Foreword

It is once more my privilege to usher into the world, for the helping of the thoughtful, another volume of the series on the hidden side of things written by Bishop Charles W. Leadbeater. True Mason that he is, he is ever trying to spread the Light which he has received, so that it may chase away the darkness of Chaos. To look for the Light, to see the Light, to follow the Light, were duties familiar to all Egyptian Masons, though the darkness in that Ancient Land  never approached the density which shrouds the West today.

This book will be welcomed by all Freemasons who feel the beauty of their ancient Rite, and desire to add knowledge to their zeal. The inner History of Masonry is left aside for the present, and the apprentice is led by a trustworthy guide through the labyrinth which protects the central Shrine from careless and idle inquirers. Places that were obscure become illuminated; dark allusions are changed to crystal clarity; walls which seemed solid melt away; confidence replaces doubt; glimpses of the goal are caught through rifts in the clouds and the earth-born mists vanish before the rays of the rising sun. Instead of  fragments of half-understood tradition, confused and uninterpreted, we find in our hands a splendid science and a reservoir of power which we can use for the uplifting of the world. We no longer ask: " What is the Great Work". We see "that it is nothing less than a concerted effort to carry out the duty that is laid upon us, as those who possess the Light, to spread  that Light abroad through the world,  and actually to become fellow-labourers with T.G.A.O.T.U. in His great Plan for the evolution of our Brn ".

The detailed explanations of the ceremonies are profoundly interesting and iliuminative, and I commend them very heartily to all true Freemasons.

Adyar                                                                                                   Annie Besant