Rosslyn Treasury Page 3

  Meanwhile, down all the days that passed, the tree of Enoch grew ever stronger, but far from the eyes and sight of men. But when Solomon ordered that his father’s wish be fulfilled, and a temple built to house the Name of God and the Ark of His Covenant with men, the architect Hiram Abiff went looking for a suitable wood to be the pillar to support the structure. To him was granted a sight of the tree, and he knew that this was a tree of special virtue and strength. He caused to be cut from it a great beam that was to become the central supporting pillar, and thus it was done. But when they came to place the pillar within the structure, it would not go through the doorway. This was a great puzzle to Hiram, and he measured the length and the width and the breadth, and measured these against the size of the doorway, and there was no reason that he could see why the beam should not pass through the doorway, and yet, try as they might, nothing availed, and the beam would not pass through. Therefore Hiram ordered that the beam should be placed over the river as part of the bridge that connected the northern banks with the southern banks.

  Now, Balchis, the Queen of Sheba, came to meet Solomon, and to marvel at the great temple that was now becoming famous in all the lands round about.

  But when she came to the river, she saw the great beam that was part of the bridge, and she stopped and worshipped. When she was asked why she showed such reverence to a piece of wood, she told them that it was on wood from the same tree as this beam that the Saviour of all the world should hang.

  The generations from Solomon to the birth of Jesus were twenty-eight, and the tree grew stronger through all this time, but few were they who saw it. But when the judgment was made that He should be crucified, it was from this tree that the wood for the Cross was cut.

  Now the cross that the Romans used to hang those judged guilty had a stem that reached down into the ground, like a tree, and two arms that stretched out on either side, parallel with the backbones of the beasts of the field, while the centre piece pointed to the skies. But the carpenters who fashioned the cross for Jesus Christ found that the shape of the wood, and the knots in it, meant that the two cross-pieces did not reach out horizontally, but were raised, like arms raised in prayer or supplication. They showed this to the officer of the soldiers, but he said: ‘Let it stand thus,’ and so it was that this cross was different from the others. In this way, the prophecy of the Queen of Sheba came to pass.

  The capital of the Apprentice Pillar, showing Green Men, Angels with musical instruments, an Angel with an open book, and vegetation branching out across the chapel.

  3. The Green Men — Osiris

  The youngest of the ‘Green Man’ faces: nineteenth century replacement of a damaged original.

  Visitors to Rosslyn soon have their attention drawn to the multitude of ‘Green Men’, faces that appear out of the carved foliage that appears in profusion in the chapel. Rosslyn is not alone in having Green Men appearing among the decoration, but it is entirely alone in the amount of them. There are well over a hundred of these small faces, appearing throughout the chapel, inside and out, and another, more surprising phenomenon is that, as you follow them round the chapel in a clockwise direction, they grow older, and the last one on the path has a face touched by death, skull-like and hollow-eyed. This aging has been noticed by Mark Oxbrow and Ian Robertson in their book Rosslyn and the Grail. What is depicted here is the rhythm of the year. Nature is youthful in the springtime and grows towards the ‘death’ of winter, after which it is reborn. The Green Men faces personify the world of Nature in its yearly rhythm of death and rebirth.

  In pre-Christian times this annual rhythm was seen as an earthly reflection, within time, of events in the heavens among the gods, in eternity. Gods whose death and rebirth were celebrated within the world of Nature included Baldur among the Northern European people, Adonis in the Greek world, Tammuz further east among the Phoenician peoples; but the origin and archetype of them all was Osiris, chief of the Gods of Egypt, after Ra, the Creator. William Sinclair knew that he could not place a clear representation of what would have been judged to be a pagan deity into what was to be a place of Christian worship. Nevertheless, Osiris is the origin and archetype of the Green Men.

  The story of Osiris

  The first and greatest of the gods was Ra, born of the immense and chaotic abyss Nuu. Ra thought, and his thinking was creation. He created all things from his thinking. Earth and sky were separated from one another by the thinking of Ra, and the earth was Qeb, the Father, and sky was called Nut, the Mother. The Upper Air was called Shu and the Lower Air was called Tefenet.

