Sacred Texts Classics Freemasonry. The Dionysian Artificers. by Hippolyto Joseph da Costa. []. This essay, published in , was an attempt to prove that.
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The Ionians built the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Dorians that of Apollo at Triopii, where at a certain period they repaired with their wives and children, and there performed sacred rites, and had a market, likewise games, races, wrestlings, music-parties of different kinds, and made common offerings to the gods. When they had performed the spectacles and the business of the market, or fair, and fulfilled towards each other the duties of fellow creatures, if there was any litigation between the cities, they sat as judges to settle the dispute: The proof that this reading is not correct, is not only because of the different opinions of all other translations, which understand by this Gibblim the inhabitants of Gebbel; but that the same English p.
Now that Gabbel was the same as Byblos is clear; because the Septuagint version always translates this Gebbel for Byblos, and though there were several cities of this name, yet this one seems to be that which is between Tripoli and Berite; and still called Gebail. Such, however, was what was done by the inhabitants of those cities, in testimony of which, they sent letters to women who were at Byblos, when Adonis was found, and afterwards scaled and thrown into the sea, they say they were spontaneously carried to Byblos; and, when arrived there, women ceased to weep for Adonis.
Procopius in Isaiah c. On one side is the Bacchus difnhj, or creator of both sexes, known by the effeminate mold of his limbs and countenance; and on the other, a tiger, leaping up, and devouring the grapes which spring from the body of the personified vine, the hands of which are employed in receiving another cluster from the Bacchus.
This composition represents the vine between the creating and destroying attributes of god; the one giving it fruit, and the other devouring it when given. The tiger has a garland of ivy round his neck, to show that the destroyer was co-essential with the creator, of whom ivy, as well as all other ever-greens, was an emblem representing his perpetual youth and viridity. It must be observed, that, when the ancients speak of creation and destruction, they mean only formation and dissolution; it being universally allowed, through all systems of religion, or sects of philosophy, that nothing could come from nothing, and that no power whatever could annihilate that which really existed.
The bold and magnificent idea of a creation from nothing was reserved for the more vigorous faith, and more enlightened minds of the moderns, who need seek no authority to confirm their belief ; for, as that which is self-evident admits of no proof, so that which is in itself impossible admits of no refutation. It is tempting to quote the remainder of the essay, but it can be found at the following url: DaCosta ends his essay with the statement that after the Dionysian Artificers made it to Israel to work on the Temple, some of their rites were introduced, in a modified form, to be compatible with the Monotheism Yet we would say that the Artificers simply attached themselves to the most learned of those who weren't propagandists of the Yahweh cultus, and then DaCosta states that eventually this group of Initiates became known in Maccabeean times as Hasidim.
These mystics were responsible for the formation of the Essene communities, Da Costa says. Undoubtedly this is true, as it is also true that some influence came from Buddhist missionaries, who came west to Alexandria. Also, King Attalus I of Pergamon granted land to these people, but eventually they were exiled. But we may here to advantage trace their progress. About seven hundred years after the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, they are said to have been incorporated by the King of Pergamum, an ancient province of Mysia, as a society exclusively engaged in the erection of public buildings such as theaters and temples.
They settled at Teos, an Ionian city on the coast of Asia Minor, where notwithstanding its troubles they remained for several centuries. Among the works by them were a magnificent theater and a splendid temple of Dionysus, ruins of which still remain. King Attalus sent them from that city to Myonessus. The Teians sending representatives to Rome requesting that the Myonessians should not be permitted to fortify their city, the Dionysiacs removed to Lebedos, about fifteen miles from Teos, where they were welcomed. Then they passed over into Europe, and were merged in the association of Builders kwn as the Traveling Freemasons of the Middle Ages.
As to the foundations of this Fraternity, Clegg echoes DaCosta, somewhat, without even referring to him, or to his essay: Remember to adjust the dates, since the current view is that it was started, circa B C E Being joined by a number of the inhabitants of the surrounding provinces of Greece, they sailed to Asia Minor and drove out the dwellers in that portion of the western coast, from Phocoea, in the North, to Miletus in the south.
To this narrow strip of land they gave the name of Ionia, because the greatest number of the adventurers were natives of that Grecian state. After partly subduing and partly expelling the original people of that country, they built several towns, of which one of the principal was Teos.
They also brought into Ionia the Mysteries of Pallas and Dionysus before these had become decayed by the excesses of the Athenians. Clegg, evidently, was there, to report it. We shall comment on this below.
