HEREDOM RITE OF KILWINNING
FIRST GRADE
OF
KNIGHT OF HEREDOM
HERMETIC RITE
FIRST DEGREE APPRENTICE FOLLOWER KNIGHT
OF LABORATORY DECORATION
The laboratory is decorated with a green, black, white and red hanging. It is illuminated with 9 large lights; 4 right; 4 on the left and 1 in the back behind the altar and attached one foot high to the east wall. On the altar there are 7 others; 3 right; 4 on the left and 7 on a 7-branch candlestick placed at the bottom of the altar.
A Bible, a sword, a caduceus whose wand is a sword and which serves as a scepter for the T:.ILL:.M, a skull, a square, a compass and a trumpet are placed on the altar. The Bible is open from the beginning of the reception until the taking of the oath in chapter 44 of Echiel, and after the obligation in chapter 21 of Revelation.
PAINTING
The painting represents a fox to the west, a dove to the east, a monkey to the south, a pelican to the north and a lying lion to the center. The explanation of these figures will be given to the candidate after the reception.
CANDIDATE PREPARATION
The candidate who, to be admitted to this rank, must be a Knight Rose Croix of Heredom, will be led into a dark room lit only by a yellow candle. The recipient is undressed in shirt and breeches only. The eyes will be covered with a bandage of striped gauze in the colors green, black, white and red so as not to be completely deprived of light. He will also be covered with a black veil, also of gauze, which will come down to his feet.
After the usual questions and explanations, he will be made to understand that he must strip himself of all prejudices in order to adopt only the truth alone. He is then led to the entrance of the laboratory as will be described.
OPENING OF THE WORKS
(The great lord T:.ILL:.
Q: What is the first duty of an adept in chapter
A: It is to watch over the safety of the FF:. so that their work is not disturbed
Q: So watch and make sure they are safe
(The Prime Minister places the sentries outside and inside then he says:)
A: Great Lord the profane are removed, the FF: . are in safety and our works sheltered from all dangers
Q: What is the motive that brings us together
A: It is the desire to work at the great work and to lead it to perfection by the practice of the virtues on which it depends
Q : So warn all FF:. followers that I will open the sovereign chapter of the Rose
(The ministers repeat the announcement)
The great lord strikes 3 knocks, the prime minister strikes 4 knocks, the second minister strikes 5 knocks then the great lord says:
A: The sovereign chapter is open.
RECEPTION
(The candidate put in the required state is led to the door of the laboratory then he knocks like a knight rose cross of herodom. The great lord answers it and says:) Q: Ill
:. first:. minister show who the knight is. of herodom who presents himself here.
(the prime minister carries out the order and having inquired about the names, qualities and wishes of the recipient, he reports to the great lord who says:)
Q: Introduce it.
(He is introduced makes an inclination raises his hands towards the sky and then carries them on the mouth crossed in saltire which means that he implores the help of God to keep silence he is made to advance by the steps below which lead him vis-à-vis the great lord who said to him:)
Q: Knight are you resolved to rather lose your life than to reveal the slightest thing of our mysteries to anyone, without orders from your superiors and renounce all earthly goods? , inheritances and other possessions of this world until it pleases the Lord of Lords to give you the means to free yourself from them entirely.
(The candidate answers yes, all kneel down and say the following prayer:)
Great and sublime Architect of this vast universe, you who with your divine eye penetrate from the heavens of mortals the most hidden folds, deign to kindle in the hearts(?) the sacred fire of your love, guide our steps in the paths which lead to real science. Keep the sophists away from us, pour your holy grace into our souls so that we may come to know the true mining, the true mercury of the philosophers, make sure that we never have any other goal than your glory, the salvation of our souls, the splendor of holy religion and the relief of the poor. Amen.
(the veil is removed, but not the blindfold. All rise and the Great Lord says to the recipient:)
Q: Come closer, knight, may I give you the kiss of peace.
(He gives him a palm branch and three kisses in a triangle, the first on the right cheek, the second on the left cheek and the third on the forehead, then he says to him:) Q: Knight, we recommend silence to you
.
(The recipient kneels before the Great Lord who is pontifically dressed in an ephod of white linen, girded with a red sash with gold fringe (1), he has on his head a crown with 7 triangular points and surmounted by a globe and a cross. The two ministers or assistants (2) who are on his right and on his left are dressed in the same way except that their crown is simply 7 triangles without a globe or a cross. The recipient on his knees the right hand high and the left hand on the bible pronounces the following obligation :)
OBLIGATION
In the name of the holy and individual trinity, I promise on my soul and conscience to keep the most inviolable secrets on all that will be entrusted to me in this sublime degree. I further promise to maintain the greatest fidelity to the sovereign and to the laws of my country. I swear to love all my FF:. and to share with them the benefit of the Great Work if God allows me to lead it to its perfection. So be it.
