This Kingdom is known in the language with which you are now familiar as the Kingdom of Rameses (not the Egyptian Rameses with which history, or even tradition as you understand it, is familiar); and the etymology of the word is both feminine and masculine. The ancient "Rah" is the symbol of the Divine Mother; the remaining portion of the word is symbolic of divine Wisdom (or Father); and here the first worship of the sun, as a symbol of Divine life and light, had its beginning; for while the sun was counted in its Mathematical and Astronomical value in the first dispensation, and was regarded as the source of life and power in the second dispensation, the distinct symbol of the sun as the one life-giving agency of the Earth was not known; and the Rah is the first unveiling of the feminine divinity to the consciousness of man in the form of worship; that is, the divinity separate from the Angelic primal races, or a divinity separate from the forms of earth.

which were often deified. As this ancient Rah symbolizes that which came forth from within, so, gradually, with the restoration of the knowledge of the arts and sciences and of the power which enabled them to build, was born a new element.

Far to the "west," like a star that trembles in the twilight of evening, named for this divinity, who, couched in many names, has ruled the earth, a beautiful land was unfolding, a land that might have been the primal Eden but that it was not Adamic in its ignorance or its innocence; a land that might have been the "Paradise of the Blest," save that it was not adorned with the Light Celestial; but each physical form of beauty, each rare and perfect flower, every visible portion of that part of the habitable globe was for the first time under the dominion of human intelligences made beautiful by the love of the beautiful in and of itself. This love of Beauty has its origin in the Soul, but when expressed in earthly guise it may be wedded to the senses as in the Divine Kingdom it is wedded unto the Soul.

The first symbol of this land of which even tradition gives you no knowledge was what is now called Neptune's Trident. Out of the sea the ancient Aphrodite (perverted into the Venus of the Grecians and many other nations) sprang in full perfection of her beauty. The Trident was the symbol of the Primal Mother of beauty who rules in the far north. The three stars in the base of the larger dipper (Ursa Major) were exactly in the position of the Trident above the sea, where the land of beauty was bom. No fairer vision of Paradise painted by the dreamer or poet, no pictured Heaven of Earth as seen by travelers in the far Orient, nor India herself (the most ancient India in which beauty had her abode) could compare with this wonderful land. No wonder, through some vague sort of tradition or in some atmosphere that is ever brooding over the earth, people have supposed that the real "Garden of Eden" was far to the Occident," instead of far to the Orient; and no wonder that whether from the islands of "Hes-perides" or the still remote tradition of "Atlantis," the mind turns to contemplate this wonderful land,,

For the first time the light of beauty had full and supreme power; for the first time the people ceased their love of mere technical knowledge and physical strength and power, and turned to worship the beautiful; not that high art which sometimes takes the place of beauty, and in the soul is transcendent, but the beauty which the earth could yield.

Already the cycles had brought the earth under the dominion of the most formidable planetary influences linking the Northern and Southern Heavens together, with that reign of the mysterious star that holds influence of Beauty over the Earth. The Earth had reached the beginning of this cycle, and with the knowledge that was handed down from the Sons of Hermes, the Alchemy of the earth was employed, not for producing gold and precious metals in its rare alembic, not yet for forging chains of the "lightnings of Jove," not yet by the strong arms of the Hermetic Vulcan for swaying the world with the many mysteries of art and skill in mechanics; but only for bearing the land forward through each succeeding step of these Cycles unto the fuller dominion of Beauty. Flowers were changed in their tint and coloring to such rare degrees that no skill of today can ever imitate; each form was carried forward to its highest perfection until the types could yield no more beauty under the skillful hands of man. Habitations were not fashioned for strength, nor yet to resist armies, but for the most perfect expression of beauty. Flower gardens suspended seemingly from the sky, rivaled and reflected those on the surface of the earth, making all the earth radiant with this brilliant loveliness of beautiful images. Unlike the Greeks and the modern nations who carried forward the preservation of a distinct line of classical beauty, those who dwelt in this fair land were full of the loveliness around them. They drank of the breath of the roses, they gathered dew drops from the lilies; they saw the stars and their eyes were bright because of them; and the whole atmosphere and earth yielded its loveliness in the perfection of their forms. Unto this nation or succession of nations came the epitomization of the beautiful; the first feminine divinity worshiped as Deific, the Goddess of beauty, from whom undoubtedly, through tradition, the perverted images of Venus and Aphrodite have descended; but who was so supreme in expression as the veritable embodied image of beauty and loveliness, that nothing save it be born from the waves or from the transcendent Heavens could fashion an image of such perfection.

The worshipers of that divinity were a people who cared not for physical victory through war or knowledge; nor for any potency nor power of earth, but only for that which in a sense, not altogether of the earth, but also in the attributes of the mind, made them know Beauty.

Beautiful, Perfect, Physical life is one thing; but the adoration of the Beautiful is another. When so fair an image is to be born upon the Earth, with all the loveliness that precedes the birth, there is great preparation; the Wings of the Morning seem clothed with added light; the Earth herself yields her choicest Alchemy to the production of images and forms of loveliness; the sun's rays are directed and guarded in such a manner that the blossoms and fruitage shall be the fairest; and the races which are to yield the culmination of this loveliness are races that are tempered and molded in the highest ways of earthly loveliness; with intellectuality sufficient to grasp the principles that will make the earth more beautiful; with knowledge and power sufficient to keep away destructive storms and the ravages of war; with none of those petty bickerings and jealousies that destroy the beautiful creations of earth. For a "thousand years," the typical "Eon," as the Meridian of this Cycle, reigned the nation that worshiped the beautiful; up to that height only did their natures press; receding from it came the reaction.