  From Qeb and Nut was born earthly creation, through the thinking of Ra. Osiris was the first-born of these gods, and when he was born, a voice rang through the heavens and the earth, crying: ‘Behold! Now is born the Lord of all things!’

  After Osiris came Isis, who was his sister and wife, and Thoth the Wise One. The sister of Isis was Nephthys. Last of these was Typhon-Set, whose birth rent a hole in his mother’s side, for he came raging into the world.

  When Osiris reigned, there was peace in the world. Weapons were unknown in the hands of men. The speech of men and women was sweet and wholesome, and music was heard throughout the world. It was Osiris who taught the secrets of the growth of the soil to men, so that the crops could grow and feed the people, and wine be made of the grapes. All was green and abundant where Osiris reigned, and all was harmonious between men and women, and the pattern of their harmony was Osiris and Isis, the King and the Queen of all created things.

  But Typhon-Set dwelled in the waste places, where no green thing grew. His was the desert and all therein, and he hated the growth of the soil. All that Osiris had taught to men was hateful to Typhon-Set, and he laid plans against the life of Osiris, but Isis was watchful and baffled his plans at every turn.

  The larnax of Typhon-Set

  Typhon-Set became more cunning. He gazed at Osiris from far off, and he looked at his shadow. From the shadow of Osiris he noted the proportions of his body and kept them in his heart, and from the measurements of the body of Osiris he constructed a larnax, which is a chest made to the size and shape of a person.

  The time was approaching when the waters would recede, and Typhon-Set invited everyone to a feast before the time of the drought began. All the children of Qeb and Nut were called to the feast. Thoth and Nephthys, the wife of Typhon-Set came, and Isis came and Osiris. As they enjoyed the feast, they could see in plain view the larnax that Typhon-Set had made so cunningly from the wood of many a fragrant and aromatic tree. This larnax drew the admiration of those at the feast, and Typhon-Set said that he would give it to whoever could fit inside it exactly. Typhon-Set himself lay in it, but its proportions were not right for him. Nephthys laid herself in it, but she was not the right shape for it. Thoth tried, and he too was not the right shape to fit the larnax, and neither was Isis, when she tried.

  Now it was the turn of Osiris, and he laid aside his crown and lowered himself into the larnax. The form of his body filled the length of it, and the breadth of it so perfectly, and his countenance shone nobly within it, and the perfection of his body was fair to be seen within it, and all who stood by were astonished and praised the beauty of Osiris and the workmanship of Typhon-Set, but Typhon-Set stood apart, and called to his men.

  At once, six dozen of the attendants of Typhon-Set rushed into the room and put a heavy cover on the larnax. Some kept the other children of Qeb and Nut at a distance while others drove nails through the cover into the larnax, and sealed it with lead. Isis and Thoth and Nephthys could do nothing against the strength of the attendants, and could do no more than to run, following those who bore the larnax through the night to the banks of the river, but in the darkness they lost each other.

  In the light of the dawn, Isis, Thoth and Nephthys found each other again, and they followed the spoor of the men who had carried away the body of Osiris in the larnax. But the larnax had been thrown into the river, and now was borne away to the sea.

&n
bsp; The wanderings of Isis

  Isis followed the bank of the river until she came to the sea, but she did not know where the sea had taken Osiris. She crossed the sea and asked wherever she could about the larnax, but none could help her, though little children followed her and tried to help her in her misery.

  Now the larnax had been washed ashore in a great wave in the land of Byblos, and it had lain in a thicket of trees. One of these trees had lifted the larnax as it grew, and wrapped it around with its branches, and spread its bark around it, until the larnax was part of the growing tree, and spread the fragrance of its many aromatic woods to the tree.

