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 TEMPLE TALKS 
 
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 MO 
 
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 GREAT 
 PYRAMID 
 
 I OF GIZEM. 
 
 A SYMBOL OF UNIVERSAL TeUTH 
 
 BY 
 
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THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 TEMPLE TALKS 
 
 This series of TEMPLE TALKS has for its purpose the unfold- 
 ing of the divine mystery proclaimed in the Western tradition as 
 it came down through Egypt from an age far antidating the Egyp- 
 tians as known to history. 
 
 Out of Egypt, in blending with the ancient faiths of Chaldea 
 and Persia, came the wisdom of the IliBbrews, and, blending again 
 with the philosophy of Greece and the mysteries of Mithra, all that 
 superb system of thought which has dominated the Western world 
 for nearly nineteen undred years. 
 
 This series of TEMPLE TALKS will contain twelve numbers, 
 handsomely illustrated with many full page cuts explanatory of the 
 text, and will be published at intervals of three months. The price 
 of single copies and of complete sets will be: 
 
 Single Numbers, 25 Cents. 
 
 Full Series (12 Numbers), $2.50. 
 
 No. 1 THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH— A Symbol of Uni- 
 versal Truth. 
 
 No. 2 THE SPHINX AND ITS MEANING— God is every- 
 where. God is in everything. 
 
 No. 3 THE TEMPLE AT DENDERA, illustrated with views of 
 that and other temples, and -giving an explanation 
 of temjde symbolism. 
 
 No. 4 THE HIGH PRIEST AND HIS VESTMENTS— Who is 
 the high priest, and what his vestments? 
 
 No. 5 A STUDY IN SYMBOLISM, showing its essential charac- 
 ter with rules for determining its meaning. 
 
 No. 6 THE BIBLE A SECRET WRITING — Why? How? 
 
 No. 7 THE GOSPEL OF LOVE— A reinterpretation of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 No 8 THE LIFE OF THE MASTER, a reinterpretation of the 
 story of his life and miracles in the light of the 
 Supreme Science. 
 
 No. 9 THE BIRTH OF THE CHRIST— Each soul has enfolded 
 within it the potential Christ, which shall appear at 
 the second birth. 
 
 No. 10 JOHN AT PATMOS — An unvailment of Relevations. It 
 IS revelation. 
 
 No. 11 THE PAULINE TEACHING— The ancient teaching en- 
 souled by love. 
 
 No. 12 THE WORLD AT THE ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY— 
 
 The many streams of j)hilosophy that united in the 
 one expression of Truth. 
 
TEMPLE TALKS 
 
 5EEIE5 I. 
 
 MO I. 
 
 TrtE 
 
 GREAT 
 PYRAMID 
 
 4 OF GIZEM. 
 
 A SYMBOL Of UmVER5AL TEUTH 
 
 BY 
 J.MUH5ELL CMA3E 
 
 i 
 
 p CliJj n 
 
 A 
 
 LET HOT rnt fLAME 
 DIE OUT " 
 
 /4s /^e/- ^a/W/ncfZ/i 
 
 COPVBI6HTEO 
 
 t9l6 
 
COPYRIGHTED 1916 
 
 By J. Munsell Chase 
 
 2229 Market Street 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 3)Tb3 
 
 C5 
 
 CHASE & RAE PRESS 
 
 1246 Castro Street 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 \ w 
 
 Sales Agent 
 FRED W. OWEN 
 Hollenbeck Hotel 
 Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Invocation 6 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 History of Great Pyramid 19 
 
 Location and Dimensions of Great Pyramid 25 
 
 Summary of Striking Facts Regarding Great Pyramid 35 
 
 SYMBOLISM OF GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 Page 
 
 Proem 38 
 
 Preliminary Eemarks 39 
 
 The Pyramid as Fire 40 
 
 The Pyramid as the Decad 43 
 
 The Number of the Imperfect 45 
 
 The Sacred Number 45 
 
 The Pyramid as the Four Elements 46 
 
 A Mystery in Numbers 47 
 
 INDEX TO PLATES 
 
 Map of Lower Egypt 11 
 
 Pyramid at Center of Earth's Land Surface 13 
 
 All the Pyramid's at Gizeh 15 
 
 Sectional Views of King's Chamber 17 
 
 Pyramid as in 822 A. D 18 
 
 Vertical Section of King's Chamber :... 21 
 
 Section of Grand Gallery 23 
 
 Equality of Boundaries and Areas 27 
 
 Vertical Section of Great Pyramid 29 
 
 Chamber and Passage System 31 
 
 Heavens at Time of Building of Great Pyramid 36 
 
 986513 
 
Snnttmtmn 
 
 O! Silent Monitor 
 Revealing to my view 
 Supremest thought of Heaven's 
 First Lord, Who shaped thee here? 
 Wert built by God Supreme? 
 Or passed on earth a race 
 More wise than we, of whom 
 Thou showest thought divine? 
 
 Great states arise and fall; 
 Unbounding nations come 
 And go; Men reach to power 
 And vanish as a dream; 
 But thou — thou standest still, 
 And through the ages yet 
 To be thou still shall stand 
 Serene, sublime and true. 
 
 O! Mentor speaking truths 
 Beyond the ken of men 
 In mortal form now shaped; 
 Who made thee so, and how 
 And why? Who signed in thee 
 The bounds of shoreless space; 
 The way, the reason of 
 The One, who knoweth all 
 And is the ALL in all. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To him who is profoundly interested in religious 
 thought there is no subject more in.tere&ting qv more 
 illuminating than a study of the origin and the inner 
 meaning of the great faiths that have dominated 
 mankind throughout the ages, and dominate it to- 
 day as fully as in any previous period of the world's 
 history. 
 
 Particularly is this true of the faith in which 
 one has been brought up, and to which he is bound 
 by all the ties of tradition, of family and of race, 
 as are all the inhabitants of the Western world with 
 that religion denominated Christian in honor of that 
 divine principle of love which animates and en- 
 souls it. 
 
 To attain to a full understanding of that faith 
 (in fact of any faith that has profoundly touched 
 the inner consciousness of man and shaped his des- 
 tiny during long periods of his evolution) ; to ac- 
 quire a ripened comprehension of its origin, its his- 
 tory, and its sublime meaning is the work of a 
 lifetime — of the conjoined labors of many men in 
 many life-periods. Nevertheless, it is a labor the 
 performance of which brings with it its own rich 
 reward, so that he who shall have attained will never 
 regret the cost entailed by the effort. 
 
