OUR VISIT TO THE INFERNAL PALACE.
The infernal palace was a congregation of subterranean rock-hewn
temples under the spiritual control of the grand sorcerer Charka and
the grand sorceress Zooly-Soase.
The grand sorcerer's dominion was directly underneath the supernal
palace of Egyplosis. An ornate pagoda of stone covered the entrance to
the underground palace. The descent was by means of a wide gradient of
polished marble, and there was also an elevator car, beautifully
decorated with electro-plated sheets of gold and lit by electricity,
which was the most rapid means of descent to the pavement beneath, a
distance of two hundred and fifty feet. The procession of twin-souls
and attendants, who carried Lyone and myself in a splendid litter of
gold, entered the palace by means of the inclined marble highway whose
sculptured walls were radiant with electric light. The many temples of
the underground palace were devoted to the most occult worship of
Harikar. There was an immense central edifice whose roof, supported by
lofty columns, and sculptured in fantastic beauty, rose two hundred
feet above the pavement. Here electric suns lit up what was merely the
vestibule of a hundred temples all hewn from the same pale green
marble, the aquelium floors glimmering like a fathomless sea.
As we entered this splendid abode of sorcery, we were received by the
august officials of the sanctuary. The grand sorcerer Charka was a man
of imperial presence, gracious and subtle. His flesh was of the hue of
silver bronze and he possessed noble features. His hair was blue and
his blue beard was trimmed into a rounded semi-circle on his chin,
while his mustache spread nobly on either side of his lips. He wore a
robe of emerald blue silk, embroidered with silver flowers. The grand
sorceress, Thoubool who accompanied him, possessed the complexion of a
pearl, was arrayed in a robe of celestial blue silk, and, like the
grand sorcerer, wore a diadem of rubies.
Our reception was extremely gracious, the grand sorcerer saying he
felt highly honored with our visit.
As we passed down the palace pavement, an immense bell opened its
mouth of gaunt and glorious bronze. Soft explosions of music swept in
thrilling moans through temple and cloister, the echoing walls
resounding with ritournels of enthusiastic peace. As if inspired with
passion, I could hear the bell swing and roll on its delirious pivot
uttering its deep-sounding fantasy.
I saw, illuminating the sculptured archway of each temple on either
side of us, the name thereof in letters of incandescent light. I saw
the names Amano, Biccano, Demano, Hirlano, Kilano, Pridano, Redolano,
Ecthyano, Oxemano, Jiracano, Oirelano, Orphitano, Cedeshano, Padomano,
Jocdilano, Nidialano, Bischomano, Omdolopano and many others,
indicating the various departments of soul development to which each
temple was dedicated.
The sorcerer waved his wand and suddenly a band of priestesses
appeared on the pavement moving in strange and fantastic measures.
Their attire consisted of low-cut circles of bright and beautiful
stuffs with short skirts, having in front of each a sheaf of heavy
folds that expanded and fell as the dancer moved. All wore jewels and
rings of precious metals on wrists and ankles. Their faces, perfect in
feature, were pale rose in color but marvellously delicate. Ranging
themselves on either side of the immense aisle, they formed a
delightful guard of honor for the grand sorcerer and his retinue.
They were not only souls, but the materializations of souls, that
danced and sang as when on earth. They were souls of former
priestesses reincarnated by the sorcerer and who vanished when we
reached the entrance to the temple of the labyrinth. It certainly was
a delicate and superexcited imagination that wrought the splendid
archway through which we passed into the grotto garden beyond. Neither
Greek nor Moor, Hindoo nor Goth ever conceived such arabesques as were
sculptured on the walls of the entrance to the holy of holies.
In the garden, hewn from the solid stone, were interminable thickets
and hedges enclosing labyrinthine walks. There were open spaces in
which stood veritable trees with strangest leaf and flower, branch and
stem delicately chiselled from the solid rock. There were also acres
of grass and flowers, wonderful creations of art. There were rose
bushes, heavy with their eternal bloom, the flowers stained crimson as
in life and the leaves their varying gradations of green.
Fruit trees, with pale pink flowers and leaves light and dark green,
stood amid the green grass that never waved in the breeze. An
immovable streamlet ran down its bed of carved irregularities between
flowery banks and underneath a bridge formed of a single arch.
I looked up expecting to see the sky, but my gaze met the solid
heavens of stone, and I knew again I was in a cavern. The feeling was
somewhat suffocating. The garden was lit by an electric sun in the
centre of the roof two hundred feet overhead. The pathway, wide enough
for six people abreast, led by labyrinthine dells to the pagoda of the
sorcerer, which stood in the centre of the garden. The mazes of the
pathway were so numerous that none save the initiated, when once in
the labyrinth, could find their way out again.
It was a weird experience to find myself walking between the master
twin-souls of that subterranean paradise, exploring its many
mysteries.
