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HAGGAI-HOWLINGS

Haggard am I, an hyaena; I hunger and howl. Men think it laughter -- ha! ha! ha!

There is nothing movable or immovable under the firmament of heaven on which I may write the symbols of the secret of my soul.

Yea, though I were lowered by ropes into the utmost Caverns and Vaults of Eternity, there is no word to express even the first whisper of the Initiator in mine ear: yea, I abhor birth, ululating lamentation of Night!

Agony! Agony! the Light within me breeds veils; the song within me dumbness.

God! in what prism may any man analyse my Light?

Immortal are the adepts; and yet They die -- They die of SHAME unspeakable; They die as the Gods die, for SORROW.

Wilt Thou endure unto The End, O FRATER PERDURABO, O Lamp in The Abyss? Thou hast the Keystone of the Royal Arch; yet the Apprentices, instead of making bricks, put the straws in their hair, and think they are Jesus Christ!

O sublime tragedy and comedy of THE GREAT WORK!

COMMENTARY (ΝΗ)

Haggai, a notorious Hebrew prophet, is a Second Officer in a Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons.

In this chapter the author, in a sort of raging eloquence, bewails his impotence to express himself, or to induce others to follow him into the light. In paragraph 1 he explains the sardonic laughter, for which he is justly celebrated, as being in reality the expression of this feeling.

Paragraph 2 is a reference to the Obligation of an Entered Apprentice Mason.

Paragraph 3 refers to the Ceremony of Exaltation in Royal Arch Masonry. The Initiate will be able to discover the most formidable secret of that degree concealed in the paragraph.

Paragraphs 4 - 6 express an anguish to which that of Gethsemane and Golgotha must appear like whitlows.

In paragraph 7 the agony is broken up by the sardonic or cynical laughter to which we have previously alluded.

And the final paragraph, in the words of the noblest simplicity, praises the Great Work; rejoices in its sublimity, in the supreme Art, in the intensity of the passion and ecstasy which it brings forth. (Note that the words "passion" and "ecstasy" may be taken as symbolical of Yoni and Lingam.)