There were four rows of these scallops. The skull-cap terminated at the sides in ear padlocks, finished with triangular appendages like that over the mouth. In each ear there was a massive bar of rounded metal inclosed within a broad, strong clasp.[[6]]
“Look closely at the three plates on the cheeks. They are precisely alike in form and lie over one another in the same way; so it is only necessary to examine one side.”
“On the first disk,” said Yermah, “is a cross, with four dots within the arms. The second one is blank, and the third has a peculiar vertical slit, which looks as if it had some connection with the arrow-head appendage—as if being slipped on to one of these, it could turn, and thus open the padlock.”
Yermah tried to do what he said, but the cold, immovable stone soon disabused his mind.
“Our prophet, now at Memphis, has the key to this mystery. But I know its interpretation. Come and be comforted by warmth and light, and I shall tell thee,” said Akaza, noting the shiver that involuntarily followed Yermah’s ineffectual effort, and who was still much shaken when he resumed his seat beside the table containing the zodiac and horoscope.
“The earth’s photosphere is really the seven cosmic serpents which enfold the planet in seven bands of race conditions. They have seven eyes, or windows, of occult perception. One of these windows closes every time there is a new race developed. Thou knowest that death in any form is but a new birth. Therefore, when a new race is born its predecessor dies, and the section of our globe inhabited by the dying race is purified by water and fire.”
This is what prompts the Aryan race to arise periodically and go from one part of the earth to the other. This impulse cast them out of Central Asia and Africa, where the great deserts of Sahara and Gobi now stretch their waste sands, where Assyrian plains are given over to desolation, and also left the Colorado, Arizona, and Alta California lying bleak and barren in company with the continent of Australia. This is the purification by fire, while tidal waves and the ice ages purify by water.
“The earth is a virgin,” continued Akaza, “and will not submit to the defilement of man. The first eye was in the south; the second was Lemuria, in the west; the third is Hyperboria, in the north, which is still open. This will close when the white magicians come out of Atlantis. Then its purification by water commences. The fourth window Atlantis herself will close, when the fifth race is born. The races will always reproduce themselves in a triad of ten each, divided into root, sub, and family branches. This unfolding will cause much sorrow and misery in the future. There will be for ages strong hatred between the black, red, yellow and white men. They will wage war upon each other unceasingly.”
“Since this is race destiny and cannot be avoided, of what use is the sacrifice and effort of the Brotherhood? It does not seem to make humanity either wiser or better.”
“Many an inquiring mind has thought the same, and many a time in future must this question be answered. Know, then, that individual man is the microcosm. He has within himself all the possibilities accorded to his race, and his own life must move in the same cycle. Initiation teaches him how to harmonize himself with these laws. The ten planets of the solar system correspond to the labors decreed for finding the Way. Astrology is simply the metaphysical aspect of astronomy. Before man becomes an adept, he must undergo the ten trials. When he has done this through three successive incarnations, he is allowed to personate the attributes of divinity, and becomes a real savior of the world.”