  The king and queen of Byblos were called Melqart and Astarte. They were told of this tree whose fragrance was so wonderful, and King Melqart sent men to cut down the tree, to trim away the branches and to bring it to him, so that it could stand as a pillar in his house. This was done, and the tree stood as a pillar in the palace of Melqart and Astarte, and they wound garlands round it.

  The news of the woman who sat by the grove of trees came to the ears of the queen Astarte, and she came to see for herself. When Astarte approached, Isis arose and stretched out her hand and placed it in blessing on Astarte’s head. Astarte felt herself filled with a wonderful fragrance. Astarte asked if Isis would come to the palace and be the nursemaid to her child, and Isis agreed.

  Isis nursed the princeling in the hall where the pillar stood, wound round with garlands. She put her finger in the child’s mouth, and this nourished the child. At night she stripped away the wood from the pillar and threw the wood on the fire. In this fire she would lay the princeling, who would take no hurt from the flames, but lie among them as they burned softly round him. Isis would then take the form of a swallow, and fly round the pillar, singing a song of lamentation.

  One night, Astarte entered the hall, and saw her son lying among the flames, and snatched him out with a loud cry of distress. Isis, in the form of a swallow, called to Astarte from the pillar, and said: ‘Foolish and sudden! Hadst thou suffered the child to lie another night and yet one more night in the fire of the wood of this pillar, he would have gained immortality! Now, though his life shall be long, he shall not be immortal.’

  Astarte drew back in astonishment. ‘Who, then, are you, who say such things?’ she demanded.

  ‘I am Isis, and within this pillar is entombed Osiris my consort. We are the children of Qeb and of Nut, and I have long sought my husband before I found him within your palace, closed up in this pillar.’

  Melqart, when he heard this, gave orders for the pillar to be taken down and cloven open. There was the larnax in which lay Osiris. Isis wrapped the larnax in linen, and it was borne out of the palace and set upon a ship. The ship sailed back to Egypt, and Isis stirred not at all from beside the larnax.

  The return of Isis and Osiris

  In Egypt, Isis took the body of Osiris out of the larnax, and she breathed her own breath into him, and though in her own form, let her swallow’s wings grow broad and wide upon her back to waft the breath of life into Osiris. Osiris awoke, and he and Isis dwelled far away from the children of Qeb and Nut.

  Now Typhon-Set loved to hunt the gazelle whose beauty and grace offended him, and one night he was out hunting, and he discovered Isis and Osiris sleeping peacefully in the moonlight. In a rage, he fell upon the sleeping Osiris, and tore him into fourteen pieces. These he scattered about the land, and death fell upon the soil of Egypt for the first time. Men began to take up weapons and to make war; speech between men and women lost its sweetness and the music was stilled. The green growth of the soil grew less and less, and the desert waste began to spread. Thoth and Nephthys were afraid as they stood before Typhon-Set, and all that Ra had brought into being through his thought was in danger of destruction.

  Isis travelled through the marshes in a boat made of reeds, with Nephthys at her side, and together they gathered the pieces of the body of Osiris. One after another, each one was found. On an island floating among the reeds of the marshes, she put the pieces together, and sang over them, and breathed the breath of her body into the reformed body of Osiris, and peace began to come once again among warring men; music was heard once more. The growth of the soil began again in all its fullness.

  A voice came to Isis to tell her that Osiris lived again indeed, but now he lived in the Underworld, where he was the judge of the dead, and through his justice men and women were immortal.

  A child was born to Isis, whose name was Horus, and Thoth and Nephthys kept him safe on the floating island of Chemmis. Horus would one day be king and would strive against the power of Typhon-Set, though Isis would not have her brother slain, and made him live among the lesser gods where his power was reduced for ever.

  The skull-like green man face, centre, on the capital of the Journeyman’s Pillar.

  4. Hermes Trismegistus

  The face of Hermes Trismegistus.

