that Bacchus had a rod with which he performed miracles, and which at times changed into a serpent.

Other references state that Bacchus also crossed the Red Sea, dry-shod, at the head of his army. These references in the ancient writings are called the Hymns of Orpheus. Also, Bacchus divided the waters of the rivers.

In the Christian Bible in II Kings, Chapter 2, Verse 8, it is stated that the waters of the river Jordan were divided by Elijah, and in other records we learn that Bacchus brought fountains of water and wine out of a rock, just as Moses brought water from a rock.

There are many records showing how many of the great spiritual leaders of antiquity performed similar demonstrations of the laws, and such demonstrations were quite common with the Masters of the White Brotherhood.

We notice also, in the history of Moses that it is claimed he had two mothers, one by nature and one by adoption. We find that Bacchus was placed in the same way with two mothers, which the ancients explain refers to a physical mother and a spiritual mother, and that the spiritual mother was the one adopted and really was the mother-master of each individual.

Among the brethren of the White Brotherhood each had a great master as a spiritual father and another great female master as a spiritual mother. There are many records which refer to the fact that a great plague period of pestilence did come upon Egypt at this time in history, and that there was a great Exodus out of Egypt as a result of this plague.

Amenhotep's great sun city was abandoned at just about that time and the excavations made in that city show that the abandonment was fairly sudden, indicating that the people who left gave no thought to lingering for the purpose of saving their homes or their positions.

Perhaps it will be interesting for you if we state here what is contained in the ancient records regarding the cleanliness of these mystical tribes, and how they would naturally want to leave a country that was infested with disease. The records show that these mystical tribes which left Egypt were mocked for their cleanliness and for their strict way of living.

They not only bathed two or three times each day while in that hot and unclean country, but often bathed at night when it was very cool. This was a surprise to the natives of Egypt, who would not think of going into the water when the sun was down, when the air and water were cold.

They also shaved their heads after they found that the hair was becoming infected and even removed all hair from their bodies every three days. Their garments were all white linen, which was considered more hygienic than cloth made from hair of animals, because all the animals were infected with vermin.

Whenever they wore anything of a woolen nature, such as a mantle or a special covering to protect them from the cold or from the hot sun, they removed such woolen material before entering their homes or the temples.

They were always sure before going inside that no dirt adhered to their clothing or their hands, and for that reason established the custom of removing their sandals outside the building.

The linen cloth used was always white because the process of dying or coloring the material had some impurities which might effect the skin, and because of perspiration would result in skin disease.

The Egyptian natives on the other hand, not only wore woolen cloth from animals such as that from camels, but highly colored and decorated materials, the dyes of which were responsible for many of their skin diseases. These clothes which became very dirty after many months of use also contaminated their bodies.

The mystics destroyed and actually burned in a community fire on stated occasions, such linen as had become soiled in such a way they could not be cleaned by washing. Therefore, these mystic people, who were always seen in very white robes, came to be known as brethren of white cloth or children of white.

This name became a distinguishing title for them, and we find it in many of the ancient records. We also observe that because of its distinguishing mark they continued to wear white after their Exodus and all through the Christian period and up to the present time.

Therefore, you will understand the many references to the great White Brotherhood or the Brotherhood of White and so forth.

There are references in the Bible and in other places which indicate that the native Egyptians considered these mystical tribes as unclean. Other statements that the Israelites were so unclean that they were forced to leave Egypt, only prove how the priesthood of Egypt changed the facts in their records to make it appear that the Egyptian natives were very clean and the foreigners among them were the unclean ones.

So we find these tribes of mystics, now called sons of Is-ra-el, arriving safely in a new land with their great leaders and other leaders.

Among these people who left Egypt, there were those who had joined with them in Egypt, who had become converted to their ways of thinking and were still to be tested and tried. They were probably the first initiates of the great White Brotherhood.

They had discovered in the tribes of Is-ra-el a newer and better religion and a better way of living and thinking. They had pledged allegiance and assured the leaders that it was their desire to become true followers of the Brothers in White.

We find that there were some of those who joined the tribes of Is-ra-el who were only half convinced or half-converted, or perhaps insincere in their desires, and were selfish in their motives. Therefore, over all of these new members were older members who continually watched and tried and tested them for their sincerity.

In the records, it shows how some of these unprepared followers lost faith in the mystical principles, and began to doubt the truth and power of the Brotherhood and the greatness and goodness of God, Whom the Brothers worshipped.

Some of them returned to their heathen forms of worship and tried to convince others that the White Brotherhood was wrong in its beliefs, thus causing considerable trouble, just at the time when their faith would have helped them the most.