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14Melchizedek Grips That Take You to Heaven After moving to the Terrestrial Room and learning the Law of Chastity, we were taught the First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or Sign of the Nail, which, I was surprised to find, was quite similar to a handshake I had learned in Satanism. (See First Token of Melchizedek Priesthood Chart). In witchcraft, this was the sign by which one Satanist could recognize another. (35) Now I was being taught it as a way to make my way into the LDS Celestial kingdom. The First Melchizedek Priesthood grip is identical to the grip of the York Rite 9th degree Knight of Malta , as well as the 8th degree Wiccan Sign of the Nail. And the Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood is very similar to the Real Grip of a Master Mason, which is called the Strong Grip of the Lions Paw. In witchcraft, the Second Melchizedek grip is identical to the Strong Grip of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. What exactly do witches believe these grips achieve, beyond recognition signs? In witchcraft and in the esoteric levels of European Masonry I had learned that theses strange grips were not just mummery. They had magickal effects on their practitioners. This was especially true of the grips used in the temple for the Melchizedek Priesthood. The essence of the Mormon temple ceremony is that you are learning information (gnosis) which you will use to get to heaven when you die. You will pass through a series of spiritual challenges which you will answer with passwords, signs and handshakes. Brigham Young made this public when he laid the cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple. "Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the sign and tokens&(35A) In the temple, the grips and passwords eventually are all given to "The Lord upon the Five Points of Fellowship". Passing through the veil is symbolic of both resurrection and passing into paradise. In effect, these occult grips are supposed to have the power to raise you from death to eternal life. In Masonry, the exact same thing is true. The initiation ceremony of a Master Mason includes a playlet in which the Grand Master Hiram Abiff is raised from death by "the brethren" who form a prayer circle and raise him by the Strong Grip of the Lions Paw. They then (while standing in The Five Points of Fellowship) give him the secret Grand Masonic Word-MAH-HAH-BONE. Witches, likewise, seek knowledge which will give them power over the natural elements and eventually over death itself. The highest magickal practices of witchcraft involve the working of alchemical changes in the body which will produce immortality. As a witch, I engaged in rituals designed to raise dead bodies to life through incantations, grips and other ritual. |