The Mighty Men Of Old, The Heroes Of Renown
Cover. The Alchemist [1649]. Artist: David Teniers II [1610–1690].
Preface
This text is replicated from There Is But One Religion In All The World: Manly P. Hall, by Agrippa's Diary.
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Introduction
Do you realise that even at the present stage of civilisation in this world, there are souls, who like the priests of the ancient temples, walk the earth and watch and guard the sacred fires that burn upon the altar of humanity. Purified ones they are, who have renounced the life of this sphere in order to guard and protect the flame: that spiritual principle in man now hidden beneath the ruins of his fallen temple. As we think of the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome and the grandeur that was Egypt, we sigh as we recall the story of their fall, and we watch the nations of today, not knowing which will be the next to draw its shroud around itself, and join that great ghostly file of peoples that are dead.
But everywhere, even in the rise and fall of nations, we see through the haze of materiality. Everywhere we see the reward, not of man, but of the invincible one, the eternal flame. A great hand reaches out from the Unseen, and regulates the affairs of man: it reaches out from that great spiritual flame which nourishes all created things, the never dying fire that burns on the sacred altar of the cosmos that great fire which is the spirit of God.
If we turn again to the races now dead, we shall if we look, find the cause of their destruction: the light had gone out, when the flame within the body, is withdrawn. The body is dead. When the light was taken from the altar, the temple was no longer the dwelling place of a living God: degeneracy, lust, passion, hates and fears crept into the souls of Greece and Rome and black magic overshadowed Egypt. The light upon the altar grew weaker and weaker, the priests lost the word, the name of the flame. Little by little the flame flickered out, and as the last spark grew cold, a mighty nation died: buried beneath the dead ashes of its own spiritual fire.
But the flame did not diee. Like Spirit, of which it is the essence, it cannot die because it is life, and life cannot cease to BE. In some wilderness of land or sea, it rested once again, and there rose a mighty nation around that flame. So history goes on through the ages. As long as the people are true to the flame, it remains, but when they cease to nourish it with their lives, it goes on to other lands and other worlds. Those who worship this flame, are now called heathens.* Little do we realise, that we are heathen ourselves, until we are baptised of the Holy Spirit, which is fire. For fire is light, and the children of the flame, are the sons of Light even as God is light.
* heathen [n.] a follower of a polytheistic religion; a pagan. Informal: a person regarded as lacking culture or moral principles.
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'A great hand reaches out from the Unseen, and regulates the affairs of man: it reaches out from that great spiritual flame which nourishes all created things, the never dying fire that burns on the sacred altar of the cosmos that great fire which is the spirit of God.'
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Who Are The Initiates Of The Flame?
There are those who have for ages, laboured with man, to help him to kindle within himself, this spark which is his divine [birthright]. It is these, who by their lives of self-sacrifice and service, have awakened and tended this fire; and who through ages of study, have learned the mystery it contained: that we now call the initiates of the flame. For ages they have laboured with mankind to help him to uncover the Light within himself, and on the pages of history, they have left their seal, the seal of fire. Unhonored and unsung, they have laboured with humanity, and now their lives are used as fairy stories to amuse children.
But the time will yet come, when the world shall know the work they did, and realise that our present civilisation is raised upon the shoulders of the mighty demigods of the past. We stand as Faust* stood, with all our law, a fool no wiser than before because we refuse to take the truths they gave us and the evidence of their experiences. Let us honour these sons of the flame: not by words, but by so living, that their sacrifice shall not be in vain. They have shown us the way, they have led man to the gateway of the unknown and there in their robes of glory, passed behind the veil. Their lives were the key to their wisdom, as it must always be. They have gone, but in history they stand, milestones on the road of human progress.
* Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust [c. 1480–1540]. The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. 'Faust' and the adjective 'Faustian' imply sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.
Let us watch these mighty ones as they pass silently by: first Orpheus, playing upon the seven stringed lyre of his own being, The Music of the Spheres1, then Hermes the Thrice-Greatest, with his Emerald Tablet of divine revelation. Through the shades of the past, we dimly see Krishna the Illuminated, who on the battlefield of life, taught man the mysteries of his own soul. Then we see the sublime Buddha - his yellow robe not half so glorious as the heart it covered - and our dear Master, the man Jesus, his head surrounded with a halo of Golden Flame and his brow, serene with the calm of Mastery. Then Muhammad, Zoroaster, Confucius, Odin, and Moses, and others, no less worthy pass by before the eyes of the student.
They were the sons of flame. From the flame they came, and to the flame they have returned. To us they beckon and bid us join them, and in our robes of self-earned glory, to serve the flame they love. They were without creed or clan. They served but the one great ideal: from the same place they all came, and to the same place they have returned. There was no superiority there. Hand in hand, they labour for humanity: each loves the other, for the power that has made them Masters; has shown them the brotherhood of all life.
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'Unhonored and unsung, they have laboured with humanity, and now their lives are used as fairy stories to amuse children ... But the time will yet come, when the world shall know the work they did, and realise that our present civilisation is raised upon the shoulders of the mighty demigods of the past.'
