DARKNESS. BY BLAZING STAR. A Masonic writer has said the record of the Craftsman's progress "is out of Darkness into the Sunlight and through the Sunlight up to the Sun," expressing a Cosmic truth to which all the Blazing Star articles have uniformly pointed. "Beginning," says the writer alluded to, in night, as his life began in Darkness, he advances, step by step, through dawn and daybreak, until he beholds the Sun. at meridian, the beauty of the day and the glory of our inner world, because it is the chosen symbol of Light, and Light is the characteristic of the Temple not made with hands,' and of its divine builder, the Great Architect of the Universe,' in whom is no Darkness at all." "Darkness," adds this illuminated Brother, "has a meaning well understood by all, and never to be forgotten by any who have trod the tesselated floor of the Lodge. The outer world is figuratively supposed to be in Darkness, while within the tiled recesses of the Lodge there is Light; and the mind is taught to conceive before the eye is permitted to behold, the symmetry and the beauty of our mystic Temple, as it stands revealed in the Light by which Masons work. As of old, in mythic story, Nox and Erebus gave birth to the Light, so with us out of Darkness and fear, springs the Light of moral Truth." In the popular conception Darkness is the mere absence of Light, is but a negation. This is a fallacy that a better knowledge of Cosmic principles soon dispels. Darkness is not the mere absence of Light in the sense of a negation, a nonentity. It is, as expressed by Pike, who has given much thought to the subject, "The Etherial Matter in a state of inactivity, stagnation, or stoppage; prevented of that regular and swift motion whence Light is produced. It is not as our philosophers conceive, the bare absence of Light, but it is real and proper matter, as much as Light or Spirit; for we read, Exod. x, 21, of Darkness in Egypt which might be felt'; which certainly intimates that the Ether was then in such an extraordinary state of stagnation and inactivity (the cold of Winter) as to become an object of the sense of feeling; it was really palpable. Farther, it is said to be created, Isa. xlv. 7, 'I form the Light and create Darkness.' From which passage, joined with the consideration of Moses men 6 tioning Darkness in the first place (Gen. i. 2), we may probably conclude that the heavens were created (i. e., "bara," cut or disposed relatively,) in a state of stagnation, or Darkness; and were afterwards formed into the condition of Light. And let it further be remarked, that if we acknowledge Light to be properly matter, we are compelled from Scripture to believe that Darkness is matter likewise, unless we suppose an annihilation: for we read, Isa. v. 30, 'the Light is darkened in the heavens thereof."" (Philosophia Sacra, chap. 3.) Considering both Cold and Heat, and Darkness and Light, antithetically, O'Gallagher observes: "It is the reigning opinion, that Cold is a privation of Heat, as Darkness is of Light. This is a principle which seems to me adopted by all philosophers; at least I have met none who oppose it. Nevertheless this opinion of substanceless principles is inconsistent with the work of Omnipotence, is entirely unphysical, and must have proceeded from vulgar undiscerning prejudice, without an accurate idea or proper consideration of those old and unexceptionable axioms, to-wit: there is no effect without a cause, and effects must be as their causes; for, in consequence of these axioms, as Cold and Darkness have real and positive effects, they should necessarily be allowed to arise from, or to have real and positive causes; otherwise negative ones or uncreations are to be admitted as powerful agents in Nature a thing incompatible with philosophy and religion; for philosophy will not allow a nonentity to operate and produce real effects; and religion will not admit of power, operation, or material of Nature, which was not produced by the Omnipotent Creator. Cold, then, which curbs, condenses, restrains, and thereby invigorates Heat; and Darkness, which envelops and absorbs Light, are not to be considered as the mere absence of the qualities they overcome, any more than Light and Heat are to be regarded as the mere absence or negation of Darkness and Cold, so that we are to consider all these to be the offspring of material agents." (First Principles of Nature, Vol. 2, p. 107.) In this philosophy is the outcropping of the true science of the physics; is the embodiment of the exact doctrine that lies at the bottom of all the mysteries, ancient and modern, as also at the bottom of all church ritualism. Hence, the prominence given and importance attached to the Masonic expression, "Lux e tenebris," Light out of Darkness. To Darkness all mythology has given une quivocal power of evolution into Light, as also to Light the absolute power of condensation or constringement into Darkness. And thus the Ether, according to its state of polarization, is Light or Darkness-a doctrine enforced ex-cathedra during the Persian initiations-the Archimagus informing the candidate at the moment of illumination that the Divine Lights (the Three Prime Rays invested with actinism and exemplified by the Triumvirate of Officers who rule the Lodge) were displayed before him; and thereupon expounding the nature and purport of the mysteries, taught that the Universe is governed by a good and evil power (Light and Darkness, the former equivalent to Summer and the latter to Winter) which were engaged in a perpetual warfare (positive and negative strife), the one against the other, and that as each in turn prevails, the world is characterized by a corresponding succession of happiness or misery; that the initiated at the end of the world-the whirl-year closing at