  In the Lady Chapel at the east of Rosslyn, close to the stairs that lead to the Lower Chapel, is a face that at first seems to belong to the many Green Men that are to be seen all over the chapel, inside and out. But this is larger than the others, and the features are clearly defined, youthful and slightly feminine. This face is traditionally associated in Rosslyn mythology with Hermes Trismegistus, the Thrice-Great Hermes whose teachings were known to Plato and the Ancients. In common with the Green Men, foliage sprouts from the mouth, but does not link up with the carved plant-life that is so luxuriant in the chapel, as it does with the rest of the Green Men. In fact, it suggests a threefold crown, or diadem. The mouth and jaw symbolize here the will, as the nose and central plane of the face is connected with the feelings and the brow with thinking. The face of Hermes shows what is achieved through the transformation through the will of those aspects of the human being that in Indian terminology are called Manas, or transformed soul; Bodhi, the life force transformed into a higher quality; and finally Atman, the physical nature of the human being itself raised to a new level of existence. But the appearance of Hermes Trismegistus in Rosslyn indicates an important link with the oldest mysteries of mankind, and in particular, of Ancient Egypt.

  William Sinclair and his colleague in the design and building of Rosslyn, Gilbert Haye, were practised esotericists, well aware of the importance and influence of Hermes. Indeed, at the time of the building of Rosslyn, considerable importance was attached to writings attributed to Hermes, even though doubts were later expressed about their authenticity. Still, the so-called Hermetica current in the fifteenth century reflected with a high degree of accuracy the teachings of the original Hermes. The rituals of the Hermetic initiation of Egypt were reborn in a new way in the initiations of Craft Masonry; in a different way in the Templar rituals and later, in the practices of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. The story of that initiation into the secrets of Hermes belongs here.

  The ‘original Hermes’: this begs a question. The name Hermes in the sense that it appears here is not the name of a single individual, but rather, a title. One who had attained the very highest initiation into the mysteries of Ancient Egypt could call himself Hermes, or to use the Egyptian name, Thoth. There were very few who reached such a level of initiation.

  The Isis initiation

  Thousands of years before Christ, Egypt reached its greatness. Asclepius, a young student of the mysteries, looking around at the marvels of Egyptian architecture and art, was told by Hermes-Thoth: ‘O Egypt, Egypt! For future generations, nothing will remain of thee but unbelievable tales and words carved in stone!’ In those days, water lapped around the base of the Sphinx, the early representation of the terrestrial Isis. The culture of the god Ammon-Ra flourished in those early years, until the great invasions of the Hyksos, the so-called Shepherd-Princes, an Asiatic people who overran most of Egypt, and drove the keepers of the mysteries underground. Indeed, the Hyksos made a great contribution to the cultural and economic life of Egypt during the nine hundred years of their rule, but once they were overthrown, the ancient myste
ries that had been kept hidden were unchanged. Men had come to learn them, and if successful, to maintain them, from those schools that were the preparatory colleges for the greater mysteries.

  The student of the mysteries needed more than an overwhelming thirst for knowledge if he were to become successful. He who put himself into the hands of Hermes Trismegistus needed courage and steadfastness. He would already have known something of The Book of the Dead, and the voyage of the immortal part of the human being after death; the review of one’s life, the region of fire, burning away the imperfections gathered in life; the purification of the astral body or soul; the meeting with two pilots, the good pilot who looks forward and the evil pilot whose face is turned to the side; the trial before the forty two judges of earthly life and the defence conducted by the god Thoth. If at the end of this journey the weight of the soul was in balance in the scales with the ostrich feather of Isis, then it would be admitted into the light of Osiris. But were things really as was described in The Book of the Dead? ‘Isis and Osiris know!’ was all the answer the novice received, and the names were not spoken aloud but whispered.

  Knowing the contents of The Book of the Dead had a profound effect on some of those familiar with it. Those who wished to penetrate the mysteries to their very depths would eat no meat or fish, and remain chaste. A revolution in the moral life was necessary if one was to undertake such a path of enlightenment. The French esotericist and researcher Édouard Schuré described fully the path of the postulant in his book The Great Initiates.