support and surroundings. Of this we have an interesting instance in
the case of Dr. Dee’s crystal. In one of his manuscripts is recorded
the fact that on the 10th of March, 1582, Kelley saw in the crystal
a representation of the form and arrangement of the table on which
it should be set; particular instructions on the matter were also
directly imparted to the scryer by the angel Uriel. The table was to
be square, measuring two cubits each way and two cubits in height;
and it was to have four feet. The material was to be “swete wood” and
upon it was to be placed the Sigillum Dei (Seal of God) impressed upon
the purest, colorless wax, the disk being 1⅛ inches thick and 9
inches in diameter. It bore a cross and the magic letters A. G. L. A.,
a transliteration into Roman characters of the initials of the Hebrew
words signifying “Thou are great forever, O Lord.” Four other and
smaller seals were to be provided, one to be placed under each leg of
the table; each of these seals being impressed with geometrical figures
within or upon which were the seven sacred names of God and the names
of the seven angels ruling the seven planetary heavens; Zabothiel,
Zedekiel, Madiniel, Semeliel [Semeshiel], Nogabiel, Corabiel [Cocabiel]
and Levaniel, the angels, respectively, of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the
Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. There then appeared to the scryer the
figure of the table with the crystal resting upon it. Of this it is
said:[290]
“Under the table did seeme to be layd red sylk to lye four square
somewhat broader than the table, hanging down with four knops or
tassells at the four corners thereof. Uppon the uppermost red silk
did seme to be set the stone with the frame, right over and uppon the
principal seal, saving that the sayd sylk was betwene the one and the
other.”
It therefore seems that the prejudice in favor of a black or at least a
dark background for the crystal did not appeal to Dr. Dee, and indeed
the effect of color may perhaps better serve to neutralize troublesome
reflections than does black.
The personages Kelley pretended to see in or around the magic crystal
were described by him to Dr. Dee in the greatest detail, and this
undoubtedly served to lend more reality and authority to their
communications. As an illustration of Kelley’s inventiveness in this
matter, we may take his description of “Nalvage,” a spirit that first
appeared while the doctor and his famulus were in Cracow, April 10,
1584, and was subsequently a frequent visitor. The seer introduces his
new “control” as follows:[291]
He hath a Gown of white silk, with a Cape with three pendants with
tassels on the end of them all green; it is fur, white, and seemeth to
shine, with a wavering glittering. On his head is nothing, he hath no
berd. His phisiognomy is like the pictures of King Edward the Sixth;
his hair hangeth down a quarter of the length of the Cap, somewhat
curling, yellow. He hath a rod or wand in his hand, almost as big as
my little finger; it is of Gold, and divided into three equal parts,
with a brighter Gold than the rest. He standeth upon his round table
of Christal, or rather Mother of Pearl.
When reading the words spoken by Kelley and so carefully preserved by
Dr. Dee, we are reminded, aside from the archaic turn of speech, of the
minute descriptions so glibly given by modern mediums. It is true that
lately, in America, the spirits of the former owners of the land, of
the blameless aborigines, seem to have acquired a quasi monopoly of the
intercourse with the other world.
Most of the early records of crystal-gazing show conclusively
enough that the images revealed in the stone were produced by the
expectations, the hopes, or the fears of the gazer. In many cases,
indeed, the vision is only prophetic because it determines the future
conduct of the person who consults the stone. Fully persuaded that what
has been seen must come to pass, he, or she, proceeds more or less
consciously to make it happen, to fulfil the prediction.
As an instance of this we may take from an old German book[292] the
tale of a lovelorn maiden who seeks the aid of an enchantress to
learn whether she will marry her lover, upon whom her parents look
with disfavor. The mystic crystal is brought out wrapped in a yellow
handkerchief, and is placed in a green bowl beneath which is spread a
blue cloth, the reflections from these different colors being probably
calculated to stimulate the optic nerve and favor the appearance of
some picture upon the polished surface of the crystal. The young
girl, in rapt attention, looks long and earnestly; at last she cries
out that she sees her own form and that of her lover. Both look pale
and sad, and they appear to be about to set forth upon a long and
perilous journey, for the lover wears riding-boots and carries a brace
of pistols. The girl is so terrified at the sight that she faints
away. The sequel of this vision is a runaway match, and we can easily
understand that when the lover proposed this adventure, the girl
believed that it was written in the book of fate and willingly agreed
to undertake it.
