Societas Roscircuciana in Scotia
Fifth Grade - Adeptus Minor
This
ritual dates from the first half of the twentieth century.
Ceremonial of Reception
In this Grade the Vault of the
Adepts is prepared by placing a pastos upon the floor with its head at time
centre of the Vault, and its foot near the West. The Vault is but dimly lit. The
Sacred Volume is placed open upon
the foot of the pastos.
The Candidate, who must be a
Philosophus, Grade IV, and must wear the Jewel of the Rosicrucian Society, is
taken to the ante-chamber, where he is blindfolded by the Acolyte, who at the
proper time instructs him to knock as a Philosophus, one and four.
The Fratres upstanding.
Ind.: Very Worthy Fratres, I open this College of Adepts by giving five knocks
and one knock.
The knocks given by the Candidate
are heard.
Cond.: Right Worthy inductor, a Frater Philosophus seeks admission to our Vault.
Ind.: If he be one of the chosen you may admit him.
The Conductor, admits the
Candidate, and they stand within the Portal.
Ind.: Who are you and what do you seek?
Candidate, prompted by the
Conductor: I am a Philosophus and I seek Adeptship; if I am
received I will never break my covenant with you.
The Conductor then places his
right forefinger upon the lips of the Candidate, saying: Speak not, but follow me.
They move once round the Vault in
profond silence, and as they pass the Inductor, the Conductor utters the word of
the 4th Grade, Theosophia.
The Inductor answers: Pass, Theosophia.
Then they move around and stop in
the West, where the Expositor rises and places his right forefinger on the lips
of the Candidate, saying: I remove the seal of
Silence. Frater, who art thou?
Cond., for Cand.: I am one who mourns in darkness because of the King of Terrors; my days
are compassed with griefs, and my nights with sorrows. Show me the dawn of that
celestial Light, which crowns with joy the perfect man.
Exp.: Are you a Christian?
Cand.: I am.
Exp.: Enough; watch and pray till the True Light shineth.
The Inductor, leaving the East,
places himself at the East of the pastos, and then addresses the candidate.
Ind.: Very Worthy Frater, it was the practice of a distinguished Sage to enjoin
strict silence upon all who sought instruction in the mysteries. The disciples
of this great Teacher were not permitted to speak for a certain number of years,
when the seal of silence was removed by the potent voice which had imposed it.
This was a sure test of the Candidate’s prudence and discretion, and of his
ability to keep the secrets with which he might be entrusted.
In accordance with the custom observed by
Pythagoras, we require a proof of obedience in this respect from each one who
seeks the rank of an Adept of the Second Order of our Society.
You have religiously obeyed the injunctions of your
Conductor, and are doubtless impressed with the importance of Secrecy and
Silence in the manifold affairs of our Society.
In days of peril and persecution, when priests and
princes sought the lives of all who truly worshipped the Creator, our vows of
Fidelity, Secrecy, and Silence secured the Order from the attacks of pretended
friends and of open foes; therefore, even as the Holy Prophet Jeremiah exclaims
in the 5th verse of the 50th Chapter of his Prophecies, Come, let us join
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
An Anthem is then sung or said: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. (Eccles
xii vv. 1-7).
The Conductor restores the
Candidate to light.
Ind.: Let us kneel.
The Expositor, Candidate, and
Conductor kneel at the foot of the pastos.
Ind.: Place your left hand horizontally beneath the Holy Volume, and extend
your right hand vertically upwards. Are you ready and willing to enter into a
sacred and solemn Covenant with the Adepts of Hermetic Science?
Cand.: I am.
Ind.: Then repeat your Christian and surnames, and the motto by which you are
known in the Rosicrucian Society, and say after me:
Covenant
Both: I, …, in presence of the living God, Who has triumphed over death and
the terrors of the grave, solemnly swear that I will ever obey the wise and just
commands of the Supreme Magus or Chief Adept, that I will not communicate to any
living Soul, unless to a duly sworn Adept, the time, place, and occasion of my
induction; that I will wear the badge of the Society at all meetings of the
Fratres; that I will study the mysteries of the Three Worlds, Elementary,
Intellectual, and Celestial; and finally that I will consider myself bound to
the Fratres of this Grade by a peculiar tie, respecting and loving them while
living, and mourning for them when dead. So help me, the Lord and Arbiter of
life and death, and keep me faithful to this solemn Covenant.