 That Christianity, in its beginning and develop- 
 ment, is connected with Egypt is evident to the most 
 superficial observer. It was in the land of the 
 Pharaohs that Abraham spent a brief season in as- 
 sociation with those who were in high authority in 
 both a worldly and a priestly way. It was in Egypt 
 that the Hebrews grew to power and importance, and 
 it was in the mysteries of that country that Moses 
 was initiated before he assumed the task of leading 
 
8 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 his people out of bondage into the land which was 
 to become the birthplace of the most numerous and 
 powerful reMgJous faith of the present era. Jesus 
 himself made at least one trip into the land of Miz- 
 raim, when, in company with his spiritual father 
 (as will be shown in the number of Temple Talks to 
 be entitled, ^The Life of the Master'^), he went 
 thither to escape the fury of Herod; and it was in 
 Alexandria of Egypt that lived and taught many 
 of the early lights of the Christian faith. 
 
 It is also a noteworthy fact — one that has im- 
 portantly contributed to the interest in the land and 
 people of Ancient Egypt — that it was in the land 
 of Kem that many of the great philosophers and 
 teachers of Ancient Greece — notably Pythagoras and 
 Plato — were inducted into the mysteries, whence 
 they confessedly derived no small part of their wis- 
 dom, a wisdom that has served for nearly twenty- 
 five hundred years to make Greece renowned among 
 the nations; while in modern times the country of 
 the Nile has become of vital interest to the students 
 in the West because of the great impetus that has 
 come to the study of archaeology from the discov- 
 eries made in its ancient temples and pyramids. 
 
 Outside the pages of written history, beyond the 
 pale of modern physical science, Egypt has had, and 
 still has, a wealth of knowledge to proclaim that 
 is more true and more vital than ought that is re- 
 corded in books, because it shows a reason that is 
 outside the measures of time and space as commonly 
 understood. It deals with the eternal in the only 
 language by which the supreme facts of the eternal 
 can be told — the language of signs and symbols, 
 which is always true because all-embracing and all- 
 including. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 9 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It has been pertinently said of Egypt : *^In many 
 respects Egypt has long appeared to the scholar, the 
 antiquary and the philosopher the most interesting 
 country on the face of the earth. Relatively to the 
 various tribes who, at successive eras, have founded 
 States westward of the Black sea and the Syrian des- 
 ert, it has been universally regarded as the cradle 
 of science, as well as the first seat of regular govern- 
 ment; and hence we find that even the polished 
 nations of modern times are accustomed to ascribe 
 the rudiments of their literature and arts to the 
 ingenious people who, at a period beyond the records 
 of civil history, occupied the banks of the Nile." 
 
 In truth, the land of the Pharaohs was old when 
 Greece was in its infancy. The earliest writers of 
 Europe described its grandeur as in their time hav- 
 ing already reached its zenith, and even as being on 
 the decline; while the philosophers and historians 
 who crossed the Mediterranean in search of knowl- 
 edge were astonished at the proofs of an antiquity be- 
 yond their most extreme notions of time, and at the 
 tokens of a wisdom, a genius, and an opulence of 
 which they could scarcely hope their countrymen 
 would believe the report. In the days of Homer, the 
 capital of the Thebaid, with its hundred gates and 
 its vast population, was a subject of wonder and of 
 the most exalted panegyric — an effect which we 
 should at once attribute to the exaggeration of the 
 poet, were it not that the remains which, even after 
 the lapse of three thousand years, continue to resist 
 the injuries of the atmosphere and of barbarism, 
 bear evidence to a still greater magnificence than 
 is recorded in the pages of the Odyssey. 
 
10 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 At a time when the nations which to-day make 
 the greatest figure in the world, and influence most 
 deeply the conditions of human nature, had not yet 
 evolved through the first stage of social development, 
 the inhabitants of Thebes and of Memphis had at- 
 tained to a most elevated civilization and were grati- 
 fying a learned curiosity into the constitution of the 
 universe, and into the laws which regulate the move- 
 ments of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 Nor was it only the learning and philosophical 
 speculations which characterized the brightest 
 period of Greece and Rome that were borrowed from 
 Egypt. We can trace to that source the knowledge 
 of those sciences and arts more directly applicable 
 to the affairs of daily life. Pythagoras studied math- 
 ematics in the schools of the Egyptian priests ; while 
 Herodotus and Hecataeus obtained from the same 
 source the history of former ages which adorn their 
 pages. 
 
 The Greeks were the only people of Europe with 
 any pretension to antiquity. But the wise men 
 among them regarded their nation as an infant when 
 compared with the Egyptians. Plato confessed that 
 his countrymen had no memorial of any event be- 
 yond two thousands years, at the most, before his 
 time; whereas the wisdom of the Egyptians had 
 become proverbial thousands of years before. 
 
 Whether the Egyptians antedated the Hindus 
 has long been a moot question with scholars. But 
 whichever may have been first in time, this is certain, 
 beyond reasonable doubt — there was a close connec- 
 tion at some early period between the two peoples, 
 who had much in common. In fact, many of the 
 distinguishing customs of the people of India are 
 identical with those of the ancient Egyptians. This 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 11 
 
12 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 is especially true of all matters connected with the 
 religions of the former. Their temples and their 
 worship present an identity of thought and purpose 
 that cannot fail to impress the most obtuse. 
 
 When some Sepoys connected with the British 
 army were in Egypt a century ago they imagined 
 that they had found one of their own temples in the 
 ruins at Dendera, and were greatly exasperated at 
 the natives for their neglect of the ancient deities 
 whose images are there preserved. So strongly were 
 they impressed with the idea that they were among 
 the religious relics of their own faith that they pro- 
 ceeded to perform their devotions with all the cere- 
 monies practiced in their own land. 
 
 There is a resemblance, also, in the minor in- 
 struments of their religious usages — the lotus, the 
 lingam and the serpent — which it is not easy to be- 
 lieve was accidental; but chiefly and in the most 
 pronounced way, it is in the immense extent, the 
 gigantic plan, the vastness of the conception which 
 appear in all the sacred buildings of Egypt and of 
 India that we are made to realize the influence in 
 both countries of the same lofty genius, and the re- 
 solve to express the same sublime ideas. The exca- 
 vated temple of Guerfeh Hassan recalls to every 
 traveler the cave of Elephanta. 
 
 A striking resemblance has been discovered in 
 the religious customs of the Chinese as compared 
 with those of the ancient Egyptians, particularly in 
 what is known as the Feast of the Lamps — a festival 
 annually observed by the latter people, and graph- 
 ically described by Herodotus in his second book. The 
 Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Hin- 
 dus and the Hebrews held many ideas in common 
 respecting the creation of the world, the great deluge 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 13 
 
14 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 (ah echo of which was found in America at the 
 coming of the white man), the dispersion of the hu- 
 man race, and the first institution of laws and re- 
 ligious worship. 
 
