General Ahiman Rezon, by Daniel Sickels, , at sacred-texts.com
THE RITE OF ILLUMINATION is a very ancient ceremony, and
constituted an important feature in all the mysteries of the
early ages. In the Egyptian, Cabirian, Sidonian, Eleusinian,
Scandinavian, and Druidical Rituals, it held a prominent place,
and in them all represented the same ideas. It marked the
termination of the mystic pilgrimage through gloom and night,
and was emblematical of that moral and intellectual light which
pours its divine radiance on the mind after it has conquered
prejudice, and passion, and ignorance, with which it has so long
been struggling. The prevailing notion of all those Rites was,
that man, society, humanity could arrive at the Perfect only by
the ministry of gloom and suffering; that the soul's exaltation
and highest enlightenment could be approached only by the dark
way of tears and sacrifice. The Rite of Illumination indicates
the triumphant conclusion of man's conflicts, sacrifices, and
trials; announces that he has