By: Manly Hall
Few realize that even at the present stage of
civilization 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's, 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, justice; everywhere we see 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 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 with- drawn, 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, and 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 die. 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 a 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 realize that we are heathen ourselves until we
are baptized 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. There are those who have for ages labored 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 labored 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 labored
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 realize that our present civilization is raised upon the
shoulders of the mighty demigods of the past. We stand as
Faust stood, with all our lore, a fool no wiser than before, because
we refuse to take the truths they gave us and the evidence of their
experiences. Let us honor 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 be- hind
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.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 spheres. 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 battle- field 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 own dear
Master, the man Jesus, his head surrounded with a halo of Golden Flame,
and his brow serene with the calm of mastery. Then Mohammed, Zoroaster,
Confu - cius, 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 labor
for humanity. Each loves the other, for the power that has made them
masters has shown them the Brother - hood of all life.
In the pages that follow we will try to show this
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 Salvart. This same thread of life that passes
through the roses of the Rosicrucians, winds among the pedals 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 Iswari or
Ammon 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 which have hidden our light, but as students we are increasing
this light by love and service, until it shall again proclaim us Suns of
the Eternal.
Within us burns that Flame, and before Its 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, realizing 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.
Upon the altar of this Flame, to the true creator of this
book, the writer offers it, and dedicate it to the one Fire which blazes
forth from God, and is now hidden within each living thing.
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