THIRD INSTRUCTION

FROM FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1774

Opening of the 4 gates of the Temple and of the 3 gates of the Porch.

The 3 circles, sensible visual, rational, and their 3 relationships.

The septenary of Creation and its duration.

The binary number opposition of two powers.

The quinary number division of the denary.

The quaternary Good opposed to evil thought and intellect.

The lesser becomes an evil intellect and perverts its fellows.

The novenary, 3 essences, three elements, three bodily principles.

The novenary by the multiplication of the three mixtures.

The novenary by the senary number of manufacture, creation, and the three created essences.

Higher spirits 10, greater 8, lower 7, lesser terrestrial 3, or d° higher 10, greater 8, lower 3, lesser man 4, or all was made by the senary and is directed by the 7th.

The joining with the greater spirit is accomplished at the age of seven.

Men and Religion do punish before the age of seven.

Producers.

Vehicle inserted into Chaos develops what redounds through the descent of the higher agent Spirit; there is no action without reaction.

Explosion of Chaos through retreat of the greater Divine agent.

Extension of Chaos, Limits of Creation fixed by the Spirits of the axis; they maintain the limits of Creation.

It [Creation] serves as a barrier to the evil will of the first perverse spirits.

They exercise their malice against it and relentlessly seek its deterioration.

Ternary of the three fires of the axis, the earth, and the Sun.

Effects of these three fires acting upon one another.

Passive and active mercury, vegetative and active sulfur, sensitive salt.^[21]

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.

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.## FIFTH INSTRUCTION### FROM FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1774At the entrance to the Temple of Solomon there were two equal columns of 18 cubits in height. The right column was named Jak.,^[27] which means 'he will establish'; the left column was named Bo., which means 'confusion'; the first alluded to man's incorporation within his natural body, the second to woman's. The columns were equal because, the lesser spiritual being of man and of woman having the same origin, the same emanation, they are equal and have the same act to fulfill. They were divided into three parts, to wit: 10–4–4. Which represents through the 10 the correspondence of the lesser with the Divinity, the circumference to the center; through the 4, the correspondence of the terrestrial surface with the celestial region; and through the other 4, that of the celestial region to the super-celestial.The work Jak., 'he will establish, proclaims the power of command that was reserved for man in his original state. The word Bo., 'confusion', expresses what has resulted from the disobedience of the first man, which repeated that of the first Spirits, whom he should have contained, harassed, and who alone could have served them with a good intellect, and by communication with them inspired them to repent, and thenceforth to cease from evil; but leading man astray, they are deprived of this unique resource.

In spite of his fall, man always has the same task to fulfill, that for which he was destined, and he must therefore work towards Reconciliation, the sole means of reacquiring his three powers over the West, North, and South, which represent the terrestrial, celestial, and supercelestial, and conform himself once again to his quaternary, to harass without cease the wicked spirits, refusing to fall into their traps, ceaselessly destroying their wicked projects, and finally to reclaim the authority over them that was reserved for them, because if the divine mercy ever wishes to work some Good in their favor, it will be solely through man's communication with them that they might be brought to desire such a thing, since man was established for this end and since the immutable decrees of God must be fulfilled. The man who yields his will to them frustrates the designs of the Creator and, as long as he is in them, forsakes his original purpose; by joining his will and action to their chief, he becomes one with him and becomes inferior to him and his subject; he is equipped with a demonic intellect to seduce and pervert his fellow man through his example, and he renders himself more at fault than they themselves and must therefore expect a worse fate than theirs, since he strengthens the part he was charged to destroy.

The number of confusion of the second column is designated by the binary rank held by the first letter of the word Boaz in the Hebrew alphabet.

