1. WHEN the temple was completed, and the king and his four high priests entered into the Holy Chamber, the false Osiris, through his servant God, Egupt, came in sar'gis, and spake unto the king, saying: Here am I, O king!
2. Thothma said: My labor is well recompensed. That thou hast come to me, O Lord my God, I am blessed. Osiris said: Keep holy my chambers; suffer no man, nor woman, nor child, that dwelleth on the face of the earth, to know the mysteries of these, my holies, save and except my adepts. Here layeth the key of everlasting life.
3. Thothma said: How sayest thou, the key of everlasting life? Osiris said: Herein is that which is of good and evil, as I commanded thy forefathers; to eat whereof man shall become as Gods, and live forever. For this is the triumph of man over death, even for which I created him on the earth.
4. Thothma said: Shall only we five know these things? Osiris said: Nay, verily; else the light of my kingdom would not be full. Behold, thou, how I built the temple! Was it not in the keeping of adepts? So, then, as I have given unto thee to know my kingdom, thou shalt give unto others, not suffering these lights to come, save through my commandments.
5. Now in the second month after the temple was completed, Thothma, the king, having put the affairs of his kingdom in order, went into the HOLY CHAMBER, and thence ascended into the CHAMBER OF LIFE AND DEATH, leaving the four chief priests in the Holy Chamber. And Thothma CAST HIMSELF IN DEATH (dormancy) by swallowing his tongue. Whereupon the priests closed the entrance and sealed the king within.
6. Osiris, through his servant God, Egupt, said unto the priests: One alone shall remain; in quarter-watch shall ye dwell within the Holy Chamber, and I will remain also. And the priests cast lots, and divided the watch in six hours each, unto every day. And Osiris sent Baal to the spirit of Thothma, and took him to Agho'aden, Osiris' heavenly place, showing the spirit unto the glory of the throne, saying: Behold the God of Gods. Thothma said: It is a great glory; lo, mine eyes are blinded by the light of the Lord my God. After this, Baal took the soul of Thothma into a thousand heavenly places in Osiris' kingdom, and showed him the glory thereof.
7. Thothma said unto Baal: Thou angel of God, thou hast shown me, of a truth, God is in the image of man. Nor is there any but one God, who ruleth over all.
8. Baal said: How sayest thou then; who is God? Thothma said: How sayest thou? For behold, his glory was so great I could not look upon him.
9. Then answered Baal, saying: Only angels and mortals; these are the sum of all things. He, thou hast looked upon, was even as thou art; a one-time p. 446 mortal on a far-off star-world. He attained unto the Godhead, to create a world unto himself, even as thou, who art an adept, canst create flowers and plants and serpents. Thus he came into the void regions of space and created the earth and her heavens, and they belong unto him, for they are his. And in like manner is every star-world, created and ruled by a God like unto thy God, who is Lord of all.
10. Thothma said: O that all people knew these things! O that I may remember them when I am returned to earth. Baal said: More than this shalt thou remember; for I will now take thee to the hells of the idolators and the Jehovihians. Baal then took the soul of Thothma to the hells of De'yus, and showed him the horrors thereof. But he took him not to the regions of God, in Craoshivi.
11. Now when Thothma had traveled in heaven for thirty days, Baal brought his spirit back to the Chamber of Death, and showed him how to regain his corporeal part, the which he did. And then Baal signaled unto Egupt, and the latter spake to the priest on watch, saying: Behold, Thothma hath returned; go thou and fetch thy brother, and deliver him into the Holy Chamber.
12. And when they came they unloosed the sealing stones and delivered the king into the Holy Chamber, and he was awake from his trance, and remembered all he had seen in heaven, which he related to the high priests who were with him. And both Baal and Egupt came in sar'gis and talked in the Holy Chamber with Thothma and the priests. For one day the king remained in the Holy Chamber, that his spirit be reconciled to the flesh; and on the next day he and the priests came forth out of the temple and sealed the door thereof, and placed the king's guard in charge, that no man or woman might molest the place. Now Thothma had been in the death trance forty days.