(Abiathard who is the Prime Minister approaches and cuts 7 strands of hair which he hides in different papers. On each of which he writes the name of the recipient. He makes a package of everything, the hiding place puts the same name and hands it over to the Great Lord saying :)
A: Here are very illustrious, very enlightened and well instructed the 7 branches of the head of the tree that God planted in the earthly paradise.
(The Great Lord receives the bundle and says:)
Q: Any tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
(The recipient is taken off the blindfold and put on the ephod and the linen belt and the T:.ILL:.M:. says to him:)
A: This is the symbol of the purity with which God has commanded to enter his sanctuary, for we are not only the elect but also priests of the sanctuary of the most high and true Levites although we are adopted from the tribe of Judah.
(The T:.ILL:.M:. only kisses his arms according to the manner of the rank and gives him full touching and blesses him saying:)
Q: This is the smell of my son which is like the smell of a field that God has blessed. May the Lord give him dew from heaven and from the fat of the earth abundance of wheat and wine. Whoever blesses him will be blessed, whoever curses him will be cursed. Brave knight you will be blessed if you persevere in the straight ways of the Lord. Beware of backing down for all curses will fall upon you and the earth would be cursed in your work forever.
(The Prime Minister ties a red ribbon around her head in the shape of a headband or crown, the whole knot or rosette is from behind he gives her 3 triangle kisses saying:) Q
:
(The T:.ILL:.M:. explains to him what man is; he speaks to him both of his duties and of his hopes and he that he that man take on a new form that a new Adam must replace the old so that the great Architect gives him the power to conceive and operate all things In this explanation the T:.ILL:.M:. , he will therefore take care to cover with the veil of the emblem the truths that he must only indicate. He will be able to speak to him in the following terms:)
O you whom a sincere and disinterested desire leads to work for the great work, you who have no other intentions in your learned research than that of making yourselves useful to indigent merit and to oppressed truth, come and receive from my hands the salary of your laborious perseverance and the philosophical crown which is so rightfully yours.
Anyone who wants to become sublime in our art must learn to count, calculate and calculate. However, to succeed in making great progress in our numerical science, it is necessary to begin with one, which is the first number that is commonly called a generic number because it is from it that all the others are generated. To this first number join a second, which is done by addition and that will make two, from these two there will be born a third; from these 3 remove one by means of subtraction, two will result, which by division you can reduce to one. Then to this remainder add another and do this operation nine times and you will find in your calculation the number ten. Add to it 3 times the same number you will find forty which is the favorite number of our art.
The number ten is the most perfect because it is the term where any number ends when we have reached this number we start counting again; therefore the number ten is the number of perfection. As that of seven is the most fortunate, that of three is the most majestic and that of four the most mysterious.
It follows from what I have just said that unity develops in two, ends in three to produce in the fourth, whence there is a propagation and a similar resolution to infinity.
Obscure as this principle may appear, it was true for one who is endowed with all the dispositions necessary to attain universal science and whose heart is filled with all the qualities indispensable for attaining this goal. This principle, so wise, so salutary and so mysterious, must serve as his guide in all operations and if he never deviates from it, he will succeed in all undertakings; heaven will enlighten his intentions, favor his designs and bring fruit to his labor. He who works to acquire wealth only in the will to relieve its needy virtue cannot fail to achieve his ends, since he follows exactly the will of the supreme Architect.
The sun equally and indifferently ripens the fruits which are beneficial to us as well as those which are pernicious to us because it is endowed with no intelligence. But we to whom the Eternal has given the ability to discern virtue from vice, we must constantly occupy ourselves with protecting the soul and hating the other. It would be an error very harmful to society to make a scruple of not wanting to deprive the sight, in him of the services which are due only to virtue.
Constantly stretch out a beneficent hand to oppressed innocence to destitute virtue, to have only aloofness for the vicious, to offer to the ungrateful who, so to speak as vicious of the vicious,
O you my brothers! worthy nurses of wisdom, you know that as soon as we have the will to help the virtuous needy, heaven never fails to provide us with the means. You also know that if there are few men who are informed of our secret, it is because there are few whose will is pure and upright.
There are two kinds of nature: the material and the spiritual, one and the other each have a way of making themselves heard. The way of material nature is known in the world as the way of blood, that of spiritual nature is referred to as the way of reason. Happy is he who grants to blood only what is not repugnant to reason and it is for him that our secret is reserved and to whom it is given to understand the science of numbers and the mystery of their combination.1
God has placed wisdom in the heart of every learned man to walk boldly in the way of perfection. His heart is a temple inhabited by the eternal. Man therefore contains the true matter from which our stone is drawn and remember the words of our redeemer reported in the Gospel of Saint John (chap 12 paragraph 2b): verily verily I tell you if the grain of wheat buried in the earth does not die, it will remain alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
(After this instruction the T:.ILL:.M:. gives the recipient the words signs and touching of the rank.)
SIGNS
The order sign of request is to form the circle with the first two fingers.
The sign of response is to make a perfect square with both hands crossed so that the two wrists of one and the other are pressed towards the side of the body and completely hidden, the eight fingers are presented outside and the thumbs are hidden.
WORDS
The sacred word is: (?) ineffable word which is never pronounced.
The passwords are: (?)
TOUCHING
Touching is to take all the fingers together to touch with the thumb the third joint of the middle and ring fingers at their root.
The T:.ILL:.M:. then said to the recipient:
Q: Our duties in this degree are to communicate to each other all the books and secrets of the sciences which are magic, cabala, alchemy and all that may relate to them, to try to discover the secrets of such books or writings among the profane and even among the masons who are not of this rank without revealing to them the least thing of the mystery which could be hidden there and that with skill.
It is here that it is necessary in certain cases to make use of the due industry and the due initiation by which we seem to conform to one of the due force to act in case of need against the profane and the FF:. rebels and charity towards all men and especially towards our FF:., having patient regard for those who are virtuous and simplicity of (?)
We look at the masons:. grades lower than this as beings somewhat by profane people whom we try to train to make them worthy of reaching us. It is necessary to probe well the one who will aspire to our mysteries and to know him for a long time. In all cases, use the greatest circumspection. That the layman is unaware of even the name of adept that we carry. Our safety demands it and you will one day feel the consequences.
INSTRUCTIONS
Q: Are you one of the elect?
A: I believe so since I know the unit.
Q: What is unity?
A: This is the big Arch:. of:. the universe.
Q: Who introduces you to it?
A: His works and those of my hands.
Q:
A: All creatures showed them to me.
Q: How did the works of your hands make him known to you?
A: By offering me the image of creation.
Q: Who taught you this work?
A: An excellent master.
Q: What did he tell you?
A: In salt and sun you have everything.
Q: What is the sun?
A: It is philosophers' gold.
Q: How many principles do you have?
A: Salt, sulfur, mercury.
Q: What are they contained in?
A: In one thing.
Q: What is this thing?
A: It is the matter of which all things and man are formed.
Q: Name it.
A: Alzernard, mining and adama.
Q: How can this be the first material?
A: She is the servant who contains the first.
Q: How do you characterize it?
A: By a circle which is circumscribed by a square.
Q: What does this circle mean?
A: The unit from which the quaternary number results.
Q: What do you mean by this riddle?
A: That of one it is necessary to make four.
Q: What are these four?
A: The four elements.
Q: What happens to them?
A: A triangle that must be enclosed in a circle.
Q: What to do next?
A: Nothing more because everything is over.
Q: Do we have any more mystery figures?
A: We have two more which are the blazing star and the interlocking equilateral triangles.
Q: What does the blazing star mean?
A: The quintessence which by its moist and temperate fire instantly penetrates all things and communicates its virtue to them.
Q: What do the two intertwined triangles mean?
A: Our alkaest.
Q: What is alkaest?
A: It is our fire.
Q: What is our fire?
A: It is our water and our powerful solvent.
Q: What is our water?
A: It is our salt.
Q: What is our salt?
A: It is our brimstone.
Q: What is our sulfur?
A: It is our mercury.
Q: You tell me incredible things.
A: I would tell you more if you were older.
Q: So how old are you?
A: It is like Mathusala's.
Q: You look very young to me.
A: It is the effect of the king crowned with glory who died and rose again more perfect.
Q: Do you know the root?
A: I know his bath, which is his wife's, and I saw her bathing naked in it with her husband.
Q: For whom do God's elect hear me?
A: They are the ones who did his will.
Q: When were you born?
A: From the time of my death.
CLOSING
Q: What time is it?
A: It is broad daylight, a day that knows no darkness.
Q: Why don't you just answer my request?
A: How to determine the hours of a perpetual day.
Q: Where did you find the light?
A: In darkness.
Q: When do you work?
A: When I rest.
Q: What is your salary?
A: The perfection of my work.
Q: What are you aiming for with all these goods?
A: The pleasure of supporting men of good character.
Q: Do you have anything more?
A: To be ignored by all men, to live only for God alone who is the only goal of our true FF:.
(The T:.ILL:.M:. knocks three; The prime minister knocks four; The second five; Then the T:.ILL:.M:. says:)
Q: The chapter is closed.
End