CHINESE AND JAPANESE MYSTERIES

CHINESE AND JAPANESE MYSTERIES



  CHINESE Metaphysics.—In Chinese cosmogony we discover traces of the once universally prevailing knowledge of the properties of eternal nature. Matter — the first material principle—is assumed to act upon itself, and thus to evolve the dual powers. This first material principle is called Tai-Keik, and described as the first hnk in the chain of causes ; it is the utmost limit in the midst of ilimitableness, though in the midst of nonentity there always existed an infinite Le, or " principle of order." The Le is called infinite, because it is impossible to represent it by any figure, since it is the " Eternal Nothing." This undoubted fragmentary tradition of the most ancient metaphysical system in the world has been ridiculed by many modern writers ; but any reader will see that, however imperfectly expressed, it is the theosophic doctrine  (11 ).

  Introduction of Chinese Mysteries.—The Chinese practised Buddhism in its most simple form, and worshipped an invisible God, until a few centuries before the Christian era. Prom the teaching of Confucius, who Hved five centuries before that era, it appears that in his time there were no mysteries; they only became necessary when the Chinese became an idolatrous nation. The chief end of initiation then was an absorption into the deity 0-Mi-To Fo. Omito was derived from the Sanscrit Armida, " immeasurable," and Fo was only another name for Buddha. The letter Y represented the triune God, and was indeed the ineffable name of the Deity, the Tetractys of Pythagoras, and the Tetragrammaton of the Jews. The rainbow was a celebrated symbol in the mysteries, for it typified the re-appearance of the sun ; and this not only in China, but even in Mexico (73).

  Parallel between Buddhism and Roman Catholicism.—The general resemblance between Buddhism and Romanism is so marked that it is acknowledged by the Romanists themselves, who account for this fact by the supposition that Satan counterfeited the true religion. This correspondence holds in minute particulars. Both have a supreme and infallible head, the celibacy of the priesthood, monasteries and nunneries, prayers in an unkaown tongue, prayers to saints and intercessors, and especially, and principally too, a virgin with a child ; also prayers for the dead, repetition of prayers with the' use of a rosary, works of merit and supererogation; self-imposed austerities and bodily inflictions ; a formal daily service consisting of chants, burning of candles, sprinkling of holy water, bowings, prostrations ; fast days and feast days, religious processions, images and pictures and fabulous legends, the worship of reHcs, the sacrament of confession, purgatory, &c. In some respects their rites resemble those of the Jews ; they propitiate the Supreme Deity with the blood of bulls and goats, and also offered holocausts. The resemblance is easily accounted for. Romanism and some other creeds are only modernized Buddhism ; and many religions are but superstitious perversions of the knowledge of natural phenomena. The tradition about Prester John has its origin in this resemblance between Buddhism and a corrupted Christianity. In the twelfth century there was in China a great Mongol tribe professing Buddhism, which by travellers was mistaken for an Oriental Christian religion. The Nestorian Christians, dwelling among the Mongols, called its . head John the Priest, and hence arose the tradition that in the heart of Asia there was a Christian Church, whose po^es bore the title of Prester John.

  Lau-Tze.-— Confucius was the religious lawgiver of China, but Lau-Tze was its philosopher. He excelled the former in depth and independence of thought. The word Lau, or Le, is difficult to render ; the Chinese itself defines it as " a thing indefinite, impalpable, and yet therein are forms." Lau-Tze himself seems to make it equivalent to " intelligence." His philosophy is peaceful and loving, and ia this respect presents various commendable points of resemblance to Christian doctrine.

  Modern Chinese Societies. —The most noted is that of Thian-ti-we, or the Union of Heaven and Earth, which has for its leading dogma the equality of mankind, and the duty of the rich to share their superfluity with the poor. The candidate, having successfully passed through the most severe trials, is conducted before the master, two members of the order cross their swords over his head, and draw blood from both, which they pour into the same cup,—a sacramental drink, to which both put their lips when the candidate has pronounced the oath. This association is spread through the southern provinces of China and the island of Java. • In central and northern China there are two other societies, probably derived from the former, that of Pelian-kiao or the Lotos, and that of Thian-Li, or Celestial Eeason. Henry Pottinger, in a despatch to Lord Aberdeen (1843), alludes to a fourth, saying : " The song being finished, Ke-Ying, the Chinese commissioner, having taken from his arm a gold bracelet gave it to me, informing me at the same time, that he had received it in his tender youth from his father, and that it contained a mysterious legend, and that, by merely showing it, it would in all parts of China assure me a fraternal reception." Another society, formed at the beginning of this century, is that of the " Triad," whose object is to initiate the indolent and prejudiced Chinese into Western civilization. The society of the "White Waterbly,' whose chief could not be discovered by the Chinese government, caused many and disastrous political disturbances.

