CHAPTER I

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations

in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other

spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_, and superscripts thus y^{en}.

Duplicate headings of the seven BOOKS have been removed.

THE HISTORY OF MAGIC

[Illustration: ÉLIPHAS LÉVI _Frontispiece_]

THE

HISTORY OF MAGIC

INCLUDING A CLEAR AND PRECISE EXPOSITION

OF ITS PROCEDURE, ITS RITES AND

ITS MYSTERIES

BY

ÉLIPHAS LÉVI

(ALPHONSE LOUIS CONSTANT)

_Opus hierarchicum et catholicum_

(Definition of the Great Work, according to Heinrich Khunrath)

TRANSLATED, WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES, BY

ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS ARE INCLUDED

AND PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR

_Second Edition_

LONDON

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED

CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

1922

_Copyright_

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

In several casual references scattered through periodical literature,

in the biographical sketch which preceded my rendering of _Dogme et

Rituel de la Haute Magie_ and elsewhere, as occasion prompted, I have

put on record an opinion that the _History of Magic_, by Alphonse Louis

Constant, written—like the majority of his works—under the pseudonym

of Éliphas Lévi, is the most arresting, entertaining and brilliant of

all studies on the subject with which I am acquainted. So far back

as 1896 I said that it was admirable as a philosophical survey, its

historical inaccuracies notwithstanding, and that there is nothing in

occult literature which can suffer comparison therewith. Moreover,

there is nothing so comprehensive in the French language, while as

regards ourselves it must be said that—outside records of research

on the part of folk-lore scholarship—we have depended so far on a

history by Joseph Ennemoser, translated from the German and explaining

everything, within the domain included under the denomination of

Magic, by the phenomena of Animal Magnetism. Other texts than this

are available in that language, but they have not been put into

English; while none of them has so great an appeal as that which is

here rendered into our tongue. Having certified so far regarding its

titles, it is perhaps desirable to add, from my own standpoint, that

I have not translated the book merely because it is entertaining and

brilliant, or because it will afford those who are concerned with

Magic in history a serviceable general account. The task has been

undertaken still less in the interests of any who may have other—that

is to say, direct occult—reasons for acquaintance with “its procedure,

its rites and its mysteries.” I have no object in providing unwary and

foolish seekers with material of this kind, and it so happens that the

present History does not fulfil the promise of its sub-title in these

respects, or at least to any extent that they would term practical in

their folly. Through all my later literary life I have sought to make

it plain, as the result of antecedent years spent in occult research,

that the occult sciences—in all their general understanding—are paths

of danger when they are not paths of simple make-believe and imposture.

The importance of Éliphas Lévi’s account at large of the claims, and of

their story throughout the centuries, arises from the fact (_a_) that

he is the authoritative exponent-in-chief of all the alleged sciences;

(_b_) that it is he who, in a sense, restored and placed them, under

a new and more attractive vesture, before public notice at the middle

period of the nineteenth century; (_c_) that he claimed, as we shall

see, the very fullest knowledge concerning them, being that of an

adept and master; but (_d_) that—subject to one qualification, the

worth of which will be mentioned—it follows from his long examination

that Magic, as understood not in the streets only but in the houses

of research concerning it, has no ground in the truth of things, and

is of the region of delusion only. It is for this reason that I have

translated his History of Magic, as one who reckons a not too gracious

task for something which leans toward righteousness, at least in the

sense of charity. The world is full at this day of the false claims

which arise out of that region, and I have better reasons than most

even of my readers can imagine to undeceive those who, having been

drawn in such directions, may be still saved from deception. It is well

therefore that out of the mouth of a master we can draw the fullest

evidence required for this purpose.

In the present prefatory words I propose to shew, firstly, the

nature of Éliphas Lévi’s personal claims, so that there may be no

misconception as to what they were actually, and as to the kind of

voice which is speaking; secondly, his original statement of the

claims, nature and value of Transcendental Magic; and, thirdly, his

later evidences on its phenomenal or so-called practical side, as

established by its own history. In this manner we shall obtain his

canon of criticism, and I regard it as valuable, because—with all his

imperfections—he had better titles of knowledge at his own day than

any one, while it cannot be said that his place has been filled since,

though many workers have risen up in the same field of inquiry and have

specialised in the numerous departments which he covered generally and

superficially.

Before entering upon these matters it may be thought that I should

speak at some length of the author’s life; but the outlines have been

given already in an extended introduction prefixed to a digest of his

writings which I published many years ago under the title of _Mysteries

of Magic_, and again, but from another point of view, in the preface to

the _Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic_ already mentioned.

The latter will be made available shortly in a new annotated edition.

For the rest, an authoritative life of Éliphas Lévi has been promised

for years in France, but is still delayed, and in its absence the

salient biographical facts are not numerous,

In the present place it will be therefore sufficient to say that

Alphonse Louis Constant was born at Paris in 1810, and was the son of

a shoemaker, apparently in very poor circumstances. His precocity in

childhood seemed to give some promise of future ability; he was brought

to the notice of a priest belonging to his parish, and this in its turn

led to his gratuitous education at Saint-Sulpice, obviously with a view

to the priesthood. There his superiors must have recognised sufficient

traces of vocation, according to the measures of the particular place

and period, for he proceeded to minor orders and subsequently became

a deacon. He seems, however, to have conceived strange views on

doctrinal subjects, though no particulars are forthcoming, and, being

deficient in gifts of silence, the displeasure of authority was marked

by various checks, ending finally in his expulsion from the Seminary.

Such is one story at least, but an alternative says more simply that

he relinquished the sacerdotal career in consequence of doubts and

scruples. Thereafter he must, I suppose, have supported himself by

some kind of teaching, and by obscure efforts in literature. Of these

latter the remains are numerous, though their value has been much

exaggerated for bookselling purposes in France. His adventures with

Alphonse Esquiros over the gospel of the prophet Ganneau are told in

the pages that follow, and are an interesting biographical fragment

which may be left to speak for itself. He was then approaching the age

of thirty years. I have failed to ascertain at what period he married

Mlle. Noémy, a girl of sixteen, who became afterwards of some repute

as a sculptor, but it was a runaway match and in the end she left him.

It is even said that she succeeded in a nullity suit—not on the usual

grounds, for she had borne him two children, who died in their early

years if not during infancy, but on the plea that she was a minor,

while he had taken irrevocable vows. Saint-Sulpice is, however, a

seminary for secular priests who are not pledged to celibacy, though

the rule of the Latin Church forbids them to enter the married state.

In or about the year 1851 Alphonse Louis Constant contributed a large

volume to the encyclopædic series of Abbé Migne, under the title of

_Dictionnaire de Littérature Chrétienne_. He is described therein

as _ancien professeur au petit Séminaire de Paris_, and it is to be

supposed that his past was unknown at the publishing bureau. The volume

is more memorable on account of his later writings than important by

its own merits. As a critical work, and indeed as a work of learning,

it is naturally quite negligible, like most productions of the series,

while as a dictionary it is disproportioned and piecemeal; yet it is

exceedingly readable and not unsuggestive in its views. There is no

need to add that, as the circumstances of the case required, it is

written along rigid lines of orthodoxy and is consequently no less

narrow, no less illiberal, than the endless volumes of its predecessors

and successors in the same field of industry. The doubting heart of

Saint-Sulpice had become again a convinced Catholic, or had assumed

that mask for the purpose of a particular literary production. Four

years later, however, the voice of the churchman, speaking the

characteristic language of the Migne Encyclopædias, was succeeded by

the voice of the magus. _The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic_ appeared

in 1855, the _Ritual_ in 1856, and henceforth Alphonse Louis Constant,

under the pseudonym of Éliphas Lévi, which has become almost of

European celebrity, was known only as an exponent of occult science.

It is these works which more especially embody his claims in respect

of the alleged science and in respect of his own absolute authority

thereon and therein. Various later volumes, which followed from his

pen in somewhat rapid succession, are very curious when compared with

the _Doctrine and Ritual_ for their apparent submission to church

authority and their parade of sincere orthodoxy. I have dealt with this

question at length in my introduction to the _Mysteries of Magic_,

and I shall be dispensed therefore from covering the same ground in

the present place. Such discrepancy notwithstanding, Éliphas Lévi

became, in a private as well as in a public sense, a teacher of occult

science and of Kabalism as its primary source: it was apparently his

means of livelihood. He was in Paris during the siege which brought

the Franco-German war to its disastrous close, and he died in 1875,

fortified by the last rites of the Catholic Church. He left behind him

a large sheaf of manuscripts, many of which have been published since,

and some await an editor.

Passing now to the subject-in-chief of this preface, it is affirmed as

follows in the _Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic_:—(1) There

is a potent and real Magic, popular exaggerations of which are actually

below the truth. (2) There is a formidable secret which constitutes the

fatal science of good and evil. (3) It confers on man powers apparently

superhuman. (4) It is the traditional science of the secrets of

Nature which has been transmitted to us from the Magi. (5) Initiation

therein gives empire over souls to the sage and full capacity for

ruling human wills. (6) Arising apparently from this science, there is

one infallible, indefectible and truly catholic religion which has

always existed in the world, but it is unadapted for the multitude.

(7) For this reason there has come into being the exoteric religion

of apologue, fable and wonder-stories, which is all that is possible

for the profane: it has undergone various transformations, and it is

represented at this day by Latin Christianity under the obedience of

Rome. (8) Its veils are valid in their symbolism, and it may be called

valid for the crowd, but the doctrine of initiates is tantamount to

a negation of any literal truth therein. (9) It is Magic alone which

imparts true science.

Hereof is what may be termed the theoretical, philosophical or

doctrinal part, the dogma of “absolute science.” That which is

practical follows, and it deals with the exercise of a natural power

but one superior to the ordinary forces of Nature. It is to all intents

and purposes comprised in a Grimoire of Magic, and is a work of

ceremonial evocations—whether of elementary spirits, with the aid of

pantacles, talismans and the other magical instruments and properties;

whether of spirits belonging _ex hypothesi_ to the planetary sphere;

whether of the shades or souls of the dead in necromancy. These works

are lawful, and their results apparently veridic, but beyond them is

the domain of Black Magic, which is a realm of delusion and nightmare,

though phenomenal enough in its results. By his dedications Éliphas

Lévi happened to be a magus of light.

It will be observed that all this offers a clear issue, and—for the

rest—the Grimoire of Transcendental Magic, according to Éliphas

Lévi, does not differ generically from the _Key of Solomon_ and its

counterparts, except in so far as the author has excised here and

enlarged there, in obedience to his own lights. He had full authority

for doing so on the basis of his personal claims, which may be

summarised at this point. (1) He has discovered “the secret of human

omnipotence and indefinite progress, the key of all symbolism, the

first and final doctrine.” (2) He is alchemist as well as magician,

and he makes public the same secret as Raymund Lully, Nicholas Flamel

and probably Heinrich Khunrath. They produced true gold, “nor did they

take away their secret with them.” (3) And finally: “at an epoch when

the sanctuary has been devastated and has fallen into ruins, because

its key has been thrown over the hedge, to the profit of no one, I have

deemed it my duty to pick up that key, and I offer it to him who can

take it: in his turn he will be doctor of the nations and liberator of

the world.”

It must be said that these claims do not rest on a mere theory or

practice of ceremonial evocations. There is no question that for

Éliphas Lévi his secret doctrine of occult science is contained in

a hypothesis concerning an universal medium denominated the Astral

Light, which is neither more nor less than the odylic force of Baron

Reichenbach, as the French writer himself admits substantially, but it

is dilated in his speculation and issues therein greatly transformed as

follows. (1) It is an universal plastic mediator, a common receptacle

for vibrations of movement and images of form: it may be called the

Imagination of Nature. (2) It is that which God created when He uttered

the _Fiat Lux_. (3) It is the great medium of occult force, but as

such it is a blind force, which can be used for good or evil, being

especially obedient to the light of grace. (4) It is the element

of electricity and lightning. (5) The “four imponderable fluids”

are diverse manifestations of this one force, which is “inseparable

from the First Matter” and sets the latter in motion. (6) It is now

resplendent, now igneous, now electric, now magnetic. (7) It has

apparently two modes, which tend to equilibrium, and to know the middle

point of this equilibrium seems to be the attainment of the Great Work.

(8) It is “ethereal in the infinite, astral in stars and planets,

metallic, specific or mercurial in metals, vegetable in plants, vital

in animals, magnetic or personal in men.” (9) It is extracted from

animals by absorption and from men by generation. (10) In Magic it is

the glass of visions, the receptacle of all reflections. The seer has

his visions therein, the diviner divines by its means and the magus

evokes spirits. (11) When the Astral Light is fixed about a centre by

condensation it becomes the Philosophical Stone of Alchemy, in which

form it is an artificial phosphorus, containing the concentrated

virtues of all generative heat. (12) When condensed by a triple fire it

resolves into oil, and this oil is the Universal Medicine. It can then

only be contained in glass, this being a non-conductor.

Again, here is a clear issue at its value, and I make this

qualification because the Astral Light is, as I have said, a

speculation, and personally I neither know nor care whether such a

fluid exists, or, in such case, whether it is applicable to the uses

indicated. It is enough that Éliphas Lévi has made his affirmations

concerning it in unmistakable language.

Let us pass therefore to the _Histoire de la Magie_, though I have

been borrowing from it already in respect of the putative universal

fluid. Magic therein is still the science of the ancient Magi; it is

still the exact and absolute science of Nature and her laws, because

it is the science of equilibrium. Its secret, the secret of occult

science, is that of God’s omnipotence. It comprises all that is most

certain in philosophy, all that is eternal and infallible in religion.

It is the Sacerdotal Art and the Royal Art. Its chief memorial is

found in Kabalism, but it derives apparently from primeval Zoroastrian

doctrine, of which Abraham seems to have been a depositary. This

doctrine attained its perfection in Egypt. Thereafter, on its religious

side, the succession appears to have been: (_a_) from Egypt to Moses;

(_b_) from Moses to Solomon, through certain custodians of the secret

law in Jewry; (_c_) from the Temple at Jerusalem to St. Peter’s at

Rome, though the method of transition is obscure—as that which was

affirmed previously is still maintained, namely, that Rome has lost the

Kabalistic Keys. It is naturally left to our conjecture as to when the

Church possessed them—from Éliphas Lévi’s point of view, perhaps in

the days of Dionysius, perhaps in those of Synesius, but not from my

standpoint, and so the question remains.

Now, if these things do not differ specifically from the heads of

the previous testimony, on the surface and in the letter thereof,

it is no less certain that there is a marked distinction alike in

general atmosphere and inward spirit. About this all can satisfy

themselves who will compare the two texts, and I need not insist on

it here. What, however, in the _Histoire de la Magie_, has befallen

that practical side which, after all the dreamings, the high and

decorative philosophy, the adornments—now golden, now meretricious—was

the evidence, term and crown of the previous work? Those who are

reading can again check me; but my answer is this: whether the subject

of the moment is the art of evoking spirits, whether it is old cases

of possession, whether it is witchcraft or necromancy, whether it is

modern phenomena like direct-writing, table-rapping and the other

occurrences of spiritism, as they were known to the writer and his

period, they have one and all fallen under the ban of unreserved

condemnation. It is not that they are imposture, for Éliphas Lévi

does not dispute the facts and derides those who do, but they belong

to the abyss of delusion and all who practise them are workers of

madness and apostles of evil only. The advent of Christianity has put

a decisive period to every activity of Magic and anathema has been

pronounced thereon. It is from this point of view that Lévi takes

the disciple through each century of the subject, sometimes indeed

explaining things from the standpoint of a complete sceptic, sometimes

as Joseph Ennemoser might himself have explained them, but never—no,

not once—like the authorised exponent of practical Magic who has tried

the admirable and terrifying experiments, who returns to say that

they are true and real, which is the testimony of the _Doctrine and

Ritual_, if these volumes can be held to signify anything. Necromancy

as a science of the abyss; spiritism as the abyss giving up every form

of delusion; sorcery, witchcraft, as rich indeed in testimony but to

human perversity alone, apart from intervention of diabolism belonging

to the other world—I testify with my whole heart to the truth of

these accusations, though I do not believe that the unseen world is

so utterly cut off from the world of things manifest as Éliphas Lévi

considered in his own paradoxical moods. But once more—what has become

of Magic? What has happened to the one science which is coeval with

creation itself, to the key of all miracles and to almost omnipotent

adeptship? They are reduced as follows: (_a_) to that which in its

palmary respects is the “sympathetic and miraculous physics” of Mesmer,

who is “grand as Prometheus” because of them; (_b_) to a general theory

of hallucination, when hallucination has been carried, by self-induced

delusion or otherwise, to its _ne plus ultra degree_; and (_c_) but

I mention this under very grave reserves, because—for the life of

me—I do not understand how or why it should remain—to the physical

operations of alchemy, which are still possible and actual under the

conditions set forth in the speculation concerning the Astral Light. It

is not as such, one would say, a thaumaturgic process, unless indeed

the dream should rule—as it tends to do—that fulfilment depends on an

electrifying power in the projected will of the adept. In any case, the

ethical transliteration of alchemical symbolism is seemingly a more

important aspect of this subject.

I need not register here that I disbelieve utterly in Lévi’s

construction of the art of metallic transmutation, or that I regard

his allegorising thereon as a negligible product when it is compared

with the real doctrine of Hermetic Mysticism; but this is not the

point at issue. The possessor of the Key of Magic, of the Kabalistic

Keys, thrown aside or lost by the Church, comes forward to tell us

that after the advent of Christ “magical orthodoxy was transfigured

into the orthodoxy of religion”; that “those who dissented could be

only _illuminati_ and sorcerers”; that “the very name of Magic must be

interpreted only according to its evil sense”; that we are forbidden by

the Church to consult oracles, and that this is “in its great wisdom”;

that the “fundamental dogma of transcendental science ... attained its

plenary realisation in the constitution of the Christian world,” being

the equilibrium between Church and State. All that is done outside the

lawful hierarchy stands under an act of condemnation; as to visions,

all fools are visionaries; to communicate with the hierarchy of unseen

intelligence, we must seek the natural and mathematical revelations set

forth in Tarot cards, but it cannot be done without danger and crime;

while mediums, enchanters, fortune-tellers, and casters of spells

“are generally diseased creatures in whom the void opens.” Finally,

as regards the philosophical side of Magic, its great doctrine is

equilibrium; its great hypothesis is analogy; and in the moral sense

equilibrium is the concurrence of science and faith.

What has happened to a writer who has thus gone back on his own most

strenuous claims? One explanation is—and long ago I was inclined

to it on my own part—that Éliphas Lévi had passed through certain

grades of knowledge in a secret school of the Instituted Mysteries;

that he was brought to a pause because of disclosures contained in

his earlier books; and that he had been set to unsay what he had

affirmed therein. I know now by what quality of school—working under

what titles—this report was fabricated, and that it is the last with

which I am acquainted to be accepted on its own statements, either

respecting itself or any points of fact. An alternative is that Éliphas

Lévi had spoken originally as a Magus might be supposed to speak when

trafficking in his particular wares, which is something like a quack

doctor describing his nostrums to a populace in the market-place,

and that his later writings represent a process of retrenchment as

to the most florid side of his claims. This notion is apart from all

likelihood, because it offers no reason for the specific change in

policy, while—if it be worth while to say so—I do not regard Lévi

as comparable to a quack doctor. I think that he had been a student

of occult literature and history for a considerable period, in a

very particular sense; that he believed himself to have discovered

a key to all the alleged phenomena; that he wrote the _Doctrine and

Ritual_ in a mood of enthusiasm consequent thereupon; that between the

appearance of these volumes and that of the _Histoire de la Magie_ he

had reconsidered the question of the phenomena, and had come to the

conclusion that so far from being veridic in their nature they were

projected hallucinations variously differentiated and in successively

aggravated grades; but that he still regarded his supposed universal

fluid as a great provisional hypothesis respecting thaumaturgic facts,

and that he still held to his general philosophy of the subject, being

the persistence of a secret tradition from remote times and surviving

at the present day (1) in the tenets of Kabalism and (2) in the

pictorial symbols of the Tarot.

It is no part of my province in the present connection to debate his

views either on the fact of a secret tradition or on the alleged

modes of its perpetuation: my standpoint is known otherwise and has

been expressed fully elsewhere. But in the explanation just given I

feel that I have saved the sincerity of one who has many titles to

consideration, who is still respected by many, and for whom my own

discriminating sympathy has been expressed frequently in no uncertain

way: I have saved it so far at least as can be expected. One does not

anticipate that a Frenchman, an occultist and a magus is going to

retract distinctly under the eye of his disciples, more especially

when he has testified so much. I feel further that I have justified

the fact of the present translation of a work which is memorable in

several respects, but chiefly as the history of a magic which is not

Magic, as a testimony which destroys indeed the whole imputed basis of

its subject. It does not follow that Lévi’s explanation of physical

phenomena, especially of the modern kind, is always or generally

correct; but some of it is workable in its way, and my purpose is

more than served if those who are drawn toward the science of the

mystics may be led hereby to take warning as to some of the dangers and

false-seemings which fringe that science.

A few things remain to be said. Readers of his History must be prepared

for manifold inaccuracies, which are to be expected in a writer like

Éliphas Lévi. Those who know anything of Egypt—the antiquities of its

religion and literature—will have a bad experience with the chapter

on Hermetic Magic; those who know eastern religion on its deeper

side will regard the discourse on Magic in India as title-deeds of

all incompetence; while in respect of later Jewish theosophy I have

had occasion in certain annotations to indicate that Lévi had no

extensive knowledge of those Kabalistic texts on the importance of

which he dwells so much and about which he claims to speak with full

understanding. He presents, however, some of their lesser aspects.

As regards the religion of his childhood, I feel certainly that it

appealed to him strongly through all his life, and in the revulsion

which seems to have followed the _Doctrine and Ritual_ he was drawn

back towards it, but rather as to a great hierarchic system and a

great sequence of holy pageants, of living symbolism. Respecting the

root-matter of its teachings, probably he deceived himself better

than he fooled his readers. In a multitude of statements and in the

spirit of the text throughout, it is certain that the _Histoire de la

Magie_ offers “negation of dogma” on its absolute side. We obtain a

continual insight into free sub-surface opinions, ill-concealed under

external conformity to the Church, and we get also useful side-lights

on the vanity of the author’s sham submissions. In this manner, we

know exactly what quality of sentiment led him to lay all his writings

at the foot of the seat of Peter, for Peter to decide thereon. It is

needless to add that his constructions of doctrine throughout are of

the last kind that would be commended to the custodians of doctrine.

At the same time there is very little doubt that he believed genuinely

in the necessity of a hierarchic teaching; that, in his view, it

reposed from a very early period in certain sanctuaries of initiation;

that the existence of these is intimated in the records of the Mosaic

dispensation; that they were depositaries of science rather than

revelation; that Kabalistic literature is one of their witnesses; but

that the sanctuaries were everywhere in the world, Egypt and Greece

included. Of all these the Church of Christ is the heir, and though it

may have lost the keys of knowledge, though it mistakes everywhere the

sign for the thing signified, it is—from his standpoint—entitled to our

respect as a witness and at least to qualified obedience.

I think that Éliphas Lévi has said true things and even great things

on the distinctions and analogies between science and faith, but the

latter he understood as aspiration, not as experience. A long essay on

the mystics, which is perhaps his most important contribution to the

_Dictionnaire de Littérature Chrétienne_, indicates that he was thinly

acquainted with the mind of Suso, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa

and St. Francis of Sales. Accordingly he has a word here and there on

the interior life and its secrets, but of that which remains for the

elect in the heights of sanctity he had no consciousness whatever. For

him the records of such experience are literature and mystic poetry;

and as he is far from the term herein, so is he remote also when he

discourses of false mystics, meaning Gnostic sects, Albigensian sects,

_illuminati_ so-called and members of secret heretical societies

representing reformed doctrine. As the religion of the mystics is my

whole concern in literature, let me add that the true idea of religion

is not constituted by “universal suffrage” (see text, p. 517), but by

the agreement of those who have attained in the Divine experience that

which is understood by attainment.

In conclusion, after we have set aside, on the warrants of this

History, the phenomenal side of Magic, that which may be held to remain

in the mind of the author is Transcendental Magic—referred to when I

spoke of a qualification earlier in these remarks; but by this is to

be understood so much of the old philosophical systems as had passed

within his consciousness and had been interpreted therein. It will be

unacceptable to most readers at this day, but it has curious aspects of

interest and may be left to stand at its value.

A. E. WAITE.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ÉLIPHAS LÉVI, TAKEN AFTER DEATH]

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION v

INTRODUCTION

False definition of Magic—It is not to be defined at

hazard—Explanation of the Blazing Star—Existence of the

absolute—Absolute nature of magical science—Errors of

Dupuis—Profanation of the science—Prediction of Count Joseph de

Maistre—Extent and import of the science—The Divine Justice—Power of

the adept—The devil and science—Existence of demons—False idea of the

devil—Conception of the Manicheans—Crimes of sorcerers—The Astral

Light—The so-called Imagination of Nature—Of what is to be understood

hereby—The effects hereof—Definition of magnetism—Agreement between

reason and faith—Jachin and Boaz—Principle of the hierarchy—Religion

of Kabalists—Images of God—Theory of the light—Mysteries of

sexual love—Antagonism of forces—The mythical Pope Joan—The

Kabalah as an explanation and reconciliation of all—Why the Church

condemns Magic—Dogmatic Magic an explanation of the philosophy of

history—Culpable curiosity regarding Magic—Plan of the present work—The

author’s submission to the established order 1

BOOK I

_THE DERIVATIONS OF MAGIC_

CHAPTER I

FABULOUS SOURCES

The Book of Enoch concerning the Fall of the Angels—Meaning of the

Legend—The Book of the Penitence of Adam—The Personality of Enoch—The

Apocalypse of St. Methodius—Children of Seth and of Cain—Rationale

of occultism—Error of Rousseau—Traditions of Jewry—The glory of

Christianity—The _Sepher Yetzirah_, _Zohar_ and _Apocalypse_—Opening

of the Zohar 39

CHAPTER II

MAGIC OF THE MAGI

The true and false Zoroaster—Doctrines of the true

Zoroaster—Transcendental fire-philosophy—Electrical secrets of

Numa—A transcript from Zoroaster on demons and sacrifices—Important

revelations on magnetism—Initiation in Assyria—Wonders performed by

the Assyrians—Du Potet in accord with Zoroaster—Danger incurred by

the unwary—Power of man over animals—Downfall of the priesthood in

Assyria—Magical death of Sardanapalus 53

CHAPTER III

MAGIC IN INDIA

The Indians as descendants of Cain—India the mother of

idolatry—Doctrine of the Gymnosophists—Indian origin of

Gnosticism—Some wise fables of India—Black Magic of the

_Oupnek’hat_—Citation from J. M. Ragon—Indian Grand Secrets—The

English and Indian insurrections 64

CHAPTER IV

HERMETIC MAGIC

The Emerald Table—Other writings of Hermes—Magical interpretation of

the geography of Ancient Egypt—Ministry of Joseph—Sacred alphabet—The

Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo—The Tarot explained by the _Sepher

Yetzirah_—The Tarot of Charles VII—Magical science of Moses 73

CHAPTER V

MAGIC IN GREECE

Fable of the Golden Fleece—Medea and Jason—The five magical

epics—Aeschylus a profaner of the Mysteries—The Orpheus of

legend—Orphic Mysteries—Göetia—The sorcerers of Thessaly—Medea

and Circe 82

CHAPTER VI

MATHEMATICAL MAGIC OF PYTHAGORAS

Pythagoras an heir of the traditions of Numa—Identity of

Pythagoras—His doctrine concerning God—A fine utterance against

anarchy—Golden Verses—Symbols of Pythagoras—His chastity—His

divination—His explanation of miracles—Secret of the interpretation of

dreams—The belief of Pythagoras 92

CHAPTER VII

THE HOLY KABALAH

Origin of the Kabalah—The horror of idolatry in Kabalism—Kabalistic

definition of God—Principles of the Kabalah—The Divine Names—Four

forms of Tetragrammaton—The word which accomplishes all

transmutations—The Keys of Solomon—The chain of spirits—Whether human

spirits return—The world of spirits according to the Zohar—Of spirits

which manifest—Fluidic larvæ—The Great Magical Agent—Obscure

origin of larvæ 101

BOOK II

_FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMAS_

CHAPTER I

PRIMITIVE SYMBOLISM OF HISTORY

Allegory of the Earthly Paradise—The Edenic Pantacle—The Cherub—Folly

of a great mind—Mysteries of Genesis—Children of Cain—Magical secrets

of the Tower of Babel—Belphegor—The mediæval Sabbath—Decadence of

the hierarchy—Philosophy of chance—Doctrine of Plato—An oracle of

Apollo—Rationalism of Aristotle—The Cubic

Stone—Summary of Neoplatonism 115

CHAPTER II

MYSTICISM

Inviolability of magical science—Profane and mystic schools—The

Bacchantes—Materialistic reformers and anarchic mystics—Imbecile

visionaries—Their horror of sages—Tolerance of the true Church—False

miracles—Rites of Black Magic—Barbarous words and unknown

signs—Cause of visions—A theory of hallucinations 125

CHAPTER III

INITIATIONS AND ORDEALS

The Great Work—The four aspects of the Sphinx and the Shield of

Achilles—Allegories of Hercules and Œdipus—The Secret Doctrine

of Plato—Of Plato as Kabalist—Difference between Plato and St.

John—Platonic theosophy—Fatal experiences—Homœpathy practised by the

Greeks—The cavern of Trophonius—Science of Egyptian priests—Lactantius

and the antipodes—The Greek hell—Ministry of suffering—The Table of

Cebes and the poem of Dante—Doctrines of the Phædron—The

burial of the dead—Necromancy 133

CHAPTER IV

THE MAGIC OF PUBLIC WORSHIP

Magnificence of the true Cultus—Orthodox traditions—Dissent of the

profane—Their calumnies against initiates—An allegory concerning

Bacchus—Tyresias and Calchas—The priesthood according to Homer—Oracles

of sibyls—Origin of geomancy and cartomancy 145

CHAPTER V

MYSTERIES OF VIRGINITY

Of Hellenism at Rome—Institution of Vestals—Traditional virtue of

virgin blood—Symbolism of Sacred Fire—Religious aspect of the history

of Lucretia—Honour among Roman women—Mysteries of the _Bona Dea_—Numa

as a hierophant—Ingenious notions of Voltaire on divination—Prophetic

instinct of the masses—Erroneous opinions of Fontenelle

and Kircher on oracles—Religious Calendar of Numa 152

CHAPTER VI

SUPERSTITIONS

Their origin and persistence—Beautiful thought of the Roman pontiff,

St. Gregory—Observation of numbers and of days—Abstinence of the

magi—Opinions of Porphyry—Greek and Roman superstitions—Mythological

data on the secret properties of animals—A passage from

Euripides—Reasons of Pythagorean abstinence—Singular excerpt from

Homer—Presages, dreams, enchantments and fascinations—Magical

whirlpools—Modern phenomena—Olympius and Plotinus 158

CHAPTER VII

MAGICAL MONUMENTS

The Seven Wonders of the world and the seven magical planets—The

Pyramids—Thebes and its seven gates—The pantacle of the sun—The

pantacle of the moon—The pantacle of the conjugal Venus—The pantacles

of Mercury, Jupiter and Mars—The Temple of Solomon—Philosophical

summary of ancient wisdom 166

BOOK III

_DIVINE SYNTHESIS AND REALISATION OF MAGIA

BY THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION_

CHAPTER I

CHRIST ACCUSED OF MAGIC BY THE JEWS

The beginning of the Gospel according to St. John and its

profound meaning—Ezekiel a Kabalist—Special character of

Christianity—Accusations of the Jews against the Saviour—The _Sepher

Toldos Jeshu_—A beautiful legend from the apocryphal gospels—The

Johannites—Burning of magical books at Ephesus—Cessation of

oracles—The great Pan is dead—Transfiguration of natural prodigy into

miracle and of divination into prophecy 171

CHAPTER II

THE WITNESS OF MAGIC TO CHRISTIANITY

Absolute existence of religion—Essential distinction between

science and faith—Puerile objections—Christianity proved by

charity—Condemnation of Magic by the Christian priesthood—Simon the

Magician—His history—His doctrine—His conference with SS. Peter and

Paul—His downfall—His sect continued by Menander 176

CHAPTER III

THE DEVIL

The question considered in the light of faith and science—Satan

and Lucifer—Wisdom of the Church—The devil according to the

initiates of occult science—Of possessions in the gospel—Opinions of

Torreblanca-Astral perversities—The Sabbatic

goat—The false Lucifer 187

CHAPTER IV

THE LAST PAGANS

The eternal miracle of God—Civilising influence of

Christianity—Apollonius of Tyana—His allegorical legend—Julian the

apostate—His evocations—Jamblichus and Maximus of Tyre—Birth of Secret

Societies for the forbidden practices of Magic 193

CHAPTER V

LEGENDS

The legend of St. Cyprian and St. Justin—Magical prayer of St.

Cyprian—The Golden Legend—Apuleius and the Golden Ass—The fable of

Psyche—Curious subtlety of St. Augustine—Philosophy of the Fathers

of the Church 200

CHAPTER VI

SOME KABALISTIC PAINTINGS AND SACRED EMBLEMS

Gnosticism and the primitive Church—Emblems of the catacombs—True

and false Gnostics—Profanation of the Gnosis—Impure and sacrilegious

Rites—Eucharistic sacrilege—The Arch-heretic Marcos—Women and the

priesthood—Montanus and his female prophets—Tertullian—The dualism of

Manes—Danger of evocations—Divagations of Kabalism—Loss

of the Kabalistic Keys 208

CHAPTER VII

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL

Ammonius Saccas—Plotinus—Porphyry—Hypatia—Incautious admissions

of Synesius—Writings of this initiate—More especially his tract on

Dreams—The commentary of Jerome Cardan thereon—Attribution of

the works of St Dionysius to Synesius—Their orthodoxy and their

value 215

BOOK IV

_MAGIC AND CIVILISATION_

CHAPTER I

MAGIC AMONG BARBARIANS

Rome conquered by the Cross—History of Philinnium and Machates—The

Bride of Corinth—Philosophical considerations thereon—Germanic and

Druidic theology—College of the Druids at Autun—Druidic transmigration

of souls—Some Druidic practices 223

CHAPTER II

INFLUENCE of WOMEN

Female influence in early France—Velleda slandered by

Chateaubriand—_Berthe au grand pied_—The fairy Melusine—Saint

Clothilde—The sorceress Fredegonde—The story of Klodswinthe—Fredegonde

and Clovis—Further concerning her history 232

CHAPTER III

THE SALIC LAWS AGAINST SORCERERS

Laws attributed to Pharamond—Explanation of a Talmudic passage by

Rabbi Jechiel—Belief in the immortality of the soul among the Jews—An

ecclesiastical council on sorcery—The rise of Mohammed—The religious

history of Charles Martel—The Reign of Pepin the Short—The Kabalist

Zedekias—His fables concerning elementary spirits—An

epidemic of visions 238

CHAPTER IV

LEGENDS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne a prince of faerie—Charlemagne and Roland—The enchanted

sword and magic horn—The _Enchiridion_ of Leo III—The tradition

therein—The pantacles—The Sabbath—The Free Judges—Their foundation

and purpose—Power of this Tribunal—The fate of Frederick

of Brunswick—Code of the Free Judges—Laws of Charlemagne—Knight

errantry—The cultus of the Blessed Virgin 246

CHAPTER V

MAGICIANS

The pope and empire—The penalty of excommunication—Further concerning

Rabbi Jechiel—The automaton of Albertus Magnus—Albertus and St. Thomas

Aquinas—The legend of the automaton interpreted—Scholasticism and

Aristotelian philosophy—The philosophical stone

and the quintessence 256

CHAPTER VI

SOME FAMOUS PROSECUTIONS

The great religious orders and their power—The Knights Templar—Their

origin—Their secret design—The Christian sect of Johannites—Their

profanation of the history of Christ—Pontiffs of the Johannite

sect—The Johannites and the Templars—Further concerning Templar secret

doctrine—Development of the chivalry—Their projects discovered—Their

suppression—The case of Joan of Arc—The history of Gilles de

Laval 264

CHAPTER VII

SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO THE DEVIL

Apparitions of Satan—Possessions—A philosophy of superstitions—The

crime of Black Magic—Pathological states—The soul of the world—Modern

phenomena—Fourier and M. de Mirville—Baron de Guldenstubbé 281

BOOK V

_THE ADEPTS AND THE PRIESTHOOD_

CHAPTER I

PRIESTS AND POPES ACCUSED OF MAGIC

Inviolable sanctity of the priesthood—Accusations of false

adepts—Groundless charges against Pope Sylvester II—Scandalous

story of Polonus reproduced by Platina—The legend of Pope Joan—Its

derivation from ancient Tarot cards representing Isis crowned with a

tiara—Further concerning Sylvester II—Opinion of Gabriel Naudé—The

Grimoire attributed to Pope Honorius III—The anti-pope Honorius II as

its possible author—An excursus on the content and character of the

work 291

CHAPTER II

APPEARANCE OF THE BOHEMIAN NOMADS

Their entrance into Europe early in the fifteenth century—Their

name of Bohemians or Egyptians—An account of their encampment near

Paris, drawn from an ancient chronicle—A citation from George

Borrow—Researches of M. Vaillant—The Gipsies and the Tarot—A

conclusion on this subject—Communistic Experiment in 1840 306

CHAPTER III

LEGEND AND HISTORY OF RAYMUND LULLY

Story of the _Doctor Illuminatus_ on its mythical side—Raymond Lully

and the Lady Ambrosia—His immortality and liberation therefrom—The

historical personage—Lully as an alchemist—The Rose Nobles—His

philosophical testament—Colleges for the study of languages founded by

his efforts—The Great Art—He appears at the Council of Vienna—Lully a

disciple of the Kabalists—But the tradition in his hands had

become Christian 319

CHAPTER IV

ON CERTAIN ALCHEMISTS

Nicholas Flamel and the book of Abraham the Jew—Mysterious figures

of the work—A tradition concerning Flamel—Bernard Trevisan—Basil

Valentine—John Trithemius—Cornelius Agrippa—The pantacle of

Trithemius—William Postel—Illustrations of his teaching—The story

of Mother Jeanne—The renewal of Postel—An opinion of Father

Desbillons—Paracelsus—His doctrines of occult medicine—Mysteries of

blood—Narrative of Tavernier—The _Philosophia sagax_ of Paracelsus 331

CHAPTER V

SOME FAMOUS SORCERERS AND MAGICIANS

_The Divine Comedy_ of Dante and its Kabalistic analysis—_The

Romance of the Rose_—Luther and anarchical theology—His disputes

with the devil—His sacrilegious marriage—Sorcerers during the

reign Of Henry III—-Visions of Jacques Clément—Mystic symbolism of

the rose—Union of the rose and the cross—The Rosicrucians—Henry

Khunrath—His _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ_—It’s pantacles—Oswaldus

Crollius—Alchemists of the early seventeenth century—A Rosicrucian

manifesto 345

CHAPTER VI

SOME MAGICAL PROSECUTIONS

Introductory remarks—Real crime of sorcerers—Some deplorable

condemnations—The case of Louis Gaufridi—The case of Urbain

Grandier—The nuns of Louviers and some other processes—Interpretation

of certain phenomena—Story of an apparition 360

CHAPTER VII

THE MAGICAL ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY

Its appearance in Europe—Its allegorical and real end—The Legend of

Hiram—Its meaning—Mission of the Rites of Masonry—Its profanations 382

BOOK VI

_MAGIC AND THE REVOLUTION_

CHAPTER I

REMARKABLE AUTHORS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Important discoveries in China—The _Y-Kim_ of Fo-hi—Legend of

its origin—Connection with the Zohar—An example of absolute

philosophy—Opinion of Leibnitz—Emmanuel Swedenborg—His system and its

Kabalistic derivation—The discovery of Mesmer—Its theory and its

great importance—A comparison between Voltaire and Mesmer 391

CHAPTER II

THAUMATURGIC PERSONALITIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY

The Comte de Saint-Germain—Unpublished particulars of his life—The

report of Madame de Genlis—The Order of Saint Jakin—A pretended

initiation—Further concerning the Rosicrucians—An appreciation of

Saint-Germain—His alleged identity with the mysterious Althotas—The

alchemist Lascaris—Count Cagliostro—An agent of the Templars—A

successor of Mesmer—Explanation of his seal and Kabalistic name—His

secret of physical regeneration—His trial by the Inquisition—He

is said to be still alive 400

CHAPTER III

PROPHECIES OF CAZOTTE

The school of Martinists—The supper of Cazotte—The romance of _Le

Diable Amoureux_—Its interpretation according to the Kabalah—Lilith

and Nehamah—Initiation of Cazotte—The Mystic Mountain—Cazotte and

the Revolutionary Tribunal 416

CHAPTER IV

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The reveries of Rousseau and their fatal consequences—The tomb of

Jacques de Molay—The Lodge in Rue Platrière—The doom of Louis XVI—A

genius of massacre—Mademoiselle de Sombreuil—Madame Elizabeth—The

Church of the Jacobins—Vengeance of the Templars—Further concerning

the Apocalypse of St. Methodius—The prophecies of Abbé

Joachim 422

CHAPTER V

PHENOMENA OF MEDIOMANIA

An obscure sect of Johannite mystics—Visions of Loiseaut—Dom Gerle and

Catherine Théot—A visit from Robespierre—The prophecy of Catherine—Her

fate and that of Dom Gerle—The Saviours of Louis XVII—Martin

de Gallardon—Eugène Vintras—Naündorff 427

CHAPTER VI

THE GERMAN ILLUMINATI

The adept Steinert—An account of Eckartshausen—Schroepfer and

Lavater—The spirit Gablidone—His prophecies—Stabs and Napoleon—Carl

Sand and Kotzebue—The Mopses and their mysteries—The magical

drama of Faust 435

CHAPTER VII

EMPIRE AND RESTORATION

Predictions relative to Napoleon—Mademoiselle Lenormand—Etteilla

and cartomancy—Madame Bouche and the Czar Alexander—Madame de

Krudener—Further concerning the Saviours of Louis XVII—Visions

of Martin de Gallardon 443

BOOK VII

_MAGIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY_

CHAPTER I

MAGNETIC MYSTICS AND MATERIALISTS

Infectious follies of Fourier—The dogma of hell—An evocation in the

Church of Notre Dame—Lesser prophets and divinities—Ganneau,

Auguste Comte and Wronski—Sale of the Absolute 453

CHAPTER II

HALLUCINATIONS

Yet again concerning the Saviours of Louis XVII—Singular hallucination

of Eugène Vintras—His prophecies and pretended miracles—The sect of

Vintras—Its condemnation by Gregory XVI—Pontificate of Vintras—His

dreams and visions 461

CHAPTER III

MESMERISTS AND SOMNAMBULISTS

The Church and the abuse of somnambulism—Baron Du Potet—His secret

work on Magic—Table-turning—A table burnt for heresy—Experiences

of Victor Hennequin—A magical melodrama 471

CHAPTER IV

THE FANTASTIC SIDE OF MAGICAL LITERATURE

Alphonse Esquiros invents a romanesque Magic—Henri Delaage

continues the work—His gifts of enchantment—His orthodoxy—Le Comte

D’Ourches—Baron de Guldenstubbé—His miraculous writings—Their

explanation—Exhumation of a fakir—History of a vampire—The

cartomancist Edmond 477

CHAPTER V

SOME PRIVATE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WRITER

The author is presented by the magician Alphonse Esquiros to the

divinity Ganneau—Eccentric doctrines of the _Mapah_—Another Louis

XVII—A fatal result of this visit—Secret cause of the Revolution of

1848—The wife of Ganneau 495

CHAPTER VI

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

A synthesis in summary—Recapitulation of principles—The search after

the absolute 500

CHAPTER VII

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The enigma of the sphinx and its solution—Paradoxical questions and

their answers—Knowledge and faith—The communion of faith—The temporal

power of the pope—The science of moral equilibrium—Consequences of its

recognition—A citation from the Blessed Vincent de Lerins—Another from

Comte Joseph de Maistre—An axiom of St. Thomas Aquinas—The liberation

of Magic—Purpose of this work 503

APPENDIX 526

INDEX 529

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE

I. Portrait of Éliphas Lévi in the Robe of a Magus _Frontispiece_

FACING

PAGE

II. Portrait of Éliphas Lévi taken after death xxii

III. The Pentagram of the Absolute 2

IV. The Great Symbol of Solomon, reconstructed according to

the Zohar 20

V. The Magical Head of the Zohar 40

VI. The Great Kabalistic Symbol of the Zohar 50

VII. The Mystery of Universal Equilibrium, according to Indian

and Japanese Mythology, together with the Pantomorphic

lynx, or Twenty-First Primitive Egyptian Tarot Key 64

VIII. The Bembine Tablet 78

IX. Pantacle of Kabalistic Letters, being the Key of the Tarot,

Sepher Yetzirah and the Zohar 102

X. The Seal of Cagliostro, Seal of the Samian Juno, Apocalyptic

Seal, Twelve Seals of the Cubic Stone in Masonry, with

the Twenty-First Tarot Key in the centre of all 120

XI. Egyptian Symbols of Typhon, illustrating Göetia and

Necromancy. Typhon is depicted performing the renewal

of the empire of darkness. From the Temple of Hermoutis.

The smaller figures are from the Zodiac of Esne and the

top is a _bas relief_ in the same temple 128

XII. The Seven Wonders of the World 166

XIII. A Public Disputation between St. Peter and St. Paul on the

one side and Simon the Magician on the other. Ascent

and fall of Simon. From an engraving of the fifteenth

century 184

XIV. Hermetic Magic. Reproduced from an ancient Manuscript 224

XV. The Philosophical Cross, or plan of the Third Temple, as

prophesied by Ezekiel and planned in the building

scheme of the Knights Templar 264

XVI. Two occult Seals are shewn in the left compartment; the

first represents the Great Work; the second is that of

Black Magic. Both are from the _Grimoire of Honorius_.

The right hand compartment contains primitive Egyptian

Tarots—the 2 of Cups at the top and beneath this,

specimens of the Ace of Cups 298

XVII. The Seven Planets and their Genii, according to the Magic

of Paracelsus 340

XVIII. The Great Hermetic Arcanum, according to Basil Valentine 394

XIX. A general plan of Kabalistic Doctrine 454

XX. Apocalyptic Key: the Seven Seals of St. John 502

THE HISTORY OF MAGIC

INTRODUCTION

Magic has been confounded too long with the jugglery of mountebanks,

the hallucinations of disordered minds and the crimes of certain

unusual malefactors. There are otherwise many who would promptly

explain Magic as the art of producing effects in the absence of causes;

and on the strength of such a definition it will be said by ordinary

people—with the good sense which characterises the ordinary, in the

midst of much injustice—that Magic is an absurdity. But it can have

no analogy in fact with the descriptions of those who know nothing of

the subject; furthermore, it is not to be represented as this or that

by any person whomsoever: it is that which it is, drawing from itself

only, even as mathematics do, for it is the exact and absolute science

of Nature and her laws.

Magic is the science of the ancient magi; and the Christian religion,

which silenced the counterfeit oracles and put a stop to the illusions

of false gods, does, this notwithstanding, revere those mystic kings

who came from the East, led by a star, to adore the Saviour of the

world in His cradle. They are elevated by tradition to the rank of

kings, because magical initiation constitutes a true royalty; because

also the great art of the magi is characterised by all adepts as

the Royal Art, as the Holy Kingdom—_Sanctum Regnum_. The star which

conducted the pilgrims is the same Burning Star which is met with in

all initiations. For alchemists it is the sign of the quintessence,

for magicians it is the Great Arcanum, for Kabalists the sacred

pentagram. Our design is to prove that the study of this pentagram

did itself lead the magi to a knowledge of that New Name which was to

be exalted above all names and to bend the knees of all beings who

were capable of adoration. Magic, therefore, combines in a single

science that which is most certain in philosophy, which is eternal

and infallible in religion. It reconciles perfectly and incontestably

those two terms, so opposed on the first view—faith and reason, science

and belief, authority and liberty. It furnishes the human mind with

an instrument of philosophical and religious certitude as exact as

mathematics, and even accounting for the infallibility of mathematics

themselves.

An Absolute exists therefore in the realms of understanding and faith.

The lights of human intelligence have not been left by the Supreme

Reason to waver at hazard. There is an incontestable truth; there is an

infallible method of knowing that truth; while those who attain this

knowledge, and adopt it as a rule of life, can endow their will with a

sovereign power which can make them masters of all inferior things, all

wandering spirits, or, in other words, arbiters and kings of the world.

If such be the case, how comes it that so exalted a science is still

unrecognised? How is it possible to assume that so bright a sun is

hidden in a sky so dark? The transcendental science has been known

always, but only to the flowers of intelligence, who have understood

the necessity of silence and patience. Should a skilful surgeon open at

midnight the eyes of a man born blind, it would still be impossible to

make him realise the nature or existence of daylight till morning came.

Science has its nights and its mornings, because the life which it

communicates to the world of mind is characterised by regular modes of

motion and progressive phases. It is the same with truths as it is

with radiations of light. Nothing which is hidden is lost, but at the

same time nothing that is found is absolutely new. The seal of eternity

is affixed by God to that science which is the reflection of His glory.

[Illustration: THE PENTAGRAM OF THE ABSOLUTE]

The transcendental science, the absolute science is assuredly Magic,

though the affirmation may seem utterly paradoxical to those who

have never questioned the infallibility of Voltaire—that marvellous

smatterer who thought that he knew so much because he never missed an

opportunity for laughter instead of learning. Magic was the science of

Abraham and Orpheus, of Confucius and Zoroaster, and it was magical

doctrines which were graven on tables of stone by Enoch and by

Trismegistus. Moses purified and re-veiled them—this being the sense of

the word reveal. The new disguise which he gave them was that of the

Holy Kabalah—that exclusive heritage of Israel and inviolable secret of

its priests.[1] The mysteries of Eleusis and of Thebes preserved among

the Gentiles some of its symbols, but in a debased form, and the mystic

key was lost amidst the apparatus of an ever-increasing superstition.

Jerusalem, murderer of its prophets and prostituted over and over again

to false Assyrian and Babylonian gods, ended by losing in its turn the

Sacred Word, when a Saviour, declared to the magi by the holy star

of initiation, came to rend the threadbare veil of the old temple,

to endow the Church with a new network of legends and symbols—ever

concealing from the profane and always preserving for the elect that

truth which is the same for ever.

It is this that the erudite and ill-starred Dupuis should have found on

Indian planispheres and in tables of Denderah; he would not have ended

by rejecting the truly catholic or universal and eternal religion in

the presence of the unanimous affirmation of all Nature, as well as

all monuments of science throughout the ages.[2] It was the memory of

this scientific and religious absolute, of this doctrine summarised

in a word, of this word alternately lost and recovered, which was

transmitted to the elect of all antique initiations. Whether preserved

or profaned in the celebrated Order of the Temple, it was this same

memory handed on to secret associations of Rosicrucians, Illuminati

and Freemasons which gave a meaning to their strange rites, to their

less or more conventional signs, and a justification above all to their

devotion in common, as well as a clue to their power.

That profanation has befallen the doctrines and mysteries of Magic we

have no intention to deny; repeated from age to age, the misuse itself

has been a great and terrible lesson for those who made secret things

unwisely known. The Gnostics caused the Gnosis to be prohibited by

Christians, and the official sanctuary was closed to high initiation.

The hierarchy of knowledge was thus compromised by the intervention

of usurping ignorance, while the disorders within the sanctuary were

reproduced in the state, for, willingly or otherwise, the king always

depends from the priest, and it is towards the eternal _adytum_ of

divine instruction that earthly powers will ever look for consecration

and for energy to insure their permanence.

The key of science has been thrown to children; as might have been

expected, it is now, therefore, mislaid and practically lost.

This notwithstanding, a man of high intuitions and great moral

courage, Count Joseph de Maistre, who was also a resolute catholic,

acknowledging that the world was void of religion and could not so

remain, turned his eyes instinctively towards the last sanctuaries

of occultism and called, with heartfelt prayers, for that day when

the natural affinity which subsists between science and faith should

combine them in the mind of a single man of genius. “This will be

grand,” said he; “it will finish that eighteenth century which is still

with us.... We shall talk then of our present stupidity as we now

dilate on the barbarism of the Middle Ages.”

The prediction of Count Joseph de Maistre is in course of realisation;

the alliance of science and faith, accomplished long since, is here in

fine made manifest, though not by a man of genius. Genius is not needed

to see the sun, and, moreover, it has never demonstrated anything

but its rare greatness and its lights inaccessible to the crowd. The

grand truth demands only to be found, when the simplest will be able

to comprehend it and to prove it also at need. At the same time that

truth will never become vulgar, because it is hierarchic and because

anarchy alone humours the bias of the crowd. The masses are not in

need of absolute truths; were it otherwise, progress would be arrested

and life would cease in humanity; the ebb and flow of contrary ideas,

the clash of opinions, the passions of the time, ever impelled by

its dreams, are necessary to the intellectual growth of peoples. The

masses know it full well, and hence they desert so readily the chair of

doctors to collect about the rostrum of mountebanks. Some even who are

assumed to be concerned in philosophy, and that perhaps especially, too

often resemble the children playing at charades, who hasten to turn out

those who know the answer already, lest the game should be spoiled by

depriving the puzzle of the questions of all its interest.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” has been said

by Eternal Wisdom. Purity of heart therefore purifies intelligence,

and rectitude of will makes for precision in understanding. Whosoever

prefers truth and justice before all things shall have justice and

truth for his reward, because supreme Providence has endowed us with

freedom in order that we may attain life; and very truth, all its

exactitude notwithstanding, intervenes only with mildness, never does

outrage to tardiness or violence to the errors of our will when it is

beguiled by the allurements of falsehood.

