Societas Roscircuciana in Scotia
Fifth Grade - Adeptus Minor


This ritual dates from the first half of the twentieth century.


 
Ceremonial of Reception
 
In this Grade the Vault of the Adepts is prepared by placing a pastos upon the floor with its head at time centre of the Vault, and its foot near the West. The Vault is but dimly lit. The Sacred  Volume is placed open upon the foot of the pastos.
The Candidate, who must be a Philosophus, Grade IV, and must wear the Jewel of the Rosicrucian Society, is taken to the ante-chamber, where he is blindfolded by the Acolyte, who at the proper time instructs him to knock as a Philosophus, one and four.
The Fratres upstanding.
Ind.: Very Worthy Fratres, I open this College of Adepts by giving five knocks and one knock.
The knocks given by the Candidate are heard.
Cond.: Right Worthy inductor, a Frater Philosophus seeks admission to our Vault.
Ind.: If he be one of the chosen you may admit him.
The Conductor, admits the Candidate, and they stand within the Portal.
Ind.: Who are you and what do you seek?
Candidate, prompted by the Conductor: I am a Philosophus and I seek Adeptship; if I am received I will never break my covenant with you.
The Conductor then places his right forefinger upon the lips of the Candidate, saying: Speak not, but follow me.
They move once round the Vault in profond silence, and as they pass the Inductor, the Conductor utters the word of the 4th Grade, Theosophia.
The Inductor answers: Pass, Theosophia.
Then they move around and stop in the West, where the Expositor rises and places his right forefinger on the lips of the Candidate, saying: I remove the seal of Silence. Frater, who art thou?
Cond., for Cand.: I am one who mourns in darkness because of the King of Terrors; my days are compassed with griefs, and my nights with sorrows. Show me the dawn of that celestial Light, which crowns with joy the perfect man.
Exp.: Are you a Christian?
Cand.: I am.
Exp.: Enough; watch and pray till the True Light shineth.
The Inductor, leaving the East, places himself at the East of the pastos, and then addresses the candidate.
Ind.: Very Worthy Frater, it was the practice of a distinguished Sage to enjoin strict silence upon all who sought instruction in the mysteries. The disciples of this great Teacher were not permitted to speak for a certain number of years, when the seal of silence was removed by the potent voice which had imposed it. This was a sure test of the Candidate’s prudence and discretion, and of his ability to keep the secrets with which he might be entrusted.
In accordance with the custom observed by Pythagoras, we require a proof of obedience in this respect from each one who seeks the rank of an Adept of the Second Order of our Society.
You have religiously obeyed the injunctions of your Conductor, and are doubtless impressed with the importance of Secrecy and Silence in the manifold affairs of our Society.
In days of peril and persecution, when priests and princes sought the lives of all who truly worshipped the Creator, our vows of Fidelity, Secrecy, and Silence secured the Order from the attacks of pretended friends and of open foes; therefore, even as the Holy Prophet Jeremiah exclaims in the 5th verse of the 50th Chapter of his Prophecies, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
An Anthem is then sung or said: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. (Eccles xii vv. 1-7).
The Conductor restores the Candidate to light.
Ind.: Let us kneel.
The Expositor, Candidate, and Conductor kneel at the foot of the pastos.
Ind.: Place your left hand horizontally beneath the Holy Volume, and extend your right hand vertically upwards. Are you ready and willing to enter into a sacred and solemn Covenant with the Adepts of Hermetic Science?
Cand.: I am.
Ind.: Then repeat your Christian and surnames, and the motto by which you are known in the Rosicrucian Society, and say after me:
 