 Another striking resemblance arises out of the 
 institution of castes in India and Egypt. The Hindus 
 say that of their god Nara-Yana the mouth became 
 a priest, the arm a soldier, the thigh a husbandman, 
 and from the feet sprang the servile multitude. The 
 narative of Herodotus bears evidence to the same 
 institution at an early period among the Egyptians. 
 He, in fact, divides the fourth caste into several sub- 
 ordinate sections. 
 
 In the preceding pages we have seen indubitable 
 p^oof of the early and close connection between the 
 religions and philosophies of Egypt and of India ; 
 that if they did not sustain the relation to each other 
 of father to son they were at least related as brother 
 to brother. That this wisdom was brought into Egypt 
 by way of Ethiopia is equally clear from a careful 
 reading of the monuments extant, and from the tra- 
 dition that that country was the ancient seat of 
 the 'wisdom which afterwards spread northward 
 through Egypt to Greece, Babylon and perhaps to 
 Persia and India. 
 
 'The style of sculpture in Ethiopia is known to 
 havfe been superior to anything ever seen in lower 
 Egypt. •; 
 
 . : The temples, also, which exist above the catar- 
 acts beat; a closer resemblance to those of India than 
 do the;' corresponding edifices in the lower part of 
 the country, while they exhibit the unquestioned 
 marks of a more remote antiquity. The same con- 
 clusion, is further supported by the celebrity which 
 the Ethiopians had acquired in the earliest age that 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 15 
 
 \ 
 
 
 :rjD5An sf.ctigs. 
 
 ,.^ ^ J 
 
16 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 tradition or poetry has revealed to us. The annals 
 of the Egyptian priests were full of them. The 
 nations of Asia, in like manner, on the Tigris and the 
 Euphrates, mingled Ethiopian legends with songs 
 that commemorated the exploits of their own people. 
 At a time, too, when the Greeks scarcely knew Italy 
 or Sicily by name the virtues, the civilization and 
 the mythology of the Ethiopians supplied to their 
 poets a subject of lofty description.'' 
 
 Beyond this there is evidence that before Greece, 
 before Ethiopia, perhaps, there was a great and 
 widely extending civilization reaching to the shores 
 of what is now America. Ignatius Donnelly, in 
 "Atlantis," presents almost unquestioned and un- 
 questionable evidence of the fact that there was in 
 ancient times a great island which sank more than 
 ten thousand years ago, in what is now the Atlantic 
 ocean, and that there was the seat of a civilization 
 which has furnished the institutions, the arts and 
 the civilization that spread afterwards throughout 
 the Eastern world. 
 
 Le Plongeon, in his work, "The Ancient Myste- 
 ries Among the Mayas and Quilches 10,500 Years 
 Ago,'' has presented indubitable evidence to the same 
 effect. Among thinkers this fact has become gen- 
 erally accepted. It is, therefore, astonishing to hear 
 one who can speak in the most unbounded enthusi-. 
 asm of the arts and sciences of Ancient Egypt say 
 of that people : "There is nothing more remarkable 
 in the history of Egypt than that the same people 
 who distinguished themselves by an early progress 
 in civilization, and who erected works which have 
 survived the conquests of Persia, the triumphs of 
 Roman art, and all the architectural labors of Chris- 
 tianity, should have degraded their fine genius by 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 17 
 
 il*-'" r rLOOR'l froni, this S o ulAyti ay cLs 
 
 VERTICAL MERIDIAN SECTIOH /h>n,Gr GalUry through ANTECHAMBER to Ku^sCk" looking Eastmud 
 
 H0RI20NWI SECTJOM 2SuitAesai>o>r^noorormt orflOOR fivm,6rGaUi^ i>4/rujr>lAI(TE-CHAHBER&i«V^' 
 Sut^U^line,shadin^£imesUnt. Chssedluit.^/idutg-OrwUU.. Abo \. lime, stone, tuuL ^CmnUe/ 
 
 »l*ril SH»TK. oiu 
 
 Scale ofBriUsh. Inched. 
 
 R1TCHU*$»II, tOtPI» 
 
18 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 the worship of four-footed beasts, and even of dis- 
 gusting reptiles/' 
 
 It is strange, and yet, stranger still, none has 
 arisen to explain the meaning of the strange figures 
 of "the gods of Egypt,'' though their meaning would 
 appear so plain, so according to the dictates of the 
 teachings of the most advanced science and philos- 
 ophy of to-day, that ''a wayfaring man, though a 
 fool, need not err therein." But the consideration 
 of this subject belongs to another number of this 
 series of Temple Talks, that on 'The Sphinx and Its 
 Meaning," which follows the present volume. 
 
 AS SEEN IN 822 A.Di 
 
 ^3' 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 19 
 
 HISTORY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 
 
 When and by whom the Great Pyramid at Gizeh 
 was built we do not know. Nor do we know any 
 better when any of the other twenty-eight pyramids 
 that stand on the plains of Egypt were constructed. 
 All that we are able to discover from written history 
 or from tradition is that they stood where they now 
 stand at the very beginning of historic time. 
 
 Various systems of chronology have been in- 
 vented to explain the period and conditions of their 
 creation, but practically all the authors of such sys- 
 tems have been limited by the conviction that they 
 could not have been erected longer ago than 4004 
 years B. C., when time began — or rather when the 
 creations of the Infinite were, according to a limited 
 theological science, suddenly brought into shape. 
 These men have been strangely obf ussed by the idea 
 that if they should allow to the creator of All a longer 
 period in which to perform his work they would in 
 some way reflect upon his power and glory, and blas- 
 pheme his name. 
 
 ^ Herodotus ascribed the largest of the Pyramids 
 to Cheops, a tyrannical and profligate sovereign. 
 "He barred the avenues to every temple, and for- 
 bade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice to the gods; 
 after which he compelled the people at large to per- 
 
 ^ form the work of slaves. Some he condemned to hew 
 stones out of the Arabian mountains and drag them 
 to the banks of the Nile; others were stationed to 
 receive the same in vessels and transport them to 
 the edge of the Lybian desert. In this service a hun- 
 dred thousand men were employed, who were re- 
 lieved every three months. Ten years were spent 
 in the hard labor of framing the road on which these 
 
20 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 stones were to be drawn — a work, in my estimation, 
 of no less difficulty and fatigue than the erection 
 of the Pyramid itself. This causeway is five stadia 
 in length, forty cubits wide, and its greatest height 
 is thirty-two cubits; the whole being composed of 
 polished marble, adorned with the figures of animals. 
 Ten years, as I have observed, were consumed in 
 forming the pavement, in preparing the hill on which 
 the Pyramids are raised, and in excavating cham- 
 bers under the ground. The burial place which he 
 intended for himself he contrived to insulate within 
 the building, by introducing the waters of the Nile. 
 The Pyramid itself was the work of twenty years; 
 it is of a square form, every side being eight plethra 
 in length and as many in height. The stones are 
 very skillfully cemented and none of them of less 
 dimensions than thirty feet. 
 
