Anarchistbanjo's World

We continue to read about Amenhotep IV from the pages of “The American Rosae Crucis” published in 1916.

But to him came the inspiration of throwing the worship of idols and substituting the religion and worship of one God, a supreme deity, whose Spirit was in heaven and whose physical manifestation was the sun- THE SYMBOL OF LIFE. This was in accordance with the Rosaecrucian doctrines and it changed the worship of the Sun as A god to the worship of THE god SYMBOLIZED by the sun. This was the beginning of Monotheism in Egypt and the origin of the worship of a spiritual deity which “EXISTED EVERYWHERE, IN EVERYTHING, but was NOTHING OF THE EARTH”.

He then changed his own name so that it would not be inconsistent with his reform. Amenhotep meant “Ammon is satisfied”; this he altered to Akhnaton or Ikhenaton meaning “pious to Aton” or “Glory to Aton”.

He built a new capital at El Amarna in the plain of Herm-opolis on a virgin site at the edge of the desert and abandoned Thebes because it was the MAGNIFICENT CITY OF AMMON. At El Amarna he also built a large Temple for the Order in “the form of a cross” and a large number of houses for his Council of the Order. Here was the beginning of the monastic life for within the boundaries of El Amarna lived two hundred and ninety six Brothers of the Order, each having taken an oath never to pass “beyond the shadow of the Temple”.

Akhnaton (Amenhotep IV) not only built his Temple in the form of a cross, but he added the cross and the rose as symbols of the Order and further adopted the Crux Ausata, in a special coloring, as the symbol to be worn by all teachers (Masters) in the Lodges.

As a ruler of Egypt our Master failed utterly to check the desire for war and by his attacks on the popular religion he left the way open for invasion through lack of cooperation on the part of his subjects. As the crisis approached our Master foresaw the result and sad at his neglect of political matters in his enthusiasm for the spiritual, he weakened his health- which seems to have been below normal- and he was finally forced to take to his bed in the month of July, 1350 BCE. Instead of using his mighty knowledge to regain his health it appears from his last dictated writings that his constant wish was to be spiritualized, that he might be RAISED UP TO THAT PLANE from which God’s symbol shone down upon him. He fasted- practically starving himself- refused the services of the physicians in the Order and prayed constantly. Then, on July 24, late in the afternoon, while he lay with his right hand upstretched to God pleading to be taken into the NOUS he was seen by his Brothers and Sisters of the Order watching there, to be actually raised from his bed for a moment and then to drop back in “sweet repose with a smile of illumination upon his countenance.”

Thusly passed to the beyond our Great Master who did so much and left so much for our Order.