   Japanese Mysteries.—The Japanese held that the world was enclosed in an egg before the creation, which egg was broken by a bull—the ever-recurring astronomical allegory, alluding to the Bull of the zodiac, which in former times opened the seasons, the vernal equinox. It is the same bull Apis which Egypt adored (47), and which the Jews in the wilderness worshipped as the golden calf; also the bull which, sacrificed in the mysteries of Mithras, poured out its blood to fertilize the earth. The Japanese worshipped a deity who was styled the Son of the Unknown God, considered the creator of sun and moon,, and called Tensio-Dai-Sin. The aspirants for initiation were conducted through artificial spheres, formed of movable circles, representing the revolutions of the planets. The mirror was a significant emblem «f the all-seeing eye of their chief deity(ll).

  In the closing ceremony of preparation the candidate was enclosed in the pastes, the door of which was said to be guarded by a terrible divinity, armed with a drawn sword. During the course of his probation the aspirant sometimes acquired so high a degree of enthusiasm as to refuse to quit his confinement in the pastes, and to remain there until he literally perished of famine. To this voluntary martyrdom was attached a promise of never-ending happiness hereafter. Their creed indeed is Buddhism, slightly modified. " Diabolo ecdesiam Ghristi imitante ! " exclaimed Xavier on seeing how the practices of the Japanese resembled those of the Romanists in Europe ; and, as has been observed of Buddhism ia China and Thibet, all the practices of the Japanese ritual are so tinged with the colour of Romanism, that they might well justify the exclamation of Xavier, who was neither a savant nor a philosopher (66).

   Japanese Doctrines.—The god Tensio-Dai-Sia has twelve apostles, and the sun, the planetary hero, fights with monsters and the elements. The ministers of the Temple of the Sun wear tunics of the colour of fire, and annually celebrate four festivals, the third day of the third month, the fifth day of the fifth, the seventh day of the seventh, and the ninth day of the ninth month respectively ; and at one of these festivals they represent a myth similar to that of Adonis, and nature is personified by a priest dressed in many colours. The members of this society are called Jammahos, and the initiated are enjoined a long time to abstain from meat and to prepare themselves by many purifications.

   The Lama.—The Grand Lama, the God of Thibet, becomes incarnate in man ; thus much the priests reveal to the people. But the true religion, which consists of the doctrine of the supposed origin of the world, is only made known in the almost inaccessible mysteries. The man in whom the Grand Lama has for the time become incarnate, and who is the pontiff, is held in such veneration, that the people eat pastiles, accounted sacred, and made from the unclean remains of the food which had contributed to the sustenan6e of his body.

  This disgusting practice, however, with them is simply the result of their belief in the metempsychosis— parallel with the Indian doctrine of corruption and reproduction, symbolized by the use of cowdung in the purification of the aspirant; and its real meaning is to show that all the parts of the universe are incessantly absorbed, and pass into the substance of each other. It is upon the model of the serpent who devours his tail.



MEXICAN AND PERUVIAN MISTERIES


  AMERICAN Aborigines. — Ethnologists can tell us as yet nothing as to the origia of the earliest iahabitants of the American continent ; but if the reader will accept the theory propounded ia the introduction to this work (6—9), he will be at no loss to answer the question. As nature in Asia brought forth the Caucasian races so in the western hemisphere it gave birth to the various races peopling it. That one of them was a highly civilized race in prehistoric times is proved by the ruins of beautiful cities discovered in Central America; and all the antiquarian remains show that the religion of Mexico and Peru was substantially the same as that practised by the various nations of the East ; and naturally so, for the moral and physical laws of the universe are everywhere the same, and, working in the same manner, produce the same results, only modified by climatic and local conditions.