We arrived in due time at the entrance to a mighty temple at the
further side of the labyrinth, whose bronze door suddenly opened to
receive us, and the sorcerer bade me enter.
Passing through a pillared porch we entered a wide and lofty space
lit by tall windows and a roof of many-colored domes of glass that
threw wonderful lights on the polished aquelium floors of the
building. The light that shone through window and dome was produced by
myriads of electric incandescent lamps that glowed in recesses of the
rock behind each window. This was the inmost shrine of the sorcerer.
As I walked toward the centre of the mysterious temple the sorcerer
inquired if creative magic was cultivated on the outer sphere.
I informed the sorcerer that necromancy, divination, magic,
clairvoyance, esotericism, and theosophy were things known and
practised in many countries. "But," I added, "the idea there is that
of self-abnegation and miracles are only to be performed by ascetics
who practise the most rigid austerities. Men who desire to possess
occult power live in complete solitude, subjecting themselves to cruel
mortifications. They abstain from all fellowship with their kind, they
try to live even without food. They absolutely mourn existence,
avoiding all contact with everything earthly. They hope by renouncing
all the actions of life to enter more and more into the spiritual
existence. They believe they can build up an enormous soul out of the
ruins of the body."
"Do you find that such a method produces a high development of
creative power, love, justice, conscience, truth, temperance, order,
and benevolence?" said the grand sorcerer.
"I cannot say," I replied, "that the devotees to whom I refer are
conspicuous for those qualities, certainly not for a highly active
state of such qualities. Their abnegation develops fanaticism, which
is intemperance itself, and fills them with hate toward those outside
their creed. The starvation of every appetite of pleasure withers up
the appreciation for every form of human delight."
"Then what virtues are derived from ascetic practices?" inquired the
sorcerer.
"Certain virtues of a negative order," I replied. "The adepts claim to
have power to create and transport matter; a claim which reliable
history does not, except in a few cases, recognize, and in a very
limited sense they have power to separate the soul from the body.
While the body remains in a comatose state, the soul traverses space,
holds consultation with similar souls, and returns to its mansion in
the body again."
[Illustration: THE LABYRINTH WAS A SUBTERRANEAN GARDEN, WHOSE TREES
AND FLOWERS WERE CHISELED OUT OF THE LIVING ROCK.]
"Your magicians," said the sorcerer, "weaken or kill the body without
imparting corresponding power to the soul. Now we of Atvatabar believe
that the body should be developed equally with the soul. We believe
that contact with the noblest and best of earthly things develops
power and beauty. We feed both body and soul on the perfection of
things, that both may thereby absorb perfection.
"In the brilliant activities of the supernal palace, and in the golden
calm of the infernal palace, priest and priestess, as twin souls,
naturally intermingle in the enjoyment of a long Nirvana of ecstasy.
We have not only the occult power to perform miracles like the
ascetics of the outer sphere, but the soul possesses an enormous
development of every noble quality without which our golden century is
impossible. We are able by means of our baths of life to obtain a
hundred years of glorious youth, during which period age and decay of
the body is suspended. Our devotees when they arrive at the age of
twenty years, when youth is fully developed, begin their Nirvana of
blessedness and love. They do not grow older during these years. The
eye is as bright, the pulse as bounding, the heart as lively, the
complexion as pure and lovely, the feelings as fresh, at the end of
the interregnum as at its commencement. Then when the golden century
is exhausted, the body begins to be twenty-one years old."
"Do you mean that a man who has lived one hundred and thirty years is
but thirty years old?" I inquired.
"Precisely," said the sorcerer; "why should we call a period age in
which there is no change?"
"Do all souls live until their century of youth is accomplished?"
"Not all souls. Many die of accident or in consequence of sin. With
some, Nirvana consists of but a single day's felicity, with others a
month, or a year, up to a hundred years. It is the ideal for which we
strive, and there is no reason why the body should not live one
thousand years as well as one hundred, when vitality becomes more
developed."
I was astonished at the remarks of the sorcerer, and yet I remembered
the case of Adam, Noah, and Methusaleh. I told him that men on the
outer sphere had lived almost one thousand years.
"You may be sure they never practised the austerities of the ascetic
life you have just mentioned. They must have enjoyed life always
turning their faces to the sun."
"I think one hundred years a great step toward immortality," I
remarked.
"At twenty years the body is developed, but even a hundred thousand
years will not develop the soul. Think of the development involved in
having power over disease and death, power to create substantialities
of matter!"
"Do you create matter?" I inquired breathlessly.
"I will show you what we can do," replied the sorcerer; "if you will
follow me."
The sorcerer led the way to seats upon a platform of silver, on which
stood in terrific grandeur the figure of a hehorrent, or dragon of
gold, whose eyes were blazing rubies. He stood before the dragon, at
least twenty feet above the pavement of the palace.
