The Washington DC Map as Glass Bead Game

52 Degrees

If you look closely at the map, you will see that the pentagon/gram is short and wide, and if you measure the base angles of the triangle that contains the pentagon, you will see that they are about 52 degrees, like the cross-section of the Great Pyramid. Metatron's Cube was reduced to about 3/4 it's original height before being used in the map.

As you can see by looking at the pyramid image, the Queen's Chamber is offset from the King's Chamber, just like the Wash Mmt and the White House.

In this image we see Pennsylvania Avenue as the Ascending Passage, Potomac Ave. as the Descending Passage, The Capitol is located at the bottom of the Grand Galley, and the streets around the White House look like the stone structure of the King's Chamber.

Not only was the cube image shortened to simulate the pyramid angles, but also the planners reproduced the cross-section of the Pyramid in the map.

---

A League of Journeyers to the East

Hesse's Magister Ludi (subtitle: the Glass Bead Game, 1943) is "dedicated to the Journeyers to the East", and in fact, he had written a book by the name of The Journey to the East in 1932, in which we read:

"Our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country or something geographical, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and nowhere, it was the union of all times."

"This expedition to the East was not only mine and now; this procession had always been moving to the East, towards the Home of Light... (a) great pilgrimage of the eternal strivings of the human spirit towards the East, towards Home... Where are we going? Always home."

Those familiar with Masonry may notice the similarity to aspects of the ceremonial associated with the first (Entered Apprentice) of the three Blue Degrees [See From Left to Right], where we hear:

"As a Mason, whence do you come?" "From the West."

"Whither do you journey?" "To the East."

"What is your inducement?" "In quest of light."

You may also recall that in the Third Degree (Master Mason) ceremony, that the Master in charge of the building of Solomon's Temple was killed by three rufians because he word not reveal the master's password. Compare to Journey to the East:

"If I had to appear before a court-martial and was given the option of dying or divulging the secret of the League, I would joyously seal my vow to the league with death."

Maybe you can see where I'm going with this; my contention is that the League to which Hesse refers in Journey to the East (J2E) and the Glass Bead Game (GBG) is closely related to the Rosicrucians and Masons, the main difference being that Hesse's league admits women. Hesse himself compare the league to a theosophical movement.

---

Several authors have interpreted the Hiram legend of the Third Masonic Degree in solar terms, with the three rufians and the three days that he lays in his rough grave as symbols of the three winter months, between the time that the sun dies at the winter solstice and the spring equinox. You will note that after several failed attempts at "raising" the master, he is sucessfully raised by the "grip of a Lion's paw". In a solar legend, this of course refers to the fact that the sun rules Leo, signified by a lion. The sun is in the sign of Leo in late July and August, the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

In J2E, a person who is first presented as a servant, but who turns out to be the President of the league is a fellow named LEO, who "bore his radiant office conscientiously" (the gold-clad Leo), and who like Hiram, comes up missing.

---

"Many of the League members had set themselves goals which, although I respected, I could not fully understand. One of them was a treasure hunter and he thought of nothing but of winning a great treasure which he called 'Tao'. Still another had conceived the idea of capturing a certain snake to which he attributed magical powers and which he called Kundalini. My own journey and life-goal was to see the beautiful Princess Fatima and to win her love.

Leo was one of our servents. His desire was for Solomon's key which would enable him to understand the language of birds."

Hesse mirrors A. Pike's assertions (in Morals and Dogma) about masonry being a continuation or descendant of the Ancient Mysteries by mentioning a "leaning toward Indian, ancient Persian and other Eastern mysteries and religions"; and like Pike he suggests that "our League..had extended throughout history, sometimes certainly under the surface (literally and figuratively), but in an unbroken line...that Zoroaster, Plato and Pythagoras were co-founders and brothers of our League."

---

Castilia (in GBG), another variation of Hesse's continuing search for a spiritual dimension of life, is a symbolic realm where all spiritual values are kept alive and present through the practice of the Glass Bead Game.

Hesse speaks of the game:

"The only way to learn the rules of this Game of games is to take the usual prescribed courses, which requires many years; and none of the initiates could ever possibly have any interest in making these rules easier to learn."

This of course reminds us of the aristocratic nature of the Mysteries, which were divided into an exoteric branch for the masses, and an esoteric branch reserved for the philosophically articulate. Read what Pike says in his comments on the thirty first Scottish Rite degree, named the Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander:

"You are to see that recipients of the higher Degrees are not un-necessarily multiplied; that improper persons are carefully excluded from membership."

---

The 32nd Degree of the Scottish Rites is named Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, where is the Royal Secret turns out to be the Mystery of balance, the Secret of the Universal Equilibrium; and Equilibrium is the Harmony that results from the analogy of Contraries.

In GBG we read of the worship of harmony. "Music is founded on the harmony between heaven and earth, on the accord of obscurity and brightness." This sounds as if it were written by Pike himself.

"Perfect music...arises from equilibrium. Equilibrium arises from righteousness, and righteousness from the meaning of the cosmos."

"Music arises from Measure, and is rooted in great Oneness. The great Oneness begets two poles; and the two poles beget the powers of Darkenss and of Light." An example of pure Masonism, and like Masonry, which purports to admit brothers from any religous persuasion, Hesse says that "the Game was virtually equivalent to worship, although it deliberately eschewed developing any theology of it's own."

"The Game represented an elite, symbolic form for seeking perfection, a sublime alchemy, an approach to that Mind which beyond all images and multiplicities is one within itself-in other words, to God."

---