  Mexican Deities.—The religious system of the Mexicans bore a character of dark and gloomy austerity. They worshipped many deities, the chief of which were Teotl, the iuvisible and supreme being ; Virococha, the creator; Vitzliputzli or Heritzilopochtli, the god of mercy, to whom the most sanguinary rites were offered (which proves that the Mexican priests were quite as inconsistent in this respect as the priestly bigots of Europe, who, iu the name of the God of mercy, tortured, racked and burnt millions that differed from whatever creed had been set up as the orthodox and legalized one) ;  Tescalipuca, the god of vengeance ; Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican Mercury, whose name signifies the "serpent clothed with green feathers;" Mictlaneiheratl, the goddess of hell.; Tlaloc-teatli, or Neptune ; and Ixciana, or Venus. To Vitzliputzli was ascribed the renovation of the world, and his name referred to the sun. He was said to be the ofispring of a virgin, who was impregnated by a plume of feathers, which descended from heaven into her bosom, invested with all the colours of the rainbow (65). He was represented in the figure of a man, with a dread-inspiring aspect. He was seated on a globe over a lofty altar, which was borne in proces-„sion during the celebration of the mysteries. His right hand grasped a snake, the symbol of life, and representations of this reptile are found on all the temples of Mexico and Peru. Traces of the serpentworship of the western world are also found in the states of Ohio and Iowa, where serpent mounds, formed of earth, 1,000 feet long or more, are still to be found. The office of Tescalipuca was to punish the sins of men by the iafliction of plagues, famine, and pestilence. His anger could only be appeased by human sacrifices — thousands of men were frequently immolated to him ia one single day.

   Cruelty of Mexican Worship.—The temples of Mexico were full of horrible idols, which were all bathed and washed with human blood. The chapel of Vitzliputzli was decorated with the skulls of the wretches that had been slaiu iu sacrifice ; the walls and floor were inches thick with blood, and before the image of the god might often be seen the still palpitating hearts of the human victims offered up to him, whose skins served the priests for garments. This revolting custom, as a legend says, arose from the fact that Tozi, the " Grand Mother," was of human extraction. Vitzliputzli procured her divine honours by enjoining the Mexicans to demand her of her father for their queen ; this being done, they also commanded him to put her to death, afterwards to flay her, and to cover a young man with her skin. It was in this manner she was stripped of her humanity, to be placed among the gods. Another disgusting practice arising from this legend will be mentioned here after.

 Initiatiation. into Mysteries. —The candidate had to undergo all the terrors sufferings, and penances practised in the Eastern world. He was scourged with knotted cords, his flesh was cut with knives, and reeds put into the wounds, that the blood might be seen to trickle more freely, or they were cauterized with red-hot cinders. Many perished under these trials. The lustrations were performed, not with water, but with blood, and the candidate's habit was not white, but black, and before initiation he was given a drink, which was said to dispel fear, which, indeed, it may have done in some degree by disturbing the brain. The candidate was then led into the  dark caverns of initiation, excavated beneath the foundations of the mighty pyramidal temple of Vitzliputzli in Mexico, and passed through the mysteries which symbolically represented the wanderings of their Gods, i. e. the course of the sun through the signs of the zodiac. The caverns were called " the path of the dead." Everything that' could appal the imagination and test his courage was made to appear before him. Now he heard shrieks of despair and the groans of the dying ; he was led past the dungeons where the human victims, being fattened for sacrifice, were confined, and through caverns slippery with half congealed blood; anon he met with the quivering frame of the dying man, whose heart had just been torn from his body and offered up to their sanguinary god, and looking up he beheld in the roof the orifice through which the victims had been precipitated, for they were now immediately under the altar of Vitzliputzli. At length, however, he arrived at a narrow chasm or stone fissure, at the end of this extensive range of caverns, through which he was formally protruded, and received by a shouting multitude as a person regenerated or bom again. The females, divesting themselves of their little clothing, danced in a state of nudity like the frantic Bacchantes, and, having repeated the dance three times, they gave themselves up to unbounded licentiousness.

  The Greater Mysteries.—But as with Eastern nations, the Mexicans had, besides the general religious doctrines communicated to the initiated, an esoteric doctrine, only attainable by the priests, and not even by them until they had qualified themselves for it by the sacrifice of a human victim. The most ineffable degrees of knowledge were imparted to them at midnight and under severe obligations, whose disregard entailed death without remission. The real doctrine taught was astronomical, and, like the Eastern nations, they at their great festivals lamented the disappearance of the sun, and rejoiced at its re-appearance at the festival of the new fire, as it was called. All fire, even the sacred fire of the temple, having been extiuguished, the population of Mexico^ with the priests at their head marched to a hill near the city, where they waited till the Pleiades ascended the middle of the sky, when they sacrificed a human victim. The instrument made use of by the priests to kindle the fire was placed on the wound made in the breast of the prisoner destined to be sacrificed; and, when the fire was kindled, the body was placed on an enormous pile ready prepared, and this latter set on fire. The new fire, received with joyful shouts, was carried from village to village ; where it was deposited in the temple, whence it was distributed to every private dwelling. When the sun appeared on the horizon the acclamations were renewed. The priests were further taught the doctrine of immortality, of a triune deity, of the original population, who—led by the god Vitzliputzli, holding in his hand a rod formed like a serpent, and seated in a square ark—finally settled upon a lake, abounding with the lotus,* where they erected their tabernacle. This lake was the lake in the midst of which the city of Mexico originally stood.