It must have been commonplace for certain scholars to assume that the Mysteries were a prudish affair, all serious and solemn, and not a sound too loud, or neckline too low. From what we gather, the reverse is the case, and it is the fault of the "historians" of the past to keep their readers ignorant. At least Forlong was much smarter than the grade of writers like Mackey, Clegg, Waite, and those of that ilk. Of course, it is true, that the truth of the matter had to be buried under the sanctimonius priggishness of these "historians" due to the pressure created by society and by the various ecclesiastical authorities that had to be constantly appeased.
Brother Philo in the Illuminati had some interesting things to say about this. We quote from Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy: At present the cheats and tricks of the priests have roused all men against them, and against Christianity. But, at the same time superstition and fanaticism rule with unlimited dominion, and the understanding of man really seems to be going backwards.
Our task, therefore, is doubled. We must give such an account of things, that fanatics shall not be alarmed, and that shall, notwithstanding, excite a spirit of free enquiry. We must not throw away the good with the bad, the child with the dirty water; but we must make the secret doctrines of Christianity be received as the secrets of genuine Free Masonry. But farther, we have to deal with the despotism of Princes.
This increases every day. But then, the spirit of freedom breathes and sighs in every corner; and, by the assistance of hidden schools of wisdom, Liberty and Equality, the natural and imprescriptible rights of man, warm and glow in every breast.
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We must therefore unite these extremes. We proceed in this manner. For this purpose he would unite men in a common bond. He would fit them for this buy spreading a just morality, by enlightening the understanding, and by assisting the mind to shake off all prejudices.
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He would teach all men, in the first place, to govern themselves. Rulers would then be needless, and equality and liberty would take place without any revolution, by the natural and gentle operation of reason and expediency. This great Teacher allows himself to explain every part of the Bible in conformity to these purposes; and he forbids all wrangling among his scholars, because every man may there find a reasonable application to his peculiar doctrines.
Let this be true or false, it does not signify. This was a simple Religion, and it was so far inspired; but the minds of his hearers were not fitted for receiving these doctrines. I told you, says he, but you could not bear it. Many therefore were called, but few were chosen. To these elect were entrusted the most important secrets; and even among them there were degrees of information. There was a seventy, and a twelve.
DIONYSIAN ARTIFICERS
The first is previous purgation; for neither are the mysteries communicated to all, who are willing to receive them; but there are certain characters, who are prevented by the voice of the crier; such as those who possess impure hands, and an inarticulate voice; since it is necessary that such as are not expelled from the mysteries should first be refined by certain purgations; but after purgation, the tradition of the sacred rights succeeds. The third part is denominated inspection. And the fourth, which is the end, fixing of the crowns: But the fifth, which is produced from all these, is friendship with divinity, and the enjoyment of that felicity, which arises from intimate converse with the gods.
Theo of Smyrna, in Mathemat. In the depths of midnight I saw the sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the infernal and supernatural gods, and approaching nearer to those divinities, I paid the tribute of devout adoration. The reason appears to be, that the Jews taking this month from the vague year of the Egyptians and not from the fixed year settled Thamuz in the summer solstice. Fables are theological, which employ nothing corporeal, but speculate the very essence of the gods: But we speculate fables physically when we speak concerning the energies of the gods about the world; as, when considering Saturn the same as time, and calling the parts of time the children of the universe, we assert that the children are devoured by their parent.
But we employ fables in an animastic mode, when we contemplate the energies of the soul; because, the intellection of our souls, though by a discoursive energy, they run into other things, yet abiding their parents. Lastly, fables are material, such as the Egyptians ignorantly employ, considering and calling corporeal natures divinities; such as Isis, Earth, Osiris, Humidity, Typhon, Heat; or again, denominating Saturn water, Adonis fruits, and Bacchus, wine. And, indeed, to assert that these are dedicated to the gods, in the same manner as herbs, stones, and animals, is the part of wise men; but to call them gods is alone the province of fools and madmen; unless we speak in the same manner, as when from established custom we call the orb of the sun and its rays the sun itself.
But we may perceive the mixt kind of fables, as well in many other particulars, as when they relate, that discord, at the banquet of the gods through a golden apple, and that a dispute about it arising amongst the goddesses, they were sent by Jupiter to take the judgment of Paris, who, charmed with the beauty of Venus, gave her the apple in preference to the rest.
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For in this fable, the banquet denotes the supermundane powers of the gods, and on this account, a subsisting conjunction with each other: But again, since different gifts are imparted to the world by different gods, they appear to contest with each other for the apple. And a soul living according to sense, for this is Paris and not perceiving other powers in the universe, asserts that the apple is alone the beauty of Venus.
