William Cooper's Mystery Babylon: Part 03 – Osiris and Iris, Part 1

Transcribed by frizshizzle (edited/formatted by wakingup72 @ http://www.waronyou.com/forums)

You're listening to the Hour of the Time. I'm your host, William Cooper.


(Opening music: Fur Elise, played with electronic instruments)


[Reading from Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, by Manly Hall]:

"The fable of Isis and Osiris, as it has descended to us in the account given by Plutarch has not been greatly amplified by any modern research. The Egyptian fragments which have been translated in recent years offer no complete account of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Osiris, nor has any new key been found to unlock this great drama which may well be termed "The Passion Play of Egypt." It is not our intention to perpetuate Plutarch's account merely for its outward appearance but rather, from the same motive that inspired Synesius, Platonic philosopher and Christian bishop, to compile his account of the same fabulous history. Synesius in his treatise On Providence [William Cooper: and you hear that word a lot in the Secret Societies, and especially in Freemasonry] thus introduces the Osirian myth:

“'This fable is Egyptian. The Egyptians transcend in wisdom. Perhaps therefore this also been a fable, obscurely signifies something more than a fable, because it is Egyptian. If, however, it is not a fable, but a sacred discourse, it will deserve in a still greater degree to be told, and committed to writing.'

"In presenting a summary of Plutarch’s account [I am omitting] nothing which could in anyway be regarded as relevant. [I am taking] the liberty, however, of somewhat expanding the fable by incorporating therein some small fragments derived from other Greek writers and occasionally a few words bearing upon the account from fragments from Egyptian religious literature. The story then is in substance as follows:

"The goddess Nut, whom Plutarch identifies with Rhea, was the daughter of Shu and Tefnut. She is the wife of Seb [also known as Saturn] and the mother of Ra [or Helios, also known as the sun]. [Now] if we are to trust Plutarch, she afterwards becomes the wife of Ra, or the sun. Nut is unfaithful to Ra who, discovering that she is with child by Seb, pronounces a curse upon her that she should not be delivered of her progeny in any month or year. Thoth [which is] (Hermes or Mercury), who is also in love with Nut, comes to her assistance with a stratagem. He plays at tables with the moon-goddess (Selene) and wins from her the seventieth part of each of her illuminations, and joining these parts together he forms of them five days which he adds to the calendar; previous to that time the Egyptian year consisted of three hundred and sixty days [William Cooper: the exact number of degrees in a circle]. [Now] these five days, being not part of any month or year, Ra was outwitted[, you see, because] upon these days Nut brought forth her five children at different times and different places. Upon the first of these days she brought forth Osiris and the place of his birth, according to Diodorus was Mount Nissa, in Arabia the Happy. (Mount Nysa is now Mount Sinai [folks].) At the moment of the birth of Osiris a voice sounded through out the world saying,'The Lord of all the earth is born.' On the second day Nut gave birth to Aroueris, the elder Horus; on the third day, Typhon or Set; on the fourth day, Isis; and on the fifth and last day, Nephthys. The Egyptians, therefore, regard the five days which they termed the Epact or super-added, as the birthdays of the gods, especially venerating the fourth of them, upon which the benevolent goddess Isis came into being.

"Plutarch further on announces that the five children of Nut were not all of the same father, thus contradicting his earlier statement. [For] he says that Osiris and the elder Horus were the children of Ra, that Isis was the daughter of Thoth, and only Typhon and Nephthys were actually the offspring of Seb. There is another and even more recondite legend regarding the elder Horus which denies him the fathership of Ra, declaring him to be the offspring of Osiris and Isis while they were still in the womb of Nut. [Now] these accounts we shall consider later.

"Osiris was given to Pamyles to be educated, and having come to the years of majority, became the king of Egypt. In this high capacity Osiris applied himself to the civilizing of his nation, turning the Egyptians from their previously indigent and barbarous course of life to a happy and community existence. He taught them agriculture, compiled for them a body of laws for the regulation of conduct, instructed them in the reverencing in worship of the gods, thus establishing Egypt in all the essentials of truth [William Cooper: according to the legend. Now] having brought his own nation to prosperity and enlightenment, Osiris traveled over the rest of the world, converting peoples to his discipline, not by force but through persuasion of reason. Osiris was accompanied on this journey by a procession of nymphs and other superphysical beings who filled the air with music and song.