It remains, however, according to Bossuet, that antecedent to anything

which may please or repel our senses, there is a truth, and it is by

this that our conduct should be governed, not by our appetites. The

Kingdom of Heaven is not the empire of caprice, either in respect of

man or God. “A thing is not just because it is willed by God,” said St.

Thomas, “but God wills it because it is just.” The Divine Balance rules

and necessitates eternal mathematics. “God has made all things with

number, weight and measure”—here it is the Bible speaking.[3] Measure

an angle of creation, make a proportionally progressive multiplication,

and all infinity shall multiply its circles, peopled by universes,

passing in proportional segments between the extending symbolical arms

of your compass. Suppose now that, from whatever point of the infinite

above you, a hand holds another compass or square, then the lines of

the celestial triangle will meet of necessity those of the compass of

science and will form therewith the mysterious star of Solomon.[4]

“With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again,” says

the Gospel. God does not strive with man that He may crush man by His

grandeur, and He never places unequal weights in His balance. When

He would test the strength of Jacob, He assumes the form of man; the

patriarch withstands the onset through an entire night; at the end

there is a blessing for the conquered and, in addition to the glory of

having sustained such a struggle, he is given the national title of

Israel, being a name which signifies—Strong against God.[5]

We have heard Christians more zealous than instructed hazarding a

strange explanation of the dogma concerning eternal punishment by

suggesting that God may avenge infinitely an offence which itself

is finite, because if the offender is limited the grandeur of the

offended being is not. An emperor of the world might, on the strength

of a similar pretext, sentence to death some unreasoning child who

had soiled accidentally the hem of his purple. Far otherwise are the

prerogatives of greatness, and St. Augustine understood them better

when he said that “God is patient because He is eternal.” In God all

is justice, seeing that all is goodness; He never forgives after the

manner of men, for He is never angered like them; but evil being, by

its nature, incompatible with good, as night is with day, as discord

is with harmony, and the liberty of man being furthermore inviolable,

all error is expiated and all evil punished by suffering proportioned

thereto. It is vain to invoke the help of Jupiter when our cart is

stuck in the mud; unless we take pick and shovel, like the waggoner in

the fable, Heaven will not draw us out of the rut. Help yourself and

God will help you. In such a reasonable and wholly philosophical way

is explained the possible and necessary eternity of punishment, with

still a narrow way open for man to escape therefrom—being that of toil

and repentance.[6]

It is by conformity with the rules of eternal power that man may unite

himself to the creative energy and become creator and preserver in his

turn. God has not limited narrowly the number of rounds on Jacob’s

ladder of light. Whatsoever Nature has constituted inferior to man

is thereby to him made subject: it is for man to extend his domain

in virtue of continual ascent. Length and even perpetuity of life,

the field of air and its storms, the earth and its metallic veins,

light and its wondrous illusions, darkness and the dreams thereof,

death and its ghosts—all these do therefore obey the royal sceptre

of the magi, the shepherd’s staff of Jacob and the terrible wand of

Moses. The adept becomes king of the elements, transmuter of metals,

interpreter of visions, controller of oracles, master of life in fine,

according to the mathematical order of Nature and conformably to the

will of the Supreme Intelligence. This is Magic in all its glory. But

is there anyone who in these days will dare to give credence to such

words? The answer is—those who will study loyally and attain knowledge

frankly. We make no attempt to conceal truth under the veil of parables

or hieroglyphical signs; the time has come when everything should

be told, and we propose to tell everything. It is our intention, in

short, to unveil that ever secret science which, as we have indicated,

is hidden behind the shadows of ancient mysteries, which the Gnostics

betrayed clumsily, or rather disfigured unworthily, which is recognised

dimly under the darkness shrouding the pretended crimes of Templars,

which is met with once again beneath the now impenetrable enigmas of

High-Grade Masonic Rites. We purpose further to bring into open day the

fantastic King of the Sabbath, to expose the very roots of Black Magic

and its frightful realities, long since surrendered to the derision of

the grand-children of Voltaire.

For a great number of readers Magic is the science of the devil—even as

the science of light is identified with that of darkness. We confess

boldly at the outset that we are not in terror of the devil. “My fear

is for those who fear him,” said St. Teresa. But we testify also that

he does not prompt our laughter and that the ridicule of which he is

often the object seems to us exceedingly misplaced. However this may

be, it is our intention to bring him before the light of science.

But the devil and science—the apposition of two names so strangely

incongruous—must seem to have disclosed the whole intent in view. If

the mystic personification of darkness be thus dragged into light,

is it not to annihilate the phantom of falsehood in the presence of

truth? Is it not to dispel in the day all formless monsters of the

night? Superficial persons will think so and will condemn without

hearing. Ill-instructed Christians will conclude that we are sapping

the fundamental dogma of their ethics by decrying hell; and others will

question the utility of combating error in which, as they imagine,

no one believes longer. It is, therefore, important to enunciate our

object clearly and establish our principles solidly.

We say, therefore, to Christians that the author of this book is a

Christian like yourselves. His faith is that of a catholic strongly

and deeply convinced; for this reason he does not come forward to deny

dogmas, but to combat impiety under its most pernicious forms, which

are those of false belief and superstition. He comes to drag from the

darkness the black successor of Ahriman, in order to expose in broad

day his colossal impotence and redoubtable misery. He comes to make

subject the age-long problem of evil to the solutions of science, to

uncrown the king of hell and to bow down his head at the foot of the

cross. Is not virginal and maternal science—that science of which Mary

is the sweet and luminous image—destined like her to crush the head of

the old serpent?

The author, on the other hand, would say to pretended philosophy: Why

seek to deny that which you cannot understand? Is not the unbelief

which affirms in the face of the unknown more precipitate and less

consoling than faith? Does the dreadful form of personified evil only

prompt you to smile? Hear you not the ceaseless sobbing of humanity

which writhes and weeps in the crushing folds of the monster? Have you

never heard the atrocious laugh of the evil-doer who is persecuting

the just man? Have you never experienced in yourselves the opening of

those infernal deeps which the genius of perversity furrows in every

soul? Moral evil exists—such is the unhappy truth; it reigns in certain

spirits; it incarnates in certain men; it is therefore personified, and

thus demons exist; but the most wicked of these demons is Satan. More

than this I do not ask you to admit, and it will be difficult for you

to grant me less.

Let it be otherwise and clearly understood that science and faith

render mutual support to one another only in so far as their respective

realms remain inviolably distinct. What is it that we believe? That

which we do not know absolutely, though we may yearn for it with all

our strength. The object of faith is not more than an indispensable

hypothesis for science; the things which are in the domain of knowledge

must never be judged by the processes of faith, nor, conversely, the

things of faith according to the measures of science. The end of faith

is not scientifically debatable. “I believe because it is absurd,”

said Tertullian; and this utterance—paradoxical on the surface as it

is—belongs to the highest reason. As a fact, beyond all that we can

suppose rationally there is an infinite towards which we aspire with

unquenchable thirst, and it eludes even our dreams. But is not the

infinite itself an absurdity for our finite appreciation? We feel all

the same that it is; the infinite invades us, overflows us, renders us

dizzy at its abysses and crushes us by its awful height.

Scientifically probable hypotheses are one and all the last half-lights

or shadows of science; faith begins where reason falls exhausted.

Beyond human reason there is that Reason which is Divine—for my

weakness a supreme absurdity, but an infinite absurdity which confounds

me, and in which I believe.

The good alone is infinite; evil is not; and hence if God be the

eternal object of faith, then the devil belongs to science. In which

of the catholic creeds is there any question concerning him? Would it

not be blasphemy to say that we believe in him? In Holy Scripture he is

named but not defined. Genesis makes no allusion to a reputed revolt

of angels; it ascribes the fall of Adam to the serpent, as to the most

subtle and dangerous of living beings. We are acquainted with Christian

tradition on this subject; but if that tradition is explicable by one

of the greatest and most diffused allegories of science, what can such

solution signify to the faith which aspires only to God, which despises

the pomps and works of Lucifer?

Lucifer—Light-Bearer—how strange a name, attributed to the spirit of

darkness! Is it he who carries the light and yet blinds feeble souls?

The answer is yes, unquestionably; for traditions are full of divine

disclosures and inspirations. “Satan himself is transformed into an

angel of light,” says St. Paul. And Christ Himself said: “I beheld

Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” So also the prophet Isaiah:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.”

Lucifer is then a fallen star—a meteor which is on fire always, which

burns when it enlightens no longer. But is this Lucifer a person or a

force, an angel or a strayed thunderbolt? Tradition supposes that it

is an angel, but the Psalmist says: “Who maketh his angels spirits;

his ministers a flaming fire.” The word angel is applied in the Bible

to all messengers of God—emissaries or new creations, revealers or

scourges, radiant spirits or brilliant objects. The shafts of fire

which the Most High darts through the clouds are angels of His wrath,

and such figurative language is familiar to all readers of eastern

poetry.

Having been the world’s terror through the period of the middle ages,

the devil has become its mockery.[7] Heir to the monstrous forms of all

false gods cast down successively from their thrones, the grotesque

scarecrow has turned into a mere bugbear through very deformity and

hideousness. Yet observe as to this that those only dare to laugh

at the devil who know not the fear of God. Can it be that for many

diseased imaginations he is God’s own shadow, or is he not often the

idol of degenerate souls who only understand supernatural power as the

exercise of cruelty with impunity?

But it is important to ascertain whether the notion of this evil

power can be reconciled with that of God—in a word, whether the devil

exists, and in such case what he is. There is no longer any question of

superstition or of ridiculous invention; it is a question of religion

alone and hence of the whole future, with all the interests, of

humanity.

Strange reasoners indeed are we: we call ourselves strong-minded when

we are indifferent to everything except material advantages, as, for

example, money; and we leave to their own devices the ideas which are

mothers of opinions and may, or at least can, by their sudden veering,

upset all fortunes. A conquest of science is much more important than

the discovery of a gold mine. Given science, gold is utilised in the

service of life; given ignorance, wealth furnishes only destroying

weapons.

For the rest, it is to be understood absolutely that our scientific

revelations pause in the presence of faith, that—as Christian and

Catholic—our work is submitted entirely to the supreme judgment of the

Church. This said, to those who question the existence of a devil,

we would point out that whatsoever has a name exists; speech may be

uttered in vain, but in itself it cannot be vain, and it has a meaning

invariably. The Word is never void, and if it be written that it is in

God, as also that it is God, this is because it is the expression and

the proof of being and of truth. The devil is named and personified in

the Gospel, which is the Word of truth; he exists therefore and can be

considered as a person. But here it is the Christian who defers: let

science or reason speak; these two are one.[8]

Evil exists; it is impossible to doubt it; we can work good or evil.

There are beings who work evil knowingly and willingly. The spirit

which animates these beings and prompts them to do ill is bewrayed,

turned aside from the right road, and thrown across the path of good as

an obstacle; this is the precise meaning of the Greek word _diabolos_,

which we render as devil. The spirits who love and perform evil are

accidentally bad. There is therefore a devil who is the spirit of

error, wilful ignorance, vertigo; there are beings under his obedience

who are his envoys, emissaries, angels; and it is for this reason

that the Gospel speaks of an eternal fire which is prepared, and in

a sense predestined, for the devil and his angels. These words are

themselves a revelation, so let us search their meaning, giving, in

the first place, a concise definition of evil. Evil is the absence of

rectitude in being. Moral evil is falsehood in action, as the lie is

a crime in speech. Injustice is of the essence of lying, and every

lie is an injustice. When that which we utter is just, there is no

falsity. When that which we do is equitable and true in mode, there is

no sin. Injustice is the death of moral being, as lying is the poison

of intelligence. The false spirit is therefore a spirit of death.

Those who hearken to him become his dupes and are by him poisoned. But

if we had to take his absolute personification seriously, he would

be himself absolutely dead and absolutely deceived, which means that

the affirmation of his existence must imply a patent contradiction.

Jesus said that the devil is a liar like his father. Who then is the

father of the devil? Whosoever gives him a personal existence by living

in accordance with his inspirations; the man who diabolises himself

is the father of the incarnate spirit of evil. But there is a rash,

impious and monstrous conception, traditional like the pride of the

Pharisees, and in fine there is a hybrid creation which armed the

paltry philosophy of the eighteenth century with an apparent defence.

It is the false Lucifer of the heterodox legend—that angel proud enough

to think that he was God, brave enough to buy independence at the

price of eternal torment, beautiful enough to worship himself in the

plenary Divine Light; strong enough to reign still in darkness and in

dole and to make a throne of his inextinguishable fire. It is the Satan

of the heretical and republican Milton, the pretended hero of black

eternities, calumniated by deformity, bedecked with horns and talons

which would better become his implacable tormentor. It is the devil who

is king of evil, as if evil were a kingdom, who is more intelligent

than the men of genius that fear his wiles. It is (_a_) that black

light, that darkness with eyes, that power which God has not willed but

which no fallen creature could create; (_b_) that prince of anarchy

served by a hierarchy of pure spirits;[9] (_c_) that exile of God who

on earth seems, like Him, everywhere, but is more tangible, is more

for the majority in evidence, and is served better than God himself;

(_d_) that conquered one, to whom the victor gives his children that

he may devour them; (_e_) that artificer of sins of the flesh, to whom

flesh is nothing, and who therefore can be nothing to flesh, unless

indeed he be its creator and master, like God; (_f_) that immense,

realised, personified and eternal lie; (_g_) that death which cannot

die; (_h_) that blasphemy which the Word of God will never silence;

(_i_) that poisoner of souls whom God tolerates by a contradiction of

His omnipotence or preserves as the Roman emperors guarded Locusta

among the trophies of their reign; (_k_) that executed criminal, living

still to curse his Judge and still have a cause against him, since he

will never repent; (_l_) that monster accepted as executioner by the

Sovereign Power, and who, according to the forcible expression of an

old catholic writer, may term God the God of the devil by describing

himself as a devil of God.

Such is the irreligious phantom which blasphemes religion. Away with

this idol which hides our Saviour. Down with the tyrant of falsehood,

the black god of Manicheans, the Ahriman of old idolaters. Live God and

His Word incarnate, who saw Satan fall from heaven. And live Mary, the

Divine Mother, who crushed the head of the infernal serpent.

So cry with one voice the traditions of saints, and so cry faithful

hearts. The attribution of any greatness whatsoever to a fallen spirit

is a slander on Divinity; the ascription of any royalty whatsoever

to the rebel spirit is to encourage revolt and be guilty, at least

in thought, of that crime which the horror of the middle ages termed

sorcery. For all the offences visited with death on the old sorcerers

were real crimes and were indeed the greatest of all. They stole fire

from heaven, like Prometheus; they rode winged dragons and the flying

serpent, like Medea; they poisoned the breathable air, like the shadow

of the manchineel tree; they profaned sacred things and even used the

body of the Lord in works of destruction and malevolence.

How is all this possible? Because there is a composite agent, a natural

and divine agent, at once corporeal and spiritual, an universal

plastic mediator, a common receptacle for vibrations of movement and

images of form, a fluid and a force which may be called, in a sense

at least, the imagination of Nature. By the mediation of this force

every nervous apparatus is in secret communication together; hence come

sympathy and antipathy, hence dreams, hence the phenomena of second

sight and extra-natural vision. This universal agent of Nature’s works

is the _Od_ of the Jews and of Reichenbach, the Astral Light of the

Martinists,[10] which denomination we prefer as the more explicit.

The existence and possible employment of this force constitute the

great secret of Practical Magic; it is the Wand of Thaumaturgy and the

Key of Black Magic. It is the Edenic serpent who transmitted to Eve

the seductions of a fallen angel. The Astral Light warms, illuminates,

magnetises, attracts, repels, vivifies, destroys, coagulates,

separates, breaks and conjoins everything, under the impetus of

powerful wills. God created it on the first day, when He said: “Let

there be light.” This force of itself is blind but is directed by

_Egregores_, that is, by chiefs of souls, or, in other words, by

energetic and active spirits.[11]

Herein is the complete explanatory theory of prodigies and miracles.

How, as a fact, could good and bad alike compel Nature to reveal her

hidden forces, how could there be divine and diabolical miracles, how

could the reprobate and bewrayed spirit have more power in certain

ways and cases than the just spirit, which is in truth so powerful in

simplicity and wisdom, unless we postulate an instrument which all can

use, upon certain conditions, but some for the great good and others

for the great evil?

Pharaoh’s magicians accomplished at first the same miracles as Moses.

The instrument which they used was therefore the same; the inspiration

alone differed; when they confessed themselves conquered, they

proclaimed that, for them, human powers had reached their limit, and

that there must be something superhuman in Moses.[12] This took place

in Egypt, that mother of magical initiations, that land where it was

all occult science, hierarchic and sacred instruction. Was it, however,

more difficult to make flies appear than frogs? No, assuredly; but

the magicians knew that the fluidic projection by which the eyes are

biologised cannot proceed beyond certain bounds, and these had been

passed already by Moses.[13]

A particular phenomenon occurs when the brain is congested or

overcharged by Astral Light; sight is turned inward, instead of

outward; night falls on the external and real world, while fantastic

brilliance shines on the world of dreams; even the physical eyes

experience a slight quivering and turn up inside the lids. The soul

then perceives by means of images the reflection of its impressions and

thoughts. This is to say that the analogy subsisting between idea and

form attracts in the Astral Light a reflection representing that form,

configuration being the essence of the vital light; it is the universal

imagination, of which each of us appropriates a lesser or greater part

according to our grade of sensibility and memory. Therein is the source

of all apparitions, all extraordinary visions and all the intuitive

phenomena peculiar to madness or ecstasy.

The appropriation or assimilation of the light by clairvoyant

sensibility is one of the greatest phenomena which can be studied by

science. It may be understood in a day to come that seeing is actually

speaking and that the consciousness of light is a twilight of eternal

life in being. The word of God Himself, Who creates light, and is

uttered by all intelligence that conceives of forms and seeks to

visualise them. “Let there be light.” Light in the mode of brightness

exists only for eyes which look thereon, and the soul enamoured with

the pageant of universal beauty, and fixing its attention on that

luminous script of the endless book which is called things manifest,

seems to cry on its own part, as God at the dawn of the first day, the

sublime and creative words: _Fiat lux_.

We do not all see with the same eyes, and creation is not for all

the same in colour and form. Our brain is a book printed within and

without, and with the smallest degree of excitement, the writing

becomes blurred, as occurs continually in cases of intoxication

and madness. Dream then triumphs over real life and plunges reason

in a sleep which knows no waking. This condition of hallucination

has its degrees; all passions are intoxications; all enthusiasms

are comparative and graduated manias. The lover sees only infinite

perfections encompassing that object by which he is fascinated. But,

unhappy infatuation of voluptuaries, to-morrow this odour of wine which

allures him will become a repugnant reminiscence, causing a thousand

loathings and a thousand disgusts.

To understand the use of this force, but never to be obsessed and never

overcome thereby, is to trample on the serpent’s head, and it is this

which we learn from the Magic of Light; in such secrets are contained

all mysteries of magnetism, which name can indeed be applied to the

whole practical part of antique Transcendental Magic. Magnetism is

the wand of miracles, but it is this for initiates only; for rash and

uninstructed people, who would sport with it or make it subserve their

passions, it is as dangerous as that consuming glory which, according

to the allegorical fable, destroyed the too ambitious Semele in the

embraces of Jupiter.

One of the great benefits of magnetism is that it demonstrates by

incontestable facts the spirituality, unity and immortality of the

soul; and these things once made certain, God is manifested to all

intelligences and all hearts. Thereafter, from the belief in God and

from the harmonies of creation, we are led to that great religious

harmony which does not exist outside the miraculous and lawful

hierarchy of the Catholic Church, for this alone has preserved all

traditions of science and faith.

[Illustration: THE GREAT SYMBOL OF SOLOMON]

The primal tradition of the one and only revelation has been preserved

under the name of Kabalah by the priesthood of Israel. Kabalistic

doctrine, which is that of Transcendental Magic, is contained in the

_Sepher Yetzirah_, the _Zohar_ and the _Talmud_.[14] According to

this doctrine, the absolute is Being, and therein is the Word, which

expresses the reason of Being and of life. The principle therefore is

that Being is being, אהיה אשד אהיה. In the beginning the Word was,

which means that it is, has been and shall be; and this is reason

which speaks. In the beginning was the Word. The Word is the reason of

belief, and therein also is the expression of that faith which gives

life to science. The Word, or Logos, is the wellspring of logic. Jesus

is the Incarnate Word. The concord of reason with faith, of science

with belief, of authority with liberty, has become in these modern days

the real enigma of the sphinx. Coincidentally with this great problem

there has come forward that which concerns the respective rights of

man and woman. This was inevitable, for between the several terms of

a great and supreme question, there is a constant analogy, and the

difficulties, like the correspondences, are invariably the same.

The loosening of this Gordian knot of philosophy and modern politics

is rendered apparently paradoxical, because in order to effect an

agreement between the terms of the required equation, there is always

a tendency to confuse the one with the other. If there is anything

that deserves to be called supreme absurdity, it is to inquire how

faith becomes a reason, reason a belief and liberty an authority; or

reciprocally, how the woman becomes a man and the man a woman. The

definitions themselves intervene against such confusion, and it is by

maintaining a perfect distinction between the terms, and so only, that

we can bring them into agreement. The perfect and eternal distinction

between the two primal terms of the creative syllogism, for the

demonstration of their harmony in virtue of the analogy of opposites,

is the second great principle of that occult philosophy veiled under

the name of Kabalah and indicated by all sacred hieroglyphics of the

old sanctuaries, as by the rites, even now understood so little, of

ancient and modern Masonry.

We read in Scripture that Solomon erected two brazen columns before

the door of his Temple, one of them being called _Jachin_ and the

other _Boaz_, meaning the strong and the weak.[15] These two pillars

represented man and woman, reason and faith, power and liberty, Cain

and Abel, right and duty. They were pillars of the intellectual and

moral world, the monumental hieroglyphic of the antinomy inevitable to

the grand law of creation. The meaning is that every force postulates

a resistance on which it can work, every light a shadow as its foil,

every convex a concave, every influx a receptacle, every reign a

kingdom, every sovereign a people, every workman a first matter, every

conqueror something to overcome. Affirmation rests on negation, the

strong can only triumph because of weakness, the aristocracy cannot

be manifested except by rising above the people. For the weak to

become strong, for the people to acquire an aristocratic position,

is a question of transformation and of progress, but it is without

prejudice to the first principles; the weak will be ever the weak and

it matters nothing if they are not always the same persons. The people

in like manner will ever remain the people, the mass which is ruled

and is not capable of ruling. In the vast army of inferiors, every

personal emancipation is an automatic desertion, which, happily, is

imperceptible because it is replaced, also automatically; a king-nation

or a people of kings would presuppose the slavery of the world and

anarchy in a single city, outside all discipline, as at Rome in the

days of its greatest glory. A nation of sovereigns would be inevitably

as anarchic as a class of experts or of scholars who deemed that they

were masters; there would be none to listen; all would dogmatise and

all give orders at once.

The radical emancipation of womanhood falls within the same category.

If, integrally and radically, the woman leaves the passive and enters

the active condition, she abdicates her sex and becomes man, or

rather, as such a transformation is impossible physically, she attains

affirmation by a double negation, placing herself outside both sexes,

like a sterile and monstrous androgyne. These are strict consequences

of the great Kabalistic dogma respecting that distinction of contraries

which reaches harmony by the analogy of their proportions. This

dogma once recognised, and the application of its results being made

universally by the law of analogies, will mean a discovery of the

greatest secrets concerning maternal sympathy and antipathy; it will

mean also a discovery of the science of government in things political,

in marriage, in all branches of occult medicine, whether magnetism,

homœopathy, or moral influence. Moreover, and as it is intended to

explain, the law of equilibrium in analogy leads to the discovery of an

universal agent which was the Grand Secret of alchemists and magicians

in the middle ages. It has been said that this agent is a light of life

by which animated beings are rendered magnetic, electricity being only

its accident and transient perturbation, so to speak. The practice

of that marvellous Kabalah to which we shall turn shortly, for the

satisfaction of those who look, in the secret sciences, after emotions

rather than wise teachings, reposes entirely in the knowledge and use

of this agent.

The religion of the Kabalists is at once hypothesis and certitude,

for it proceeds from known to unknown by the help of analogy. They

recognise religion as a need of humanity, as an evident and necessary

fact, and it is this alone which for them is divine, permanent and

universal revelation. They dispute about nothing which is, but

they provide the reason for everything. So also their doctrine, by

distinguishing clearly the line of demarcation which must exist for

ever between science and faith, provides a basis for faith in the

highest reason, guaranteeing its incontestable and permanent duration.

After this come the popular forms of doctrine, which alone can vary

and alone destroy one another; the Kabalist is not only undisturbed by

trivialities of this kind, but can provide on the spot a reason for the

most astonishing formulæ. It follows that his prayer can be joined to

that of humanity at large, to direct it by illustrations from science

and reason and draw it into orthodox channels. If Mary be mentioned,

he will revere the realisation in her of all that is divine in the

dreams of innocence, all that is adorable in the sacred enthusiasm of

every maternal heart. It is not he who will refuse flowers to adorn

the altars of the Mother of God, or white banners for her chapels, or

even tears for her ingenuous legends. It is not he who will mock at the

new-born God weeping in the manger or the wounded victim of Calvary.

He repeats nevertheless, from the bottom of his heart, like the sages

of Israel and the faithful believers of Islam: There is no God but

God. For the initiates of true science, this signifies: There is but

one Being, and this is Being. But all that is expedient and touching

in beliefs, but the splendour of rituals, the pageant of divine

creations, the grace of prayers, the magic of heavenly hopes—are not

these the radiance of moral life in all its youth and beauty? Could

anything alienate the true initiate from public prayers and temples,

could anything raise his disgust or indignation against religious

forms of all kinds, it would be the manifest unbelief of priests or

people, want of dignity in the ceremonies of the cultus—in a word, the

profanation of holy things. God is truly present when He is worshipped

by recollected souls and feeling hearts; He is absent, sensibly and

terribly, when discussed without light or zeal—that is to say, without

understanding or love.

The adequate conception of God according to instructed Kabalism is that

which was revealed by St. Paul when he said that to attain God we must

believe that He is and that He recompenses those who seek Him out. So

is there nothing outside the idea of being, in combination with the

idea of goodness and justice: these alone are absolute. To say that

there is no God or to define what He is, constitutes equal blasphemy.

Every definition of God hazarded by human intelligence is a recipe

of religious empiricism, out of which superstition will subsequently

extract a devil.

In Kabalistic symbolism the representation of God is always by a

duplicated image—one erect, the other reversed; one white, and the

other black.[16] In such manner did the sages seek to express the

intelligent and vulgar conceptions of the same idea—that of the God of

light and the God of shadow. To the miscomprehension of this symbol

must be referred the Persian Ahriman—that black but divine ancestor of

all demons. The dream of the infernal king is but a false notion of God.

Light in the absence of shadow would be invisible for our eyes, since

it would produce an overpowering brilliance equal to the greatest

darkness. In the analogies of this physical truth, understood and

considered adequately, a solution will be found for one of the most

terrible of problems, the origin of evil. But to grasp it fully,

together with all its consequences, is not meant for the multitude, who

must not penetrate so readily into the secrets of universal harmony.

It was only after the initiate of the Eleusinian mysteries had passed

victoriously through all the tests, had seen and touched the holy

things, that, if he were judged strong enough to withstand the last and

most dreadful secret, a veiled priest passed him at flying pace and

uttered in his ear the enigmatic words: Osiris is a black god. So was

Osiris—of whom Typhon is the oracle—and so was the divine religious

sun of Egypt, eclipsed suddenly, becoming the shadow of that grand,

indefinable Isis who is all that has been and shall be, and whose

eternal veil has no one lifted.

Light is the active principle for Kabalists, while darkness is

analogous to the passive principle, for which reason they regarded the

sun and moon as emblems of the two divine sexes and the two creative

forces. So also they attributed to woman the first temptation and sin,

and subsequently the first labour—the maternal labour of redemption:

it is from the bosom of the dark itself that light is reborn. The void

attracts the _plenum_, and thus the abyss of poverty and wretchedness,

pretended evil, seeming nothingness and the ephemeral rebellion of

creatures, attracts eternally an ocean of being, wealth, mercy and

love. This interprets the symbol of the Christ descending into hell

after pouring out upon the cross all immensities of the most marvellous

forgiveness.

By the same law of harmony in the analogy of opposites the Kabalists

explain also all mysteries of sexual love. Why is this passion more

permanent between two unequal natures and two contrary characters? Why

is there in love one always who immolates and one who is victim? Why

are the most obstinate passions those the satisfaction of which would

seem impossible? By this law also they would have decided once and for

ever the question of precedence between the sexes, as brought forward

in all seriousness by the Saint-Simonism of our own day. The natural

strength of woman being that of inertia or resistance, they would have

ruled that modesty is the most imprescriptible of her rights, and hence

that she must neither perform nor desire anything demanding a species

of masculine boldness. Nature has otherwise provided to this end by

giving her a soft voice, not to be heard in large assemblies, unless

raised to a ridiculously discordant pitch. She who would aspire to the

functions of the opposite sex must forfeit thereby the prerogatives of

her own. We know not to what point she may arrive in the ruling of men,

but it is certain at least that in reaching it she will lose the love

of men and, that which will be more cruel for her, the love of children.

The conjugal law of the Kabalists[17] furnishes further, by analogy,

a solution of the most interesting and difficult problem of modern

philosophy, being the agreement between reason and faith, authority

and liberty of conscience, science and belief. If science be the sun,

belief is the moon—a reflection of day amidst night. Faith is the

supplement of reason in the darkness left by science before and behind

it. It emanates from reason but can neither be confounded therewith nor

bring it to confusion. The trespasses of reason upon faith or of faith

upon reason are eclipses of sun or moon. When they come about, both

source and reflector of light are rendered useless.

Science perishes on account of systems which are no other than beliefs

and faith succumbs to reason. In order to sustain the edifice, the

two pillars of the temple must be parallel and separate. When they

are brought by force together, as Samson brought them, they are

thrown down, and the whole building collapses on the blind zealot or

revolutionary, whose personal or national resentment has destined him

beforehand to death. The struggles between the spiritual and temporal

powers at all periods of humanity have been quarrels over domestic

management. The papacy has been a jealous mother, seeking to supplant a

husband in the temporal power, and she has lost the confidence of her

children, while the temporal power in its usurpation of the priesthood

is not less ridiculous than a man who should pretend to know better

than a mother how to manage the home and nursery. The English, for

example, from the moral and religious point of view, are like children

swaddled by men, as we may appreciate by their spleen and dulness.

If religious doctrine is comparable to a nurse’s story, on the

understanding that it is ingenious and beneficial morally, it is

perfectly true for the child, and the father would be very foolish

to contradict it. Give therefore to mothers a monopoly in tales of

faerie, in songs and household solicitudes. Maternity is a type of the

priesthoods, and it is because the Church must be a mother only that

the catholic priest renounces the right of man and transfers in advance

to herself his claim on fatherhood. It must never be forgotten that

the papacy is either nothing or that it is the universal mother. It

may be even that Pope Joan, out of which protestants have constructed

a tale of scandal, is only an ingenious allegory, and when sovereign

pontiffs have ill-used Emperors and Kings, it has been Pope Joan trying

to beat her husband, to the great scandal of the Christian world. So

also schisms and heresies have been other conjugal quarrels; the Church

and Protestantism speak evil one of another, lament one another, make

a show of avoiding and being weary one of another, like spouses living

apart.

It is by the Kabalah, and this alone, that all is explained and

reconciled. All other doctrines are vivified and made fruitful thereby;

it destroys nothing but, on on the contrary, gives reason to all that

is. So all the forces of the world are at the service of this one and

supreme science, while the true Kabalist can make use at his pleasure,

without hypocrisy and without falsehood, of the science possessed

by the wise and the zeal of believers. He is more catholic than M.

de Maistre, more protestant than Luther, more Jewish than the chief

rabbi, and a prophet more than Mahomet. Is he not above systems and the

passions which darken truth? Can he not at will bring together their

scattered rays, so variously reflected in all the fragments of that

broken mirror which is universal faith—fragments which are taken by

men for so many opposite beliefs? There is one being, one law and one

faith, as there is only one race of man— אהיה אשר אהיה.

On such intellectual and moral heights it will be understood that the

human mind and heart enter into the deep peace. “Peace profound, my

brethren”—such was the master-word of High-Grade Masonry, being the

association of Kabalistic initiates.[18]

The war which the Church has been forced to make against Magic was

necessitated by the profanations of false Gnostics, but the true

science of the Magi is catholic essentially, basing all its realisation

on the hierarchic principle. Now, the only serious and absolute

hierarchy is found in the Catholic Church, and hence true adepts have

always shewn for it the deepest respect and obedience. Henry Khunrath

alone was a resolute protestant, but in this he was a German of his

period rather than a mystic citizen of the eternal Kingdom.[19]

The essence of anti-christianity is exclusion and heresy; it is the

partition of the body of Christ, according to the beautiful expression

of St. John: _Omnis spiritus qui solvit Christum hic Antichristus est_.

The reason is that religion is charity and that there is no charity in

anarchy. Magic had also its anarchists, its makers and adherents of

sects, its thaumaturgists and sorcerers. Our design is to vindicate

the legality of the science from the usurpations of ignorance, fraud

and folly; it is in this respect more especially that our work will

stand to be useful, as it will be also entirely new. So far the History

of Magic has been presented as annals of a thing prejudged, or as

chronicles—less or more exact—of a sequence in phenomena, seeing that

no one believed that Magic belonged to science. A serious account

of this science in its rediscovery, so to speak, must set forth its

developments or progress. We are walking in open sanctuary instead of

among ruins, and we find that the Holy Places, so long buried under the

débris of four civilisations, have been preserved more wonderfully than

the mummified cities which excavation has unearthed, in all their dead

beauty and desolate majesty, beneath the lava of Vesuvius.

Bossuet in his magnificent work has shewn us religion bound up

everywhere with history; but what would he have said had he known

that a science which, in a sense, was born with the world, provides

an explanation of primeval dogmas, belonging to the one and universal

religion, in virtue of their combination with the most incontestable

theorems of mathematics and reason? Dogmatic Magic is the key of all

secrets as yet unfathomed by the philosophy of history, while Practical

Magic alone opens the Secret Temple of Nature to that power of human

will which is ever limited, yet ever progressive.

We are far from any impious pretence of explaining the mysteries of

religion by means of Magic, but our intention is to indicate after what

manner science is compelled to accept and revere those mysteries.[20]

It shall be said no longer that reason must humble itself in the

presence of faith; on the contrary, it must do honour to itself by

believing, since it is faith which saves reason from the horrors of

the void on the brink of the abyss, and it is its bond of union with

the infinite. Orthodoxy in religion is respect for the hierarchy as

the sole guardian of unity. Let us therefore not fear to repeat that

Magic is essentially the Science of the Hierarchy, remembering clearly

that, before all things else, it condemns anarchic doctrines, while it

demonstrates, by the very laws of Nature, that harmony is inseparable

both from power and authority.

The chief attraction of Magic for the great number of curious persons

is that they see therein an exceptional means for the satisfaction of

their passions. The unbeliever’s horizon is of the same order. The

avaricious would deny that there is any secret of Hermes corresponding

to the transmutation of metals, for otherwise they would buy it and

so enjoy wealth. But they are fools who believe that such a secret is

sold. Of what use would be money to those who could make gold? That is

true, says the sceptic, but if you, Éliphas Lévi, possessed it, would

you not be richer than we are? Who has told you that I am poor? Have I

asked for anything at your hands? Where is the sovereign in the world

who can boast that he has acquired from me any secret of science? Where

is the millionaire whom I have given reason to believe that I would set

my fortune against his? When we look at earthly wealth from beneath it,

we may yearn for it as the sovereign felicity, but it is despised when

we consider it from above and when one realises how little temptation

there can be to recover that which has been dropped as if it were hot

iron.

But apart from this, a young man will exclaim that if magical secrets

were true, he would attain them that he might be loved by all women.

Nothing of the sort; a day will come, poor child, when it will be too

much to be loved by one of them, for sensual desire is a dual orgie,

the intoxication of which causes disgust to supervene quickly, after

which anger and separation follow. There was once an old idiot who

would have liked to have become a magician in order to upset the world.

But if you were a magician, my hero, you would not be an imbecile, and

before the tribunal of your conscience you would find no extenuating

circumstances, did you become a criminal.

The Epicurean, on his part, demands the recipes of Magic, that he may

enjoy for ever and suffer nothing at all. In this case the science

itself intervenes and says, as religion also says: Blessed are those

who suffer. But that is the reason why the Epicurean has lost faith in

religion. “Blessed are those who mourn”—but the Epicurean scoffs at the

promise. Hear now what is said by experience and by reason. Sufferings

test and awaken generous sentiments; pleasures promote and fortify base

instincts. Sufferings arm against pleasure; enjoyment begets weakness

in suffering. Pleasure squanders; pain ingarners. Pleasure is man’s

rock of peril; the pain of motherhood is woman’s triumph. Pleasure

fertilises and conceives but pain brings forth.[21] Woe to him who

cannot and will not suffer; he shall be overwhelmed by pain. Nature

drives unmercifully those who will not walk; we are cast into life as

into an open sea: we must swim or drown. Such are the laws of Nature,

as taught by Transcendent Magic. And now reconsider whether one can

become a magician in order to enjoy everything and suffer nothing. Yet

the world will ask: In such case, what profits Magic? What would the

prophet Balaam have replied to his she-ass had the patient brute asked

him what profits intelligence? What would Hercules have answered to

a pigmy if he had inquired what profits strength? We do not compare

worldly people to pigmies and still less to Balaam’s ass: it would

be wanting in politeness and good taste. We say therefore, with all

possible graciousness, to such brilliant and amiable people, that for

them Magic is absolutely useless, it being understood further that they

will never take it seriously. Our work is addressed to souls that toil

and think. They will find an explanation therein of whatsoever has

remained obscure in our _Doctrine and Ritual_. On the pattern of the

Great Masters, we have followed the rational order of sacred numbers in

the plan and division of our works, for which reason this History of

Magic is arranged in seven books, having seven chapters in each. The

first book is dedicated to the Sources of Magic; it is the genesis of

that science, and we have provided it with a key in the letter _Aleph_

expressing Kabalistically the original and primal unity. The second

book contains historical and social formulæ of the magical word in

antiquity; its seal is the letter _Beth_, symbolising the duad as an

expression of the word which realises, the special character of the

Gnosis and occultism. The third book is concerned with the realisations

of antique science in Christian society. It shews after what manner,

even for science itself, the word takes flesh. The number three is that

of generation, of realisation, and the key of this book is the letter

_Gimel_, a hieroglyph of birth. We are introduced in the fourth book

to the civilising power of Magic among barbarous races, to the natural

productions of this science amidst peoples still in their childhood,

to the mysteries of Druids and their miracles, to the legends of

bards, and it is shewn after what manner these things concurred in the

formation of modern societies, thus preparing a brilliant and permanent

victory for Christianity. The number four expresses Nature and force,

while the letter _Daleth_, which stands for it in the Hebrew alphabet,

is represented in that of the Kabalists by an emperor on his throne.

The fifth book is consecrated to the sacerdotal era of the middle

ages, and we are present at the dissensions and struggles of science,

the formation of secret societies, their unknown achievements, the

secret rites of grimoires, the mysteries of the _Divine Comedy_,

the divisions within the sanctuary which must lead later on to a

glorious unity. The number five is that of the quintessence, religion

and the priesthood; its character is the letter _He_, represented in

the magical alphabet by the symbol of a high priest. The sixth book

exhibits the intervention of Magic in the work of the Revolution.

The number six is that of antagonism and strife in preparation for

universal synthesis, and the corresponding letter is _Vau_, symbol of

the creative _lingam_ and the reaper’s sickle. The seventh book is

synthetic, containing an exposition of modern workings and discoveries,

new theories on light and magnetism, the revelation of the great

Rosicrucian secret, the explanation of mysterious alphabets, the

science of the word and its magical works, in fine, the summary of the

science itself, including an appreciation of what has been accomplished

by contemporaneous mystics. This book is the complement and the crown

of the work, as the septenary is the crown of numbers, uniting the

triangle of idea to the square of form. Its corresponding letter is

_Zain_, and the Kabalistic hieroglyphic is a victor mounted on a

chariot, drawn by two sphinxes.[22]

Far from us be the ridiculous vanity of posing as a Kabalistic victor;

it is the science alone which should triumph; and that which we expose

before the intelligent world, mounted on the cubic chariot and drawn

by sphinxes, is the Word of Light, the Divine Fulfiller of the Mosaic

Kabalah, the human Sun of the Gospel, that man-God who has come once

as Saviour and will manifest soon as Messiah, that is, as definitive

and absolute king of temporal institutions. It is this thought which

animates our courage and sustains our hope. But now it remains to

submit all our conceptions, all our discoveries and all our labours

to the infallible judgment of the hierarchy. To the authorised men

of science be that which belongs to science, but the things which

connect with religion are set apart to the Church alone and to that one

hierarchic Church, the preserver of unity, which has been catholic,

apostolic and Roman from the days of Christ Jesus to our own. To

scholars our discoveries, to bishops our aspirations and beliefs. Woe

to the child who believes himself wiser than his parents, to the man

who acknowledges no masters, to that dreamer who thinks and prays

by himself. Life is an universal communion and in such communion do

we find immortality. He who isolates himself is given over to death

thereby and an eternity of isolation would be eternal death.

ÉLIPHAS LÉVI.

BOOK I

_THE DERIVATIONS OF MAGIC_

א—ALEPH

CHAPTER I

FABULOUS SOURCES

The apocryphal _Book of Enoch_ says that there were angels who

consented to fall from heaven that they might have intercourse with

the daughters of earth.[23] “For in those days the sons of men having

multiplied, there were born to them daughters of great beauty. And

when the angels, or sons of heaven, beheld them, they were filled with

desire; wherefore they said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose wives

from among the race of man, and let us beget children.’ Their leader,

Samyasa, answered thereupon and said: ‘Perchance you will be wanting in

the courage needed to fulfil this resolution, and then I alone shall be

answerable for your fall.’ But they swore that they would in no wise

repent and that they would achieve their whole design. Now there were

200 who descended on Mount Armon, and it was from this time that the

mountain received its designation, which signifies Mount of the Oath.

Hereinafter follow the names of those angelic leaders who descended

with this object: Samyasa, chief among all, Urakabarameel, Azibeel,

Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Sarakuyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal,

Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertrael, Turel, Jomiael, Arazial. They took

wives, with whom they had intercourse, to whom also they taught Magic,

the art of enchantment and the diverse properties of roots and trees.

Amazarac gave instruction in all secrets of sorcerers; Barkaial was

the master of those who study the stars; Akibeel manifested signs; and

Azaradel taught the motions of the moon.”

This legend of the Kabalistic Book of Enoch is a variant account of

the same profanation of Mysteries which we meet with under another

form of symbolism in the history of the sin of Adam. Those angels, the

sons of God, of whom Enoch speaks, were initiates of Magic, and it was

this that they communicated to profane men, using incautious women

as their instruments. They split upon the rock of sense-attraction,

becoming enamoured of the female sex, and the secrets of royalty and

priesthood were extracted from them unawares. Primitive civilisation

collapsed as a consequence, and the giants, who typified brute force

and unbridled appetite, fought together for the world, which escaped

only by immersion in the waters of the deluge, wherein all traces of

the past were effaced. This deluge symbolised that universal confusion

into which humanity is brought of necessity when it ignores and does

outrage to the harmonies of Nature.[24] There is kinship between the

fall of Samyasa and that of Adam; the lure of sense seduced both;

both profaned the Tree of Knowledge; and both were driven far away from

the Tree of Life. It is needless here to discuss the views, or rather

the simplicity, of those who take everything literally and believe that

knowledge and life were once manifested under the form of trees; let

us confess rather and only to the deep meaning of sacred symbols. The

Tree of Knowledge does actually inflict death when its fruit is eaten;

that fruit is the adornment of this world; those golden apples are the

glitter of earth.

[Illustration: THE MAGICAL HEAD OF THE ZOHAR]

In the Arsenal Library there is a very curious manuscript entitled

_The Book of the Penitence of Adam_, and herein Kabalistic tradition

is presented under the guise of legend to the following effect: “Adam

had two sons—Cain, who signifies brute force, and Abel, the type of

intelligence and mildness. Agreement was impossible between them; they

perished at each other’s hands; and their inheritance passed to a third

son, named Seth.” Here is the conflict of two opposing forces diverted

to the advantage of a synthetic and united force. “Now Seth, who was

just, was permitted to approach as far as the entrance of the Earthly

Paradise, without being threatened by the Kerub and his flaming sword.”

In other words, Seth represented primeval initiation. “It came to pass

in this manner that Seth beheld the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of

Life, incorporated together after such a manner that they formed but

a single tree”—signifying the harmony of science and religion in the

transcendental Kabalah. “And the angel gave him three seeds containing

the vital power of the said tree.” The reference is here to the

Kabalistic triad. “When Adam died, Seth, in obedience to the directions

of the angel, placed the three seeds in the mouth of his father, as a

token of eternal life. The saplings which sprang up from these, became

the Burning Bush, in the midst of which God communicated to Moses his

Eternal Name—

אהיה אשר אהיה

signifying He Who is and is to come. Moses plucked a triple branch of

the sacred bush and used it as his miraculous wand. Although separated

from its root, the branch continued to live and blossom, and it was

subsequently preserved in the Ark.[25] King David planted the branch

on Mount Zion, and Solomon took wood from each section of the triple

trunk to make the two pillars, _Jachin_ and _Boaz_, which were placed

at the entrance of the Temple. They were covered with bronze, and the

third section was inserted at the threshold of the chief gate. It was

a talisman which hindered things unclean from entering within. But

certain nefarious Levites removed during the night this obstacle to

their unholy freedom and cast it, loaded with stones, at the bottom of

the Temple reservoir. From this time forward an angel of God troubled

the waters of the pool, imparting to them a miraculous value, so that

men might be distracted from seeking the tree of Solomon in its depths.

In the days of Jesus Christ the pool was cleansed and the Jews, finding

the beam of wood, which in their eyes seemed useless, carried the

latter outside the town and threw it across the brook Cedron. It was

over this bridge that our Saviour passed after his arrest at night in

the Garden of Olives. His executioners cast him from it into the water;

and then in their haste to prepare the instrument-in-chief of His

passion, they took the beam with them, which was made of three kinds

of wood, and formed the cross therewith.”[26]

This allegory embodies all the great traditions of the Kabalah and the

secret Christian doctrine of St. John, which is now utterly unknown.

It follows that Seth, Moses, David, Solomon and Christ obtained from

the same Kabalistic Tree their royal sceptres and pontifical crooks.

We can understand in this manner why the Christ was adored in His

manger by the Magi. Let us recur, however, to the _Book of Enoch_, as

greater authority attaches to it than can be attributed to an unknown

manuscript; the former is cited in the New Testament by the Apostle

St. Jude. Tradition refers the invention of letters to Enoch, and it

is to him that we must therefore trace back the teachings embodied in

the _Sepher Yetzirah_, which is the elementary work of the Kabalah,

its compiler—according to the Rabbins—being the patriarch Abraham,

as the heir of the secrets of Enoch and as the father of initiation

in Israel. Enoch would seem in this manner to be identical with the

Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus, while the famous _Book of Thoth_, written

throughout in hieroglyphics and in numbers, would be that occult Bible,

anterior to the book of Moses and full of mysteries, to which the

initiated William Postel alludes so frequently throughout his works,

under the title of the _Genesis of Enoch_.[27]

The Bible says that Enoch did not die, but that God translated him from

one life to another. He is to return and confound Anti-Christ at the

end of time, when he will be one of the last martyrs, or witnesses of

truth, mentioned in the Apocalypse of St. John. That which is said of

Enoch in this respect has been said also of all the great initiators

recorded in Kabalism. St. John himself, according to the primitive

Christians, was saved from death, and it was long thought that he

could be seen breathing in his tomb.[28] The explanation is that the

absolute science of life preserves against death, as the instinct of

the people has always led them to divine. However this may be, the

extant memorials of Enoch are contained in two books, one of which

is hieroglyphic and the other of the nature of allegory. The first

comprises the hieratic keys of initiation, while the second is the

history of a great profanation which caused the destruction of the

world and the reign of chaos after that of the giants.

St. Methodius, a bishop in the early days of Christianity, whose

writings are found in the collection of the Fathers of the Church, has

left a prophetic Apocalypse which unfolds the world’s history in a

series of visions. It is not included among the saint’s acknowledged

writings, but it was preserved by the Gnostics and has been printed

in the _Liber Mirabilis_ under the assumed name of Bermechobus, which

illiterate compositors have substituted in place of Bea-Methodius,

an abbreviation of _Beatus Methodius_.[29] This book corresponds in

several respects with the allegorical treatise entitled _The Penitence

of Adam_. It tells how Seth migrated eastward with his family and so

reached a mountain in the vicinity of the Earthly Paradise. This was

the country of initiates, whilst the posterity of Cain invented a

spurious or debased Magic in India, the land of fratricide, and put

witchcraft into the hands of the reckless.

St. Methodius predicts in a later place the struggles and successive

predominance of the Ishmaelites, being the name given in his apocalypse

to those who conquered the Romans; of the Franks, who overcame the

Ishmaelites; and then of a great race from the North whose invasion

will precede the personal reign of Anti-Christ. An universal kingdom

will be founded thereafter and will fall into the hands of a French

prince, after which there will be the reign of justice for a long

period of years. We are not concerned with prophecy in the present

place, but it is desirable to note the distinction between good

and evil Magic, between the Sanctuary of the Sons of Seth and the

profanation of science by the descendants of Cain.[30] Transcendental

knowledge, as a fact, is reserved for those who are masters of their

passions, and virgin Nature does not deliver the keys of her nuptial

chamber to adulterers.

There are two classes—freemen and slaves; man is born in the bondage

of his passions, but he can reach emancipation through intelligence.

Between those who are free already and those who as yet are not there

is no equality possible. The part of reason is to rule and of instinct

to obey. On the other hand, if you impose on the blind the office of

leading the blind, both will end in the abyss. We should never forget

that liberty does not consist in the licence of passion emancipated

from law, which licence would prove the most hideous of tyrannies;

liberation consists in willing obedience to law; it is the right to do

ones duty, and only just men can be called free. Now, those who are

in liberation should govern those who are in bondage, and slaves are

called to be released, not from the government of the free but from the

yoke of brutal passions, as a consequence of which they cannot exist

without masters.

Confess with us now for a moment to the truth of the transcendental

sciences. Suppose that there does actually exist a force which can

be mastered and by which the miracles of Nature are made subservient

to the will of man. Tell us, in such case, whether the secrets of

wealth and the bonds of sympathy can be entrusted to brutal greed;

the art of fascination to libertines; the supremacy over other wills

to those who cannot attain the government of their proper selves. It

is terrifying to reflect upon the disorders which would follow from

such a profanation; some cataclysm is needed to efface the crimes of

earth when all are steeped in slime and blood. Now, it is this state of

things that is indicated by the allegorical history of the fall of the

angels, according to _The Book of Enoch_; it is this which was the sin

of Adam, and hereof are its fatal consequences. Of such also was the

Deluge and its wreckage; of such at a later period the malediction of

Canaan. The revelation of occult secrets is typified by the insolence

of that son who exposes his fathers nakedness. The intoxication of Noah

is a lesson for the priesthood of all ages. Woe to those who lay bare

the secret of divine generation to the impure gaze of the crowd. Keep

the sanctuary shut, all ye who would spare your sleeping father the

mockery of the imitators of Ham.[31]

Such is the tradition of the children of Seth respecting the laws of

the human hierarchy; but the latter were not acknowledged by the family

of Cain. The Cainites of India invented a genesis to consecrate the

oppression of the strong and to perpetuate the ignorance of the weak.

Initiation became an exclusive privilege of the high castes, and entire

races of humanity were doomed to unending servitude on the pretence of

inferior birth: they issued, as it was said, from the feet or knees of

Brahma. Now, Nature engenders neither slaves nor kings, but all men

indifferently are born to labour. He who pretends that man is perfect

at birth but is degraded and perverted by society is the wildest of

anarchists, though he may be the most poetic of maniacs. But in vain

was Jean Jacques a sentimentalist and dreamer; his deep implicit of

misanthropy, when explicated by the logic of fanatical partisans, bore

fruits in hate and destruction. The consistent architects of the Utopia

imagined by the susceptible philosopher of Geneva were Robespierre and

Marat.

Society is no abstract personality that can be rendered responsible

separately for the stubbornness of man; society is the association

of men; it is defective by reason of their vices and sublime in

respect of their virtues; but in itself it is holy, like the religion

which is bound up inseparably therewith. Is not religion, as a fact,

an association of the highest aspirations and the most generous

endeavours? After this manner does the blasphemy of anti-social

equality and of right in the teeth of duty give answer to the lie about

castes privileged by Nature; Christianity alone has solved the problem

by assigning supremacy to self-sacrifice and by proclaiming him as the

greatest who offers up his pride for society and his appetites for the

sake of the law.