Of these species of fables, such as are theological belong to philosophers, the physical and animastical to poets. But they were mixt with iniatiatory rites, and the intention of all mystic ceremonies is to conjoin us with the world and the gods. For to he plunged in matter is to descend into the Hades, and there fall asleep. And would you not assert that such a one, when he apprehends any certain image of reality, apprehends it rather through the medium of opinion than of science; that in the present life he is sunk in sleep, and conversant with delusions of dreams, and that before he is roused to a vigilant state, he will descend to Hades, and be overwhelmed with sleep perfectly profound?
Hence they asserted that prudent men, who earnestly employed themselves in divine concerns, were above all others in a vigilant state. But that imprudent men, who pursued objects of a different nature, being laid asleep, as it were, were only engaged in the delusions of a dream; and that if they happened to die in this sleep, before they were roused, they would be afflicted with similar and still sharper visions in a future state.
And that he who in this life pursued realities, would, after death, enjoy the highest truth; so he who was conversant with fallacies, would hereafter be tormented with fallacies and delusions in the extreme: This is to be taken in no other way, than the twelve labours of Hercules, by which, when done, the soul is liberated from all the pains of this world.
Truly it is an incomprehensible light, inaccessible; and profoundly it is compared to the sun, to which the more you look the more blind you become. The remains of the sectarians of Zoroaster, called now in Persia, Guebres, and who lead a miserable life, and more persecuted by the Mahomedans than the Jews are in Europe by the Christians, still perform their devotions, and say their prayers towards the sun or fire; but assert, that they do not adore them, only conceive them symbols of the Deity.
The Symbolism of Freemasonry/Chapter VI
Vide Stanley, De Vet. This is the beginning, God of gods, unity from one, above essence, the principle of essence, essence comes from him, for this reason is called father of essence: But in the third place, collections of various things into one are received; after which follows inspection. The ethical and political virtues, therefore, are analogous to the apparent or popular purifications. But such of the cathartic virtues as banish all external Impressions correspond to the more occult purifications. The theoretical energies about intelligibles are analogous to the collections; but the contraction of these energies into an indivisible nature, corresponds to initiation.
And the simple self-inspection of simple forms, is analogous to epoptic vision. For when Alexander was in Asia, and received information that Aristotle had published some books, in which those points were discussed, he wrote to him a letter, in behalf of Philosophy, in which be blamed the course he had taken. The following is a copy of it. In what shall we differ from others, if the sublimer knowledge, which we gained from you, be made common to all the world? For my part, I had rather excel the bulk of mankind in the superior parts of learning, than in the extent of power and dominion.
The answer was, with your husband immediately, with a strange man never. He however has it always present in his mind, acting all, one only God, constituting every thing with his will; this is his body, not tangible, not visible, nor similar to any other: Whatever appears only to your sight is created; what is concealed is all eternal; nor is it a reason why it should appear, as it never ends; he puts every thing before our eyes, but he remains concealed; because he enjoys an all eternal life: And as nothing can be made without a maker, so you must think that unless God is always acting, it is impossible for any thing to exist in heaven, air, earth, sea, in all the world, in any particle of the world, in what is as well as in what is not.
This is with the best name, God; this, again, is the most powerful of all things; this, conspicuous in mind; this, present with eyes; this, incorporeal; this, as it were, multi-corporeal, for nothing is in the bodies that is not in him; because, he alone exists in all; he has all names; because be is the only father; so it has no name because he is the father of all. De Iside and Orsiride.
Finding that the Egyptian Chronology represented the world some thousands of years older than the chronology of the Bible, he so disfigured the dates of Manethon as to make him agree with the Bible. Moreover, this work of Africanus is also lost, and we have only extracts of it, preserved in the work of a monk, generally known by the name of Syncellus, who confesses that he mutilated and altered Africanus. Now this individual not even had the original Bible, but only the Greek translation, which avowedly has the chronology vitiated; and yet Manethon's data were to be disfigured and interpolated, to make it square with the incorrect Greek translation of the Bible.
Celsus, I say, does as if such sojourner in Egypt, P. By these means the priests, being looked upon by all with admiration, in consequence of their science in those new things, expressed in the symbols, were honoured by the multitude almost as half gods. But to increase this veneration they told the people many things about the apparitions of the gods, their answers, and how they were to be worshipped to sooth them and make them propitious: Hence it came, that in the course of time, that religion conceived by Trimegistus in a sincere sense, was by degrees degenerated into open and declared idolatry.