 "The ascent of the Pyramid was regularly gradu- 
 ated by what some call steps, and others altars. Hav- 
 ing finished the first tier, they elevated the stones 
 to the second by the aid of machines constructed of 
 .short pieces of wood ; from the second, by a similar 
 engine, they were raised to the third; and so on 
 to the summit. Thus there were as many machines 
 as there were courses in the structure of the Pyra- 
 mid, though there may have been only one, which, 
 being easily manageable, could be raised from one 
 layer to the next in succession. Both methods were 
 mentioned to me, and I know not which of them 
 deserves most credit. 
 
 'The summit of the Pyramid was first finished 
 and coated, and the process was continued downward 
 until the whole was completed. Upon the exterior 
 were recorded, in Egyptian characters, the various 
 sums expended in the progress of the work, for the 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 21 
 
 mmrmi wir i, yiiiimii mrMmmmmmmmww 7 
 
 VERTICAL iizf\fm fZoofungWestj ^r KINGS CHAMBER, also or 
 
 ANTC-CHAMSCR SOUTH CNO Of CRANO OALLCRY, ANO VYSC S HOLLOWS Or 
 
 CONSTRUCTION. Aeove king's chamscr crossed lines indicate oranite 
 
 Scaler of BrCli^h Inches 
 
 ' loe so 
 
 i:ji $M*TM. on: 
 
 f. RITCHit *S9l«.£0U»* 
 
22 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 radishes, onions and garlic consumed by the artifi- 
 cers. This, as I well remember, my interpreter in- 
 formed me, amounted to no less a sum than one 
 thousand six hundred talents. If this were true, how 
 much more must have been spent for iron tools, food 
 and clothes for the workmen ! — particularly when we 
 remember the length of time they were employed in 
 the building itself, besides what was spent on the 
 quarrying and carriage of the stones, and the con- 
 struction of the subterranean apartments. 
 
 "According to the account given to me by the 
 Egyptians, this Cheops reigned fifty years. He was 
 succeeded on the throne by his brother, Cephrenes, 
 who pursued a policy similar in all respects. He also 
 built a pyramid, but it was not so large as his 
 brother's, for I measured them both. It has no sub- 
 terraneous chambers, nor any channel for the admis- 
 sion of the Nile, which, in the other pyramid, is made 
 to surround an island where the body of Cheops is 
 said to be deposited. Thus for the space of one hun- 
 dred and six years the Egyptians were exposed to 
 every species of oppression and calamity ; not having 
 had, during this long period, permission to worship 
 in their temples. Their aversion for the memory of 
 these two monarchs is so great that they have the 
 utmost reluctance to mention even their names. They 
 call their pyramids by the name of Philitis, who, at 
 the epoch in question, fed his cattle in that part of 
 Egypt." 
 
 From the statement of Herodotus it has been de- 
 duced that the pyramids — at least the two in ques- 
 tion — were erected by foreign conquerors, who tem- 
 porarily ruled the country at the period of their con- 
 struction. Hence, many writers are of the opinion 
 that they were built by the shepherd kings who are 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 23 
 
 SECTION 
 
 fyerticcub aiut 
 lotwitiuiCfULL^ 
 
 LOOKING WEST 
 
 or 
 
 LOWeR OR 
 
 NORTHERN CNO • 
 
 e F 
 GRAND 6ALLCRY 
 
 I N 
 
 *t OR PYR? 
 
 ENLARGED 
 
 PERSPECTIVE 
 
 VIEW 
 
 or TMt 
 
 BROKEN OUT 
 RAMP STONE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ENTRANCE 
 
 TO 1H t 
 
 WELL. 
 so called. 
 
 riAZZI SMYTH OCL* 
 
 RITCMlt * SOU. f OIN* 
 
24 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 supposed to have ruled over Egypt in the period be- 
 tween Abraham and Joseph. 
 
 The Great Pyramid at Gizeh has been visited 
 since 822 A. D., when the Caleph Al Mamoun visited 
 it and forced an entrance, by more than two hundred 
 eminent mathematicians and astronomers, some of 
 them spending only a day and measuring only a 
 single passageway, while others camped there and 
 worked steadily for months. It has been measured 
 again and again, and its general present and original 
 dimensions determined with practical exactitude. 
 
 At this time I will take the liberty of quoting 
 from the Rev. Michael RusselFs ''Ancient and Mod- 
 ern Egypt," the following curious and suggestive 
 passage: "Mr. Wilford informs us that on his de- 
 scribing the great Egyptian Pyramid to several very 
 learned Brahmins they declared it at once to have 
 been a temple, and one of them asked if it had not a 
 communication with the river Nile. When he an- 
 swered that such a passage was mentioned as having 
 existed, and that a well was at this day to be seen, 
 they unanimously agreed that it was a place appro- 
 priated to the worship of Padma Devi, and that the 
 supposed tomb was a trough which, at certain festi- 
 vals, her priests used to fill with the sacred water 
 and lotus flowers/' 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 25 
 
 THE LOCATION AND DIMENSIONS OF 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID. 
 
 The Great Pyramid of Gizeh stands on the plains 
 of Egypt, as near the center of the earth's surface- 
 's the topography of the land will permit. It is situ- 
 ated on the west bank of the Nile, about nine miles 
 from Cairo, the present capital of Egypt. Its lati- 
 tude is 29 deg., 58 min. and 51 sec, and its longitude 
 31 deg., 10 min. and 1 sec. east from Greenwich. 
 
 It is the only perfectly oriented pyramid in the 
 world; that is, its four sides exactly face the four 
 cardinal points of the compass. 
 
 The date of its building has been variously fixed 
 at 150,000 to 1950 B. C, but the determination of 
 Piazzi Smith is generally considered as being the 
 best founded. That date was fixed by Professor 
 Smith by calculations based on the precession of the 
 equinoxes, which would make its latest date 2170 
 B. C, but it might have been, according to this cal- 
 culation, 27,970 B. C, or 53,770 B. C, the precession 
 of the equinoxes repeating itself every 25,800 years. 
 
 The Great Pyramid is built upon and near the 
 edge of an elevated, rocky steppe, 130 feet above the 
 fertile plains of the Nile, and 125 feet above the 
 neighboring alluvial plains as now covered with 
 sand. It stands on a solid ledge of limestone and 
 porphyry, the strata of which lie horizontally. 
 
 The pavement in front, and around the base of 
 the Great Pyramid, is formed of stones 21 inches 
 thick by 402 in breadth. A chasm or crack in both 
 pavement and rock beneath, near the north side, 
 extends to the depth of about 570 inches. The build- 
 ing, from the base to the apex, is not solid masonry, 
 l)ut, as clearly shown by the northeast basal corner. 
 
