Page 25 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

According to Pietschmann, the Egyptian Mysteries had three grades of students (1) The Mortals
i.e., probationary students who were being instructed, but who had not yet experienced the inner
vision. (2) The Intelligences, i.e., those who had attained the inner vision, and had received mind
or nous and (3) The Creators or Sons of Light, who had become identified with or united with
the Light (i.e., true spiritual consciousness). W. Marsham Adams, in the "Book of the Master",
has described those grades as the equivalents of Initiation, Illumination and Perfection. For years
they underwent disciplinary intellectual exercises, and bodily asceticism with intervals of tests
and ordeals to determine their fitness to proceed to the more serious, solemn and awful process
of actual Initiation.

Their education consisted not only in the cultivation of the ten virtues, which were made a
condition to eternal happiness, but also of the seven Liberal Arts which were intended to liberate
the soul. There was also admission to the Greater Mysteries, where an esoteric philosophy was
taught to those who had demonstrated their proficiency. (Ancient Mysteries C. H. Vail p. 24–25).
Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic were disciplines of moral nature by means of which the irrational
tendencies of a human being were purged away, and he was trained to become a living witness of
the Divine Logos. Geometry and Arithmetic were sciences of transcendental space and
numeration, the comprehension of which provided the key not only to the problems of one's
being; but also to those physical ones, which are so baffling today, owing to our use of the
inductive methods. Astronomy dealt with the knowledge and distribution of latent forces in man,
and the destiny of individuals, laces and nations. Music (or Harmony) meant the living practice
of philosophy i.e., the adjustment of human life into harmony with God, until the personal soul
became identified with God, when it would hear and participate in the music of the spheres. It
was therapeutic, and was used by the Egyptian Priests in the cure of diseases. Such was the
Egyptian theory of salvation, through which the individual was trained to become godlike while
on earth, and at the same time qualified for everlasting happiness. This was accomplished
through the efforts of the individual, through the cultivation of the Arts and Sciences on the one
hand, and a life of virtue on the other. There was no mediator between man and his salvation, as
we find in the Christian theory. Reference will again be made to these subjects, as part of the
Curriculum of the Egyptian Mystery System.

Now that we have outlined the Egyptian theory of salvation and its purpose, let us examine
Greek philosophy and its purpose in order to discover whether there is an agreement between the
two systems, or not.

24

Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook