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saved than is generally known. These are the Traditions that have had
- and still have - the greatest influence upon the Western world.
The Western mind inquires, dissects, experiments, probes and puzzles
out the secrets of the world about it. It is not enough to know, they
must also know Why and How, When and Where. Then comes a need
to improve, change and adapt what they have discovered. In the East
there is acceptance of the higher will, a way evolved over many
centuries, a willingness to allow Fate to have the last word, something
that is not acceptable to the West. Both ways are valid for those born
to them, but when a choice of teaching is offered it is better to choose
one's own racial type.
Sumeria, Chaldea, Egypt and Greece were the cradles of the Western
Way. Greece was the birthplace of abstract thought, and philosophers
like Thales of Miletus, Anaxamander and Anaxagoras taught a
thought process that was excitingly new to Western minds. It opened a
cosmic-sized pathway along which the curiosity-ridden mind of the
West could travel. These new ways of thinking enabled the human
mind to really see and understand the true nature of the world around
and within him. From this sprang the first new mode of thought since
the decline of the great Egyptian temples of learning. Once its value
was recognised, its used was expanded and incorporated into the
training of the neophytes and used to its full potential. In many ways
our present position as we come to the end of both a century and an
Age is analogous to what happened in ancient Greece. Our mental and
physical capabilities have expanded so fast and so far that we do not
always take enough time to consolidate them and are in danger of out-
running ourselves. We are in the middle of learning how to think in
new and sometimes very strange ways.
While the Greeks were learning to think around corners, the school of
Alexandria concerned itself with the collection and preservation of
what was ancient knowledge even then. Within its walls a cross-
section of the finest minds of the time might be found. Herbalists from
Cathay exchanged ideas with Therapeutoi from the Desert Peninsula
and astrologers from Sumeria, white robed Druids walked with the
dark-skinned priests of Nubia. The Rune Masters of the cold, far
North taught their art to the shaven headed Egyptian priests from
Heliopolis, and the scribes copied it all down. It was a place where the
known and often unknown world sent its finest minds to both learn
and teach. Such harmony between nations has never been surpassed,
rarely has it even been equalled.
In the mist-wrapped islands of the far North there were other, older
colleges of learning whose founding priests had come as survivors
from the drowned lands of the West. Theirs was perhaps the most
ancient of all schools; the primal source of the Mysteries as we know
it - the fabled Atlantis. On the shores of Britain and the surrounding
islands, once perhaps the furthest outposts of their empire, the
Atlanteans raised places of learning to train those who proved
themselves worthy of the teaching. It is from this time that so many of
the legends and myths of the Celts have come down to us. There are
still faint echoes of this ancient world, and it surfaces in our old
customs and festivals. It was from this source that the Celts received
their love of poetry and music.
All Western schools lay emphasis on personal effort, both mental and
physica, as a means of obtaining self-knowledge. Time has not
changed this aspect of the Western Mysteries. You will find no real
school of the Mysteries that offers knowledge without effort - none,
that is, that has anything of value to teach. In the East, humanity lived
at a slower pace, in a warmer and more productive climate foodwise.
A more introspective approach was taken which suited the lifestyle,
but for the West a more active way was needed.
In our time the mind of humanity is stirring once more and preparing
to make another leap of understanding of the cosmos in which we live
and of ourselves, both mentally and physically. As a species we are
changing, becoming taller, stronger and developing new areas of the
brain. Once more men and women are beginning to approach the
Pylon Gate of the Mysteries because those ancient priests had
experienced the same kind of leap and left records and clues that can
and will help us to make our own transit in the coming Age. Some
look and pass on, others hesitate, enter, then retreat back to the safe,
warm known world. But there are always a few who will enter and
stay and find what they have been seeking within its walls. It is not
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