Mors Janua Vitae

A phrase well-known to Rosicrucians is ‘Mors Janua Vitae‘, or ‘Death, the Gate to Life‘. This profound statement is well worth much consideration and meditation. Indeed, there is almost no initiatory path which doesn’t involve the reenactment of a death and bringing back to life (thought sadly some branches of Freemasonry have become so politically nervous about offending anybody that they take great pains to deny or play down this aspect).

In some cases the death is literal. For example, mainstream or exoteric Christianity preaches a message of mortality, which claims that man has no power on earth, and it is only after physical death that he or she can hope to attain immortality. In Kabbalah, the invisible Sephira of Da’ath represents a veil beyond which no corporeal human may pass, to experience the highest realms of the Tree of Life.

But most of the Mystery Schools, Rosicrucian teaching and many Masonic Regimes use death to symbolize a passage of enlightenment, that by working upon oneself one can indeed attain a form of immortality on earth, or at least prepare for an easy passage into the immortal realms. In the early Greek and Roman Schools we see many instances where the neophytes experienced a symbolic death and passage through Hades, before being brought back to life as a new person. Central to the Rosicrucian story is the discovery of the Vault in which Christian Rosenkreutz was buried. His body is uncorrupted, and he is surrounded by a kind of Akashic Record, representing the wisdom of all ages. In Masonry, we learn of the death of Hiram Abif, murdered by jealous workmen, whose body is ‘raised’ and reburied; and in some branches of Masonry Hiram is explicitly described as rising form the dead, and looking towards the light of the East.  In a way we are reminded of the earliest monuments, such as Stonehenge or the Temple at Abu Simbel, which recognized immortality in the rising sun of the solstice.

Of course, the symbolism points not so much to physical death, but rather the suppression of wrong thinking and the rebuilding of the Temple within us, to create a sanctuary worthy of the eternal flame of immortality which we each possess.

Perhaps there can be no better way to end this short exploration than to quote from a paper written last year by Pierre Noël, one of the deepest Masonic thinkers I know, and who, among his many other accomplishments, brought the Scottish Rectified Rite to Belgium. I would add that this extract comes from a paper he wrote on the Holy Royal Arch, which should give some indication of the depth of European thought concerning the themes the serious student may find in Freemasonry:

“For mystics of all religions, the highest level of attainment is for the human mind to merge in the Divine Consciousness. This is rendered in the well-known expression: ‘My people have obtained mercy.'”