The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

INTRODUCTION

arising from mere coincidence, just as the number and exactness of the mathematical and scientific facts constructionally embodied in the Great Pyramid could not be due to such fortuitous causes, but are the result of premeditated design.

This is not to say, however, that its architect raised the Great Pyramid as a Temple of Mystery, actual or allegorical. The conception of the Pyramid and the origin of the cult of Osiris and of the Book of the Dead—which might well be named the “ Book of Osiris ”—are to be found in a common source, which may be expressed in the one word, Messianism. The architect who raised the Great Pyramid revealed these Messianic prophecies—which existed not only in Egypt, but all over the ancient East, from the earliest times, and long before they had been committed to the Hebrew Scriptures—in their true aspect. The ancient Egyptians, however, paganized them and applied them to their god Osiris, in whom it was claimed this promised Messiah had come and who, at the epoch of the Great Pyramid, became associated ‘with its symbolism. Hence the parallelism between its true intention and the ancient Osirian Mysteries. This will make clear to the reader why the idea of Marsham Adamsregarded by some as the true solution of the Great Pyramid—that it was a Temple of Mystery or Initiation, need not conflict with its real purpose as intended by its builder, and which is fully dealt with in our Witness of the Great Pyramid, In other words, the allegory contained in the Egyptian “ Book of the Dead”? is merely a corrupt survival of the allegory enshrined in the Great Pyramid itself.

“It is from the Book of the Dead that the Coptic descendants of the ancient Egyptians derived the mystical and allegorical element which was introduced into early

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