"In the meantime Typhon, brother or half-brother of Osiris, had ambition to usurp the throne, but the vigilant Isis, sister-wife of Osiris, was too watchful. Typhon, however, having persuaded seventy-two other persons to join him in his conspiracy, with the aid of a certain queen in Ethiopia named Aso, perfected a plot against Osiris. He fashioned a chest exactly to the [measurement] of the body of Osiris which chest he caused to be brought into the banquet hall where the princes of Egypt were feasting their king's return. Typhon, simulating jest, promised this elaborately ornamented box to the one whose body, upon trial, most nearly fitted it. [Now] each of the princes in turn lay down in the box, but each was too short or too tall, until last of all Osiris himself lay down in it. Immediately the seventy-two conspirators rushed to the box, clamped the cover up on it, fastened it with nails and poured melted lead over all the cracks and crevices. After this they carried the chest to the bank of the Nile and cast it into the river where it joins the sea. [Now] this evil deed was executed upon the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month of Athyr when the sun was in Scorpio. According to some it was in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Osiris, and to others in the twenty-eight year of his life."

[William Cooper]: Now, try to remember these numbers if you can. Jot them down, but these numbers will prop up again and again and again. Scorpio crops up, seventeen crops up, twenty-eight crops up and many other numbers. And they all have significance in the Mystery Religion of Babylon, the Secret Societies and to the Guardians of the Secrets of the Ages.

"As soon as Isis received word of this crime she cut off one of the locks of her hair and put on the mourning apparel of widowhood, for which reason the spot, where she did this, was afterwards called Coptos [William Cooper: that’s Coptos] or the city of mourning. After donning the widow's weeds, Isis set forth in search of her husband’s body and wandered about all [William Cooper: Europe...(laughs)...Europe...wandered about all] Egypt, asking all with whom she came in contact."

[William Cooper]: You see, I may be back here in the United States but a lot of my thoughts, folks, are still in Europe.

"Finally some children, who had been play, told [Isis] that they’ve seen the accomplices of Typhon carrying the chest to the Nile; for that reason Egyptians regard the words of children as oracular and pay great attention to them. While Isis was searching for her husband's body she learned that Nephthys, her sister, had by magic insinuated herself into the presence of Osiris before his death and in the guise of Isis had conceived a son from him. [Now] Isis sought out the child which Nephthys had deserted for fear of Typhon’s anger, and adopting it, attached it to her person as a constant guard and attendant. This was Anubis, the dog-headed god who appears in the Book of the Dead [William Cooper: and in many of the Egyptian hieroglyphics].

"[After some time] Isis learned that the chest had been carried by the sea to the coast of Byblos [William Cooper: Now, Byblos is also the name for book or Bible], where it had lodged in the branches of a bush of tamarisk which had grown up miraculously about the sacred receptacle and concealed it within its trunk."

[William Cooper]: Now remember this tamarisk, and remember that it is a tree.

"The king of Byblos, amazed at the miracle, caused the tree to be cut down and from the trunk, containing the box, he made a pillar to support the roof of his palace. [Now] by magic Isis discovered this and, traveling immediately to Byblos, attached herself to the suite of the queen as a nurse to her children. At night, when all the palace was asleep, Isis transformed herself into a swallow and fluttered around the column, bemoaning her fate in strange, sad notes. In due time Isis revealed her divine nature and asked that the pillar be cut down; taking therefrom the chest, she departed with it into a desert place where she performed certain magical rites by which the body of Osiris was temporarily animated and by this animation she received from Osiris a son who was called the younger Horus, the child who was conceived of the dead.