26 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 and indicated at one or two points in the wall, and 
 the descending entrance passage, includes some por- 
 tion of the live rock in the hill. However, such por- 
 tions have been trimmed rectangularly and made to 
 conform in height and level with the nearest true 
 masonry course. The supposed number of masory 
 courses, including the original corner-stone, is 211; 
 of which 202 are in place, and a portion of two in 
 fragment. Seven courses are entirely wanting. 
 
 These courses of squared and cemented blocks of 
 stone in horizontal sheets, one above the other, form 
 the mass of the building of the Great Pyramid. They 
 vary in height frorn 19 to 79 inches, the first course 
 being the thickest. The courses are laid without any 
 apparent regard to thickness. The first five courses^ 
 are, respectively, 79, 56, 48, 40 and 40 inches, while 
 the thirty-fifth to thirty-ninth courses run 24, 50, 
 41, 39, 38, and the last five courses, that are still 
 in position, are each 22 inches in thickness. 
 
 The casing-stone material is compact white lime- 
 stone. The general structure materi&l is from the 
 pyramid's own hill. The inside finishing stones of 
 the king's and queen's chambers, the coffer, the main 
 entrance and the grand gallery are of very many 
 kinds, the principal of which are red, gray and black 
 granite, black and Thebaid marble, porphyry and 
 limestone. The granite is supposed to have been 
 brought from Syene, 550 miles up the Nile, as there 
 is none nearer on the river. 
 
 The dimensions of the Great Pyramid, in pyra- 
 mid inches and sacred cubits (a pyramid inch is 
 equal to 1.001 English inches, and in a cubit there are 
 25 pyramid inches) are as follows: 
 
 Ancient and present base-side socket lengthy 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 27 
 
 EQUALITY OF AREAS NT 3 
 
 
 \ ^ 
 
 \<!-'^y 
 
 \r"'> 
 
 f4 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 y?y. \ 
 
 
 4565-62 \ 
 
 9131. pS P.l. 
 DireU Vertieal Section ofGr. Pyf. 
 
 Cirel^ y/ilK Diajntter 
 Vert^IkigTU of G. I^rf- 
 
 
 sisi 
 
 -sT 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 J?.>v 
 
 
 
 SISI 
 
 6S 
 
 
 Squxure wiXlv suU^ 
 completed, by TT. 
 
 JI626 '02-jiraAcha.niber lefigUv f 100 — SwrCs disUtnec fronv ifve^ eartfo 
 Ov terms of tlie^ "bre-cuUh, of the^ ZarOu' .front, ^olc to Tolcy. 
 
 EQUATION OF BOUNDARIES AND A R e^ S . 
 CIRCLES AND SQUARES INCHES INSIDE AND SACRED CUBITS 
 OUTSIDE GREAT PYRAMID. 
 
 flAZtl SMVTM. OClT 
 
 RITCMIC ft SON. (Oil* 
 
28 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 9,131.05 inches, or 365.242 cubits, the exact 
 
 length of a day. 
 Ancient and present base-diagonal socket length, 
 
 12,913.26 inches, or 516.504 cubits. 
 Present dilapidated base-side length, about 8,950 
 
 inches, or 358 cubits. 
 Sum of the two base-diagonals, to the nearest 
 
 inch, 25,827, the number of years in a cycle 
 
 of the equinoxes, or the sidereal day. This 
 
 equals 1033.08 cubits. 
 Area of the base in square pyramid inches, 3,376,- 
 
 074.1025=5,401.71 sacred cubits, or 13,- 
 
 292 pyramid acres. 
 Ancient area of the square pavement, about 16 
 
 pyramid acres. 
 Ancient vertical height of apex above pavement, 
 
 5,813.01 pyramid inches, or 232.5204 cubits. 
 Present dilapidated height, vertical, about 5,450 
 
 inches, or 218 cubits. 
 Ancient inclined at middle of sides, from 
 
 pavement to apex, 7,391.55 inches, or 295,- 
 
 662 cubits. 
 Ancient inclined height at the corners, pavement 
 
 to the apex, 8,687.81 inches, or 347.5148 
 
 cubits. 
 Ancient vertical height of apex above the lowest 
 
 subterranean chamber, 7,015 inches, or 280.6 
 
 cubits. 
 Elevation of pavement-base above the average 
 
 water level, 1,750 inches, or 70 cubits. 
 Elevation of pavement-base above the Medi- 
 terranean sea, 2580 inches, or 103.2 cubits. 
 Elevation of the lowest excavated chamber 
 
 above the average water level of the country, 
 
 250 inches, or 10 cubits. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 '..\-> 
 
 M 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 \ 
 
 w 
 
 m 
 
30 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 Length of side of present platform on top of 
 Great Pyramid, about 400 inches, or 16 
 cubits. 
 
 The entrance to the Great Pyramid is situated on 
 the northern side, at a height above the ground of 
 about 588 pyramid inches. Its center is 294 inches 
 east of the center of the northern side, height of 
 passageway 47.24 inches; breadth, 41.56 inches. 
 Angle of descent, 26 deg., 28 min; length downward 
 to first ascending passage, 988 inches; thence to 
 Caliph Ali Mamoun's broken entranceway, 214 
 inches. Thence by the same incline to lower mouth 
 of well, 2582 inches ; thence to end of inclined pass- 
 age, 296 inches; thence horizontally to north side 
 of subterranean chamber, 324 inches. Whole length 
 of descending passage, 4,004 inches. 
 
 The length of the subterranean chamber, from 
 east to west, is 552 inches; breadth, north to south, 
 325 inches; length of ascending passage leading 
 southward, 988 inches; length from ascending 
 passage to the Grand Gallery is 1542.4 inches; angle 
 of the floor's ascent southward, 26 deg., 8 min. The 
 length of the Grand Gallery, north to south, 1882 
 inches; angle of ascent southward, 26 deg., 17 min; 
 vertical height, average, 339.5 inches. 
 
 The ante-chamber is 116.26 inches from north 
 to south ; breadth at top, 65.2 inches ; height, 149.3 
 inches. The King's Chamber, entirely of granite, is 
 412.132 inches long, 206.066 inches wide and 230.- 
 389 inches high. Within the King's Chamber is the 
 **coffer," named by various writers **stone box," 
 '^granite chest," "lidless vessel," "porphyry vase," 
 "black marble sarcophagus" and "coffer." Accord- 
 ing to Piazzi Smith its inside dimensions are: 
 Length, 77.85 inches; breadth, 26.7 inches; depth, 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 fe■:A«:l^te^;>a■i^rJ•'^ 
 
V' 
 
 32 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 34.31 inches. Interior cubic contents, 71,317 cubic 
 inches, with a possible error of .159 of a cubic inch. 
 The cubic contents of the King's Chamber is just 
 fifty times that of the coffer, the floor of which stands 
 on the fiftieth course of masonry, and vertically 1686 
 inches above the pavement upon which the Great 
 Pyramid stands. In addition to the above, the King's 
 Chamber is shut out from the light of day by walls 
 nearly 180 feet thick, thus rendering it the best place 
 on earth as a depository of weights and measures. 
 
