Again and again the question is asked, “How can we know an initiate if we come in contact with one?” We can only answer, “By their works shall ye know them.” After analyzing the lives and habits of those initiates whom we are able to recoginize with our limited vision, we find that they all adhered to a general series of rules. Conditions are altered by the needs of the moment, but among the ancient manifestos we find hints as to the conduct of adepts and mystics.

For many hundreds of years the true Adepts and Initiates shrouded themselves in an impenetrable veil of mystery. This procedure served many ends. First, it protected the Initiates from the endless inconveniences to which they would be subjected by the curious and the credulous. It also permitted them to live quietly and silently, to study and pray, unknown and unsuspected even by their next door neighbor. Then, again, it multiplied the power which they had over a world which could not oppose them because it could not discover them. And, lastly, it enabled these schools and their disciples to escape the persecutions of religious bigotry and intolerance that have always been felt when man sought to discover God without the benefit of clergy.

The Egyptian Sphinx is supposed to have pointed out the initiate’s code of conduct by the symbolic interpretation of the four creatures composing it. The body of the bull with its great strength was interpreted to mean the process of labor, “to do.” The legs and tail of the lion speak of courage and are interpreted as meaning “to dare.” The wings of the eagle bespeak of loftier things, so they are interpreted as “to aspire.” The human head, with its sealed lips, means “to be silent.” Of all these rules, the last is most important.

excerpt from:
What the Ancient Wisdom Expects of Its Disciples
by Manly P. Hall