Post by Frater G on Feb 16, 2008 16:19:38 GMT -5
I had posted chapters from the book The Occult Anatomy of Man in The Pythia's Tripod. It is such an outstanding read that I find it appropriate re-posting it here. Here is about half of part one...when I can devote time I'll post the rest. Let me know what you guys think.
Here is a little from part one of the book The Occult Anatomy of Man by Manly P. Hall. Copyright 1929
Read carefully....
THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM
In Scripture we are told that God made man in his own image. It is so stated not only in the Christian Bible but also in the holy writings of nearly all enlightened people. The Jewish patriarchs taught that the human body was a microcosm, or little cosmos, made in the image of the macrocosm, or the great cosmos. This analogy between the finite and the infinite is said to be one of the keys by the aid of which the secrets of Holy Writ are unlocked. There is no doubt that the Old Testament is a physiological and anatomical textbook to those capable of reading it from a scientific viewpoint. The functions of the human body, the attributes of the human mind, and the qualities of the human soul, have been personified by the wise men of the ancient world, and the great drama has been built around their relationships to themselves and to each other. To the great Egyptian demigod, Hermes, the human race owes its concept of the law of analogy. The great Hermetic axiom was, That which is above is like unto that which is below, and that which is below is like unto that which is above.
The religions of the ancient world were all based on nature-worship, which in a degenerative form has survived to our own day as phallicism. The worship of the parts and functions of the human body began in the later Lemurian period. During the Atlantean epoch this religion gave place to sun-worship, but the new faith incorporated into its doctrines many of the rituals and symbols of the previous belief. The building of the temples in the form of the human body is a custom common to all peoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews, the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, the religious structures of the Hawaiian priests, and the Christian churches laid out in the form of the cross, are examples of this practice. If the human body were laid out with the arms spread in the shape of any of these buildings, it would be found that the high alter would occupy the same relative position in the building that the brain occupies in the human body.
Abuse of mental, physical, or spiritual powers results in the murder of energy; and when this energy is lost man loses with it the sacred word. Our lives--our thoughts, desires, and actions--are the living threefold password by which a master builder knows his kin; and when the student seeks admittance to the inner room he must present at the temple gates the credentials of a purified body and a balanced mind. No price can buy this sacred word; no degree can bestow it. But when within ourselves the dead builder is raised to life once more he himself speaks the word, and upon the philosophers’ stone built within himself is engraved the living name of the Divine.
It is only when this builder is raised that the symbols of mortality can be changed into those of immortality. Our bodies are the urn containing the ashes of Hiram, our lives are the broken pillars, crystallization is the coffin, and the disintegration is the open grave. But above all is the sprig of evergreen promising life to those who raise the serpent power, and showing that under the debris of the temple is buried the body of the builder, who is “raised” when we liberate the divine life which is locked within our material natures.
There are many of these wonderful Masonic symbols handed down to us from the forgotten past; symbols whose meanings long lost have been buried beneath the mantle of materiality. The true Mason--the child of light--still cries out for liberation, and the empty throne of Egypt still waits for the king of the sun who was killed. All the world still waits for Balder the Beautiful to come to life again; for the crucified Christ to roll away the stone and rise from the tomb of matter bringing his own tomb with him.
When the man has so lived that he can understand this wonderful problem the great eye or center of consciousness is enabled to see out through the clean glass of a purified body. The mysteries of true Masonry, long concealed from the profane, are then understood; and a new master, donning his robes of blue and gold, follows in the footsteps of the immortals who are climbing step by step the ladder leading upward to the seven stars. Far above, the Ark--source of life floats over the waters of oblivion on high, and sends its messages down to the lower man through the cable tow. When this point is reached the door in the “G” is closed forever, for the dot has returned to the circle; the threefold spirit and the threefold body are linked together in the eternal seal of Solomon. Then does the cornerstone which the builder rejected become again the head of the corner, and man--the capstone long missing from the universal temple--is again in place.
The daily occurrences of life are sharpening our senses and developing our facilities. These are the tools of the craft--the mallet, the chisel, and the rule--and with these self developed tools we are slowly truing the rough ashlar or cube into a finished block for the universal temple. It is only then that we become initiates of the flame, for only then does light take the place of darkness. As we wander through the vaulted chambers of our own being we learn the vaulted chambers of the temple, and as the initiatory ritual unfolds before our eyes we should recognize in it the recapitulation of our own being, the unfoldment of our own consciousness, and the story of our own lives. With this thought in mind we are able to understand not only why the Atlanteans of old worshipped the rising sun, but also how the modern Mason symbolizes the sun as Hiram the highborn who, when it rises to the top of the temple, places a golden stone upon it and raises to life all things in man.
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The book is brilliantly written and every time I read it I make new connections. Interesting note....if you break the name Solomon into three words... “three”...you have: (Sol) (Om) (On) all which mean SUN.