Ind.: You will now once kiss the Sacred Volume which you hold. This is done and
the Sacred Volume is replaced on the pastos.
Having entered into the Covenant of the Adepts, you
may rise.
The Inductor returns to the East.
Ind.: Let me now inform you that the time of your reception as an Adeptus Minor
is midnight. The place is a grave, or the entrance to a cemetery. The Word is
Thanatos. Pronounce the Word Thanatos. I recognise you, Frater, by that Word. It
is but a transposition of the letters of the Word Thanatos that awful and
mysterious power whose call, in whatever language spoken, we must all obey.
By the influence of that Word we have come together
at this solemn hour, and in this solemn place; by the influence of that power we
shall all be brought at no distant day to lie down where the rich and poor sleep
together, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary as at rest.
I meet you here, my Fratres, at this time and
place, not to terrify you with frightful ceremonies, not to awaken your
sympathies by allusions to the grief and anguish caused by death throughout the
world, but that henceforth you and I may have something in common—the
precious heritage of the faithful and discreet, a reference to which will enable
us to distinguish each other from the great body of mankind, whether at home, or
upon a journey, in poverty or in affluence, in buoyant health or in sickness, or
even in the very agonies of death itself.
The Conductor leads the Candidate
to the Inductor in the East. The Inductor then gives the Secrets.
Ind.: The sign of Adeptship is that of a teacher; stand erect and place your
left hand behind your back and stretch forward and upward your right arm and
hand, with index finger extended, and the other fingers closed.
I give you the grip of Adeptship by taking your
right hand with my left and your left hand with my right hand; in this position
we repeat the Secret Word already given: Thanatos.
The grip implies that perfect bond of fidelity
which should henceforth exist between us; it is within our hearts that this bond
originates, and while truth has her residence there, it can never be weakened,
shattered, or destroyed.
The knocks are five and one; five implying
Adeptship and one the first of the Adept Grades.
Be seated, my Frater
The Expositor should read a
lecture upon the aims and duties of the Adepts.
Lecture
Exp.: Right Worthy Magister Inductor, Very Worthy Fratres Adepti—In a College
of Adepts the reception of a Philosophus into Adeptship is performed by the
Inductor in the East, who must be a Magister of our Society. The Expositor in
the West should give the newly received Adept some instruction suited to his new
position.
V.W. Frater Adeptus Minor,—you were chosen for
admission to the Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia because you had attained the
rank of a Master Mason in a duly chartered lodge, and had in that position shown
yourself a man of worth and discretion, and to be one who was still seeking more
knowledge of the mysteries that encompass us in life and lie before us across
the gulf of death.
You have been received into the Second Order of our
Rosicrucian Society this day because you had made steady progress in the studies
and duties allotted to Fratres while they are members of the four Grades of the
First Order.
In the Grade of Zelator you were recommended to
study the powers and properties of Numbers, and the philosophy of the Hebrew
Kabalah, in which the relations between numbers, letters, words, and things are
defined.
In the Grade of Theoricus, the mysteries of nature,
of mineral, vegetable and animal life are proper studies, and its ritual of
admission teaches you that beyond the colours, as well as the forms of objects,
there are occult relations which need investigation.
The Grade of Practicus has special relation to the
ancient art of Alchymy and the modern science and art of Chemistry.
And lastly, the Grade of Philosophus teaches the
need of the highest mental culture in order to comprehend the works of the
philosophers, and the sacred volumes of the World-Religions.
The Theology of the Christian Church suggests a
study of the older Jewish faith, and this leads to researches into the pagan
believes and the realms of Greco-Roman mythology, also to the religion of
Ancient Egypt and to the great Asiatic Faiths—Buddhism, Brahmanism, and
Mohammedanism.