"[Now] there is some confusion in the account at this point. Plutarch says that Isis left the body of Osiris temporarily to visit her son Horus, just mentioned, but the context of the fable would rather call for her departure to a secluded place where the child could be born without the knowledge of Typhon who certainly would have destroyed him. Isis hid the chest in a remote and unfrequented place but Typhon, hunting one night by the light of the moon, chanced upon it. Knowing its contents and realizing Isis to be proficient in magic, he resolved to thwart her purposes, and tearing the body in fourteen parts, he scattered them over Egypt."

[William Cooper]: Now, remember "fourteen parts," folks, don’t forget that.

"From the inscriptions on the Metternich Stele it seems that Set must have imprisoned Isis and her son Horus. The goddess is made to say, 'I am Isis, and I came forth from the house wherein my brother Set has placed me.' Thoth, the 'Prince of Law,' again came to her assistance, and aided Isis to escape from the house..."

[William Cooper]: Was it really a prison, or was it really the House of Set?

"...Thoth, also, at this time, prophesied that Horus would set upon the throne of his father and rule the double empire of Egypt. Upon the advice of Thoth, Isis hides the child in a papyrus swamp, thus saving him from the wrath of Set.

"Isis, returning, having left her son at Butos, and fashioning a magical boat out of papyrus, traversed the whole of the empire. As she met with the scattered parts of her husband, she buried each one separately, first, however, encasing it in a magical mummy composed of wax, incense, and grain seed. She finally recovered all of the parts of Osiris except the phallus [William Cooper: or the penis] which had been thrown into the river and devoured by three fishes. This organ Isis reproduced in gold..."

[William Cooper]: Remember this also, remember the three fishes, for they represent ignorance, superstition, and fear. They also represent the church, the state, and the mob, and remember that Isis reproduced this member, this organ...

"...in gold and having performed all of the ceremonies necessary to insure the life of Osiris in the underworld, she returned to her son Horus and by the theurgic arts, of she was mistress, saved him from death from the stings of scorpions.

"Horus, having grown to man's estate, and having received from his mother the tradition of his father’s murder, longed to avenge the evil deed. Osiris appeared to his son in a vision, instructing him in the means by which he could overcome the hosts of Typhon. [Now] we are lead to infer that Horus gathered about him an army which, meeting the hosts of Typhon, battled with them for many days, achieving victory. Typhon [according to the legend] was taken prisoner and turned over to the custody of Isis. [Now, Isis,] being his sister, could not [bring herself] to put him to death but set him at liberty which so incensed Horus that he laid hands upon his mother and removed from her head the insignia of royalty; thereupon Thoth gave her a new helmet made in the shape of an ox’s head. Typhon next accused Horus of illegitimacy, but Thoth proves his royal descent. Typhon again goes into battle against Horus, in fact, two battles are mentioned in both of which Typhon is worsted, and Horus regains the kingdom of his father and is regarded, to at least a certain degree, as the actual reincarnation of Osiris."

[William Cooper]: So, here you have a death and a resurrection.

"After its resurrection in the underworld, the shade of Osiris visits Isis and in consequence thereof she gives birth to another son, as it were, by a Holy Ghost, for she knew no living man. This child is called Harpocrates and Plutarch says of him that he 'came into the world before his time, and lame in his lower limbs.' Harpocrates is usually depicted as a nude figure, his head adorned with a single curling lock of hair on the right side, this being with the Egyptians a symbol of youth or adolescence. He is sometimes depicted with an elaborate plumed headdress or wearing the double crown of the northern and southern empires. His finger is placed to his lips which Plutarch interprets as a gesture symbolic of his childish and helpless state. The Greeks and Romans, however, considered this gesture to be a symbol for silence [William Cooper: or secrecy] and from this has arisen the custom of placing the finger to the lips as a motion for quietness and secrecy [William Cooper: and we do it today]. Statues of the god Harpocrates were placed at the entrances to temples and sacred retreats where the dramas of the Mysteries were performed as a sign that silence and secrecy should be observed in the holy places and that all Initiates were bound by vows of discretion. Harpocrates is [also] sometimes shown standing, and another times he is depicted seated on a blossom of a lotus [William Cooper: (laughs) just like Buddha]. Although he is usually figured with childish immaturity of body, the imperfection of his lower limbs, as described by Plutarch, is not apparent in any of the Egyptian drawings. It, therefore, seems that the statements concerning this deformity should be more carefully examined. Samuel Squire, whose translation of Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, made in 1744, is still the most often quoted by Egyptologists, [well it] states definitely, 'lame in his lower limbs.' G.R.S. Mead translated the same essay much later and gives a slightly different rendering of Plutarch's words. Mr. Mead says: "weak in his limbs from below upwards.' This difference in wording, though slight, may have an unexpected significance.