In the book Manly describes how the human brain is a copy of our body in miniature so to speak. I hope all of you enjoyed that and made connections yourselves. I promised you a ways back that I would write more from Manly’s work and there you are.
Here is a little from part one of the book The Occult Anatomy of Man by Manly P. Hall. Copyright 1929
Read carefully....
THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM
In Scripture we are told that God made man in his own image. It is so stated not only in the Christian Bible but also in the holy writings of nearly all enlightened people. The Jewish patriarchs taught that the human body was a microcosm, or little cosmos, made in the image of the macrocosm, or the great cosmos. This analogy between the finite and the infinite is said to be one of the keys by the aid of which the secrets of Holy Writ are unlocked. There is no doubt that the Old Testament is a physiological and anatomical textbook to those capable of reading it from a scientific viewpoint. The functions of the human body, the attributes of the human mind, and the qualities of the human soul, have been personified by the wise men of the ancient world, and the great drama has been built around their relationships to themselves and to each other. To the great Egyptian demigod, Hermes, the human race owes its concept of the law of analogy. The great Hermetic axiom was, That which is above is like unto that which is below, and that which is below is like unto that which is above.
The religions of the ancient world were all based on nature-worship, which in a degenerative form has survived to our own day as phallicism. The worship of the parts and functions of the human body began in the later Lemurian period. During the Atlantean epoch this religion gave place to sun-worship, but the new faith incorporated into its doctrines many of the rituals and symbols of the previous belief. The building of the temples in the form of the human body is a custom common to all peoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews, the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, the religious structures of the Hawaiian priests, and the Christian churches laid out in the form of the cross, are examples of this practice. If the human body were laid out with the arms spread in the shape of any of these buildings, it would be found that the high alter would occupy the same relative position in the building that the brain occupies in the human body.
Abuse of mental, physical, or spiritual powers results in the murder of energy; and when this energy is lost man loses with it the sacred word. Our lives--our thoughts, desires, and actions--are the living threefold password by which a master builder knows his kin; and when the student seeks admittance to the inner room he must present at the temple gates the credentials of a purified body and a balanced mind. No price can buy this sacred word; no degree can bestow it. But when within ourselves the dead builder is raised to life once more he himself speaks the word, and upon the philosophers’ stone built within himself is engraved the living name of the Divine.
It is only when this builder is raised that the symbols of mortality can be changed into those of immortality. Our bodies are the urn containing the ashes of Hiram, our lives are the broken pillars, crystallization is the coffin, and the disintegration is the open grave. But above all is the sprig of evergreen promising life to those who raise the serpent power, and showing that under the debris of the temple is buried the body of the builder, who is “raised” when we liberate the divine life which is locked within our material natures.
There are many of these wonderful Masonic symbols handed down to us from the forgotten past; symbols whose meanings long lost have been buried beneath the mantle of materiality. The true Mason--the child of light--still cries out for liberation, and the empty throne of Egypt still waits for the king of the sun who was killed. All the world still waits for Balder the Beautiful to come to life again; for the crucified Christ to roll away the stone and rise from the tomb of matter bringing his own tomb with him.
When the man has so lived that he can understand this wonderful problem the great eye or center of consciousness is enabled to see out through the clean glass of a purified body. The mysteries of true Masonry, long concealed from the profane, are then understood; and a new master, donning his robes of blue and gold, follows in the footsteps of the immortals who are climbing step by step the ladder leading upward to the seven stars. Far above, the Ark--source of life floats over the waters of oblivion on high, and sends its messages down to the lower man through the cable tow. When this point is reached the door in the “G” is closed forever, for the dot has returned to the circle; the threefold spirit and the threefold body are linked together in the eternal seal of Solomon. Then does the cornerstone which the builder rejected become again the head of the corner, and man--the capstone long missing from the universal temple--is again in place.
The daily occurrences of life are sharpening our senses and developing our facilities. These are the tools of the craft--the mallet, the chisel, and the rule--and with these self developed tools we are slowly truing the rough ashlar or cube into a finished block for the universal temple. It is only then that we become initiates of the flame, for only then does light take the place of darkness. As we wander through the vaulted chambers of our own being we learn the vaulted chambers of the temple, and as the initiatory ritual unfolds before our eyes we should recognize in it the recapitulation of our own being, the unfoldment of our own consciousness, and the story of our own lives. With this thought in mind we are able to understand not only why the Atlanteans of old worshipped the rising sun, but also how the modern Mason symbolizes the sun as Hiram the highborn who, when it rises to the top of the temple, places a golden stone upon it and raises to life all things in man.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The book is brilliantly written and every time I read it I make new connections. Interesting note....if you break the name Solomon into three words... “three”...you have: (Sol) (Om) (On) all which mean SUN.
In the book Manly describes how the human brain is a copy of our body in miniature so to speak. I hope all of you enjoyed that and made connections yourselves. I promised you a ways back that I would write more from Manly’s work and there you are.
Those who wish to join may introduce themselves here.