   Human Sacrifices.—No priest was to be fully initiated into the mysteries of the Mexican religion until he had saciificed a human victim. This horrible rite, which the Spaniards, who conquered the country, often saw performed on their own captive countrymen, was thus performed:—The chief priest carried ia his hand a large and sharp knife made of flint ; another priest carried a collar of wood ; the other four priests who assisted arranged themselves adjoining the pyramidal stone, which had a convex top, so that the man to be sacrificed, being laid thereon on his back, was bent in such a manner that the stomach separated upon the slightest incision of the knife. Two priests seized hold of his feet and two more of his hands, whilst the fifth fastened round his neck the collar of wood. The high priest then opened his stomach with the knife, and tearing out his heart, held it up to the sun, and then threw it before the idol in one of the chapels on the top of the great pyramid where the rite was performed. The body was finally cast down the steps that wound all round the building. Forty or fifty victims were thus sacrificed in a few hours. Prisoners of rank or approved courage might escape this horrid death by fighting six Mexican warriors in succession. If they were successful their lives and liberty were granted to them ; but if they fell under the strokes of their adversaries they were dragged, dead or living, to the sacrificial stone, and their hearts torn out.

   Clothing in Bloody Shins.—We have already seen that the priests were clothed in the bloody skins of their victims. The same horrid custom was practised on other occasions. On certain festivals they dressed a man in the bloody skin just reeking from the body of a victim. Kings and grandees did not think it derogatory to their dignity to disguise themselves in this manner and to run up and down the streets, soliciting alms, which were applied to pious purposes. This horrible masquerade continued till the skin began to grow putrid. On another festival they would slay a woman and clothe a man with her skin, who thus equipped, danced for two days together with the rest of his fellow-citizens.

   Peruvian Mysteries.—The Incas, or rulers of Peru, boasted of their descent from the sun and moon, which therefore were worshipped, as well as the great god Pacha- Camac, whose very name was so sacred that it was only communicated to the imtiated. They also had an idol they termed Tangatango, meaning " One in three and three in one." Their secret mysteries, of which we know next to nothing, were celebrated on their great annual festival, held on the first day of the September moon, the people watching all night until the rising of the sun ; and when he appeared the eastern doors of the great temple of Casco were thrown open, so that the sun's radiance could illuminate his image in gold placed opposite. The walls and ceiling of this temple were all covered over with gold plates, and the figure of the sun, representing a round face, surrounded with rays and flames, as modern painters usually draw the sun, was of such a size as lmost to cover one side of the wall. It was. moreover, double the thickness of the plates covering the walls. The Virgins of the Sun, who, like the Vestals of ancient Eome, had the keeping of the sacred fire entrusted to them, and were vowed to perpetual cehbacy, then walked round the altar, whilst the priests expounded the mild and equitable laws of Peru ; for, contrary to the practice of their near neighbours, the Mexicans, the Peruvians had no sanguinary rites whatever, though some Spanish writers, who, of course, could see no good in non- Catholics and pagans, charged them with sacrificing young children of from four to six years old " in prodigious numbers," and also with slaying virgins. The Spaniards, no doubt, alluded to some ill- understood symbolical rite.


THE DRUIDS


   THE Druids, the Magi of the West.—The secret doctrines of the Druids were much the same as those of the G-ymnosophists and Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the priests of Egypt, and of all other priests of antiquity. Like them, they had two sets of religious doctrines, exoteric and esoteric. Their rites were practised in Britain and Gaul, though they were brought to a much greater perfection in the former country, where the Isle of Anglesea was considered their chief seat. The word Druid is generally supposed to be derived from ^pvg, " an oak," which tree was particularly sacred among them, though its etymology may also be found in the Gaelic word Druidh, "a, wise man'' or ''magician."