"[You see,] there is some general information contained in Synesius's treatise On Providence that should be included in this...Osirian epic. Synesius is of the opinion that Osiris should be regarded as an historical king whose father transcending in wisdom, instructed his benevolent son in all the secrets of the divine science of government. Synesius is moved to this conclusion by a desire to keep all speculation within the sphere of the reasonable. The Platonist bishop seems to have derived much of his account from origins foreign to Plutarch’s treatise, or possibly he interpreted differently the restrictions imposed by his vows. Synesius...a prudent and conscientious author, wary of myths and fables, and exhibiting a truly Platonic conservativeness in his handling of subject matter, yet Synesius was beyond question a deeply religious philosopher and an Initiate of pagan Mysteries prior to his conversion to the Christian faith [William Cooper: and therefore may have hidden the true meaning of the fable]. Thomas Taylor is of the mind that the treatise On Providence was written while Synesius was still a votary of pagan Mysteries. [Now,] if so, the writing is unbiased and trustworthy and presents a fair picture on the mystical traditions of the Egyptians interpreted in terms of platonic metaphysics."

[William Cooper]: But only the exoteric would be allowed to be seen by the profane.

"Synesius inserts into his narrative a considerable description of the various [*note: book says virtuous] character of Osiris which he sharply contrasts with the vice-ridden nature of Typhon. He also explains in detail the process of election by which Osiris came to the throne of Egypt. The electional ceremony, as described by Synesius, is evidently itself a fragment from some secret ritual relating to the installation of a hierophant of the Mysteries. Next Osiris receives from his father an elaborate dissertation in the Platonic temper concerning the relative power of good and evil in which he is fully warned against the machinations of Typhon. Possibly the most important sentence in Synesius’s treatise occurs during this dissertation. The father of Osiris is made to say to his son: 'You also have been initiated in those Mysteries in which there are two pair of eyes, and it is requisite that the pair which are beneath should be closed when the pair that are above them perceive, and when the pair above are closed, those which are beneath should be opened.'

"[Now,] these words unquestionably have an arcane meaning and are incorporated into the narrative that the true significance of the whole Osirian cycle might not be entirely obscured."

[William Cooper]: And I can tell you that the meaning, folks, is that the eyes above are the exoteric meant for the outer world, for the profane, and the eyes below are the esoteric, meant for the initiate, the adept, the priests of the Mystery Schools only.

"Synesius does not describe the death of Osiris, but merely reports his banishment and final restoration to the throne. In the latter part of the story there is also introduced 'a certain philosopher, who was a stranger in Egypt.' This philosopher predicts the fall of Typhon and is an eyewitness to the recrowning of Osiris. Synesius says of this philosopher: 'He, likewise, then learned some particulars about Osiris which would shortly happen, and others which would take place at some greater distance of time viz., when the boy Horus would choose as is his associate in battle a wolf instead of a lion. But who the wolf is, is a sacred narration, which it is not holy to divulge, even in a form of a fable.'"

[William Cooper]: Well the lion, we know, has always been of the Tribe of Judah.

"Such is the amazing tradition of the good king Osiris, the first victim, the first mummy, and the first resurrection. He dies and is born again in three forms. First, as god of the underworld where he rules the justified dead; second, as the younger Horus in whose form he battles for his own honor; and third, as Harpocrates, the silent child. The latter two forms are regarded as incarnations or embodiments of his very self, yet he exists independent of them as the judge of shades and the lord of the resurrection."

