On Secret Sciences, Initiations, and Modern Societies

mysteries through priestly despotism; miracle upon miracle was piled up; the simplest effects of nature were shrouded in deep darkness and intricate riddles, which could only be explained by the priests and their followers. The common masses original: "gemeine Haufe," a term used to describe the uneducated public or the general populace. believed blindly because they were deprived of every opportunity for independent judgment, as everything was explained through the intervention of good or evil demons, and nothing according to nature and truth. The heavens, the fixed stars, the planets, and the entire earth were filled with gods whose favor one had to strive to obtain, or whose wrath one had to appease. Thus arose sacrifices, offerings, and most of the liturgical regulations original: "gottesdienstlichen Anordnungen," referring to the formal structures and rules of religious worship.. Chevalier Ramsay Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686–1743), a Scottish-born writer and prominent Freemason known for his "Discourse on Mythology." has excellently proven in his treatise on the mythology of the ancients * that in the mythologies of all nations one finds the teachings of a supreme being, of the state of the world, of the spiritual nature of man, and of his probable continuation original: "Fortdauer," referring here to the immortality or survival of the soul. after death. All of this, however, was so greatly veiled, and under so many kinds of images and riddles

• It is appended to the end of The Travels of Cyrus original: "Reisen des Cyrus," referring to Ramsay’s 1727 pedagogical novel Les Voyages de Cyrus, which included an influential appendix on ancient theology..