Though they were the depositaries of the tradition of Seth, the Jews

did not preserve it in all its purity, and were infected by the unjust

ambitions of the posterity of Cain. Believing that they were a chosen

people, they deemed that God had allotted them truth as a patrimony

rather than as a security held in trust for humanity at large.[32]

Side by side with the sublime traditions of the _Sepher Yetzirah_, we

meet with very curious revelations among the Talmudists. For example,

they do not shrink from ascribing the idolatry of the Gentiles to

the patriarch Abraham himself; they say that to the Israelites he

bequeathed his inheritance, namely, the knowledge of the true Divine

Names; in a word, the Kabalah was the lawful and hereditary property of

Isaac; but the patriarch gave, as they tell us, certain presents to the

children of his concubines; and by such presents they understand veiled

dogmas and cryptic names, which became materialised speedily, and were

transformed into idols.[33] False religions and their absurd mysteries,

oriental superstitions, with all their horrible sacrifices—what a gift

from a father to his disowned family. Was it not sufficient to drive

Hagar with her son into the desert? To their one loaf and their pitcher

of water must he add the burden of falsehood, as a torment and poison

in their exile?

The glory of Christianity is that it called all men to truth, without

distinction of races and castes, though not without distinction in

respect of intelligence and of virtue. “Cast not your pearls before

swine,” said the Divine Founder of Christianity, “lest treading them

under foot, they turn and rend you.” The Apocalypse or Revelation of

St. John, which comprises all the Kabalistic secrets concerning the

doctrine of Christ Jesus, is a book no less obscure than the _Zohar_.

It is written hieroglyphically in the language of numbers and images,

and the Apostle appeals frequently to the knowledge of initiates. “Let

him understand who has knowledge—let him who understands compute”—he

says frequently, after reciting an allegory or giving a mystic number.

St. John, the beloved disciple and depositary of all the secrets of the

Saviour, did not therefore write to be understood by the multitude.

The _Sepher Yetzirah_, the _Zohar_ and the _Apocalypse_ are the

masterpieces of occultism; they contain more meanings than words;

their method of expression is figurative, like poetry, and exact, like

numerical formulæ. The _Apocalypse_ summarises, completes and surpasses

all the science of Abraham and Solomon, as we will prove by explaining

the Keys of the transcendent Kabalah.

It is not less astonishing to observe at the beginning of the

_Zohar_[34] the profundity of its notions and the sublime simplicity

of its images. It is said as follows: “The science of equilibrium is

the key of occult science. Unbalanced forces perish in the void. So

passed the kings of the elder world, the princes of the giants. They

have fallen like trees without roots, and their place is found no more.

Through the conflict of unbalanced forces, the devastated earth was

void and formless, until the Spirit of God made for itself a place in

heaven and reduced the mass of waters. All the aspirations of Nature

were directed then towards unity of form, towards the living synthesis

of equilibrated forces; the face of God, crowned with light, rose over

the vast sea and was reflected in the waters thereof. His two eyes

were manifested, radiating with splendour, darting two beams of light

which crossed with those of the reflection. The brow of God and His

eyes formed a triangle in heaven, and its reflection formed a second

triangle in the waters. So was revealed the number six, being that of

universal creation.”

The text, which would be unintelligible in a literal version, is

translated here by way of interpretation. The author makes it plain

that the human form which he ascribes to Deity is only an image of

his meaning and that God is beyond expression by human thought or

representation by any figure. Pascal said that God is a circle, of

which the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere. But how

is one to imagine a circle apart from its circumference? The _Zohar_

adopts the antithesis of this paradoxical image and in respect of the

circle of Pascal would say rather that the circumference is everywhere,

while that which is nowhere is the centre. It is however to a balance

and not to a circle that it compares the universal equilibrium of

things.[35] It affirms that equilibrium is everywhere and so also is

that central point where the balance hangs in suspension. We find that

the Zohar is thus more forcible and more profound than Pascal.

[Illustration: THE GREAT KABALISTIC SYMBOL OF THE ZOHAR]

Its author continues as follows his sublime dream. That synthesis of

the word, formulated by the human figure, ascended slowly and emerged

from the water, like the sun in its rising. When the eyes appeared,

light was made; when the mouth was manifested, there was the creation

of spirits and the word passed into expression. The entire head was

revealed, and this completed the first day of creation. The shoulders,

the arms, the breast arose, and thereupon work began. With one hand

the Divine Image put back the sea, while with the other it raised up

continents and mountains. The Image grew and grew; the generative

organs appeared, and all beings began to increase and multiply. The

form stood at length erect, having one foot upon the earth and one upon

the waters. Beholding itself at full length in the ocean of creation,

it breathed on its own reflection and called its likeness into life.

It said: Let us make man—and thus man was made. There is nothing so

beautiful in the masterpiece of any poet as this vision of creation

accomplished by the prototype of humanity. Hereby is man but the shadow

of a shadow, and yet he is the image of divine power. He also can

stretch forth his hands from East to West; to him is the earth given as

a dominion. Such is Adam Kadmon, the primordial Adam of the Kabalists.

Such is the sense in which he is depicted as a giant; and this is why

Swedenborg, haunted in his dreams by reminiscences of the Kabalah, says

that entire creation is only a titanic man and that we are made in the

image of the universe.

The _Zohar_ is a genesis of light; the _Sepher Yetzirah_ is a ladder

of truth. Therein are expounded the two-and-thirty absolute symbols of

speech—being numbers and letters. Each letter produces a number, an

idea and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and ideas,

even as to numbers, in virtue of an exact proportion and a perfect

correspondence. By the science of the _Sepher Yetzirah_ the human mind

is rooted in truth and in reason; it accounts for all progress possible

to intelligence by means of the evolution of numbers. Thus does the

_Zohar_ represent absolute truth, while the _Sepher Yetzirah_ furnishes

the method of its acquisition, its discernment and application.

CHAPTER II

MAGIC OF THE MAGI

It is within probability that Zoroaster is a symbolical name, like that

of Thoth or Hermes. According to Eudoxus and Aristotle, he flourished

6000 years before the birth of Plato, but others say that he antedated

the siege of Troy by about 500 years. He is sometimes represented as

a king of the Bactrians, but the existence of two or three distinct

Zoroasters is also one of the speculations.[36] Eudoxus and Aristotle

alone would seem to have realised that his personality was magical, and

this is why they have placed the Kabalistic epoch of an entire world

between the birth of his doctrine and the theurgic reign of Platonic

philosophy. As a fact, there are two Zoroasters, that is to say, two

expounders of mysteries, one being the son of Ormuzd and the founder of

an enlightened instruction, the other being the son of Ahriman and the

author of a profanatory unveiling of truth. Zoroaster is the incarnate

word of the Chaldeans, the Medes and the Persians; his legend reads

like a prophecy concerning that of Christ, and hence it must be assumed

that he had also his Anti-Christ, in accordance with the magical law of

universal equilibrium.

To the false Zoroaster must be referred the cultus of material fire

and that impious doctrine of divine dualism which produced at a

later period the monstrous Gnosis of Manes and the false principles

of spurious Masonry. The Zoroaster in question was the father of that

materialised Magic which led to the massacre of the Magi and brought

their true doctrine at first into proscription and then oblivion.

Ever inspired by the spirit of truth, the Church was compelled to

condemn—under the names of Magic, Manicheanism, Illuminism and

Masonry—all that was in kinship, remote or approximate, with the

primitive profanation of the mysteries. One signal example is the

history of the Knights Templar, which has been misunderstood to this

day.

The doctrines of the true Zoroaster are identical with those of pure

Kabalism, and his conceptions of divinity differ in no wise from those

of the fathers of the Church. It is the names only that vary; for

example, the triad of Zoroaster is the Trinity of Christian teaching,

and when he postulates that Triad as subsisting without diminution or

division in each of its units, he is expressing in another manner that

which is understood by our theologians as the circumincession of the

Divine Persons. In his multiplication of the Triad by itself, Zoroaster

arrives at the absolute reason of the number 9 and the universal key of

all numbers and forms. But those whom we term the three Divine Persons,

are called the three depths by Zoroaster. The first, or that of the

Father, is the source of faith; the second, being that of the Word, is

the well of truth; while the third, or creative action, is the font

of love. To check what is here advanced, the reader may consult the

commentary of Psellus on the doctrine of the ancient Assyrians: it may

be found in the work of Franciscus Patricius on _Philosophical Magic_

p. 24 of the Hamburg edition, which appeared in 1593.

Zoroaster established the celestial hierarchy and all the harmonies of

Nature on his scale of nine degrees. He explains by means of the triad

whatsoever emanates from the idea and by the tetrad all that belongs

to form, thus arriving at the number 7 as the type of creation. Here

ends the first initiation and the scholastic hypotheses begin; numbers

are personified and ideas pass into emblems, which at a later period

become idols. The Synoches, the Teletarchæ and the Fathers, ministers

of the triple Hecate; the three Amilictes and the threefold visage of

Hypezocos—all these intervene; the angels follow in their order, the

demons and lastly human souls. The stars are images and reflections of

intellectual splendours; the material sun is an emblem of the sun of

truth, which itself is a shadow of that first source whence all glory

springs. This is why the disciples of Zoroaster saluted the rising day

and so passed as sun-worshippers among barbarians.

Such were the doctrines of the Magi, but they were the possessors in

addition of secrets which gave them mastery over the occult powers

of Nature. The sum of these secrets might be termed transcendental

pyrotechny, for it was intimately related to the deep knowledge of fire

and its ruling. It is certain that the Magi were not only familiar with

electricity but were able to generate and direct it in ways that are

now unknown. Numa, who studied their rites and was initiated into their

mysteries, possessed, according to Lucius Pison, the art of producing

and controlling the lightning. This sacerdotal secret, which the Roman

initiator would have reserved to the kings of Rome, was lost by Tullus

Hostilius, who mismanaged the electrical discharge and was destroyed.

Pliny relates these facts on the authority of an ancient Etruscan

tradition and mentions that Numa directed his battery with success

against a monster named Volta, which was ravaging the district about

Rome. In reading this story, one is almost tempted to think that Volta,

the discoverer, is himself a myth and that the name of Voltaic piles

goes back to the days of Numa.

All Assyrian symbols connect with this science of fire, which was the

great secret of the Magi; on every side we meet with the enchanter who

slays the lion and controls the serpents. That lion is the celestial

fire, while the serpents are the electric and magnetic currents of the

earth. To this same great secret of the Magi are referable all marvels

of Hermetic Magic, the extant traditions of which still bear witness

that the mystery of the Great Work consists in the ruling of fire.

The learned Patricius published in his _Philosophical Magic_ the

Oracles of Zoroaster, collected from the works of Platonic writers—from

Proclus on Theurgy, from the commentaries on the _Parmenides_,

commentaries of Hermias on the _Phædrus_ and from the notes of

Olympiodorus on the _Philebos_ and _Phaidon_.[37] These Oracles are

firstly a clear and precise formulation of the doctrine here stated and

secondly the prescriptions of magical ritual expressed in such terms as

follow.

DEMONS AND SACRIFICES

We are taught by induction from Nature that there are incorporeal

dæmons and that the germs of evil which exist in matter turn to the

common good and utility. But these are mysteries which must be buried

in the recesses of thought. For ever agitated and ever leaping in the

atmosphere, the fire can assume a configuration like that of bodies.

Let us go further and affirm the existence of a fire which abounds in

images and reflections. Term it, if you will, a superabundant light

which radiates, which speaks, which goes back into itself. It is the

flaming courser of light, or rather it is the stalwart child who

overcomes and breaks in that heavenly steed. Picture him as vested

in flame and emblazoned with gold, or think of him naked as love and

bearing the arrows of Eros. But if thy meditation prolongeth itself,

thou wilt combine all these emblems under the form of the lion.

Thereafter, when things are no longer visible, when the Vault of Heaven

and the expanse of the universe have dissolved, when the stars have

ceased to shine and the lamp of the moon is veiled, when the earth

trembles and the lightning plays around it, invoke not the visible

phantom of Nature’s soul, for thou must in no wise behold it until thy

body has been purified by the holy ordeals. Enervators of souls, which

they distract from sacred occupations, the dog-faced demons issue from

the confines of matter and expose to mortal eyes the semblances of

illusory bodies. Labour round the circles described by the rhombus of

Hecate. Change thou nothing in the barbarous names of evocation, for

they are pantheistic titles of God; they are magnetised by the devotion

of multitudes and their power is ineffable. When after all the phantoms

thou shalt behold the shining of that incorporeal fire, that sacred

fire the darts of which penetrate in every direction through the depths

of the world—hearken to the words of the fire.[38]

These astonishing sentences, which are taken from the Latin of

Patricius, embody the secrets of magnetism and of things far deeper,

which it has not entered into the heart or people like Du Potet and

Mesmer to conceive. We find (_a_) the Astral Light described perfectly,

together with its power of producing fluidic forms, of reflecting

language and echoing the voice; (_b_) the will of the adept signified

by the stalwart child mounted on a white horse—a symbol met with in

an ancient Tarot card preserved in the _Bibliothèque Nationale_;[39]

(_c_) the dangers of hallucination arising from misdirected magical

works; (_d_) the _raison d’être_ of enchantments accomplished by the

use of barbarous names and words; (_e_) the magnetic instrument termed

_rhombos_,[40] which is comparable to a child’s humming top; (_f_)

the term of magical practice, which is the stilling of imagination

and of the senses into a state of complete somnambulism and perfect

lucidity.[41]

It follows from this revelation of the ancient world that clairvoyant

extasis is a voluntary and immediate application of the soul to the

universal fire, or rather to that light—abounding in images—which

radiates, which speaks and circulates about all objects and every

sphere of the universe. This application is operated by the persistence

of will liberated from the senses and fortified by a succession of

tests. Herein consisted the beginning of magical initiation. Having

attained the power of direct reading in the light, the adept became a

seer or prophet; then, having established communication between this

light and his own will, he learned to direct the former, even as the

head of an arrow is set in a certain direction. He communicated at his

pleasure either strife or peace to the souls of others; he established

intercourse at a distance with those fellow-adepts who were his peers;

and, in fine, he availed himself of that force which is represented by

the celestial lion. Herein lies the meaning of those great Assyrian

figures which hold vanquished lions in their arms. The Astral Light is

otherwise represented by gigantic sphinxes, having the bodies of lions

and the heads of Magi. Considered as an instrument made subject to

magical power, the Astral Light is that golden sword of Mithra used in

his immolation of the sacred bull. And it is the arrow of Phœbus which

pierced the serpent Python.

Let us now reconstruct in thought the great metropolitan cities of

Assyria, Babylon and Nineveh; let us restore to their proper place

the granite colossi; let us formulate the massive temples, held up by

elephants and sphinxes; let us raise once more those obelisks from

which dragons look down with shining eyes and wings outspread. Temples

and palaces tower above these wondrous piles. For ever concealed, but

manifested also for ever by the fact of their miracles, the priesthood

and the royalty, like visible divinities of earth, abide therein. The

temple is surrounded with clouds or glows with supernatural brilliance

at the will of the priests; now it is dark in the daylight and again

the night is enlightened; the lamps of the temple spring of themselves

into flame; the gods are radiant; the thunders roll; and woe to that

impious person who may have invoked on his own head the malediction of

initiates. The temples protect the palaces and the king’s retainers do

battle for the religion of the Magi. The monarch himself is sacred; he

is a god on earth; the people lie prone as he passes; and the maniac

who would attempt to cross the threshold of his palace falls dead

immediately, by the intervention of an invisible hand, and without

stroke of mace or sword. He is slain as if by the bolt, blasted by fire

from heaven. What religion and what power. How mighty are the shadows

of Nimrod, of Belus, of Semiramis. What can surpass these almost

fabulous cities, where such mighty royalties were enthroned—these

capitals of giants, capitals of magicians, of personalities identified

by tradition with angels and still termed sons of God or princes of

heaven. What mysteries have been put to sleep in these sepulchres

of past nations; and are we better than children when we exalt our

enlightenment and our progress, without recalling these startling

memorials?

In his work on Magic,[42] M. Du Potet affirms, with a certain timidity,

that it is possible to overwhelm a living being by a current of

magnetic fluid. Magical power extends beyond this limit, but it is not

confined within the measures of the putative magnetic fluid. The Astral

Light as a whole, that element of electricity and of lightning, can be

placed at the disposition of human will. What must be done, however, to

acquire this formidable power? Zoroaster has just told us; we must know

those mysterious laws of equilibrium which subjugate the very powers of

evil to the empire of good. We must have purified our bodies by sacred

trials, must have conquered the phantoms of hallucination and taken

hold bodily of the light, imitating Jacob in his struggle with the

angel. We must have vanquished those fantastic dogs which howl in the

world of dreams. In a word, and to use the forcible expression of the

Oracle, we must have heard the light speak. We are then its masters and

can direct it, as Numa did, against the enemies of the Holy Mysteries.

But if in the absence of perfect purity and if under the government of

some animal passion, by which we are still subjected to the fatalities

of tempestuous life, we proceed to this kind of work, the fire which

we kindle will consume ourselves; we shall fall victims to the serpent

which we unloose and shall perish like Tullus Hostilius.

It is not in conformity with the laws of Nature for man to be devoured

by wild beasts. God has armed him with the power of resistance; his

eyes can fascinate them, his voice restrain, his sign bring them to a

pause. We know indeed, as a literal fact, that the most savage animals

quail before a steady human glance and seem to tremble at the human

voice. The explanation is that they are paralysed and awe-stricken by

projections of the Astral Light. When Daniel was accused of imposture

and false Magic, both he and his accusers were subjected by the king

of Babylon to an ordeal of lions. Such beasts attack those only who

fear them or of whom they are themselves afraid. It is utterly certain

that the tiger will recede before the magnetic glance of a brave man,

although the latter may be disarmed.

The Magi utilised this power and the kings of Assyria kept tigers,

leopards and lions in their gardens, in a state of docility. Others

were reserved in vaults beneath the temples for use in the ordeals

of initiation. The symbolic bas-reliefs are the proof; they depict

trials of strength between men and animals, and the adept, clothed

in his priestly garb, controls the brutes by a glance of his eye and

stays them with his hand. When such animals are depicted in one of the

forms ascribed to the sphinx, they are doubtless symbolical, but in

other representations the brute is of the natural order, and then the

struggle seems to illustrate a theory of actual enchantment.

Magic is a science; to abuse is to lose it, and it is also to destroy

oneself. The kings and priests of the Assyrian world were too great

to be free from this danger, if ever they fell; as a fact, pride did

come upon them and they did therefore fall. The great magical epoch of

Chaldea is anterior to the reigns of Semiramis and Ninus. At this time

religion had begun already to materialise and idolatry to prevail. The

cultus of Astarte succeeded that of the heavenly Venus and royalty

arrogated to itself divine attributes under the names of Baal and of

Bel, or Belus. Semiramis made religion subservient to politics and

conquests, replacing the old mysterious temples by ostentatious and

ill-advised monuments. This notwithstanding, the magical idea continued

to prevail in art and science, sealing the constructions of that epoch

with the characteristics of inimitable power and grandeur. The palace

of Semiramis was a building synthesis of entire Zoroastrian dogma,

and we shall recur to it in explaining the symbolism of those seven

masterpieces of antiquity which are called the wonders of the world.

The priesthood became secondary to the empire as the result of an

attempt to materialise its own power. The fall of the one was bound

to involve the other, and it came to pass under the effeminate

Sardanapalus. This prince, abandoned to luxury and indolence, reduced

the science of the Magi to the level of one of his courtesans. What

purpose did marvels serve if they failed in ministration to pleasure?

Compel, O enchanters, compel the winter to produce roses; double the

savour of wine; apply your power over the light to make the beauty

of women shine like that of divinities. The Magi obeyed and the king

passed from intoxication to intoxication. But it came about that war

was declared and that the enemy was already on the march. That enemy

might signify little to the sybarite steeped in his pleasures. But

it was ruin, it was infamy, it was death. Now Sardanapalus did not

fear death, since for him it was an endless sleep, and he knew how to

avoid the toils and humiliations of servitude. The last night came;

the victor was already upon the threshold; the city could stand out no

longer; the kingdom of Assyria must end on the morrow. The palace of

Sardanapalus was illuminated and blazed with such splendour that it

lightened all the consternated city. Amidst piles of precious stuffs,

amidst jewels and golden vessels, the king held his final orgie.

His women, his favourites, his accomplices, his degenerate priests

surrounded him; the riot of drunkenness mingled with the music of a

thousand instruments; the tame lions roared; and a smoke of perfumes,

going up from the vaults of the palace, enveloped the whole edifice

in a heavy cloud. But tongues of fire began to penetrate the cedar

panelling; the frenzied songs were replaced by cries of terror and

groans of agony. The magic which, in the hands of its degraded adepts,

could not safeguard the empire of Ninus, did at least mingle its

marvels to emblazon the terrible memories of this titanic suicide. A

vast and sinister splendour, such as the night of Babylon had never

seen, seemed suddenly to set back and enlarge the vault of heaven; a

noise, like all the thunders of the world pealing together, shook the

earth, and the walls of the city collapsed. Thereafter a deeper night

descended; the palace of Sardanapalus melted, and when the morrow came

his conqueror found no trace of its riches, no trace even of the king’s

body and all his luxuries.

So ended the first empire of Assyria, and the civilisation founded of

old by the true Zoroaster. Thus also ended Magic, properly so called,

and the reign of the Kabalah began. Abraham on coming out from Chaldea

carried its mysteries with him. The people of God increased in silence,

and we shall meet before long with Daniel confounding the miserable

enchanters of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.[43]

CHAPTER III

MAGIC IN INDIA

We are told by Kabalistic tradition that India was peopled by the

descendants of Cain, and thither at a later period migrated the

descendants of Abraham and Keturah; in any case it is, above all

others, the country of Göetia and illusionary wonders. Black Magic

has been perpetuated therein, as well as the original traditions of

fratricide imposed by the powerful on the weak, continued by the

dominant castes and expiated by the pariahs. It may be said of India

that she is the wise mother of all idolatries. The dogmas of her

gymnosophists would be keys of highest wisdom if they did not open

more easily the gates leading to degradation and death. The astounding

wealth of Indian symbolism seems to suggest that it is anterior to all

others, and this is supported by the primeval freshness of its poetic

conceptions. But the root of its tree seems to have been devoured by

the infernal serpent. That deification of the devil against which we

have already entered an energetic protest is displayed in all its

grossness. The terrible Trimurti of the Brahmans comprises a Creator, a

Destroyer and a Preserver. Their Adhi-nari, who represents the Divine

Mother, or Celestial Nature, is called also Bohani, to whom the thugs

or stranglers make votive offerings of their murders. Vishnu, the

preserver, incarnates only to destroy an inferior devil, who is always

brought back to life by the intervention of Siva or Rudra, the god of

death. One is conscious that Siva is the apotheosis of Cain, but there

is nothing in all this mythology which recalls the mildness of Abel.

The mysteries of India are notwithstanding grandiose in their poetry

and singularly profound in their allegories; but they are the Kabalah

in profanation, and hence so far from sustaining the soul and leading

it to supreme wisdom, Brahminism, with its learned theories, plunges it

into gulfs of madness.

[Illustration: THE INDIAN AND JAPANESE MYSTERY OF UNIVERSAL EQUILIBRIUM

AND THE EGYPTIAN PANTOMORPHIC IYINX]

It was from the false Kabalism of India that the Gnostics borrowed

their reveries—by turns horrible and obscene; it is also Indian

Magic, manifesting on the threshold of the occult sciences with a

thousand deformities, which terrifies reasonable minds and provokes

the anathemas of all the understanding churches. It is this false

and dangerous knowledge, so often confounded by the ignorant and by

smatterers with true science, which has involved all that bears the

name of occultism in a general condemnation, to which the author of

these pages himself subscribed sincerely before he had attained the key

of the magical sanctuary. For theologians of the Vedas, God manifests

as force only; all progress and all revelations are determined by

conquest; Vishnu incarnates in monstrous leviathans of the sea and in

enormous wild boars, which mould the primeval earth with their snouts.

Still it is a marvellous pantheistic genesis and the authors of its

fables are lucid at least in their somnambulism. The ten Avatars of

Vishnu correspond numerically to the _Sephiroth_ of the Kabalah. The

god in question assumed successively three animal or elementary forms

of life, after which he became a sphinx and then a human being. He

appeared next as Brahma and in a guise of assumed humility possessed

the whole earth. He was a child on another occasion, and as such the

consoling angel of the patriarchs. After this he assumed the mask of a

warrior and gave battle to the oppressors of the world. Again he was

embodied as diplomacy, opposing it to violence, and seems at this point

to have abandoned the human form to assume the agility of the monkey.

Diplomacy and violence consumed one another, and the world awaited

some intellectual and moral redeemer. Vishnu thereupon incarnated as

Krishna. He was proscribed even in his cradle, beside which there

watched the symbolical ass. He was carried far away to save him from

the power of his enemies; he attained manhood and preached the doctrine

of mercy and good works. He descended into hell, bound the infernal

serpent and returned gloriously to heaven. His annual festival is in

August, under the sign of the Virgin. Here is astonishing intuition

concerning Christian mysteries and so much the more impressive when

we remember that the sacred books of India passed into writing many

centuries before the Christian era. To the revelation of Krishna

succeeded that of Buddha, who married the purest religion to philosophy

of the highest kind. The happiness of the world was thus held to be

secured and there was nothing further to expect, pending the tenth and

final incarnation, when Vishnu will return in his proper form, leading

the horse of the last judgment—that dread steed whose fore foot is

raised always and when it is set down the world will be strewn in atoms.

We may note herein the presence of the sacred numbers and prophetic

calculations of the Magi. Gymnosophists and Zoroastrian initiates

drew from the same sources, but it was the false and black Zoroaster

who remained master of theology in India. The final secrets of this

degenerate doctrine are pantheism and its legitimate consequence,

being absolute materialism masquerading as the absolute negation of

matter. But what, it may be asked, does it signify whether spirit

is materialised or matter spiritualised so long as the equality and

identity of the two terms are postulated? But the consequence of such

pantheism is, however, mortal to ethics: there are neither crimes

nor virtues in a world where all is God. We may expect after such

teachings a progressive degradation of the Brahmans into a fanatical

quietism; but as yet the end was not reached. It remained for their

great magical ritual, the Indian book of occultism, otherwise the

_Oupnek’hat_, to furnish the physical and moral means of consummating

the work of their stupefaction and arriving by a graduated method

at that raving madness termed by their sorcerers the Divine State.

The work in question is the progenitor of all grimoires and the most

curious among the antiquities of Göetia. It is divided into fifty

sections and is a darkness spangled with stars. Sublime maxims are

blended with false oracles.[44] At times it reads like the Gospel of

St. John, as, for example, in the following extracts from the eleventh

and forty-eighth sections.

“The angel of creative fire is the word of God, which word produced

the earth and the vegetation that issues therefrom, together with the

heat which ripens it. The word of the Creator is itself the Creator

and is also His only Son.” Now, on the other hand, the reveries are

worthy only of the most extravagant arch-heretics: “Matter being only

a deceptive appearance, the sun, the stars and the very elements are

genii, while animals are demons and man is a pure spirit deceived by

the illusions of forms.” We are perhaps sufficiently edified by these

extracts in respect of doctrinal matters and may proceed to the Magical

Ritual of the Indian enchanters.

“In order to become God, the breath must be retained—that is to

say, it must be inhaled as long as possible, till the chest is well

distended—and in the second place, the divine OM must be repeated

inwardly forty times while in this state. Expiration, in the third

place, follows very slowly, the breath being mentally directed through

the heavens to make contact with the universal ether. Those who would

succeed in this exercise must be blind, deaf and motionless as a log

of wood. The posture is on knees and elbows, with the face turned to

the North. One nostril is stopped with a finger, the air is inhaled

by the other, which is then also closed, the action being accompanied

by dwelling in thought on the idea that God is the Creator, that He

is in all animals, in the ant even as in the elephant. The mind must

be absorbed in these thoughts. OM is at first recited twelve times

and afterwards twenty-four times during each inspiration, and then

as rapidly as possible. This regimen must be continued for three

months—without fear, without remission, eating and sleeping little. In

the fourth month the Devas will manifest; in the fifth you will have

acquired all qualities of the Devatas; in the sixth you will be saved

and will have become God.”

What seems certain is that in the sixth month the fanatic who is

sufficiently imbecile to persevere in such a practice will be dead or

insane. If, however, he should really survive this exercise in mystic

breathing, the _Oupnek’hat_ does not leave him in the happy position

mentioned but makes him pass to other experiences.

“With the end of one finger close the anus, and then draw the breath

from below upwards on the right side; make it circulate three times

round the second centre of the body; thence bring it to the navel,

which is the third centre; then to the fourth, which is the middle of

the heart; subsequently to the throat, which is the fifth; and finally

to the sixth, which is the root of the nose. There retain the breath:

it has become that of the universal soul.”

This seems simply an auto-hypnotic method of inducing a certain

cerebral congestion. But the author of the treatise continues:

“Think therefore of the great OM, which is the name of the Creator

and is that universal, pure and indivisible voice which fills all

things. This voice is the Creator Himself, Who becomes audible to the

contemplative after ten manners. The first sound is like that of a

little sparrow; the second is twice the first in volume; the third is

like the sound of a cymbal; the fourth is as the murmur of a great

shell; the fifth is comparable to the song of the Indian lyre; the

sixth is like the sound of the instrument called _tal_; the seventh

resembles the sound of a _bacabou_ flute, held close to the ear; the

eighth is like that of the instrument called _Pakaoudj_, which is

struck with the hand; the ninth is like the sound of a little trumpet

and the tenth like that of a thunder cloud. At each of these sounds

the contemplative passes through different states, and at the tenth he

becomes God. At the first sound the hairs of his whole body rise erect;

at the second, his limbs become torpid; at the third, he feels through

all his frame the kind of exhaustion which follows the intercourse of

love; at the fourth, his head swims and he is as one intoxicated; at

the fifth, the life-force flows back into his brain; at the sixth, this

force descends into him and he is nourished thereon; at the seventh,

he becomes the master of vision, can see into the hearts of others,

and hears the most distant voices; at the ninth he becomes so ethereal

that he can pass wheresoever he will and can see without being seen,

like the angels; at the tenth, he becomes the universal and indivisible

voice. He is the great creator, the eternal being, exempt from all and,

having become the perfect peace, he dispenses peace to the world.”

What is noticeable in these most curious extracts is their exhaustive

description of phenomena which characterise lucid somnambulism combined

with a complete practice of auto-hypnosis; it is the art of inducing

ecstasy by tension of the will and fatigue of the nervous system. We

recommend therefore to mesmerists a careful study of the mysteries of

the _Oupnek’hat_. The graduated use of narcotics and of a scale of

coloured discs will produce effects analogous to those described by

the Indian sorcerer. M. Ragon has provided the recipe in his work on

_La Maçonnerie Occulte_.[45] The _Oupnek’hat_ gives a simpler method

of losing consciousness and arriving at ecstasy; it is to look with

both eyes at the end of the nose and to maintain this act, or rather

this grimace, until paralysis of the optic nerve supervenes. All such

practices are equally painful, dangerous and ridiculous; we are far

from recommending them to anyone; but we do not question that in a

shorter or longer time, according to the sensibility of the subjects,

they will induce ecstasy, catalepsy and even a dead swoon. In order

to obtain vision and the phenomena of second sight, a state must be

reached which is akin to that of sleep, death and madness. It is in

this that the Indians excel and it is perhaps to their secrets that we

must refer the strange power of certain American mediums.

Black Magic may be defined as the art of inducing artificial mania in

ourselves and in others; but it is also and above all the science of

poisoning. What is however generally unknown, and the discovery in our

days is due to M. Du Potet, is that it is possible to destroy life by

the sudden congestion or withdrawal of the Astral Light. This may take

place when, through a series of almost impossible exercises, similar to

those described by the Indian sorcerer, our nervous system, having been

habituated to all tensions and fatigues, has become a kind of living

galvanic pile, capable of condensing and projecting powerfully that

light which intoxicates or destroys.

We are not, however, at the end of the _Oupnek’hat_ and its magical

wonders; there is a final arcanum which the darksome hierophant

entrusts to his initiates as the supreme secret of all; it is actually

the shadow and reverse side of the great mystery of Transcendent Magic.

Now, the latter is the absolute in morality and consequently in the

direction of activity and in freedom. On the other hand, that of the

_Oupnek’hat_ is the absolute in immorality, in fatality and in deadly

quietism: it is expressed as follows by the author of the Indian work:

“It is lawful to lie in order to facilitate marriages, to exalt the

virtues of a Brahman or the good qualities of a cow. God is truth,

and in Him shadow and light are one. Whosoever is acquainted with

this truth never lies, for his very falsehood turns true. Whatever

sin he commits, whatever evil he performs, he is never guilty; if he

committed a double parricide; if he killed a Brahman initiated into the

mysteries of the Vedas; in a word, whatever he did, his light would not

be impaired, for God says: I am the Universal Soul; in Me are good and

evil, which are moderated one by the other; he who knows this cannot

sin, for he is universal even as Myself.”

Such doctrines are incompatible with civilisation, and furthermore, by

stereotyping its social hierarchy, India has imbedded anarchy in the

castes, whereas social life is a question of exchange. Now, exchange

is impossible when everything belongs to a few and nothing to others.

What do social gradations signify in a putative civil state wherein

no one can fall or rise? Herein is the long-delayed punishment of the

fratricide; it is one which involves his entire race and condemns it to

death. Should some alien, proud and egotistic nation intervene, it will

sacrifice India—even as oriental legends tell us that Cain was killed

by Lamech. Woe, notwithstanding to the murderer of Cain—so say the

sacred oracles of the Bible.

CHAPTER IV

HERMETIC MAGIC

It is in Egypt that Magic attains the grade of completion as an

universal science and is formulated as a perfect doctrine. As a

summary of all the dogmas which obtained in the ancient world, nothing

surpasses and indeed nothing equals those few paragraphs graven on

precious stone by Hermes and denominated the Emerald Tablet. Unity of

being and unity in the harmony of things, according to the ascending

and descending scales; progressive and proportional evolution of

the Word; immutable law of equilibrium and graduated progress of

universal analogies; correspondence between the idea and its expression

providing a measure of likeness between Creator and created; essential

mathematics of the infinite, proved by the dimensions of a single angle

in the finite: all this is expressed by the one proposition: “that

which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is

like that which is above, for the fulfilment of the wonders of the one

thing.” Hereunto are added the revelation and illuminating description

of the creative agent, the pantomorphic fire, the great medium of

occult force—in a word, the Astral Light.

“The sun is its father and the moon its mother; the wind has borne

it in the belly thereof.” It follows that this light has emanated

from the sun and has received form and rhythmical movement from the

influences of the moon, while the atmosphere is its receptacle and

prison. “The earth is its nurse”—that is to say, it is equilibrated and

set in motion by the central heat of the earth. “It is the universal

principle, the TELESMA of the world.”

Hermes goes on to set forth in what manner this light, which is also a

force, can be applied as a lever, as an universal dissolvent and as a

formative and coagulative agent; how also this light must be extracted

from the bodies in which it lies latent in order to imitate all the

artifices of Nature by the aid of its diverse manifestations as fire,

motion, splendour, radiant gas, scalding water or finally igneous

earth. The Emerald Tablet contains all Magic in a single page.[46] The

other works attributed to Hermes,[47] such as the _Divine Pymander_,

_Asclepius_, _Minerva of the World_, &c. are generally regarded by

critics as productions of the School of Alexandria; but they contain

notwithstanding the Hermetic traditions which were preserved in

theurgic sanctuaries. For those who possess the keys of symbolism

the doctrines of Hermes can never be lost; amidst all their ruin,

the monuments of Egypt are as so many scattered leaves which can be

collected and the book of those doctrines thus reconstructed entirely.

In that vast book the capital letters are temples and the sentences are

cities punctuated with obelisks and by the sphinx.

The physical division of Egypt was itself a magical synthesis, and the

names of its provinces corresponded to the ciphers of sacred numbers.

The realm of Sesostris was divided into three parts; of these Upper

Egypt, or the Thebaid, was a type of the celestial world and the

land of ecstasy; Lower Egypt was the symbol of earth; while Middle

or Central Egypt was the land of science and of high initiation.

Each of these parts was subdivided into ten provinces, called Nomes,

and was placed under the particular protection of a god. There were

therefore 30 gods and they were grouped by threes, giving symbolical

expression in this manner to all possible conceptions of the triad

within the decad, or otherwise to the threefold material, philosophical

and religious significance of absolute ideas attached primitively to

numbers. We have thus the triple unity or the first triad, the triple

binary[48] formed by the first triad and its reflection, being the Star

of Solomon; the triple triad or the complete idea under each of its

three forms; the triple quaternary, being the cyclic number of astral

revolutions, and so onward. The geography of Egypt under Sesostris

is therefore a pantacle or symbolical summary of the entire magical

dogma originating with Zoroaster and rediscovered or formulated more

precisely by Hermes.

In this manner did the land of Egypt become as a great volume and the

instructions contained therein were multiplied by translation into

pictures, sculptures, architecture through the length and breadth

of the towns and in all temples. The very desert had its eternal

teachings, and its word of stone was set squarely on the foundations

of the pyramids. The pyramids themselves stood like boundaries of

the human intelligence, in the presence of which the colossal sphinx

meditated age after age, sinking by insensible degrees into the desert

sand. Even at this day its head, defaced by the work of time, still

emerges from its sepulchre, as if waiting expectantly the signal for

its complete entombment at the coming of a human voice revealing to a

new world the problem of the pyramids.

Egypt from our standpoint is the cradle of science and of wisdom, for

it clothed with images the antique dogma of the first Zoroaster more

exactly and more purely, if not more richly, than those of India.

The Sacerdotal Art and the Royal Art made adepts by initiation in

Egypt, and such initiation was not restricted within the egotistic

limits of caste. We know that a Jewish bondsman himself attained not

only initiation but the rank of minister in chief, perhaps even of

Grand Hierophant, for he espoused the daughter of an Egyptian priest,

and there is evidence that the priesthood in that country tolerated

no misalliance. Joseph realised in Egypt the dream of communism; he

established the priesthood and the state as sole proprietors and thus

sole arbiters of labour and wealth. In this way he abolished distress

and turned the whole of Egypt into a patriarchal family. It is a

matter of common knowledge that his elevation was due to skill in

the interpretation of dreams, a science which even devout Christians

now refuse to credit, though they recognise that the Bible, which

narrates the wonderful divinations of Joseph, is the word of the Holy

Spirit. The science of Joseph was none other than a comprehension

of the natural analogies which subsist between ideas and images, or

between the Word and its symbols. He knew that the soul when immersed

by sleep in the Astral Light, perceives the reflections of its most

secret thoughts and even of its presentiments; he knew further that the

art of translating the hieroglyphics of sleep is the key of universal

lucidity, seeing that all intelligent beings have revelations in dreams.

The basis of absolute hieroglyphical science was an alphabet in which

deities were represented by letters, letters represented ideas, ideas

were convertible into numbers, and numbers were perfect signs. This

hieroglyphical alphabet was the great secret which Moses enshrined

in his Kabalah; its Egyptian origin is commemorated in the _Sepher

Yetzirah_, in which it is referred to Abraham. Now this alphabet is the

famous Book of Thoth, and it was divined by Court de Gebelin that it

has been preserved to our own day in the form of Tarot cards. It passed

later on into the hands of Etteilla, who interpreted it in the wrong

sense, for even a study extending over thirty years could not atone for

his want of common sense or supply deficiencies in his education. The

record exists still among the drift and waste of Egyptian monuments;

and its most curious, most complete key is found in the great work on

Egypt by Athanasius Kircher. It is the copy of an Isiac tablet which

belonged to the celebrated Cardinal Bembo. The tablet in question is

of copper with figures in enamel, and it has been unfortunately lost.

The copy supplied by Kircher is, however, exact.[49] The learned Jesuit

divined that it contained the hieroglyphic key of sacred alphabets,

though he was unable to develop the explanation. It is divided into

three equal compartments; above are the twelve houses of heaven and

below are the corresponding distributions of labour throughout the

year, while in the middle place are twenty-one sacred signs answering

to the letters of the alphabet. In the midst of all is a seated

figure of the pantomorphic IYNX, emblem of universal being[50] and

corresponding as such to the Hebrew _Yod_, or to that unique letter

from which all other letters were formed. The IYNX is encircled by the

Ophite triad, answering to the Three Mother Letters of the Egyptian

and Hebrew alphabets.[51] On the right are the ibimorphic and serapian

triads; on the left are those of Nepthys and Hecate, representing

active and passive, fixed and volatile, fructifying fire and generating

water. Each pair of triads in conjunction with the centre produces

a septenary, and a septenary is contained in the centre. The three

septenaries furnish the absolute number of the three worlds, as well

as the complete number of primitive letters, to which a complementary

sign is added, like zero to the nine numerals. The ten numbers and

the twenty-two letters are termed in Kabalism the Thirty-two Paths of

Wisdom, and their philosophical description is the subject of that

venerated primæval book known as the _Sepher Yetzirah_, the text of

which will be found in the collection of Pistorius and elsewhere.[52]

The alphabet of Thoth is the original of our Tarot only in an indirect

manner, seeing that the latter is of Jewish origin in the extant copies

and that its pictures are not older than the reign of Charles VII. The

cards of Jacquemin Gringonneur are the first Tarots of which we have

any knowledge, but they reproduce symbols belonging to the highest

antiquity. The game in its modern form was an experiment on the part of

astrologers to restore the king, who has been mentioned, to reason.[53]

The oracles of the Tarot give answers as exact as mathematics and

measured as the harmonies of Nature. Such answers result from

the varied combination of the different signs. But it requires a

considerable exercise of reason to make use of an instrument belonging

to reason and to science; the poor king, in his childish condition, saw

only the playthings of an infant in the artist’s pictures and he turned

the mysterious Kabalistic alphabet[54] into a game of cards.

[Illustration: EXPLANATORY DIAGRAM OF THE ASTRONOMICAL AND ALPHABETICAL

TABLET OF BEMBO]

We are told by Moses that the Israelites carried away the sacred

vessels of the Egyptians when they came out of the land of bondage.

The account is allegorical, for the great prophet would scarcely

have encouraged his people in an act of theft; the sacred vessels in

question were the mysteries of Egyptian knowledge, acquired by Moses

himself at the court of Pharaoh. We are by no means suggesting that

the miracles of this man of God are referable to Magic; but we know

on the authority of the Bible that Jannes and Mambres, who were the

magicians of Pharaoh and consequently grand hierophants of Egypt, began

by performing in virtue of their art wonders which were similar to

those of Moses. They transformed wands into serpents and serpents again

into wands, which might be explicable by prestige or fascination; they

changed water into blood; they produced a swarm of frogs in a moment;

but they could not cause flies to appear or other parasitic insects,

for reasons which we have explained already, as also the manner in

which they were forced to confess themselves vanquished.

Moses triumphed and led the Israelites out of the land of bondage. It

was at this period that true science became lost to Egypt, for the

priests, abusing the implicit confidence of the people, allowed that

knowledge to degenerate into brutalising idolatry. Such is the rock of

peril for esoteric science; the truth must be veiled, yet not hidden

from the people; symbolism must not be disgraced by a lapse into

absurdity; the sacred veil of Isis must be preserved in its beauty and

dignity. It was over this that the Egyptian priesthood failed; the

vulgar and the foolish understood the hieroglyphic forms of Isis and

Hermanubis as real things, so that Osiris was understood to be an ox,

while the wise Hermes was a dog. The transformed Osiris masqueraded in

the fantastic guise of the bull of Apis, nor did the priests hinder the

people from adoring flesh intended for their kitchens. It was time to

save the holy traditions; Moses established a new nation and forbade

all worship of images; but the people unfortunately had dwelt long

among idolaters and memories of the bull of Apis remained with them

in the desert. We know the history of that Golden Calf to which the

children of Israel have been always a little addicted. Moses, however,

did not wish the sacred hieroglyphics to pass out of memory, and he

sanctified them by their consecration to the purified worship of the

true God. We shall see how all objects which entered into the cultus

of Jehovah were symbolic in character and recalled the venerable signs

of primæval revelation. But we must first finish with the Gentiles

and follow through pagan civilisation the story of materialised

hieroglyphics and of ancient rites degenerated.

CHAPTER V

MAGIC IN GREECE

We pass now to the period when the exact sciences of Magic assumed

their natural external form, being that of beauty. We have seen in the

_Zohar_ how the human prototype rose in heaven and was reflected below

in the waters of being. This ideal man, this shadow of the pantomorphic

god, this virile phantom of perfect form was not destined to dwell

alone in the world of symbolism. There was given to him a companion

under the beneficent sky of Hellas. The celestial Venus, the chaste

and fruitful Venus, the triple mother of the three Graces, rose in her

turn, no longer from the sleeping deeps of chaos, but from the living

and flowing waves of that echoing archipelago of poetry, where islands

embroidered with green trees and flowers seem as the vessels of gods.

The magical septenary of Chaldea passes into music on the seven

strings of the Orphic lyre. It is harmony which transforms the woods

and wildernesses of Greece. To the melody of the songs of Orpheus,

the rocks are smoothed, the oaks sway in measures and the wild beasts

become subject to man. By such magic did Amphion raise up the walls

of Thebes—that wisdom-city of Cadmus, the city of initiation, itself

a pantacle like the seven wonders of the world. As Orpheus gave life

to numbers, so Cadmus bound thought to the sigils of letters. The one

established a nation dedicated to all things beautiful, and for that

nation the other provided a native land, corresponding to its genius

and its love.

In the ancient Greek traditions, Orpheus is numbered among the

heroes of the Golden Fleece, who were the primeval conquerors of the

Great Work. The Golden Fleece is the vesture of the sun itself; it is

light in application to the needs of man; it is the grand secret of

magical works; it is in fine, initiation as this should be understood

essentially; and it was the quest of these or this which carried the

allegorical heroes into a mystic Asia. On the other hand, Cadmus

was a voluntary exile from the glorious Thebes of Egypt; he brought

into Greece the knowledge of letters and that harmony of which they

are images. The new Thebes, the typical city of wisdom, was built to

the measures of that harmony, for science consists in the rhythmic

correspondence between hieroglyphical, phonetic and numeral characters,

the inherent motion of which follows the eternal laws of mathematics.

Thebes is circular and its citadel is square; like the sky of Magic,

it has seven gates, and its legend was destined to become the epic of

occultism and the foreshadowed history of human genius.

All these mysterious allegories, all these inspired traditions,

are the soul of Greek civilisation; but we must be dissuaded from

seeking the real history of their poetic heroes otherwise than in the

transformations of oriental history carried into Greece by unknown

hierophants. It was only the history of ideas which was written by the

great of those days, and they were at little pains to acquaint us with

the human struggles belonging to the birth of empires. Homer followed

in their path, marshalling the gods, who are the immortal types of

thought; it was in this sense that a world’s upheaval followed on the

frown of Jupiter. If Greece carried fire and sword into Asia, it was

to avenge the profanations of science and virtue in their sacrifice to

lust; it was to restore the empire of the world to Minerva and Juno,

in despite of that sensuous Venus who ruined her devoted lovers. Such

is the sublime mission of poetry, which substitutes gods for men,

or causes in place of effects and eternal concepts for the sorry

incarnations of greatness on earth. Ideas raise up and they also cast

down empires; a faith of some kind is at the root of all grandeur, and

in order that faith may be poetry, or in other words creative, it must

be founded on truth. The only history which is worthy to occupy the

wise is that of the light which is victorious over darkness for ever.

That which is called a civilisation is one great day of this sun.

The fable of the Golden Fleece connects Hermetic Magic with Greek

initiations. The Golden Fleece of the solar ram, which must be

obtained by those or by him who would possess universal sovereignty,

is figurative of the Great Work. The Argonautic vessel, built of

timber from the prophetic oaks of Dodona, the speaking vessel, is the

ship of the mysteries of Isis, the ark of life-force and renewal, the

coffer of Osiris, the egg of divine regeneration. The adventurer Jason

is he who is prepared for initiation, but he is a hero in his valour

only; he has all the inconstancy and all the weakness of humanity, but

he takes with him the personifications of all power. Hercules, who

signifies brute force, has no real part in the work, for he goes astray

from the path in pursuit of his unworthy loves. The others arrive in

the land of initiation, of Colchis, where the remnant of Zoroastrian

secrets is still preserved. The question is how to obtain the key of

these mysteries, and science is once again betrayed by a woman. Medea

delivers to Jason the arcana of the Great Work, with the kingdom and

the life of her father; for it is a fatal law of the occult sanctuary

that the revelation of its secrets entails death upon him who has

proved unable to preserve them. Medea informs Jason of the monsters

with which he must do battle and of that which will ensure his victory.

There is firstly the winged serpent of earth, the astral fluid which

must be seized and fixed; its teeth must be drawn and sown in a waste

place, which has been previously ploughed by the bulls of Mars. The

dragon’s teeth are those acids[55] which dissolve the metallic earth

after its preparation by a double fire and by the earth’s magnetic

forces. A fermentation follows, comparable to a great battle; the

impure is devoured by the impure, and the splendid Fleece is the reward

of the adept.

So ends the magical romance of Jason and that of Medea follows, for

Greek antiquity sought to include in this history the complete epic

of occult science. Hermetic Magic is succeeded by göetia, parricide,

fratricide, infanticide, sacrificing all to its passions but never

enjoying the harvest of its crimes. Medea betrays her father like Ham

and assassinates her brother like Cain. She stabs her children, poisons

her rival and reaps the hatred of him whose love she has coveted. It

may be surprising on the surface that Jason does not gain in wisdom by

the mastery of the Golden Fleece, but it must be remembered that he

owes the discovery of its secrets to treason only. He is a ravisher

after the manner of Prometheus and not an adept like Orpheus; he is in

search of wealth and power rather than of knowledge. Hence he perishes

miserably, for the inspiring and sovereign virtues of the Golden Fleece

will be never understood except by the disciples of Orpheus.

Prometheus, the Golden Fleece, the Thebaid, the Iliad and the

Odyssey—these five great epics, full of the mysteries of Nature and

human destinies, constitute the bible of ancient Greece, a cyclopean

monument, a Pelion piled upon an Ossa, masterpiece over masterpiece,

form on form, beautiful as light itself and throned upon eternal

thoughts, sublime in truth. It was however at their proper risk and

peril that the hierophants of poetry committed to the Greek people

these marvellous fictions in which truth was shrined. Aeschylus who

dared to depict the Titanic struggles, superhuman woes and divine

hopes of Prometheus—Aeschylus, the awe-inspiring poet of the family of

Œdipus—was accused of betraying and profaning the mysteries and escaped

with difficulty a severe condemnation. We are unable at this day to

realise his whole intent, which was a dramatic trilogy embracing the

entire symbolic history of Prometheus. It follows that he exhibited

to the assembled people how Prometheus was delivered by Alcides and

how Jupiter was cast from his throne. The omnipotence of genius in its

suffering and the decisive victory of patience over power are fine no

doubt, but the crowd might see therein the future triumph of impiety

and anarchy. Prometheus overcoming Jupiter might be understood as the

people destined to be liberated one day from their priests and kings;

and guilty hopes might count for much in the prodigal applause accorded

to him who unveiled this prospect imprudently. To the leanings of dogma

towards poetry we owe the masterpieces in question, and we are not

therefore to be counted among the austere initiates who would wish,

like Plato, to crown and then exile the poets; for the true poets are

ambassadors of God on earth and those who cast them forth deserve no

blessing from heaven.

The great Greek initiator and he who civilised it first was also

its first poet, for even in allowing that Orpheus was a mystical or

fabulous personality, we must believe in the existence of Musæus

and attribute to him the verses which pass under the name of his

master.[56] It matters little to us otherwise whether one of the

Argonauts was called Orpheus or not, for the poetic creator has done

more than live; he lives in immortality for ever. The Orphic fable is

a complete dogma, a revelation of priestly destinies, a new ideal form

of the worship of beauty. The regeneration and redemption of love are

indicated already therein. Orpheus descends into hell, seeking Eurydice

and must bring her back without seeing her; so must the pure man create

his companion, raise her to himself by devotion and not by desire of

her. It is in renouncing the object of passion that we deserve to

possess the object of true love. We are already in the atmosphere of

the pure dreams of Christian chivalry. But the hierophant is still a

man; he falters, questions and looks. _Ab miseror Eurydicem._ She is

lost, the error is committed, the expiation must now begin. Orpheus

is widowed and remains as such in purity; the marriage with Eurydice

had not attained consummation, and as the widower of one who was a

virgin he rested himself in virginity. The poet is not two-hearted

and children of the race of gods love once and once alone. Paternal

inspirations, yearnings for an ideal which shall be found beyond the

tomb, widowhood made holy in its consecration to the sacred muse.

What a revelation in advance of inspirations yet to come. Orpheus,

bearing in his heart a wound that nothing but death shall heal, becomes

a doctor of souls and bodies; he dies at length, the victim of his

chastity—the death which he suffers is that of initiators and prophets.

He perishes proclaiming the unity of god and the unity also of love:

this at a later period was the root of the Orphic Mysteries.

Having shewn himself raised so far above his own epoch, Orpheus earned

in due course the reputation of a sorcerer and enchanter. To him, as

to Solomon, were attributed the knowledge of simples and minerals,

of celestial medicine and the philosophical stone. With these he was

doubtless acquainted, since he personifies primitive initiation, fall

and reparation in his legend—the three divisions of the great work of

humanity.