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The Thread That Connects All Religions
This is the great thread - the spiritual thread - the thread of living fire that winds in and out, through all religions, and binds them together with a mutual ideal and mutual needs. In the story of The Grail and the legends of King Arthur, we find that thread, wound around the table of the king and the Temple of Mount Salvat. This same thread of life that passes through the roses of the Rosicrucian’s, winds among the petals of the lotus, and among the temple pillars of Luxor. There is but one religion in all the world, and that is the worship of God, the spiritual flame of the universe. Under many names he is known, in all lands, but as Ishwari, or Amon, or God, he is the same: the creator of the universe, and fire is his universal symbol.
We are the flame-born sons of God, thrown out as sparks from the wheels of the infinite. Around this flame, we have built forms that have hidden our light, but as students we are increasing this light by love and service, until it shall again proclaim us sons of the eternal. Within us burns that flame, and before it's altar, the lower man must bow - a faithful servant of the higher. When he serves the flame he grows, and the light grows, until he takes his place with the true initiates of the universe: those who have given all to the infinite, in the name of the flame within. Let us find this flame, and also serve it, realising that it is in all created things. That all are one, because all are part of that eternal flame, the fire of spirit, the life and power of the universe.
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Agrippa's Commentary
In his seminal work, The Initiates of the Flame, Manly P. Hall crafts an intricate tapestry of spiritual symbolism and wisdom that captures the essence of human civilisation's ebb and flow through history. At the heart of this allegorical* landscape lies the sacred flame: a metaphorical construct symbolising the divine principle within each of us and the collective consciousness of civilisations. The sacred flame, according to Hall, represents the life force, the essence of spirit, the divine spark that animates human life and consciousness. It is the spiritual principle that gives life its profound meaning and purpose, it's this flame that fuels the rise of civilisations, and its absence or neglect precipitates their decline.
* allegory [n.] a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth in the narrative.
Ancient civilisations such as Greece, Rome and Egypt thrived when they embraced and nurtured this spiritual flame. Their monumental achievements were a testament to the power of the flame. However, when these civilisations allowed moral decay, loss of spiritual wisdom, and neglect of spiritual principles to extinguish the flame, their decline was inevitable. This dynamic interplay between the flame and civilisation provides a spiritual lens through which we can view the evolution of human societies.
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'Ancient civilisations such as Greece, Rome and Egypt thrived when they embraced and nurtured this spiritual flame. Their monumental achievements were a testament to the power of the flame. However, when these civilisations allowed moral decay, loss of spiritual wisdom, and neglect of spiritual principles to extinguish the flame, their decline was inevitable.'
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The Lament Of Hermes Trismegistus
For example, in the Asclepius, in a part known as The Lament of Hermes, a prophecy is shared by Hermes Tres Magistas to his pupil, describing the end of the Egyptian civilisation. The prophecy mentions a great flood and the consuming of malice through fire. I shall now read this passage to further immerse you in this story.
Trismegistus:
‘Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven, or, to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in heaven have been transferred to earth below?
Nay, it should rather be said that the whole Kosmos dwells in this our land as in its sanctuary. And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of this: there will come a time when it will be seen that in vain have the Egyptians honoured the deity with heartfelt piety and assiduous service; and all our holy worship will be found bootless and ineffectual. For the gods will return from earth to heaven. Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.
This land and region will be filled with foreigners; not only will men neglect the service of the gods, but …; and Egypt will be occupied by Scythians or Indians or by some such race from the barbarian countries thereabout. In that day will our most holy land, this land of shrines and temples, be filled with funerals and corpses. To thee, most holy Nile, I cry, to thee I foretell that which shall be; swollen with torrents of blood, thou wilt rise to the level of thy banks, and thy sacred waves will be not only stained, but utterly fouled with gore.
Do you weep at this, Asclepius? There is worse to come; Egypt herself will have yet more to suffer; she will fall into a far more piteous plight, and will be infected with yet more, grievous plagues; and this land, which once was holy, a land which loved the gods, and wherein alone, in reward for her devotion, the gods deigned to sojourn upon earth, a land which was the teacher of mankind in holiness and piety, this land will go beyond all in cruel deeds. The dead will far outnumber the living; and the survivors will be known for Egyptians by their tongue alone, but in their actions they will seem to be men of another race.
O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship. And so religion, the greatest of all blessings, for there is nothing, nor has been, nor ever shall be, that can be deemed a greater boon, will be threatened with destruction; men will think it a burden, and will come to scorn it.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of things of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favouring man’s welfare, this combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that can call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, and the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good. As to the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you, all this they will mock at, and will even persuade themselves that it is false. No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven and of the gods of heaven, will be heard or believed.
And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing!, and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches by main force into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul. Then will the earth no longer stand unshaken, and the sea will bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, nor will the stars pursue their constant course in heaven; all voices of the gods will of necessity be silenced and dumb; the fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken in sullen stagnation. After this manner will old age come upon the world.