13. The three angels, Egupt, Baal and Ashtaroth, came into the altar in the king's palace that night, and showed themselves to the college students who had attained ADEPT. Baal spake orally before them, directing his words to the king, saying: Behold, I am the angel of God thy Lord, whom thou hast beholden in heaven; I am the same who traveled in heaven with thee. What I speak, I say in the name of the Lord our God, whose servant I am. On the morrow shall thy high priests draw lots, and one of them shall enter the Chamber of Holies, in the Osirian Temple, and do even as thou hast. And after him, behold, another of the high priests shall do likewise; and so on, until the four have had thy experience.
14. And it came to pass that the four priests in turn CAST THEMSELVES IN DEATH, and visited Osiris' heavenly kingdoms, and also many of the hells of De'yus, being led in spirit by Baal or Ashtaroth, Egupt being the guardian God of the temple.
15. When they had thus accumulated the same knowledge of heaven and earth, the five of them were of one mind as to attaining life everlasting in the corporeal body. Osiris said: Behold, I will bring many back who are already dead; and they shall call unto their embalmed bodies and wake them up and inhabit them. Go ye, then, to the root of the matter, and prepare my people, for I will come in person and inhabit the temple ye have built; and my heavenly kingdom shall descend even to the earth. Prepare ye the COLUMN OF THE STARS!
16. Thothma built a column to the east line of the slat, seven lengths, and the height was thirty-six lengths; of wood and stone built he it, with an opening from the bottom to the top, and the width of the opening was six lengths. In the walls thereof was a winding stairway, and there were windows looking out to the east and west and north and south, that the stars from every quarter might be observed. On the summit of the column were dwelling-places for the seers and mathematicians, with places for the measuring instruments and lenses.
17. When this was completed, Thothma built of wood and stone an external wall across the slat of the temple; and within this wall were stairs also, and these led to the top of the pyramid. This wall was also provided with windows, that the northern stars might be observed.
18. Thothma made an observing column for the sun, and it was provided with lenses of all colors, so that adepts standing at the base of the pyramid could see the sun at every hour of the day, and distinguish the spots and their changes. A gau was set within each of the angles of observation, that the relative position of the sun with northern stars could be determined every day.
19. By these two columns, therefore, Thothma and his mathematicians measured the sun and moon and stars, as to the distances and sizes thereof. And p. 447 Osiris commanded the king to send into the far-off lands of the earth his wisest mathematicians, to observe the winds of heaven, and the drouth upon the earth; and the abundance of the yield of the earth in different regions, in different years and seasons; and to observe famines and pestilences, and all manner of occurrences on the face of the earth. He said unto the king: When thy mathematicians are returned to thee with their accumulated wisdom, thou, or thy successor, shall examine the sun and the stars and moon, as compared to the things whereof the mathematicians shall relate, one year with another; and three years with another three years, and five with five, and seven with seven, and so on for hundreds of years, and thousands of years.
20. And when thou hast taken in the term of three thousand three hundred years, and compared the sun and moon and stars, as relate to the occurrences of the earth, thou shalt have the key of prophecy for three thousand three hundred years ahead. And thou shalt say of this land and of that land; and of this people and that people, how it will be with them, and thou shalt not err.
21. Thothma, the king, called together his mathematicians, and, according to their grade, chose from amongst them twelve hundred. These he divided into groups of one hundred each; and he gave them a sufficient number of attendants; and he sent them toward all the sides of the world, allotting to them sixteen years each for observation, according to the commandments.
22. And they took with them all kinds of instruments to measure with, besides scribes to make the records of such matters as came before them. And they went throughout Arabin'ya, and Vind'yu, and Jaffeth, and Parsi'e, and Heleste, and Uropa, even across to the western sea; and to the south extreme of Arabin'ya, and to the great kingdoms of the interior, and to the north of Heleste and Parsi'e, and Jaffeth, to the regions of everlasting snow.
23. And in sixteen and seventeen years they returned, save some who died on the journeys. And most wonderful was the knowledge these mathematicians gained. In some countries they found philosophers who had the knowledge required even at their tongues' end. Thothma received them in great pomp and glory, and awarded all of them with great riches.
24. And Thothma had these things rewritten and condensed into books, and named them books of great learning, and they were deposited within the south chamber of the pyramid, where never harm could come to them.
25. And Thothma made it a law, that other mathematicians should travel over the same regions for other sixteen years and make like observations; and after them, yet other mathematicians to succeed them, and so on for three thousand three hundred years. And accordingly, a new expedition started forth. Now during the absence of the first mathematicians, Thothma and his philosophers observed the sun and moon and stars every day, and a record was made thereof, as to the earth in the regions of Thothma's home kingdom. And these observations were reduced to tablets and maps, and a record made of them in Parsi'e'an language, which was the language of the learned. For the Eguptian language of that day was spoken mostly by the unlearned, and was mixed with the Fonecean, a language of sounds.