Orphic initiation may, according to Ballanche, be summarised in the

following manner: “Made subject in the first place to the influence

of the elements, man’s own influence must afterwards govern these.

Creation is the act of a divine magism which is continuous and eternal.

True being resides for man in self-knowledge. Responsibility is for

him a conquest and the very penalty of sin is another occasion for

victory. All life is founded on death, and palingenesis is the law

of reparation. Marriage is the reproduction in humanity of the great

cosmogonical mystery. It should be one, as God and Nature are one. It

is the unity of the Tree of Life, while debauch is division and death.

Astrology is a synthesis, because the Tree of Life is a single tree

and because its branches—spread through heaven and bearing flowers of

stars—are in correspondence with its roots, which are hidden in earth.

The knowledge of the medical and magical virtues resident in plants,

metals and bodies endowed with varying degrees of life, is also a

synthetic knowledge. The capacities for organisation in their various

grades are revealed by a synthesis. The aggregations and affinities

of metals, like the vegetative soul of plants and like all powers of

assimilation, are also made known by a synthesis.”

It has been said that the beautiful is the splendour of the true, and

it is therefore to this great light of Orpheus that we must ascribe

the perfection of form which was manifested for the first time in

Greece. To him also—as to a source—is referable the school of divine

Plato, that pagan father of all high Christian philosophy. From him

did Pythagoras and the _illuminati_ of Alexandria alike derive their

mysteries. Initiation does not suffer vicissitude; it is one and the

same, wheresoever we meet with it through the ages. The last disciples

of Martines de Pasqually are still the children of Orpheus; but they

adore the Realiser of antique philosophy, Who is the incarnate Word of

Christians.

We have said that the first part of the fable concerning the Golden

Fleece embodies the secrets of Orphic Magic and that the second part

is dedicated to judicious warnings against the abuses of Göetia or

the Magic of darkness. False or Göetic Magic, known at the present

day under the name of sorcery, can never rank as a science: it is the

empiricism of fatality. All excessive passion produces a factitious

force of which will cannot be the master, but that force is obedient

to the tyranny of passion. This is why Albertus Magnus counsels us

to curse no one in our wrath. It is the story of the malediction of

Hippolytus by Theseus. Excessive passion is real madness, and the

latter in its turn is an intoxication or congestion of Astral Light.

This is why madness is contagious and why passions in general operate

as a veritable witchcraft. Women are superior to men in sorcery because

they are more easily transported by excess of passion. The word

sorcerer clearly designates victims of chance and, so to speak, the

poisonous mushrooms of fatality.

Greek sorcerers, but especially those of Thessaly, put horrible

precepts to the proof and were given over to abominable rites. They

were mostly women wasted by desires which they could no longer satisfy,

antiquated courtesans, monsters of immorality and ugliness. Jealous of

love and life, those wretched creatures found lovers only in the tombs,

or rather they violated sepulchres to devour with foul caresses the icy

bodies of young men. They stole children and stifled their cries by

pressing them to their dangling breasts. They were known as _lamiæ_,

_stryges_, _empusæ_; children were the objects of their envy and thus

of their hatred, and they sacrificed them for this reason. Some, like

that Canidia who is mentioned by Horace, buried them as far as the head

and left them to die of hunger, surrounded with food which they could

not reach; others cut off the heads, hands and feet, boiled their fat

and grease, in copper basins, to the consistence of an ointment, which

they afterwards mixed with the juice of henbane, belladonna and black

poppies. With this unguent they anointed the organ which was irritated

unceasingly by their detestable desires; they rubbed also their temples

and arm-pits, and then fell into a lethargy full of unbridled and

luxurious dreams. There is need to speak plainly—these are the origins

and this is the traditional practice of Black Magic; these are the

secrets which were handed down to the middle ages; and such in fine are

the pretended innocent victims whom public execration, far more than

the sentence of inquisitors, condemned to the flames. It was in Spain

and in Italy above all that the race of _stryges_, _lamiæ_ and _empusæ_

abounded, even at a late period; those who doubt should consult the

most experienced criminologists of these countries, digested by

Franciscus Torreblanca,[57] Royal Advocate of the Chancelry of Granada,

in his _Epitome Delictorum_.

Medea and Circe are the types of Malefic Magic among the Greeks. Circe

is the vicious female who bewitches and debases her lovers; Medea is

the brazen poisoner who dares everything and makes Nature itself the

abettor of her crimes. There are actually creatures who enchant like

Circe and whose proximity defiles. They can inspire nothing but brutal

passions; they exhaust and then disdain you. They must be treated

according to the policy of Ulysses, by compelling them to obedience

through fear and by being able to leave them in the end without regret.

They are beautiful, heartless monsters and their vanity is their whole

life. They were depicted by antiquity in the form of syrens.

As to Medea, she is perversity incarnate, willing and working evil.

She is capable of love and does not yield to fear, but her love is

more terrible than her hate. She is a bad mother and the destroyer

of children; she loves the night and under the rays of the moon she

gathers noxious herbs for the brewing of poisons. She magnetises the

air, brings dole to earth, infects water and makes even the fire

venomous. Reptiles provide her with their skins; she mutters frightful

words; the track of blood follows her; and mutilated limbs fall from

her hands. Her counsels madden, her caresses beget horror.

Such is the woman who has sought to rise beyond the duties of her sex

by familiarity with forbidden sciences. Men avoid her, children hide

when she passes. She is devoid of reason, devoid of true love, and

the stratagems of Nature in revolt against her are the ever-renewing

torment of her pride.

CHAPTER VI

MATHEMATICAL MAGIC OF PYTHAGORAS

He who initiated Numa, and of whose proficiency in Magic something

has been said already, was a personage known as Tarchon, himself the

disciple of a Chaldean named Tages. Science had then its apostles who

went to and fro in the world, making priests and kings therein. Not

infrequently persecution itself was overruled to fulfil the designs of

Providence, and so it came about toward the seventy-second Olympiad, or

four generations after the reign of Numa. Pythagoras of Samos sought a

refuge in Italy from the tyranny of Polycrates. The great promoter of

the philosophy of numbers had visited all the sanctuaries of the world

and had even been in Judæa, where he suffered circumcision[58] as the

price of his admission into the mysteries of the Kabalah, communicated

to him, though not without a certain reserve, by the prophets Ezekiel

and Daniel. Subsequently, but again not without difficulty, he obtained

Egyptian initiation, being recommended by the King Amasis. The

capacities of his own genius supplemented the imperfect revelations

of the hierophants, so that he became himself a master and one who

expounded the mysteries.

Pythagoras defined God as a living and absolute truth clothed in

light; he defined the Word as number manifested by form; and he

derived all things from the _Tetractys_—that is to say, the tetrad. He

said also that God is supreme music, the nature of which is harmony.

Religion was, according to him, the highest expression of justice;

medicine was the most perfect practice of science; the beautiful

was harmony; force, reason; felicity, perfection; while truth in

application consisted in distrusting the weakness and perversity of men.

When he made his dwelling at Crotona, the magistrates of that city,

seeing that he exercised so great an influence over minds and hearts,

were at first in some anxiety concerning him; but ultimately they

sought his advice. Pythagoras counselled them to cultivate the muses

and maintain the most perfect accord among themselves, because feuds

between masters fomented rebellion among servants. Thereafter he

imparted to them his grand religious, political and social precept:

There is no evil which is not to be preferred before anarchy—an axiom

of universal application and almost infinite depth, though one which

even our own age is not as yet sufficiently enlightened to understand.

Outside the traditions of his life, the remains of Pythagoras are his

Golden Verses and his Symbols, of which the former have passed into

commonplaces of popular morality, so great has been their success

through the ages. They have been rendered as follows:[59]—

“First worship the immortal gods, as they are established and ordained

by the Law. Reverence the oath and next the heroes, full of goodness

and light.... Honour likewise thy parents, and those most nearly

related to thee. Of all the rest of mankind, make him thy friend who

distinguishes himself by his virtue. Always give ear to his mild

exhortations, and take example from his virtuous and useful actions.

Avoid as much as possible hating thy friend for a slight fault.

Understand that power is a near neighbour to necessity.... Overcome

and vanquish these passions—gluttony, sloth, sensuality, and anger.

Do nothing evil, neither in the presence of others nor privately, and

above all things respect thyself. In the next place, observe justice in

thy actions and in thy words.... The goods of fortune are uncertain; as

they may be acquired, so may they likewise be lost. Always make this

reflection, that it is ordained by destiny that all men shall die....

Support with patience thy lot, be it what it may, and never repine at

it; but endeavour what thou canst to remedy it. Consider that fate does

not send the greatest portion of these misfortunes to good men.... Let

no man by his words, or by his deeds seduce thee; nor entice thee to

say or to do what is not profitable for thyself. Consult and deliberate

before thou act, that thou mayst not commit foolish actions. For it is

the part of a miserable man to speak and to act without reflection.

But do that which will not afflict thee afterwards, nor oblige thee

to repentance. Never do anything which thou dost not understand; but

learn all that thou oughtest to know, and by that means thou wilt lead

a very pleasant life. In no wise neglect the health of thy body; but

give it drink and meat in due measure, and also the exercise of which

it has need.... Accustom thyself to a way of living that is neat and

decent without luxury.... Do only the things which cannot hurt thee,

and deliberate before thou dost them. Never suffer sleep to close thy

eyelids, after thy going to bed, till thou hast examined by thy reason

all thy actions of the day. Wherein have I done amiss? What have I

done? What have I omitted that I ought to have done?”

Up to this point the Golden Verses seem to be only the instructions

of a schoolmaster. They bear however a very different construction.

They are the preliminary laws of magical initiation, which constitute

the first part of the Great Work, that is to say, the creation of the

perfect adept. This is proved by the following verses:

“I swear by him who has transmitted into our souls the Sacred

Quaternion, the source of nature, whose cause is eternal. Never

begin to set thy hand to any work, till thou hast prayed the gods to

accomplish what thou art going to begin. When thou hast made this habit

familiar to thee, thou wilt know the constitution of the Immortal Gods

and of men. Even how far the different beings extend, and what contains

and binds them together ..., and nothing in this world shall be hid

from thee.... O Jupiter, our Father! if thou wouldst deliver men from

all the evils that oppress them, shew them of what daimon they make

use. But take courage; the race of men is divine.... When, having

divested thyself of thy mortal body, thou arrivest at the most pure

Æther, thou shalt be a god, immortal, incorruptible, and death shall

have no more dominion over thee.”

Pythagoras said otherwise: “As there are three divine concepts

and three intelligible realms, so is there a triple word, because

hierarchic order is ever manifested by the triad. There are (_a_)

simple speech, (_b_) hieroglyphical speech and (_c_) symbolical

speech. In other terms, there is the word which expresses, there is

the concealing word and, finally, there is the word that signifies:

all hieratic intelligence is in the perfect science of these three

degrees.” After this manner he enshrined doctrine in symbols, but

eschewing personifications and images which, in his opinion, begot

idolatry sooner or later. He has been even charged with detestation

of poets, but it was the makers of bad verses to whom he forbade the

art: “Thou who hast no harp, seek not to sing in measures,” he says

in his symbols. A man so great as he could never disregard the exact

correspondence between sublime thoughts and beautiful figurative

expressions; indeed his own symbols are full of poetry: “Do not scatter

the flowers of which crowns are made.” In such terms he exhorts his

disciples never to diminish glory and never to flout that which it

seems good for the world to honour.

Pythagoras was chaste, but far from commanding celibacy to his

disciples he married on his own part and had children. A beautiful

saying of his wife has remained in memory: she had been asked whether

purification was not requisite in a woman after intercourse with

a man, and in such case after what lapse of time she might regard

herself as sufficiently purified to approach holy things. She replied:

“Immediately, if it be with her husband; but if it be with another,

never.”

The same severity of principles, the same purity of manners, qualified

in the school of Pythagoras for initiation into the mysteries of Nature

and so was attained that empire over self by which the elementary

powers could be governed. Pythagoras possessed the faculty which by us

is termed second sight and was known then as divination. Being with his

disciples one day on the seashore, a vessel appeared on the horizon.

“Master,” said one of the companions, “would it mean wealth if they

gave me the cargo carried by that ship?” “To you it would be more than

useless,” Pythagoras answered. “In such case I would keep it for my

heirs.” “Would you wish to bequeathe them two corpses?” The vessel came

into port and proved to be bearing the body of a man who desired to be

buried in his own country.

It is related furthermore that beasts were obedient to Pythagoras. Once

in the middle of the Olympic Games, he signalled to an eagle winging

its way through heaven; the bird descended, wheeling circle-wise, and

again took rapid flight at the master’s token of dismissal. There

was also a great bear, ravaging in Apulia; Pythagoras brought it to

his feet and told it to leave the country. It disappeared accordingly

and when asked to what knowledge he owed such a marvellous power, he

answered: “To the science of light.” Animated beings are, in fact,

incarnations of light. Out of the darkness of ugliness forms emerge and

move progressively towards the splendours of beauty; instincts are in

correspondence with forms; and man who is the synthesis of that light

whereof animals may be termed the analysis, is created to command them.

It has come about, however, that in place of ruling as their master, he

has become their persecutor and destroyer, so that they fear and have

rebelled against him. In the presence of an exceptional will which is

at once benevolent and directing they are completely magnetised, and a

host of modern phenomena both can and should enable us to understand

the possibility of miracles like those of Pythagoras.

Physiognomists have observed that the majority of men have a certain

facial resemblance to one or another animal. It may be a matter

of imagination only, produced by the impression to which various

physiognomies give rise, and revealing some prominent personal

characteristics. A morose man is thus reminiscent of a bear, a

hypocrite has the look of a cat, and so of the rest. These kinds of

judgments are magnified in the imagination and exaggerated still

further in dreams, when people who have affected us disagreeably during

the waking state transform into animals and cause us to experience all

the agonies of nightmare. Now, animals—as much as ourselves and more

even than we—are under the rule of imagination, while they are devoid

of that judgment by which we can check its errors. Hence they are

affected towards us according to the sympathies or antipathies which

are excited by our own magnetism. They are, moreover, unconscious of

that which underlies the human form and they regard us only as other

animals by whom they are dominated, the dog taking his master for a dog

more perfect than himself. The secret of dominion over animals lies

in the management of this instinct. We have seen a famous tamer of

wild beasts fascinate his lions by exhibiting a terrible countenance

and acting himself as if he were a lion enraged. Here is a literal

application of the popular proverb which tells us to howl with the

wolves and bleat with the sheep. It must also be realised that every

animal form manifests a particular instinct, aptitude or vice. If we

suffer the character of the beast to predominate within us, we shall

tend to assume its external guise in an ever-increasing degree and

shall even come to impress its perfect image on the Astral Light;

more even than this, when we fall into dreams or ecstasy, we shall

see ourselves as ecstatics and somnambulists would see us and as we

must appear undoubtedly in the eyes of animals. Let it happen in such

cases that reason be extinguished, that persistent dreams change into

madness, and we shall be turned into beasts like Nebuchadnezzar. This

explains those stories of were-wolves, some of which have been legally

established. The facts were beyond dispute, but the witnesses were not

less hallucinated than the were-wolves themselves.[60]

Cases of coincidence and correspondence in the dream-state are neither

rare nor extraordinary. Persons in the state of magnetic ecstasy

can see and talk to one another from opposite ends of the earth. We

ourselves may meet someone for the first time and he or she will seem

to be an old acquaintance because we have encountered frequently in

dream. Life is full of these curious occurrences and as regards the

transformation of human beings into animals, the evidences are on every

side. How many aged courtesans and gluttonous females, reduced almost

to idiocy after threading all sewers of existence, are nothing but old

she-cats egregiously enamoured of their tom.

Pythagoras believed above all things in the soul’s immortality and in

the perpetuity of life. The endless succession of summer and winter,

day and night, sleeping and waking, illustrated amply for him the

phenomenon of death. For him also the particular immortality of human

souls consisted in persistence of memory. He is said to have been

conscious of his previous incarnations and if the report is true, it

was something suggested by his reminiscences, for such a man as he

could have been neither impostor nor fool.[61] It is probable that he

came upon former memories in his dreams, while simple speculation and

hypothesis have been constructed as positive affirmation on his part.

However this may be, his thought was great, for the real life of our

individuality consists in memory alone. Those waters of Lethe pictured

by the ancients were the true philosophical type of death. The Bible

appears to impart a divine sanction to this idea when it is said in the

Book of Psalms that “the just shall be in everlasting remembrance.”[62]

CHAPTER VII

THE HOLY KABALAH

Let us now have recourse to the origin of true science by recurring

to the Holy Kabalah, or tradition of the children of Seth, taken from

Chaldea by Abraham, communicated by Joseph to the Egyptian priesthood,

ingarnered by Moses, concealed by symbols in the Bible, revealed by the

Saviour to St. John, and embodied in its fulness in hieratic images,

analogous to those of all antiquity, in the Apocalypse of this Apostle.

Whatsoever was in kinship with idolatry was held in detestation by

the Kabalists, which notwithstanding, God is represented by them

under a human figure, but it is purely hieroglyphical. For them He

is the intelligent, the loving, the living infinite. He is neither

the totality of all beings, nor being in abstraction, nor a being

who is philosophically definable. He is in all things, being more

and greater than all. His very name is ineffable, and yet this name

gives expression only to the human ideal of His divinity.[63] It is

not possible for man to understand God in Himself. He is the absolute

of faith, but the absolute of reason is Being. Being is self-existent

and is because it is. The cause of Being is Being itself. It is matter

of legitimate speculation why this or that exists, but it would be

absurd to inquire why Being is, for it would be to postulate Being as

antecedent to Being.

It is demonstrated by reason and science that the modes of existence in

Being are equilibrated in accordance with harmonious and hierarchic

laws. Now the hierarchy is graduated on an ascending scale, becoming

more and more monarchic. At the same time reason cannot pause in the

presence of one absolute chief without being overwhelmed by the heights

which it discerns above this supreme king; it takes refuge therefore in

silence and gives place to adoring faith. That which is certain, for

science and for reason alike, is that the idea of God is the grandest,

most holy and most serviceable of all aspirations in man; that morality

and its eternal sanction repose on this belief. In humanity it is

therefore the most real phenomenon of being, and if it were false

therefore, Nature would formulate the absurd, the void would affirm

life, and it might be said at one and the same time that there was God

and there was no God. It is to this philosophical and incontestable

reality, or otherwise the notion of Deity, that the Kabalists give

a name, and all other names are contained therein.[64] The ciphers

of this name produce all numbers and the hieroglyphical forms of

its letters give expression to all laws of Nature, with all that is

therein. We shall not recur in this place to that which has been dealt

with already as regards the divine Tetragram in the _Doctrine of

Transcendental Magic_; but it may be added that the Kabalists inscribe

it in four chief ways: (1) as יהוה, JHVH, which is spelt but not

pronounced. The consonants are YOD, HE, VAU, HE, and they are rendered

as JEHOVAH by us in opposition to all analogy, for the Tetragrammaton

so disfigured is composed of six letters.[65] (2) אדני, ADNI, meaning

Lord and pronounced by us ADONAI.[66] (3) אהיה AHIH, which signifies

Being and is pronounced by us EIEIE.[67] (4) אגלא, AGLA, pronounced

as it is written and comprising hieroglyphically all mysteries of the

Kabalah.[68]

[Illustration: PANTACLE OF KABALISTIC LETTERS]

The letter _Aleph_, א, is the first of the Hebrew alphabet, and

expressing as it does unity, it represents hieroglyphically the

dogma of Hermes: that which is above is analogous to that which is

below. In consonance with this the letter has two arms, one of which

points to earth and the other to heaven with an identical gesture.

The letter _Gimel_, ג, is third in the alphabet; it expresses the

triad numerically, and hieroglyphically it signifies childbirth,

fruitfulness. Lamed, ל, is the twelfth letter and is an expression of

the perfect cycle. Considered as a hieroglyphical sign it represents

the circulation of the perpetual movement and the relation of the

radius to the circumference. The duplicated _Aleph_ represents the

synthesis. Therefore the name AGLA signifies: (1) unity, which

accomplishes by the triad the cycle of numbers, leading back to unity.

(2) The fruitful principle of Nature, which is one therewith. (3)

The primal truth which fertilises science and restores it to unity.

(4) Syllepsis, analysis, science and synthesis. (5) The Three Divine

Persons Who are one God; the secret of the Great Work, which is

the fixation of the Astral Light by a sovereign act of will and is

represented by the adepts as a serpent pierced with an arrow, thus

forming the letter _Aleph_. (6) The three operations of dissolution,

sublimation and fixation, corresponding to the three essential

substances, Salt, Sulphur and Mercury—the whole being expressed by the

letter _Gimel_. (7) The twelve keys of Basil Valentine, represented

by _Lamed_. (8) Finally, the Work accomplished in conformity with its

principle and reproducing the said principle.

Herein is the origin of that Kabalistic tradition which comprises

all Magic in a single word. To know how this word is read and how

also it is pronounced, or literally to understand its mysteries and

translate the knowledge into action, is to have the key of miracles. In

pronouncing the word AGLA it is said that one must turn to the East,

which means union of intention and knowledge with oriental tradition.

It should be remembered further that, according to Kabalah, the perfect

word is the word realised by acts, whence comes that expression which

recurs frequently in the Bible: _facere verbum_, to make a word—that

is, in the sense of performing an act. To pronounce the word AGLA

Kabalistically is therefore to pass all tests of initiation and

accomplish all its works.[69]

It has been said in the _Doctrine of Transcendental Magic_ that the

name Jehovah resolves into seventy-two explicatory names, called

_Shemahamphorash_.[70] The art of employing these seventy-two names and

discovering therein the keys of universal science is the art which is

called by Kabalists the Keys of Solomon. As a fact, at the end of the

collections of prayers and evocations which bear this title, there are

found usually seventy-two magical circles, making thirty-six talismans,

or four times nine, being the absolute number multiplied by the tetrad.

Each of these talismans bears two of the two-and-seventy names, the

sign emblematical of their number and that of the four letters of

Tetragrammaton to which they correspond. From this have originated the

four emblematical Tarot suits: the Wand, representing the _Yod_; the

Cup, answering to the _He_; the Sword, referable to the _Vau_; and the

Pentacle, in correspondence with the final _He_. The complement of the

denary has been added in the Tarot, thus repeating synthetically the

character of unity.[71]

The popular traditions of Magic affirm that he who possesses the Keys

of Solomon can communicate with spirits of all grades and can exact

obedience on the part of all natural forces. These Keys, so often lost

and as often again recovered, are no other than the talismans of the

seventy-two names and the mysteries of the thirty-two hieroglyphical

paths, reproduced by the Tarot. By the aid of these signs and by their

infinite combinations, which are like those of numbers and letters, it

is possible to arrive at the natural and mathematical revelation of

all secrets of Nature, and it is in this sense that communication is

established with the whole hierarchy of intelligence.

The Kabalists in their wisdom were on their guard against the dreams

of imagination and hallucinations of the waking state. Therefore they

avoided in particular all unhealthy evocations which disturb the

nervous system and intoxicate reason. Makers of curious experiments in

phenomena of extra-atural vision are no better than the eaters of opium

and hasheesh. They are children who injure themselves recklessly. It

may happen that one is overtaken by intoxication; we may even so far

forget ourselves voluntarily as to seek the experience of drunkenness,

but for the man who respects himself, a single instance suffices. Count

Joseph de Maistre says that one of these days we shall deride our

present stupidity, much as we deride the barbarity of the middle ages.

What would he think, did he see our table-turners or listen to makers

of hypotheses concerning the world of spirits? Poor creatures that we

are, we escape from one absurdity by rushing over to its opposite.

The eighteenth century thought that it protested against superstition

by denying religion and we in return testify to the impiety of that

period by believing in old wives’ fables. Is it impossible to be a

better Christian than Voltaire and still not believe in ghosts? The

dead can no more revisit this earth which they have quitted than a

child can return into the womb of its mother.[72] That which we call

death is birth into a new life. Nature does not repeat what it has

once done in the order of necessary progression through the scale of

existence, and she cannot bely her own fundamental laws. Limited by its

organs and served by these, the human soul can enter into communication

with things of the visible world only by the intermediation of these

organs. The body is an envelope adjusted to the physical environments

in which the soul abides here. By confining the action of the soul it

makes her activity possible. In the absence of body the soul would be

everywhere, and yet in so attenuated a sense that it could act nowhere,

but, lost in the infinite, would be swallowed up and annihilated in

God.[73] Imagine a drop of fresh water shut up in a globule and cast in

the sea; as long as that sheath is preserved intact, the drop of water

will subsist in its separate form, but let the globule be broken and

where shall we look for the drop in the vast sea?

In creating spirits, God could endow them with self-conscious

personality only by their restriction in an envelope, so to centralise

their action and by restriction save it from being lost. When the soul

separates from the body it changes environment of necessity, since it

changes the envelope.[74] It goes forth clothed only in the astral

form, or vehicle of light, ascending in virtue of its nature above

the atmosphere, as air rises from the water in escaping from a broken

vessel. We say that the soul ascends because the vehicle ascends and

because action and consciousness are both attached thereto.[75] The

atmospheric air becomes solid for luciform bodies which are infinitely

rarer than itself, and they could only come down by assuming a

grosser vehicle. Where would they obtain this in the region above

our atmosphere? They could only return to earth by means of another

incarnation, and such return would be a lapse, for they would be

renouncing the state of free spirit and renewing their novitiate. The

possibility of such a return is not admitted, moreover, by the catholic

religion.

The doctrine here set forth is formulated by the Kabalists in a single

axiom: The spirit clothes itself to come down and unclothes itself to

go up. The life of intelligence is ascensional. In the body of its

mother, the child has a vegetative life and draws nourishment through

a cord to which it is attached, as the tree is attached to the earth

by its root and is also nourished thereby. When the child passes

from vegetative to instinctive and animal life, the cord breaks and

henceforth he has free motion. When the child becomes man, he escapes

from the trammels of instinct and can act as a reasonable being. When

the man dies, he is liberated from the law of gravitation, by which

he has been previously bound to earth. When the soul has expiated its

offences, it grows strong enough to emerge from the exterior darkness

of the terrestrial atmosphere and mount towards the sun.[76] The

unending ascent of the sacred ladder begins therein, for the eternity

of the elect cannot be a state of idleness; they pass from virtue

to virtue, from bliss to bliss, from victory to victory, from glory

to glory. There is no break in the chain, and those of the superior

degrees can still exercise an influence on those who are below, but it

is in harmony with the hierarchic order and after the same way that

a king who rules wisely does good to the humblest of his subjects.

From stage to stage, the prayers arise and the graces pour down, never

mistaking the path. But spirits who have once gone up cannot again come

down, for in proportion to their ascent the zones solidify below them.

The great gulf is fixed, says Abraham, in the parable of the rich man,

so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.[77]

Ecstasy may so exalt the powers of the star-body that it can draw the

material body after it, thus proving that the destiny of the soul is to

ascend. The stories of aerial levitation are possible, but there is no

instance of a man being able to live under the earth or in water. It

would be not less impossible for a soul in separation from the body to

subsist for a single moment in the density of our atmosphere. Therefore

departed beings are not about us, as spiritists suppose. Those whom we

love may see us and to us may still manifest, but only by mirage and

reflection in the common mirror of the Astral Light. Furthermore they

can take interest no longer in mortal things; they hold to us only by

that which is highest in our feelings and is in correspondence with

their eternal mode.[78]

Such are the revelations of Kabalism as imbedded in the mysterious book

of the Zohar; for science they are of course hypothetical, but they

rest on a series of exact inductions and these inductions are drawn

from facts uncontested by science.

We are brought at this point into touch with one of the most dangerous

secrets in the domain of Magic, being the more than probable hypothesis

concerning the existence of those fluidic _larvæ_ known in ancient

theurgy under the name of elementary spirits. Something has been said

upon the subject in _The Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic_,

and the ill-starred Abbé de Villars, who jested with these terrible

revelations, paid for his imprudence with his life.[79] The reason

that the secret is dangerous is because it verges on the great magical

arcanum. The truth is that the evocation of elementary spirits implies

power to coagulate fluids by a projection of the Astral Light, and this

power, so directed, can produce only disorders and misfortunes, as will

be shewn at a later stage. Meanwhile, the grounds of the hypothesis

and the evidence of its probability follow: Spirit is everywhere, and

is that which animates matter; it overcomes the force of gravity by

perfecting the vehicle which is its form. We see everywhere around us

how form develops with instincts, till intelligence and beauty are

attained: these are efforts of the light attracted by the charm of

the spirit; they are part of the mystery of progressive and universal

generation.

The light is the efficient agent of forms and life, because it is

both motion and heat. When fixed and polarised about a centre, it

produces a living being and draws thereafter the plastic substance

needed to perfect and preserve it. This plastic substance is, in the

last analysis, formed of earth and water and, with good reason, is

denominated slime of the earth in the Bible. But this light is in

nowise spirit, as believed by the Indian hierophants and all schools

of Göetia: it is only the spirit’s instrument. Nor is it the body of

the _protoplastes_, though so regarded by theurgists of the school

of Alexandria. It is the first physical manifestation of the Divine

Breath. God creates it eternally and man, who is in the image of God,

modifies and seems to multiply it.[80]

Prometheus, says the classical fable, having stolen fire from heaven,

gave life thereby to images formed of earth and water, for which crime

he was blasted and chained by Jupiter. Elementary spirits, say the

Kabalists in their most secret books, are children of the solitude of

Adam, born of his dreams when he yearned for the woman who as yet had

not been given to him by God.[81] According to Paracelsus, the blood

lost at certain regular periods by the female sex and the nocturnal

emissions to which male celibates are subject in dream people the air

with phantoms.[82] The hypothetical origin of _larvæ_, according to

the masters, is here indicated with sufficient clearness and further

explanation may be spared.

Such _larvæ_ have an aerial body formed from vapour of blood, for which

reason they are attracted towards spilt blood and in older days drew

nourishment from the smoke of sacrifices. They are those monstrous

offspring of nightmare which used to be called _incubi_ and _succubi_.

When sufficiently condensed to be visible, they are as a vapour tinged

by the reflection of an image; they have no personal life, but they

mimic that of the magus who evokes them, as the shadow images the body.

They collect above all about idiots and those immoral creatures whose

isolation abandons them to irregular habits. The cohesion of parts

being very slight in their fantastic bodies, they fear the open air,

a great fire and above all the point of a sword. They become, in a

manner, as vapourous appendages to the real bodies of their parents,

since they live only by drawing on the life either of those who have

created them or those who appropriate them by their evocation. It may

come about in this manner that if these shadows of bodies be wounded,

their parent may be maimed in real earnest, even as the unborn child

may be hurt and disfigured by the imaginations of its mother. The world

is full of such phenomena; they justify these strange revelations and

can only be explained thereby.

Such _larvæ_ draw the vital heat of persons in good health and they

drain those who are weak rapidly. Hence come the histories of vampires,

things of terrific reality which have been substantiated from time to

time, as it is well known. This explains also why in the neighbourhood

of mediums, who are persons obsessed by _larvæ_, one is conscious of a

cooling in the atmosphere. Seeing that their existence is due to the

illusions of imagination and divagation of the senses, such creatures

never manifest in the presence of a person who can unveil the mystery

of their monstrous birth.

BOOK II

_FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMAS_

ב—BETH

CHAPTER I

PRIMITIVE SYMBOLISM OF HISTORY

To explain Holy Scripture from the religious and dogmatic standpoint

forms no part of our warrant. Subject above all things to the

hierarchic order, we surrender theology to the doctors of the Church

and we render to human science whatsoever is included in the domain of

experience and reason. Therefore on those occasions when we may appear

to be risking a new application of some biblical passage, it is always

with proper respect for ecclesiastical decisions. We do not dogmatise

on our own part, and we submit our observations and researches to the

lawful authorities.

On reading the earliest history of the human race in the sacred work

of Moses, that which strikes one at once is the description of the

Earthly Paradise, which is summarised in the figure of a perfect

pantacle. It is circular or square, since it is watered equally by four

rivers arranged in the form of a cross, while in the centre are found

two trees representing knowledge and life, stable intelligence and

progressive motion, wisdom and creation.[83] The serpent of Asclepios

and Hermes is coiled about the Tree; beneath its shadow are the man

and woman, active and passive, intelligence and love. The serpent,

symbolising the primal attraction and the central fire of the earth,

tempts her who is the weaker, and she causes the man to succumb;

yet to the serpent she yields only in order that she may overcome

it subsequently: one day she will crush the head of it by giving a

Saviour to the world. All science is represented in this admirable

scene.[84] The man abdicates the realm of intelligence by yielding

to the solicitations of the sensitive part; he profanes the fruit of

knowledge, which should be the sustenance of the soul, by applying

it to the uses of unjust and material satisfaction; he loses in

consequence the sense of harmony and of truth. He is clothed thereafter

with the skin of a beast, because the physical form takes shape sooner

or later, and invariably, in correspondence to moral dispositions. He

is cast out of the circle which is watered by the four rivers of life,

and a cherub, armed with an ever-moving, burning sword, prevents his

return into the domain of unity.

As we have observed in the _Doctrine of Magic_, Voltaire discovered

that the Hebrew word for cherub signifies a bull and was highly amused

at the story. He might have been less entertained, had he recognised in

the angel with the head of a bull, the image of an obscure symbolism

and in the revolving sword of fire those flashes of ill-understood

and illusory truth which provided, after the Fall, a pretext to the

idolatry of nations. The burning sword typified also that light which

man knew no longer how to direct, so that, instead of governing its

force, he was made subject to its fatal influence. The great magical

work, understood in an absolute sense, is the conquest and direction of

the burning sword, and the cherub is the angel or soul of the earth,

represented invariably under the figure of a bull in the Ancient

Mysteries. Hence in Mithraic symbolism, the master of light is seen

vanquishing the bull of earth and plunging into his flank that sword

which sets free the life, represented by drops of blood.

The first consequence of Eve’s sin is the death of Abel. By separating

love from understanding she separated it also from power, and this,

reduced to blindness and in the bondage of earthly desires, became

jealous of love and slew it. The children of Cain perpetuated the crime

of their father; the daughters whom they brought into the world were

disastrously beautiful but, being void of love, they were born for the

damnation of angels[85] and for the scandal of the descendants of Seth.

After the deluge and as a sequel to the prevarication of Ham, some part

of the mystery of which has been already indicated, the children of men

attempted to realise an insensate project, by constructing an universal

pantacle and palace. It was a vast experiment in socialistic equality,

and the phalansterium of Fourier is a sorry conception in comparison

with the tower of Babel.[86] The latter was an active protestation

against the hierarchy of knowledge, a citadel built against floods

and tempests, a promontory from the elevation of which the deified

people would soar above the atmosphere and its commotions. But one does

not ascend to knowledge on ladders of stone; the hierarchic degrees

of the spirit are not built with mortar like the stories of a tower.

Against such a materialised hierarchy anarchy itself protested, and men

ceased to understand one another—a fatal lesson and one misinterpreted

utterly by those who in our own days have dreamed of another Babel. The

negations of equality give answer to doctrines which are hierarchic

only in the sense of brutality and materialism. Whenever the human race

builds such a tower, the summit will be contested and the multitude

will desert the base. To satisfy all ambitions, the summit must be

broader than the base and the result an unstable edifice which will

collapse at the smallest shock.

The scattering of men was the first result of the curse pronounced

against the profane descendants of Ham, but the race of Canaan bore in

a particular manner the burden of the malediction in question, which

at a later period made all their posterity anathema.[87] That chastity

which is the guardian of the family is also the distinctive character

of hierarchic initiations; profanation and revolt are always unclean;

they tend to promiscuity and infanticide. Desecration of the mysteries

of birth and destruction of children were the basis of the religions

of ancient Palestine, given over to the horrible rites of Black Magic;

the black god of India, the monstrous priapic Rutrem, reigned therein

under the name of Belphegor. The Talmudists and the Platonic Jew Philo

recite things so shameful respecting the worship of this idol, that

they appeared incredible to the learned lawyer Seldenus. It is said

to have been a bearded image, with gaping mouth and a tongue like a

gigantic phallus; the worshippers exposed themselves without shame in

the presence of such a visage and presented offerings of excrement.

The idols of Moloch and Chamos were murderous machines which sometimes

crushed unfortunate little children against their brazen breasts and

sometimes consumed them in their red-hot arms. There was dancing to the

sound of trumpets and tambourines, so that the cries of the victims

were stifled, and these dances were led by the wretched mothers.

Incest, sodomy and bestiality were the authorised practices among these

infamous people, and even formed part of the sacred rites.

Such is the fatal consequence of doing violence to universal harmony;

one does not sin against truth with impunity. In revolt against God,

man is driven to the outrage of Nature, despite himself. Identical

causes ever produce the same effects, and the Sabbath of the Sorcerers

in the middle ages was but a repetition of the festivals of Chamos and

Belphegor. It is against such crimes that a decree of eternal death is

pronounced by Nature itself. Worshippers of black gods, apostles of

promiscuity, preachers of public wantonness, enemies of the family and

hierarchy, anarchists in religion and politics are enemies of God and

humanity; not to isolate them from the world is to consent that the

world shall be poisoned, or such at least was the view of inquisitors;

but we are far on our own part from desiring to re-establish the cruel

executions of the middle ages. In proportion as society shall become

more truly Christian it will realise more fully that we must heal those

who are diseased and not destroy them; now, criminal instincts are

surely the most appalling of mental maladies.

It must not be forgotten that transcendental Magic is called the

Sacerdotal Art and the Royal Art; in Egypt, Greece and Rome it shared

the grandeur and decadence of the kingdom and the priesthood. Every

philosophy which is at issue with the cultus and its mysteries is

baneful to the great political powers, for these, in the eyes of the

multitude, lose in grandeur if they cease to be symbols of Divine

power. Every crown is broken which comes into collision with the tiara.

The eternal dream of Prometheus is to steal fire from heaven and cast

down the gods therefrom. The popular Prometheus, unbound on Caucasus by

Hercules, who typifies labour, will ever bear about with him his rivets

and chains; he will carry his undying vulture, fastened on his gaping

wound, till he shall learn obedience at the feet of Him, who, being

born the King of kings and God of gods, has elected in His turn to be

nailed in hands and feet and pierced in the side for the conversion of

all rebellious spirits.

By opening the career of power to intrigue, republican institutions

endangered the principles of the hierarchy. The task of forming Kings

was confided no longer to the hierarchy and was either replaced by

right of inheritance—which abandons the throne to the unequal chances

of birth—or by popular election—which sets aside religious influence

to establish the monarchy on a basis of republican principles.

Those governments which presided successively over the triumphs and

humiliations of Greek and Roman states were formed in this manner.

The science reserved to the sanctuaries fell into neglect, and men of

boldness or genius, who had not been accepted by those who dispense

initiation, devised another science in opposition to that of the

priests, substituting doubt or denial for the secrets of the temple.

In the excess of their adventurous imagination, such philosophers

were landed quickly in absurdity and laid upon Nature the blame which

belonged to their own systems. Heraclitus fell a-weeping, Democritus

took refuge in laughter, and the one was a fool like the other.

Pyrrhon ended by believing in nothing, which can scarcely exonerate

him for the fact that he knew nothing. Into this philosophical chaos

Socrates brought a certain light and good sense, by affirming the

existence of pure and simple morality. But what does morality profit in

the absence of religion? The abstract Deism of Socrates was interpreted

by the people as atheism. It came about, however, that Plato, the

disciple of Socrates, attempted to supply that system of doctrine which

was wanting in the latter and of which indeed he had never dreamed.

[Illustration: THE TWENTY-FIRST KEY OF THE TAROT, SURROUNDED BY MYSTIC

AND MASONIC SEALS]

The doctrine of Plato was epoch-making in the history of human genius,

but it was not his own invention, for, realising that there is no truth

apart from religion, he went to consult the priests of Memphis and

to obtain initiation into their Mysteries. He is even credited with

a knowledge of the Jewish sacred books.[88] In Egypt, however, his

initiation could have been imperfect only, for the priests by that time

had forgotten themselves the import of their primeval hieroglyphics,

as is indicated by the history of that priest who spent three days in

deciphering a hieratic inscription found in the tomb of Alcmene and

sent by Agesilaus, King of Sparta. Cornuphis, who was doubtless the

most learned among the hierophants, consulted the old collections of

signs and characters; in the end he found that the inscription was

in the script of _proteus_, being the Grecian name of the _Book of

Thoth_, consisting of movable hieroglyphics, capable of variations as

numerous as there are possible combinations of characters, numbers and

elementary figures. But the _Book of Thoth_, being the key of oracles

and the elementary work on science, should not have involved such

long research before its signs were identified, if Cornuphis had been

really proficient in the Sacerdotal Art. Another proof that primeval

truths were obscured at this period is the fact that the oracles which

registered their protest on the subject were in a style that was

understood no longer.

After his return from Egypt, Plato was journeying with Simmias on

the confines of Caria when he was met by some men of Delos, who

begged him to interpret an oracle of Apollo. It declared that to

make an end of the woes in Greece the cubic stone must be doubled.

The attempt had been made with a stone kept in the temple of Apollo;

but the work of doubling it on every side resulted in a polyhedron

having twenty-five surfaces; to restore the cubic form they had to

increase it twenty-six times the original volume of the stone, by a

process of successive doubling. Plato sent back the emissaries to the

mathematician Eudoxus,[89] saying that the oracle had counselled the

study of geometry. Whether he did not himself understand the deep sense

of the symbol or disdained to unveil it to the ignorant are points

which must be left to conjecture; but that which is certain is that

the cubic stone and its multiplication explains all secrets of sacred

numbers, including the mystery of perpetual motion, hidden by adepts

and pursued by fools under the name of squaring the circle.[90] By this

cubic agglomeration of twenty-six cubes about a single central cube,

the oracle indicated to the Delians not only the elements of geometry

but the key of creative harmonies, explained by the inter-relation

of forms and numbers. The plan of all great allegorical temples

throughout antiquity is found in the multiplication (_a_) of the cube

by the cross, (_b_) about which a circle is described, and then (_c_)

the cubic cross moving in a globe. These notions, which are rendered

more intelligible by a diagram, have been handed on to our own days in

Masonic initiations, and they are a perfect justification of the name

attributed to the modern societies in question, for they are also the

root-principles of architecture and the science of building.

The Delians thought to answer the geometrical question by reducing

their multiplication by half, but they had already obtained eight times

the volume of their cubic stone. For the rest, the number of their

experiments may be extended at will, for the story itself is probably a

problem set to his disciples by Plato. If the utterance of the oracle

has to be taken as a fact, we can find a still deeper meaning in it;

to double the cubic stone is to extract the duad from unity, form from

idea, action from thought. It is to realise in the world the exactitude

of eternal mathematics, to establish politics on the basis of exact

sciences, to harmonise religious dogma with the philosophy of numbers.

Plato has more eloquence but less depth than Pythagoras; he aspires

to reconcile the philosophy of logicians with the immutable dogmas of

seers; he does not seek to vulgarise but would reconstruct science.

So was his philosophy destined at a later date to provide dawning

Christianity with theories prepared beforehand and with vivifying

doctrines. Notwithstanding, however, that he based his theorems on

mathematics, Plato was poet rather than geometrician; he was rich in

harmonious forms and was prodigal of marvellous hypotheses. Aristotle,

who was a calculating genius exclusively, referred everything to debate

in the schools; he made everything subject to the demonstrations of

numeral evolutions and the logic of calculations. Excluding the faith

of Platonism, he sought to prove all and likewise to comprehend all

in his categories; he turned the triad into syllogism and the binary

into enthymeme. For him the chain of being became a _sorites_. He

reduced everything to an abstraction and reasoned on everything; being

itself passed into an abstraction in his process and was lost amidst

the hypotheses of ontology. Plato was destined to inspire the Fathers

of the Church; Aristotle to be the master of mediæval scholastics;

God knows what clouds gathered about this logic which had no faith in

anything and yet set out to explain all. A second Babel was in plan and

another confusion of tongues was at no far distance. Being is being and

in being is the reason of being. In the beginning is the Word and the

Word, or Logos, is logic formulated in speech, or spoken reason. The

Word is in God and the Word is God Himself manifested to intelligence.

But this is precisely a truth which exceeds all philosophies and is

that, also precisely, which must be believed, under the penalty of

knowing nothing and falling back into the irrational doubt of Pyrrho.

As guardian of faith, the priesthood rests entirely on this ground of

science, and we are compelled to salute in its teaching the Divine

principle of the Eternal Word.

CHAPTER II

MYSTICISM

The legitimacy of Divine Right is so rooted in the priesthood that true

priesthood does not exist apart from it. Initiation and consecration

are a veritable heritage. So is the sanctuary inviolable on the part

of the profane and so also it cannot be seized by sectarians. For the

same reason the glorious lights of divine revelation are diffused in

accordance with supreme reason, because they come down in order and

harmony. God does not enlighten the world by means of meteors and

flashes, but He causes every planetary system to gravitate about its

particular sun. It is this very harmony which vexes certain souls, who

have grown impatient with duty, and it is thus that people come forward

to pose as reformers of morals, having failed in coercing revelation

to concur with their vices. Like Rousseau, they exclaim: “If God has

spoken, why have I heard nothing?” And then presently they add: “He

has spoken, but it is to me.” Such is their dream, and they end by

believing it themselves. So do the makers of sects begin, and these are

fomenters of religious anarchy: we would by no means condemn them to

the flames, but it is certainly desirable to intern them as sufferers

from contagious folly. It is precisely in this manner that those mystic

schools were founded which brought about the profanation of science.

We have seen how the Indian fakirs attained their so-called uncreated

light, that is to say, by the help of erethism and cerebral congestion.

Egypt had also its sorcerers and enchanters, while Thessaly, in the

days of Greece, swarmed with conjurations and witchcraft. To enter

into direct communication with deities is to suppress the priesthood

and subvert the basis of the throne—a fact which is realised keenly by

the anarchic instinct of pretended illuminism. It was by the allurement

of licence that such conspirators looked to recruit disciples, giving

absolution beforehand to every scandal in manners, on the condition

of strictness in revolt and energy in protestation against sacerdotal

legitimacy.[91]

The Bacchantes, who dismembered Orpheus, believed themselves inspired

by a god, and they sacrificed the great hierophant to their deified

drunkenness. The orgies of Bacchus were mystical tumults; the

apostles of mania have always had recourse to disordered movements,

frenetic agitations and horrible convulsions. From the effeminate

priesthood of Bacchus to the Gnostics; from whirling dervishes to

epileptics at the tomb of Paris the deacon; the characteristics of

superstition and fanatic exaltation have been always the same. It

has been invariably under the pretext of purifying doctrine and in

the name of an exaggerated spiritualism that the mystics of all

times have materialised the symbols of the cultus. It has been the

same precisely with those who have profaned the science of the

Magi, for transcendental Magic, as it is needful to remember, is

the primeval priestly art. It condemns all that is done outside the

lawful hierarchy, and it justifies the condemnation—though not the

torture—of sectarians and sorcerers. The two classes are here connected

intentionally, because all heretics have been evokers of spirits and

phantoms, whom they have foisted upon the world as gods; all have

arrogated to themselves the power of working miracles in support of

their falsehoods. On these evidences they were all practisers of

Göetic, that is to say, of Black Magic.

Anarchy being the point of departure and the palmary characteristic

of dissident mysticism, religious concord is impossible between

sectarians, and yet they are in astonishing unanimity upon a single

point, being the hatred of hierarchic and lawful authority. This

in reality is the whole root of their religion, as it is the sole

bond which links them one to another. It is ever the crime of Ham,

contempt of the family principle and outrage offered to the father,

whose nakedness and shame they expose with sacrilegious mirth. All the

anarchic mystics confuse the Intellectual with the Astral Light; they

worship the serpent instead of doing honour to that dutiful and pure

wisdom which crushes its head. So are they intoxicated by vertigo and

so fall inevitably into the abyss of folly.

All fools are visionaries and may no doubt believe sincerely that

they work wonders; indeed hallucination is contagious and things

inexplicable occur, or seem to occur, frequently enough in their

vicinity. Moreover, the phenomena of the Astral Light in the excess

of its attraction or projection are themselves of a kind to confuse

those who are half-educated. It is centralised in bodies and, as the

result of violent molecular distention, it imparts to them so high a

degree of elasticity that bones may be twisted and muscles stretched

out of all measure. It forms whirlpools and waterspouts, so to speak,

which levitate the heaviest bodies and can sustain them in the air

for a length of time proportionate to the force of the projection.

The sufferers feel on the point of bursting and cry for compression

or percussion to relieve them. The most violent blows and the utmost

constriction, being counterpoised by the fluidic tension, cause neither

bruises nor wounds and relieve instead of crushing the patient.

As fools hold physicians in horror, so the hallucinated mystics detest

wise men; they flee them in the first place and afterwards persecute

them blindly, as if against their own will. In so far as they are mild

and indulgent, it is in respect of vices; towards reason in submission

to authority they are implacable; the most tolerant of heretics in

appearance will be seized with fury and hatred, if conformity and

the hierarchy are mentioned. Hence heresies have led to disturbances

invariably. The false prophet must slay if he cannot pervert. He

clamours for tolerance towards himself but takes good care in what

sense it shall be extended to others. Protestants were loud in their

outcries against the faggots and pyres of Rome at the very time that

John Calvin, on the warrant of his private judgment, condemned Servetus

to be burnt. The crimes of the Donatists, Circumcisionists, and others

too many for enumeration, drove Catholic rulers into excess and caused

the Church to abandon those who were guilty to the secular arm. Would

it not be thought that Vaudois, Albigensians and Hussites were lambs

if one gave heed to the groans of irreligion? Where was the innocence

of those darksome Puritans of Scotland and England who brandished

the dagger in one hand and their Bible in the other, while preaching

the extermination of Catholics? One only Church in the midst of so

many reprisals and horrors has always postulated and in principle at

least has maintained its hatred of blood: this is the hierarchic and

legitimate Church.[92]

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS OF TYPHON]

Now, in admitting the possibility and actuality of diabolical miracles,

that Church recognises the existence of a natural force which can be

applied for good or evil; and hence it has decided in its great wisdom

that although sanctity of doctrine can legalise miracle, the latter

of itself can never authorise novelties in religious teaching. To say

that God, Whose laws are perfect and never falsify themselves,

makes use of a natural instrument to produce effects which to us seem

supernatural—this is to affirm the supreme reason and immutable power

of God; it is to exalt our notion of His providence; and sincere

Catholics should realise that such view by no means challenges His

intervention in those marvels which operate in favour of truth. The

false miracles caused by astral congestions have invariably an anarchic

and immoral tendency, because disorder invokes disorder. So also the

gods and familiars of heretics are athirst for blood and commonly

extend their protection at the price of murder. The idolaters of Syria

and Judea drew oracles from the heads of children torn from the bodies

of the poor little victims. They dried these heads and, having placed

beneath the tongues a golden lamen bearing unknown characters, they

fixed them in the hollows of walls, built up a kind of body beneath

them composed of magical plants secured by bands, lighted a lamp at the

foot of the frightful idols, burnt incense before them and proceeded

to their religious consultation. They believed that the heads spoke,

and the anguish of the last cries had doubtless distracted their

imaginations; moreover, as said already, blood attracts _larvæ_. The

ancients, in their infernal sacrifices, were accustomed to dig a pit,

which they filled with warm and smoking blood; then from all the deep

places of the night they beheld feeble and pallid shadows ascending,

descending, creeping and swarming about the cavity. With a sword’s

point steeped in the same blood, they traced the circle of evocation

and kindled fire of laurel, alder and cypress wood, on altars crowned

with asphodel and vervain. The night seemed to grow colder and still

more dark; the moon was hidden behind clouds; and they heard the feeble

rustling of phantoms crowding about the circle, while dogs howled

piteously over the countryside.

All must be dared in order to achieve all—such was the axiom of

enchantments and their associated horrors. The false magicians were

banded together by crime and believed that they could intimidate others

when they had contrived to terrify themselves. The rites of Black Magic

have remained revolting like the impious worships it produced; this was

the case indifferently in the association of criminals who conspired

against the old civilisations and among the barbaric races. There was

always the same passion for darkness; there were the same profanations,

the same sanguinary processes. Anarchic Magic is the cultus of death.

The sorcerer devotes himself to fatality, abjures reason, renounces

the hope of immortality, and then sacrifices children. He forswears

marriage and is given over to barren debauch. On such conditions he

enjoys the plenitude of his mania, is made drunk with iniquity till he

believes that evil is omnipotent and, converting his hallucinations

into reality, he thinks that his mastery has power to evoke at pleasure

all death and Hades.

Barbarian words and signs unknown, or even utterly unmeaning, are

the best in Black Magic.[93] Hallucination is insured more readily

by ridiculous practices and imbecile evocations than by rites or

_formulæ_ which keep intelligence in a waking state. Du Potet says

that he has tested the power of certain signs on ecstatics, and those

which are published in his occult book, with precaution and mystery,

are in analogy, if not absolutely identical, with pretended diabolical

signatures found in old editions of the Grand Grimoire.[94] The same

causes always produce the same effects, and there is nothing that is

new beneath the moon of sorcerers, any more than under the sun of

sages.

The state of permanent hallucination is death or abdication of

consciousness, and one is then surrendered to all the chances comprised

by the fatality of dreams. Every remembrance begets its own reflection,

every evil desire creates an image, every remorse breeds a nightmare.