 Everything about the Great Pyramid points to 
 the fact that it was connected in its use with the 
 highest astronomical and arithmetical science. That 
 our present system of weights and measures is a 
 degenerated form of the old Egyptian is clearly 
 brought out in the Great Pyramid itself. Its unit 
 of measure, the pyramid inch, only varies from our 
 inch by by the merest fraction (one pyramid inch= 
 1.001 of our inch). The coffer is almost identical 
 with modern measures, thus: One coffer, 4 quar- 
 ters, 10 sacks, 25 bushels, 250 gallons, and is 71,250 
 cubic inches. The significance of this fact becomes 
 illuminating as an illustration of the wisdom of the 
 ancient (that is, prehistoric) Egyptians when we 
 reflect that the pyramid inch is exactly one-five-hun- 
 
 V dredth-millionth of the earth's axis of rotation, and 
 that we have no such accurate and natural basis for 
 any of our present systems of weights and measures. 
 The much-vaunted metric system, founded on the 
 supposed earth's equatorial diameter, is now known 
 
 j to be incorrect in a very important degree. 
 
 ' The pyramid thermometer consists of 250 de- 
 
 grees between the boiling and freezing points, one- 
 fifth above the freezing point, or 50 degrees, is the 
 average of all lands, and equals the mean tempera- 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 33 
 
 ture at the level of the King's Chamber in the Great 
 Pyramid, which is situated on the fiftieth layer of 
 stone, and the fifth layer of that stone is thirty 
 inches in thickness — the former corresponding to 
 the mean temperature, 50 degrees, and the latter to 
 the barometric pressure of thirty inches at the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 The casing-stones of the Great Pyramid have an 
 external slope of 50 deg., 51 min., 14 sec. For every 
 ten units which its masonry advances inward on the 
 diagonal of base to central, it rises upward, or points 
 to the sun, by nine. It is claimed by Mr. William 
 Petrie, C. E., that the radius of the earth's orbit 
 around the sun is in the same proportion, 10:9, by 
 which measurement the sun's distance from the 
 earth is computed at 91,500,000 miles. 
 
 
34 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 SUMMARY OF STRIKING PYRAMID FACTS 
 
 First — It is the only perfectly oriented pyramid 
 in the world. 
 
 Second — It is located in the center of the earth's 
 land surface. 
 
 Third — It solves the problem of the squaring of 
 the circle. The vertical height of the Great Pyramid 
 is the radius of a theoretical circle the length of 
 whose circumference is equal to the sum of the 
 lengths of the four sides of its base. 
 
 Fourth — The circuit of the Great Pyramid, at 
 the level of the King's Chamber, measures 25,827 
 pyramid inches, which is the exact number of years 
 that it takes for the precession of the equinoxes to 
 complete one cycle. 
 
 Fifth — Measured in cubits (a cubit is 25 pyra- 
 mid inches) each side of the Great Pyramid shows 
 as many cubits and fractions thereof as there are 
 days and fractions thereof in a year. 
 
 Sixth — By a mathematical computation founded 
 on the height of the Great Pyramid, Mr. Petrie cal- 
 culated the distance between the earth and sun to 
 be 91,840,000 miles, and because his computation 
 did not conform to the accepted deductions of the 
 astronomers of the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, discarded the same, only to recall it when the 
 astronomers, by a new computation about 1855, ob- 
 tained substantially the same result. 
 
 Seventh — The length of the ante-chamber, mul- 
 tiplied by 100, equals the sun's distance from the 
 earth in terms of breadth of the earth from pole to 
 pole. 
 
 Eighth — The pyramid inch is the one five hun- 
 dred millionth part of the earth's axis of rotation; 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 35 
 
 the sacred cubit is one twenty-millionth part of the 
 earth's axis of rotation, a measurement far more 
 accurate than that obtained by the French when 
 they took the earth's equatorial diameter as the basis 
 of the metric system of weights and measures. 
 
 Ninth — The weight of the Great Pyramid is ex- 
 actly proportioned to that of the earth, and because 
 of the peculiar combination of the stone of which it 
 is composed, its weight per square yard is related to 
 the weight of water as is the average weidit qf the 
 earth to the same substance. -^ [/C\ (/v ^ ^ \ \ 
 
 Tenth — The composition and construction of the 
 Great Pyramid is such as to preserve in the King's 
 Chamber an exact equilibrium of temperature the 
 year round, and that temperature the ideal one, from 
 a scientific point of view, for maintaining the invio- 
 lable accuracy of w^eights and measures. 
 
 Eleventh — In the King's Chamber is a coffer, 
 mathematically proportioned to the 10,000,000th 
 part of the earth's axis of rotation. It is substan- 
 tially four times the modern quarter of measure, 
 which, like our inch, is so nearly of the same size as 
 to indicate clearly that our modern measures are 
 degenerated forms of those of the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 He who shall have deeply pondered the above 
 facts will not fail to have his admiration for that 
 ancient people quickened, and find his exalted opin- 
 ions of the men of the present era reduced to more 
 humble proportions. Yet there are lines on the pyra- 
 mid the meaning of which has not yet been read. 
 May they not point to the existence of a race in the 
 remote past with a wisdom far transcending our 
 own? 
 
 If any one doubt the possibility of a people 
 greater and wiser than those of the present day hav- 
 
ing been on earth at some remote period, let him 
 ask himself, Should savages and barbarians over- 
 whelm the present civilization and bring upon earth 
 a period of darkness extending for ten thousand 
 years, what visible sign of the present civilization, 
 would remain? What stone would there be above 
 another? 
 
 CROUNO PLAN Of THE 
 
 CIRCLCS or THC MEAVCNS ASOVC THE GREAT PYRAMID. AT ITS EPOCH 
 
 or FOUNDATION AT MIDNIGHT Of AUTUMNAL E9UINOX 
 
 2 170 B.C. 
 
 OL ORACONIS ON HCRIOIAN 8CL0W POLE AT ENTRANCE PASSAGE ANCLE; 
 
 AND PLEIADES ON MERIDIAN ASOVC POLE IN O'R.A. 
 
 OR COINCIOENTLY WITH VERHAL EQUINOX. 
 
of life 
 
// 
 
 Proftti 
 
 n 
 
 •^ 
 
 In thought I see, athwart the vail of time, 
 
 Thy form appear, O! Pyramid, as stone 
 
 On stone is placed. What matter when, or how? 
 
 Ten thousand, or ten thousand thousand spans 
 
 Of years, as mortal wisdom measures change. 
 
