Some More On ?the Royal Oriental Order of Sikha (Apex) and Sat Bhai?
Some More On ?the Royal Oriental Order of Sikha (Apex) and Sat Bhai?
Some More On ?the Royal Oriental Order of Sikha (Apex) and Sat Bhai?
Sorry, but this is a long posting. But I hop some of you will find
it interesting any way.
Note. I don't take the article of Ellic Howe as 100 % correct (hence
he knows more about Freemasonry, then Theosophy), but we find anyway
some interesting facts and points within it.
Could Sat Bhai have anything to do with the "Inner Circle", as found
in Blavatsky's letter to Hurrychund Chintamon from May 4, 1878, and
the Simla-letter to H.O. Hume from September 1884 (were Hume was
appointed" Knight")? Just a thought.
Carl
The in the archives of the United Grand Lodge of England are several
document from and on Sat Bhai, including jewels and certificate (see
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 1972).
The webpage of QC; http://www.quatuorcoronati.com/
`The Order of the Sat B'hai was not Mackenzie's invention, still
less Irwin's, although Mackenzie had a hand in the inflation of this
comic pseudo-Masonic balloon, which rose a few feet into the air,
wobbled briefly and then quietly collapsed without the average
member of the Craft knowing that the thing had ever existed.
>From the nature of the office of the Grand Climax Apex, 81 , it has
been a time immemorial law that his name should never be divulged
nor his actual identity be known to any but a Sponsor. Sometimes it
happens, where Apex dies in any remote locality, his successor
cannot be known to the Sponsors, but the latter can always identify
the true Apex by the seven symbols which lead to the leaden casket
that crowns the mystic edifice, and which, with reverence, I venture
to assert I have seen, but it is not fitting that I should say more.
N. B - - - - E
Perhaps the most astonishing disclosure of all was the one published
in The Freemason of 29 June 1872 signed 'Sp-ns-r [i.e. Sponsor],
II'. 'It may be sufficent to say,' he wrote, 'that I have seen the
true jewel of 'Apex' the jewel can be heard as well as seen.' The
jewel probably incorporated a small bell which tinkled.
The Royal Oriental Order of Sikha (Apex) and the Sat B'hai, to give
it its official title - was the brain child of Captain James Henry
Lawrence Archer (or Lawrence-Archer), Indian Army, although
Mackenzie did most of the donkey-work and received small thanks for
his trouble. John Yarker briefly referred to the Order's founder and
origins in The Arcane Schools, 1909, P. 242: 'This is a Hindu
Society organized by the Pundit of an Anglo-Indian regiment, and
brought to this country, about the year 1872, by Captain J. H.
Lawrence Archer.' In Hindi the word pundit or pandit means a learned
man, one versed in philosophy, religion and jurisprudence,
alternatively a learned expert or teacher. In military usage it
meant a native civilian who was employed to teach the British
officers of Indian regiments the Hindi language and to read the
Devanagri script. Nothing is known about the Pundit's 'Hindu
Society' or the nature of the notes, MSS. etc. which Archer brought
to England and which Mackenzie in due course attempted to 'work up'.
So now the Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England was
to be inveigled into the Apex scheme. Mackenzie did not object
to 'Secret Chiefs' when they were of his own invention (cf. the
Order of Ishmael) but disliked the prospect of having to submit to
their authority when produced out of thin air by someone else, in
this case Archer.
However, the Order of the Sat B'hai was not quite as moribund as
Mackenzie supposed. A few years later John Yarker ingeniously
amalgamated its Ceremony of Perfection with the ritual of a recent
novelty called the Order of Light.
"Although one would suppose that the Sat B'hai was completely dead
and buried by 1885 both Irwin and Cox were keeping it going in a
small way in the West Country. On 15 December Cox wrote: 'I will
assist by taking No. 2 Censorship and I would suggest that Dr. Nunn
be asked to take the other ... there can be no harm in asking him,
the only objection is that he does not care much for occultism.'
Almost two years later Cox reported: 'Dr. Nunn intends to wear at
our Thursday's meeting his Sat B'hai jewel ... I forgot to say that
Bro. Dr. Nunn thinks that by wearing the jewel of the Sat B'hai at
our meeting it may be the means of others joining without outside
solicitation.' 85 ."
Footnotes to above:
See further:
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge
No. 2076, UGLE in Volume 85 for the year 1972. [p. 242.]