THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE

THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE

Ever since mankind, the prodigal spirit sons of our Father in Heaven,
wandered into the wilderness of the world and fed upon the husks of its
pleasures, which starve the body, there has been within man's heart a sound-
less voice urging him to return; but most men are so engrossed in material
interests that they hear it not. The Mystic Mason who has heard this inner
voice feels impelled by an inner urge to seek for the Lost Word; to build a
house of God, a temple of the spirit, where he may meet the Father face to
face and answer His call.

Nor is he dependent upon his own resources in this quest, for our Father
in Heaven has Himself prepared a way marked with guide posts which will lead
us to Him if we follow. But as we have forgotten the divine Word and would
be unable now to comprehend its meaning, the Father speaks to us in the language of symbolism, which both hides and reveals the spiritual truths we
must understand before we can come to Him. Just as we give to our children
picture books which reveal to their nascent minds intellectual concepts
which they could not otherwise understand, so also each God-given symbol has
a deep meaning which could not be learned without that symbol.

God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit. It is therefore strictly
forbidden to make a material likeness of Him, for nothing we could make
would convey an adequate idea. But as we hail the flag of our country with
joy and enthusiasm because it awakens in our breasts the tenderest feelings
for home and our loved ones, because it stirs our noblest impulse, because
it is a symbol of all the things which we hold dear, so also do different
divine symbols which have been given to mankind from time to time speak to
that forum of truth which is within our hearts, and awaken our consciousness
to divine ideas entirely beyond words. Therefore symbolism, which has
played an all-important part in our past evolution, is still a prime neces-
sity in our spiritual development; hence the advisability of studying it
with our intellects and our hearts.

It is obvious that our mental attitude today depends on how we thought
yesterday, also that our present condition and circumstances depend on how
we worked or shirked in the past. Every new thought or idea which comes to
us we view in the light of our previous experience, and thus we see that our
present and future are determined by our previous living. Similarly the path of spiritual endeavor which we have hewn out for ourselves in past ex-
istences determines our present attitude and the way we must go to attain
our aspirations. Therefore we can gain no true perspective of our future
development unless we first familiarize ourselves with the past.

It is in recognition of this fact that modern Masonry harks back to the
temple of Solomon. That is very well as far as it goes, but in order to
gain the fullest perspective we must also take into consideration the an-
cient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We must
understand the relative importance of that Tabernacle, also of the first and
second temples, for there were vital differences between them, each fraught
with cosmic significance; and within them all was the foreshadowing of the
CROSS, sprinkled with BLOOD, which was turned to ROSES.