Part 3 (1/2)

[34] _Egyptian Obelisks_, HH Gorringe The obelisk in Central Park, the expenses for re which were paid by WH Vanderbilt, was exae of New York, and its eives full account of all obelisks brought to Europe froypt, their measurements, inscriptions, and transportation

THE DRAMA OF FAITH

/ _And so the Quest goes on And the Quest, as it may be, ends in attain as we can conceive of our separate existence, the quest goes on--an attainment continued henceforward And ever shall the study of the hich have been followed by those who have passed in front be a help on our own path_

_It is well, it is of all things beautiful and perfect, holy and high of all, to be conscious of the path which does in fine lead thither where we seek to go, na with us which does not belong to ourselves, leaving nothing behind us that is of our real selves, we shall find in the great attainment that the companions of our toil are with us And the place is the Valley of Peace_

--ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, _The Secret Tradition_ /

CHAPTER III

_The Drama of Faith_

Man does not live by bread alone; he lives by Faith, Hope, and Love, and the first of these was Faith Nothing in the hu than the persistent, passionate, profound protest ofto stand erect at the gates of the grave, disputing its verdict, refusing to let it have the last word, and ument in behalf of his soul

For Eh of i a universal intuition of eternal life

Others may not be so easily convinced, but no man who has the heart of a man can fail to be impressed by the ancient, heroic faith of his race

Nowhere has this faith ever been yptians[35] In the ancient _Book of the Dead_--which is, indeed, a Book of Resurrection--occur the words: ”The soul to heaven; the body to earth;” and that first faith is our faith today Of King Unas, who lived in the third one as one dead, but as one living” Nor has any one in our day set forth this faith with more simple eloquence than the Hymn to Osiris, in the Papyrus of Hunefer So in the Pyramid Texts the dead are spoken of as Those Who Ascend, the Imperishable Ones who shi+ne as stars, and the Gods are invoked to witness the death of the King ”Dawning as a Soul” There is deep prophecy, albeit touched with poignant pathos, in these broken exclamations written on the pyramid walls:

/[4,66]

Thou diest not! Have ye said that he would die? He diest not; this King Pepi lives forever! Live! Thou shalt not die! He has escaped his day of death! Thou livest, thou livest, raise thee up! Thou diest not, stand up, raise thee up! Thou perishest not eternally! Thou diest not![36]

Nevertheless, nor poetry nor chant nor solemn ritual could make death other than death; and the Pyraive wistful ree ”before death caation and collapse of the body was a fact, and it was to keep that daring faith alive and aglow that The Mysteries were instituted

Beginning, it hts of influence and beauty, giving dra the sun rise frolory after the death of winter,a faith that held hirave, would rise triumphant over death

I

There were many variations on this theme as the drama of faith evolved, and as it passed from land to land; but the Motif was ever the same, and they all were derived, directly or indirectly, froround of the ancient Solar religion, Osiris etable life--son of Nut the sky-Goddess and Geb the earth-God; and nothing in the story of the Nile-dwellers isthan his conquest of the hearts of the people against all odds[37] Howbeit, that history need not detain us here, except to say that by the time his passion had become the drama of national faith, it had been bathed in all the tender hues of huered in it Enough to say that of all the Gods, called into being by the hopes and fears of men elt in times of yore on the banks of the Nile, Osiris was the n father, Isis his sorrowful and faithful wife, and Horus whose filial piety and heroism shi+ne like diamonds in a heap of stones--about this trinity oven the ideals of Egyptian faith and family life Hear now the story of the oldest drama of the race, which for more than three thousand years held captive the hearts of men[38]

Osiris was Ruler of Eternity, but by reason of his visible shape see a divine huracious speech of Isis, his sister-wife, whose charether they labored for the good ofhi the grapes and drinking the first cup of wine They h the earth, of which ht him to make weapons They initiated ht hi and dance and the rhythm of music Above all, they evoked in men a sense of immortality, of a destiny beyond the to, keen-witted but short-sighted--the dark force of evil which still weaves the fringe of crime on the borders of human life

Side by side with Osiris, lived the impious Set-Typhon, as Evil ever haunts the Good While Osiris was absent, Typhon--whose naht to usurp his throne; but his plot was frustrated by Isis Whereupon he resolved to kill Osiris

This he did, having invited hi, as if in jest, to present the richly carved chest to any one of his guests who, lying down inside it, found he was of the saot in and stretched hi it into the Nile[39] Thus far, the Gods had not known death They had grown old, hite hair and tree had not led to death As soon as Isis heard of this infernal treachery, she cut her hair, clad herself in a garb of uish, seeking the body Weeping and distracted, she never tarried, never tired in her sorrowful quest

Meanwhile, the waters carried the chest out to sea, as far as Byblos in Syria, the town of Adonis, where it lodged against a shrub of arica, or ta to the virtue of the body, the shrub, at its touch, shot up into a tree, growing around it, and protecting it, until the king of that country cut the tree which hid the chest in its bosom, and made from it a column for his palace At last Isis, led by a vision, came to Byblos, made herself known, and asked for the colu over a broken column torn from the palace, while Horus, God of Ti aypt, to the city of Bouto; but Typhon, hunting by nized the body of Osiris, nition Isis, embodiment of the old world-sorrow for the dead, continued her pathetic quest, gathering piece by piece the body of her dis him decent interment Such was the life and death of Osiris, but as his career pictured the cycle of nature, it could not of course end here

Horus fought with Typhon, losing an eye in the battle, but finally overthrew him and took him prisoner There are several versions of his fate, but he seems to have been tried, sentenced, and executed--”cut in three pieces,” as the Pyramid Texts relate Thereupon the faithful son went in solerave of his father, opened it, and called upon Osiris to rise: ”Stand up! Thou shalt not end, thou shalt not perish!+” But death was deaf Here the Pyramid Texts recite the mortuary ritual, with its hyth Osiris awakes, weary and feeble, and by the aid of the strong grip of the lion-God he gains control of his body, and is lifted from death to life[41] Thereafter, by virtue of his victory over death, Osiris becomes Lord of the Land of Death, his scepter an Ank Cross, his throne a Square

II