the Spring equinox-will with Yazden (the Good Principle-the Summer Sun) ascend to their separate abode (Land of Light, Life, and Joy - the Spring quadrant) only to be reached by means of a Ladder (Jacob's-comprising the Signs Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces) where exists the purest happiness (delights of Summer); while the uninitiated and reprobate, with Ahriman (the Evil Principle-the Winter Sun), will be plunged into outer Darkness to suffer an eternity (Winter after Winter perpetuity) of misery and disquietude in a dreary and desolate abode on the shore of a stinking river (the sinister ethered Zodiac marking the Winter Sun's course), whose dark cold waters (the constringed Elements) are so turbid that no vessel save a mule's (Winter's emblem) hoof could hold, clamp, buffet, or traverse them, on the bosom of which Stygian stream, filled with scorpions (Scorpio) and monsters of horrid form, is the unregenerate soul-Sun without fructifying power-destined to forever float! Thus, the Epopts, or perfectly initiated (i. e., the bright and shining ones), attaining a state of pure and ineffable Light, were pronounced safe under the protection of the Celestial (Heavenly or Light dispensing) Gods; while the unhappy multitude (Winter Signs and their Equivalents), not having undergone the purifying ceremonies (been released from the constringed or darkened Ether), were declared reprobate; said to wander in all the obscu rity of Darkness, to be deprived of the Divine favor, and to be doomed to a perpetual residence in the infernal regions (Nether Wintry World), amidst a cheerless and overwhelming contamination ! So Nature, as an examplar, offering us the interpretation of every Masonic lesson, and in her glory the "form and beauty" of every Masonic Lodge; her revelations, always constant and true, determine the whole plan of the Masonic economy, and yet notwithstanding that Light is presented as the one grand object of all Masonic search, it is incumbent that we forget not that Darkness is scarcely less an effective teacher, respecting which Mackey says: "It is the symbol of that antemundane Chaos from whence Light issued at the Divine command; of the state of nonentity before birth; and of ignorance before the reception of knowledge." That "In the ancient mysteries, the release of the aspirant from solitude and Darkness was called the act of regeneration, and he was said to be born again, or to be raised from the dead." And that "In Masonry, the Darkness which envelops the mind of the uninitiated, being removed by the bright effulgence of Masonic light, Masons are appropriately called the Sons (Suns) of Light.'" Hence, in citing from a Masonic source, the words which are undoubtedly a paraphrase upon Isaiah, chap. lxiv, verse 4: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things, which God (El-jah, the Spring or Ram's Sun) hath prepared for them that love him," we may well surmise the rich gifts of Nature, which the hidden or unseen Summer is to call forth, and which the Lodge (Zodiac-Year) in its beauty is to express, leading us to the indul. gence of the beautiful sentiment voiced by the poet : "Welcome, the lord of light and lamp of day; Welcome, the birds green beild upon the brier; Welcome, welfare of husbands at the plows; Welcome, depainter of the bloomit meads; Welcome, the life of every thing that spreads." In the separation of the Initiated from the Outer World, it is a marked recognition of the distinction that exists between Light and Darkness, as also a realization that the observances had are an undeniable acknowledgment of the progenitorship of Darkness to Light, though Darkness takes its leave when Light dawns, as Light in turn flies when Darkness draws nigh. And, hence, it is by his "Rights, Lights, and Benefits," that the Intrant certifies himself the servant of that God (Aries, figuratively) in whose hands all creation (generation) exists, and who is over all, the Living God. TEMPLES OF GWALIOR, INDIA. [Bishop John F. Hurst furnishes the Independent with the following inte resting account of his visit to the Gwalior Acropolis, one of the most remarkable ruins of the ancient Hindu period.] Of all the temples, I was most impressed by the Sas-bahu and Sahasra-bahu, or the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. They stand together near the edge of the cliff. They are sometimes called the "Temples of a Thousand Arms" One is larger than the other, and an inscription inside one of the porticoes places the date at A. D. 1093. But who knows the date? This is likely a new one, on the site of an older-built when Time way young.— The larger temple is one hundred feet long and sixty three feet. broad. The top is now gone. The present height is only seventy; but when in a perfect state it must have been one hundred. One gets lost in wonder as he stands in front of this strange building; it differs from all I had ever seen. The temples of South India appalled me by their great spaces, their glittering pagodas, their wandering elephants, their crowd of worshipers, and the wealth of their shrines. But there was no grandeur in the architecture. The Gwalior Temples are of a different order. The Mohammedan conquerors may have done some mutilation; but they have been forbearing, after all. One can still see, from the majestic ruin, what the temple was in the days of its grandeur. There was no petty architecture, no poor material, no common device. On either side of the grand portal I saw inscriptions dating from the primitive Hindu period. Even the doorsteps had been cut into rich tracery, a fit entrance into the central hall of the sacred building. On either side of the steps leading up to the great platform on which the temple stands, there are nineteen figures, all in stone, as |