These two columns have yet another application: that of the South designated the soul of man or the lesser, that of the North the Good spirit given to him to direct him; if within universal Creation the South is the region to which the wicked spirits were more especially relegated, the Northern region must be inhabited by beings with the ability and charge to contain them, which Holy Scripture often gives us to understand in speaking either of the Demon of Noonday,^[28] or of the Holy Spirit, who is always made to come with the North Wind.^[29] These things were likewise symbolized by the two columns, the one of stone or brick, which had been raised in the Northern part, the posterity of Seth, the other, the one made of earth, which had been raised in the Southern part, that of Cain. The first announced the strength and subtlety of spiritual works. Good, it resisted the inundations of the Flood and was preserved long after. The other offspring announced the weakness and corruption of works of matter, which was again designated by the number of confusion and its proportions. They were thus totally destroyed by the waters of the flood. It was forbidden the children of God to couple with the children of men.^[30] This prohibition must not be understood materially. Men of this time only being able to multiply in accordance with the physical laws of nature to which they, like all other animals, were subject, they should have been free to couple indiscriminately with women of the two races; but it was forbidden to the children of God, that is, to those who observed the laws, precepts, and commandments of God, to couple with women who had forgotten or scorned them, for fear of letting themselves be perverted or led into the same forgetfulness through their example. From Adam until the flood, only two nations were reckoned: that of the Children of Seth, established in the North and called Children of God, since his law was preserved with them, and that of Cain, called the Children of Men and relegated to the South. The two nations, by the places in which they abode, represented the wicked spirits relegated to the South of Creation, and the good spirit in the region of the North. Only two nations were considered to have come from Adam, because Abel, his second son, left no _material posterity_. He came only to enact through his death the reconciliation of Adam his father, and to be the type of universal Regeneration. Cain and his posterity stand as the type of the evil spirits first emanated from their chiefs; Seth and his posterity stand as the type of the lesser, or of man, second emanated, but become elder in the spiritual order. We should observe that all the spiritual types occurring among men until Noah were transmitted for man's instruction in the posterity of Seth and of Enos his son.

In the beginning Adam, temporal father of all his descendents, is seen as the type of the Creator, Abel as that of the Regenerator, and Seth as that of the Spirit who instructs and directs.

Although all men have the same task of persecution [of wicked spirits], it does not follow as an absolute necessity for the fulfillment of the Creator's decrees and the good of Creation that all must fulfill it; a small number or even one can suffice, as is proven in several places in Scripture, where, to save a considerable number, it is enough to find ten Righteous, or even one.

Man's posterity is saved through Noah, alone found righteous in the eyes of the Creator. Noah, at the time of the flood, of 600 years old, stands as the type of the Creator, floating on the waters and preserving in the ark the seed of all animal reproductions. The dimensions of the ark further have a sensible relationship with universal Creation, which recalls the three spiritual essences from which all bodily forms are derived. In its dimensions of length (300 cubits), of width (50 cubits), of height (30 cubits), one recognizes the number of Creation, and in its total product, that of confusion deriving from two powers in opposition, to sustain on the one hand, and to liberate on the other.

In the number 5, which caused its construction.

The Temple of Solomon was 60 cubits long, 20 wide, and 30 high.

The ark was 20 cubits in length, width, and height.^[31] The Temple was 40 cubits long^[32] and 20 wide.

In front of the Temple, a vestibule of 20 cubits long by 20 wide.

Same relationships in the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, 20 wide, 60 long, 30 high, divided into three stages or distinct parts, the porch, the Temple, the Sanctuary in which was the Holy of Holies; which announces the correspondence between the divine immensity and the earth, represented by the porch by means of the celestial and...^[33]

Since Noah, there have been 3 nations, to wit, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Ham, the eldest, relegated to the region of the South, represents the type of Cain and the corrupt first emanated spirits. Shem, father of the descendents of the Israelites through Abraham, stands as the type of Seth. Japheth is the father of the third nation, that of the Gentiles, to whom the light was carried on account of the contempt the Hebrew descendants of Shem had for it, in punishment of their abandonment of the divine law; and through the pure mercy of the Creator, Christians today, or the Gentiles derived from Japheth, have become the eldest in the order of Grace of the descendents of Shem; but as these descendants of Shem were the people chosen by the Creator to manifest his marvels and his glory, and that his decrees might always be fulfilled, they will recover their rights at the end of time, and, through a complete reconciliation, become again the elders of the Gentiles, who, through the abuse of their light, knowledge, and aid, deserve to be deprived of them in their turn, which already begins to be manifest in the present Century.

In all that is recounted concerning them in the Holy Scriptures, the wicked, demonic Spirits and their chief are represented by the Egyptians descended from Ham, along with their King. The land of Egypt represents the part of Creation where they were relegated to work their evil wills, which helps to explain many passages.

Deprived of all celestial light, their vision obscured by the dark cloud that hid from them the column of fire illuminating the righteous, in blindness they followed the path cleared before them, they were swallowed up beneath the waters, and the same passage that led the Israelites in surety hurled their enemies into the abyss. The various camps they formed in the wilderness after this passage seem to announce the painful travails of the lesser in the sensible circle. Does not the law they received at the base of Sinai announce their return to their first power in the visual circle? Finally, the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land announces the entry of the lesser into the place of spiritual Reintegration, or the full exercise of his power within the rational circle.^[34]