Albert Leighton Rawson
was an American painter, who was mentioned by Blavatsky on one occasion in the
second volume of her work Isis Unveiled
, and below I transcribe what she said about him:
Outside the East we have met one
initiate (and only one), who, for some reasons best known to himself, does not
make a secret of his initiation into the Brotherhood of Lebanon. It is the
learned traveller and artist, Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York City.
This gentleman has passed many years
in the East, four times visited Palestine, and has travelled to Mecca. It is
safe to say that he has a priceless store of facts about the beginnings of the
Christian Church, which none but one who had had free access to repositories
closed against the ordinary traveller could have collected.
Professor Rawson, with the true
devotion of a man of science, noted down every important discovery he made in
the Palestinian libraries, and every precious fact orally communicated to him
by the mystics he encountered, and some day they will see the light.
He has most obligingly sent us the
following communication, which, as the reader will perceive, fully corroborates
what is above written from our personal experience about the strange fraternity
incorrectly styled the Druzes:
“34 Bond St., New York, June 6, 1877.
. .
.
Your
note, asking me to give you an account of my initiation into a secret order
among the people commonly known as Druzes, in Mount Lebanon, was received this
morning. I took, as you are fully aware, an obligation at that time to conceal
within my own memory the greater part of the ‘mysteries,’ with the most
interesting parts of the ‘instructions’; so that what is left may not be of any
service to the public. Such information as I can rightfully give, you are
welcome to have and use as you may have occasion.
The
probation in my case was, by special dispensation, made one month,
during which time I was ‘shadowed’ by a priest, who served as my cook, guide,
interpreter, and general servant, that he might be able to testify to the fact
of my having strictly conformed to the rules in diet, ablutions, and other
matters. He was also my instructor in the text of the ritual, which we recited
from time to time for practice, in dialogue or in song, as it may have been.
Whenever
we happened to be near a Druze village, on a Thursday, we attended the ‘open’
meetings, where men and women assembled for instruction and worship, and to expose
to the world generally their religious practices. I was never present at a
Friday ‘close’ meeting before my initiation, nor do I believe any one else, man
or woman, ever was, except by collusion with a priest, and that is not
probable, for a false priest forfeits his life. The practical jokers among them
sometimes ‘fool’ a too curious ‘Frank’ by a sham initiation, especially if such
a one is suspected of having some connection with the missionaries at Beirut or
elsewhere.
The
initiates include both women and men, and the ceremonies are of so peculiar a
nature that both sexes are required to assist in the ritual and ‘work.’ The
‘furniture’ of the ‘prayer-house’ and of the ‘vision-chamber’ is simple, and
except for convenience may consist of but a strip of carpet. In the ‘Gray Hall’
(the place is never named, and is underground, not far from
Bayt-ed-Deen) there are some rich decorations and valuable pieces of ancient
furniture, the work of Arab silversmiths five or six centuries ago, inscribed
and dated.
The
day of initiation must be a continual fast from daylight to sunset in winter,
or six o’clock in summer, and the ceremony is from beginning to end a series of
trials and temptations, calculated to test the endurance of the candidate under
physical and mental pressure. It is seldom that any but the young man or woman
succeeds in ‘winning’ all the ‘prizes,’ since nature will sometimes exert
itself in spite of the most stubborn will, and the neophyte fail of passing
some of the tests. In such a case the probation is extended another year, when
another trial is had.
Among
other tests of the neophyte’s self-control are the following: Choice pieces of
cooked meat, savory soup, pilau, and other appetizing dishes, with sherbet,
coffee, wine, and water, are set, as if accidentally, in his way, and he is
left alone for a time with the tempting things. To a hungry and fainting soul
the trial is severe. But a more difficult ordeal is when the seven priestesses
retire, all but one, the youngest and prettiest, and the door is closed and
barred on the outside, after warning the candidate that he will be left to his
‘reflections,’ for half an hour.
Wearied
by the long-continued ceremonial, weak with hunger, parched with thirst, and a
sweet reaction coming after the tremendous strain to keep his animal nature in
subjection, this moment of privacy and of temptation is brimful of peril. The
beautiful young vestal, timidly approaching, and with glances which lend a
double magnetic allurement to her words, begs him in low tones to ‘bless her.’