   Temples.—Their temples, wherein the sacred fire was preserved, were generally situate on eminences and in dense groves of oaks, and assumed various forms-— circular, because a circle was an emblem of the universe ; oval, in allusion to tlie mundane egg, from which, according to the traditions of many nations, the universe, or- according to others, our first parents, issued ; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris; cruciform, because a cross is an emblem of regeneration (49) ; or winged, to represent the motion of thedivine spirit. Their only canopy was the sky, and they were constructed of unhewn stones, their numbers having reference to astronomical calculations. In the centre was placed a stone of larger dimensions than the others, and worshipped as the representative of the Deity. The three principal temples of this description in Britain were undoubtedly those of Stonehenge and Abury in the south, and that of Shap in Cumberland. Where stone was scarce, rude banks of earth were substituted, and the temple was formed of a high vallum and ditch. The most Herculean labours were performed in their construction ; Stukeley says that it would cost, at the present time, £20,000 to throw up such a mound as Silbury Hill.

  Places of Initiation.—The adytum or ark of the mysteries was called a cromlech, and was used as the sacred pastes, or place of regeneration. It consisted of three upright stones, as supporters of a broad, flat stone laid across them on the top, so as to form a small cell. Kit Cotey's House, in Kent, was such a pastos. Considerable space, however, was necessary for the machinery of initiation in its largest and most comprehensive scale. Therefore, the Coer Sidi, where the mysteries of Druidism were performed, consisted of a range of buildings, adjoining the temple, contaiuing apartments of all size a, cells, vaults, baths, and long and artfully-contrived passages, with all the apparatus of terror used on these occasions. Most frequently these places were subterranean ; and many of the caverns in this country were the scenes of Druidical initiation. The stupendous grotto at Castleton, in Derbyshire, called by Stukeley the Stygian Cave, as well as the giants' caves at Luckington and Badminster, in Wilts, certainly were used for this purpose.

  Rites.—The system of Druidism embraced every religious and philosophical pursuit then known ill these islands. The rites bore an undoubted reference to astronomical facts. Their chief deities are reducible to two,—a male and a female, the great father and mother, Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belonged to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme god and goddess representing the two principles of all being. . The grand periods of initiation were quarterly, and determined by the course of the sun, and his arrival at the equinoctial and solstitial points. But the time of annual celebration was May- eve, when fires were kindled on all the cairns and cromlechs throughout the island, which burned all night to introduce the sports of May-day, whence all the national sports formerly or still. practised date thenorigin. Round these fires choral dances were performed in honour of the sun, who, at this season, was figuratively said to rise from his tomb. The festival was licentious, and continued till. the luminary had attained his meridian height, when priests and attendants retired to the woods, where the most disgraceful orgies were perpetrated. But the solemn initiations were performed at midnight, and contained three degrees, the first or lowest being the Eubates, the second the Bards, and the third the Druids. The candidate was first placed in the pastes bed, or coffn, where his symbolical death represented the death of Hu, or the sun ; and his restoration in the third degree symbolized the restirrection of the sun. He had to undergo trials and tests of courage similar to those practised in the mysteries of other countries (e. g. 26), and which therefore need not be detailed here.

  The festival of the 25th of December was celebrated with great fires lighted on the tops of the hills, to announce the birth-day of the god Sol. This was the moment when, after the supposed winter solstice, he began to increase, and gradually to ascend. This festival indeed was kept not by the Druids only, but throughout the ancient world, from India to Ultima Thule. The fires, of course, were typical of the power and ardour of the sun, whilst the evergreens used on the occasion foreshadowed the results of the sun's renewed action on vegetation.The festival of the summer solstice was kept on the 24th of June. Both days are still kept as festivals in the Christian church, the former as Christmas, the latter as St. John's Day; because the early Christians judiciously adopted not only the festival days of the pagans, but also, so far as this could be done with propriety, their mode of keeping them ; substituting, however, a theological meaning for astronomical allusions. The use of evergreens in churches at Christmas time is the Christian perpetuation of an ancient Druidic custom.

