The Winslow mail., 1897-04-24
The Ancient Brotherhood of the
Grand Cactii.,

EDITOR MAIL-As the writer of this
article on the discovery of an ancient
brotherhood resurrected from the dust
of great and glorious past, we are
somewhat sensitive to the dreaded crit
icism; or, more likely to the ridicule of
our fellow-townsmen IN giving it pub
licity through the medium of your pa
per, and we further feel the natural
difidence of modest man in airing
our scholastic researches and The fear
Of being accused of pedantry in giving
the results of our casual study of the
science of Mythology, having! granted
it only desultory attention for some
years.
This brotherhood had an existence
when Greece, Rome and Carthage were
hidden in the womb of time, in the
dim, misty and mystic past; ages be-
fore the temple Of Solomon had reared
it's mighty walls from which our mod
ern masonry claims its origin; when
Babylonia and Assyria were of the fu-
ture; when Nineveh, Thebes and Tyre
were not; when our worthy and res
pected ancestors of western Europe
fought for miserable existence with
the hideous monsters of that time,
living in caves in those lonely isles of
the Western Ocean, armed with imple-
ments of stone, and clad in the skins
Of wild animals. When the world was
yofHg in the early dawn OF time, CO.
temporary with tie building of the
Inassy pyramids of Ghizeh and Cheops:
when the inscr.taole Sphinx, now
stonily brooding over desert wastes,
was not then riddle which the Greek
Gdipus solved according to his mythol-
ogy, mere limitations of higher civil-
cation than hiss long, long ages before
the reign of Ptolomys, the conquering
ancestors Of the voluptuous Cleopatra,
Fer whose love Antony lost an empire,
leaving Heroaotus, the father of his
tory, to record the hoaty past.
Researches amidst the crumbiinfE
ruins of that mighty mother Of nations,
Egypt, show the existence of this pow
erful Brotherhood of the Grand Cactii
amcng the learned priesthood of that
distant time, ministerlng to TIE mystic
rites of the mighty Osiris and Isis, and
the symbol of this brotherhood, the
Cactus of the Nile, symbolising Truth
as the foundation upon which is built
other emblems of fraternity; the Ser
pent, signifying Wisdom; the Lotus,
emblematicat # Beauty, and @ths scar
abasus sacer (the sacred beetle), rep
resenting Faith. What more beautiful
continuation Of emblems can be shown?
Truth, Wisdom, Beauty and Faith; all
interchangeable and revolving around
the first as an indestructible founda-
ton of the social fabric of our modern
civilization as it was of an ancient one.
What typifes it, what qualities it more
than tie Cactus? When desert storms
beat on it-When the hot sands of arid
wastes sweep over tit still rears it's
bold front toward heaven, its home,
bids defiance and blossoms out in it's
fragrant beauty. Repels its enemies,
scourges social frauds, excoriates scan
dal,mongersj hypocrites end liars.
Forty centuries prior to the Christian
era, and centuries before the mystic
rious rule of the Shepherd Kings of
Egypt. this Brotherhood of the Grand
Cactii governed that land in its pris-
tine glory, antedating the giving of the
covenants Of Israel's God; midst the
thunders of Mount Sinai, and during
the reigns ST a mighty line of Pharoahs,
of the dynasty of Rameses and Thot@
mes. The weird and mystic rites Of
that grand brotherhood stand out to-
day, after more than sixty centuries Of
oblivion, revealed by the light of our
modern research, in the translation 81
their heiroglyphics impressed on soft
and plastic clay, burned by an unknown
process to an indestructible cement.
Their secret or preserving papyrus ana
embalming, have fortunately enabled
us to decipher theft records amidst tbs
rnins of their once mighty temples,
musty catacombs and those gigantic
Monuments Of their great architec-
tural skill, the pyramids. The occult
sciences of the Chaldean soothsayer,
is no longer a mystery, the existence of
this order no longer . mythical tradi-
tion Of a great and mysterious past,
but has an authenticated, proven rec
ord of recent development to show be-
Ton5 donbt or cavil. and to esta blish
snd demonstrate its existence, when in
Ehat epoch Of the worlds highest civil
ization, Truth, Wisdom, Beauty ard
Faith governed it, thereby increasing
its greatness and power