FOURTH INSTRUCTION

FROM MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1774 All beings derived from the Creator are temples. One must distinguish between the different gates of the temple. Material temple, the smallest atom of matter is one of these since it has its vehicle that animates it. Spiritual temple of beings who drive and direct temporal Creation without themselves being subject to time, such was Adam in his first principle. As one may have noticed, alchemical language is employed here from time to time, but not in a constant manner, as in the properly Hermetic Rites; first place is reserved for the symbolism of numbers and their Kabbalistic interpretation. Spiritual, temporal temples raised visibly on this surface for the duration of time for the Resurrection. The 7 principal days, those of Adam, of Enoch, of Melchizedek, of Moses, of Solomon, of Zorobabel, and of Christ, types of deliverance and of resurrection. The others, like Noah, Abraham, etc., days of different types. The body of man is a lodge or a temple, which is a repetition of the general, particular, and universal Temple. Masonry consists in raising up edifices on their foundations. We are thus spiritual Masons. Apocryphal Masonry derived from the order calls its assemblies lodges and we temples. They give themselves the name of Masons, and we today, to distinguish ourselves, call ourselves Elect Cohen Philosophers. The Temple of Solomon, on which all Masonry is founded, holds a remarkable rank among the seven principal spiritual, temporal temples, through its infinite allusions within universal Creation. Relations within the ternary division: the porch wherein the multitude of Levites assembled in order to assist with the sacrifices, the Temple wherein assembled the Priests who aided the High Priest in his functions, the Holy of Holies wherein the High Priest alone entered to perform his particular tasks. - Relationships with the terrestrial, celestial, and super-celestial parts of Creation, and with man's stomach, his chest-or the seat of his soul through the blood-and his head. The Vestments of the G.P. were allegorical with respect to his functions or particular tasks. He ran the risk of death if he presented himself impure or ill-prepared within the Holy of Holies; he wore bells at the base of his robe, in order that it might be noticed if he were inactive for too long; he entered therein with long cords trailing behind him, the ends of which remained in the temple; they allowed the priests who were unable to enter the Holy of Holies to retrieve his body were he to die therein. The Priests of our day have preserved these cords, the stoll or receptacle, the alb, the miter, etc. All spiritual temples have been founded on seven Columns, which allegorically represent the seven gifts of the Spirit originally accorded man; of these gifts, the faculty of action can only develop within him through the junction and direct correspondence with his quaternary of divine emanation. The seven Columns were represented in the Temple of Solomon by the 7 -branched candlestick, which held seven stars or lit lamps, and which represented the 7 planets, the 7 columns of universal Creation. The G.P. moved this candlestick according to the different parts on which he wished to work. Man was created at the third hour, the number of the spiritual essences that cooperated with the formation of bodies; he fell at the fifth hour, the number of the joining of his divine quaternary with the false, evil unity, and was embodied at the sixth hour, the number of the manufacture of the Universe over which he should have ruled, and was driven out at the ninth, the number of the matter in which he had been clothed. Three powerful words, Mor. Ya. In., [22] by which he was to execute his power, represented by these words, laws, precepts, and commandments, in virtue of which, directed by the Creator, he executes the three acts of power that were innate to him over the general, the particular, and the Universal, or terrestrial, celestial, and supercelestial; but, contrary to the will of the Creator, he also wished to execute power over the divine, and lost use of his three powers. They were restored to him through the Reconciliation; but these three faculties in him remain without action and without life if they are not reactivated through the Divine quaternary power that each must work to obtain. These three powers, words, or faculties are represented to the Candidate in his first grades by the three ^ signs placed on him: on the heart, the right side, and on the head; the perpendicular line drawn from the forehead to the stomach represents the Divine, quaternary power that marks the center of the three others and without which they are nothing. The Temple of Solomon was constructed (on) the Mountain of Mount Mor, [23] ground elevated above all senses, which corresponds to the Garden of Eden, or the terrestrial paradise, in which the first man was created; [24] it was raised without any metal tool in order to symbolize the fact that universal Creation proceeded from the sole will and power of the Creator, and that matter supplies only the surface appearance, or again to symbolize the fact that the material body of the first man as well as that of Christ was formed without the aid of any physical, material operation. It was built in six years and dedicated on the 7th, to symbolize the six days or six divine thoughts that enacted the manufacture of the Universe, together with the 7th, which is the Creator's blessing of his work, the presentation made of it to him by the G. A., and the temporal embodiment of the greater emanated agents to maintain and guide it under the direction of the greater Spirit or G. A. [25] Origins of the Sabbath, necessity of its observance, manner of doing so, all the days and at each hour thus meriting the protection of the 7 principal agents [26] and of their chief 8th. The 8th directs the 7th, the 7th directs and governs the work of senary creation; likewise, the senary will be destroyed by the retreat of the 7th, after which the 8th will reintegrate all that it formed. The seven seals of the Book of the Apocalypse, on which lies the Lamb or the 8th who alone possesses the key to it. In the Temple of Solomon, there were four hieroglyphs for each number.