   Doctrines. —The Druids taught the doctrine of one supreme being, a future state of rewards and punishments, the immortality of the soul and a metempsychosis. It was a maxim with them that water was the first principle of all things, and existed before the creation in unsullied purity (11), which seems a contradiction to their other doctrine that day was the offspring of night, because night or chaos was in existence before day was created. They taught that time was only an intercepted fragment of eternity, and that there was an endless succession of worlds. In fact, their doctrines were chiefly those of Pythagoras. They entertained great veneration for the numbers three, seven, nineteen (the Metonic cycle), and one hundred and fortyseven, produced by multiplying the square of seven by three. They also practised vaticination, pretending to predict future events from the flights of birds, human sacrifices, by white horses, the agitation of water, and lots. They seem, however, to have possessed considerable scientific knowledge.

 Political and Judicial Power.—Their authority in many cases exceeded that of the monarch. They were, of course, the sole interpreters of religion, and consequently superintended aU sacrifices ; for no private person was allowed to offer a sacrifice without their sanction. They possessed the power of excommunication, which was the most horrible punishment that could be inflicted next to that of death, and from the effects of which the highest magistrate was not exempt. The great council of the realm was not competent to declare war or conclude peace without their concurrence. They determined all disputes by a final and unalterable decision, and had the power of inflicting the punishment of death. And, indeed, their altars streamed with the blood of human victims. Holocausts of men, women, and children, inclosed in large towers of wicker-work, were sometimes sacrificed as a burnt- offering to their superstitions, which were, at the same time, intended to enhance the consideration of the priests, who were an ambitious race delighting in blood. The Druidsj it is said, preferred such as had been guilty of theft, robbery, or other crimes, as most acceptable to their gods ; but when there was a scarcity of criminals, they made no scruple to supply thenplace with innocent persons. These dreadful sacrifices were offered by the Druids, for the pubKc, on the eve of a dangerous war, or in the time of any national calamity ; and also for particular persons of high rank, when they were afficted with any •dangerous disease.

  Priestesses.—The priestesses, clothed in white, :and wearing a metal girdle, foretold the future from the observation of natural phenomena, but more especially from human sacrifices. For them was reserved the frightful task of putting to death the prisoners taken in war, and individuals condemned by the Druids ; and their auguries were drawn from the manner in which the blood issued from the many wounds inflicted, and also from the smoking entrails. Many of these priestesses maiatained a perpetual virginity, others gave themselves up to the most luxurious excesses. They dwelt on lonely rocks, beaten by the waves of the ocean, which the mariners looked upon as temples surrounded with unspeakable pro--digies. Thus the island of Sena or Liambis, The Saints, near Ushant, was the residence of certain of these priestesses, who delivered oracles to sailors ; and there was no power that was not attributed to them. Others, living near the mouth of the Loire, once a year destroyed their temple, scattered its materials, and, having collected others, built a new one— of course a symbolical ceremony ; and if one of the priestesses dropped any of the sacred materials, the others fell upon her with fierce yells, tore her to pieces, and scattered her bleeding limbs.

  Abolition.—As the Romans gained ground in these islands the power of the Druids gradually declined; and they were finally assailed by Suetonius Paulinus, governor of Britain under Nero, A. D. 61, in their stronghold, the Isle of Anglesey, and entirely defeated, the conqueror consuming many of them in the fires which they had kindled for burning the Roman prisoners they had expected to make—a very just retaliation upon these sanguinary priests. But though their dominion was thus destroyed, many of their reHgious practices continued much longer ; and so late as the eleventh century, in the reign of Canute, it was necessary to forbid the people to worship the sun, moon, fires, etc. Certainly many of the practices of the Druids are still adhered to in Freemasonry; and some writers on this order endeavour to show that it was estabhshed soon after the edict of Canute, and that as thereby the Druidical worship was prohibited in toto, the strongest oaths were required to bind the initiated to secresy.






SCANDINAVIAN MYSTERIES



  DROTTES.~The priests of Scandinavia were named Drottes, and instituted by Sigge, a Scythian prince, who is said afterwards to have assumed the name of Odin. Their number was twelve, who were alike priests and judges ; and from this order proceededthe establishment of British juries. Their power was extended to its utmost limits, by being allowed a discretionary privilege of determiaing on the choice of human victims for sacrifice, from which even the monarch was not exempt —hence arose the necessityBof cultivating the goodwill of these sovereign pontiffs ; and as this order, like the IsraeUtish priesthood, was restricted to one family, they became possessed of unbounded wealth, and at last became so tyrannical as to be objects of terror to the whole community. Christianity, promising to relieve it from this yoke, was hailed with enthusiasm; and the inhabitants of Scandinavia, inspired with a thirst for vengeance on account of accumulated arid long-continued suffering, retaliated with dreadful severity on their persecutors, overthrowing the palaces and temples, the statues of their gods, and all the paraphernalia of Gothic superstition. Of this nothing remains but a few cromlechs ; some stupendous monuments of rough stone, which human fury could not destroy) certain ranges of caverns hewn out of the solid rock ; and some natural grottos used for the purpose of initiation.