[William Cooper]: Now, we know that Osiris was also known as the sun, and Horus was known as the child or the young Osiris, the young Horus, the baby Horus. So, after the sun set in the west, when it rose the next morning it had rose as the young Horus, and, as it went across the sky, it became Osiris, and then the elder. But in the legends, it’s differently, at different times, Osiris or Horus: Horus the younger, Horus at his peak strength at noon and Horus the elder. It is also Osiris. So you see that these figures intermingle in the legend, but it all has meaning and it will all be clear to you in a later time.

[William Cooper]: Now, just because you don’t understand some of this and you may be a little lost...don’t worry, it will come together. Don’t, don’t miss one single word of this series of episodes of the Hour of the Time. If you do I can guarantee you, you will regret it for the rest of your life. We’re going to stop right now, folks. We have to take a break. I will be back right after this very short pause.


(break music: dark, forbidding instrumental music)


"Nearly all writers attempting an interpretation on the Osirian Cycle have recourse to Plutarch. It has seemingly never occurred to Egyptologists that this imminent priest of Delphi might have purposely confused or distorted the fable, or, if not that, might certainly have misdirected the attention of the reader from relevant to irrelevant explanations. Two factors must certainly be taken into consideration when reading Plutarch. First, he was an initiated priest of the Mysteries; of this there can be no doubt for he himself says, 'For the mystic symbols are well known to us who belong to the Brotherhood.'"

[William Cooper]: In those days it was known as the "Brotherhood of the Snake," and those who possessed the knowledge of the Secrets of the Ages wore the symbol of the snake on their headdress. And in the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, you can see the members of the Mystery Religion of Babylon in the hieroglyphics as they wore the snake from the front of their forehead.

"It should be evident [to everybody] that, as an Initiate, Plutarch would not have unveiled the secret meaning of the Osirian myth [William Cooper: and I found that to be absolutely true]. No man of his priestly station or philosophic mind, who so greatly venerated the gods as to attach himself to their service, would have been guilty of the impiety of profaning their Mysteries [William Cooper: and he would not have violated his oath of secrecy]. Furthermore, had his treatise actually exposed any of the secrets of the rites, he would most probably have perished miserably or at least have been publicly disgraced. These evils, not descending upon him, we must suppose that his book was regarded as harmless and for our purpose, therefore, at least not directly informative...

"...The second factor, which gravitates against the likelihood of Plutarch’s interpretations being correct, is the condition of Egyptian metaphysics in the first century after Christ. If, as Budge maintains, the Egyptians were unaware of the meaning of the word 'Osiris' long prior to the Christian era, into what decay had the old rites fallen even prior to the Ptolemaic period? [Now] Plutarch based his accounts upon popular traditions, they were most certainly inaccurate and it is not impossible that even the priests themselves were for the most part ignorant of the origins of their doctrine. It should not be inferred [folks,] from the general literature available concerning [William Cooper: this Osirian cycle and] the Mysteries that all of the priests were themselves initiates of a high order. Only a small part of them ever actually received the greater secrets of their order; for the rest, rite and ritual suffered [*note: book say sufficed] [William Cooper: and it's the same today]...

"...Democritus spent a great part of his life in Egypt and from the priests of that nation he secured the foundation for his celebrated doctrine of atoms [William Cooper: that’s right, folks, atoms, A-T-O-M-S], a doctrine which has survived as a scientific fact to this day. From all these different philosophers who visited Egypt we shall secure a better estimation of the profoundity of Egyptian learning then from even the Egyptian writings themselves."

[William Cooper]: Plato went to Egypt and was initiated into the Mysteries in the Great Pyramid, where he lay for three days and three nights in the sarcophagus during which he was imparted knowledge which he was to guard...protect. He describes his initiation in his writings. I suggest that you read it.