Life becomes that of an animal, but of a peevish and tormented animal;

the sense of morality and of time is alike absent; realities exist no

longer; it is a general dance in the whirlpool of insensate forms.

Sometimes an hour seems protracted over centuries, and again years may

fly with an hour’s swiftness.

Rendered phosphorescent by the Astral Light, our brains swarm with

innumerable reflections and images. We close our eyes, and it may

happen that some brilliant, sombre or terrific panorama will unroll

beneath our eyelids. He who is sick of a fever will scarcely close them

through the night without being dazzled by an intolerable brightness.

Our nervous system—which is a perfect electrical apparatus—concentrates

the light in the brain, being the negative pole of that apparatus,

or projects it by the extremities which are points designed for the

circulation of our vital fluid. When the brain attracts powerfully

some series of images analogous to any passion which has disturbed the

equilibrium or the machine, the interchange of light stops, astral

respiration ceases and the misdirected light coagulates, so to speak,

in the brain. It comes about for this reason that the sensations of

hallucinated persons are of the most false and perverse order. Some

find enjoyment in lacerating the skin with thongs and in roasting their

flesh slowly; others eat and relish things unfit for sustenance. Doctor

Brierre de Boismont has collected a great series of instances, and

many of them are extremely curious.[95] All excesses in life—whether

through the misconstruction of good or through the non-resistance of

evil—may overstimulate the brain and occasion the stagnation of light

therein. Overweening ambition, proud pretence of sanctity, a continence

full of scruples and desires, the indulgence of shameful passions

notwithstanding repeated warnings of remorse—all these lead to syncope

of reason, to morbid ecstasy, hysteria, vision, madness. The learned

doctor goes on to observe that a man is not mad because he is subject

to visions but because he believes in his visions rather than in

ordinary sense. Hence it is obedience and authority that alone can save

the mystics; if they have obstinate self-confidence there is no cure;

they are excommunicated already by reason and by faith: they are the

aliens of universal charity. They think themselves wiser than society;

they dream of founding a religion, but they stand alone; they believe

that they have secured for their private use the secret keys of life,

but their intelligence is plunged already in death.

CHAPTER III

INITIATIONS AND ORDEALS

That which adepts have distinguished as the Great Work is not only

the transmutation of metals but also and above all the Universal

Medicine—that is to say, the remedy for all ills, including death

itself. Now, the process which produces the Universal Medicine is the

moral regeneration of man. It is that second birth alluded to by our

Saviour in His discourse to Nicodemus, a doctor of the law. Nicodemus

did not understand, and Jesus said: “Are you a master in Israel and

know not these things?”—as if intending to intimate that they belonged

to the fundamental principles of religious science, of which no

professor could dare to be ignorant.[96]

The great mystery of life and its ordeals is represented in the

celestial sphere and in the annual succession of the seasons. The four

aspects of the sphinx correspond to these seasons and to the four

elements. The symbolical figures on the shield of Achilles—according to

the description of Homer—are analogous in their meaning to the Twelve

Labours of Hercules. Like Hercules, Achilles must die, after having

conquered the elements and even done battle with the gods. Hercules, on

his part, triumphant over all the vices, represented by the monsters

whom he fought, succumbs for a moment to love, the most dangerous of

all. But he tears from his body the burning tunic of Dejanira, though

the flesh comes with it from the bones; he leaves her guilty and

vanquished, to die on his own part—but as one liberated and immortal.

Every thinking man is an Œdipus called to solve the enigma of the

sphinx or, this failing, to die. Every initiate must become a Hercules,

who, achieving the cycle of a great year of toil, shall, by sacrifices

of heart and life, deserve the glory of apotheosis. Orpheus is not

king of the lyre and of sacrifices till he has successively won and

has learned how to lose Eurydice. Omphale and Dejanira are jealous of

Hercules: one would debase him, the other yields to the counsels of an

abandoned rival, and so is induced to poison him who has emancipated

the world; but in the act she cures him of a far more fatal poison,

which is her own unworthy love. The flame of the pyre purifies his

too susceptible heart; he perishes in all his vigour and is seated

victorious close to the throne of Jupiter. So also Jacob was not

appointed the great patriarch of Israel till he had wrestled with an

angel through the length of an entire night.

Ordeal is the great word of life, and life itself is a serpent which

brings forth and devours unceasingly. We must escape from its folds; we

must set our foot upon its head. Hermes duplicated the serpent, setting

it against itself, and in an eternal equilibrium, he converted it into

the talisman of his power, into the glory of his caduceus.

The great ordeals of Memphis and Eleusis were designed to form kings

and priests by entrusting science to strong and valiant men. The price

of admission to such tests was the surrender of body, soul and life

into the hands of the priesthood. The candidate descended thereafter

through dark subterranean regions, wherein he traversed successively

among flaming pyres, passed through deep and rapid floods, over bridges

thrown across abysses, holding in his hand a lamp which must not be

extinguished. He who trembled, he whom fear overcame never returned to

the light; but he who surmounted every obstacle intrepidly was received

among the _mystæ_, which meant initiation into the Lesser Mysteries. He

had yet to vindicate his fidelity and silence; it was only at the end

of several years that he became an epopt, being a title equivalent to

that of adept.[97]

Philosophy, in competition with the priesthood, imitated these

practices, and put its disciples to the proof. Pythagoras exacted

silence and abstinence for five years. Plato opened his schools to

none but geometricians and those skilled in music; furthermore, he

reserved part of his instruction to initiates, so that his philosophy

had its mysteries.[98] He attributed the creation of the world to

demons and represented man as the progenitor of all animals. But the

demons of Plato signify the Elohim of Moses, being those powers by the

combination and harmony of which the Supreme Principle created. When he

represents beasts as begotten by humanity he means that they are the

analysis of that living form, the synthesis of which is man. It was

Plato who first proclaimed the divinity of the Word, and he appeared

to foresee the approaching incarnation of this creative Word on earth;

he proclaimed the sufferings and execution of the perfect just man,

condemned by the iniquity of the world.

This sublime philosophy of the Word is part of the pure Kabalah,

whence Plato was in no wise its inventor.[99] He makes no secret of

this and he proclaims that in any science only that must be received

which is in harmony with eternal truths and with the oracles of

God. Dacier, from whom this quotation comes, adds that “by these

eternal truths Plato signified an ancient tradition which he supposes

primeval humanity to have received from God and transmitted to later

generations.” It would be impossible to speak more clearly without

actually naming the Kabalah: it is definition instead of name; in a

sense, it is something more precise than the name itself.

Plato says otherwise that “the root-matter of this great knowledge is

not to be found in books; we must seek in ourselves by means of deep

meditation, discovering the sacred fire in its proper source.... This

is why I have written nothing concerning these revelations and shall

never even speak about them. Whosoever shall undertake to popularise

them will find the attempt futile, for, except in the case of a very

small number of men who have been endowed with understanding from God

to discern these heavenly truths within themselves, it will render

them contemptible to some, while filling others with vain and rash

self-confidence, as if they were depositaries of marvels which they do

not understand all the same.”[100]

To the younger Dionysius he wrote: “I must bear witness to Archedemus

concerning that which is far more precious, more divine by far,

and that which you desire earnestly to know, having sent him to me

expressly. He gives me to understand that in your view I have not

explained to you sufficiently what I hold as to the nature of the

First Principle. I can only write in enigmas, so that if my letter

be intercepted on land or water, he who may read it shall understand

nothing: all things encompass their king, from whom they draw their

being, he being the source of all good things—second for those which

are second and third for those which are third.”

These few words are a complete summary of sephirotic theology.[101]

The King is Ensoph—Supreme and Absolute Being. All radiates from this

centre, which centre is everywhere, but we regard it after three

especial manners and in three distinct spheres. In the Divine world,

which is that of the First Cause, the King is one and first. In the

world of science, which is that of secondary causes, the influence of

the First Principle is felt, but is conceived only as first of the

said causes. Therein the King manifests by the duad, which is the

passive creating principle. Finally, in the third world, which is that

of forms, he is revealed as perfect form, the incarnate Word, supreme

goodness and beauty, created perfection. The King is therefore, at one

and the same time, the first, second and third, seeing that He is all

in all, centre and cause of all. Let us be silent on the genius of

Plato, recognising only the exact knowledge of the initiate.

Let it therefore be said no longer that our great apostle St. John

borrowed from the philosophy of Plato the proœmium of his gospel. It

is Plato, on the contrary, who drew from the same sources as St. John;

but he had not received that spirit which makes alive. The philosophy

of him who expounded the greatest of human revelations might aspire

towards the Word made man, but the gospel alone could give that Word to

the world.

The Kabalah taught by Plato to the Greeks assumed at a later period

the name of Theosophy and ended by embracing the whole of magical

doctrine.[102] It is to this sum total of secret doctrine that all

discoveries of research gravitated successively. The ambition was to

pass from theory to practice and to find the realisation of words in

works. The dangerous experiences of divination taught science how it

might dispense with the priesthood; the sanctuary was betrayed, and

men who had no mission dared to make the gods speak. It is for this

reason that theurgy shared in the anathemas pronounced against Black

Magic and was suspected of imitating its crimes because it could not

exculpate itself from a share in its impiety. The veil of Isis is not

lifted with impunity, and curiosity blasphemes faith when Divine things

are concerned. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,”

says the Great Master.

The experiments of theurgy and necromancy are always fatal for those

who are abandoned to their practice. To set foot upon the threshold of

the other world spells death, and it follows often in a strange and

terrible manner. Vertigo supervenes, catalepsy and madness finish the

work. It is unquestionable that in the presence of certain persons a

disturbance takes place in the air, wainscots split, doors shake and

creak. Fantastic signs and even stains, as of blood, seem to impress

themselves on virgin-parchment or on linen. The nature of these

signatures is always the same and they are classified by experts under

the name of diabolical writings. The mere sight of such characters

sends sufferers from magnetic hysteria into convulsions or ecstasy;

they believe that they behold spirits, and Satan, or the genius of

error, is transfigured for them into an angel of light. The pretended

spirits require, as the condition of their manifestation, some kind

of contact between the sexes, the putting of hand in hand, foot to

foot, breathing face to face and even immodest embraces. Devotees are

besotted by this kind of intoxication; they think that they are elected

by God, that they are interpreters of heaven, and they regard obedience

to the hierarchy in the light of fanaticism. They are the successors of

the Indian race of Cain, victims of hasheesh and fakirs. They profit by

no warnings, and they perish by their own act and will.

To restore sufferers of this kind the Greek priests resorted to a

species of homœopathy; they terrified the patients by exaggerating the

disease itself, and for this purpose they put them to sleep in the

cave of Trophonius.[103] The preparation for this experience was by

fastings, lustrations and vigils; the patients were then taken down

into the vault and shut up in total darkness. Intoxicating gases, like

those in the Grotto of the Dog near Naples, filled the cavern, and the

visionary was overcome speedily. Incipient asphyxia induced frightful

dreams, from which the victim was rescued in time and carried forth

palpitating all over, pale and with hair on end. In this condition

he or she was seated on a tripod and prophetic utterances preceded

complete awakening. Experiences of this sort so distracted the nervous

system that their subjects never recalled them without trembling and

in future did not dare to mention evocations or phantoms. Some of

them never smiled again or felt the impulse of gaiety; the general

impression was so melancholy that it passed into a proverb, and it

was said of anyone who did not unbend: “He has slept in the cave of

Trophonius.”[104]

For the remanents of science and the recovery of its mysteries we

must have recourse to the religious symbolism of antiquity rather

than to the works of its philosophers. The priests of Egypt were

better acquainted than ourselves with the laws of motion and of life.

They could temper or promote action by reaction, and they foresaw

without difficulty the realisation of effects the cause of which

they had postulated. The pillars of Seth, Hermes, Solomon, Hercules

symbolised in magical traditions this universal law of equilibrium,

while the science of equilibrium led the initiates to that of universal

gravitation about centres of life, heat and light. So in the Egyptian

sacred calendars, where it is known that each month was placed under

the protection of three decani or genii of ten days, the first decanate

in the sign of Leo is represented by a human head with seven rays;

the body has a scorpio-tail and the sign of Sagittarius is under

the chin. Beneath the head is the name of IAO, and the figure was

called Khnoubis, an Egyptian word which signifies gold and light.

Thales and Pythagoras learned in the Egyptian sanctuaries that the

earth gravitated round the sun, but they did not seek to publish the

fact generally because it would have involved the revelation of a

great templesecret, being the dual law of attraction and radiation,

of fixity and movement, which is the principle of creation and the

unfailing cause of life.[105] So also the Christian writer Lactantius,

who had heard of this magical tradition, but as an effect in the

absence of a cause, scoffed loudly at theurgical dreamers who believed

in the motion of the earth and in antipodes, the result of which

would be the fact that we walked on our heads with the feet upward,

though our heads appeared to be erect. Furthermore, as he added, with

the logic of children, in such case we should infallibly fall head

downwards through the heaven below us. So philosophers reasoned, while

priests, without answering or even smiling at their blunders, continued

to write in creative hieroglyphics concerning all dogmas, all forms of

poetry and all secrets of truth.

In their allegorical description of Hades, the Greek hierophants

concealed the palmary secrets of Magic. We find four rivers therein,

even as in the Earthly Paradise, _plus_ a fifth, which wound seven

times round the others. There was a river of sorrows and silence,

called Cocytus; there was a river of forgetfulness, or Lethe; and then

there was a swift and irresistible river which carried all before it,

flowing in an opposite course to yet another river of fire. The two

last were named Acheron and Phlegethon, one being the negative and

one the positive fluid, flowing eternally each in each. The black and

icy waters of Acheron smoked with the warmth of Phlegethon, while the

liquid flames of the latter were covered with thick vapours by the

former. _Larvæ_ and _lemures_, shadowy images of bodies which have

lived and of those which have yet to come, issued from these vapours

by myriads; but whether they drank or not from the flood of sorrows,

all desired the waters of oblivion, to bring them youth and peace. The

wise alone do not seek to forget, for memory is their reward already;

so also they only are truly deathless, since they only are conscious of

their immortality. The tortures of Tenarus are truly divine pictures

of the vices and their eternal chastisement. The greed of Tantalus,

the ambition of Sisyphus, will never be expiated, since they can never

be satisfied. Tantalus is athirst in the water, Sisyphus rolls a stone

towards the top of a mountain, hoping to take his seat thereon, but

it falls back continually and drags him down into the abyss. Ixion,

unbridled in licence, would have violated the queen of heaven and

was scourged by infernal furies. He did not consummate his crime,

for he embraced only a phantom. The phantom may have condescended in

appearance to his love and may have ministered to his passion, but when

he disowned duty, when his satisfaction was at the price of sacrilege,

that which he thought was love proved hatred in a mask of flowers.

It is not from beyond the tomb, it is rather in life itself that we

must seek the mysteries of death. Salvation or condemnation begin here

below, and this earth has also its heaven and hell. Virtue is ever

rewarded, vice is ever punished; if the wealth of the wicked incline us

at times to think that they enjoy impunity, that instrument of good and

evil seeming to be given them by chance, there is woe notwithstanding

to the unjust; they may possess the key of gold, but for them it opens

only the gate of the tomb and hell.

All true initiates have recognised the immense value of toil and

suffering. A German poet tells us that sorrow is the dog of that

unknown shepherd which leads the flock of humanity. Learn how to suffer

and learn also to die—such are the gymnastics of eternity and such is

the immortal novitiate. This is the moral lesson of Dante’s _Divine

Comedy_, and it was outlined in the allegorical Table of Cebes, which

belongs to the time of Plato. An account of it has been preserved and

many painters of the middle ages reconstructed the picture therefrom.

It is at once a philosophical and magical monument, a perfect moral

synthesis, and moreover the most audacious demonstration ever attempted

of that Great Arcanum or Secret, the revelation of which must subvert

heaven and earth. Our readers will unquestionably expect us to furnish

its explanation, but he who has solved this enigma knows that it is

inexplicable by its nature and is a sentence of death to those who take

it by surprise, even as to those who reveal it.[106]

This secret is the royalty of the sage and the crown of that initiate

who is represented coming down as a victor from the mount of ordeal in

the beautiful allegory of Cebes. The Great Arcanum has made him master

of gold and light, which fundamentally are one thing; he has solved the

quadrature of the circle; he directs perpetual motion; and he possesses

the Philosophical Stone. Those who are adepts will understand me. There

is neither interruption in the process of Nature nor a blank space in

its work. The harmonies of heaven are in correspondence with those of

earth, and eternal life fulfils its evolutions in accordance with the

same laws which rule in the life of a day. The Bible says that God

disposes all things according to weight, number and measure, and this

luminous doctrine was also that of Plato. In the _Phædon_ he represents

Socrates as discoursing on the destinies of the soul in a manner which

is quite in conformity with Kabalistical traditions. Spirits purified

by trial are emancipated from the laws of weight, and they soar above

the atmosphere of tears; others grovel in darkness and are those who

manifest to the weak or criminal. All who are liberated from the

miseries of material life come back no more to contemplate its crimes

or share its errors: once is truly enough.

The care taken by the ancients over the burial of the dead protested

strongly against necromancy, and those who disturbed the sleep of the

grave were always regarded as impious. To call back the dead would

condemn them to a second death, and the dread of earnest people,

belonging to old religions, lest they should remain without burial

after death, was in view of the possibility that the corpse might

be profaned by stryges and used in witchcraft. After death the soul

belongs to God and the body to the common mother, which is earth.

Woe to those who dare to invade these asylums. When the sanctuary of

the tomb was disturbed, the ancients offered sacrifices to the angry

_manes_ and a holy thought lay at the root of this practice. As a

fact, were it permitted anyone to attract, by means of conjurations,

the souls floating in darkness but aspiring towards the light, such a

person would be begetting retrograde and posthumous children, whom he

must nourish with his own blood and with his own soul. Necromancers are

makers of vampires, and they deserve no pity if they die devoured by

the dead.

CHAPTER IV

THE MAGIC OF PUBLIC WORSHIP

Forms are the product of ideas, and they in their turn reflect and

reproduce ideas. So far as sentiments are concerned, these are

multiplied by association in the union of those who share them, so that

all are charged with the enthusiasm common to all. It comes about in

this manner that if one or another individual be deceived easily on

questions of the just and the beautiful, the people at large will, this

notwithstanding, continue to exalt in their minds whatsoever things are

sublime, and they will do it with a longing which is itself sublime.

These two great laws of Nature were known to the ancient Magi and led

them to see the necessity of a public worship which should be one in

its nature, imposed on all, hierarchic and symbolic in character, like

all religion, splendid as truth, rich and varied as Nature, starry as

heaven, odoriferous as earth—a worship in fact of the kind established

afterwards by Moses, realised in all its glory by Solomon, and, once

again transfigured, centralised to-day in the great metropolis of St.

Peter at Rome.

Humanity as a fact has never known more than one religion and one

worship. This universal light has had its uncertain reflections and its

shadows, but ever after the dark night of error we behold it emerge,

one and pure like the sun.

The magnificence of the cultus is the life of religion, and if Christ

chose poor ministers, his sovereign divinity did not demand poor

altars. Protestants have failed to understand that ritual constitutes

an instruction and that a sordid or negligible god must not be created

in the imagination of the multitude. The English, who lavish so much

wealth on their own homes, who also affect to prize the Bible highly,

would find their particular churches exceedingly cold and bare if they

remembered the unparalleled pomp of Solomon’s Temple. But that which

withers their forms of worship is the dryness of their own hearts; and

with a cultus devoid of magic, splendour and pathos, how shall their

hearts be ever informed with life? Look at their meeting-houses, which

resemble town-halls, and look at those honest ministers—dressed like

ushers or clerks—and who can do otherwise in their presence than regard

religion as formalism and God as a justice of the peace?

Orthodoxy is the absolute character of Transcendental Magic. When

truth is born into the world the star of science announces the fact

to the Magi, and they come to adore the infant creator of futurity.

Initiation is obtained by understanding in respect of the hierarchy,

as also by the practice of obedience, and he who is initiated truly

will never turn sectarian. The orthodox traditions were carried from

Chaldea by Abraham; in combination with the knowledge of the true God,

they reigned in Egypt at the period of Joseph. Koung-Tseu sought to

establish them in China, but the imbecile mysticism of India, under

the idolatrous form of the Fo cultus, was destined to prevail in that

great empire. As by Abraham out of Chaldea so was orthodoxy taken out

of Egypt by Moses, and in the secret traditions of the Kabalah we find

a theology at once complete, perfect, unique and comparable to our

own at its grandest, when seen under the light of its interpretation

by the fathers and doctors of the Church—a perfect whole, including

lights which it is not given to the world yet to understand. The

_Zohar_, which is the head and crown of the Kabalistic sacred books,

unveils furthermore all depths and enlightens all obscurities of

ancient mythologies and of sciences concealed in the sanctuaries of

eld. It is true that we must know the secret of its meaning in order

to make use of it, and it is further true that the keenest intellects

which are not acquainted with the secret will find the _Zohar_ beyond

all understanding and even unreadable. It is to be hoped that careful

students of our works on Magic will attain the secret for themselves,

that they will come in their turn to decode and thus be able to read

the book which explains so many mysteries.[107]

Initiation being the necessary consequence of that hierarchic principle

which is the basis of realisation in Magic, it follows that the

profane, after striving vainly to force the doors of the sanctuary,

have been driven to raise altar against altar and to oppose ignorant

disclosures of schism to the reticence of orthodoxy. Horrible histories

were circulated concerning the Magi; sorcerers and vampires cast upon

them the responsibility of their own crimes; they were represented

as feasting on infants and drinking human blood. Such attacks of

presumptuous ignorance against the prudence of science have invariably

met with success sufficient to perpetuate their use. Has not some

miserable creature set forth, in I know not what pamphlet, how he

has heard with his own ears, and within the precincts of a club, the

author of this book demanding the blood of the wealthy to make it into

puddings for the nourishment of starving people? The more monstrous the

calumny, the greater the impression that it produces in the minds of

fools.

Those who slandered the Magi committed themselves the enormities of

which they accused them and were abandoned to all the excesses of

shameless sorcery. There was everywhere the rumour of apparitions

and prodigies, and the gods themselves came down in visible forms to

authorise orgies. The maniacal circles of pretended _illuminati_ go

back to the bacchantes who murdered Orpheus. Since the days of those

fanatical and clandestine circles where promiscuity and assassination

were combined with ecstasies and prayers, a luxurious and mystical

pantheism increased continually. But the fatal destinies of this

consuming and destroying dogma are recorded in one of the finest

fables of Greek mythology. Certain pirates of Tyre surprised Bacchus

in his sleep and carried him on board their vessel, thinking that the

god of inspiration had so become their slave; but on a sudden, in the

open sea, their ship was transfigured, the masts became vine-stocks,

the rigging branches; satyrs were seen everywhere, dancing with

lynxes and panthers; the crew were seized with frenzy, they felt

themselves changed into goats and cast themselves into the sea. Bacchus

subsequently landed in Bœotia and repaired to Thebes, the city of

initiation, where he found that Pentheus had usurped the supreme power.

The latter in his turn attempted to imprison the god, but the dungeon

opened of itself and the captive came forth triumphant. Pentheus was

enraged and the daughters of Cadmus, transformed into Bacchantes, tore

him in pieces, thinking that they were immolating a young bull.[108]

Pantheism can never form a synthesis, but must be disintegrated by

the sciences, which the daughters of Cadmus typify. After Orpheus,

Cadmus, Œdipus and Amphiaraüs, the great fabulous symbols of magical

priesthood in Greece are Tiresias and Calchas; but the first of these

was an undiscerning or faithless hierophant. Meeting on a day with two

interlaced serpents, he thought that they were fighting and separated

them by a stroke of his wand. He did not understand the emblem of the

caduceus, and hence sought to divide the forces of Nature, to separate

science from faith, intelligence from love, man from woman. He mistook

their union for warfare, wounded them in the act of separation, and

so lost his own equilibrium. He became alternately male and female,

but neither in a perfect way, for the consummation of marriage was

forbidden him.[109] The mysteries of universal equilibrium and creative

law are revealed fully herein. Generation is in fact a work of the

human androgyne; in their division man and woman remain sterile, as

religion without science and conversely, as mildness without force and

force apart from mildness, justice in the absence of mercy and mercy

divorced from justice. Harmony results from the analogy of things in

opposition; they must be distinguished with a view to unite them and

not separated, so that we may choose between them. It is said that

man shifts incessantly from black to white in his opinions and ever

deceives himself. It is so of necessity, for visible and real form is

black and white; it manifests itself by an alliance of light and shadow

which does not confuse them together. So are all contraries in Nature

married, and he who would part them risks the punishment of Tiresias.

Others say that he was smitten with blindness because he had surprised

Minerva naked—that is to say, he had profaned the Mysteries. This is

another allegory, but it is always the same thing symbolised.

Bearing no doubt this profanation in mind, Homer depicts the shade

of Tiresias wandering in Cymmerian darkness and seeking amidst other

hapless shades and larvæ to quench his thirst with blood when Ulysses

consulted spirits, using a ceremonial which was magical and terrific

after another manner than the contortions of our own mediums, or the

harmless precipitated missives of our modern necromancers.

The priesthood is almost silent in Homer, for Calchas the diviner is

neither a sovereign pontiff nor a great hierophant. He seems to be

in the service of kings, with an eye to their possible wrath, and he

dares not speak unwelcome truths to Agamemnon till he has besought the

protection of Achilles. Thus he sows division between these chiefs

and brings disasters on the army. All the narratives of Homer contain

important and profound lessons, and he sought in the present case to

impress upon Greece the need for divine ministry to be independent of

temporal influences. The priestly caste should be responsible only

to the supreme pontificate, and the high priest is incapacitated if

one crown be wanting in his tiara. That he may be on equality with

earthly sovereigns he must be himself a temporal king; he must be king

in understanding and science, king also by his divine mission. Homer

seems to tell us in his wisdom that failing such a priesthood there is

something wanting to the equilibrium of empires.

Theoclymenes, another diviner, who appears in the Odyssey, fills almost

the part of a parasite, purchasing a not too friendly hospitality from

the suitors of Penelope by a useless warning and prudently withdrawing

before the disturbance which he foresees.

There is a gulf between these good and bad fortune-tellers and the

sibyls dwelling unseen in their sanctuaries, which are approached in

fear and trembling. This notwithstanding, the successors of Circe yield

only to daring; force or subtlety must be used to enter their retreat;

they must be seized by the hair, threatened with the sword and dragged

to the fatal tripod. Then, crimsoning and whitening by turn, shuddering

and with hair on end, they utter disconnected words, escape in a fury,

scribble on the leaves of trees detached sentences forming prophetic

verses when collected, and casting these leaves to the wind, they

shut themselves up in their refuge and ignore any further calls. The

oracle thus produced had as many meanings as the modes of its possible

combination varied. Had the leaves borne hieroglyphical signs instead

of words the interpretations would have been multiplied further, while

destiny could have been also consulted by their chance combination, a

method followed subsequently in the divinations of geomancers by means

of numbers and geometrical figures.[110] It is followed also at this

day by adepts of cartomancy who make use of the great magical Tarot

alphabets, for the most part, without being acquainted with their

values. In such operations accident only chooses the signs on which the

interpreter depends for inspiration, and in the absence of exceptional

intuition and second sight, the phrases indicated by the combinations

of sacred letters or the revelations of the combined figures prophesy

according to chance. It is insufficient to combine letters; one must

know how to read. Cartomancy in its proper understanding is a literal

consultation of spirits, without necromancy or sacrifices: but it

postulates a good medium; it is otherwise dangerous and we do not

recommend it to any one. Is the memory of our bygone misfortunes not

enough to embitter the sufferings of to-day, and must we then overload

them with all the anxiety of the future, by partaking in advance of the

catastrophes which it is impossible to avoid?

CHAPTER V

MYSTERIES OF VIRGINITY

The Roman Empire was but the Greek in transfiguration. Italy was

a Greater Greece, and when Hellenism had perfected its dogmas and

mysteries, the education of the children of the wolf was the next task

before it: Rome was already on the scene.

The particular feature of the initiation conferred on the Romans by

Numa was the typical importance ascribed to woman, following the lead

of Egypt, which worshipped the Supreme Divinity under the name of

Isis. The Greek god of initiation is Iacchos, the conqueror of India,

the splendid androgynous being wearing the horns of Ammon,[111] the

Pantheus holding the sacrificial cup and pouring therefrom the wine of

universal life—Iacchos, the son of thunder, the conqueror of tigers

and lions. When the bacchantes dismembered Orpheus, the Mysteries of

Iacchos were profaned; and under the Roman name of Bacchus he was

only the god of intoxication. It was from Egeria, goddess of mystery

and solitude, a sage and discreet divinity, that Numa sought his

inspiration.

His devotion was rewarded; he was instructed by Egeria as to the honour

which should be paid to the mother of the gods. Under this dedication

he erected a circular temple beneath a cupola, and a fire was burnt

therein which was never suffered to go out. It was maintained by four

virgins, who were termed vestals and so long as they were faithful to

their trust, they were surrounded with strange honours, while, on the

other hand, their failure was punished with exceptional rigour. The

maid’s honour is that also of the mother, and the sanctity of every

family depends on the recognition of virginal purity as a possible

and glorious thing. Herein already woman is emancipated from the old

bondage; she is no more an oriental slave, but a domestic divinity,

guardian of the hearth, the honour of father and spouse. Rome in this

manner became a sanctuary of morality, and on such condition was also

queen of the nations and metropolis of the world.

The magical tradition of all ages attributes a certain supernatural and

divine quality to the virgin state. Prophetic inspirations adorn it,

while it is the hatred of innocence and virginity which prompted Göetic

Magic to sacrifice children, whose blood was regarded notwithstanding

as having a sacred and expiatory virtue. To withstand the allurement

of generation is to graduate in the conquest of death, and supreme

chastity was the most glorious crown set before hierophants.[112] To

expend life in human embraces is to strike roots in the grave. Chastity

is a flower which is so loosely bound to earth that, when the sun’s

caresses draw it upwards, it is detached without effort and takes

flight like a bird.

The sacred fire of the vestals was a symbol of faith and of pure

love. It was an emblem also of that universal agent, the terrible and

electric nature of which Numa could produce and direct. If by culpable

negligence the vestals allowed their fire to die out, it could only

be rekindled by the sun’s rays or by lightning. It was renewed and

consecrated at the beginning of each year, a custom perpetuated and

observed among us on Easter Eve.

Christianity has been wrongly accused of taking over all that was

beautiful in anterior forms of worship; it is the last transfiguration

of universal orthodoxy, and as such it has preserved whatsoever

belonged to it, while rejecting dangerous practices and idle

superstitions.

Furthermore, the sacred fire represented love of country and the

religion of the hearth. To this religion, and to the inviolability of

the conjugal sanctuary, Lucretia offered herself in sacrifice. Lucretia

personifies all the majesty of ancient Rome; she could doubtless

have escaped outrage by abandoning her memory to slander, but good

repute is a _noblesse qui oblige_. In the matter of honour a scandal

is more deplorable than an indiscretion. Lucretia raised her dignity

as a virtuous woman to the height of the priesthood by suffering an

assault so that she might expiate and avenge it afterwards. It was

in memory of this illustrious Roman lady that high initiation in the

cultus of the fatherland and the hearth was entrusted to women, men

being excluded. It was for them to learn in this manner that true love

is that which inspires the most heroic sacrifices. They were taught

that the real beauty of man is heroism and grandeur; that the woman

capable of betraying or forsaking her husband blasts both her past and

future and is branded on the forehead with the ineffaceable stain of

a retrospective prostitution, aggravated further by perjury. To cease

loving him to whom the flower of her youth has been given, is the

greatest woe which can afflict the heart of a virtuous woman; but to

publish it abroad is to falsify past innocence, to renounce probity

of heart and integrity of honour; it is the last and most irreparable

shame.

Such was the religion of Rome; to the magic of such a moral code she

owed all her greatness, and when marriage ceased to be sacred in her

eyes, her decadence was at hand. In the days of Juvenal the mysteries

of the _Bona Dea_ are said to have been mysteries of impurity, which

it may perhaps be possible to question, seeing that as women alone were

admitted to these pretended orgies they must have betrayed themselves;

but on the assumption that the charge is true, because anything seems

possible after the reigns of Nero and Domitian, we can only conclude

that the clean reign of the mother of the gods was over and was giving

place to the popular, universal and purer worship of Mary, the Mother

of God.

Initiate of magical laws, and knowing the magnetic influences of

communal life, Numa instituted colleges of priests and augurs,

living under prescribed rules. This was the first idea of conventual

institutions, which are one of the great powers of religion. Long

anterior to this, the Jewish prophets were joined in sympathetic

bonds, having prayer and inspiration in common. It would seem that

Numa was acquainted with the traditions of Judea; his _flamines_ and

_salii_ worked themselves into a state of exaltation by evolutions and

dances recalling the performance of David before the ark. Numa did

not establish new oracles intended to rival those of Delphos, but he

instructed his priests especially in the art of auguries, which means

that he acquainted them with a certain theory of presentiments and

second sight, determined by secret laws of Nature. We despise nowadays

the art of soothsaying and portents, because we have lost the profound

science of light and the universal analogies of its reflections. In his

charming tale of Zadig, Voltaire delineates, with light and unserious

touch, a purely natural science of divination, but it is not for that

less wonderful, presupposing as it does an exceptional fineness of

observation and that power of deduction which escapes habitually the

limited logic of the vulgar. It is said that Parmenides, the master

of Pythagoras, having tasted the water of a certain spring, predicted

an approaching earthquake. The circumstance is not extraordinary, for

the presence of a bituminous and sulphureous flavour in water may

well have advised the philosopher of subterranean activities in the

district. Even the water itself may have been unusually disturbed.

However this may be, the flight of birds is still considered

premonitory of severe winters, and it may be possible to foresee some

atmospheric influences by inspecting the digestive and respiratory

apparatus of animals. Now, physical disturbances of the air have not

infrequently a moral cause. Revolutions are translated therein by the

phenomena of great storms; the deep breathing of nations moves heaven

itself. Success proceeds coincidently with electric currents, and the

hues of the living light reflect the motions of thunder. “There is

something in the air,” says the crowd, with its particular prophetic

instinct. Soothsayers and augurs knew how to read the characters which

the light inscribes everywhere and how to interpret the sigils of

astral currents and revolutions. They knew why birds wing their flight

in isolation or in flocks, under what influences they turn to North or

South, to East or West, which is just what we cannot explain, though

we scoff now at the augurs. It is so very easy to scoff and it is so

difficult to learn thoroughly.

It was owing to such predetermined disparagement and to denial of

what is not understood that men of parts, like Fontenelle, and

men of learning, as Kircher, have written such intemperate things

concerning the ancient oracles. Everything is craft and jugglery for

strong minds of this order. They suppose automatic statues, concealed

speaking-trumpets and artificial echoes in the vaults of every temple.

Why this eternal slander of the sanctuary? Has there been nothing but

roguery in the priesthoods? Would it have been impossible to find

men of uprightness and conviction among the hierophants of Ceres or

Apollo? Or were these deceived like the rest? And in such case how did

it happen that the impostors continued their traffic for centuries

without ever betraying themselves, individual rogues not being gifted

with immortality? Recent experiments have shewn us that thoughts can

be transferred, translated into writing and printed by the unaided

force of the Astral Light. Mysterious hands still write on our walls,

as at the feast of Belshazzar. Let us not forget the wise observation

of a scholar who assuredly cannot be accused either of fanaticism or

credulity: “Outside pure mathematics,” said Arago, “he who pronounces

the word impossible is wanting in caution.”

The religious calendar of Numa is based upon that of the Magi; it is

a sequence of feasts and mysteries, recalling throughout the secret

doctrine of initiates and perfectly adapting the public enactments

of the _cultus_ to the universal laws of Nature. Its arrangement of

months and days has been preserved by the conservative influence of

Christian regeneration. Even as the Romans under Numa, we still hallow

by abstinence the days consecrated to the commemoration of birth and

death; but for us the day of Venus is sanctified by the expiations of

Calvary. The gloomy day of Saturn is that during which our incarnate

God sleeps in His tomb, but He will rise up, and the life which He

promises will blunt the scythe of Kronos. That month which Romans

dedicated to Maia, the nymph of youth and flowers, the young mother who

smiles upon the year’s first-fruits, is consecrated by us to Mary, the

mystical rose, the lily of purity, the heavenly mother of the Saviour.

So are our religious observances ancient as the world, our feasts are

like those of our forefathers, for the Redeemer of Christendom came to

suppress none of the symbolic and sacred beauties of old initiation. He

came, as He said Himself, in reference to the figurative Law of Israel,

to realise and fulfil all things.

CHAPTER VI

SUPERSTITIONS

Superstitions are religious forms surviving the loss of ideas. Some

truth no longer known or a truth which has changed its aspect is the

origin and explanation of all. Their name, from the Latin _superstes_,

signifies that which survives; they are the dead remanents of old

knowledge or opinion.

Ever governed by instinct rather than by thought, the common people

cleave to ideas through the mediation of forms, and it is with

difficulty that they modify their habits. The attempt to destroy

superstitions impresses them always as an attack on religion itself,

and hence St. Gregory, one of the greatest popes in Christendom, did

not seek to suppress the old practices. He recommended his missionaries

to purify and not destroy the temples, saying that “so long as a people

have their old places of worship they will frequent them by force of

habit and will thus be led more easily to the worship of the true God.”

He said also: “The Bretons have fixed days for feasts and sacrifices;

leave them their feasts and do not restrain their sacrifices; leave

them the joy of their festivals, but from the state of paganism draw

them gently and progressively into the estate of Christ.”

It came about in this manner that older pious observances were replaced

by holy mysteries with scarcely a change of name. There was, for

example, the yearly banquet called _Charistia_, to which ancestral

spirits were invited, so making an act of faith in universal and

immortal life. The Eucharist, or supernal _Charistia_, has replaced

that of antiquity, and we communicate Easter by Easter with all our

friends in heaven and on earth.[113] Far from maintaining the old

superstitions by such adaptations, Christianity has breathed soul and

life into the surviving signs of universal beliefs.

That science of Nature which is in such close consanguinity

with religion, seeing that it initiates men into the secrets of

Divinity, that forgotten science of Magic, still lives undivided in

hieroglyphical signs and, to some extent, in the living traditions or

superstitions which it has left outwardly untouched. For example, the

observation of numbers and days is a blind reminiscence of primitive

magical dogma. As a day consecrated to Venus, Friday was always

considered unlucky, because it signified the mysteries of birth and

death. No enterprise was undertaken on Friday by the Jews, but they

completed thereon the work which belonged to the week, seeing that it

preceded the Sabbath, or day of compulsory rest. The number 13, being

that which follows the perfect cycle of 12, also represents death,

succeeding the activities of life; and in the Jewish _Symbolum_ the

article relating to death is numbered thirteen. The partition of the

family of Joseph into two tribes brought thirteen guests to the first

Passover of Israel in the Promised Land, meaning thirteen tribes to

share the harvests of Canaan. One of them was exterminated, being

that of Benjamin, youngest of the children of Jacob. Hence comes

the tradition that when there are thirteen at table the youngest is

destined to die quickly.[114]

The Magi abstained from the flesh of certain animals and touched no

blood. Moses raised this practice into a precept, on the ground that

it is unlawful to partake of the soul of animals, which soul is in the

blood. It remains therein after their slaughter, like a phosphorus of

coagulated and corrupted Astral Light, which may be the germ of many

diseases. The blood of strangled animals digests with difficulty and

predisposes to apoplexy and nightmare. The flesh of _carnivora_ is also

unwholesome on account of the savage instincts with which it has been

associated and because it has already absorbed corruption and death.

“When the soul of an animal is separated violently from its body,” says

Porphyry, “it does not depart, but, like that of human beings which

have died in the same way, it remains in the neighbourhood of the body.

It is so retained by sympathy and cannot be driven away. Such souls

have been seen moaning by their bodies. It is the same with the souls

of men whose bodies have not been interred. It is to these that the

operations of magicians do outrage, by enforcing their obedience, so

long as the operators are masters of the dead body in whole or in part.

Theosophers who are familiar with these mysteries, with the sympathy

of animal souls for the bodies from which they are separated, and with

their pleasure in approaching these, have rightly forbidden the use of

certain meats, so that we may not be infected by alien souls.”

Porphyry adds that prophecy may be acquired by feeding on the hearts

of ravens, moles and hawks; here the Alexandrian theurgist betakes

himself to the processes of the _Little Albert_, but though he lapses

so quickly into superstition it is by entering a wrong path, for his

point of departure was science.[115]

To indicate the secret properties of animals, the ancients said that

at the epoch of the war of the giants, various forms were assumed

by the gods with a view to concealment, and that they resumed these

subsequently at pleasure. Thus, Diana changed into a she-wolf; the sun

into a bull, lion, dragon and hawk; Hecate into a horse, lioness and

bitch.

The name of _Pherebates_ was, according to several theosophers,

assigned to Proserpine because she lived upon turtle-doves, and these

birds were the usual offering which the priestesses of Maia made to

that goddess, who is the Proserpine of earth, daughter of the fair

Ceres, and foster-mother of the human race. The initiates of Eleusis

abstained from domestic birds, fish, beans, peaches and apples; they

abstained also from intercourse with a woman in child-bed, as well as

during her normal periods. Porphyry, from whom this information is

derived, adds as follows: “Whosoever has studied the science of visions

knows that one must abstain from all kinds of birds in order to be

liberated from the bondage of terrestrial things and find a place among

the celestial gods.” But the reason he does not give.

According to Euripides, the initiates of the secret cultus of Jupiter

in Crete touched no flesh-meat; in the chorus addressed to King Minos,

the priests in question are made to speak as follows: “Son of a

Phœnician Tyrian woman, descendant of Europa and great Jupiter, King

of the Isle of Crete, famous through an hundred cities, we come unto

thee, forsaking temples built of oak and cypress fashioned with knives;

leaders of a pure life, behold, we come. Since I was made a priest of

Jupiter-Idæus, I take no part in the nocturnal feasts of Bacchanals, I

eat no half-cooked meats; but I offer tapers to the mother of the gods.

I am a priest among the Curetes clothed in white; I keep far from the

cradles of men; I shun also their tombs; and I eat nothing which has

been animated by the breath of life.”

The flesh of fish is phosphorescent and hence is aphrodisiacal. Beans

are heating and cause absence of mind. For every form of abstinence,

including the most irregular forms, a deep reason, apart from all

superstition, can probably be found. There are certain combinations of

foods which are opposed to the harmonies of Nature. “Thou shalt not

seethe the kid in his mother’s milk,” said Moses—a prescription which

is touching as an allegory and wise on the ground of hygiene.

The Greeks like the Romans, but not to the same extent, were believers

in presages; it was good augury when serpents tasted the sacred

offerings; it was favourable or the reverse when it thundered on the

right or the left hand. There were presages in the ways of sneezing and

in other natural weaknesses which may be left here to conjecture. In

the Hymn of Mercury, Homer narrates that when the god of thieves was

still in his cradle he stole the oxen of Apollo, who took the youngster

and shook him, to make him confess the larceny:

_Mercure s’avisant d’un étrange miracle,

De ses flancs courroucés fit entendre l’oracle;

Jusqu’au grand Apollon la vapeur en monta._[116]

It was all presage with the Romans—a stone against which the foot

struck, the cry of a screech-owl, the barking of a dog, a broken vase,

an old woman who was first to look at you. All such idle terrors had

for their basis that grand magical science of divination which neglects

no token but from an effect overlooked by the vulgar ascends through a

sequence of interlinked causes. This science knows, for example, that

those atmospheric influences which cause the dog to howl are fatal for

certain sufferers, that the appearance and the wheeling of ravens mean

the presence of unburied bodies—which is always of sinister augury;

localities of murder and execution are frequented by these fowl. The

flight of other birds prognosticates hard winters, while yet others, by

their plaintive cries over the sea, give the signal of coming storms.

On that which science discerns ignorance remarks and generalises;

the first sees useful warnings everywhere; the other distresses and

frightens itself at everything.

The Romans furthermore were great observers of dreams; the art of

their interpretation belongs to the science of the vital light, to

the understanding of its direction and reflections. Men versed in

transcendental mathematics are well aware that there can be no image

in the absence of light, be it direct, reflected or refracted; and by

the direction of the ray, the return under the fold of which they know

how to find, they arrive by an exact calculation, and invariably, at

the source of light and can estimate its universal or relative force.

They take into account also the healthy or diseased state of the visual

mechanism, external or internal, and attribute thereto the apparent

deformity or rectitude of images. For such persons, dreams are a

complete revelation, since dream is a semblance of immortality during

that nightly death which we call sleep. In the dream-state we share

in the universal life, unconscious of good or evil, time or space. We

leap over trees, dance on water, breathe upon prisons and they fall;

or alternatively, we are heavy, sad, hunted, chained up—according to

the state of our health and often that of our conscience. All this

is useful to observe, and unquestionably, but what can be inferred

therefrom by those who know nothing and are without the wish to learn?

The all-powerful action of harmony, in exalting the soul and giving it

rule over the senses, was well known to the ancient sages; but that

which they employed to soothe was wrested by enchanters to excite and

intoxicate. The sorceresses of Thessaly and of Rome believed that

the moon could be dragged from the sky by the barbarous verses which

they recited and that it fell pale and bleeding to the earth. The

monotony of their recitations, the sweep of their magical wands; their

circumambulations about circles, magnetised, excited, and led them by

stages to fury, to ecstasy, even to catalepsy itself. In this kind of

waking state, they fell into dream, saw tombs open, the air overcast by

clouds of demons, the moon falling from heaven.

The Astral Light is the living soul of the earth, a material and fatal

soul, controlled in its productions and movements by the eternal laws

of equilibrium. This light, which environs and permeates all bodies,

can also suspend their weight and make them revolve about a powerfully

absorbent centre. Phenomena which have been so far insufficiently

examined, though they are being reproduced in our own days, prove

the truth of this theory. To the same natural law must be ascribed

those magical whirlpools in the centre of which enchanters located

themselves. It explains the fascination exercised on birds by certain

reptiles and on sensitive natures by others which are negative and

absorbent. Mediums are generally diseased creatures in whom the void

opens and who thus attract the light, as abysses draw the water

of whirlpools. The heaviest bodies can then be lifted like straws

and are carried away by the current. Such negative and unbalanced

natures, whose fluidic bodies are formless, can project their force

of attraction, delineating by this means supplementary and fantastic

members in the air. When the celebrated medium Home makes hands without

bodies appear in his vicinity, his own hands are dead and frozen.

It may be said that mediums are phenomenal beings in whom death

struggles visibly against life. As much may be concluded in the case

of enchanters, fortune-tellers, those with the evil eye and casters of

spells. Consciously or unconsciously, they are vampires, who draw the

life which they lack and thus disturb the balance of the light. When

this is done consciously, they are criminals who should be punished,

and when otherwise they are still exceedingly dangerous subjects, from

whom delicate and nervous people should be carefully isolated.

Porphyry tells the following story in his life of Plotinus. “Among

those who professed philosophy, there was a certain Olympius, who was

of Alexandria and for a time disciple of Ammonius. He treated Plotinus

with disdain, being ambitious to surpass him in repute. He sought

also to injure him by magical ceremonies, but having found that the

attempt re-acted on himself he admitted to his friends that the soul of

Plotinus must be one of great power, since it could turn back on his

enemies their own evil designs. Plotinus was conscious of the hostile

attempts of Olympius, and there were times when he said suddenly: ‘Now

he is having convulsions.’ This kind of thing being repeated, and

finding that he was afflicted himself with the evils which he would

have wrought on Plotinus, Olympius ceased to persecute.”

Equilibrium is the great law of the vital light; projected with force

and repelled by a nature more balanced than our own, it comes back upon

ourselves with equal violence. Woe therefore to those who would employ

natural powers in the service of injustice, since Nature is just and

her reactions are terrible.

CHAPTER VII

MAGICAL MONUMENTS

We have said that Egypt of old was itself a pantacle, and as much might

be affirmed concerning the elder world at large. In proportion as the

great hierophants were at pains to conceal their absolute science, they

sought more and more to extend and multiply its symbols. The triangular

pyramids, with their square bases, represented metaphysics grounded on

the science of Nature; and the symbolical key of this science assumed

the gigantic form of that wonderful sphinx which, in its age-long vigil

at the foot of the pyramids, has hollowed for itself so deep a bed in

the sand. Those seven great monuments called the wonders of the world

were sublime commentaries on the pyramids and on the seven mysterious

gates of Thebes. At Rhodes there was the Pantacle of the Sun, in which

the god of light and truth was symbolised under a human form clothed

with gold; he raised in his right hand the torch of intelligence and

in his left held the shaft of activity. His feet were fixed on moles

representing the eternal equilibrating forces of Nature, necessity and

liberty, active and passive, fixed and volatile—in a word, the Pillars

of Hercules. At Ephesus was the Pantacle of the Moon, which was the

Temple of Diana Panthea, made in the likeness of the universe. It

was a dome surmounting a cross, with a square gallery and a circular

precinct recalling the shield of Achilles. The tomb of Mausoleus was

the Pantacle of the Chaste and Conjugal Venus; in form it was after

the manner of a _lingam_, having a square elevation and a circular

precinct. In the middle place of the square rose a truncated

pyramid, on which was a chariot with four horses, harnessed so as to

form a cross. The Pyramids were the Pantacle of Hermes or of Mercury.

The Olympian Jupiter was the Pantacle of that god. The walls of Babylon

and the citadel of Semiramis were Pantacles of Mars. In fine, the

Temple of Solomon—that universal and absolute pantacle destined to

replace the others—was for the Gentile world the terrible Pantacle of

Saturn.

[Illustration: THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD]

The philosophical septenary of initiation, according to the mind of the

ancients, may be summarised as three absolute principles, reducible

to a single principle, and four elementary forms, which are one form

only, the whole constituting an unity composed of form and idea. The

three principles are as follows: (1) Being is being; in philosophy this

signifies the identity of the idea and that which is, or truth; in

religion it is the first principle, the Father. (2) Being is real; this

means in philosophy the identity of knowledge and of that which is,

or reality; in religion it is the Logos of Plato, the Demiourgos, the

Word. (3) Being is logical; in philosophy this signifies the identity

of reason and reality; in religion it is Providence, or the Divine

Action by which the good is realised, the mutual love of the true and

the good, called the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

The four elementary forms were the expression of two fundamental laws:

resistance and motion; the fixed state, or that inertia which resists,

and active life, or the volatile; in other and more general terms,

matter and spirit-matter being that nothingness which is formulated by

passive affirmation, spirit being the principle of absolute necessity

in that which is true. The negative action of material nothing on

spirit was termed the evil principle; the positive action of spirit on

this same nothingness, so that it might be filled with creation and

with light, was called the good principle. To these conceptions there

corresponded, on the one hand, humanity and, on the other, the rational

and saving life, redeeming those who are conceived in sin—that is to

say, in nothingness—because of their material generation.

Such was the doctrine of secret initiation, such the admirable

synthesis that the spirit of Christianity came to vivify, enlightening

by its splendour, establishing divinely by its dogma and realising by

its sacraments. Under the veil which was intended to preserve it, this

synthesis has vanished. It is destined to be recovered by man in all

its primitive beauty and all its maternal fecundity.

BOOK III

_DIVINE SYNTHESIS AND REALISATION OF MAGIA BY THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION_

ג—GIMEL

CHAPTER I

CHRIST ACCUSED OF MAGIC BY THE JEWS

At the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John there is one

sentence which is never uttered by the Catholic Church except in the

bending of the knees; that sentence is: “The Word was made flesh.”

The plenary revelation of Christianity is comprised therein. So also

elsewhere the Evangelist furnishes the criterion of orthodoxy, which is

the confession of Jesus Christ manifested in flesh—that is to say, in

visible and human reality.

After emblazoning in his visions the pantacles and hieroglyphs of

esoteric science; after exhibiting wheels revolving within wheels;

after picturing living eyes turning to all the spheres; after deploying

the beating wings of the four mysterious living creatures—Ezekiel,

the most profound Kabalist of the ancient prophets, beholds nothing

but a plain strewn with dry bones. At his word they are covered with

flesh and so is form restored to them. A pitiful beauty invests these

remnants of death, but that beauty is cold and lifeless. Of such were

the doctrines and mythologies of the elder world, when a breath of

love descended upon them from heaven. Then the dead shapes rose up;

the wraiths of philosophy gave place to men of true wisdom; the Word

was incarnate and alive; it was no longer the day of abstractions

but one of reality. That faith which is proved by works replaced the

hypotheses which ended in nothing but fables. Magic was transformed

into sanctity, wonders became miracles, the common people—excluded

by ancient initiation—were called to the royalty and priesthood of

virtue. Realisation is thus of the essence of Christian religion, and

its doctrine gives a body even to the most obvious allegories. The

house of the young man who had great possessions is still shewn in

Jerusalem, and it might be in no sense impossible for careful research

to discover a lamp which, by a similar tradition, once belonged to one

of the foolish virgins. Such ingenuous credulities are fundamentally

not very dangerous; indeed they prove only the living and realising

power of the Christian faith. The Jews accused that faith of having

materialised belief and idealised earthly things. In our _Doctrine

and Ritual of Transcendental Magic_ we have recited the scandalous

parable of the _Sepher Toldos Jeshu_ which was invented to support the

accusation. It is related in the _Talmud_ that Jesus ben Sabta, or the

son of the divorced woman, having studied profane mysteries in Egypt,

set up a false stone in Israel and led the people into idolatry. It was

acknowledged notwithstanding that the Jewish priesthood did wrong when

it cursed him with both hands, and it is in this connection that we

find in the _Talmud_ one beautiful precept which is destined hereafter

to unite Christendom and Israel: “Never curse with both hands, so that

one of them may always be free to forgive and to bless.” As a fact, the

priesthood was guilty of injustice towards that peace-bringing Master

who counselled his disciples to obey the constituted hierarchy. “They

are in the seat of Moses,” the Saviour said; “Do therefore that which

they tell you but not as they do themselves.” On another occasion he

commanded ten lepers to shew their persons to the priests, and they

were cured on the road: what touching abnegation in the Divine Worker

of miracles, Who thus ascribed to His most deadly enemies the very

honour of His miracles. For the rest, were those who accused Christ

of setting up a spurious corner-stone acquainted themselves with the

true one? Had not the Jews in the days of the Pharisees lost the

science of that which is at once the corner-stone, the cubic stone, the

philosophical stone—in a word, the fundamental stone of the Kabalistic

Temple, square at the base and triangular above like the pyramids? By

impeaching Jesus as an innovator did they not proclaim that they had

themselves forgotten antiquity? Was not that light which Abraham saw

and rejoiced extinguished for the unfaithful children of Moses, and

was it not recovered by Jesus, Who made it shine with a new splendour?