The great humorous poem “Hudibras,” wherein all the foibles of the
seventeenth century are castigated, does not fail to make mention of
Dee and Kelley and their crystal. Of the sorcerer whose aid Hudibras
seeks we are told:[293]
He’d read Dee’s prefaces before,
The Dev’l and Euclid o’er and o’er;
And all th’ intrigues ’twixt him and Kelley,
Lascus and th’ Emperor, would tell ye.
Kelley did all his feats upon
The devil’s looking-glass, a stone
Where, playing with him at bo-peep
He solved all problems ne’er so deep.
In his experiments in crystal-gazing, Dr. Dee evidently used more than
one crystal, and did not indeed confine the operations of his scryer
or scryers to brilliant spheres. In the collection of Horace Walpole,
at Strawberry Hill, was a polished slab of black stone, obsidian, from
Mexico. This came into the possession of Mr. Smythe Piggott and later
(1853) into that of Lord Londesborough; it is now in the collection
of Prince Alexis Soltykoff. Horace Walpole wrote a label for the
stone, in which he says that it had long been owned by the Mordaunts,
Earls of Peterborough, and was described in the catalogue of their
collection as the black stone into which Dr. Dee used to call his
spirits. Later it was owned by John Campbell, Duke of Argyle, who gave
it to Horace Walpole.[294] Undoubtedly any polished surface, whether
flat or convex, might serve the purpose of the scryer almost equally
well; the possible advantage of a convex or a spherical form consists
in the multiplying of the reflections and light points so that the
sight is induced to wander from point to point, and that forms and
even motions are suggested by the superposition and combination of the
various reflections. Often, too, a light point visible to one eye will
not be so to the other, this sometimes provoking the phenomenon of
binocular vision, which asserts itself for a moment or two, when the
diverse images coalesce again, though imperfectly, giving an impression
of movement. For one gifted with imagination and the natural quality
of visualizing brain-pictures, these shifting light-points and the
more or less definite and repeated reflections of surrounding objects
offer abundant material out of which to construct lifelike pictures
apparently seen in the crystal. That the brain-pictures thus thrown
out, so to speak, upon the crystal, may or may not have a peculiar
psychic value, other than their value as mere phenomena, depends upon
the significance we are inclined to attribute to the processes of the
subconscious intelligence; of its existence, indeed, there can be no
doubt, and many of our best thinkers incline to the belief that through
it the narrow limits of our personality are occasionally transcended.
[Illustration: 1, 2, 3. Rock-crystal spheres having portions of the
surface ground so that they are rendered partially opaque.
4. Natural cross of rock-crystal. On dolomite, Ossining, New York.]
The following history and description of a crystal ball is given by
John Aubrey (1626-1697):
I have here set down the figure of a consecrated Beryl—now in the
possession of Sir Edward Harley, Knight of the Bath, which he keeps
in his closet at Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire amongst his Cimelia,
which I saw there. It came first from Norfolk; a minister had it
there, and a call was to be made with it. Afterwards a miller had it
and he did work great cures with it (if curable), and in the Beryl
they did see, either the receipt in writing, or else the herb. To this
minister, the spirits or angels would appear openly, and because the
miller (who was his familiar friend) one day happened to see them, he
gave him the aforesaid Beryl and Call; by these angels the minister
was forewarned of his death. This account I had from Mr. Ashmole.