 
Covenant
 
Both: I, …, in presence of the living God, Who has triumphed over death and the terrors of the grave, solemnly swear that I will ever obey the wise and just commands of the Supreme Magus or Chief Adept, that I will not communicate to any living Soul, unless to a duly sworn Adept, the time, place, and occasion of my induction; that I will wear the badge of the Society at all meetings of the Fratres; that I will study the mysteries of the Three Worlds, Elementary, Intellectual, and Celestial; and finally that I will consider myself bound to the Fratres of this Grade by a peculiar tie, respecting and loving them while living, and mourning for them when dead. So help me, the Lord and Arbiter of life and death, and keep me faithful to this solemn Covenant.
Ind.: You will now once kiss the Sacred Volume which you hold. This is done and the Sacred Volume is replaced on the pastos.
Having entered into the Covenant of the Adepts, you may rise.
The Inductor returns to the East.
Ind.: Let me now inform you that the time of your reception as an Adeptus Minor is midnight. The place is a grave, or the entrance to a cemetery. The Word is Thanatos. Pronounce the Word Thanatos. I recognise you, Frater, by that Word. It is but a transposition of the letters of the Word Thanatos that awful and mysterious power whose call, in whatever language spoken, we must all obey.
By the influence of that Word we have come together at this solemn hour, and in this solemn place; by the influence of that power we shall all be brought at no distant day to lie down where the rich and poor sleep together, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary as at rest.
I meet you here, my Fratres, at this time and place, not to terrify you with frightful ceremonies, not to awaken your sympathies by allusions to the grief and anguish caused by death throughout the world, but that henceforth you and I may have something in common—the precious heritage of the faithful and discreet, a reference to which will enable us to distinguish each other from the great body of mankind, whether at home, or upon a journey, in poverty or in affluence, in buoyant health or in sickness, or even in the very agonies of death itself.
The Conductor leads the Candidate to the Inductor in the East. The Inductor then gives the Secrets.
Ind.: The sign of Adeptship is that of a teacher; stand erect and place your left hand behind your back and stretch forward and upward your right arm and hand, with index finger extended, and the other fingers closed.
I give you the grip of Adeptship by taking your right hand with my left and your left hand with my right hand; in this position we repeat the Secret Word already given: Thanatos.
The grip implies that perfect bond of fidelity which should henceforth exist between us; it is within our hearts that this bond originates, and while truth has her residence there, it can never be weakened, shattered, or destroyed.
The knocks are five and one; five implying Adeptship and one the first of the Adept Grades.
Be seated, my Frater
The Expositor should read a lecture upon the aims and duties of the Adepts.
 