 Yet this I know, before thou wert I was. 
 
 I am thy humble student now. In thee 
 
 I see the sovereign truth proclaimed — the truth 
 
 That all is one, came from the One, and yet 
 
 Eemains within the One, unfailing source 
 
 Of power, of wisdom and of love divine. 
 
 Ilath space a measure? Thou proclaimest it. 
 
 Hath time a reason? Thou dost hold its cause. 
 
 Hath mind a limit? Thou hast shown its bounds. 
 
 And yet, thou showest mind, and time and space 
 
 As one, a boundless all no mind may span, 
 
 No measure measure, for infinity 
 
 Alone may know the grandeur and the power 
 
 That dwelleth in the ONE that is the ALL. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 39 
 
 THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS, 
 
 In the preceding sections of this book we have 
 outlined, in brief, all that is historically known of 
 the Great Pyramid; we have detailed its measure- 
 ments and shown that they are related to the solar 
 measurements in a way and with an exactitude that 
 prove they were the work of an intelligence possess- 
 ing a knowledge far in advance of that of any people 
 of whom we have authentic history; hence we are 
 forced to the conclusion that the people who per- 
 formed — at least the man or men who directed the 
 work — had penerated into the most secret arcanum 
 of nature, wherein the very riddle of life in all its 
 forms was revealed. Thence the question arises, 
 If they had attained this supremer wisdom, would 
 they not have been as anxious to put the record of 
 the fact in as enduring form as that of their knowl- 
 edge of sidereal distances? And if they sought to 
 leave such a record for the coming ages, where should 
 we more reasonably expect to find it than in their 
 supreme creation, the Great Pyramid itself? And if 
 it is there, how shall we read it? 
 
40 
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 THE PYRAMID AS FIRE, 
 
 Throughout the ages men have adored the sun 
 as the symbol of that supreme intelligence which 
 governs the solar system and all systems of solar 
 systems. It is not believed by men who have con- 
 sidered the subject with unbiased minds that the 
 sun worshippers of the past, any more than those 
 of the present, esteemed the sun as the supreme in- 
 telligence, but as one of the great centers through 
 which that intelligence manifests its powers, its 
 glories and its radiances. The human mind speedily 
 comes to realize that the sun is the source of every 
 good on this planet, and that without it life, as we 
 know it, could not be. Hence, what more natural 
 than that they should honor it in taking it as the 
 grand symbol of the greater sun that fills all space 
 and is the very essence of all being? 
 
 In many Oriental countries, as in Persia in the 
 days when the magi were in the ascendancy, men 
 ascended to the high mountains and there prostrated 
 themselves before their radiant lord. This custom 
 undoubtedly produced so profound an impression 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 41 
 
 on the minds of the people, when they descended into 
 the plains, as to cause them to erect elevated places 
 in or on which to perform their sacred rites, and 
 these structures took the pyramidal form over a 
 large part of the earth's surface. There are remains 
 of many such constructions in Mexico and Central 
 America, the visible signs of a great civilization 
 which occupied those lands in times far antedating 
 the coming of the white man to this continent. Sim- 
 ilar constructions are frequent in India, and there 
 was, in the pre-Christian period, a line of such 
 structures extending from the Pyramids at Gizeh to 
 Babylon, where was the Tower of Babel, dedicated 
 to the sun god, Bel, and the Great Temple, which 
 was pyramidal in form. In India the triangle is 
 written with the sun in the center, showing its con- 
 nection with sun worship. In Egypt the sun Was 
 replaced with the scarabeus, rayed to indicate its 
 connection with the same religious concept. 
 
 In this connection the very word pyramid is sug- 
 gestive. Etymologists have connected it, through the 
 Greek, with fire, and it undoubtedly means fire- 
 mountain. Now, symbolically, fire is spirit, and the 
 analogy between the two is such that it is difficult 
 — one may well say impossible — to find a more per- 
 fect symbol with which to designate the great Cause 
 of causes. Spirit is the no-thing, the that, as I have 
 shown in my RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX, which 
 can by no just use of language be called a thing, and 
 yet is the supreme cause of all things. It is the cre- 
 ator, sustainer and transformer of atoms and uni- 
 verses. In a like manner fire is not a thing; it is 
 simply the visible appearance of a force or combina- 
 tion of forces operating in matter so as to transform 
 
42 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 it ; that is, to change its form into new forms. There- 
 fore has it been likened to spirit. 
 
 This analogy between fire and spirit, the wise 
 men of the great civilizations of the unrecorded and 
 forgotten past (that is unrecorded except in so far 
 as they have left the writing of their history and 
 knowledge in their master works, their temples, pyr- 
 aniids, etc. ) , perceived and formulated in systems of 
 fire or sun worship that have come down to us cov- 
 ered over with many curious and sometimes exceed- 
 ingly crude customs. Enough of the true symbolism 
 remains, however, to enable whoever thinks closely 
 and in an unbiased manner to see the majestic 
 thought that moved them in their works as in their 
 worship. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 43 
 
 THE PYRAMID AS THE DECAD. 
 
 Every student of the philosophy of the past, and 
 particularly those who have given attention to that 
 of Greece, have had their curiosity aroused by the 
 decad. This symbol has puzzled the world for the 
 greater part of the many centuries since Pythagoras 
 taught at Crotona, twenty-five hundred years ago. 
 
 In this connection the very name Pythagoras is 
 suggestive. Philologists who have made an exhaust- 
 ive study of the name have suggested that the ety- 
 mological meaning of Pythagoras is fire teacher, 
 from pyr, fire, and gura, the Hindu name for teacher. 
 The close connection, shown in a previous chapter 
 of this book, between ancient Greece and Egypt, and 
 India through Persia, gives plausible reason for ac- 
 cepting the Orient as the probable source of the 
 name, while the similarity — almost identity of 
 spelling and pronunciation — only serves to '".on- 
 firm it. 
 
 In any event, it is known that Pythagoras spent 
 many years in travel through Egypt and the lands of 
 the East, and that he was initiated into the mys- 
 teries of Egypt in particular, and from that land 
 
44 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 derived no small part of the teaching which he after- 
 wards expounded to his countrymen. Therefore, it 
 would seem more reasonable that he obtained the 
 symbolism of the Decad from the priests of Egypt 
 than that he created it de nova. 
 
 When one approaches a pyramid he perceives 
 that it has four sides and four equal base-lines. Now 
 the four, which is the quatenary, is the number of 
 triune spirit — that is, of life, love and intelligence, 
 plus their creation, form — and includes the idea of 
 unity, duality, the trinity and the quatenary, the sum. 
 of which is ten— the Decad. (1+2+3+4=10.) All 
 this and more is pictured in the pyramid. The pyra- 
 mid itself is a unity — it is one, and one only — yet 
 it presents at a glance the idea of duality — that 
 of spirit and matter, the lines rising to the point pre- 
 senting the general form of a flame (symbol of 
 spirit), while the four-sided base presents its mate- 
 rial antithesis. 
 