Afterwards this Beryl came into somebody’s hand in London who did tell
strange things by it; insomuch that at last he was questioned for it,
and it was taken away by authority (it was about 1645). This Beryl
is a perfect sphere, the diameter of it I guess to be something more
than an inch; it is set in a ring, or circle, of silver, resembling
the meridian of a globe; the stem of it is about ten inches high, all
gilt. At the four quarters of it are the names of four angels, viz:
Uriel, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel. On the top is a cross patee.[295]
In his “Saducismus Triumphatus,” Joseph Glanvil writes that “one
Compton of Summersetshire, who practised Physick, and pretends to
strange Matters,” demonstrated his power to evoke the image of a
distant person on the surface of a mirror. Glanvil relates that Compton
offered to show to a Mr. Hill any one the latter wished to see. Hill
“had no great confidence in his talk,” but replied that he desired to
see his wife who was many miles distant. “Upon this, Compton took up
a Looking-glass that was in the Room, and setting it down again, bid
my Friend look in it, which he did, and then, as he most solemnly and
seriously professeth, he saw the exact Image of his Wife, in that Habit
which she then wore and working at her Needle in such a part of the
Room (then represented also) in which and about which time she really
was, as he found upon enquiry when he came home. The Gentleman himself
averred this to me, and he is a very sober, intelligent, and credible
Person. Compton had no knowledge of him before, and was an utter
stranger to the Person of his Wife. He was by all accounts a very odd
Person.”[296]
A contemporary record recites that when a certain Sir Marmaduke
Langdale (of the seventeenth century) was in Italy, he went to a
sorcerer and was shown in a glass his own figure kneeling before a
crucifix. Though a Protestant at this time, he shortly after became
a Catholic.[297] If we exclude all idea of trickery, it is likely
enough that the idea of becoming a Catholic was already present to the
scryer’s mind and called up this picture before him.
The celebrated Cagliostro, a Sicilian whose real name was Giuseppe
Balsamo, among his other arts to excite curiosity and play upon the
superstition of his contemporaries, had recourse to a species of
crystal-gazing. In the only authentic biography of this extraordinary
impostor occurs the following passage, which we give in Carlyle’s
version:[298]
Cagliostro brought a little Boy into the Lodge, son of a nobleman
there. He placed him on his knees before a table, whereon stood a
Bottle of pure water, and behind this some lighted candles: he made
an exorcism round the boy, put his hand on his head and both, in this
attitude, addressed their prayers to God for the happy accomplishment
of the work. Having bid the child look into the Bottle, directly the
child cried that he saw a garden. Knowing hereby that Heaven assisted
him, Cagliostro took courage, and bade the child ask of God the grace
to see the angel Michael. At first the child said: “I see something
white; I know not what it is.” Then he began jumping, stamping like
a possessed creature, and cried: “There now! I see a child like
myself, that seems to have something angelical.” All the assembly, and
Cagliostro himself, remained speechless with emotion.... The child
being anew exorcised with the hand of the Venerable on his head, and
the customary prayer addressed to Heaven, he looked into the Bottle,
and said he saw his sister at that moment coming down stairs, and
embracing one of her brothers. That appeared impossible, the brother
in question being then hundreds of miles off; however, Cagliostro felt
not disconcerted; said they might send to the country-house where the
sister was, and see.
Taken all in all this experiment does not seem very satisfactory; but
we have in it all the essential phases of crystal-gazing. Excitement
and expectation produced their usual effect upon an impressionable
child, and suggestion did the rest; the final vision may have been
corroborated in some way, or, if not, it would be explained so as to
convince those present at the experiment that the child had really seen
a representation of some actual happening.
During the Terror, among those upon whom fell the suspicions of the
Jacobins was General Marlière. He knew that a trial and quite probably
a condemnation awaited him. A few days before the date fixed for his
appearance before his judges, he met a colonel in the French army,
who had served in the American Revolutionary War, and who was a firm
believer in the truth of the visions seen in crystal balls. In the
course of the conversation this subject was alluded to, and the general
immediately declared that he was eager to put the matter to the test,
and learn, if possible, what fate was in store for him. The colonel
was at first very unwilling to undertake the experiment, probably he
thought that General Marlière’s doom was sealed, and, believing as
he did in the revelations of the crystal, he dreaded the results;
however, the general insisted and the experiment took place. As usual,
the medium was an “innocent child.” In the crystal appeared a man
wearing a private’s uniform of the National Guard struggling with one
wearing a general’s uniform. The child was much excited and terrified
by the sight, exclaiming that the general’s assailant had thrown him
down and was beheading him. That the vision portended the general’s
execution was clear enough, but the peculiar dress of the executioner
was a mystery to those present at the test, for the official garb bore
no resemblance whatever to a soldier’s uniform. The prediction was,
however, fulfilled to the letter. General Marlière was tried, found
guilty, and guillotined. This in itself did not mean much in view of
the innumerable executions in the time of the Terror; but, on the
day of this execution, Samson, the official executioner, desiring to
gratify his personal vanity and to attract the gaze of the spectators,
dressed himself in the uniform of a national guardsman.[299] That
this altogether unusual circumstance, which could scarcely have been
known to any of those who assisted at the crystal-gazing, should have
been revealed in the crystal, is certainly very mysterious. If we had
positive assurance that the events narrated happened exactly in the way
they are said to have happened, this would be one of the few instances
in which the vision seen in the crystal reproduced something entirely
unknown to the scryer.
