A House of Hidden Places was maintained, so that all who had any part in governing the lives of the people, whether as king or priest or official, could prove themselves worthy before becoming encumbered with the office.
This text in the Book of the Sons of Fire looks back to an early time when anyone governing other people had to prove themselves, spiritually speaking, before taking office. They did this in the House of Hidden Places, and since the following text refers to Egypt, this must too. The text goes on:
Later, it came about that the Hidden Places had to be further secured and only men long established in goodness could enter them. Those in high places and those with power shirked the austerities and dangers demanded, and thereby they cut themselves off from the light of Truth. The kings and governors who ruled in Egypt, during all the many long generations of twilight and darkness, were born to the frailties of the flesh. Seeing only through earthly eyes they lacked the clear guidance of revelation and knowledge.
It says later on in the Sons of Fire:
The first Temple of the Shrine of the Hidden Places was built on the Sacred Heights. It was a temple within an inner court where there were lesser temples and the rooms of priests and teachers. The whole was surrounded by a courtyard and gardens, and beneath the main temple were the three Caverns of Initiation. Later the Temple of the Shrine of the Hidden Places was built during a time when the light was revealed throughout the land.
Were these ‘Sacred Heights’ Giza? The term isn’t used anywhere else in the Kolbrin, so it’s hard to know for certain.
Manuscripts describes how the land of Egypt went through a dark period when its original spiritual roots were attacked and almost destroyed, but that ‘the light was revealed’ again later. Could the Temple of the Shrine of the Hidden Places built later have been the Great House of the Hidden Places referred to in Manuscripts? The Great House is described as follows:
[i]Now the Great House of the Hidden Places stands in Kahemu. It is built to last forever and stands up strongly towards Heaven, high above the heads of men. It is covered with white stones, the white stone of Rehakom was cut for it, and above it is topped with copper. It is not the copper of men, but the copper of God. Within it lies the Womb of Rebirth used by the Twice Born of the Enlightened Ones. Men enter its portals to die and come out restored to life, reborn as gods. Beside it stands the Temple of the Radiant Ones, many-pillared and walled about. Here is the Great Portal of Entry into Life, and above it, on a great stone, these words may be seen:
‘From the Children of God to the Children of Men. Behold, we found you in bondage to mortal bodies and bestowed upon you the gift of everlasting life.’[/i]
‘Kahemu’ appears elsewhere in Manuscripts and seems to be an ancient name for Egypt. The House of the Hidden Places described above could well be the Great Pyramid, which we know was originally covered with white stone and topped with a gleaming metal capstone.
The description of the Temple of the Radiant Ones, ‘many-pillared and walled about’, fits what we now call the Valley Temple.
Robert Temple writes in his book Egyptian Dawn:
‘Once you go through one of the doors [of the Valley Temple], you are in one of the granite entrance halls, which are very high … A niche made of granite very far above head height looks down on you; no one knows whether it contained a statue, or what its purpose was.’ Temple’s photo shows the niche in situ (below). ‘On the right, the mysterious niche in the upper portion of the granite north entrance hall may be seen.’
http://www.egyptiandawn.com/images/plates/small/7-39sup.jpg
Could this empty niche once have contained the ‘great stone’ described in Manuscripts? We learn later on in Manuscripts that all the sites connected with the Twice Born were ‘spoiled’ (desecrated); the great stone with its iconic wording would almost certainly have been taken down and destroyed at that time:
“The hosts of the Dark Ones were well skilled in battle and they drove out all those who stood against them. The forces of righteousness were scattered. The sacred shrines which stood before the veil of Truth were spoiled. The ornaments of beauty and the sacred vessels were taken away to be profaned by sin-soiled hands. The Enlightened Ones and the Twice Born were hunted down like beasts of the chase. They were slain and buried in the ground like dogs. Their resting places remained unmarked and unattended.”
I have not visited the Valley Temple, but it would certainly open a door in our understanding if it could be identified with the Temple of the Radiant Ones, and the Great Pyramid identified with the Great House of the Hidden Places.