"If we may assume the Pragmatic viewpoint that the substance of matter is to be determined from its consequences, [then] we must indeed highly reverence the wisdom of the Egyptians for it seems that first among the consequences of that wisdom is civilization itself [William Cooper: that cannot be doubted]. Civilization is no fable, nor is it a progeny of myths, but that which is real and substantial in it bears witness to a profound and superior wisdom which must have existed over a great period of time and have then communicated to at least a privileged few, since the very beginning of man's cultural impulse.

"[Now,] we can also take the example of Pythagoras. This great philosopher while a youth, if we may credit Iamblichus, associated himself with Thales of Miletus from whom he gained a considerable knowledge of the Mysteries. Thales, being at that time of great age and infirm body, apologized for his incomplete understanding of the sacred doctrines and urged Pythagoras to visit Egypt the mother land of wisdom [William Cooper: as it was called in those days]. Iamblichus wrote that Thales confessed that his own reputation for wisdom was derived from the instruction of these priests; but that he was neither naturally, nor by exercise, induced with those excellent prerogatives which were so visibly displayed in the person of Pythagoras. Thales, therefore, gladly announced to Pythagoras, from all these circumstances, that he would become the wisest and the most divine of all men, if he associated with these Egyptian priests. Iamblichus then describes the journey which Pythagoras made to Egypt, how en route he was initiated into the Mysteries of several nations and at last arriving at his destination, was received by the Egyptian priests with respect and affection. He associated with the Egyptian philosophers for some time and after demonstrating by his sincerity and consecration that he was worthy to associate with the initiated, he was at last admitted into the secrets of their orders.

"'He spent, therefore,' observes Iamblichus, 'two and twenty years in Egypt and, in the adyta of temples, astronomizing and geometrizing, and was initiated, not in a superficial or casual manner, in all the Mysteries of the gods.'

"Pythagoras must be acknowledged among the first of those divine men to whom the race is indebted for the principles of science, art and philosophy; and are we to presume that so noble an intellect could have twenty-two years pursuing fabulous shadows in Egyptian crypts? If, as some have asserted, [that] Osiris signified merely the Nile, and Isis, the black earth rendered fertile by its inundation, could such a fable have so greatly stimulated the admiration of Pythagoras that he would have spent a score of years in the assimilation of the idea? [William Cooper: I don't think so.] Or, again, would he have spent this great length of time, the very best years of his life, in memorizing the myth-encrusted history of an ancient king who at some remote period have reigned in Egypt and whose memory seems sufficient to inspire a vast civilization for some 6,000 years?"

[William Cooper]: By the way, that's the exact number of years in the calender of the Mystery School and of the Freemasons.

"Or, to approach the matter from another of these 'explanations' would Pythagoras have pounded himself for a score of years against the walls of Memphis and find himself fully rewarded by being informed with bated breath by some archi-magus that Isis is the dog-star? [William Cooper: I think not.]

"It is not impossible that in the course of it’s long and illustrious history [, folks,] Egypt devised many opinions relative to her sacred myths; but no such explanation has involved Egypt alone, her histories, her heroes, or her agricultural problems, could have caused illustrious men from all parts of the world to have visited her in quest of essential wisdom [William Cooper: the central core of which is the myth of Osiris, Isis and Horus, known as the Osirian cycle].

"The Nile meant nothing to the Greeks who cared little whether it rose or fell..."

[William Cooper]: The sneezing you hear in the background is my dog, Sugarbear, who always accompanies me into the studio to do these programs.

"...Not Egypt but the umbos of Delphi was the center of their universe [in Greece], and local fables derived from Egypt’s forty-two nomes could never have won for the double Empire its illustrious reputation as patron of all learning, human and divine. So, we must look deeper..."

[William Cooper]: ...and look deeper we did, folks, and what we found is amazing. For we found that Osiris and Isis and Horus were not ever have meant to be, nor were they ever, real people, or real gods, or spacemen who came from some other world. Not at all. As we have found in our research, and as I have found in my over twenty some odd years of research into the Mystery Schools, they're like all the other symbols of the Mystery Religion for the public, for the profane. They are the exoteric, and you may make of them what you wish. The Adepts, the Initiates, the priests...they don’t care what interpretation you give the exoteric meaning. And the esoteric is so entirely different from what you may suspect that the answer will surprise you.

