DEALINGS WITH DIANA
The philosophy of Horatius is supposed to represent incompletely the
content of heaven and earth, but neither earth nor heaven, as at present
constituted, would be capable of enclosing the entire content of Dr
Bataille's memoirs. Miss Diana Vaughan, with whose history we are next
concerned, comes before us under a different aspect. I have failed to
ascertain under what circumstances she first became known in France. _Le
Diable au XIX^e Siècle_ may have constituted her earliest introduction;
she was certainly unknown to Leo Taxil when he published the Palladian
rituals, or she would not have escaped mention in the account he there
gives of Miss Sophia Walder. However this may be, we have made her
acquaintance in the course of the previous chapter, but I am constrained
to state that she has, up to the present, shown herself exceedingly
circumspect in substantiating the evidence of her precursor.
The whole world is aware, and I need not again repeat, that Miss Diana
Vaughan was converted to the Catholic Church some time after Dr Bataille
completed his astounding narrative. A Palladist of perfect initiation,
comprehending the mysteries of the number 77, and doing reverence to the
higher mystery of 666, Grand Mistress of the Temple, Grand Inspectress
of the Palladium, and according to him who, in a sense, has prepared her
way and made straight her paths, a sorceress and thaumaturge before
whose daily performances the Black Sabbath turns white, Miss Vaughan
quarrelled, as we have seen, with a sister initiate, Sophia Walder, and
conceived for the Italian Grand Master, Adriano Lemmi, the charity of
the evil angels, which is hatred. When the Supreme Dogmatic Directory of
Universal Freemasonry was removed from Charleston to Rome and the
pontificate passed over to Lemmi, as the revelations allege, Miss
Vaughan closed her connection with the Triangles, carrying her colours
to a vessel equipped by herself, and founded a new society under the
title of the Free and Regenerated Palladium, incorporating the
Anti-Lemmist groups, and soon after began a public propaganda by the
issue of a monthly review, devoted to the elucidation of the doctrines
of the Lucifer cultus and to the exposure of the Italian Grand Master.
To hoist the black flag of diabolism, as Miss Vaughan would now term it,
thus in the open day, naturally elicited a strong protestation from the
Palladist Federation, so that she was in embroilment not only with Lemmi
but also with the source of the initiation which she still appeared to
prize. At the same time she exhibited no indications of going over to
the cause of the Adonaïtes. Becoming known to the Anti-Masonic centres
of the Roman Catholic Church only through her hostility to Lemmi, she
was always a _persona grata_ whose conversion was ardently desired, but
on several public occasions she advised them that their cause and hers
were in radical opposition, and that, in fact, she would have none of
them, being outside any need of their support, sympathy, or interest.
She would cleave to the good God Lucifer, and she aspired to be the
bride of Asmodeus. At length the long-suffering editor of the _Revue
Mensuelle_, weary of his refractory protégé, would also have none of
her, though he surrendered her with evident regret to be dealt with by
the prayers of the faithful. One month after, M. Leo Taxil, through the
medium of the same organ, announced the conversion of Miss Vaughan, and
in less than another month, namely, in July, 1895, she began the
publication of her "Memoirs of an ex-Palladist," which are still in
progress, so that, limitations of space apart, my account of this lady
will be unavoidably incomplete.
Her memoirs are, unfortunately, not a literary performance; and their
method, if such it can be called, is not chronological. Beginning with
an account of her first introduction to Lucifer, _vis-à-vis_ in the
_Sanctum Regnum_ of Charleston, on April 8th 1889, they leap, in the
second chapter, over all the years intervening to a minute analysis of
the sentiments which led to her conversion, and of the raptures which
followed it, above all on the occasion of her first communion. It is not
till the third chapter that we get an account of her Luciferian
education, or, more correctly, an introduction thereto, for the better
part of five monthly numbers has not brought us nearer to her
personality than the history of an ancestor in the seventeenth century.
As the publisher is still soliciting annual subscriptions to the
enterprise, and offering a variety of advantages after methods not
unknown in England among the by-ways of periodical literature, the
completion of the work is probably a distant satisfaction for those who
take interest therein.
Now, having regard to the narrative of Dr Bataille, and having regard to
the statements set forth in my second chapter, it is obvious that Miss
Vaughan is a witness of the first importance as to whether there is a
Masonry behind Masonry, which, more or less, manages, or attempts to
manage, the entire society, unknown to the rank and file of its
initiates, however high in grade; as to whether its seat is at
Charleston, with Albert Pike for its founder, and as to whether its
doctrine is anti-Christian, and its cultus that of Lucifer, supported by
magical wonders, concerned with sacrilegious observances, and either a
disguised Satanism, or drifting in that direction. As already hinted,
the mythical and miraculous element,--in a word, that portion of Doctor
Bataille's narrative which does violence to sense and reason,--Miss
Vaughan has not at present imperilled her position by substantiating,
but as to the points I have enumerated, she has most distinctly come
forth out of Palladism to tell us that these things are so, and to
reinforce what was previously stated by unveiling her private life.