By Playfair in the year B. C Gillies Barthelemy. This emigration is also mentioned by Herodotus, Lib. Afterwards is the river called Adonis. Their first seat was Theo. The Ionians built the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Dorians that of Apollo at Triopii, where at a certain period they repaired with their wives and children, and there performed sacred rites, and had a market, likewise games, races, wrestlings, music -parties of different kinds, and made common offerings to the gods. When they had performed the spectacles and the business of the market, or fair, and fulfilled towards each other the duties of fellow creatures, if there was any litigation between the cities, they sat as judges to settle the dispute: The proof that this reading is not correct, is not only because of the different opinions of all other translations, which understand by this Gibblim the inhabitants of Gebbel; but that the same English P.
Now that Gabbel was the same as Byblos is clear; because the Septuagint version always translates this Gebbel for Byblos, and though there were several cities of this name, yet this one seems to be that which is between Tripoli and Berite; and still called Gebail. Such, however, was what was done by the inhabitants of those cities, in testimony of which, they sent letters to women who were at Byblos, when Adonis was found, and afterwards scaled and thrown into the sea, they say they were spontaneously carried to Byblos; and, when arrived there, women ceased to weep for Adonis.
Thamuz signifies the name of a month, and likewise the name of an idol or divinity, which even in the opinion of St. Jerome is the same as Adonis. Plutarch says that the Egyptians called Osiris Ammuz, and from thence was corruptly derived the name of Jupiter Ammon. What if this ought to be thought the circumvolution of the whole heavens? But what if it be taken otherwise? So that the two cherubim signify both hemispheres. But the two sardonixes, with which the pontifical garment is clasped, denotes the sun and the moon, but if any one wish to refer the twelve stones to the twelve months, or to the same number of stars constellations in the circle, which the Greeks called the zodiac, he will not wander from the true meaning.
Now for the Christian Fathers: So for instance what the ancients told of the temple, the seven enclosures, which also refer to other things in the history of the Hebrews, and what was inside by the apparatus of divers Symbols, referring to appearances, signify in their composition what refers, to heaven and earth. They signify, then, what to the nature of the elements imports the revelation of God. In the middle, however, of the Temple was the veil, beyond which only the priests could go; there was the censer, symbol of the earth, which is this world, and from which exaltations takes place.
But that place, which afterwards inside of the veil, where only the high priest had permission to enter, and that on certain days; the external court which was open to all Hebrews, they say was the medium between heaven and earth. Others say it was the symbol of the world, which is perceived by our intellectual senses. But the opening which separated the infidelity of the people, P. This Christian Father explains these columns, by the following passage of Plato: Those are profane who believe that nothing exists, but what they can touch with their hands, but the actions and generations, and all those things, which we cannot see, in things which exist, are without number.
Such are those who attend to nothing else beyond the five senses. By this was exemplified the motion of the seven planets, which have their motions in the south. For on each side of the candlestick were branches, and in them lamps; because, the sun also, as a lamp, is placed in the middle of the other errant stars , and those which are above it, and those which are below it, by a certain divine harmony receive light from him. Besides those golden images, each having six wings, they either signify the two bears, as some will have it; or, what seems more convenient, the two hemispheres.
Indeed the name of cherubim signifies an extensive knowledge. But both have two wings, and thus signify the sensible world, and the time carried on by the circle of the zodiac. For is was supposed the shoulder to be the beginning of the hand. But those other twelve stones, which are disposed in four rows, describe to us the circle of the zodiac, and agreeing to the four seasons of the year.
In the second thousand, the firmament expansion which he called coelum. In the third thousand, he made the sea, and the water that runs on the earth. In the fourth, he made two P. In the fifth, he made the quadrupeds, animals that live on the earth and in the waters.
Dionysian Artificers index
In the sixth, he made the man. Now if you take each sign of the zodiac for 24, years, you will explain the above mystery. When the sun comes out of Aries, or the spring sign, the world is said to be born; here the period of life begins. When the sun is in Cancer, or the summer, is the pleasure and delights of life. When in Libra, life has declined: The books of the Persian Mythology explain to us the same meaning. After the thousand of God, comes the Scale Libra , Arhiman came into the world that is to say the winter.
Astronomically speaking, there is no period or cycle of 12, years. But Dupuis has solved the mystery, by saying, that the periods of the ancient Indians and Chaldeans, answered to the series 1, 2, 3, 4, or 4, 3, 2, 1. Thus the duration of the four ages of the world, according to the Ezour Vedan, were 1st age 2nd 3rd 4th 4, years 3, 2, 1, Memoirs de l'Academie des Inscript.
The Baga Vedan counts thus, P.