To be quite certain on the subject, the Gospel and _Apocalypse_ of St.

John must be compared with the mysterious doctrines of the _Sepher

Yetzirah_ and _Zohar_. It will then be realised that Christianity, so

far from being a heresy in Israel, was the true orthodox tradition of

Jewry, while it was the Scribes and Pharisees who were sectarians.

Furthermore, Christian orthodoxy is proved by the consent of the world

at large and by the suspension of the sovereign priesthood, together

with the perpetual sacrifice, in Israel—the two indisputable marks of

a true religion. Judaism without a temple, without a High Priest and

without a sacrifice survives only as a dissident persuasion; certain

persons are still Jews, but the Temple and Altar are Christian.

There is a beautiful allegorical exposition in the apocryphal

gospels of this criterion of certitude in respect of Christianity:

its evidence is that of realisation. Some children were amusing

themselves by fashioning birds of clay, and among them was the child

Jesus. Each little artist praised his own work, and only Jesus said

nothing; but when He had moulded His birds, He clapped His hands,

telling them to fly, and they flew. So did Christian institutions

shew their superiority over those of the ancient world; the latter

are dead, but Christianity is alive. Considered as the fully realised

and vital expression of the Kabalah—that is to say, of primitive

tradition—Christianity is still unknown, and hence that Kabalistic and

prophetic book called the _Apocalypse_ yet remains to be explained,

being incomprehensible without the Kabalistic Keys. The traditional

interpretation was long preserved by the Johannites, or disciples of

St. John; but the Gnostics intervened—to the total confusion and loss

of everything, as will be made clear at a later stage.[117]

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that St. Paul at Ephesus collected

all the books which treated of things curious and burnt them in

public. The reference is no doubt to the old Göetic texts, or works

of necromancy. The loss is regrettable assuredly, since even from

the memorials of error there may shine some rays of truth, while

information may consequently be derived which will prove precious to

science.[118] It is a matter of general knowledge that at the advent

of Christ Jesus the oracles were silenced everywhere, and a voice went

wailing over the sea, crying: “Great Pan is dead.” A pagan writer,

who takes exception to the report, declares on his own part that the

oracles did not cease, but in a little while no one was found to

consult them. The rectification is valuable, for such an attempted

justification is more conclusive than the pretended calumny. Much the

same thing should be said concerning the works of wonder, which fell

into contempt in the presence of real miracles. As a fact, if the

higher laws of Nature are obedient to true moral superiority, miracles

become supernatural like the virtues which produce them. This theory

detracts nothing from the power of God, while the fact that the Astral

Light is obedient to the superior Light of Grace signifies in reality

for us that the old serpent of allegory places its vanquished head

beneath the foot of the Queen of Heaven.

CHAPTER II

THE WITNESS OF MAGIC TO CHRISTIANITY

Magic, being the science of universal equilibrium and having the

truth, reality and reason of being for its absolute principle,

accounts for all the antinomies and reconciles all actualities which

are in conflict one with another by the one generating principle of

every synthesis—that harmony results from the analogy of opposites.

For the initiate of this science religion is not in doubt because it

exists, and we do not deny what is. Being is being— אהיה אשר אהיה.

The apparent opposition of religion and reason is the strength of

both, establishing each in its distinct domain and fructifying the

negative side of each by the positive side of the other: as we have

just said, it is the attainment of agreement by the correspondence

between things that are contrary. The cause of all religious errors and

confusions is that, in ignorance of this great law, it has been sought

to make religion a philosophy and philosophy in its turn a religion,

subjecting matters of faith to the processes of science, which is no

less ridiculous than the subjection of science to the blind obedience

of faith. It is no more the province of a theologian to affirm a

mathematical absurdity or reject the demonstration of a theorem than it

is the province of a man of learning, in the name of science, to oppose

or maintain the mysteries of dogma.

If we inquire of the Academy of Sciences whether it is mathematically

true that there are Three Persons in one God and whether, on the basis

of physiology, it can be certified that Mary, the Mother of God, was

conceived immaculate, the Academy of Sciences will decline to judge

thereon, and it will be right. Scholarship has no title to pronounce,

as the questions belong to the realm of faith. An article of faith is

believed or is not believed, but in either case it is not a matter of

discussion: it is of faith precisely because it eludes examination by

science.

When Joseph de Maistre assures us that one of these days we shall speak

in terms of wonder about our actual stupidity, he is referring, no

doubt, to those people of pretended strong mind who daily inform us

that they will believe in the truth of a dogma when it has been proved

scientifically. This is equivalent to saying that they will believe

when nothing is left for believing, when dogma as such is destroyed,

having become a scientific theorem. It is another way of suggesting

that we shall confess to the infinite when it has been explained,

determined, circumscribed, defined, or, in a word, changed into the

finite. We will believe in the infinite when we are quite certain that

it does not exist; we will admit the immensity of the ocean when we

see it put into bottles. But then, my friends, that which has been

proved to you and brought within your comprehension is henceforth a

matter of knowledge and not of faith. On the other hand, if you are

informed that the Pope has decided that two and two are not four and

that the square of the hypotenuse is not equal to the squares drawn on

the two other sides of a right-angled triangle, you would be justified

in replying that the Pope has not so decided because he has no title;

these things do not concern him and he may not meddle therein. Here

a disciple of Rousseau will exclaim that this is all very well, but

the Church does require us to believe in things which are in formal

opposition to mathematics. All mathematical science tells us that the

whole is greater than the part; this notwithstanding, when Jesus Christ

communicates with his disciples, He must hold His entire body in His

hand and put His head in His own mouth. The miserable pleasantry in

question occurs textually in Rousseau. It is easy to answer that the

sophist is confounding science with faith and the natural order with

that which is supernatural or divine. Were it claimed by religion that

in the communication of the Eucharist our Saviour had two natural

bodies of the same form and size, and that one was eaten by the other,

science would be entitled to protest. But religion lays down that the

body of the Master is divinely and sacramentally contained under the

natural sign or appearance of a fragment of bread. Once more, it is

a question of believing or not believing: whosoever reasons thereon,

and discusses the thing scientifically, deserves to be classed as a

fool.[119]

Truth in science is proved by exact demonstrations; truth in religion

is proved by unanimity of faith and holiness of works. We have

authority in the Gospel to recognise that he who could say to the

paralytic: “Take up thy bed and walk,” had the right to forgive sins.

Religion is true if it is the realisation of perfect morality. Works

are the proof of faith. It is permissible to ask science whether

Christianity has constituted a vast association of men for whom the

hierarchy is a principle, obedience the rule and charity a law. If

science answers, on the basis of historical documents, that this is the

case but that the association of Christians has failed in the matter

of charity, then I take it at its own word, which admits the existence

of charity, since it recognises that there can be deficiency therein.

Charity is at once a great word and a great thing; it is a word which

did not exist prior to Christianity and that which it stands for is

the sum total of religion. Is not the spirit of charity the Divine

Spirit made visible on earth? Has not this Spirit manifested its

sensible existence by acts, institutions, monuments and by immortal

works? To be brief, we do not understand how a sceptic, who is a man

of good faith, can see a daughter of St. Vincent de Paul without

wishing to kneel and pray. The spirit of charity—this indeed is God;

it is immortality in the soul; it is the hierarchy, obedience, the

forgiveness of injuries, the simplicity and integrity of faith.

The separated sects are death-struck at the root because in separating

they were wanting in charity, while in trying to reason on faith they

were wanting in simple good sense. It is in the sects that dogma is

absurd because it is pseudo-reasonable. As such it must be a scientific

theorem or nothing. Now, in religion we know that the letter kills and

that the spirit alone gives life; but what is the spirit in question

unless it be that of charity? The faith which moves mountains and

withstands martyrdom, the generosity which gives all, the eloquence

which speaks with the tongue of men and angels—all this, says St.

Paul, is nothing without charity. He adds that knowledge may vanish

away and prophecy may cease, but charity is eternal. Charity and its

works—hereof is the reality in religion: now true reason never denies

reality, for it is the demonstration of that being which is truth.

It is in this manner that philosophy extends a hand to religion, but

without ever wishing to usurp its domain, and, on this condition,

religion blesses, encourages and enlightens philosophy by its loving

splendours. Charity is the mysterious bond which, according to the

dream of Greek initiates, must reconcile Eros and Anteros. It is that

coping of the door of Solomon’s Temple which unites the two pillars

_Jachin_ and _Boaz_; it is the common guarantee between rights and

duties, between authority and liberty, between the strong and weak,

between the people and the government, man also and woman. It is the

divine sentiment which is requisite for life in human science; it is

the absolute of good, as the triple principle Being-Reality-Reason is

the absolute of the true. These elucidations have been necessary for

the proper interpretation of that beautiful symbol of the Magi adoring

the Saviour in the manger. The kings are three—one white, one tawny and

one black; they offer gold, frankincense and myrrh. The reconciliation

of opposites is expressed by this double triad, and it is precisely

that which we have just been seeking to explain. Christianity, as

expected by the Magi, was in effect the consequence of their secret

doctrine; but this Benjamin of ancient Israel caused, by the fact of

its birth, the death of its mother. The Magic of Light, that of the

true Zoroaster, of Melchisedek and Abraham came to an end with the

advent of the Great Fulfiller. Henceforth, in a world of miracles, mere

prodigies could be nothing more than a scandal and magical orthodoxy

was transfigured into the orthodoxy of religion. Those who dissented

could be only _illuminati_ and sorcerers; the very name of Magic could

be interpreted only according to its evil sense, and it is under this

inhibition that we shall follow hereafter its manifestations through

the centuries.

The first arch-heretic mentioned in the traditions of the Church was

Simon the Magician; his legend embodies a multitude of marvels; it is

an integral part of our subject and we shall endeavour to separate

its basis from the cloud of fables by which it is surrounded. Simon

was by nationality a Jew and is believed to have been born in the

Samaritan town of Gitton.[120] His master in Magic was a sectarian

named Dositheus, who gave out that he was sent by God and was the

Messiah foretold by the prophets.[121] Under his tuition, Simon not

only acquired the illusory arts but also certain natural secrets which

belong really to the tradition of the Magi. He possessed the science

of the Astral Fire and could attract great currents thereof, making

himself seem impassible and incombustible. He had also the power to

rise and remain in the air. Feats of this kind have been performed

frequently, in the absence of science and, so to speak, accidentally,

by enthusiasts intoxicated with Astral Light, as for example the

convulsionaries of St. Médard; and the phenomena recur at the present

day in the mediumistic state. Simon magnetised at a distance those

who believed in him and appeared to them under various figures. He

produced images and visible reflections—_e.g._, everyone, on a certain

occasion, thinking that they could see fantastic trees in a bare

country. Moreover, objects which are normally inanimate were moved in

his vicinity, as furniture is now moved within the atmosphere of Home,

the American; and, finally, when he intended to enter or leave a house

the doors creaked, shook and ended by opening of their own accord.

Simon performed these wonders before the chief people of Samaria,

and as his actual achievements were in due course exaggerated, the

thaumaturgist passed for a divine being. It came about also that as he

owed his power to states of excitement by which reason is disturbed,

so he came to regard himself as such an exceptional being that he did

not hesitate to claim divine honours and dreamed modestly of usurping

the worship of the whole world. His crises or ecstasies produced

extraordinary physical results. Sometimes he appeared pale, withered,

broken, like an old man at the point of death; sometimes the luminous

fluid revitalised his blood, so that his eyes shone, his skin became

smooth and soft, and he appeared regenerated and renewed suddenly.

The easterns have great capacity for the amplification of wonders;

they claimed to have seen Simon passing from childhood to decrepitude

and again at his will returning from decrepitude into childhood. His

miracles were noised abroad everywhere, till he became not only the

idol of Jewish Samaria but also of the neighbouring countries.

However, the worshippers of marvels are generally hungry for new

emotions and they did not fail to get weary of that which at first

had astonished them. The Apostle St. Philip having reached Samaria,

to preach the gospel therein, a new current of enthusiasm was thus

started, with the result that Simon lost all his prestige. He was

conscious, moreover, that his abnormal states had ceased, as he thought

through loss of power; he believed that he was surpassed by magicians

more learned than himself, and the course which he took was to attach

himself to the apostles in the hope of studying, discovering or buying

their secret.

Simon was certainly not an initiate of Transcendental Magic, which

would have told him that wisdom and sanctity are needful for those who

would direct the secret forces of Nature without being broken thereby;

that to play with such terrible weapons without understanding them was

the act of a fool; and that swift and terrible death awaits those who

profane the Sanctuary of Nature. Simon was consumed by an unquenchable

thirst, like that of a drunkard; the suspension of his ecstasy was the

loss of all his happiness, and made ill by past excesses, he thought

to regain health in renewed intoxication. One does not willingly come

back to the state of a simple mortal after posing as a god. To recover

that which he had lost Simon submitted therefore to all the rigours

of apostolic austerity; he watched, he prayed, he fasted, but the

wonders did not return. Then he reflected that between Jews it might

be possible to reach an understanding, and he offered money to St.

Peter. The chief of the apostles drove him indignantly away; and he who

received so willingly the contributions of his disciples was now at the

end of his resources; he abandoned forthwith the society of men who

had shewn such disinterestedness, and with the money which St. Peter

disdained he purchased a female slave named Helena.[122]

Mystical vagaries are always akin to debauch. Simon became passionately

enamoured of his servant; that passion, at once weakening and exalting,

restored his cataleptic states and the morbid phenomena which he

termed his gift of wonders. A mythology full of magical reminiscences,

combined with erotic dreams, issued fully armed from his brain; he

undertook pilgrimages like the apostles, carrying Helena with him,

dogmatising and shewing himself to those who were willing to worship

and doubtless also to pay him.

According to Simon, the first manifestation of God was by means of

a perfect splendour which produced its reflection immediately. He

was himself this sun of souls and the reflection was Helena, whom he

affected to call Selene, being the name of the moon in Greek. Now

the moon of Simon came down at the beginning of the ages on that

earth which the magus had mapped out in his perpetual dreams. There

she became a mother, impregnated by the thought of his sun, and she

brought into the world angels, whom she reared by herself without

speaking of them to their father. The angels rebelled against her and

imprisoned her in a mortal body. It was then that the splendour of God

was compelled to descend in its turn that it might redeem Helena, and

so the Jew Simon was manifested on earth. There he had to overcome

death and carry his Helena through the air, followed by the triumphant

choir of the elect, while the rest of mankind was abandoned on earth

to the eternal tyranny of the angels. Thus the arch-heretic, imitating

Christianity but in the reverse sense, affirmed the eternal reign

of revolt and evil, represented the world as created or at least

completed by demons, destroyed the order and the hierarchy, to pose

alone with his concubine as the way, the truth and the life. Here was

the doctrine of Antichrist, and it was not to perish with Simon, for

it has been perpetuated to our own days. Indeed prophetic traditions

of Christianity speak of his transitory reign and triumph to come as

heralding the most terrible calamities. Simon claimed the title of

saint and, by a curious coincidence, the chief of a modern Gnostic sect

which recalls all the sensuous mysticism of the first arch-heretic—the

inventor of the “free woman”—is also named Saint-Simon. Cainism is the

name which might be given to all the false revelations issued from this

impure source. They are dogmas of malediction and of hatred against

universal harmony and social order; they are disordered passions

affirming license in the place of duty, sensual love instead of chaste

and devoted love, the prostitute in place of the mother, and Helena,

concubine of Simon, in place of Mary, the mother of the Saviour.

Simon became a notoriety and repaired to Rome, where the emperor,

attracted by all extraordinary spectacles, was disposed to welcome

him: this emperor was Nero. The illuminated Jew astonished the crowned

fool by a trick which is common in jugglery. He was decapitated,

but afterwards saluted the emperor, his head being restored to his

shoulders. He caused furniture to move and doors to open; in a word,

he acted as a veritable medium and became sorcerer in ordinary at the

orgies of Nero and the banquets of Trimalcyon. According to the legend

makers, it was to rescue the Jews of Rome from the doctrine of Simon

that St. Peter himself visited that capital of the world. Nero, by

means of his inferior spies, was informed speedily that a new worker of

Israelitish wonders had arrived to make war on his own enchanter, and

he resolved to bring them together for his amusement. Petronius and

Tigellinus were perhaps at this feast.[123]

“May peace be with you,” said the prince of apostles on entering. “We

have nothing to do with your peace,” answered Simon. “It is by war that

truth is discovered. Peace between adversaries is the victory of one

and the defeat of the other.”

[Illustration: DISPUTATION BETWEEN SIMON THE MAGICIAN AND SS. PETER AND

PAUL]

St. Peter answered: “Why do you reject peace? The vices of men have

created war, but peace ever abides with virtue.”

“Virtue is power and skill,” said Simon. “For myself I face the fire, I

rise in the air, I restore plants, I change stones into bread; and you,

what do you do?”

“I pray for you,” said St. Peter, “that you may not perish the victim

of your enchantments.”

“Keep your prayers; they will not ascend to heaven as quickly as

myself.”

And behold the magician passing out by a window and rising in the air

outside. Whether this was accomplished by means of some aerostatic

apparatus concealed under his long robes or whether he was lifted up,

like the convulsionaries of Paris the Deacon, owing to an exaltation of

the Astral Light, we are unable to say; but during this phenomenon St.

Peter was praying on his knees, and Simon fell suddenly with a great

cry, to be raised with his thighs broken. Nero imprisoned St. Peter,

who seemed a far less diverting magician than Simon; the latter died

of his fall. The whole of this history, which belongs to the popular

rumours of the period, is now relegated, though perhaps wrongly, to

the region of apocryphal legends.[124] On such account it is not less

remarkable or less worthy to be preserved.

The sect of Simon did not end with himself, and his successor was one

of his disciples, named Menander.[125] He did not pose as a god, being

contented with the role of a prophet; but when he baptized proselytes,

a visible fire came down upon the water. He also promised immortality

of soul and body as the result of this magical immersion, and in the

days of St. Justin, there were still followers of Menander who firmly

believed themselves immortal. The deaths which occurred among them by

no means disabused the others, for those who died were excommunicated

forthwith, on the ground that they had been false brethren. For these

believers death was an actual apostasy and their immortal ranks were

filled up by enrolling new proselytes. Those who understand the extent

of human folly will not be surprised to hear that in this present year,

being 1858, there exists in America and France a fanatical sect in

continuation of that of Menander.[126]

The qualification of magician added to the name of Simon rendered Magic

a thing of horror to Christians; but they did not on this account cease

to honour the memory of the Magi-Kings who adored the Saviour in His

cradle.

CHAPTER III

THE DEVIL

By its clear formulation of concepts respecting the Divine,

Christianity leads us to the understanding of God as the most absolute

and the most purest love, while it defines, not less clearly, the

spirit which is opposed to God, the spirit of revolt and hatred:

hereof is Satan. But this spirit is not a personality and is not to be

regarded as a kind of black god: it is a perversity which is common

to all extralineal intelligences. “My name is legion,” says Satan

in the Gospel, “for we are many.” The birth of intelligence may be

compared to the Star of the Morning and, after it has shone for an

instant, if it fall of its own accord into the void of darkness, we may

apply to it that apostrophe which was uttered by Isaiah to the king

of Babylon: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the

Morning?” But does this mean that the celestial Lucifer, the Morning

Star of intelligence, has been changed into a brand of hell? Can the

name of Light-bearer be applied justly to the angel of trespass and

of darkness? We think not, more especially if it be understood, as

we understand, who have the magical tradition behind us, that the

hell personified by Satan, and symbolised by the old serpent, is

that central fire which encompasses the earth, consuming all that it

produces and devouring its own tail, like the serpent of Kronos—in a

word, that Astral Light of which the Almighty spoke to Cain when He

said: “If thou doest evil, sin shall be straightway at thy gates”—that

is to say, disorder will take possession of all thy senses; “yet unto

thee I have made subject the lust of death, and it is for thee to rule

it.”[127]

The royal and almost divine personification of Satan is a blunder which

goes back to the false Zoroaster, or otherwise, to the sophisticated

doctrine of the later and materialistic Magi of Persia; it was they

who represented the two poles of the intellectual world as deities,

making a divinity out of passive force in contradistinction to that

force which is active. We have indicated that the same grave error

was made by Indian mythology. Ahriman or Siva is the father of the

demon, as the latter is understood by superstitious makers of legend,

and hence it was said by our Saviour: “The devil is a liar like his

father.” On this question the Church rests satisfied with the Gospel

texts and has published no dogmatic decisions, having the definition

of the devil as their object. Good Christians avoid even naming him,

while religious moralists recommend the faithful to take no concern

regarding him, seeking to resist his arts by thinking only of God. We

cannot but admire this wise reserve on the part of priestly teaching.

Why indeed should the light of doctrine be reflected on him who is

intellectual obscurity and darkest night of the heart? Let the spirit

which would distract us from the knowledge of God remain unknown by us.

It is assuredly not of our intention to perform what the Church has

omitted; we certify on such a subject only as to the secret instruction

of initiates in the occult sciences. They have said that the Great

Magical Agent—accurately termed Lucifer because it is the vehicle of

light and the receptacle of all forms—is a mediating force diffused

throughout creation; that it serves for creation and destruction; that

the fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which made his race subject

to that fatal light; that all amorous passion which invades the senses

is a whirlpool of this light, seeking to draw us down into the gulf of

death; that madness, hallucinations, visions, ecstasies constitute an

exceedingly dangerous exaltation of this interior phosphorus; finally,

that the light in question is of the nature of fire, that it is warming

and vivifying in its prudent use, but that it burns, dissolves and

destroys in its excess. Over this light man is called, on the one hand,

to assume a sovereign empire, so earning his immortality, but, on

the other, he is menaced by the intoxication, absorption and eternal

destruction thereof. In its devouring, avenging and fatal aspect, the

Astral Light may be called the fire of hell, the serpent of legend,

while the tormented sin which abounds therein, the tears and the

gnashing of teeth on the part of the abortions that it consumes, the

phantom of life which escapes them and seems to insult their misery—all

this may be termed the devil or Satan. Among the pomps and works of

hell may be included, in fine, those actions, those illusionary images

of pleasure, wealth and glory which are misdirected by the vertigo of

this light.

Father Hilarion Tissot regards certain nervous diseases which are

accompanied by hallucinations and delirium as diabolical possessions

and, understood in the sense of the Kabalists, he is right assuredly.

Whatsoever delivers our soul to the fatality of vertigo is truly

infernal, since heaven is the eternal reign of order, intelligence

and liberty. The possessed people of the Gospel fled away from Jesus

Christ; the oracles were silenced in the presence of the Apostles;

while those who are prey to the disease of hallucination have ever

manifested an invincible repugnance for initiates and sages. The

suspension of oracles and obsessions proved the triumph of human

liberty over fatality. When astral diseases reappear, it is an

ominous sign of spiritual enervation, and manifestations of this kind

are followed invariably by fatal disorders. The disturbances here

referred to continued till the French Revolution, and the fanatics of

Saint-Médard were the prophets of its sanguinary calamities. The famous

criminologist Torreblanca, who had gone to the root of Diabolical

Magic, describes accurately all the phenomena of astral disturbance,

when classifying the works of the demon. Here are some extracts from

the 15th chapter of his work on _Operative Magic_:[128] (1) The demon

is endeavouring continually to lead us into error. (2) He deludes the

senses by disturbing the imagination, though he cannot change its

nature. (3) When things abnormal are manifested to the eye of man, an

imaginary body assumes shape in the mind and so long as that phantom

remains therein, the phenomena continue. (4) The demon destroys

equilibrium in the imagination by a disturbance of the vital functions,

whether by irregularity in health or actual disease. (5) When some

morbid cause has destroyed this equilibrium, and that also of reason,

waking dream becomes possible and that which has no existence assumes

the semblance of reality. (6) The mental perception of images in this

manner makes sight unworthy of trust. (7) Visions are bodied forth,

but they are merely thought-forms. (8) The ancients distinguished two

orders of disease, one of them being the perception of imaginary forms,

which was termed frenzy, and the other corybantism, or the hearing of

voices and other sounds which have no existence.

It follows from these statements, which are curious in several

respects, that disease is attributed by Torreblanca to the demon,

who indeed is disease itself, with which we should agree entirely—if

permitted by dogmatic authority. The recurring efforts of the Astral

Light to disintegrate and absorb entities are part of its nature; its

ceaseless currents have a wearing effect like water and it consumes

even as fire, for it is the very essence and dissolving force of fire.

The spirit of perversity and the love of destruction which characterise

those whom it governs are instincts of this force. They are further

consequent on the suffering of the soul, which is conscious of

incomplete life and feels torn in opposite directions. The soul yearns

to make an end of itself, yet fears to die alone, and therefore would

include all creation in its destruction. Such astral perversity assumes

frequently the form of the hatred of children; an unknown power impels

certain subjects to kill them, and imperious voices seem to demand

their death. Dr. Brierre de Boismont cites terrible examples of this

mania, recalling the crimes of Papavoine and Henriette Cornier.

Sufferers from astral perversion are malevolent, and they are jealous

at the joy of others; they are especially inimical to hope, and

even when offering consolation they choose the most desperate and

heartrending figures of speech. The explanation is that their life is

synonymous with suffering and that they have been whirled into the

dance of death. It is, moreover, astral perversion and the lust of

death which abuses the act of generation, leading to its perversion

or dishonour by sacrilegious mockeries and shameful pleasantries.

Obscenity is a blasphemy against life. Each of these vices is

personified by a black idol or by a demon, which is the negative and

distorted reflection of the divinity who communicates life: these are

idols of death. Moloch is the fatality which devours infants. Satan

and Nisroch are gods of hatred, fatality and despair. Astarte, Lilith,

Nehamah, Ashtaroth are idols of debauchery and abortion. Adramelech

is the god of murder, while Belial is that of eternal revolt and

anarchy. Such are the monstrous conceptions of reason, when it pauses

on the verge of extinction and slavishly worships its destroyer, so

that it may reach the end of its torment by the destroyer absorbing

it. According to the Kabalists, the true name of Satan is that of

Jehovah reversed, for Satan is not a black god but the negation of

Deity. He is the personification of atheism and idolatry. The devil

is not a personality for initiates but a force created with a good

object, though it can be applied to evil: it is really the instrument

of liberty. They represented this force, which presides over physical

generation, under the mythological figure of the horned god Pan, and

hence comes the goat of the Sabbath, brother of the old serpent, the

light-bearer or phosphorus, converted by poets into the false Lucifer

of legend.

CHAPTER IV

THE LAST PAGANS

The eternal miracle of God is the unchangeable order of His providence

in the harmonies of Nature; prodigies are derangements and are

attributable only to degeneration in the creature. Divine miracle

is thus a providential reaction for the restoration of the broken

order. When Jesus cured the possessed He calmed them and suspended the

marvels which they produced; when the apostles subdued the exaltation

of the pythonesses they put an end to divination. The spirit of error

is a spirit of agitation and subversion; the spirit of truth brings

tranquillity and peace in its path. Such was the civilising influence

of Christianity at its dawn; but those passions which are friends of

disturbance did not, without a struggle, leave it in possession of the

palm of easy victory. Expiring polytheism drew powers from the Magic of

the old sanctuaries; to the mysteries of the Gospel it still opposed

those of Eleusis. Apollonius of Tyana was set up as a parallel to the

Saviour of the world, and Philostratus undertook to construct a legend

on the subject of this new deity. Thereafter came the Emperor Julian,

who would have been himself deified if the javelin which slew him

had not also struck the last blow at Cæsarian idolatry. The enforced

and decrepit rebirth of a religion which was dead in its forms was a

literal abortion, and Julian, who attempted it, was doomed to perish

with the senile offspring which he strove to bring into the world.

This notwithstanding, Apollonius and Julian were two curious, even

great personalities, and their history is epoch-making in the Annals

of Magic. Allegorical legends were in fashion at that period. Those who

were masters embodied their doctrine in their personality, and those

who were initiated disciples wrote fables which combined the secrets of

initiation. The history of Apollonius by Philostratus, too absurd if it

be taken literally, becomes memorable when its symbolism is examined

according to the data of science. It is a kind of pagan gospel, opposed

to that of Christianity; it is a secret doctrine at large, and we are

in a position to reconstruct and explain it.

In the third book of Philostratus, the initial chapter contains an

account of Hyphasis, a wonderful river which rises in a certain plain

and is lost in unapproachable regions. That river represents magical

knowledge, which is simple in its first principles but difficult to

deduce accurately in respect of final consequences.[129] Philostratus

tells us in this connection that marriages are not fruitful unless

consecrated by the balsam of trees which grow on the banks of Hyphasis.

The fish of this river are sacred to Venus; their crest is blue, the

scales are of many colours and their tail is golden: they can raise the

tail at will. In the river there is also an animal resembling a white

worm, the stewing of which produces an inflammable oil that can be kept

in glass only. The animal is reserved only for the king’s service, as

it has power to overthrow walls. When the grease of it is exposed to

the air it ignites, and there is then nothing in the whole world with

which the flame can be extinguished.

By the fish of the river Hyphasis, Apollonius signifies universal

configuration which magnetic experiments have recently proved to

be blue on one side, golden on that which is opposite and of many

colours at the centre. The white worm is the Astral Light, which

resolves into oil when condensed by a triple fire, and such oil is the

universal medicine. It can only be contained by glass, this being a

non-conductor for the Astral Light, its porousness being inappreciable.

This secret is reserved to the king, which means an initiate of the

first order, for it is truly concerned with a force by which cities

can be destroyed. Some important secrets are here indicated with great

clearness.

In the next chapter Philostratus speaks of unicorns and says that the

horn of these animals can be fashioned into drinking-cups which are

a safeguard against all poisons. The single horn of the symbolical

creature represents hierarchic unity, and hence Philostratus adds, on

the authority of Damis, that the cups in question are also exclusive to

kings. “Happy,” says Apollonius, “is he who is never intoxicated but in

drinking out of such a goblet.”

Damis narrates further that Apollonius met with a woman who was white

from feet to breasts but black in the upper region. His disciples were

alarmed at the prodigy, but the master gave her his hand, for he knew

her. He told them that she was the Indian Venus, whose colours are

those of the bull Apis, adored by the Egyptians. This harlequin female

is magical science, the white limbs—or created forms—of which reveal

the black head, or that supreme cause which is unknown to man at large.

But Philostratus and Damis knew, and it was under emblems like these

that they gave expression in concealment to the doctrine of Apollonius.

The secret of the Great Work is contained in the fifth to the tenth

chapters of this third book, and the form of symbolism adopted is that

of dragons defending the entrance to a palace of the wise.[130] There

are three species of dragons —dwellers respectively of marshes, plains

and mountain. The mountain is Sulphur, the marsh Mercury and the plain

is the Salt of the Philosophers. The dragons of the plain are pointed

on the back, like a saw-fish, referring to the acid potency of salt.

Those of the mountains have golden scales and a golden beard, while the

sound of their creeping movement is like the tinkling of copper. In

their head is a stone by which all miracles can be worked. They bask

on the shores of the Red Sea and they are caught by the help of a red

cloth embroidered with golden letters; on these enchanted letters they

lay their head and fall asleep, and they are then decapitated with an

axe. Who does not recognise here the Stone of the Philosophers, the

Magistery at the Red and the famous regimen of fire, represented by

golden letters? Under the name of Citadel of the Wise, Philostratus

goes on to describe the Athanor as a hill surrounded by a mist but open

on the southern side. It has a well four paces in breadth, from which

an azure vapour rises, drawn up by the warmth of the sun and displaying

all colours of the rainbow. The bottom of the well is sanded with red

arsenic. In its vicinity is a basin filled with fire and thence rises

a livid flame, odourless and smokeless, and never higher or lower than

the basin-edge. There are also two reservoirs of black stone, in one of

which rain is stored and in the other wind. The rain-cistern is opened

when there is excessive drought and then clouds come forth which water

the whole country. It would be difficult to describe more exactly the

Secret Fire of the Philosophers and that which they term their _Balneum

Mariæ_. It follows from this account that the ancient alchemists

employed electricity, magnetism and steam in their Great Work.

Philostratus speaks subsequently of the Philosophical Stone itself,

which he calls indifferently a Stone and Light. “The profane are not

permitted to discover it, because it vanishes if not laid hold of

according to the processes of the Art. It is the wise only who, by

means of certain verbal formulæ and rites, can attain the _Pantarba_.

This is the name of the Stone which at night has the appearance of

fire, being flaming and sparkling, while in the day it dazzles by its

brightness. This light is a subtle matter of admirable virtue, for it

attracts all that is near it.[131]

The above revelation concerning the secret doctrines of Apollonius

proves that the Philosophical Stone is no other than an universal

magnet, formed of the Astral Light condensed and fixed about a centre.

It is an artificial phosphorus containing the concentrated virtues of

all generative heat, and the multitude of allegories and traditions

extant concerning it are as testimonies to its certain existence.[132]

The entire life of Apollonius, as recorded by Philostratus, following

Damis the Assyrian, is a tissue of apologues and parables, the

concealed doctrine of great masters of initiation being written in

this manner at the period, as already intimated. We know therefore why

the recital embodies fables and underneath the text of these fables

we should expect to find, and may even look to understand, the secret

knowledge of the hierophants.

His great science and conspicuous virtues notwithstanding, Apollonius

was not a successor in the hierarchic school of the Magi. His

initiation had India as its source and he was addicted to the

enervating practices of the Brahmins; further he preached rebellion and

regicide openly: he was a great character in a wrong path. The figure

of the Emperor Julian seems more poetic and beautiful than that of

Apollonius; he maintained on the throne of the world all the austerity

of a sage; and he sought to transpose the young sap of Christianity

into the enfeebled body of Hellenism. He was a noble maniac, guilty

only of too much devotion to the associations of the fatherland and

the images of its ancestral gods. As a counterpoise to the realising

efficacity of Christian doctrine, he called Black Magic to his aid and

plunged into darksome evocations, following the lead of Jamblichus and

Maximus of Ephesus. But the gods whom he desired to resuscitate in

their youth and beauty appeared before him cold and decrepit, shrinking

from life and light, and ready to fly before the sign of the cross.

The closing had been taken in full according to the grade of Hellenism,

and the Galilean had conquered. Julian died like a hero, without

blaspheming Him who overcame, as it has been falsely pretended.[133]

Ammianus Marcellinus portrays his last moments at length: they were

those of a warrior and philosopher. The maledictions of Christian

sacerdotalism echoed long over his tomb; has not the Saviour, that

lover of noble souls, pardoned adversaries less interesting and less

generous than the unfortunate Julian?

On the death of this emperor, Magic and idolatry were · involved in

one and the same universal reprobation. At this time there came into

existence those secret associations of adepts, to which Gnostics and

Manicheans gravitated at a later period. The societies in question

were the depositaries of a tradition of errors and truths admixed; but

they transmitted, under the seal of terrific pledges, the Great Arcanum

of ancient omnipotence, together with the ever-frustrated hopes of

extinct worships and fallen priesthoods.

CHAPTER V

LEGENDS

The strange narratives embodied in the _Golden Legend_, how fabulous

soever they may be, are referable notwithstanding to the highest

Christian antiquity. They are parables rather than histories; the

style is simple and eastern, like that of the Gospels; and their

traditional existence proves that a species of mythology had been

devised to conceal the Kabalistic mysteries of Johannite initiation.

The _Golden Legend_ is a Christian Talmud expressed in allegories and

apologues. Studied from this point of view, the newer in proportion

as it is more ancient, the work will become of real importance and

highest interest.[134] One of the narratives in this Legend so full of

mysteries characterises the conflict of Magic and dawning Christianity

in a manner which is equally dramatic and startling. It is like an

outline in advance of Chateaubriand’s _Martyrs_ and the _Faust_ of

Goethe combined.

Justina was a young and lovely pagan maiden, daughter of a priest of

the idols, after the manner of Cymodoce. Her window opened on a court

which gave upon the Christian church, so that she heard daily the pure

and recollected voice of a deacon reading the holy gospels aloud. The

unknown words touched and stirred her heart, so deeply indeed that when

her mother remarked one evening how grave she seemed and sought to be

the confidant of her preoccupations, Justina fell at her feet and said:

“Bless me, my mother, or forgive me: I am a Christian.” The mother wept

and embraced her, after which she returned to her husband and related

what she had heard. That night in their sleep the parents were both

visited by the same dream. A divine light descended upon them, a sweet

voice called them and said: “Come unto me, all ye that are afflicted

and I will comfort you. Come, ye beloved of my father, and I will give

unto you the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning

of the world.”

The morning dawned; father and mother blessed their daughter. All

three were enrolled among the catechumens and, after the usual

probation, they were admitted to Holy Baptism. Justina returned white

and radiant from the church, between her mother and aged father, when

two forbidding men, wrapped in their mantles, passed as Faust and

Mephistopheles going by Margaret: they were Cyprian the magician and

his disciple Acladius. They stopped dazzled by the apparition, but

Justina went on without seeing them and reached home with her family.

The scene now changes and we are in the laboratory of Cyprian.

Circles have been traced, a slaughtered victim still palpitates by a

smoking chafing-dish; the genius of darkness stands in the presence

of the magician, saying: “Thou hast called me; I come. Speak: what

dost thou require?”—“I love a virgin.”—“Seduce her.”—“She is a

Christian.”—“Denounce her.”—“I would possess and not lose her: canst

thou aid me?”—“I tempted Eve, who was innocent and conversed daily with

God Himself. If thy virgin be Christian, know that it is I who caused

Jesus Christ to be crucified.”—“Thou wilt deliver her into my hands,

therefore.”—“Take this magical unguent, and anoint the threshold of her

dwelling: the rest concerns me.”

And now Justina is asleep in her small and simple room, but Cyprian

is at the door murmuring sacrilegious words and performing horrible

rites. The demon creeps to the pillow of the young girl and instils

voluptuous dreams full of the image of Cyprian, whom she seems to meet

again on issuing from the church. This time, however, she looks at him;

she listens, while the things which he whispers fill her heart with

trouble. But she moves suddenly, she awakes and signs herself with the

cross. The demon vanishes and the seducer, doing sentinel at the door,

waits vainly through the whole night.

On the morrow he renews his evocations and loads his infernal

accomplice with bitter reproaches. The latter confesses his inability,

is driven forth in disgrace, and Cyprian invokes a demon of superior

class, who transforms himself by turns into a young girl and a

beautiful youth, tempting Justina by advice as well as caresses. She

is on the point of yielding, but her good angel helps her; she joins

inspiration to the sign of the cross and expels the evil spirit.

Cyprian thereupon invokes the king of hell and Satan arrives in person.

He visits Justina with all the woes of Job and spreads a frightful

plague through Antioch; the oracles, at his instigation, declare that

it will cease only when Justina shall satisfy Venus and love, who are

alike outraged. Justina, however, prays in public for the people, and

the pest ceases. Satan is baffled in his turn; Cyprian compels him to

acknowledge the omnipotence of the sign of the cross and defies him by

making it on his own person. He abjures Magic, becomes a Christian, is

consecrated bishop and meets with Justina in a convent. They love now

with the pure and lasting love of heavenly charity; persecution befalls

both; they are arrested together, put to death on the same day and

ratify in the breast of God their mystical and eternal marriage.[135]

According to the legend, St. Cyprian was Bishop of Antioch, but

ecclesiastical history says that his seat was that of Carthage. It

matters little, for the rest, whether the personalities are the same;

the one belongs to poetry, while the other is a father and martyr of

the Church.

There is extant among the old Grimoires a prayer attributed to the St.

Cyprian of legend, who is possibly the holy Bishop of Carthage: its

obscure and figurative expressions may have given credit to the idea

that prior to his conversion he was addicted to the deadly practices of

Black Magic. It may be rendered thus.

“I, Cyprian, servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, have prayed unto God the

Father Almighty, saying: Thou art the strong God, my God omnipotent,

dwelling in the great light. Thou art holy and worthy of praise, and

Thou hast beheld in the old days the malice of Thy servant and the

iniquities into which I was plunged by the wiles of the demon. I was

ignorant of Thy true name; I passed in the midst of the sheep and they

were without a shepherd. The clouds shed no dew on earth; trees bare

no fruit and women in labour could not be delivered. I bound and did

not loose; I bound the fishes of the sea, and they were captive; I

bound the pathways of the sea, and many evils did I encompass. But now,

Lord Jesus Christ, I have known Thy Holy Name, I have loved Thee, I am

converted with my whole heart, my whole soul and all my inward being.

I have turned from the multitude of my sins, that I may walk in Thy

love and follow Thy commandments, which are henceforth my faith and my

prayer. Thou art the Word of truth, the sole Word of the Father, and

I conjure Thee now to break the chain of clouds and send down on Thy

children Thy goodly rain like milk, to set free the rivers and liberate

those who swim, as also those which fly. I conjure Thee to break all

the chains and remove all the obstacles by the virtue of Thy Holy

Name.”

The antiquity of this prayer is evident and it embodies most remarkable

reminiscences of primitive types belonging to Christian esotericism

during the first centuries of this era.

The qualification of Golden given to the fabulous legend of allegorical

saints is a sufficient indication of its character. Gold, in the eyes

of initiates, is condensed light; the sacred numbers of the Kabalah

were called golden; the moral instructions of Pythagoras were contained

in _Golden Verses_; and for the same reason that mysterious work of

Apuleius in which an ass has an important _rôle_, is called the _Golden

Ass_.

The Christians were accused by Pagans of worshipping an ass, and the

slander in question is not of their own devising; it is referable to

the Jews of Samaria, who expressed Kabalistic ideas on the Divinity by

means of Egyptian symbols. Intelligence was represented in the symbol

of a magical star, venerated under the name of _Rempham_; science was

depicted by the emblem of _Anubis_, the latter name being altered into

_Nibbas_; whilst vulgar faith or credulity appeared in the likeness

of _Thartac_, a god represented holding a book, wearing a mantle and

having the head of an ass.[136] According to the Samaritan doctors,

Christianity was the reign of _Thartac_, or blind faith and vulgar

credulity set up as an universal oracle, superior to understanding

and knowledge. This is why, in their intercourse with Gentiles and

when they heard themselves identified by these with Christians, they

protested and begged not to be confounded with the worshippers of

an ass’s head. The pretended revelation diverted the philosophers,

and Tertullian mentions a Roman caricature, extant in his days,

which exhibited _Thartac_ in all his glory, identified as the god of

Christianity, much to the amusement of Tertullian, though he was the

author of that famous aphorism: _Credo quia absurdum_.[137]

The Golden Ass of Apuleius is the occult legend of _Thartac_. It is a

magical epic and a satire against Christianity, which the author had

doubtless professed for a period, or so at least he appears to intimate

under the allegory of his metamorphosis into an ass. The story of the

work is as follows. Apuleius was travelling in Thessaly, the country of

enchantments. He received hospitality at the house of a man whose wife

was a sorceress, and he seduced the servant of his hostess, thinking to

obtain in this manner the secrets of her mistress. The maid promised

to deliver to her lover a concoction by means of which the sorceress

changed herself into a bird, but she made a mistake in the box and

Apuleius was transformed into an ass. She could only console him by

saying that to regain his proper form it would be sufficient to eat

roses, the rose being the flower of initiation. The difficulty at the

moment being to find roses in the night, it was decided to wait till

the morrow and the servant therefore stabled the ass, but only for it

to be taken by robbers and carried off. There was little chance now of

coming across roses, which are not intended for asses, and gardeners

chased away the animal with sticks.

During his long and sad captivity, he heard the history of Psyche

related, that marvellous and symbolical legend which was like the soul

and poetry of his own experience. Psyche desired to take by surprise

the secrets of love, as Apuleius sought those of Magic; she lost

love and he the human form. She was an exiled wanderer, living under

the wrath of Venus, and he was the slave of thieves. But after having

journeyed through hell, Psyche was to return into heaven, and the gods

took pity on Lucius. Isis appeared to him in a dream and promised

that her priest, warned by a revelation, would give him roses during

the solemnities of her coming festival. That festival arrived, and

Apuleius describes at great length the procession of Isis; the account

is valuable to science, for it gives the key of Egyptian mysteries.

Men in disguise come first, carrying grotesque animals; these are the

vulgar fables. Women follow strewing flowers and bearing on their

shoulders mirrors which reflect the image of the great divinity. So do

men go in front and formulate dogmas which women embellish, reflecting

unconsciously the higher truths, owing to their maternal instincts. Men

and women came afterwards in company as light-bearers; they represented

the alliance of the two terms, the active and passive generators of

science and life.[138] After the light came harmony, represented by

young musicians, and, in fine, the images of gods, to the number of

three, followed by the grand hierophant, carrying, instead of an

image, the symbol of great Isis, being a globe of gold surmounted by a

Caduceus. Lucius Apuleius beheld a crown of roses in the hands of the

high priest; he approached and was not repulsed; he ate the roses and

was restored to human shape.

All this is learnedly written and intermingled with episodes which are

now heroic and again grotesque in character, as befitted the double

nature of Lucius and the ass. Apuleius was at once the Rabelais and

Swedenborg of the old world at the close of the epoch.

The great masters of Christianity either failed or refused to

understand the mysticism of the _Golden Ass_. St. Augustine in the

_City of God_ asks in the most serious manner whether one is to

believe that Apuleius was metamorphosed literally into an ass and

seems disposed to admit the possibility, but only as an exceptional

phenomenon—from which nothing follows as a consequence. If this be an

irony on his part, it must be allowed that it is cruel, but if it be

ingenuousness—however, St. Augustine, the acute rhetorician of Madaura,

was scarcely given to being ingenuous.

Blind and unfortunate indeed were those initiates of the Antique

Mysteries who ridiculed the ass of Bethlehem without perceiving the

infant God Who shone upon the peaceful animals in the stable—the Child

on whose forehead reposed the conciliating star of all the past and

future. Whilst philosophy, convicted of impotence, offered insult to

victorious Christianity, the fathers of the Church assumed all the

magnificence of Plato and created a new philosophy based upon the

living reality of the Divine Word, ever present in His Church, reborn

in each of its members and immortal in humanity. It would be a greater

dream of pride than that of Prometheus, were it not at the same time a

doctrine which is all abnegation and all devotion, human because it is

divine and divine because it is human.

CHAPTER VI

SOME KABALISTIC PAINTINGS AND SACRED EMBLEMS

In obedience to the Saviour’s formal precept, the primitive Church

did not expose its Most Holy Mysteries to the chance of profanation

by the crowd. Admission to Baptism and the Eucharist was in virtue

of progressive initiations; the sacred books were also held in

concealment, their free study and, above all, interpretation being

reserved to the priesthood. Moreover, images were fewer and less

explicit in character. The feeling of the time refrained from

reproducing the figure of Christ Himself, and the paintings on the

catacombs were, for the most part, Kabalistic emblems. There was the

Edenic Cross with the four rivers, where harts came to drink; the

mysterious fish of Jonah was replaced frequently by a two-headed

serpent; a man rising from a chest recalls pictures of Osiris.[139] All

these allegories at a later period fell under proscription, owing to

the Gnosticism which misapplied them, materialising and debasing the

holy traditions of the Kabalah.

The name of Gnostic was not always rejected by the Church. Those

fathers whose doctrine was allied to the traditions of St. John

frequently made use of this title to designate the perfect Christian.

Apart from the great Synesius, who was a finished Kabalist but of

questionable orthodoxy, St. Irenæus and St. Clement of Alexandria

applied it in this sense. The false Gnostics were all in revolt against

the hierarchic order, seeking to level the sacred science by its

general diffusion, to substitute visions for understanding, personal

fanaticism for hierarchic religion, and especially the mystical licence

of sensual passions for that wise Christian sobriety and obedience to

law which are the mother of chaste marriages and saving temperance.

The induction of ecstasy by physical means and the substitution of

somnambulism for sanctity—these were the invariable tendency of those

Cainite sects which perpetuated the Black Magic of India. The Church

could do no less than condemn them energetically, and it did not swerve

from its mission; it is only regrettable that the good grain of science

often suffered when the spade was driven and the flame kindled in

fields overgrown by tares.

Enemies of generation and the family, the false Gnostics sought

to insure sterility by increasing debauch; their pretence was to

spiritualise matter, but actually they materialised spirit, and this

in the most repulsive manner. Their theology abounds in the copulation

of Eons and in voluptuous embraces.[140] Like the Brahmans, they

worshipped death under the symbol of the _lingam_; their creation was

an infinite onanism and their redemption an eternal abortion.

Looking to escape from the hierarchy by the help of miracle—as if

miracle apart from the hierarchy proved anything but disorder or

rascality, the Gnostics, from the days of Simon Magus, were great

workers of prodigies. Substituting the impure rites of Black Magic for

the established worship, they caused blood to appear instead of the

Eucharistic wine and substituted cannibal communions for the peaceful

and pure supper of the Heavenly Lamb.[141] The arch-heretic Marcos,

a disciple of Valentinus, said Mass with two chalices; he poured wine

into the smaller and on pronouncing a magical formula the larger

vessel was filled with a liquor like blood, which swelled up seething.

He was not a priest, and he sought to prove in this manner that God

had invested him by a miraculous ordination.[142] He incited all his

disciples to perform the same marvel in his presence. It was women more

especially whose success was parallel to his own, but when they passed

subsequently into convulsions and ravishment, Marcos breathed upon

them, communicating his own mania, so that they covenanted to forget

for his sake, and for that of religion, not only all prudence but all

decency.

Such intervention of woman in the priesthood was always the dream of

false Gnostics, for in so equalising the sexes they introduced anarchy

into the family and raised a stumbling-block in the path of society.

Maternity is the true priesthood of women; modesty is the ritual of the

fireside and the religion thereto belonging. This the Gnostics failed

to understand, or they understood it too well rather, and in misguiding

the sacred instincts of the mother they cast down the barrier which

stood between them and complete liberty for their desires.[143]

The sorry candour of lewdness was not, however, a gift possessed by

all. On the contrary, the Montanists, among other Gnostics, exaggerated

morality in order to make it impracticable. Montanus himself, whose

acrid doctrines inveigled the paradoxical and extremist genius

of Tertullian, was given over, with Priscilla and Maximilla, his

prophetesses, or—as we should now say—his somnambulists, to all the

boundless licentiousness of frenzy and ecstasy. The natural penalty of

such excesses was not wanting to their authors; they ended in raving

madness and suicide.

The doctrine of the Marcosians was a profound and materialised Kabalah;

they dreamed that God had created everything by means of the letters

of the alphabet; that these letters were as so many divine emanations,

having the power of generating beings; that words were all-powerful and

worked wonders virtually, as also in literal reality.[144] All this

is true in a certain sense, but not in that of the Marcosian heresy.

The heretics in question supplemented actualities by hallucinations

and believed that they went invisible because they were transported

mentally where they wished in the somnambulistic state. In the case

of false mystics, life and dream are frequently so confused together

that the predominant dream-state invades and submerges reality: it is

then uttermost rule of folly. The natural function of imagination is to

evoke images and forms, but in a condition of abnormal exaltation it

can also exteriorise forms, as proved by the phenomena of monstrous

pregnancies and a host of analogous facts which official science would

do more wisely to study rather than deny stubbornly. Of such are the

disorderly creations which religion brands justly under the name of

diabolical miracles and of such were those of Simon, the Menandrians

and Marcos.

In our own days a false Gnostic named Vintras, at present a refugee in

London, causes blood to appear in empty chalices and on sacrilegious

hosts. The unhappy being then passes into ecstasies, after the manner

of Marcos, prophesies the downfall of the hierarchy and the coming

triumph of a pretended priesthood, given up to unrestricted intercourse

and unbridled love.[145]

After the protean pantheism of the Gnostics came the dualism of Marcos,

formulating as religious dogma the false initiation prevalent among the

pseudo-Magi of Persia. The personification of evil produced a God in

competition with God Himself, a King of darkness as well as a King of

Light, and there is referable to this period that pernicious doctrine

of the ubiquity and sovereignty of Satan against which we register our

most energetic protest. We make no pretence in this place of denying

or affirming the tradition concerning the fall of angels, deferring

herein, as in all that concerns faith, to the supreme and infallible

decisions of the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. But

assuming that the fallen angels had a leader prior to that apostasy,

the event in question could not do otherwise than precipitate them

into total anarchy, tempered only by the inflexible justice of God.

Separated from that Divinity which is the source of all power, and more

guilty by far than the others, the prince of angels in rebellion could

be nothing but the last and most impotent of all outcasts.