Presently the sorcerer shouted with a loud voice, "My host! my host!"
and at once several thousand twin souls thronged into the immense
temple, dancing with naked feet on the polished aquelium pavement.
Beneath the monster miles of wire were wound in a coil, and to the
wire were attached twenty thousand fine wires of terrelium, each wire
terminating in a terrelium wand. These wires were held one each by
priest and priestess, who began to move in a strange dance on the
pavement and sing an anthem to Harikar. As they moved more and more
rapidly the clamor of bells arose, and explosions of sound, like
bullets rained upon drums, shook the building. In the semi-darkness
the body of the hehorrent seemed to quiver, and, as I gazed, lo! a
shower of blazing jewels issued from its mouth. There were emeralds,
diamonds, sapphires, and rubies flung upon the pavement, scintillating
with fire the colors of the stones themselves!
The sorcerer, waving his terrelium wand, shouted, "Hold! It is
enough!" and the seance was at an end. He received the jewels that had
been collected by his hierophants, and descending, offered me a
splendid ruby as large as a hen's egg. I looked at him with awe, as I
felt its size and weight. He simply said, "These jewels have been
created by spirit power."
"Do you," I gasped, with a feeling of mingled exultance and fear, "do
you create matter?"
[Illustration: AS I GAZED, LO! A SHOWER OF BLAZING JEWELS ISSUED FROM
THE MOUTH OF THE HEHORRENT.]
"The abnegation of hopeless love is the source of the spirit power
by which we create matter such as this," replied the sorcerer. "The
twin-soul is the cell that generates the creative force."
"And can you create other matter than jewels?" I eagerly inquired.
The sorcerer gazed at Lyone for a moment, who had been strangely
silent in the presence of her most powerful spiritual coadjutor, and
then replied: "Yes, we can create all things if necessary. We can, for
example, create islands in the sea, with mountains, forests, lakes,
valleys, winding walks and thickets of flowers, palaces and pagodas."
I was breathless with excitement at such a reply. "Oh, that I could
see such an island," I rejoined, "and tread, if but for a single hour,
its ecstatic shores!"
"You can both see it and walk upon it, if the goddess so wills it,"
replied the sorcerer. "What is the command of your holiness?" he
inquired.
"I would like the commander to see Arjeels, if your priests and
priestesses are willing to perform the necessarily arduous ritual
involved in its creation," replied Lyone.
"My hierophants," replied the sorcerer, "are only too happy to serve
their goddess at all times, and I will at once command them to prepare
to execute the ritual for creating the magical island of Arjeels."
"Your devotion," said Lyone, "fills me with the purest joy."
As we conversed, the large ruby I held in my hand had grown
considerably less in size, as though the elements of which it was
composed had to a degree evaporated as unseen gases, so that in a
short time the jewel might wholly disappear. The sorcerer,
anticipating an inquiry as to its disappearance, stated that all
objects created by spirit power could only be maintained in their full
material splendor so long as they were sustained by the power that
gave them birth. The creations were not additions to already existing
elements; they were simply focalizations of matter from the elements
of the surrounding world, held together by the force that withdrew
them from their normal habitat as long as the spirit power remains
supplied. The jewels would in a few hours cease to exist, because they
were not enfolded with the power that produced them.
"As to your magical island," said I, addressing Lyone, one of whose
titles was Princess of Arjeels, "where is your principality situated?"
"It is located anywhere in the wide sea," said Lyone.
"Do you mean to say," said I, "that Arjeels is not a real, veritable
island of the ocean, but only a ghostly island, a mirage that retreats
as we approach it, a phantasy of the imagination?"
"Arjeels is a real island, with real rocks and waterfalls, lakes and
forests, birds and flowers. There is a real palace, and all the
appurtenances of an ideal life. All this is a materialization of the
ideal desires."
I was astonished at her reply. "Once called into being," I inquired,
"how long can the island exist?"
"So long as the twin-souls support it by never-ceasing ecstasy, so
long as they perform their magical dances on the aquelium floor of the
temple of the dragon, holding in their hands the terrelium wands. Once
the island becomes materialized it requires thousands of twin-souls to
sustain and preserve its reality, and it only vanishes when the
twin-souls are utterly weary of their ecstasy."
"And when the twin-souls grow weary of their joys, what becomes of the
island and its glories?" I inquired.
"We can preserve the island for a long time," said the sorcerer, "by
having fresh dancers take the place of those that are exhausted, but
after the lapse of a month, or longer, when all are utterly vanquished
with fatigue, the spirit power becomes exhausted and the island
disappears upon the sea."
I rose and enthusiastically grasped the sorcerer by the hand. "Ah,
dear sorcerer," said I, "will you show me this magical island?"
"The command of the Princess of Arjeels," he replied, "will be
obeyed."