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The preeminence of any philosophical system can be determined only by the excellence
of its products. The Mysteries have demonstrated the superiority of their culture by
giving to the world minds of such overwhelming greatness, souls of such beatific vision,
and lives of such outstanding impeccability that even after the lapse of ages the teachings
of these individuals constitute the present spiritual, intellectual, and ethical standards of
the race. The initiates of the various Mystery schools of past ages form a veritable golden
chain of supermen and superwomen connecting heaven and earth. They are the links of
that Homeric "golden chain" with which Zeus boasted he could bind the several parts of
the universe to the pinnacle of Olympus. The sons and daughters of Isis are indeed an
illustrious line--founders of sciences and philosophies, patrons of arts and crafts,
supporting by the transcendency of their divinely given power the structures of world
religions erected to do them homage. Founders of doctrines which have molded the lives
of uncounted generations, these Initiate-Teachers bear witness to that spiritual culture
which has always existed--and always will exist--as a divine institution in the world of
men.

Those who represent an ideal beyond the comprehension of the masses must face the
persecution of the unthinking multitude who are without that divine idealism which
inspires progress and those rational faculties which unerringly sift truth from falsehood.
The lot of the Initiate-Teacher is therefore almost invariably an unhappy one. Pythagoras,
crucified and his university burned; Hypatia, torn from her chariot and rended limb from
limb; Jacques de Molay, whose memory survives the consuming flame; Savonarola,
burned in the square of Florence; Galileo, forced to recant upon bended knee; Giordano
Bruno, burned by the Inquisition; Roger Bacon, compelled to carry on his experiments in
the secrecy of his cell and leave his knowledge hidden under cipher; Dante Alighieri,
dying in exile from his beloved city; Francis Bacon, patient. under the burden of
persecution; Cagliostro, the most vilified man of modern times--all this illustrious line
bear unending witness of man's inhumanity to man. The world has ever been prone to
heap plaudits upon its fools and calumny upon its thinkers. Here and there notable
exceptions occur, as in the case of the Comte de St.-Germain, a philosopher who survived
his inquisitors and through the sheer transcendency of his genius won a position of
comparative immunity. But even the illustrious Comte--whose illumined intellect merited
the homage of the world--could not escape being branded an impostor, a charlatan, and
an adventurer. From this long fist of immortal men and women who have represented the
Ancient Wisdom before the world, three have been chosen as outstanding examples for
more detailed consideration: the first the most eminent woman philosopher of all ages;
the second the most maligned and persecuted man since the beginning of Christian Era;
the third the most brilliant and the most successful modern exponent of this Ancient
Wisdom.

HYPATIA

Sitting in the chair of philosophy previously occupied by her father, Theon the
mathematician, the immortal Hypatia was for many years the central figure in the
Alexandrian School of Neo-Platonism. Famed alike for the depth of her learning and the