But if there be a force in Nature which attracts those who forget God

towards sin and death, such force is no other than the Astral Light,

and we do not decline to recognise it as an instrument in subservience

to fallen spirits. We shall recur to this subject, prepared with

a complete explanation, so that it may be intelligible in all its

bearings and all its orthodoxy.[146] The revelation of a great secret

of occultism thus effected will make evident the danger of evocations,

all curious experiences, abuses of magnetism, table-turning and

whatever connects with wonders and hallucinations.

Arius had prepared the way for Manicheanism by his hybrid creation

of a Son of God distinct from God Himself. It was equivalent to the

hypothesis of dualism in Deity, inequality in the Absolute, inferiority

in Supreme Power, the possibility of conflict between the Father

and the Son, and even its necessity. These considerations, and the

disparity between the terms of the divine syllogism, make inevitable

the rejection of the notion. Is there any question whether the Divine

Word can be good or evil—can be either God or the devil? But this was

the great dilemma involved by the addition of a diphthong to the Greek

word [Greek: omousios], by which it was changed to [Greek: omoiousios].

In declaring the Son consubstantial with the Father, the Council of

Nicæa saved the world, though the truth can be realised only by those

who know that principles in reality constitute the equilibrium of the

universe.

Gnosticism, Arianism, Manicheanism came out of the Kabalah

misconstrued. The Church was therefore right in forbidding to its

faithful the study of a science so dangerous; the keys thereof should

be reserved solely to the supreme priesthood. The secret tradition

would appear as a fact to have been preserved by sovereign pontiffs,

at least till the papacy of Leo III, to whom is attributed an occult

ritual said to have been presented by him to the Emperor Charlemagne.

It contains the most secret characters of the Keys of Solomon. This

little work, which should have been kept in concealment, came into

circulation later on, necessitating its condemnation by the Church, and

it has passed consequently into the domain of Black Magic. It is known

under the name of the _Enchiridion_ of Leo III and we are in possession

of an old copy which is exceedingly rare and curious.[147]

The loss of the Kabalistic keys could not entail that of the

infallibility of the Church, which is ever assisted by the Holy

Spirit, but it led to great obscurity in exegesis, the sublime imagery

of Ezekiel’s prophecy and the Apocalypse of St. John being rendered

completely unintelligible. May the lawful successors of St. Peter

accept the homage of this book and bless the labours of their humblest

child, who, believing that he has found one of the keys of knowledge,

comes to lay it at the feet of those who alone have the right to open

and to shut the treasures of understanding and of faith.

CHAPTER VII

PHILOSOPHERS OF THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL

On the eve of its extinction the school of Plato diffused a great

light at Alexandria; but, victorious after three centuries of warfare,

Christianity had assimilated all that was permanent and true in the

doctrines of antiquity. The last adversaries of the new religion

attempted to check the progress of men who were alive by galvanising

mummies. The time had come when the competition could be taken

seriously no longer, and the pagans of the school of Alexandria,

unwillingly and unconsciously, were at work on the sacred monument

raised by the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth to confront all the

ages. Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Porphyry, Proclus are great names in

the annals of science and virtue; their theology was elevated, their

doctrine moral, their own manners were austere. But the chief and

most touching figure of this epoch, the brightest star in the whole

constellation, was Hypatia, the daughter of Theon—that virginal and

learned girl whose understanding and virtues would have taken her to

the baptismal font, but she died a martyr for liberty of conscience

when they attempted to drag her thereto. Synesius of Cyrene was trained

at the school of Hypatia; he became Bishop of Ptolemais, and was one

of the most instructed philosophers as well as the best Christian

poet of the early centuries. It was he who remarked that the common

people always despised things which are of easy understanding and that

what they require is imposture. When it was proposed to confer on him

episcopal dignity, he wrote thus in a letter to a friend: “The mind

which is drawn to wisdom and to the contemplation of truth at first

hand is forced to disguise it, so that it may be rendered acceptable

to the multitude. There is a real analogy between light and truth, as

between our eyes and ordinary understandings. The sudden communication

of a light too brilliant dazzles the material eye, and rays that are

moderated by shadow are more serviceable to those whose sight as yet

is feeble. So, in my opinion, fictions are necessary for the people,

truth being harmful to those who are not strong enough to contemplate

it in all its splendour. If therefore the ecclesiastical laws permit

reserve in judgment, and allegory in mode of expression, I can accept

the dignity which is offered me; the condition is, in other words, that

I shall remain a philosopher at home, though I shall tell apologues and

parables in public. What can there be in common, as a fact, between

the vulgar crowd and sublime wisdom? Truth must be kept in secret; the

multitude need instruction proportioned to their imperfect reason.”

It is regrettable that Synesius should write in this strain, as nothing

can be more impolitic than to let a reservation appear when one is

entrusted with public teaching. As the result of similar indiscretions,

there is the common remark of to-day that religion is necessary for

the people; the question is for what people, seeing that no one will

tolerate inclusion in this category when understanding and morality are

involved.

The most remarkable work of Synesius is a treatise on dreams, in which

he unfolds the purest Kabalistic doctrines and appears as a theosophist

whose exaltation and obscure style have rendered suspect of heresy;

but he had neither the obstinacy nor the fanaticism of sectarians. He

died as he had lived in the peace of the Church, confessing his doubts

frankly but submitting to hierarchic authority: his clergy and his

flock asked nothing better at his hands. According to Synesius, the

state of dream proves the individuality and immaterial nature of the

soul, which in this condition creates for itself a heaven, a country,

palaces shining with light, or otherwise darksome caverns—according to

its inclinations and desires. Moral progress may be estimated by the

tendency of dreams, for in these free will is suspended, while fancy

is abandoned entirely to the dominant instincts. Images are produced

in consequence as a reflection or shadow of thought; presentiments

take bodily shape; memories are intermingled with hopes. The book of

dreams is inscribed sometimes with radiant and sometimes with dark

characters, but accurate rules can be established by which they may be

decoded and read. Jerome Cardan wrote a long commentary on the treatise

of Synesius and may even be said to have completed it by a dictionary

of all dreams, having their explanation attached. The whole is to be

distinguished entirely from the little books of colportage, and it

really claims a serious place in the library of occult science.[148]

A certain section of criticism has ascribed to Synesius those

remarkable works which appear under the name of Dionysius the

Areopagite; in any case, these are regarded as apocryphal and

belonging to the brilliant period of the school of Alexandria. They

are monuments of the conquest of higher Kabalism by Christianity,

and they are intelligible only for those who have been initiated

therein. The chief treatises of Dionysius are on Divine Names and

the Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies. The first explains and

simplifies all mysteries of rabbinical theology. According to the

author, God is the infinite and indefinable principle; in Himself He

is one and inexpressible, but we ascribe to Him names which formulate

our own aspirations towards His divine perfection.[149] The sum of

these names and their relation with numbers constitute that which is

highest in human thought; theology is less the science of God than

that of our most sublime yearnings. The degrees of the spiritual

hierarchy are afterwards established on the primitive scale of numbers,

governed by the triad. The angelical orders are three, and each order

contains three choirs. It is on this model that the hierarchy should

be established on earth, and the Church is its most perfect type:

therein are princes, bishops and lastly simple ministers. Among the

princes are cardinal-bishops, cardinal-priests and cardinal-deacons.

Among prelates there are archbishops, simple bishops and suffragans.

Among ministers there are rectors or vicars, simple priests and those

who hold the diaconate. The progression to this holy hierarchy is

by three preparatory degrees, being the subdiaconate, minor orders

and clerkship. The functions of all correspond to the angels and the

saints; they are to glorify the threefold Divine Names, in each of the

Three Persons, because the Undivided Trinity is adored in its fulness

in each of the Divine Hypostases. This transcendental theology was

that of the primitive church, and possibly it is attributed to St.

Dionysius only in virtue of a tradition which goes back to his and

the apostolic times, much as the rabbinical editors of the _Sepher

Yetzirah_ attributed that text to the patriarch Abraham, because it

embodies the tradition perpetuated from father to son in the family

of this patriarch. However it may be, the books of St. Dionysius

are precious for science; they consecrate the mystical marriage of

antique initiation with the gospel of Christianity, uniting a perfect

understanding of supreme philosophy with a theology which is absolutely

complete and in all things above reproach.

BOOK IV

_MAGIC AND CIVILISATION_

ד—DALETH

CHAPTER I

MAGIC AMONG BARBARIANS

Black Magic retreated before the light of Christianity, Rome was

conquered by the cross, and prodigies took refuge in that dark circle

with which the barbarous provinces enringed the new Roman splendour.

Among a large number of extraordinary phenomena there is one which

was verified in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. At Tralles in Asia,

a young and noble girl named Philinnium, originally of Corinth and

daughter of Demostrates and Charito, was captivated by Machates, a

youth of mean condition. Marriage was impossible, for, as it has been

said, Philinnium was noble, being, moreover, an only daughter and a

rich heiress. Machates was a man of the people and kept a tavern. The

passion of Philinnium was increased by difficulties; she escaped from

her father’s home and took refuge with Machates. An illicit intercourse

began and continued for six months, when the girl was discovered by

her parents, rescued by them and sequestered carefully. Measures were

now projected for leaving the country and removing her to Corinth; but

Philinnium, who had visibly wasted since separation from her lover,

was seized thereupon with a languishing disorder, neither smiling nor

sleeping, and refusing all nourishment. It came to pass, in fine, that

she died. The parents then relinquished their determination to depart

and purchased a vault, where the young girl was deposited, clothed

in her richest garments. The sepulchre was situated in an enclosure

belonging to the family and no one entered therein after the burial,

for pagans did not pray at the tombs of the departed. The noble family

were so anxious to avoid all scandal that all the arrangements took

place in secret, and Machates had no idea as to what had become of

his mistress. But on the night following the entombment, when he was

about to retire, the door opened slowly and, coming forward with lamp

in hand, he beheld Philinnium magnificently apparelled, but pallid,

cold and fixing him with a dreadful stare in the eyes. Machates ran

to meet her, took her in his arms, asked a thousand questions amidst

as many caresses, and they passed the night together. Before daybreak

Philinnium rose up and disappeared, while her lover was still plunged

in profound sleep.

[Illustration: HERMETIC MAGIC]

Now the girl had an old nurse who loved her tenderly and wept bitterly

at her loss. She may have been an accomplice in her misconduct, and

since the burial of her beloved, being unable to sleep, she rose

frequently at night in a kind of delirium and wandered round the

dwelling of Machates. It came about in this manner that a few days

after the episode just narrated, she observed a light in the young

man’s chamber; drawing nearer and looking through the chinks of the

door, she recognised Philinnium seated beside her lover, looking at

him in silence and yielding to his embraces. In a state of distraction

the poor woman ran back to awaken the mother and gave account of what

she had seen. It was regarded at first as the raving of a visionary,

but in the end, persuaded by her entreaties, the mother rose and

repaired to the house of Machates. All were asleep therein and there

was no answer to knocking. The lady looked through the chinks of the

door, the lamp was extinguished, but a moonbeam lighted the chamber

and the mother saw on a chair the draperies of her daughter and could

distinguish two persons asleep in the bed. She was seized with fright,

returned home trembling, not daring to visit the sepulchre of her

child, and passed the rest of the night in agitation and tears. On the

morrow she sought the lodging of Machates and questioned him gently.

The young man confessed that Philinnium visited him every night. “Why

refuse her to me?” he said to the mother. “We are affianced before the

gods.” Then opening a coffer he shewed Charito the ring and girdle of

her daughter, adding: “She gave me these last night, pledging me never

to belong to anyone but her; seek therefore to separate us no longer,

since we are united by a mutual promise.”

“Will you therefore in your turn go to the grave in search of her?”

said the mother. “Philinnium has been dead for these four days, and

it is doubtless a sorceress or a stryge who has assumed her likeness

to deceive you. You are the spouse of death, your hair will whiten

to-morrow, and the day after you also will be buried. In this manner do

the gods avenge the honour of an outraged family.”

Machates turned white and trembled at this language; he began to fear

on his own part that he was the sport of infernal powers; he begged

Charito to bring her husband that evening, when he would hide them near

his room, and at the time of the phantom’s arrival, would give a signal

to warn them of the fact. They came, and at the allotted hour came also

Philinnium to Machates, who was in bed, but fully clothed and only

pretending to sleep. The girl undressed and placed herself beside him;

Machates gave the signal; the parents entered with torches and uttered

a great cry on recognising their daughter. Philinnium, with pallid

face, rose from the bed to her full height, and said in a hollow and

terrible voice: “O my father and my mother, why have you been jealous

of my happiness and why have you pursued me even beyond the grave? My

love had compelled the infernal gods; the power of death was suspended;

three days only and I should have been restored to life. But your cruel

curiosity makes void the miracle of Nature; you are killing me a second

time.”

After these words she fell back, an inert mass, upon the bed; her

countenance faded; a cadaverous odour filled the chamber; and there was

nothing now but the disfigured remains of a girl who had been five days

dead. On the morrow the whole town was in commotion over this prodigy.

People crowded to the amphitheatre, where the history was recounted in

public, and the crowd then visited the mortuary vault of Philinnium.

There was no sign of her presence, but they came upon an iron ring and

a gilded cup, which she had received as presents from Machates. The

corpse was in the room of the tavern, but the young man had vanished.

The diviners were consulted and they directed that the remains should

be interred without the precincts of the town. Sacrifices were offered

to the Furies and to the terrestrial Mercury; the celestial _manes_

were conjured and there were offerings to Jupiter Hospitalis.

Phlegon, a freedman of Adrian, who was the ocular witness of these

facts, and relates them in a private letter, adds that he had to

exercise his authority to calm a place disturbed by so extraordinary

an event, and he finishes his story with the following words: “If you

think fit to inform the emperor, let me know, that I may send some

of those who have been witnesses of these things.” The history of

Philinnium is therefore well authenticated. A great German poet[150]

has made it the subject of a ballad which everyone knows under the

title of the _Bride of Corinth_. He supposes that the girl’s parents

were Christians, and this gives him the opportunity to make a powerful

poetic contrast between human passions and the duties of religion. The

mediæval demonographers have not failed to explain the resurrection, or

possibly the apparent death of the young Greek lady, as a diabolical

obsession. On our own part, we recognise an hysterical coma accompanied

by lucid somnambulism; the father and mother of Philinnium killed her

by their rough awakening and public imagination exaggerated all the

circumstances of this history.[151]

The terrestrial Mercury, to whom sacrifices were ordained by diviners,

is no other than the Astral Light personified. It is the fluidic genius

of the earth, fatal for those who arouse it without knowing how to

direct; it is the focus of physical life and the magnetised receptacle

of death. This blind force, which the power of Christianity enchained

and cast into the abyss, meaning into the centre of the earth, made its

last efforts and manifested its final convulsions by monstrous births

among barbarians. There is scarcely a district in which the preachers

of the gospel did not have to contend with animals in hideous forms,

being incarnations of idolatry in its death-throes. The _vouivres_,

_graouillis_, _gargoyles_, _tarasques_ are not allegorical only; it is

certain that moral disorders produce physical deformities and do, to

some extent, realise the frightful forms attributed by tradition to

demons. The question arises whether these fossil remains from which

Cuvier built up his mammoth monsters belong really in all cases to

epochs preceding our creation. Is also that great dragon merely an

allegory which Regulus is represented as attacking with machines of war

and which according to Livy and Pliny lived on the borders of the river

Bagrada? His skin, which measured 120 feet, was sent to Rome and was

there preserved until the period of the war with Numantia. There was

an ancient tradition that when the gods were angered by extraordinary

crimes, they sent monsters upon earth, and this tradition is too

universal not to be founded upon actual facts; it follows that the

stories concerning it belong more frequently to history than mythology.

In all memorials of barbarian races, at that epoch when Christianity

conquered them with a view to their civilisation, we find (a) the last

traces of high magical initiation spread formerly throughout the world,

and (b) proofs of the degeneration which had befallen such primitive

revelation, together with the idolatrous vileness into which the

symbolism of the old world had lapsed. In place of the disciples of the

Magi, diviners, sorcerers and enchanters reigned everywhere; God was

forgotten in the deification of men. The example was given by Rome to

its various provinces, and the apotheosis of the Cæsars familiarised

the whole world with the religion of sanguinary deities. Under the name

of Irminsul, the Germans worshipped and sacrificed human victims to

that Arminius or Hermann who caused Augustus to mourn the lost legions

of Varus. The Gauls referred to Brennus the attributes of Taranis and

of Teutas, burning in his honour colossi built of rushes and filled

with Romans. Materialism reigned everywhere, idolatry being synonymous

therewith, as is also the superstition which is ever cruel because it

is always base.

Providence, which predestined Gaul to become the most Christian land

of France, caused, however, the light of eternal truths to shine forth

therein. The original Druids were true children of the Magi, their

initiation deriving from Egypt and Chaldea, or in other words, from

the purest sources of primitive Kabalah.[152] They adored the Trinity

under the names of Isis or Ilesus, being supreme harmony; Belen or Bel,

meaning the Lord in Assyrian and having correspondence with the name

Adonai; Camul or Camael, a name which personifies divine justice in the

Kabalah.[153] Beneath this triangle of light they postulated a divine

reflection, also consisting of three personified emanations, being:

Teutas or Teuth, identical with the Thoth of the Egyptians, and the

Word or formulated Intelligence; then Strength and Beauty, the names

of which varied like the emblems. Finally they completed the sacred

septenary by a mysterious image representing the progress of dogma and

its developments to come. The form was that of a young girl, veiled and

bearing an infant in her arms; they dedicated this symbol to the virgin

who shall bear a child.[154]

The ancient Druids lived in strict abstinence, preserved the deepest

secrecy concerning their mysteries, studied the natural sciences, and

only admitted new adepts after prolonged initiations. There was a

celebrated Druidic college at Autun, and, according to Saint-Foix,

its armorial bearings still exist in that town. They are azure, with

serpents argent couchant, surmounted by mistletoe, garnished with

acorns vert, to distinguish it from other mistletoe, it being the oak

and not the mistletoe which naturally bears the acorns. Mistletoe is a

parasitic plant which has fruit particular to itself.[155]

The Druids built no temples but worked the rites of their religion

on dolmens and in forests. The mechanical means by which they raised

such colossal stones to form their altars is even now a matter of

speculation. These erections are still to be seen, dark and mysterious,

under the clouded sky of Armorica. The old sanctuaries had secrets

which have not come down to us. The Druids taught that the souls of

ancestors watched over children; that they were made happy by their

glory and suffered in their shame; that protecting genii overshadowed

trees and stones of the fatherland; that the warrior who died for his

country expiated all his offences, fulfilled his task with dignity,

was elevated to the rank of a genius and exercised henceforth the

power of the gods. It followed that for the Gauls patriotism itself

was a religion; women and even children carried arms, if necessary, to

withstand invasion. Joan of Arc and Jeanne Hachette of Beauvais only

carried on the traditions of these noble daughters of the Gauls. It is

the magic of remembrances which cleaves to the soil of the fatherland.

The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and

charging amulets with their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies

were mistletoe and serpents’ eggs, because these substances attract

the Astral Light in an especial manner.[156] The solemnity with which

mistletoe was cut drew down upon this plant the popular confidence and

rendered it powerfully magnetic. It came about in this manner that it

worked marvellous cures, above all when it was fortified by the Druids

with conjurations and charms. Let us not accuse our forefathers of

over great credulity herein; it may be that they knew that which is

lost to us. The progress of magnetism will some day reveal to us the

absorbing properties of mistletoe; we shall then understand the secret

of those spongy growths which draw the unused virtue of plants and

become surcharged with tinctures and savours. Mushrooms, truffles, gall

on trees and the different kinds of mistletoe will be employed with

understanding by a medical science which will be new because it is old.

We shall cease to ridicule Paracelsus, who collected moss (_usnea_)

from the skulls of hanged men; but one must not move quicker than

science, which recedes that it may advance the further.

CHAPTER II

INFLUENCE OF WOMEN

In imposing upon woman the severe and tender duties of motherhood

Providence has entitled her to the protection and respect of man. Made

subject by Nature itself to the consequence of affections which are her

life, she leads her masters by the chains which love provides, and the

more fully that she is in conformity with the laws which constitute and

also defend her honour the greater is her sway, and the deeper that

respect which belongs to her in the sanctuary of the family. To revolt

is for her to abdicate, and to tempt her by a pretended emancipation

is to recommend her divorce by condemning her beforehand to sterility

and disdain. Christianity alone has the power to emancipate woman by

calling her to virginity and the glory of sacrifice. Numa foresaw this

mystery when he instituted the vestals; but the Druids forestalled

Christianity by giving ear to the inspirations of virgins and paying

almost divine honours to the priestesses of the island of Sayne.

In Gaul women did not prevail by their coquetry and their vices, but

they ruled by their counsels; apart from their concurrence, neither

peace nor war were made; the interests of the hearth and family were

thus pleaded by mothers and the national pride shone in the light of

justice when it was tempered by the maternal love of country.

Chateaubriand calumniated Velleda by representing her as yielding to

the love of Eudorus; she lived and died a virgin. When the Romans

invaded Gaul, she was already advanced in years and was a species of

_Pythia_ who prophesied amidst great solemnities and whose oracles

were preserved with veneration. She was clothed in a long black

vestment, having no sleeves; her head was covered by a white veil,

which came down to her feet; she wore a vervain crown, and a sickle

was placed in her girdle; her sceptre was in the form of a distaff;

her right foot was shod with a sandal and her left foot wore a kind

of _chaussure à poulaine_. At a later period the statues of Velleda

were taken for those of Berthe _au grand pied_. The High Priestess

bore, as a fact, the insignia of the protecting divinity of the female

Druids; she was Hertha, or Wertha, the youthful Gaulish Isis, the Queen

of Heaven, the virgin who must bring forth a child. She was depicted

with one foot on the earth and the other on the water, because she was

queen of initiation and presided over universal science. The foot set

upon the water was usually supported by a ship, analogous to the bark

or conch of the ancient Isis. She held the distaff of the Fates wound

about with a thread, part black, part white, because she presided over

all forms and symbols, and it was she who wove the vestment of ideas.

She was also given the allegorical form of the syrens, half woman and

half fish, or the torso of a beautiful girl whose legs were serpents,

signifying the flux of things and the analogical alliance of opposites

in the manifestation of all occult forces of Nature. Under this last

form Hertha took the name of Melusine or Melosina, the musician, the

singer, that is to say, the syren who reveals harmonies. Such is the

origin of the legends concerning Queen Bertha and the fairy Melusine.

The latter came, it is said, in the eleventh century to a lord of

Lusignan; she was loved by him, and their espousals took place on the

condition that he did not seek to penetrate certain mysteries of her

existence. That promise was given, but jealousy begot curiosity and

led to perjury. He spied upon Melusine and surprised her in one of her

metamorphoses, for once every week the fairy resumed her serpent legs.

He uttered a cry which was answered by one far more despairing and

terrible. Melusine disappeared but still returns, making lamentation

whenever a member of the house of Lusignan is at the point of

death.[157] The legend is imitated from the fable of Psyche and refers,

like this, to the dangers of sacrilegious initiations, or profanation

of the mysteries of religion and of love; it is borrowed from the

traditions of the ancient bards and derives evidently from the learned

school of the Druids. The eleventh century took possession of it and

brought it into prominence, but it existed from the far past.[158]

In France it would seem that inspiration was attributed more especially

to women; elves and fairies preceded saints, and the French saints have

almost invariably something of the fairy character in their legend.

St. Clothilde made us Christians and St. Geneviève kept us French,

repelling—by the force of her virtue and her faith—the threatening

invasion of Attila. Joan of Arc is, however, rather of the fairy family

than the hierarchy of holy women; she died like Hypatia, the victim

of marvellous natural gifts and the martyr of her generous character.

We shall speak of her later on. St. Clothilde still performs miracles

along the countryside. At Andelys we have seen a crowd of pilgrims

thronging about a _piscina_ in which the statue of the saint is

immersed annually, and according to popular belief the first diseased

person who goes down into the water subsequently is cured at once.

Clothilde was a woman of action and a great queen, but she went through

many sorrows. Her elder son died after his baptism, and the fatality

was ascribed to witchcraft; the second fell ill and reached the point

of death. The fortitude of the saint did not yield, and Sicambre when

standing one day in need of more than human courage, remembered the

God of Clothilde. She became a widow after converting and practically

founding a great kingdom, and she saw the two children of Clodomir

butchered practically under her eyes. In such sorrows do queens on

earth resemble the Queen of Heaven.[159]

After the great and brilliant figure of Clothilde, history presents us

with a hideous offset in the baleful personality of Fredegonde, the

woman whose glance was witchcraft, the sorceress who slew princes. She

accused her rivals of Magic and condemned them to tortures which she

alone merited. Chilperic had one remaining son by his first wife; this

young prince, who was named Clovis, was attached to a daughter of the

people whose mother passed for a sorceress. Mother and daughter were

both accused of disturbing the reason of Clovis by means of philtres

and with murdering the two children of Fredegonde by magical spells.

The unhappy women were arrested; the daughter, Klodswinthe, was beaten

with rods, her beautiful hair cut off, and this was hung by Fredegonde

on the door of the prince’s chamber. Subsequently Klodswinthe was

brought up for sentence. Her firm and simple answers astonished the

judges, and the chronicle says that it was proposed to submit her to

the test of boiling water. A consecrated ring was placed in a tub set

over a great fire and the accused, clothed in white, after having

confessed and communicated, had to plunge her arm in the tub, in

search of the ring. Her unchanged features made everyone cry out that

a miracle had taken place, but there was another cry, which was one

of reprobation and horror, when the unhappy child drew forth her arm

frightfully burnt. She then asked permission to speak and said to her

judges and the people: “You demanded a miracle from God to establish my

innocence. God is not to be tempted, and He does not suspend the laws

of Nature in response to the caprice of men; but He gives strength to

those who believe in Him, and for me has performed a greater wonder

than that which He refused to you. This water has burned me, yet have

I plunged my whole arm into it and have brought forth the ring. I have

neither cried, whitened, nor quivered under this horrible torture. Had

I been a magician, as you say, I should have resorted to witchcraft so

that I might not be burnt; but I am a Christian and God has given me

grace to prove it by the constancy of martyrs.” Such logic was not of

the kind that they understood at that barbarous epoch; Klodswinthe was

sent back to prison, there to await execution; but God took pity upon

her, and the chronicle from which the account is drawn says that He

called her to Himself. If it be a legend only, it must be allowed that

it is beautiful and deserves to be kept in memory.

Fredegonde lost one of her victims but not the other two. The mother

was put to the torture and, overcome by her sufferings, she confessed

whatever was required, including the guilt of her daughter and the

complicity of Clovis. Armed with these admissions, Fredegonde obtained

the surrender of his son by the ferocious Chilperic. The young prince

was arrested and stabbed in prison, Fredegonde declaring that he had

escaped from remorse by suicide. The corpse of the unhappy Clovis was

shewn to his father, with the dagger still in the wound. Chilperic

looked on coldly; he was entirely under the rule of Fredegonde, who

dishonoured him with effrontery among the officers of the palace,

taking so little pains at concealment that the evidence was before his

eyes, almost despite himself. Instead of slaying the queen and her

accomplice, he departed on a hunt in silence. He might have concluded

to suffer the outrage, through his fear of displeasing Fredegonde,

but the latter was ashamed on his account, and did him the honour

of believing in his wrath, that she might have a pretext for his

assassination. He had glutted her with crimes and meanness: she killed

him out of disgust.

Fredegonde, who destroyed on the pretext of sorcery the women whose

sole guilt was to have displeased her, experimented herself in Black

Magic and protected some of those whom she thought were skilled

therein. Ageric, bishop of Verdun, had a pythoness arrested who made a

great deal of money by recovering stolen objects and identifying the

thieves; she was probably a somnambulist. The woman was examined, but

the demon refused to go out of her as long as she was chained; if the

pythoness were left in a church, unguarded and unwatched, he agreed to

leave her. They fell into the trap; it was the woman herself who went

out, to take refuge with Fredegonde, who hid her in the palace and

ended by saving her from being further exorcised, as also probably from

the stake. On this occasion therefore she did good without meaning it,

yet it was rather through her pleasure in evil.[160]

CHAPTER III

THE SALIC LAWS AGAINST SORCERERS

Under the rule of the first French kings, the crime of Magic did not

entail death save for those of exalted position, while there were

some who were proud to die for an offence by which they were raised

above the vulgar crowd and became formidable even in the sight of

kings. There was the general Mummol, for example, who, on the rack by

the orders of Fredegonde, declared that he experienced nothing, who

provoked more frightful tortures and died braving the executioners,

while the latter were moved to forgive him at the sight of such

extra-natural fortitude.[161]

Among the Salic laws, supposed to have been enacted in 474, and

attributed to Pharamond by Sigebert, the following ordinances are found.

“If anyone shall testify that another has acted as a _héréburge_ or

_strioporte_—titles applied to those who carry the copper vessel to

the spot where the vampires perform their enchantments—and if he shall

fail to convict him, he shall be condemned hereby to a forfeit of 7,500

_deniers_, being 180½ _sous_.... If anyone shall charge a free woman

as a vampire or as a prostitute, and shall fail to prove his words, he

shall forfeit 2500 _deniers_, being 62½ _sous_.... If a vampire shall

devour a man and be found guilty, she shall forfeit 8000 _deniers_,

being 200 _sous_.”

It will be seen that in those times cannibalism was possible on terms

and, moreover, that the market-price of human flesh was not at a

premium. It cost 180½ _sous_ to slander a man, but for a modicum above

that sum he could be killed and eaten, which was at once more honest

and thorough. This remarkable legislation recalls an equally curious

Talmudic recital, being one which was interpreted after a memorable

manner by the famous Rabbi Jechiel in the presence of a certain queen

who is not named in the book.[162] It was most likely Queen Blanche,

for Rabbi Jechiel lived in the reign of St. Louis. He had been called

upon to answer the objections of a converted Jew named Douin, who had

received at baptism the Christian name of Nicholas. After various

discussions on texts of the Talmud, they came to the following passage:

“If anyone shall offer any blood of his children to Moloch, let him

die the death.” The Talmud annotates thus: “He therefore who shall

offer not a modicum of blood alone but the whole blood and the whole

flesh of his children, does not come under the judgment of the law

and no penalty is declared against him.” Those who took part in the

debate clamoured at a construction which passed all understanding: some

laughed in pity, some quivered with indignation. Rabbi Jechiel could

scarcely obtain a hearing, and when he succeeded at last, there was

every mark of disfavour, to indicate that he was condemned beforehand.

“With us,” said he, “the penalty of death is an atonement and

consequently a reconciliation, not an act of vengeance. All who die by

the law of Israel die in the peace of Israel; they partake of peace

in death, and they sleep with their fathers. No malediction descends

with them into the grave; they abide in the immortality of the House

of Jacob. Death is therefore a crowning grace; it is the cure of a

poisoned wound by the hot iron. But we do not apply the iron to those

who are past cure; we have no jurisdiction over those the extent of

whose transgression has cut them off for ever from Israel. Such are

as now dead, and it is not therefore for us to shorten the term of

their reprobation on earth: they are delivered over to the wrath

of God. Man is warranted to wound only that he may heal, and we do

not apply remedies to those who are beyond recovery. The father of

a family punishes only his children and is content to shut the door

against strangers. Those great criminals upon whom our law pronounces

no sentence are thereby excommunicated for ever, which is a penalty

greater than death.”

The explanation of Rabbi Jechiel is admirable and breathes all the

patriarchal genius of ancient Israel. Truly the Jews are our fathers

in science, and if we—in place of their persecution—had sought to

understand them, they would not have been at this day so far alienated

from our faith.

The above Talmudic tradition shews the Jewish antiquity of belief

in the immortality of the soul.[163] What is this reintegration of

the guilty in the family of Israel by an expiatory death unless it

be a protest against death itself and a sublime act of faith in the

perpetuity of life? Comte Joseph de Maistre understood this doctrine

well when he raised the executioner’s sanguinary mission into a kind of

peculiar priesthood. The anguish of punishment supplicates, said this

great writer, and blood in its outpouring still remains a sacrifice.

Were capital punishment other than a plenary absolution it would be

nothing but retaliation on murder; the man who suffers his sentence

fulfils all his penance and enters by death into the immortal society

of the children of God.

The Salic laws were those of a people still in the state of barbarity,

where everything is redeemed by a ransom, as in time of war. Slavery

still obtained and human life had a debatable and relative value.

That must be always purchasable which there is a right to sell, and

only money is due for the destruction of an object which has a price

in money. The one efficacious legislation of the period was that of

the Church, and its councils took the most stringent measures against

the vampires and poisoners who went under the name of sorcerers.

The Council of Agde in Lower Languedoc, held in 506, pronounced

excommunication against them. The first Council of Orléans, convened

in 541, condemned divinatory operations; that of Narbonne, in 589, not

only visited sorcerers with the greater excommunication but ordained

that they should be sold as slaves for the benefit of the poor. The

same council decreed public whipping for _amatores diaboli_; meaning no

doubt those who were concerned about him, feared him, evoked him and

attributed to him power which was in any wise like that of God.[164] We

offer our congratulations sincerely to the disciples of M. le Comte de

Mirville that they did not live in such days.

While these events were passing in France an eastern visionary was

engaged in founding a religion which was also an empire. Was Mahomet an

impostor or was he hallucinated? For the Moslems he is still a prophet,

and for Arabic scholars the Koran will be always a masterpiece. An

unlettered man, a simple camel-driver, he created notwithstanding the

most perfect literary monument of his country. His success might pass

as miraculous, and the martial fervour of his successors threatened

for a moment the liberty of the whole world. But the day came when

Asia broke under the iron hand of Charles Martel. That rough soldier

tarried little for prayer when there was fighting to be done; when

he wanted money he looted monasteries and churches, and even sold

ecclesiastical benefices to his warriors. As the priesthood, for

these reasons, could not suppose that his arms were blessed by God,

his victories were ascribed to Magic. Indeed, religious feeling was

so stirred up against him that St. Eucher, the venerable Bishop of

Orléans, learned in a vision from an angel that the saints whose

churches he had spoliated or profaned forbade him to enter into heaven,

and even disinterred his body, which they plunged with his soul into

the abyss. St. Eucher communicated the revelation to Boniface, Bishop

of Mayence, and to Fulfvad, arch-chaplain of Pepin the Short. The tomb

of Charles Martel was opened, the body proved to be missing, the inner

side of the stone was blackened as if by burning, a foul smoke exhaled

and a great serpent came out. An authentic report of the opening was

sent by Boniface to Pepin the Short and Carloman, who were the sons of

Charles Martel, praying them to take warning by the dreadful example

and to respect holy things. Yet there was little of that virtue on the

part of those who violated the grave of a hero on the faith of a dream,

and attributed a destruction which had been completely and rapidly

accomplished by death itself to the work of hell.[165]

Some extraordinary phenomena, occurring publicly in France,

characterised the reign of Pepin the Short. The air seemed to be

alive with human shapes; heaven reflected illusory scenes of palaces,

gardens, tossing waves, ships in full sail and hosts in battle array.

The atmosphere was like a great dream, and the details of these

fantastic pageants were visible to everyone. Was it an epidemic

attacking the organs of vision or an aerial perturbation projecting

illusions on condensed air? Was it not more probably a general delusion

occasioned by some intoxicating and pestilential effluvium diffused

throughout the atmosphere? The likelihood of the latter explanation is

increased by the fact that these visions provoked the populace, who in

their imagination beheld sorcerers in the clouds scattering unwholesome

powders and poisons with open hands. The country was smitten with

sterility, cattle died, and the mortality extended also to human beings.

The occurrences offered an opportunity to circulate a story, the

success and credit of which was in proportion to its extravagance. At

that time the famous Kabalist Zedekias[166] had a school of occult

science, where he taught not indeed the Kabalah but the entertaining

speculations arising therefrom and forming the exoteric part of a

science which has been ever hidden from the profane. With mythology of

this kind Zedekias diverted the minds of his hearers. He told how Adam,

the first man, originally created in an almost spiritual estate, abode

above our atmosphere, in a light which gave birth at his pleasure to

the most wonderful vegetation. He was served by choirs of beautiful

beings, fashioned in the likeness of male and female, of whom they were

animated reflections, formed from the purest substance of the elements.

They were sylphs, salamanders, undines and gnomes; but in his unfallen

condition Adam reigned over the gnomes and undines only by the agency

of the salamanders and sylphs, who alone had the power of ascending to

his aerial paradise.

There was nothing to equal the felicity of our first parents amidst

the ministry of the sylphs; they were perishable spirits, but they

had incredible skill in building and weaving the light, causing it to

flower in a thousand forms, more varied than the most brilliant and

fruitful imagination can now conceive. The earthly paradise—so named

because it reposed upon the earthly atmosphere—was therefore a domain

of enchantments. Adam and Eve slept in palaces of pearls and sapphires;

roses sprang up around them and formed a carpet for their feet; they

glided over waters in sea-shells drawn by swans; birds communed with

them in delicious speech of music; flowers stooped to caress them.

But all this was lost by the fall, which cast our progenitors down

on earth, and the material bodies which clothed them henceforth are

those skins of beasts mentioned in the Bible. They were alone and

naked, where no one obeyed their caprice of thought. They forgot their

life in Eden, or viewed it only as a dream seen through the glass of

memory. But the realms of paradise still and forever extend above the

earthly atmosphere, inhabited by sylphs and salamanders, who are thus

constituted guardians of man’s domain, like mournful retainers still in

the house of a master whose return they expect no more.

Imaginations were fired by these astonishing fictions when the visions

of the air began to be seen in the full light of day. They signified

unquestionably the descent of sylphs and salamanders in search of their

former masters. Voyages to the land of sylphs were talked of on all

sides, as we talk at the present day of animated tables and fluidic

manifestations. The folly took possession even of strong minds, and

it was time for an intervention on the part of the Church, which does

not relish the supernatural being hawked in the public streets, seeing

that such disclosures, by imperilling the respect due to authority and

to the hierarchic chain of instruction, cannot be attributed to the

spirit of order and light. The cloud-phantoms were therefore arraigned

and accused of being hell-born illusions, while the people—anxious

to get something into their hands—began a crusade against sorcerers.

The public folly turned to a paroxysm of mania; strangers in country

places were accused of descending from heaven and were killed without

mercy; imbeciles confessed that they had been abducted by sylphs or

demons; others who had boasted like this previously either would not

or could not unsay it; they were burned or drowned, and, according to

Garinet, the number who perished throughout the kingdom almost exceeds

belief.[167] It is the common catastrophe of dramas in which the first

parts are played by ignorance or fear.

Such visionary epidemics recurred in the reigns following, and all the

power of Charlemagne was put in action to calm the public agitation.

An edict, afterwards renewed by Louis the Pious, forbade sylphs to

manifest under the heaviest penalties. It will be understood that in

the absence of the aerial beings the judgment fell upon those who made

a boast of having seen them, and hence they ceased to be seen. The

ships in air sailed back to the port of oblivion, and no one claimed

any longer to have journeyed through the blue distance. Other popular

frenzies replaced the previous mania, while the romantic splendours of

the great reign of Charlemagne furnished the makers of legends with new

prodigies to believe and new marvels to relate.

CHAPTER IV

LEGENDS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne is the real prince of enchantments and the world of faerie;

his reign is like a solemn and brilliant pause between barbarism and

the middle ages; while he himself is a grand and majestic apparition,

recalling the magical pageant of Solomon’s sway: he is at once a

resurrection and a prophecy. In him the Roman empire, overleaping

Frankish and Gaulish origins, reappeared in all its splendour; in

him also, as in a symbol, evoked and manifested by divination, there

is delineated beforehand the perfect empire of the ages of mature

civilisation, the empire crowned by priesthood and establishing its

throne beside the altar.

The era of chivalry and the marvellous epos of romances begin with

Charlemagne; the chronicles of his period are like the _Four Sons of

Aymon_, or _Oberon, King of Faerie_. Birds utter speech and direct the

French army when the path has been lost in the forest; brazen colossi

appear in mid-ocean and indicate to the emperor a free way eastward.

Roland, first of the paladins, wields a magic sword, baptized like

any Christian and bearing the name of Durandal; the hero addresses

this sword, which seems to understand him, and nothing can resist

its supernatural onset. Roland has also an ivory horn, contrived so

skilfully that the lightest breath wakens a response within it, and

that answer is heard for twenty leagues around, causing even mountains

to quiver. When the paladin falls at Roncesvalles, overwhelmed rather

than conquered, even then he uprises like a giant beneath some

avalanche of trees and rolling rocks; he winds his horn, and the

Saracens take refuge in flight. Charlemagne, at a distance of more than

ten leagues, hears the signal and would speed to his aid, but he is

prevented by the traitor Ganelon, who has sold the French army to the

barbaric horde. Finding himself abandoned, Roland for the last time

embraces his Durandal, and then, summoning all his strength, strikes

it with both hands against a mountain block, hoping to shatter the

weapon, lest it fall into the hands of infidels; but the block itself

is cloven, the sword is not even indented. Hereat Roland clasps it to

his breast and yields up his spirit with so high and proud a mien that

the Saracens do not dare to approach, but, still shaking, direct a

cloud of arrows against their conqueror, who is no more. To be brief,

Charlemagne, bestowing a throne upon the papacy and receiving from its

hands the empire of the world in return, is the most imposing of all

personalities in French history.

We have spoken of the _Enchiridion_—that minute work which combines the

most secret symbols of the Kabalah with the most beautiful Christian

prayers. Occult tradition[168] attributes its composition to Leo III

and affirms that it was presented by this pontiff to Charlemagne, as

the most precious of all offerings. Any king who owned it and knew how

to use it worthily could become master of the world. This tradition is

not perhaps to be cast aside lightly.

It assumes (1) the existence of a primitive and universal revelation,

explaining all Secrets of Nature and harmonising them with the

Mysteries of Grace, conciliating reason with faith, since both are

daughters of God and concur to illuminate intelligence by their double

life. (2) The necessity—which imposes itself—of concealing this

revelation from the multitude, lest the same be abused by those who

do not understand it, and lest they turn against faith not only the

power of reason but that of faith itself, to the confusion of reason,

which is never too well within the comprehension of the vulgar. (3)

The existence of a secret tradition, reserving the knowledge of these

mysteries for the sovereign priesthood and the temporal masters of the

world. (4) The perpetuity of certain signs or pantacles, expressing the

said mysteries in a hieroglyphical manner which is understood only by

adepts.[169]

The _Enchiridion_, from this point of view, should be regarded as a

collection of allegorical prayers and its secret Kabalistic pantacles

are keys thereto. Some of the chief figures may be described as

follows. The first, which appears on the cover of the work itself,

represents a reversed equilateral triangle inscribed within a double

circle. The two words, which are written within the triangle in

the form of a cross, are _Elohim_ and _Tzabaoth_, meaning the God

of armies, the equilibrium of natural forces and the harmony of

numbers.[170] On the three sides of the triangle are the three great

names—_Jehovah_, _Adonai_, _Agla_; above the name of Jehovah is the

Latin word _Formatio_; above that of Adonai is _Reformatio_; and above

Agla is _Transformatio_. Thus creation is ascribed to the Father,

redemption or reform to the Son and sanctification or transmutation

to the Holy Spirit—in consonance with the mathematical laws of action,

reaction and equilibrium. Furthermore, Jehovah is to be understood as

the genesis and formation of dogma in accordance with the elementary

significance of the four letters comprised in the sacred Tetragram;

_Adonai_ is the realisation of this dogma in human form, that is to

say, in the Lord manifest, who is Son of God or perfect man[171]; and

_Agla_, as we have explained fully elsewhere, expresses the synthesis

of all dogma and all Kabalistic science, seeing that the hieroglyphics

of which this name is formed exhibit in a clear manner the triple

secret of the Great Work.[172]

The second pantacle is a head, having three faces, crowned by a tiara

and issuing from a vessel filled with water. Those who are initiated

into the mysteries of the _Zohar_[173] will understand the allegory

which is presented by this head. The third pantacle is the double

triangle, known as the Star of Solomon. The fourth is the Magical

Sword, bearing the device—_Deo duce, comite ferro_: it is an emblem

of the Great Arcanum and the omnipotence of the adept. The fifth is

the problem of the human form attributed to the Saviour, as resolved

by the number forty. It is the theological number of the _Sephiroth_

multiplied by that of natural realities.[174] The sixth is the

pantacle of the spirit, represented by bones, duplicating the letter E

and the mystic Tau, or T. The seventh and most important is the Great

Magical Monogram, interpreting the keys of Solomon, the Tetragram, the

sign of the _Labarum_, and the master-word of adeptship.[175] This

pantacle is read by its revolution wheelwise and is pronounced Rota,

Taro or Tora. The letter A is frequently replaced in this seal by the

number 1, which is its equivalent. The pantacle in question contains

also the form and value of the four hieroglyphical emblems of the

Tarot suits—being the Wand, Cup, Sword and Denier. These elementary

hieroglyphics recur everywhere on the sacred monuments of Egypt; while

Homer also depicts them on the shield of Achilles, placing them in the

same order as the author of the _Enchiridion_. The proofs of these

explanations, if offered in the present place, would divert us from our

immediate subject and would moreover demand a special study which we

hope to undertake and make public at some future time.[176]

The magical sword or dagger depicted in the _Enchiridion_ seems to have

been the particular symbol of the Secret Tribunal, or Company of Free

Judges. It is in the form of a cross and is concealed or enveloped by

the device which surrounds it. God alone wields it, and he who strikes

therewith is responsible to none for his actions. As such, it is

terrible in its menace and so also in its privilege. We know that the

Vehmic dagger smote in the dark those who were guilty, their crime

itself often remaining unknown. What are the facts respecting this

appalling justice? The answer involves an excursion into realms of

shadow which history has failed to enlighten and recourse to traditions

and legends for light which science cannot give.

The Free Judges were a secret association opposed, but in the interests

of order and of government, to anarchic and revolutionary societies

which were secret in like manner. We know that superstitions die hard

and that degenerated Druidism had struck its roots deeply in the savage

lands of the North. The recurring insurrections of Saxons testified

to a fanaticism which was (a) always turbulent, and (b) incapable of

repression by moral force alone. All defeated forms of worship—Roman

paganism, Germanic idolatry, Jewish rancour conspired against

victorious Christianity. Nocturnal assemblies took place; thereat the

conspirators cemented their alliance with the blood of human victims;

and a pantheistic idol of monstrous form, with the horns of a goat,

presided over festivals which might be called _agapæ_ of hatred. In a

word, the Sabbath was still celebrated in every forest and wild of yet

unreclaimed provinces. The adepts who attended them were masked and

otherwise unrecognisable; the assemblies extinguished their lights and

broke up before daybreak; the guilty were to be found everywhere, and

they could be brought to book nowhere. It came about therefore that

Charlemagne determined to fight them with their own weapons.

In those days, moreover, feudal tyrants were in league with sectarians

against lawful authority; female sorcerers were attached to castles

as courtesans; bandits who frequented the Sabbaths divided with

nobles the blood-stained loot of rapine; feudal courts were at the

command of the highest bidder; and the public burdens weighed with all

their force only on the weak and poor. The evil was at its height

in Westphalia,[177] and faithful agents were despatched thither by

Charlemagne entrusted with a secret mission.[178] Whatsoever energy

remained among the oppressed, whosoever still loved justice, whether

among the people or among the nobility, were drawn by these emissaries

together, bound by pledges and vigilance in common. To the initiates

thus incorporated they made known the full powers which they carried

from the emperor himself, and they proceeded to institute the Tribunal

of Free Judges.[179]

They were a kind of secret police, having the right of life and

death. The mystery which surrounded their judgments, the swiftness

of their executions, helped to impress the imagination of people

still in barbarism. The Holy Vehm assumed gigantic proportions; men

shuddered in describing apparitions of masked persons, of summonses

nailed to the doors of nobles in the very midst of their watch-guards

and their orgies, of brigand-chiefs found dead with the terrible

cruciform dagger in their breasts and on the scroll attached thereto

an extract from the sentence of the Holy Vehm. The Tribunal affected

most fantastic forms of procedure: the guilty person, cited to appear

at some discredited cross-road, was taken to the assembly by a man

clothed in black, who bandaged his eyes and led him forward in

silence. This occurred invariably at some unseemly hour of the night,

for judgment was never pronounced except at midnight. The criminal was

carried into a vast underground vault, where he was questioned by one

voice.[180] The hoodwink was removed, the vault was illuminated in

all its depth and height, and the Free Judges sat masked and wearing

black vestures. The sentences were not capital invariably, for those

who judged were familiar with the circumstances of the crime, though

nothing transpired concerning them, as death would have overtaken the

revealer instantly.[181] Sometimes these formidable assemblies were so

crowded that they were comparable to an army of avengers; one night the

emperor himself presided over the Secret Tribunal, and more than one

thousand Free Judges sat in a circle round him.[182] In the year 1400,

ten thousand members existed in Germany. People with a bad conscience

suspected their own relations and friends. William of Brunswick is

reported to have said on a certain occasion: “If Duke Adolphus of

Schleswig should pay me a visit, I must infallibly hang him, as I do

not wish to be hanged.” Frederick of Brunswick, a prince of the same

family, who was emperor for a moment, refused to obey a citation of

the Free Judges, and from that time forward he went armed from head to

foot and surrounded by guards. One day, however, he fell a little apart

from his suite and had occasion to loosen some part of his armour.

He did not return and his guards entered the copse where he had

sought retirement for a moment. The unfortunate man was in the act of

expiring, with the dagger of the Holy Vehm in his body and his sentence

attached to the weapon. Looking round in all directions, they could

distinguish a masked man retreating at a slow pace, but no one dared to

follow him.

The Code of the Vehmic Court was found in the ancient archives of

Westphalia and has been printed in the _Reichstheater_ of Müller, under

the following title; “Code and Statutes of the Holy Secret Tribunal of

Free Counts and Free Judges of Westphalia, established in the year 772

by the Emperor Charlemagne and revised in 1404 by King Robert, who made

those alterations and additions requisite for the administration of

justice in the tribunals of the illuminated, after investing them with

his own authority.”

A note on the first page forbade any profane person to glance at the

book under penalty of death. The word illuminated, here given to the

associates of the Secret Tribunal, unfolds their entire mission: they

had to track down in the shadows those who worshipped the darkness;

they counterchecked mysteriously those who conspired against society

in favour of mystery; but they were themselves the secret soldiers of

light, who cast the light of day on criminal plottings, and it is this

which was signified by a sudden splendour illuminating the Tribunal

when it pronounced sentence.

The public provisions of the law under Charlemagne authorised this holy

war against the tyrants of the night. The records may be consulted to

ascertain the penalties inflicted on sorcerers, diviners, enchanters,

_noueurs d’aiguilette_, and those who administered poison in the

guise of love-philtres. The same laws made it penal to trouble the

air, raise tempests, construct characters and talismans, cast lots,

practise witchcraft and magical charms, whether on men or cattle.

Sorcerers, astrologers, diviners, necromancers, occult mathematicians

are declared execrable and made subject to punishment in the same way

as thieves and assassins. Such severity will be understood by recalling

all that has been said on the horrible rites of Black Magic and its

infant sacrifices. The danger must have been grave indeed when its

repression assumed forms at once so severe and numerous.

Another institution which is referable to the same root was that of

knight-errantry. The knights-errant were a species of Free Judges

who appealed to God and their spears against all the oppressions

of castellans and all the malice of necromancers. They were armed

missionaries, who protected themselves with the sign of the cross and

then clove miscreants asunder; after such manner did they earn the

remembrance of some noble dame, sanctifying love by the martyrdom of a

life which was one of utter self-devotion. We are far removed already

from those pagan courtesans to whom slaves were offered in sacrifice

and for whom the conquerors of the ancient world burnt cities. For

the ladies of Christendom other sacrifices were requisite; life must

have been risked in the cause of the weak and oppressed, captives must

have been set free, punishment meted out to the profaners of holy

affections; and then those lovely and white ladies, whose skirts were

embroidered with heraldic badges; whose hands were pale and delicate;

those living madonnas, proud as lilies, who came back from church, with

Books of Hours under their arms and rosaries at their girdles, would

remove a veil broidered with gold or silver and give it as a scarf to

the knight who knelt before them, praying to them and dreaming of God.

Let us forget Eve and her errors; they are forgiven a thousand times,

and are more than atoned for by this ineffable grace of the noble

daughters of Mary.

CHAPTER V

MAGICIANS

That fundamental dogma of transcendental science which consecrates

the eternal law of equilibrium attained its plenary realisation in

the constitution of the Christian world. Two living pillars—the Pope

and Emperor—supported the structure of civilisation. But the empire

suffered partition when it slipped from the feeble hands of Louis

the Pious and Charles the Bald. The temporal power, abandoned to the

chances of conquests or intrigue, lost the providential unity which

kept it in harmony with Rome. The Pope had often to intervene as

grand justiciary and, at his proper risk and peril, he restrained the

ambitions and audacity of many competitive sovereigns.

Excommunication was at that time a terrible penalty, for it was

sanctioned by universal belief, and it produced phenomena which

awed the crowd, being mysterious effects of the magnetic current of

condemnation. There is the example of Robert the Pious, who, having

incurred this terrible penalty by an unlawful marriage, became the

father of a monstrous child, similar to those effigies of demons which

mediæval art represented in such ridiculous aspects of deformity.