26. After the mathemeticians returned, Thothma and his philosophers examined the whole matter as compared with the maps and tablets of the heavens, and the facts deduced therefrom were written in a separate book and called THE PHILOSOPHIES OF GOD AND HIS SON THOTHMA, KING OF EARTH!
27. Copies of this book were made and sent into the lands of Arabin'ya, Vind'yu, Jaffeth, and Parsi'e and Heleste, and Uropa, to the priests of God, but the original book was filed in the Holy Chamber, in the Temple of Osiris.
28. Thothma applied himself to impart wisdom unto all men. And during his reign he built in the land of Egupt seventy-seven colleges of Great Learning, twelve colleges of prophecy, two hundred houses of philosophy, seven adepteries, and three thousand free schools, and four thousand houses of sacrifice unto Osiris, Savior of men.
29. Three hundred and forty obelisks to God, thirty triumphal arches to De'yus, four thousand oans-nus to the Creator, and these were mounted on pedestals of polished stone, and stood at the street corners.
30. And there were graduated to the rank of adept during Thothma's reign more than four thousand men and three hundred women, all capable of the death trance, and of going about in spirit. And of these over seven hundred were permitted within thirty p. 448 years to test the cast of the holy chambers in the pyramid. And their spirits were conducted into Osiris' heavenly regions, and sojourned there for many days, and returned to their bodies unharmed. Because of the position of the chambers, there was no action upon their bodies whilst in the swoon.
31. Thus did Thothma prove himself to be one of the wisest and greatest men that ever dwelt on the face of the earth. He believed all things the Gods told him, believed he was Thoth re-incarnated, and believed he would never die as to the flesh.
32. The false Osiris, through his servant God, Egupt, had said to Thothma: This is the manner of heaven and earth, as regardeth man: All men are re-incarnated over and over until perfected to immortal flesh; and in that day man hath so perfected his adeptism he can remain on earth or ascend to heaven, even when he desireth. Hence of all knowledge, adeptism is the greatest.
33. Thothma asked if there were any new creations. Satan prompted Osiris, who said: Nay, thy spirit is old as the earth. At first it was small and round, like a grain of mustard, only it was spirit. And the multitude of these seed comprise the All Unseen. When one of them taketh root in gestation, then is the beginning. And it is born into the world a frog, or an ass, or worm, or lion, or small creeping thing; and it liveth its time and dieth. And the spirit hieth it back again into another womb, and it is born forth a man low as to knowledge, evil as to life. And he liveth a time and dieth again; but again the spirit hieth back to another womb, and it is born forth again, another man, but wiser as to knowledge, and less evil as to life. And this continueth to hundreds of generations and to thousands. But he who hath attained adeptship hath it in his power to call forth out of the earth his own corporeality; he needeth no longer to go through the filth of others.
34. Thothma was wise even in his belief; for when he was growing old, and beholding his flesh sunken, and his eyes growing hollow and dim, and his hands getting withered, he inquired of the Gods, saying: I know thou hast taught me truth, O God. I am weak before thee, as to judgment, and curious in my vanity. Osiris said: Speak thou, O king!
35. Thothma said: By all the force of my will; and by my great learning, I cannot stay the withering of the flesh. If, therefore, I already dry up like a mummy, above the power of my will, how will it be with me when I am further emaciated?
36. Satan prompted Osiris to answer the king, and so he said: Until thou art even more emaciated thou canst not understand the power of thine own soul.
37. With this the king was reconciled, and even at the time he was tottering on his last legs he began to build a new palace, saying: After I have changed this flesh into immortal flesh, hither will I come and dwell forever. And I shall be surrounded by adepts, wise and faultless. And this shall be the first colony of the kind I will build on the earth.
38. But afterward I will build many colonies of like kind; more and more of them, until I have all the earth redeemed to immortal flesh. For of such shall be my kingdom, and all men and all women on the earth shall own me Lord of all.
39. Nevertheless, with all Thothma's wisdom, and the wisdom of his Gods, he fell on a stone and died suddenly on the day he was one hundred years old.