Woe to him if he does! A hundred eyes see him from secret peep-holes, and only
to the ignorant neophyte is there the appearance of concealment and
opportunity.
There
is no infidelity, idolatry, or other really bad feature in the system. They
have the relics of what was once a grand form of nature-worship, which has been
contracted under a despotism into a secret order, hidden from the light of day,
and exposed only in the smoky glare of a few burning lamps, in some damp cave
or chapel under ground. The chief tenets of their religious teachings are
comprised in seven ‘tablets,’ which are these, to state them in general terms:
1.
The unity of God, or the infinite oneness of deity.
2.
The essential excellence of truth.
3.
The law of toleration as to all men and women in opinion.
4.
Respect for all men and women as to character and conduct.
5.
Entire submission to God’s decrees as to fate.
6.
Chastity of body and mind and soul.
7.
Mutual help under all conditions.
These
tenets are not printed or written. Another set is printed or written to mislead
the unwary, but with these we are not concerned.
The
chief results of the initiation seemed to be a kind of mental illusion or
sleep-waking, in which the neophyte saw, or thought he saw, the images of
people who were known to be absent, and in some cases thousands of miles away.
I thought (or perhaps it was my mind at work) I saw friends and relatives that
I knew at the time were in New York State, while I was then in Lebanon. How
these results were produced I cannot say.
They
appeared in a dark room, when the ‘guide’ was talking, the ‘company’ singing in
the next ‘chamber,’ and near the close of the day, when I was tired out with
fasting, walking, talking, singing, robing, unrobing, seeing a great many
people in various conditions as to dress and undress, and with great mental
strain in resisting certain physical manifestations that result from the
appetites when they overcome the will, and in paying close attention to the
passing scenes, hoping to remember them—so that I may have been unfit to judge
of any new and surprising phenomena, and more especially of those apparently
magical appearances which have always excited my suspicion and distrust.
I
know the various uses of the magic-lantern, and other apparatus, and took care
to examine the room where the ‘visions’ appeared to me the same evening, and
the next day, and several times afterwards, and knew that, in my case, there
was no use made of any machinery or other means besides the voice of the ‘guide
and instructor.’ On several occasions afterward, when at a great distance from
the ‘chamber,’ the same or similar visions were produced, as, for instance, in
Hornstein’s Hotel at Jerusalem. A daughter-in-law of a well-known Jewish
merchant in Jerusalem is an initiated ‘sister,’ and can produce the visions
almost at will on any one who will live strictly according to the rules of the
Order for a few weeks, more or less, according to their nature, as gross or
refined, etc.
I
am quite safe in saying that the initiation is so peculiar that it could not be
printed so as to instruct one who had not been ‘worked’ through the ‘chamber.’
So it would be even more impossible to make an expose of them than of the
Freemasons. The real secrets are acted and not spoken, and require several
initiated persons to assist in the work.
It
is not necessary for me to say how some of the notions of that people seem to
perpetuate certain beliefs of the ancient Greeks—as, for instance, the idea
that a man has two souls, and many others—for you probably were made familiar
with them in your passage through the ‘upper’ and ‘lower chamber.’
If
I am mistaken in supposing you an ‘initiate,’ please excuse me. I am aware that
the closest friends often conceal that ‘sacred secret’ from each other; and
even husband and wife may live—as I was informed in Dayr-el-Kamar was the fact
in one family there—for twenty years together and yet neither know anything of
the initiation of the other. You, undoubtedly, have good reasons for keeping
your own counsel,
Yours
truly,
A.
L. Rawson.”
(p.312-315)
OBSERVATIONS
Investigator
John Patrick Deveney showed that Rawson was a very unethical liar man who was
even in prison for robbery (see link).
And
therefore the claim that he was an initiate of the
Brotherhood of Lebanon is most likely false.
What
is not clear to me is whether Blavatsky believed this lie, or whether she knew
that it was false and still presented him as such. I lean more towards the
first option because Blavatsky never mentioned again this individual in her works.
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