The melancholy fruit of a forbidden union bore witness at least to

the tortured conscience and frightful dreams by which the mother was

possessed. Robert accepted the event as a proof of the wrath of God

and submitted to the papal judgment. Renouncing a marriage which the

Church declared incestuous, he repudiated Bertha to espouse Constance

of Provence, and it remained for him to recognise in the questionable

morals and arrogant character of his new bride a second chastisement of

heaven.

The makers of chronicles at the period were enamoured of diabolical

legends, but their records exhibit more of credulity than of good

taste. Every monkish malady, every unhealthy nightmare of nuns, is

looked upon as a case of veridic apparition. The result is repellent

phantasmagoria, stupid allocutions, impossible transfigurations, to

which the artistic spirit of Cyrano de Bergerac is the one thing

wanting to render them entertaining creations. From the reign of Robert

to that of St. Louis there is nothing, however, which seems to deserve

recounting.[183]

The famous Rabbi Jechiel, great Kabalist and truly remarkable

physician, lived in the reign of St. Louis. All that is told of his

lamp and magical nail goes to prove that he had discovered electricity,

or was at least acquainted with its most important uses.[184] Ancient

as that of Magic, the knowledge of this force was transmitted as one of

the keys of the greater initiation. When the night came a radiant star

appeared in the lodging of Jechiel, the light being so brilliant that

no eye could gaze thereon without being dazzled, while the beam that it

darted was tinted with rainbow colours. It was never known to fail and

it was never replenished with oil or other combustible substance extant

at that time. When importunity or ill-intentioned curiosity sought to

intrude on Jechiel by knocking persistently at his door, the Rabbi

struck a nail fixed in his cabinet, producing simultaneously a blue

spark on the head of the nail and the door-knocker. The ill-advised

person was shaken in such a manner that he cried for mercy, believing

that the earth was opening under his feet. One day a hostile mob

swarmed about the entrance, uttering murmurs and menaces, while they

stood with interlaced arms to resist the commotion and supposed quaking

of the ground. The boldest among them plied furiously at the knocker,

but Jechiel pressed his nail; in a moment the assailants were tumbled

one over another and fled crying out like people who have been burnt.

They were quite sure that the earth had opened and swallowed them as

far as the knees; they knew not how they got out; but nothing would

persuade them to return and renew the attack. The sorcerer thus earned

quietude by the terror which he diffused.

St. Louis, great Catholic as he was, was also a great king, and wishing

to know Jechiel, he summoned him to his court,[185] had several

conversations with him, was satisfied fully by his explanations,

protected him from his enemies, and during the rest of his life never

failed to testify esteem for him and to act benevolently towards him.

Albertus Magnus lived at the same period, and he still passes among

the people as grand master of all magicians.[186] Historians of the

time affirm that he possessed the Philosophic Stone[187] and that after

studying for thirty years he had succeeded in solving the problem of

the android—in other words, that he had fabricated an artificial man

who was endowed with life and speech, who could, in fact, answer

questions with such precision and subtlety that St. Thomas Aquinas,

infuriated at being unable to silence the image, broke it with a

blow of his stick. Such is the popular fable; let us now see what it

signifies.

The mystery of the formation of man and of his primitive appearance on

earth have continually absorbed seekers after the problems of Nature.

Man, as a fact, appears last in the world of fossils, and the Mosaic

days of creation have deposited their successive remains, bearing

witness that those days were in reality long periods of time. How then

was humanity formed? Genesis testifies that God made Adam from the

slime of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life—a

statement the truth of which we do not question for a moment; but we

repudiate notwithstanding the heretical and anthropomorphic idea of a

Deity moulding clay with His fingers. God, being a pure spirit, has no

hands, and He causes His creatures to develop one from another by the

power which He has imparted to Nature. If therefore the Lord made Adam

from the dust of the earth, we must understand that man came out of

that earth under the Divine Influence and yet after a natural manner.

The name Adam in Hebrew signifies red earth,[188] but what is this

earth actually? It is that which the alchemists sought, and it follows

that the Great Work was not the secret of metallic transmutation—a

trivial and accessory result—but the universal secret of life.[189] It

was the quest for the middle point of transformation, at which light

becomes matter and condenses into an earth containing within itself

the principle of motion and of life. It was the generalization of

the phenomenon which tinges the blood red by the creation of those

innumerable corpuscles which are magnetic even as the worlds and are

alive like animals. For disciples of Hermes, the metals were the

coagulated blood of earth, passing, like that of man, from white to

black and from black to crimson, following the work of the light.[190]

To set this fluid in motion by means of heat and impart thereto the

tingeing fructification of light by the aid of electricity—such was

the first part of the work of wisdom. The end was more arduous and

sublime; it was a question of recovering the adamic earth, which is

the coagulated blood of the vital earth; and the supreme dream of

philosophers was to accomplish the work of Prometheus by imitating the

work of God—that is to say, by producing a man who should be the child

of science, as Adam was child of divine omnipotence. The dream was

insensate perhaps, and yet it was sublime.

Black Magic, which ever apes the Magic of Light, but takes it, as it

were, backwards, was also concerned with the android, that it might be

used as an instrument of passion and an oracle of hell. For this object

it was requisite to outrage Nature and obtain a species of venomous

fungus, full of concentrated human malice—the living realisation of all

crime. For this reason magicians sought the mandragore beneath a gibbet

from which some corpse was suspended; they caused it to be torn up by

a dog tied to the plant, a mortal blow being inflicted on the animal.

The eradication was effected by the convulsions of the agonised beast;

the dog’s soul passed into the plant and also attracted thereto that

of the hanged man. Enough of these horrors and absurdities; those who

are curious in such knowledge may consult the common grimoire known

along the countryside under the name of _Little Albert_. They will find

further the method of making a mandragore in the form of a cock with

a human face. Stupidity and impiety vie one with another in all such

processes, for Nature cannot be outraged wilfully without at the same

time reversing the laws of reason.

Albertus Magnus was neither infanticide nor deicide; he was neither

guilty of the crime of Tantalus nor that of Prometheus; but he had

succeeded in creating and arming at all points that purely scholastic

theology, outcome of the categories of Aristotle and the sentences of

Peter Lombard, that logic of syllogism consisting of argumentation

in place of reasoning and of finding an answer for everything by

subtleties concerning the terms. It was less a philosophy than a

philosophical automaton, replying in an arbitrary manner and unrolling

its theses like the revolution of machinery. It was in no sense the

human _logos_, but the unvaried cry of a mechanism, the inanimate

speech of an android. It was the fatal precision of machinery, in

place of the free application of rational necessities. St. Thomas

Aquinas,[191] with one blow, shattered this scaffolding of words when

he proclaimed the eternal empire of reason in that magnificent sentence

which has been cited already so often: “A thing is not just because

God wills it, but God wills it because it is just.” The approximate

consequence of this proposition, in arguing from the greater to the

lesser, was: A thing is not true because Aristotle has said it, but

Aristotle could not say it reasonably unless it were true. Seek first

therefore truth and justice, and the science of Aristotle shall be

added unto you. Aristotle, galvanised by scholasticism, was the

veritable android of Albertus Magnus, while the master’s wand of St.

Thomas Aquinas was the doctrine of the _Summa Totius Theologiæ_, a

masterpiece of power and reason which will again be studied in our

theological schools when it is proposed to return seriously to sane and

healthy subjects.[192]

As for the Philosophical Stone bequeathed by St. Dominic[193] to Albert

and by the latter to St. Thomas Aquinas, we must understand it as the

philosophical and religious basis of ideas prevalent at the period.

Had St. Dominic been able to accomplish the Great Work he would have

secured for Rome that empire of the world about which he was so jealous

for the Church, and would have diverted the fire which consumed so many

heretics to the heating of his own crucibles. St. Thomas changed all

that he touched into gold, but this is a figure of speech only, gold

being in this case an emblem of truth.

It is opportune at this point to say a few further words concerning

that Hermetic science cultivated from the first Christian centuries

by Ostanes, Romarius, Queen Cleopatra, the Arabian Geber, Alfarabius

and Salmanas, by Morien, Artephius and Aristeus.[194] Understood

in an absolute manner, this science may be called the Kabalah in

realisation, or the Magic of Works. It has therefore three analogous

degrees—religious realisation, philosophical realisation and physical

realisation. The first is the solid basis of empire and priesthood; the

second is the establishment of an absolute doctrine and an hierarchic

instruction; the last is the discovery and application, within the

measures of the Microcosm or lesser world, of that creative law which

peoples incessantly the greater universe. The law in question is one

of movement combined with substance, of the fixed with the volatile,

humid with solid. Its principle is divine impulsion, its instrument the

universal light—ethereal in the infinite, astral in stars and planets,

metallic, specific or mercurial in metals, vegetable in plants, vital

in animals, magnetic or personal in men.

This light is the quintessence of Paracelsus and is either latent

or active in all created substances. Such quintessence is the true

elixir of life, and it is extracted from earth by cultivation; from

metals by incorporation, rectification, exaltation and synthesis; from

plants by distillation and coction; from animals by absorption; from

men by generation; from the air by respiration. In this sense we are

told by Aristeus that air must be derived from air; by Khunrath that

living mercury must be obtained from the perfect man formed by the

androgyne; by practically all the sages, that the medicine of metals

must be derived from metals and that this medicine—though fundamentally

one in all kingdoms—is graduated and specified according to forms and

species. Its use is threefold—by sympathy, repulsion or equilibrium.

The graduated quintessence was only the auxiliary of forces; the

medicine of each kingdom must be derived from the kingdom itself, with

the addition of basic mercury—terrestrial or mineral—and of synthetic

living mercury, or human magnetism.

Such is the rapid and summary sketch of this science, which is vast

and profound as the Kabalah, mysterious as Magic, real as the exact

sciences, but too long and too often discredited by the frustrated

greed of false adepts and by the obscurities with which true sages have

surrounded their theories and their processes.

CHAPTER VI

SOME FAMOUS PROSECUTIONS

The societies of the elder world perished through the materialistic

egoism of castes, becoming petrified on their own part, isolating the

common people in a hopeless reprobation and reserving the reins of

power to a small number of the elect, so that it was deprived of that

circulation which is the principle of progress, motion and life. Power

without antagonism, without competition and hence without control,

proved fatal to the sacerdotal royalties. The republics, on the other

hand, perished by the conflict of liberties which, in the absence of

all duty, hierarchically and highly sanctioned, are speedily converted

into so many tyrannies in rivalry with one another. To find a stable

point between these two abysses, the idea of Christian hierophants was

to create a society pledged to self-sacrifice by solemn vows, protected

by severe rules, recruited by initiation, and, as sole depositary of

the great religious and social secrets, making kings and pontiffs

without being itself exposed to the corruptions of empire. Such was

the secret of that kingdom of Christ Jesus which, without being of

this world, ruled over all its grandeurs. The same idea presided over

the establishments of the great religious orders which were so often

at war with secular authorities, whether ecclesiastical or civil. A

similar realisation was also dreamed by dissident sects of Gnostics and

Illuminati, which claimed to pin their faith on the primitive Christian

tradition of St. John. A time came when this dream was an actual

menace for the Church and the State, when a rich and dissolute Order,

initiated into the mysterious doctrines of the Kabalah,[195] seemed

ready to turn on legitimate authority, on the conservative principles

of the hierarchy, menacing the entire world with a gigantic revolution.

The Templars, whose history is understood so little, were the terrible

conspirators in question, and it is time at length to reveal the secret

of their fall, so absolving the memory of Clement V and Philippe the

Fair.

[Illustration: THE PHILOSOPHICAL CROSS, OR PLAN OF THE THIRD TEMPLE]

In 1118 nine crusading knights, then in the East—among whom was

Geoffrey de Saint-Omer and Hugh de Payens—dedicated themselves

to religion, placing their vows in the hands of the patriarch of

Constantinople, which seat had always been hostile, secretly or

openly, to that of Rome since the days of Photius. The avowed object

of the Templars was to protect Christians on pilgrimage to the holy

places; their concealed end was to rebuild the Temple of Solomon on

the model foreshewn by Ezekiel. Such a restoration, predicted formally

by Judaising mystics of the first Christian centuries, had become the

secret dream of the Eastern patriarchs. So rebuilt and consecrated to

the Catholic worship, the Temple of Solomon would have been in effect

the metropolis of the universe. East would prevail over West and the

patriarchs of Constantinople would seize the papacy.[196]

To explain the name of Templars adopted by this military Order,

historians assume that Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a

house in the vicinity of the Temple of Solomon. But they are guilty of

a serious anachronism, since at that period the edifice in question

had not only ceased to exist, and not only was there no stone of

Zerubbabel’s Second Temple left upon another, but it would have been

difficult to indicate the site on which they stood. It is to be

concluded that the House allotted to the Templars by Baldwin was not

situated in the vicinity of Solomon’s Temple but of that place on which

these secret and armed missionaries of the Eastern patriarch designed

to rebuild it.

The Templars took for their scriptural models the military Masons

of Zerubbabel, who worked with sword in one hand and trowel in the

other.[197] Hence sword and trowel became their insignia when at a

later period, as we shall see, they concealed themselves under the

name of Masonic Brothers. The trowel of the Templars is fourfold; the

triangular blades are disposed in the form of a cross, constituting a

Kabalistic pantacle known as the Cross of the East.[198]

The inmost thought of Hugh de Payens, in establishing his Order,

was not precisely to serve the ambition of the patriarchs of

Constantinople. At that period there was a sect of Christian Johannites

in the East who claimed to be alone initiated into the inner mysteries

of the Saviour’s religion; they claimed also to know the true

history of Jesus Christ. Adopting some part of the Jewish traditions

and Talmudic accounts, they regarded the facts in the gospels as

allegories, of which St. John had the key. The proof was his saying

that if all things done by Jesus were recorded, “I suppose that even

the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

They held that such a statement would be ridiculous exaggeration unless

it referred to allegory and legend, which can be varied and prolonged

to infinity. As to the actual historical facts, the Johannites

recounted what follows.

A young girl of Nazareth, named Miriam, betrothed to a young man of

her own tribe, named Jochanan, was surprised by a certain Pandira or

Panther, who entered her chamber in the garb and under the name of her

lover and by force fulfilled his desires. Jochanan, becoming acquainted

with her misfortune, left her without compromising her because as

a fact she was innocent; and the girl was delivered of a son, who

received the name of Joshua or Jesus. The infant was adopted by a

Rabbi named Joseph, who carried him into Egypt, where he was initiated

into the secret sciences, and the priests of Osiris, recognising that

he was the true incarnation of Horus so long promised to the adepts,

consecrated him sovereign pontiff of the universal religion. Joshua and

Joseph returned to Judea, where the knowledge and virtue of the young

man excited very soon the envy and hatred of the priests, who one day

reproached him publicly with the illegitimacy of his birth. Joshua, who

loved and venerated his mother, questioned his master and learned the

whole history respecting the crime of Pandira and the misfortunes of

Miriam. His first impulse was to deny her in public when he said in the

middle of a marriage-feast: “Woman, what is there in common between you

and me?” But afterwards, realising that an unfortunate woman must not

be punished for having suffered what she could not prevent, he cried:

“My mother has in no wise sinned, nor has she lost her innocence; she

is virgin and yet is mother: let the twofold honour be paid to her. As

for me, I have no father on earth; I am the son of God and humanity.”

We will not proceed further with a fiction so distressing to the hearts

of Christians; let it suffice to say that the Johannites went so far as

to make St. John the Evangelist responsible for this spurious tradition

and that they attributed to the apostle in question the foundation of

their secret church. The grand pontiffs of this sect assumed the title

of Christ and claimed an uninterrupted transmission of powers from the

days of St. John. The person who boasted these imaginary privileges

at the epoch of the foundation of the Temple was named Theoclet.

He was acquainted with Hugh de Payens, whom he initiated into the

mysteries and the hopes of his supposititious church;[199] he seduced

him by ideas of sovereign priesthood and supreme royalty; in fine, he

designated him his successor. Thus was the order of Knights of the

Temple tainted from the beginning with schism and conspiracy against

kings. These tendencies were wrapped in profound mystery, for the Order

made profession externally of the uttermost orthodoxy. The chiefs alone

knew whither it was tending, the rest following in good faith.

To acquire wealth and influence, to intrigue on the basis of these

and at need fight for the establishment of Johannite dogma—such were

the means and end proposed by the initiated brethren. “Observe,” they

argued to themselves, “the papacy and rival monarchies engaged in the

work of haggling, selling one another, falling into corruption and

to-morrow perhaps destroying one another. All this indicates heritage

for the Temple; a little while, and the nations will demand sovereigns

and pontiffs from among us; we shall be the equilibrium of the

universe, arbiters and masters of the world.”

The Templars had two doctrines; one was concealed and reserved to the

leaders, being that of Johannism;[200] the other was public, being

Roman Catholic doctrine. They deceived in this manner the enemies that

they hoped to supplant. The Johannism of the adepts was the Kabalah

of the Gnostics, but it degenerated speedily into a mystic pantheism

carried even to idolatry of Nature and hatred of all revealed dogma.

For their better success, and in order to secure partisans, they

fostered the regrets of every fallen worship and the hopes of every

new cultus, promising to all liberty of conscience and a new orthodoxy

which should be the synthesis of all persecuted beliefs. They went even

so far as to recognise the pantheistic symbolism of the grand masters

of Black Magic, and the better to isolate themselves from obedience

to a religion by which they were condemned beforehand, they rendered

divine honours to the monstrous idol Baphomet,[201] even as of old the

dissenting tribes had adored the Golden Calf of Dan and Bethel. Certain

monuments of recent discovery and certain precious documents belonging

to the thirteenth century offer abundant proof of all that is advanced

here. Other evidences are concealed in the annals and beneath the

symbols of Occult Masonry.

With the seeds of death sown in its very principle and anarchic because

it was heretical, the Order of Knights of the Temple had conceived a

great work which it was incapable of executing, because it understood

neither humility nor personal abnegation. For the rest, the Templars,

being in most cases without education and capable only of wielding the

sword successfully, possessed no qualification for over-ruling or for

binding at need that queen of the world called public opinion. Hugh

de Payens did not possess the depth of view which distinguished at a

later period the military founder of a militia not less formidable

to kings. The Templars were Jesuits who failed. Their principle was

to become rich in order to purchase the world and, as a fact, they

so became, for in 1312 they possessed in Europe alone more than 9000

manors. Wealth was also the rock on which they broke; they became

insolent and permitted their disdain for the religious and social

institutions which they hoped to upset to appear in public. Everyone

knows the answer of Richard Cœur de Lion to the confidential priest who

had said to him: “Sire, you have three daughters who cost you dearly

and of whom it would be to your great advantage if you were set free:

they are ambition, avarice and luxury.” ... “That is true,” said the

king. “Well, well, let us marry them. I give ambition to the Templars,

avarice to the monks and luxury to the bishops. I am certain in advance

of the consent of all the parties.”

The ambition of the Templars proved fatal to themselves; their projects

were divined and anticipated. Pope Clement V and king Philip the Fair

gave the signal to Europe, and the Templars, caught so to speak in a

net, were arrested, disarmed and cast into prison. Never was a _coup

d’état_ accomplished with such appalling uniformity. The entire world

was dumbfounded and awaited the strange revelations of a prosecution

which was to echo down through the ages. But it was impossible to

unveil before the people the plan of the Templar conspiracy; to do

so would have initiated the multitude into secrets reserved for

masters. Recourse was had therefore to the charge of Magic, for which

accusers and witnesses were both forthcoming. The Templars, in the

ceremony of their reception, spat upon the image of Christ, denied

God, gave obscene kisses to the Grand Master, adored a brazen head

with carbuncles for eyes, held commune with a great black cat and

had intercourse with female demons. Such are the items put forward

seriously in the act of indictment. The end of this drama is familiar;

Jacques de Molay and his companions perished in the flames, but before

dying the grand master of the Temple organised and instituted Occult

Masonry. Within the walls of his prison he founded four Metropolitan

Lodges—at Naples for the East, Edinburgh for the West, Stockholm for

the North and Paris for the South. The Pope and King perished speedily

in a strange and sudden manner.[202] Squin de Florian, the accuser in

chief of the Order, was assassinated. In breaking the sword of the

Templars it was converted into a dagger and their proscribed trowels

henceforth were utilised only in the erection of tombs. Let them pass

at this point into darkness, wherein they took refuge while maturing

their vengeance. We shall see them reappear at the great epoch of the

Revolution and we shall recognise them by their signs and by their

works.

The greatest magical prosecution to be found in history, after that of

the Temple, was the trial of a maid who was, moreover, almost a saint.

The Church, in this case, has been accused of subservience to the base

resentment of a vanquished party, and it has been asked earnestly what

anathemas of the Chair of St. Peter fell upon the assassins of Joan of

Arc.[203] To those who are really unacquainted, it may be said at once

that Pierre Cauchon, the unworthy Bishop of Beauvais, struck suddenly

with death by the hand of God, was excommunicated after death by

Callixtus IV, his remains being taken from consecrated ground and cast

into the public sewers. It was not therefore the Church which judged

and condemned the Maid of Orléans, but a bad priest and an apostate.

Charles VII, who gave up this noble girl to her destroyers, fell

afterwards into the hands of an avenging providence; he died of

self-starvation, through dread of being poisoned by his own son. Fear

is the torment of the base. The king in question gave up his life to a

courtesan, and for her he burdened with debt a kingdom which had been

saved to him by a virgin. Courtesan and virgin have been celebrated by

our national poets—Joan of Arc by Voltaire and Agnes Sorel by Béranger.

Joan perished in her innocence, but the laws against Magic were

vindicated soon after in the case of one who was chief among the

guilty. The personage in question was one of the most valiant captains

under Charles VII, but the services which he rendered to the state

could not counterbalance the extent and enormity of his crimes. All

tales of ogres and Croquemitaine were realised and surpassed by the

deeds of this fantastic scoundrel, whose history has remained in the

memory of children under the name of Blue Beard. Gilles de Laval, Lord

of Raiz, had indeed so black a beard that it seemed to be almost blue,

as shewn by his portrait in the Salle des Maréchaux, at the Museum of

Versailles. A Marshal of Brittany, he was brave because he was French;

being rich, he was also ostentatious; and he became a sorcerer because

he was insane.[204]

The mental derangement of the Lord of Raiz was manifested in the

first instance by sumptuous devotion and extravagant magnificence.

When he went abroad, he was preceded invariably by cross and banner;

his chaplains were covered with gold and vested like prelates; he

had a college of little pages or choristers, who were always richly

clothed. But day by day one of these children was called before the

marshal and was seen no more by his comrades; a newcomer succeeded him

who disappeared, and the children were sternly forbidden to ask what

became of the missing ones or even refer to them among themselves.

The children were obtained by the marshal from poor parents, whom he

dazzled by his promises, and who were pledged to trouble no further

concerning their offspring, these, according to his stories, being

assured a brilliant future.

The explanation is that, in his case, seeming devotion was the mask and

safeguard of infamous practices. Ruined by imbecile prodigality, the

marshal desired at any cost to create wealth. Alchemy had exhausted

his last resources and loans on usurious terms were about to fail

him; he determined therefore to attempt the last and most execrable

experiments of Black Magic, in the hope of obtaining gold by the aid

of hell. An apostate priest of the diocese of Saint-Malo, a Florentine

named Prelati, and Sillé,[205] who was the marshal’s steward, became

his confidants and accomplices. He had espoused a young woman of

high birth[206] and kept her practically shut up in his castle at

Machecoul, which had a tower with the entrance walled up. A report was

spread by the marshal that it was in a ruinous state and no one sought

to penetrate therein. This notwithstanding, Madame de Raiz, who was

frequently alone during the dark hours, saw red lights moving to and

fro in this tower; but she did not venture to question her husband,

whose bizarre and sombre character filled her with extreme terror.

On Easter Day in the year 1440,[207] the marshal, having communicated

solemnly in his chapel, bade farewell to the lady of Machecoul, telling

her that he was departing to the Holy Land; the poor creature was even

then afraid to question, so much did she tremble in his presence; she

was also several months in her pregnancy. The marshal permitted her

sister to come on a visit as a companion during his absence. Madame

de Raiz took advantage of this indulgence, after which Gilles de

Laval mounted his horse and departed. To her sister Madame de Raiz

communicated her fears and anxieties. What went on in the castle? Why

was her lord so gloomy? What signified his repeated absences? What

became of the children who disappeared day by day? What were those

nocturnal lights in the walled-up tower? These and the other problems

excited the curiosity of both women to the utmost degree.[208] What

all the same could be done? The marshal had forbidden them expressly

even to approach the tower, and before leaving he had repeated this

injunction. It must assuredly have a secret entrance, for which Madame

de Raiz and her sister Anne proceeded to search through the lower rooms

of the castle, corner by corner and stone after stone. At last, in the

chapel, behind the altar, they came upon a copper button, hidden in

a mass of sculpture. It yielded under pressure; a stone slid back and

the two curiosity-seekers, now all in a tremble, distinguished the

lowermost steps of a staircase, which led them to the condemned tower.

At the top of the first flight there was a kind of chapel, with a cross

upside down and black candles; on the altar stood a hideous figure,

no doubt representing the demon. On the second floor they came upon

furnaces, retorts, alembics, charcoal—in a word, all the apparatus of

alchemy. The third flight led to a dark chamber, where the heavy and

fetid atmosphere compelled the young women to retreat. Madame de Raiz

came into collision with a vase, which fell over, and she was conscious

that her robe and feet were soaked by some thick and unknown liquid. On

returning to the light at the head of the stairs she found that she was

bathed in blood.

Sister Anne would have fled from the place, but in Madame de Raiz

curiosity was even stronger than disgust or fear. She descended the

stairs, took a lamp from the infernal chapel and returned to the third

floor, where a frightful spectacle awaited her. Copper vessels filled

with blood were ranged the whole length of the walls, bearing labels

with a date on each, and in the middle of the room there was a black

marble table, on which lay the body of a child murdered quite recently.

It was one of these basins which had fallen, and black blood had spread

far and wide over the grimy and worm-eaten wooden floor.

The two women were now half-dead with terror. Madame de Raiz

endeavoured at all costs to efface the evidence of her indiscretion.

She went in search of a sponge and water, to wash the boards; but she

only extended the stain and that which at first seemed black became

all scarlet in hue. Suddenly a loud commotion echoed through the

castle, mixed with the cries of people calling to Madame de Raiz.

She distinguished the awe-striking words: “Here is Monseigneur come

back.” The two women made for the staircase, but at the same moment

they were aware of the trampling of steps and the sound of other voices

in the devil’s chapel. Sister Anne fled upwards to the battlement of

the tower; Madame de Raiz went down trembling and found herself face

to face with her husband, in the act of ascending, accompanied by the

apostate priest and Prélati.

Gilles de Laval seized his wife by the arm and without speaking dragged

her into the infernal chapel. It was then that Prélati[209] observed to

the marshal: “It is needs must, as you see, and the victim has come of

her own accord.” ... “Be it so,” answered his master. “Begin the Black

Mass.” ... The apostate priest went to the altar, while Gilles de Laval

opened a little cupboard fixed therein and drew out a large knife,

after which he sat down close to his spouse, who was now almost in a

swoon and lying in a heap on a bench against the wall. The sacrilegious

ceremonies began.

It must be explained that the marshal, so far from taking the road

to Jerusalem, had proceeded only to Nantes, where Prélati lived; he

attacked this miserable wretch with the uttermost fury and threatened

to slay him if he did not furnish the means of extracting from the

devil that which he had been demanding for so long a time. With the

object of obtaining delay, Prélati declared that terrible conditions

were required by the infernal master, first among which would be the

sacrifice of the marshal’s unborn child after tearing it forcibly from

the mother’s womb. Gilles de Laval made no reply but returned at once

to Machecoul, the Florentine sorcerer and his accomplice the priest

being in his train. With the rest we are acquainted.

Meanwhile, Sister Anne, left to her own devices on the roof of the

tower and not daring to come down, had removed her veil, to make

signals of distress at chance. They were answered by two cavaliers

accompanied by a posse of armed men, who were riding towards the

castle; they proved to be her two brothers who, on learning the

spurious departure of the marshal for Palestine, had come to visit

and console Madame de Raiz. Soon after they arrived with a clatter

in the court of the castle, whereupon Gilles de Laval suspended the

hideous ceremony and said to his wife: “Madame, I forgive you, and the

matter is at an end between us if you do now as I tell you. Return to

your apartment, change your garments and join me in the guest-room,

whither I am going to receive your brothers. But if you say one word,

or cause them the slightest suspicion, I will bring you hither on their

departure; we shall proceed with the Black Mass at the point where it

is now broken off, and at the consecration you will die. Mark where I

place this knife.”

He rose up, led his wife to the door of her chamber and subsequently

received her relations and their suite, saying that his lady was

preparing herself to come and salute her brothers. Madame de Raiz

appeared almost immediately, pale as a spectre. Gilles de Laval never

took eyes off her, seeking to control her by his glance. When her

brothers suggested that she was ill, she answered that it was the

fatigue of pregnancy, but added in an undertone: “Save me; he seeks to

kill me.” At the same moment Sister Anne rushed into the hall, crying:

“Take us away; save us, my brothers: this man is an assassin”—and she

pointed to Gilles de Laval. While the marshal summoned his people, the

escort of the two visitors surrounded the women with drawn swords; and

the marshal’s people disarmed instead of obeying him. Madame de Raiz,

with her sister and brothers, gained the drawbridge and left the castle.

On the morrow, Duke John V invested Machecoul, and Gilles de Laval,

who could count no longer on his men-at-arms, yielded without

resistance.[210] The parliament of Brittany had decreed his arrest as a

homicide, the ecclesiastical tribunal preparing in the first place to

pronounce judgment upon him as a heretic, sodomite and sorcerer. Voices

of parents, long silenced by terror, rose upon all sides, demanding

their missing children: there was universal dole and clamour throughout

the province. The castles of Machecoul and Chantocé were ransacked,

resulting in the discovery of two hundred skeletons of children; the

rest had been consumed by fire.

Gilles de Laval appeared with supreme arrogance before his judges.[211]

To the customary question: “Who are you? “he answered: “I am Gilles de

Laval, Marshal of Brittany, Lord of Raiz, Machecoul, Chantocé and other

fiefs. And who are you that dare to question me?” He was answered: “We

are your judges, magistrates of the Ecclesiastical Court.”—“What, you

my judges! Go to, I know you well, my masters. You are simoniacs and

obscene fellows, who sell your God to purchase the joys of the devil.

Speak not therefore of judging me, for if I am guilty, it is you, who

owed me good example, that are my instigators.”—“Cease your insults,

and answer us.”—“I would rather be hanged by the neck than reply

to you. I am surprised that the president of Brittany suffers your

acquaintance with matters of this kind. You question that you may gain

information and afterwards do worse than you have done.”

But this haughty insolence was demolished by the threat of

torture.[212] Before the Bishop of Saint-Brieuc and the President

Pierre de l’Hôpital, Gilles de Laval made confession of his murders and

sacrileges. He pretended that his motive in the massacre of children

was an execrable delight which he sought during the agony of these

poor little beings. The president found it difficult to credit this

statement and questioned him anew. “Alas,” said the marshal abruptly,

“you torment both yourself and me to no purpose.” “I do not torment

you,” replied the president, “but I am astonished at your words and

dissatisfied. What I seek and must have is the pure truth.” The marshal

answered: “Verily there was no other cause. What more would you have?

Surely I have admitted enough to condemn ten thousand men.”

That which Gilles de Laval shrank from confessing was that he sought

the Philosophical Stone in the blood of murdered children, and that it

was covetousness which drove him to this monstrous debauchery. On the

faith of his necromancers, he believed that the universal agent of life

could be suddenly coagulated by the combined action and reaction of

outrage on Nature and murder. He collected afterwards the iridescent

film which forms on blood as it turns cold;[213] he subjected it to

various fermentations, digested the product in the philosophical egg

of the athanor, combining it with salt, sulphur and mercury. He had

doubtless derived his recipe from some of those old Hebrew Grimoires

which, had they been known at the period, would have been sufficient

to call down on Jewry at large the execration of the whole earth.

Persuaded, as they were, that the act of human impregnation attracts

and coagulates the Astral Light in its reaction by sympathy on things

subjected to the magnetism of man, the Israelitish sorcerers had

plunged into those enormities of which Philo accuses them, as quoted

by the astrologer Gaffarel.[214] They caused trees to be grafted by

women, who inserted the graft while a man performed on their persons

those acts which are an outrage to Nature. Wherever Black Magic is

concerned the same horrors recur, for the spirit of darkness is not one

of invention.

Gilles de Laval was burned alive in the _pré de la Magdeleine_,

near Nantes; he obtained permission to go to execution with all the

pageantry that had accompanied him during life, as if he wished to

involve in the ignominy of his punishment the ostentation and cupidity

by which he had been so utterly degraded and lost so fatally.[215]

CHAPTER VII

SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO THE DEVIL

We have borne witness to the sobriety of decisions pronounced by the

Church respecting the genius of evil; she has recommended her children

not to be in fear concerning him, not to be preoccupied about him and

not even to pronounce his name. This notwithstanding, the propensity

of diseased imaginations and weak minds towards the monstrous and the

horrible lent, during the evil days of the middle ages, a formidable

importance and most portentous forms to the darksome being who deserves

nothing but oblivion, because he has rejected truth and light for

ever. This seeming realisation of the phantom expressing perversity

was an incarnation of human frenzy; the devil became the nightmare

of cloisters, the human mind fell a prey to its own fear and, though

supposed to be reasonable, trembled at the chimeras which it had

evoked. A black and deformed monster spread its batwings between heaven

and earth, to prevent youth and life from trusting in the promises of

the sun and the still peace of the stars. This harpy of superstition

poisoned all things with its breath, infected all by its contact.

There was dread over eating and drinking lest the eggs of the reptile

should be swallowed; to look upon beauty was to court perhaps an

illusion begotten of the monster; to laugh suggested the sneer of the

eternal tormentor as a funereal echo; to weep pictured him insulting

the mourner’s tears. The devil seemed to keep God imprisoned in heaven

while he imposed blasphemy and despair upon men on earth.

Superstitions lead quickly into absurdity and mental alienation;

nothing is more deplorable and more irksome than the multitudinous

accounts with which popular writers on the history of Magic have

burdened their compilations. Peter the Venerable beheld the devil

leering in lavatories; another maker of chronicles recognised him under

the form of a cat, which, however, resembled a dog and skipped like a

monkey; a certain lord of Corasse was served by an imp named Orthon,

which appeared as a sow, but exceedingly emaciated and indeed almost

fleshless. The prior of St. Germain des Prés, named William Edeline,

testifies that he saw him in the form of a sheep which, as it seemed to

him must be kissed below the tail, as a mark of reverence and honour.

Wretched old women confessed that he had been their lover; the marshal

Trivulce died of terror, while protecting himself by cut and thrust

against the devils swarming in his room. Hundreds of wretched idiots

and fools were burnt on admitting their former commerce with the

malignant spirit; rumours of _incubi_ and _succubi_ were heard on all

sides; judges deliberated gravely on revelations which should have been

referred to doctors; moreover, they were actuated by the irresistible

pressure of public opinion, and indulgence towards sorcerers would have

exposed magistrates themselves to all the popular fury. The persecution

of fools made folly contagious and the maniacs tore one another to

pieces; people were beaten to death, burnt by slow fire, plunged into

icy water in the hope of compelling them to break the spells which they

had cast, while justice intervened only to complete on the stake what

had begun in the blind rage of the multitude.

In recounting the history of Gilles de Laval we have indicated

sufficiently that Black Magic may be not only a real crime but the

gravest of all offences; unfortunately the method of the times confused

the diseased with malefactors and punished those who should have been

cared for with patience and charity.

At what point does man’s responsibility begin and at what point does it

end? The problem is one which may well disturb frequently the virtuous

depositories of human justice. Caligula, son of Germanicus, appeared

to have inherited all the virtues of his father, but his reason was

distracted by poison and he became the terror of the world. Was he in

reality guilty, and ought not his crimes to be laid at the doors of

those base Romans who obeyed instead of imprisoning him?

Father Hilarion Tissot, who has been mentioned previously, goes

further than ourselves and would include even voluntary crime in the

category of madness, but unfortunately he explains madness itself as

obsession of the evil spirit. We might ask this good ecclesiastic

what he would think of the father of a family who after shutting his

door on a wastrel known to be capable of every kind of evil, should

give him leave to frequent, advise, abduct and obsess his own little

children? Let us therefore admit, so as to be truly Christian, that the

devil, whomsoever he may be, obsesses only those who give themselves

voluntarily to him, and that such are responsible for everything which

he may prompt them to do, even as a drunken man is held liable rightly

for the disorders of which he may be guilty under the influence of

drink. Drunkenness is a transient madness and madness is a permanent

intoxication; both are caused by a phosphoric congestion of the

cerebral nerves, which destroys our etheric equilibrium and deprives

the soul of its instrument of precision. The spiritual and personal

soul then resembles Moses bound and swaddled in his cradle of rushes,

and abandoned to the rocking of the Nile waters. It is carried away by

the fluidic and material soul of the world, that mysterious water over

which the Elohim brooded, when the Divine Word was formulated by the

luminous sentence: Let there be light.

The soul of the world is a force which tends automatically to

equilibrium; either will must predominate over it or it conquers

the will. It is tormented by any incomplete life, as if this were a

monstrosity, and it strives therefore to absorb intellectual abortions.

Hence maniacs and hallucinated people experience an irresistible

yearning for destruction and death; annihilation seems to them a

blessing, and they would not only attain death on their own part but

would delight in witnessing that of others. They realise that life is

escaping them; consciousness stings and even goads them to despair;

their very existence is a perception of death, and it is hell-torment.

One hears an imperious voice commanding him to kill his son in the

cradle. He struggles, he weeps, he flees, but ends by taking a hatchet

and slaying the child. Another, and this terrible story is a thing of

recent occurrence, is driven by voices crying for hearts; he beats

his parents to death, opens their breasts, tears out their hearts and

begins to devour them. Whosoever of his free will is guilty of an evil

action offers by that fact an earnest to eternal destruction and cannot

foresee whither this fatal bargain will lead him.

Being is substance and life; life manifests by movement; movement

is perpetuated by equilibrium; equilibrium is therefore the law of

immortality. Conscience is the awareness of equilibrium, which is

equity and justice. All excess, when it is not mortal, is corrected by

an opposite excess; it is the eternal law of reaction; but if excess

subverts all equilibrium it is lost in the outer darkness and becomes

eternal death.

The soul of the earth carries with it in the vertigo of astral movement

all which offers no resistance in virtue of the equilibrated forces

of reason. Wherever an imperfect and ill-formed life manifests, this

soul directs its energies to destroy it, just as vitality pours in

to heal wounds. Hence the atmospheric disorders which occur in the

neighbourhood of certain diseased persons, hence fluidic commotions,

the automatic movement of tables, levitations, stone-throwing, and the

visible and tangible projection of astral hands and feet by obsessed

persons. It is Nature at work on a cancer which it is trying to

extirpate, on a wound which it seeks to close, or on some vampire whose

death is desired, that it may revert to the common source of life.

The spontaneous movement of inert objects can result only from the

operation of forces which magnetise the earth; a spirit, or in other

words, a thought can raise nothing in the absence of a lever. Were it

otherwise, the—so to speak—infinite toil of Nature for the creation

and perfecting of organs would be without an object. If the spirit

freed from the senses could render matter obedient to its will, the

illustrious dead would be the first to manifest in accordance with

order and harmony, but in place of this there are only incoherent and

feverish activities produced about diseased and capricious beings.

These are irregular magnets which derange the soul of the earth; but

when the earth is in delirium through the eruption of such abortive

beings, it is because it is passing through a crisis on its own part,

and through one which will end in violent commotions.

There is extraordinary puerility in some who pass for serious. There is

for example the Marquis de Mirville,[216] who refers all inexplicable

phenomena to the devil. But, my dear Sir, if the devil could intervene

in the natural order, would he not demolish everything? By the

hypothesis concerning his character, scruples could scarcely influence

him. You will reply that God’s power restrains, and that it does or

does not is obvious; but on the first supposition the devil is rendered

impotent, while on the second it is he who is master. M. de Mirville

might say further that God suffers him a little while. Does he mean

just enough to deceive poor men, just enough to puzzle their heads, so

wooden already—as is known? In this alternative it is no longer the

devil who is master; it is rather God Who is—but no, one dares not

continue: to go further would be to blaspheme.

We do not understand properly the harmonies of being, which follow an

ordered sequence, as the illustrious maniac Fourier well said. The

spirit acts upon spirits by means of the Word; matter receives the

imprints of spirit and communicates therewith by means of a perfect

organism. Harmony in forms is related to harmony in ideas, and the

light is the common mediator. Light is spirit and life; it is the

synthesis of colours, the accord of shadows, the harmony of forms; and

its vibrations are living mathematics. But darkness and its phantastic

illusions, the phosphorescent errors of slumber and words spoken in

delirium—all these create nothing, realise nothing and in a word do not

exist. Such things belong to the limbus of life, are vapours of astral

intoxication and delusions of tired eyes. To follow these will o’ the

wisps is to walk in a blind alley; to believe in their revelations is

to worship death: such is Nature’s testimony.

Incoherence and abuse are the only messages of table-turning; they

are echos of the low-life deeps of thought, absurd and anarchic

dreams, words which the scum of the people make use of to express

defiance. There is a book by Baron de Guldenstubbé,[217] who pretends

to conduct a correspondence with the other world. He has had answers,

and such answers—obscene sketches, despairing hieroglyphics and the

following Greek signature, [Greek: pneuma thanatos], which may be

translated “spirit of death.” Such is the last word of the phenomenal

revelations according to American doctrine; such is doctrine itself in

separation from sacerdotal authority and in the attempt to establish it

independently of hierarchic control. The reality and importance of the

phenomena, the good faith of those who believe them, are in no sense

denied; but we must warn all who are concerned against the dangers

to which they are liable if they do not prefer the spirit of wisdom,

communicated divinely and hierarchically to the Church, before all

these disorderly and obscure messages, in which the fluidic soul of the

earth reflects automatically the mirage of intelligence and the dreams

of slumbering reason.

BOOK V

THE ADEPTS AND THE PRIESTHOOD

ה—HE

CHAPTER I

PRIESTS AND POPES ACCUSED OF MAGIC

We have explained that owing to the profanations and impieties of

Gnostics the Church proscribed Magic. The condemnation of the Knights

Templar completed the rupture, and from this time forward, compelled

to seek concealment and plan revenge in the shadows, Magic ostracised

the Church in turn. More prudent than those arch-heretics who opposed

altar to altar in public day, and thus entailed denunciation and the

headsman’s axe on themselves, the adepts dissimulated their resentment

as well as their doctrines. They bound themselves together by dreadful

oaths and, realising the importance of first securing a favourable view

at the tribunal of public opinion, they turned back on their accusers

and judges the sinister rumours by which they were pursued themselves

and denounced the priesthood to the people as a school of Black Magic.

So long as his convictions and beliefs are not rooted in the

irremovable foundation of reason, man ardently and indifferently

desires both truth and falsehood; on either side he finds that there

are cruel reactions. Who shall put an end to this warfare? Only the

spirit of Him who has said: “Render not evil for evil, but overcome

evil by good.”

The Catholic priesthood has been charged with the spirit of

persecution, though its mission is that of the good Samaritan, for

which reason it superseded the unpitying Levites who continued

their way without extending compassion to him who had fallen among

thieves. It is in the exercise of humanity that priests prove their

Divine consecration. Hence it is a supreme injustice to cast upon

sacerdotalism at large the crimes or certain men who are unfortunately

sealed with the priesthood. For a man, as such, it is always possible

to be wicked; but a true priest is, on the contrary, always charitable.

Now, the false adepts did not look at the question from this

standpoint;[218] for them the Christian priesthood was made void and

was hence an usurping power since the proscription of the Gnostics.

What, said they, is a hierarchy whose degrees are no longer regulated

by conscience? The same ignorance of the Mysteries and the same blind

faith drive into the same fanaticism or the same hypocrisy the prime

leaders and lowest ministers of the sanctuary. The blind are leaders

of the blind. The supremacy between equals is no longer anything but

the result of intrigue and chance. The pastors consecrate the sacred

elements with a gross and disordered faith; they are jugglers in

bread and eaters of human flesh; they are no longer thaumaturgists

but sorcerers. Such was the sectarian verdict. To support the calumny

they invented fables, affirming for example that the popes had been

given over to the spirit of darkness ever since the tenth century. The

learned Gerbert, who was crowned as Sylvester II, made confession—as

it is said—to this effect on his death-bed. Honorius III, being he

who confirmed the Order of St. Dominic and preached the Crusades,

was himself an abominable necromancer, author of a Grimoire which

still bears his name and is reserved exclusively to priests. The same

false adepts paraded and commented on this Grimoire, seeking in such

manner to turn against the Holy See the most terrible of all popular

prejudices at that period—the mortal hatred of those who, wrongly or

rightly, passed publicly for sorcerers.

Some malevolent or credulous historians have favoured these lying

inventions. Thus Platina, a scandalous chronicler of the papacy,

reproduces from Martinus Polonus the calumnies against Sylvester II.

According to this fable, Gerbert, who was proficient in mathematical

science and the Kabalah, performed an evocation of the devil and

required his assistance to attain the pontificate. The fulfilment of

his ambition was not only promised by the demon but it was affirmed

further that he should not die except at Jerusalem, to which place it

will be understood readily that the magician determined inwardly that

he would never go. He became pope as promised, but on a certain day,

when he was saying Mass in a church at Rome, he felt seriously ill and

remembering suddenly that the chapel wherein he was officiating was

dedicated to the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, he realised what had come to

pass. He caused a bed to be put up in the chapel and, summoning his

cardinals, confessed publicly that he had engaged in commerce with

demons. He ordained further that his dead body should be placed upon

a chariot of green wood and should be drawn by two virgin horses, one

black and the other white; that they should be started on their course

but neither led nor driven; and that his remains should be interred

wherever a halt was made. The chariot proceeded in this manner across

Rome and stopped in front of the Lateran. Loud cries and groans were

heard for a few moments, after which there was silence and the burial

took place. So ends a legend the proper place of which is in the

hawker’s chap-books.

Martinus Polonus, on the faith of whom Platina repeats such reveries,

had borrowed them on his own part (a) from a certain Galfridus and (b)

from Gervaise, a maker of chronicles, whom Naudé terms “the greatest

forger of fables and the most notorious liar that ever took pen in

hand.” From sources of similar value the protestants have derived a

scandalous and obviously apocryphal story concerning a pretended Pope

Joan, who was also a sorceress, as we have all heard: indeed she is one

to whom books on Black Magic are still attributed. We have glanced at

a memoir of this female pope by a protestant historian and have taken

note of two very curious engravings contained therein. They are assumed

to be portraits of the heroine but are in reality ancient Tarots,

representing Isis crowned with a tiara. It is well known that the

hieroglyphic figure on the second Tarot card is still called the female

pope, being a woman wearing a tiara on which are the points of the

crescent moon, or the horns of Isis. One example in the protestant book

is even more remarkable; the hair of the figure is long and scanty;

there is a solar cross on the breast; she is seated between the two

pillars of Hercules: and behind her flows the ocean, with lotus-flowers

blooming on the surface of the water. The second portrait represents

the same divinity, with attributes of the sovereign priesthood and

holding her son Horus in her arms. As Kabalistic documents, the two

pictures are of singular value, but they are little to the purpose of

those who are concerned with Pope Joan.

To dispose of the accusation of sorcery in respect of Gerbert,

supposing that it could be taken seriously, it would be enough to

mention that he was the most learned man of his century and having been

preceptor of two sovereigns, he owed his election to the gratitude

of one of his august pupils. He had extraordinary proficiency in

mathematics, and his knowledge of physics may have exceeded that of

his epoch; in a word, he was a man of universal erudition and great

ability, as the letters which he left bear witness, though he was

not a denouncer of kings like the terrible Hildebrand. He chose to

instruct princes rather than excommunicate them, and enjoying the

favour of two French kings and three emperors, he had no need, as Naudé

has judiciously pointed out, to sell himself to the devil for the

archbishoprics of Rheims and Ravenna, or for the papacy in succession

to these. It is true that he attained the successive positions, to some

extent in spite of his merit; it was an age when able politicians were

taken for possessed people and those who were learned for enchanters.

Gerbert was not only a great mathematician, as we have said, and

a distinguished astronomer, but he excelled also in mechanics,

and—according to William of Malmesbury—he erected at Rheims such

wonderful hydraulic machines that the water itself executed symphonies

and played most enchanting airs. Moreover, according to Ditmare, he

adorned the town of Magdebourg with a clock which registered all the

motions of heaven and the times when the stars rose and set. Finally,

by the evidence of Naudé,[219] whom we cite once again with pleasure,

he made “that test of brass which was devised so ingeniously that the

before-mentioned William of Malmesbury was himself deceived thereby

and referred it to Magic. Further, Onuphrius states that he saw in

the Farnese library a learned book on geometry composed by this same

Gerbert; and for myself I estimate that, without adjudicating on the

opinion expressed by Erfordiensis and some others, who regard him as

the maker of timepieces and of arithmetic as these exist now among us,

all these evidences are sufficiently valid to warrant the conclusion

that those who had never heard of cube, parallelogram, dodecahedron,

almicantar, valsagora, almagrippa, cathalzem and other names, familiar

enough in these days to such as understand mathematics, conceived that

they were those of the spirits invoked by Gerbert and that such a

multitude of things so rare could not emanate from a single personality

in the absence of extraordinary advantages, from the possession of

which it followed therefore that he must have been a magician.”

To indicate the lengths of impertinence and bad faith reached by

makers of chronicles, it remains to say that Platina[220]—that

maliciously naïve echo of all Roman pasquinades—affirms that the tomb

of Sylvester II itself turned sorcerer, weeping prophetically at the

approaching downfall of each pope and that the reprobate bones of

Gerbert shook and rattled together when one of them was about to die.

An epitaph engraved on the tomb lends colour to these wonders—so adds

unblushingly the librarian of Sixtus IV. Such are the proofs which

pass among historians as sufficient to certify the existence of a

curious historical document. Platina was librarian of the Vatican; he

wrote his history of the popes by order of Sixtus IV; he wrote also

at Rome, where nothing could be easier than to verify the truth or

falsehood of such an assertion, which notwithstanding the pretended

epitaph never existed outside the imagination of the authors from whom

Platina borrowed with incredible lack of caution[221]—a circumstance

which moves justly the indignation of honest Naudé, whose further

remarks shall follow: “It is a pure imposture and manifest falsehood,

both in respect of the experience—being the pretended prodigies at

the tomb of Sylvester II—the same having never been witnessed by

anyone—and of the alleged inscription on the tomb, that inscription—as

it exists really—having been composed by Sergius IV and so far from

supporting the supposed magical fables, is, on the contrary, one of

the most excellent testimonies that could be desired to the good life

and integrity of Sylvester. It is truly a shameful thing that so many

catholics should be abettors of a slander concerning which Marianus

Scotus, Glaber, Ditmare, Helgandus, Lambert and Herman Contract, who

were his contemporaries, make no mention.”

Proceeding now to the Grimoire of Honorius, it is to the third bearer

of that name, or to one of the most zealous pontiffs of the 13th

century, that this impious book is attributed. Assuredly Honorius III

was eminently likely to be hated by sectarians and necromancers, and

well might they seek to dishonour him by representing him as their

accomplice. Censius Savelli, crowned pope in 1216, confirmed that

Order of Saint Dominic which proved so formidable to Albigensians and

Vaudois—those children of Manicheans and sorcerers. He established

also the Franciscans and Carmelites, preached a crusade, governed the

Church wisely and left many decretals. To charge with Black Magic a

pope so eminently catholic[222] is to cast similar suspicion on the

great religious orders which he instituted, and the devil thereby could

scarcely fail to profit.

Some old copies of the Grimoire of Honorius bear, however, the name of

Honorius II, but it is impossible to make a sorcerer of that elegant

Cardinal Lambert who, after his promotion to the sovereign pontificate,

surrounded himself either with poets, to whom he gave bishoprics for

elegies—as in the case of Hildebert, Bishop of Mans—or with learned

theologians, like Hugh de Saint-Victor. But it so happens that the

name of Honorius II is for us as a ray of light pointing to the true

author of the frightful grimoire in question.[223] In 1061, when the

empire began to take umbrage against the papacy and sought to usurp

the sacerdotal influence by fomenting troubles and divisions in the

sacred college, the bishops of Lombardy, impelled by Gilbert of Parma,

protested against the election of Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, who had

been raised to the papal chair as Alexander II. The Emperor Henry IV

took the part of the dissentients and authorised them to elect another

pope, promising to support them. They chose Cadulus or Cadalus, an

intriguing Bishop of Parma, a man capable of all crimes and a public

scandal in respect of simony and concubinage. He assumed the name

of Honorius II and marched at the head of an army against Rome. He

was defeated and condemned by all the prelates of Germany and Italy.

Returning to the charge, he gained possession of part of the Holy City

and entered St. Peter’s; he was expelled and took refuge in the Castle

of St. Angelo, whence he only obtained leave to retire on the payment

of a heavy ransom. It was then that Otho, Archbishop of Cologne, the

Emperor’s envoy, dared to reproach Alexander II in public for having

usurped the Holy See; but a monk named Hildebrand took up the cause of

the lawful pontiff with such force of eloquence that the Emperor drew

back in confusion and asked pardon for his own criminal attempts. The

Hildebrand in question was already in the sight of providence that

fulminating Gregory VII who was to come and who thus inaugurated the

work of his life. The anti-pope was deposed by the Council of Mantua