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

THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

INTRODUCTION ““ AN ALLEGORY ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE”’

In selecting the title we have for this treatise upon the Great Pyramid, we should, perhaps, make clear to the reader the idea conveyed in the word “ mystery ”’.

The usual meaning attached to the word to-day defines something that cannot be understood, something vague or indefinite. Such, however, is not its original meaning ; not that attached to the Greek word pvoripiov which occurs in the text from St. Paul (1 Cor. xv, 51) quoted on our title-page. Here it means that which is “‘ hidden ” or “secret”, such as the ancient Egyptian and Greek mysteries were except to those duly initiated therein, and which have their modern equivalent in present-day Freemasonry. While Freemasons, we believe, generally refer the origin of their cult to Solomon’s Temple,! it seems that they should go much further back to the Great Pyramid as the “‘ House of Osiris ”’, and to the

? In this connection it is interesting to note that, as Solomon married an Egyptian princess (1 Kings iti, 1), he became, no doubt, an initiate into the Egyptian mysteries, while to go further back still, Moses was himself a priest of Heliopolis, one of the most ancient and celebrated centres of the Mysteries, in which we are told he was fully learned (see Acts vii, 22),

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