  Ritual.—The whole ritual had an astronomical bearing. The places of initiation, as in other mysteries, were ia caverns, natural or artificial, and the candidate had to, undergo trials as frightful as the priests could render them. But instead of having to pass through seven caves or passages, as in the Mithraic and other mysteries, he descended through niiie—the square of the mystic number three subterranean passages, and he was instructed to search for the body of Balder, the Scandinavian Osiris, slain by Loke, the principle of darkness, and to use his utmost endeavours to raise him to life. To enter into particulars of the process of initiation would involve the repetition of what has been said before ; it may therefore suffice to observe that the candidate on arriving at the saceUum had a solemn oath administered to him on a naked sword, and ratified it by drinking mead out of a human skull. The sacred sign of the cross was impressed upon him, and a ring of magic virtues, the gift of Balder the Good, delivered to him.

  Astronomical Meaning Demonstrated.—The first canto of the Edda, which apparently contains a description of the ceremonies performed on the initiation of an aspirant, says that he seeks to know the sciences possessed by the seas or gods. He discovers a palace, whose roof of boundless dimensions is covered with golden shields. He encounters a man engaged in launching upwards seven flowers. Here we easily discover the astronomical meaning : the palace is the world, the roof the sky ; the golden shields are the stars, the seven flowers the seven planets. The candidate is asked what is his name, and replies Gangler, that is, the wanderer, he that performs a revolution, distributing necessaries to- mankind ; for the candidate personates the sun. The palace is that of the king, the epithet the ancient Mystagogues gave to the head of the planetary system. Then he discovers three seats; on the lowest is the king called Har, sublime ; on the central one, Jafuhar, the equal of the Sublime; on the highest Tredie, the number three. These personages are those the neophyte beheld inthe Eleusinian initiation (59),  the hierophant, the daduchus or torchbearer, and the epibomite or attendant on the altar ; those he sees in Freemasonry, the master, and the senior and junior wardens, symbolical personifications of the sun, moon, and Demiurgus, or grand architect of the universe. But the Scandinavian triad is usually represented by Odin, the chief deity ; Thor, his first-bom, the reputed mediator between god and man, possessing unlimited power over the universe, wherefore his head was surrounded by a circle of twelve stars ; and Freya, a hermaphrodite, adorned with a variety of symbols significant of dominion over love and marriage. In the instructions given to the neophyte, he is told that the greatest and most ancient of gods is called Alfader (the father of all) , and has twelve epithets, which recall the twelve attributes of the sun, the twelve constellations, the twelve superior gods of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Among the gods of the Scandinavian theogony there is Balder the Good, whose story, as already hinted above, formed the object of the initiatory ceremonies. Balder is Mithras, the sun's love. He foresees the danger that threatens him; he dreams of it at night. The other gods of Valhalla, the Scandinavian Olympus, to whom he reveals his sad forebodings, reassure him, and to guard against any harm befalling him, exact an oath from every thing in nature in his behalf, except from the mistletoe, which was omitted on account of its apparently inoffensive qualities. For an experiment, and in sport, the gods cast at Balder all kinds of missiles, without wounding him. Hoder the blind (that is, Fate) , takes no part in the diversion ; but Loke (the principle of evil, darkness, the season of winter) places a sprig in the hands of Hoder, and persuades him to cast it at the devoted victim, who falls pierced with mortal wounds. For this reason it was that this plant was gathered at the winter solstice by the Druids of Scandinavia, Gaul, and Britain, with a curved knife, whose form symbolized the segment of the zodiacal circle during which the murder of Balder took place. In the Edda of Snorro we have another legend of Odin and Freya, the Scandinavian Isis or Venus, giving an account of the wanderings of the latter in search of the former, which, of course, have the same astronomical meaning as the search of Isis for Osiris, of Ceres for Proserpine, etc. One of the chief festivals in the year, as with the Druids, was the winter solstice ; and this being the longest night in the year, the Scandinavians assigned to it the formation of the world from primeval darkness, and called it "Mother Night." This festival was denominated " Yule," and was a season of universal festivity.