We continue with the information presented in the “American Rosae Crucis” published by Imperator H. Spencer Lewis in 1916. We will begin with information about Solomon.
The records show that he had come from the WEST, had traveled over many lands and across waters. He was of a nation which was large and important, situated in some very distant place. All this is indicated from the report he made to the representative of the Order whom he interviewed at Thebes “whither he had gone immediately upon his arrival in Egypt accompanied by his slaves and his ‘najah’. (a word unknown to the translators)
He desired instruction in the higher Egyptian sciences and philosophy and was directed to El Amarna with a letter of introduction from the INTENDANT at Thebes. He reached El Amarna on the 4th day of June, 999 BCE and after an examination was admitted into the Order on June 12, 999 BCE, under the name of Saloman, THE YOUTHFUL SEEKER.
Salomon did not complete his studies for it is reported that he left El Amarna “before the fourth examination.” (Was this prior to passing into what is now known as the FOURTH DEGREE?) He left upon his Brothers and Sisters a definite feeling of love, wisdom and virtue and all were grieved at his sudden but announced departure.
The next word of him is as a resident at the ROYAL HOME in Bubastis in the Delta where Shishak I (or Sheshonk) had established himself. This was in the year 952 BCE and Saloman is referred to as an instructor to the Pharaoh’s son. This is probably a mistake in translating for in another place he is referred to as advisor in political matters, and this seems more probable in the light of future developments. Whether he had been at this residence all the intervening years from 999 to 952 BCE in not definitely established, but there is a record of his presence at Thebes in the year 980 BCE when he visited some GAMES in company with the INTENDANT of Thebes and a group of scholars with whom he seemed on the most intimate terms.
Saloman seems to have been greatly influenced in Thebes and Bubastis by the religion of Ammon and conceived a form of philosophical religion which was a mixture of the Rosaecrucian monotheism and the Egyptian idolatry. To him the SUN became more than the mere symbol of a God; it was the living, vital spirit of God, and while not the God, it was the God’s etherial body. This would indicate that Saloman conceived God as being (a) personal, rather than IMPERSONAL as Rosaecrucianism taught, and (b) DUAL, body and spirit, father and holy ghost.
Shishak I secured Thebes in 951 BCE and appointed his son priest in the religion of Ammon, and gave his daughter, Aye, to Saloman to wed. This is the first mention of any of Saloman’s wives and she may have been his first wife. At the close of 951 BCE or early in 950 Saloman departed for Palestine where he became a mighty power, and with a prearranged plan, permitted Shishak I to rule over his people. The history of Saloman or Solomon in Palestine is too well known to warrant any further comment except on one point.
Five years after Saloman began his rule in Palestine, or about 945 BCE, he completed a Temple there in which to house a “society” or brotherhood such as he had found in El Amarna. An examination of the plans and cross section views of the so-called Saloman’s Temple shows it to be not only typically Egyptian in architecture and decoration but copied after the R. C. Temple as El Amarna, even to the location of the altar, with the exception that the side structures which made the original building a CROSS were eliminated in Saloman’s plans.
Saloman had the assistance of two who had traveled in Egypt as architects and artists- Huram-abi of Tyre and one Hiram Abif.
It was found that Saloman restricted his order to males and adopted a great many of the details of the Rosaecrucian initiations and services. At first it was believed that he would apply to the Grand Lodge in Thebes for a charter and make his work a branch of the Order, but it became apparent before the first assembly was held that ahe was not adhering to the Rosaecrucian philosophy, for he used the sun as the exclusive symbol of his order.
Of the growth of the Saloman Brotherhood, as it was officially called in all ancient Rosaecrucian documents, one may read in all literature bearing upon Free Masonry how it has evolved into a semi-mystical, speculative, secret, fraternal order of power and great honor, gradually altering the principles laid down by Saloman, it is true, but doing so for the greater benefit of man and the glory of the true God.
Thus did Rosaecrucianism in its pure form fail to reach Palestine at this epoch.
At this point in the narrative it is probably worth mentioning that following the death of Akhnaton the official religion of Egypt returned to the religion of Ammon and the Temple of the Order was not the official religion that was followed or practiced in Egypt by the people or its rulers.
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