Your studies in the First Order then have been so
extensive in order to give you broad views of human knowledge, life, and duty,
and our reception into Adeptship introduces you into a new status—that of a
teacher, and be assured, my Very Worthy Frater, that your long probation and
extensive tuition have not been for your own benefit only. Your studies have
been directed and your mind well stored with science, and your hands well
trained in art, in order that you might teach others. What you have received,
that freely give. Know then, Frater, that in the First Order you are learners,
in the Second Order you are teachers, while in the Third Order you may become
rulers—Magi or Magistri.
The Right Worthy Inductor has conferred upon you
the Sign, Grip, and Word of the Grade of Adeptus Minor. To these Secrets I may
now add that the Jewel of the Rosicrucian Society should still be worn, but
suspended by a yellow ribbon. In addition, the Adept Grades have their own Jewel,
which is a triangular plate of gold, an equilateral and equiangular triangle,
suspended by a golden chain, or a ribbon of yellow colour. Upon its face is
engraved the Tetractys—so called of Pythagoras, the famous Greek Philosopher
of Crotona, who lived about 520 B.C. This consisted of ten stars, which were in
later times replaced by ten Yods or Jods, the Chaldee or Hebrew letter
corresponding
to the English I or Y. These were arranged in four rows of 1, 2, 3, and 4, so as
to be seen also as four rows in the alternative position. The ל,
Yod was considered as the Sacred Symbol of God. In Hebrew numeration Yod was the
Number Ten, called the Decad by ancient philosophers, and in this figure the
Decad is considered as composed of:
One Yod = God = Unity = the Monad
Two Yods = Yod, Heh = Jah = As above, so below; the
Dyad, Matter.
Three Yods = Yod, Heh, Vau = Adam, Seth, and Enoch
and later the Trinity of the Christian Faith.
And Four Yods = IHVH = the Tetragrammaton becoming
INRI in the Christian symbolism.
Around this figure of the Tetractys are spaces in
which the names and numbers of the three Grades can be engraved. On the reverse
tide are the owner’s initials, his motto, and the name of the Society. On the
third side are engraved the divine initials IHVH and INRI.
The Decad was called the emblem of the Universe. If
we further consider the Decad and the Tetractys of Pythagoras in the light of
the Hebrew Kabalah, and according to the numerical; values of the Hebrew letters
we shall find that the important symbolic number Seventy-two is produced. I, Yod,
alone is ten. Yod, Heh, IH is ten and five, that is fifteen. Yod, Keh, Vau, IHV
is ten, five, and six, that is twenty-one. Yod, Heh, Vau, Heh, IHVH is ten, five,
six, five, that is twenty-six. The total is seventy-two, the number of steps of
the Ladder of Jacob which reached from earth to heaven upon each step, says the
Talmud, was an Angel bearing one of the names of God. These names are derived
from the words and letters of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first verses
of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Exodus, and to each name is added the
angelic title of AL or AH as a termination. In mediæval magic these seventy-two
angelic names were engraved on thirty-six Talismans, and were used for
divination and protection.
The seventy-two-lettered divine name was called the
Shemhamphorasch.
The number seventy-two is also the numeration of
the name Chesed, CHSD, eight, sixty, four, which signifies Mercy, it is one of
the divine attributes of the Ten Holy Sephiroth.
As has been already stated, the work of the Adepts
is that of tuition as well as self-improvement; as an Adeptus Minor it is your
special duty to teach the Zelators and the Fratres of the Grade of Theoricus;
while in the College ceremonials you should be at all times able and willing to
perform the duties of an Ancient.
You may feel well assured, my Frater, that the most
sure way to fix any knowledge in the memory is to practice the art of teaching
that knowledge to others who are seeking to reach your own stage of progress.
Right Worthy Inductor, my task is done.
Ind.: Fratres, the admission of our Frater to the Grade of Adeptus Minor is now
completed. May he be long spared to pursue his studies, and to assist others in
their efforts to attain the Summum Bonum—True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
Be upstanding, Fratres.
With the knocks * * * * *
*, I close this College of Adepts.
Expositor and Conductor repeat the knocks *
* * * * *.
Inductor gives the Benediction: Benedicat Dominus Deus noster per secula seculorum. Amen.
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