[William Cooper]: You see, we cannot be deceived by the obvious, and you can never be deceived by the obvious or even consider the obvious when looking at any of the Mystery Religions or the secret doctrine. And we can not allow ourselves to be misdirected by the evident subterfuges, the deceptions, of these ancient priests who so carefully concealed their arcana from the uninitiated world that we, at this late time, may even doubt it’s existence. Yet now, today, it is thriving to the point that it controls all levels of our society, military and government. The ignorant, the sheeple, even among the Egyptians, might derive their inspirations from the processionals and rituals of the state religion, but that’s just for the sheeple. For those great philosophers who came from afar were in search of the highest form of human knowledge, the ancient arts, the Secrets of the Ages, and could not be satisfied by such outer show. Had these fables been but hollow and unsubstantial forms, Egypt would have been the ridicule of the wise, who would speedily have exposed her sham and reduced her vain pretense to a humble state. But this did not occur. You see, the initiates of her Mysteries returning to their own countries not only felt themselves more then repaid for their hazardous journeys and long vigils, but furthermore, they became founders of distinguished systems of thinking, disseminators of useful knowledge and in all cases bore witness to a broad and deep learning. And they always took with them a plan, a plan for the unfoldment of a world Utopian government, which plan exists still today, and is still being carried out in secret as the completion of the Great Work.

"Diodorus describes two famous columns erected near Nysa in Arabia, one to Isis and the other to Osiris."

[William Cooper]: Now, remember, Osiris and Isis never lived. They were not real people and they were never gods. They are symbols for something much deeper. So, when you listen to the interpretations of the inscriptions on the columns, remember that.

"The column to Isis bears this inscription: 'I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest daughter of Saturn, the most ancient of gods. I am the wife and sister of Osiris the king. I first made known to mortals the use of wheat. I am the mother of Horus the king. In my honor was the city of Bubastis built. Rejoice, O Egypt, rejoice, land that gave me birth.'

"The column to Osiris bore these words: 'I am Osiris the king, who led my armies into all parts of the world, to the most thickly inhabited countries of India, the north, the Danube, and the ocean. I am the eldest son of Saturn; I was born of a brilliant and magnificent egg, and my substance is of the same nature as that which composes light. There is no place in the Universe where I have not appeared, to bestow my benefit and make known my discoveries.' [And] the rest of the inscription [, of course,] was destroyed."

[William Cooper]: Now, while the inscription on the pillar, or the obelisk, in honor of Isis may be veiled, the inscription on the obelisk dedicated to Osiris is certainly not. He 'was born of a brilliant and magnificent egg and its substance is of the same nature of that which composes light. There is no place in the Universe where I have not appeared.' Osiris, of course, was the sun.

"In examining Plutarch's treatise, the introductory remarks appear of special significance, yet [folks] these remarks are wholly ignored by Egyptologists who are contempt to confine themselves entirely to the fable which constitutes the larger part of the writing. If Plutarch, by any word or symbol, revealed even a small part of the sacred mystery, it is to be found in the following words: 'For Isis, according to the Greek interpretation of the word, signifies knowledge; as does the name of her professed adversary Typhon, [signify] insolence and pride, a name therefore extremely well adapted to one, who, full of ignorance and error, tears in pieces and conceals that holy doctrine, which the Goddess collects, compiles and delivers to those, who aspire after the most perfect participation of the divine nature.'

[William Cooper]: Now, if you have a keen intellect, you can all decipher everything else that I'm going tell you on this program and probably the next one in that short paragraph, and I let you ponder that as I continue.

"Osiris, the black god of the Nile, must be regarded as the personification of an order of learning, for Plutarch identifies him beyond question with the holy doctrine, or the Mystery tradition."