Many extraordinary visions are said to have been seen in crystal balls
by a French scryer whose grandmother had clairvoyant powers and was
sometimes consulted by Napoleon I. It is claimed that the grandson has
enjoyed the patronage of many royal personages, and had predicted, in a
more or less definite way, the assassination of King Humbert of Italy,
and the attempted assassination of Alfonso XIII and of his young bride,
when they were returning to the palace after the conclusion of the
marriage ceremony. This French scryer has stated that he is powerfully
affected when he is consulted by any one destined to die a violent
death; on such occasions he feels, in his own organism, a modified form
of the particular kind of suffering they are fated to experience. This
exceptional sensitiveness to occult influences was also shown when the
crystal-gazer went to the Boulaq Museum in Cairo, and gazed upon the
rows of mummies exhibited there; he immediately felt, as intensely as
though it were a personal experience, the mingled sorrow and rage of
the disembodied spirits at seeing their embalmed bodies exposed to the
view of the idle crowd, when they should have been permitted to rest in
their tombs until the hour of the Resurrection.
In England all those who attempted, with a greater or less degree of
success, to reveal the hidden secrets of the future, were expressly
designated as rogues and vagabonds according to the terms of an act
passed June 21, 1824.[300] Such offenders, on being duly convicted
before the Justice of the Peace, could be committed to the House of
Correction, “there to be kept at hard Labour for any time not exceeding
Three Calendar Months.” This class of undesirable citizens comprised
all using “any subtle Craft, Means, or Device, by Palmistry or
otherwise” for the deception of his Majesty’s subjects.
The _h’men_, or diviner, of Yucatan, places great reliance upon his
_zaztun_, or “clear stone.” This may be a quartz crystal, or else some
other translucent stone; but in order to serve for divining purposes
it must be sanctified according to special rites, gum-copal being
burned before it, and certain magic formulas recited, which have been
transmitted from generation to generation in an archaic dialect. When
thus rendered fit for use, the diviner claims to be able to see in the
depths of the crystal the whereabouts of lost articles, and also what
absent persons are doing at the time he makes his observation. Not
only this, but the future is also laid bare before his eyes. As these
stones are supposed to possess such miraculous powers we need not be
surprised that one of them should be found in almost every village in
Yucatan.[301]
The Apache medicine-men are also fully persuaded that crystals possess
the virtue of inducing visions, and they have used them for the purpose
of finding lost property. To aid in the recovery of stolen ponies is
one of the most important tasks of the Apache medicine-man, and to
this end his crystal offers great assistance. Capt. John G. Burke
relates that he made a great friend of a medicine-man named Na-a-che by
giving him a large crystal of denticulated spar, much superior to the
crystal he had been in the habit of using for his visions. That this
was thoroughly satisfactory to the medicine-man at least, is shown by
his statement to Capt. Burke that by looking into his crystal he could
see everything he wanted to see. Of the way this came about he did not
attempt any explanation.[302]
The magic power supposed to dwell within rock-crystal has been
recognized in a peculiar way by some natives of New South Wales. They
have the barbarous custom of knocking out one or more of the front
teeth of their boys at the obligatory initiation ceremonies, and on one
occasion Dr. Howitt was entrusted with the care of a number of these
teeth, which are believed to preserve a certain undefined connection
with the health and fortunes of their former possessors, and on this
account great fear was expressed lest the custodian should place the
precious teeth in the same bag with some rock-crystals, for the natives
thought that the magic power of these crystals would injuriously affect
the teeth, and through them the boys, from whose jaws they had been
broken.[303]
In a paper entitled “The Origin of Jewelry,” read before the British
Association, Professor W. Ridgeley says:
Australians and tribes of New Guinea use crystals for rain-making,
although they cannot bore them, and this stone is a powerful amulet in
Uganda when fastened into leather. Sorcerers in Africa carry a small
bag of pebbles as an important part of their equipment. So it was in
Greece. The crystal was used to light the sacrificial fire and was so
employed in the church down to the fifteenth century. Egyptians used
it largely under the XII Dynasty, piercing it along its axis after
rubbing off the pyramid points of the crystal, sometimes leaving the
natural six sides, or else grinding it into a complete cylinder. From
this bead came the artificial cylindrical glass beads made later by
the Egyptians.
