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being united with its own immortal Source. In the Hermetic Marriage divine and human
consciousness are united in holy wedlock and he in whom this sacred ceremony takes
place is designated as "Knight of the Golden Stone"; he thereby becomes a divine
philosophic diamond composed of the quintessence of his own sevenfold constitution.

Such is the true interpretation of the mystical process of becoming "a bride of the Lamb."
The Lamb of God is signified by the Golden Fleece that Jason was forced to win before
he could assume his kingship. The Flying Lion is illumined will, an absolute prerequisite
to the achievement of the Great Work. The episode of weighing the souls of men has its
parallel in the ceremony described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The walled city
entered by C.R.C. represents the sanctuary of wisdom wherein dwell the real rulers of the
world--the initiated philosophers.

Like the ancient Mysteries after which it was patterned, the Order of the Rose Cross
possessed a secret ritual which was lived by the candidate for a prescribed number of
years before he was eligible to the inner degrees of the society. The various floors of the
Tower of Olympus represent the orbits of the planets. The ascent of the philosophers
from one floor to another also parallels certain rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the
rites of Mithras wherein the candidate ascended the seven rungs of a ladder or climbed
the seven steps of a pyramid in order to signify release from the influences of the
Planetary Governors. Man becomes master of the seven spheres only when he transmutes
the impulses received from them. He who masters the seven worlds and is reunited with
the Divine Source of his own nature consummates the Hermetic Marriage.

p. 165

Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians

THE present consideration of the Bacon--Shakspere--Rosicrucian controversy is
undertaken not for the vain purpose of digging up dead men's bones but rather in the hope
that a critical analysis will aid in the rediscovery of that knowledge lost to the world since
the oracles were silenced. It was W. F. C. Wigston who called the Bard of Avon
"phantom Captain Shakespeare, the Rosicrucian mask." This constitutes one of the most
significant statements relating to the Bacon-Shakspere controversy.

It is quite evident that William Shakspere could not, unaided, have produced the
immortal writings bearing his name. He did not possess the necessary literary culture, for
the town of Stratford where he was reared contained no school capable of imparting the
higher forms of learning reflected in the writings ascribed to him. His parents were
illiterate, and in his early life he evinced a total disregard for study. There are in existence
but six known examples of Shakspere's handwriting. All are signatures, and three of them
are in his will. The scrawling, uncertain method of their execution stamps Shakspere as
unfamiliar with the use of a pen, and it is obvious either that he copied a signature
prepared for him or that his hand was guided while he wrote. No autograph manuscripts
of the "Shakespearian" plays or sonnets have been discovered, nor is there even a