9. The Ceremonial Of Initiatesa

THE science is preserved by silence and perpetuated by initiation. The law of silence is not therefore absolute and inviolable, except relatively to the uninitiated multitude. Such knowledge can be only transmitted by speech. The sages therefore must speak occasionally. Yes, they must speak, not, however, to disclose, but lead others to discover. Noli ire, fac venire, was the device of Rabelais, who, being master of all the sciences of his time, could not be unacquainted with Magic. We have, consequently, to reveal here the mysteries of initiation. The destiny of man, as we have said, is to make or create himself; he is and he will be the son of his works, both for time and eternity. All men are called into the lists, but the number of the elect - that is, of those who succeed - is invariably small. In other words, the men who are desirous to attain are numbered by multitudes, but the chosen are few. Now, the government of the world belongs by right to the flower of mankind, and when any combination or usurpation prevents their possessing it, a political or social cataclysm ensues. Men who are masters of themselves become easily masters of others; but it is possible for them to hinder one another if they disregard the laws of discipline and of the universal hierarchy. To be subjects of a discipline in common, there must be a community of ideas and desires, and such a communion cannot be attained except by a common religion established on the very foundations of intelligence and reason. This religion has existed always in the world, and is that only which can be called one, infallible, indefectible and veritably catholic - that is, universal. This religion, of which all others have been successively the veils and shadows, is that which demonstrates being by being, truth by reason, reason by evidence and common sense. It is that which proves by realities the reasonable basis of hypotheses, and forbids reasoning upon hypotheses independently of realities. It is that which is grounded on the doctrine of universal analogies but never confounds the things of science with those of faith. It can never be of faith that two and one make more or less than three; that in physics the contained can exceed the container; that a solid body, as such, can act like a fluidic or gaseous body; that, for example, a human body can pass through a closed door without dissolution or opening. To say that one believes such a thing is to talk like a child or a fool; yet it is no less insensate to define the unknown and to argue from hypothesis to hypothesis, till we come to deny evidence a priori for the affirmation of precipitate suppositions. The wise man affirms what he knows and believes in what he does not know only in proportion to the reasonable and known necessities of hypothesis. But this reasonable religion is unadapted for the multitude; fables, mysteries, definite hopes and terrors having a physical basis, are needful for these. It is for this reason that the priesthood has been established in the world. Now, the priesthood is recruited by initiation. Religious forms perish when initiation ceases in the sanctuary, whether by the betrayal of the Mysteries or by their neglect and oblivion. The Gnostic disclosures, for example, alienated the Christian Church from the high truths of the Kabalah, which contains all secrets of transcendental theology. Hence the blind, having become leaders of the blind, great obscurities, great lapses and deplorable scandals have followed. Subsequently, the sacred books, of which the keys are all kabalistic from Genesis to the Apocalypse, have become so little intelligible to Christians, that prudent pastors have judged it necessary to forbid them being read by the uninstructed among believers.