[William Cooper]: Now, remember, I told you Osiris is the symbol of the sun, but the sun was the symbol of the power of the all-encompassing god of the universe. And later you’re going to learn that the light, or the sun, represents something even deeper. It represents, dear listeners, [primordial knowing, the gift of intellect. And where people can read these myths and think that these people really worshiped the sun or some god somewhere, they are mistaken. For the true object of their worship is the intellect, and through the use of that intellect they believe that man will become god.

"As Thoth personifies the whole sphere of knowledge and it was through his assistance that Osiris came into being, so Osiris embodies the secret and sacred wisdom reserved for those who were proficients in the ancient rites. Unquestionably Osiris was later confused with other members of that vast pantheon of divinities which developed in the decadent period of Egyptian religious culture, but to the elect, [the initiate, the adept, the priest,] he represented to the end primordial knowing, that utter realization of truth undefiled by intellection, unlimited by any mortal procedure, uncircumscribed by the limitation of thinking. [You see,] he signified not only that divine at-one-ment with the Absolute which is the end of all illumination, but by his life, death and resurrection, revealed the means by which mortal consciousness could achieve that end. [William Cooper: Now remember, 'at-one-ment.'] Thus Osiris becomes a dual symbol, being in first place the esoteric wisdom, [William Cooper: esoteric folks means 'hidden', so he represented in the first place the esoteric wisdom] itself, and in the second place, the composite order of Initiates through whom that tradition was perpetuated [William Cooper: and now we begin to strip the veil from the Mysteries]. The personality of Osiris thus typifies the institution erected by the ancients to perpetuate the deathless truths of the soul. The living head was crowned with the plumes of wisdom and power, the hands bore the scepters of the three worlds, but the body was bound with the mummy wrappings of the dead. Here we find spirit, the living head bound incongruously to matter, the mummified body. The soul was imprisoned in the narrow bounds of flesh. One thing [in my research] is certain: Osiris represented the Secret Doctrine prior to that time when the omnific Word [William Cooper: or the Lost Word of Freemasonry] was lost.

"Osiris is the first of the five children of Nut..."

[William Cooper]: ...and here you begin to part some more veils behind which the mystery resides...

"...he therefore corresponds with the first of the five divine kings of China and the five exoterically known Dhyana-Buddhas of Lamaism. The five children of Nut are the five continents which have appeared upon the earth and the five races which have populated these continents. Osiris is the primitive revelation of the first race, but as Isis was born upon the fourth day, we find that this tradition coming into Egypt through the Atlantean Mystery School of which Isis is the symbol."

[William Cooper]: And you will find at the base of all these things: Atlantis. Francis Bacon wrote about Atlantis. Hitler believed in Atlantis. In this country the Freemasons established the city of Atlanta as the new Atlantis. And all of this will come together for you. It took me many, many, many years of study deep into the night and trying to discuss this with other people who had no idea what I was talking about. So most of it was put together in loneliness late at night, and then when I established my organization known as the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence [CAJI], many others began to help and furnish bits and pieces of information. And we have succeeded folks in infiltrating the Lodge. We have members in the Lodge who feed us information constantly; members whom we taught how to take an oath so that the oath of Freemasonry would not be binding upon them. You have to play sometimes by the rules of the enemy in order to beat the enemy and we are beating the enemies now.

"From the reign of Osiris we glean the following philosophical history. [They believe that] there was a time, the Golden Age, when truth and wisdom ruled the earth, and this aristocracy of wisdom was a benevolent despotism [William Cooper: and that’s what they want to reestablish. Benevolent to who? (laughs) That’s the question.] in which men were lad to a nobler state of being by the firm kindly hand of the enlightened sage. This was the divine dynasty of the mythological priest-kings who were qualified to govern humanity by virtue not only temporal but by divine attributes. Through his priests, Osiris, representative of the hidden tradition, ruled the entire world by virtue of the perfection resident in that tradition."

Don’t miss tomorrow night, folks. You have not even begun your journey. Good night, and God bless each and every one of you.


(closing music: unknown instrumental music)