to the care taken to deprive him of all such as might inspire him with contrary ideas. The Teacher is carefully to attend to all the rules laid down in the code on this subject, and to see that his Novices fulfil the intentions of the Order in this respect. He is frequently to converse with them; he is to mark out their occupations for them; he is even to make them unexpected visits to surprize them, and thus to see in what manner they apply to the code and other writings with which the Order has entrusted them. He is to require an account of what they have read, and extracts from the different works; he will assist them by his explanations; in short, nothing is to be neglected which can secure their progress in the spirit and morals of the Order. 15
An object of far greater importance next attracts the attention of the Novice; it is that which the code calls the greatest of all; it is, the knowledge of men. The teacher will represent this to his pupil as the most interesting of all sciences. 16 To make himself master of this science, the Novice receives the model of a journal in the form of tablets, and his teacher shows him how they are to be used. Provided with this journal, he is to make his observations on every body he finds himself in company with; he is to trace their characters, and account to himself every thing he has seen or heard. Lest his memory should fail him, he must always be provided with a loose paper or small tablets, on which he may at all hours note his observations, which he is afterwards carefully to digest in his journal. To be certain of the Novice’s attention to this point, the Brother Teacher will examine his tablets and his journal from time to time. To render him more expert in the art of drawing the characters of the living, he will exercise the Novices on ancient authors, and on the heroes of antiquity. No study or custom is so frequently recommended as this in all the code of Illuminism. It is to be the grand study of the Novice, and the prime occupation of every degree. 17
It is by his assiduity in this great art that the Novice will learn how to distinguish those whom he may hereafter judge proper to be admitted into or rejected from the Order; and it is with that view that the Preceptor perpetually presses him to propose those whom he may think fit for the Order. 18 By this means a double object is attained; first, the propagation of the Order; and, secondly, a knowledge of its friends or enemies; the dangers it may be threatened with; and the means to be adopted, or the persons to be gained or courted, to avert the impending storm; in fine, of extending its conquests. Whether the Illuminee be a Novice, or in any other degree, he is bound by the laws of the Order to make his report in the prescribed forms at least once a month. 19
While the Novice is perpetually making researches of this nature, he is not aware that he is as carefully watched by his Insinuator, who on his side notes and writes down every thing that he observes either as to the failings or the progress, the strong or weak side of his pupil, and these he as regularly transmits to the superiors. 20
The pupil little suspects that the grand object of his Insinuator is to bind him in such a maner to Illuminism, even long before he is acquainted with its secrets, that it shall be impossible for him to break those bonds which fear and tenor
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shall have imposed upon him, should he ever wish to shrink from the horrid plots and systems which he might thereafter discover.
This profound policy of binding the Novices to Illuminism consists, first, in giving them a magnificent idea of the grandeur of the projects of the Sect, and, secondly, in a vow of blind obedience to the superiors in every thing which they judge conducive to the ends of the Order, which vow the Insinuator is to find means of extorting from his pupil.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