Religion will be no more; all things will be disordered and awry; all good will disappear. But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Master and Father, God, the first before all, the maker of that god who first came into being, will look on that which has come to pass, and will stay the disorder by the counterworking of his will, which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world from evil, now washing it away with water-floods, now burning it out with fiercest fire, or again expelling it by war and pestilence.
And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the Kosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with unceasing hymns of praise and blessing. Such is the new birth of the Kosmos; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-striking restoration of all nature; and it is wrought in the process of time by the eternal will of God.
For Gods will has no beginning; it is ever the same, and as it now is, even so it has ever been, without beginning. For it is the very being of God to purpose good.’
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'O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship.'
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Agrippa's Commentary II
Interesting how everything seems to connect to Egypt and the Hermetic tradition and writings. Now, coming back to The Initiates of the Flame, Hall introduces us to the Guardians of this flame: the initiates who have renounced worldly distractions to dedicate their lives to protecting and nurturing the sacred flame. These spiritual practitioners, the unsung heroes of humanity's spiritual evolution, perform a critical role in sustaining the spiritual vitality of society. They are the torchbearers of wisdom and enlightenment, guiding humanity through the tumultuous journey of existence. In their selfless service and sacrifice, we find the epitome of spiritual devotion, a model for all who seek to kindle their own divine spark.
In his narrative Hall infuses a sense of divine justice and guidance, steering the course of human history. Even amidst the apparent chaos and tumult, there is an unseen hand that regulates the affairs of humanity. This Divine guidance, rooted in the eternal flame or the spirit of God, is the celestial compass that orients humanity toward its spiritual destiny. The resilience of the flame symbolises the enduring nature of the spiritual principle. Despite the fall of civilisations, the flame endures, seeking new lands and civilisations to imbue with its divine energy. This is a testament to the indomitable spirit of life, its ability to renew and regenerate itself. It reassures us, that even in our darkest moments, the flame within us remains waiting to be rekindled, guiding us toward a spiritual renaissance.
Hall's call for spiritual awakening is a clarion call that resonates with the deepest yearnings of our collective soul. He invites us to recognise and serve the sacred flame within ourselves, to live a life of love, self-sacrifice and service, that fuels the divine spark within. It is through such dedicated service, that we can contribute to the luminosity of the eternal flame, and ensure its continuity. Finally, Hall's narrative underlines the inherent unity of world religions: all bound by the common thread of worshiping the divine flame.
This perspective aligns with the Perennial Philosophy, which posits that all spiritual and religious traditions are expressions of a universal truth, regardless of the names by which we recognise the divine. It is the same universal Creator, symbolised by the sacred flame. This perspective emphasises the interconnectedness of all religious paths, each leading to the same divine light.
We, as Hall eloquently puts it, are the flame-born sons of God, sparks from the infinite divine. In our quest for material achievements and progress, we often shroud this divine light, with forms of our own creation. However, as students of life and seekers of Truth, we can fan this divine spark within us: transforming it into a luminous flame, through acts of love and service. As we do, so we reclaim our spiritual heritage, illuminating our path and the world around us.
Hall's narrative serves as a reminder that the lower man, the worldly and material self, must bow before the sacred flame, becoming a faithful servant of the higher spiritual self. As we serve the flame, we grow, and our light intensifies, leading us towards our rightful place among the true initiates of the universe. Those who have surrendered everything to the infinite, in the name of the flame within.
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'Hall's call for spiritual awakening is a clarion call that resonates with the deepest yearnings of our collective soul. He invites us to recognise and serve the sacred flame within ourselves, to live a life of love, self-sacrifice and service, that fuels the divine spark within.'
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Conclusion
Manly P Halls Initiates of the Flame is a profound spiritual meditation on the divine flame within all of us, and the collective consciousness of civilisations. It offers a compelling blueprint for individual, and collective, spiritual awakening: emphasising the pivotal role of spiritual practitioners and the unity of world religions. The eternal flame beckons us all, inviting us to embark on our own spiritual journey, to kindle the divine spark within us, and to take our place in the grand tapestry of the cosmos: as luminous bearers of the sacred flame.
Footnotes
1. Musica Universalis [music of the spheres] is a philosophical and metaphysical concept that originated in ancient Greece. It refers to the idea that the movement of the celestial bodies, such as planets and stars, create a harmonious and mathematical cosmic music. According to this concept, each celestial body emits a distinct musical tone based on its orbit, speed and distance from other bodies. The combined sounds of these celestial spheres form a heavenly harmony, a harmonious and mathematically precise arrangement of tones and intervals. This idea suggests that the universe is inherently musical and that there is an underlying order and harmony in the cosmos. The concept of Musica Universalis was influential in various fields including philosophy, astronomy, astrology, music theory and technology. It connected the realms of music, mathematics and cosmology, proposing a deep connection between the physical world and the realms of sound and harmony. Although the concept of Musica Universalis is not scientifically supported in the modern understanding of the universe, it has had a lasting impact on human thought, inspiring artistic and intellectual endeavours throughout history. It reflects the human desire to find meaning and order in the natural world and explore interconnectedness of different disciplines; Musica Universalis Online. Musica Universalis. Accessed 3rd of June 2023.