Professor Ridgeley believes that the primary use of all these objects
was because of their supposed magic powers. He holds the same view in
regard to cylinders and rings, considering that the use of these as
signets only became habitual at a later time, and he finds a proof
of this theory in the fact that unengraved Babylonian cylinders and
Mycenean gems have been discovered. This is, of course, perfectly true,
but does not in the least prove that such ornaments may not have been
originally worn simply for purposes of adornment; unquestionably, the
custom of engraving them so as to render them signets must have arisen
at a much later date.
Flacourt stated that the natives of Madagascar used crystals to
aid them in divining. These stones, which were said to have fallen
from heaven, were attached to the corners of the boards whereon the
sorcerers produced their geomantic figures.[304] Here, however, the
crystals were not directly used, but were only supposed to attract
influences propitious to the diviner’s efforts.
In the notes to the 1888 edition of the Chinese criminal code, some
curious details are given of a practice called Yuan-kuang-fuchou (the
magic of the round glittering). While this designation certainly seems
to indicate the use of a polished sphere of some description, the
details given refer to a different practice. We are told that when
anything was stolen appeal was sometimes made to a certain Sun-Yuan
Sheng, who would then hang up a piece of white paper and utter a spell,
while a boy gazed upon the paper until he saw the figure of the thief.
This magician was punished for carrying on an unlawful practice.[305]
[Illustration: BABYLONIAN CYLINDERS AND PERSIAN BEADS.
Of hematite, rock-crystal, lapis-lazuli, chalcedony, banded agate, and
other stones. From 3000 B.C. to the Christian era. (See page 121.)]
The Mexicans made images of their god Tezcatlipoca of obsidian, and the
name of this divinity is interpreted as signifying “shining mirror.”
This is supposed to refer to, or to have been expressed by, the
brilliant effect of the polished surface of the obsidian. Mirrors
of this material are said to have been used for divination in ancient
Mexico and the neighboring countries.[306] One of these Mexican mirrors
seems to have been employed by Dr. Dee in his experiments in crystal
vision.
A remarkable series of tests in the art of scrying, given in the
presence of Lane, the great Arabic scholar, and translator of the
Arabian Nights, illustrates the fallibility of most of the evidence
adduced in such matters, for, at first, Lane was strongly impressed by
the exhibition. Although no crystal was used, the process of scrying
was precisely the same as in crystal-gazing,—that is to say, the
vision called for by the visitors was seen by the scryer on a polished
surface. The master of ceremonies was an Arab magician, though, of
course, he did not do the scrying himself, but employed a boy for this
purpose, for it is generally thought that half-grown boys or girls
are more receptive. Although Lane himself was perfectly familiar with
Arabic, an interpreter was always present in the interest of the other
Europeans who assisted at the experiments.
After invoking many mysterious geniuses and burning incense and scraps
of paper inscribed with magic formulas, the magician drew a magic
square on a large sheet of paper and dropped a quantity of ink in the
centre. On this the boy was directed to fix his gaze, and after he
had shown that he was thoroughly under the magician’s influence, by
describing the images suggested to him, the visitors were permitted
to ask him questions. The answers were successful in most cases; a
single instance will suffice. When the boy was asked to describe
Admiral Nelson, he replied: “I see a man clothed in a dark garb; there
is something strange about him, he has but one arm.” Then, quickly
correcting himself, he added: “No, I was mistaken, he has one of his
arms across his breast.” This correction impressed those present more
than the first statement, for it was well known that Nelson usually
had the empty sleeve of his coat pinned to his breast. It also seemed
as though there could be no collusion, for both the magician and the
boy were ignorant of everything English and evidently knew nothing of
Nelson. Unfortunately, however, for those who would fain believe that
there is something supernatural in scrying, it was later discovered
that the interpreter was a renegade Scotchman, masquerading as an Arab,
and there can be little doubt that he managed to suggest the boy’s
answer. The fact that no satisfactory results were obtained when this
interpreter was absent, makes this explanation almost certainly the
correct one.