 The triangle is clearly the sign of the triune, of 
 the that which has neither form nor substance, but 
 which makes, sustains and transforms all things — 
 the great unknown which is seen in all things by 
 whomsoever has eyes and is willing to trust to their 
 perceptions. 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 45 
 
 THE NUMBER OF THE IMPERFECT BUT 
 ETERNALLY PERFECTING. 
 
 Five is the number of evolving life. It is the 
 number of man, whereby he is on the cross. He has 
 five senses and presents a fivefold figure — a head. 
 two arms and two feet. In fact, all life that has 
 evolved out of the cubic state (amobae, shellfish, 
 etc.) is fivefold, while the cube itself holds the poten- 
 tiality of the cross, and in the unfolding of life shall 
 eventually become one. Birds have a head, two wings 
 and two feet ; mammals a head, two front and two 
 hind feet — the double cross, afterwards by the law 
 of nature to become the perfected cross — man. This 
 number is emphasized in the Pyramids, each of which 
 contains five faces and five points — a total of ten, the 
 Decad again, and the foundation of all scientific nu- 
 meration. 
 
 THE SACRED NUMBER. 
 
 As far back as we may go in history, and practi- 
 cally among all peoples, seven has been regarded as 
 
46 THE GREAT. PYRAMID 
 
 peculiarly sacred. This number also appears in the 
 Pyramids. It is the triangle plus the square, and 
 carries in another way the idea of spirit — the three- 
 fold — united to matter, the sign of which is the 
 quatenary. 
 
 To know and understand this symbolism is to 
 know and understand spirit — the supreme cause as 
 opposed to matter, the caused. 
 
 THE PYRAMID AS THE FOUR ELEMENTS. 
 
 In the philosophical speculations of the ancients 
 there is a continual allusion to the four elements — 
 earth, water, air and fire — and modern men of sci- 
 ence have quoted the fact as evidence of the igno- 
 rance of the men of past ages in all matters con- 
 cerning the constitution of matter ; and that deduc- 
 tion from their use of these terms would be justified 
 if it had been of the material elements that the wise 
 men of the past were speaking. But is this a correct 
 interpretation of their use of the terms? Rather 
 should we not understand their use of them as in 
 some way symbolical? 
 
 We have seen that the pyramid is fire, and that 
 fire is the symbol of spirit. In a like way, earth is 
 a symbol of matter — of the material conditions in 
 which all forms take embodiment. In a word, it is 
 the form side of the Great All. This idea of earth 
 is presented in the four-dimensioned base — the qua- 
 tenary. 
 
 Water is one of the great essentials to the suste- 
 nance of material life. Without it all creatures (as 
 we know them) would cease to be. This fact the 
 ancients realized, and in Egypt they connected all 
 their comfort, happiness and prosperity with the 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID 47 
 
 river Nile, which carried to them each year an abun- 
 dance of this prime necessity, and at the same time 
 brought with it the material wealth that served to 
 renew the fertility of their soil. Hence the passage 
 in the pyramid leading below the Nile, thus uniting 
 their great symbol of universal truth with the source 
 of their earthly fortunes. 
 
 Air is equally a necessity to material life. With- 
 out an abundant and constant supply of it material 
 death would speedily ensue. Hence those scientifi- 
 cally arranged air passages, by which this great es- 
 sential is introduced to the innermost parts of the 
 great fire temple. 
 
 Thus we see that the pyramid is, in its form and 
 arrangement, the potent symbol of fire — spirit; 
 earth — materiality; and air and water, the great 
 life purveyors and promoters. 
 
 A MYSTERY IN NUMBERS. 
 
 In all sacred literature the numbers one, four, 
 seven, ten and thirteen, as well as three and twelve, 
 have been held peculiarly sacred and mysterious in 
 their import. The reason of this has long been a 
 puzzle to the world, and many more or less — chiefly 
 less — illuminating explanations of the peculiar es- 
 teem in which they are held have been given. 
 
 The one, four, seven, ten, and thirteen, are each 
 a unity, a fact that is demonstrated by what is known 
 as addition and reduction. In the case of four, all 
 the numbers, from one to four, inclusive, are added 
 together, thus: 1+2+3+4=10, which by reduction^ 
 that is, by taking the sum of the figures in the 
 product, returns to one — 10=1. 
 
48 THE GREAT PYRAMID 
 
 Seven works out on the same system — 1+2+3+' 
 5+6+7=28=10=1. Ten, of course, equals one by 
 this system, and thirteen reduced as follows: 13= 
 4=1+2+3+4=10=1. 
 
 This system works out to infinity. Add three to 
 any sum, however great it may be, that produces 
 unity, and there results a new and higher unity. 
 Meditation on this fact will yield more and more 
 clearly a clew to the real signification of the mathe- 
 matical relations of all things great and small — the 
 great with the great, the great with the small, and 
 the small with the small throughout this unmeasured 
 (by human wisdom) universe. • 
 
 The four pictures, the unity of threefold spirit — 
 life, love and intelligence — with matter. 
 
 The seven the union of matter with threefold 
 spirit on a higher plane. 
 
 The ten — the Decad — measures the totality of 
 the four concepts with respect to each entity — unity 
 plus duality, plus trinity, plus the quatenary. 
 
 Jesus had twelve disciples: Jacob twelve sons; 
 there were twelve tribes of Israel united around 
 the one covenant; and there are in all systems of 
 the Zodiac twelve signs surrounding the Central Sun, 
 a fact the signification of which will be more fully 
 explained in THE TEMPLE AT DENDERA in this 
 series of 'Temple Talks." 
 
 By meditation shall all these things be made 
 plain. 
 
 AMON. 
 
■■■HIIIIIIIIIIIIl. 111. .,. Kill 
 
 A BOOK FOR THINKERS 
 
 A Master-key to the Mystery of 
 Life and Death 
 
 The Riddle of the Sphinx 
 
 By J. MUNSELL CHASE 
 
 This work explains Unity, Duality, the Trinity 
 and the Quaternary, showing them to be facts in 
 nature; it defines spirit and the Fourth Dimension, 
 showing wherein they consist; defines man's relation 
 to the Zodiac, and makes plain many profound mys- 
 teries, heretofore left in the dark. 
 
 This condensed compendium of mystic princi- 
 ples has justly received the unqualified praise of 
 eminent thinkers — one says : 'It has resolved a hun- 
 dred doubts for me/' 
 
 The San Francisco Chronicle says of it: 
 ''Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, the 
 writer is certainly to be credited with great ingenu- 
 ity and with a sincere desire to find in things mate- 
 rial an evidence of the truth in the highest spirituxjil 
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