 
Lecture
 
Exp.: Right Worthy Magister Inductor, Very Worthy Fratres Adepti—In a College of Adepts the reception of a Philosophus into Adeptship is performed by the Inductor in the East, who must be a Magister of our Society. The Expositor in the West should give the newly received Adept some instruction suited to his new position.
V.W. Frater Adeptus Minor,—you were chosen for admission to the Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia because you had attained the rank of a Master Mason in a duly chartered lodge, and had in that position shown yourself a man of worth and discretion, and to be one who was still seeking more knowledge of the mysteries that encompass us in life and lie before us across the gulf of death.
You have been received into the Second Order of our Rosicrucian Society this day because you had made steady progress in the studies and duties allotted to Fratres while they are members of the four Grades of the First Order.
In the Grade of Zelator you were recommended to study the powers and properties of Numbers, and the philosophy of the Hebrew Kabalah, in which the relations between numbers, letters, words, and things are defined.
In the Grade of Theoricus, the mysteries of nature, of mineral, vegetable and animal life are proper studies, and its ritual of admission teaches you that beyond the colours, as well as the forms of objects, there are occult relations which need investigation.
The Grade of Practicus has special relation to the ancient art of Alchymy and the modern science and art of Chemistry.
And lastly, the Grade of Philosophus teaches the need of the highest mental culture in order to comprehend the works of the philosophers, and the sacred volumes of the World-Religions.
The Theology of the Christian Church suggests a study of the older Jewish faith, and this leads to researches into the pagan believes and the realms of Greco-Roman mythology, also to the religion of Ancient Egypt and to the great Asiatic Faiths—Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Mohammedanism.
Your studies in the First Order then have been so extensive in order to give you broad views of human knowledge, life, and duty, and our reception into Adeptship introduces you into a new status—that of a teacher, and be assured, my Very Worthy Frater, that your long probation and extensive tuition have not been for your own benefit only. Your studies have been directed and your mind well stored with science, and your hands well trained in art, in order that you might teach others. What you have received, that freely give. Know then, Frater, that in the First Order you are learners, in the Second Order you are teachers, while in the Third Order you may become rulers—Magi or Magistri.
The Right Worthy Inductor has conferred upon you the Sign, Grip, and Word of the Grade of Adeptus Minor. To these Secrets I may now add that the Jewel of the Rosicrucian Society should still be worn, but suspended by a yellow ribbon. In addition, the Adept Grades have their own Jewel, which is a triangular plate of gold, an equilateral and equiangular triangle, suspended by a golden chain, or a ribbon of yellow colour. Upon its face is engraved the Tetractys—so called of Pythagoras, the famous Greek Philosopher of Crotona, who lived about 520 B.C. This consisted of ten stars, which were in later times replaced by ten Yods or Jods, the Chaldee or Hebrew letter corresponding to the English I or Y. These were arranged in four rows of 1, 2, 3, and 4, so as to be seen also as four rows in the alternative position. The ל, Yod was considered as the Sacred Symbol of God. In Hebrew numeration Yod was the Number Ten, called the Decad by ancient philosophers, and in this figure the Decad is considered as composed of:
One Yod = God = Unity = the Monad
Two Yods = Yod, Heh = Jah = As above, so below; the Dyad, Matter.
Three Yods = Yod, Heh, Vau = Adam, Seth, and Enoch and later the Trinity of the Christian Faith.
And Four Yods = IHVH = the Tetragrammaton becoming INRI in the Christian symbolism.
Around this figure of the Tetractys are spaces in which the names and numbers of the three Grades can be engraved. On the reverse tide are the owner’s initials, his motto, and the name of the Society. On the third side are engraved the divine initials IHVH and INRI.
The Decad was called the emblem of the Universe. If we further consider the Decad and the Tetractys of Pythagoras in the light of the Hebrew Kabalah, and according to the numerical; values of the Hebrew letters we shall find that the important symbolic number Seventy-two is produced. I, Yod, alone is ten. Yod, Heh, IH is ten and five, that is fifteen. Yod, Keh, Vau, IHV is ten, five, and six, that is twenty-one. Yod, Heh, Vau, Heh, IHVH is ten, five, six, five, that is twenty-six. The total is seventy-two, the number of steps of the Ladder of Jacob which reached from earth to heaven upon each step, says the Talmud, was an Angel bearing one of the names of God. These names are derived from the words and letters of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first verses of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Exodus, and to each name is added the angelic title of AL or AH as a termination. In mediæval magic these seventy-two angelic names were engraved on thirty-six Talismans, and were used for divination and protection.
The seventy-two-lettered divine name was called the Shemhamphorasch.
The number seventy-two is also the numeration of the name Chesed, CHSD, eight, sixty, four, which signifies Mercy, it is one of the divine attributes of the Ten Holy Sephiroth.
As has been already stated, the work of the Adepts is that of tuition as well as self-improvement; as an Adeptus Minor it is your special duty to teach the Zelators and the Fratres of the Grade of Theoricus; while in the College ceremonials you should be at all times able and willing to perform the duties of an Ancient.
You may feel well assured, my Frater, that the most sure way to fix any knowledge in the memory is to practice the art of teaching that knowledge to others who are seeking to reach your own stage of progress.
Right Worthy Inductor, my task is done.
Ind.: Fratres, the admission of our Frater to the Grade of Adeptus Minor is now completed. May he be long spared to pursue his studies, and to assist others in their efforts to attain the Summum Bonum—True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
Be upstanding, Fratres.
With the knocks * * * * *   *, I close this College of Adepts.
Expositor and Conductor repeat the knocks * * * * *   *.
Inductor gives the Benediction: Benedicat Dominus Deus noster per secula seculorum. Amen.


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