It is therefore my duty and desire to do her full justice, and with this
purpose in view, I propose to recite briefly the chief heads of her
memoir, so far as it has been published up to date. I must, however,
premise at the beginning that she does not come before us with one trace
of the uncertainty of accent which might have been expected to
characterise the newly-acquired language, not merely of Christian
faith, but of its Roman dialect. We find her speaking at once, and to
the manner born. Could anything, by possibility, be narrower than
certain perished sections of evangelical religion in England, it would
be certain sections of ultramontane religion in France; but Miss Vaughan
has acquired all the terminology of the latter, all the intellectual
bitterness, all the fatuities, as one might say, in the space of five
minutes. When she has wearied of her memoirs at the moment, or has
reached, after the manner of the novelist, some crucial point in her
narrative, she breaks off abruptly, brackets _à suivre_, and proceeds to
an account of the latest wonder-working image, or a diatribe against
spirit manifestations in the typical manner of the French clerical
press. To be brief, Miss Vaughan has adopted, body and soul, precisely
those abuses which Catholics of intelligence earnestly desire to see
expunged from their great religion. She has probably never heard of the
Forged Decretals, but she would defend their authenticity if she had;
she has probably never heard of the corrupted, or any version of the
Epistles of St Ignatius, but she would accept the corruptions bodily
upon the smallest hint that they savoured better with the hierarchy, and
she would do all this apparently in good faith on the authority of a
purblind party within the Church, which exists to keep open its wounds.
Now, I submit that a _volte face_ is possible, especially in religious
opinions, but that a pronounced habit of religious thought cannot be
acquired in a day, so that, in the history of Miss Vaughan's conversion,
there is more than can be discerned on the surface. The precise nature
of the element which eludes must be left to the judgment of my readers,
but, personally, I reserve my own, out of fairness to an unfinished
deposition.
There is a generic difference between Doctor Bataille and Miss Vaughan.
He is an ordinary human being, and if we may trust the many pictures
which represent him in his narrative, exceedingly unpretending at that.
We have also some portraits of Miss Vaughan, who is aggressive and good
to look at; but this is not the generic distinction. Doctor Bataille,
poor man, is the scion of an ordinary ancestry within the narrow limits
of flesh and blood. Miss Vaughan, on the contrary--I hope my readers
will bear with me--has been taught from her childhood to believe that
she was of the blood royal of the descending hierarchy, and I cannot
gather from her vague mode of expression whether she has altogether
rejected the legend of her descent, which is otherwise sufficiently
startling.
The position of authority and influence occupied by Miss Vaughan in what
she terms high Masonry is to be explained, as she modestly informs us,
not by her personal qualities, but by a traditional secret concerning
her family, which is known only to the Elect Magi. Miss Vaughan and her
paternal uncle are the last descendants of the alchemist Thomas Vaughan,
whom she terms a Rosicrucian, and identifies with Eirenæus Philalethes,
author of "The Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King." On the
25th of March 1645, she tells us, on the authority of her family
history, Thomas Vaughan, having previously obtained from Cromwell the
privilege of beheading the "noble martyr" Laud, Archbishop of
Canterbury--the title to nobility, in her opinion, seems to rest in the
probability of his secret connection with Rome--steeped a linen cloth in
his blood, burnt the said cloth in sacrifice to Satan, who appeared in
response to an evocation, and with whom he concluded a pact, receiving
the philosophical stone, and a guaranteed period of life extending over
thirty-three years from that date, after which he was to be transported
without dying into the eternal kingdom of Lucifer, to live with a
glorified body in the pure flames of the heaven of fire.
After this compact, he wrote the "Open Entrance," the original MS. of
which, together with its autograph Luciferian interpretation on the
broad margins, is a precious heirloom in the family. Some two years
later, in the course of his travels, he reached New England, where he
dwelt for a month among the Lenni-Lennaps, and there in an open desert,
on a clear night of summer, while the moon was shining in splendour, he
was wandering in solitary meditation when the luminary in question,
which was in the crescent phase, came down out of heaven, and proved to
be an arched bed, very luminous and wonderful, containing a vision of
sleeping female beauty. This was the nuptial couch of Thomas Vaughan and
its occupant was Venus-Astarte, surrounded by a host of flower-bearing
child-spirits, who conveniently provided a tent, and provided also
delicious meals during a period of eleven days. Several curious
particulars differentiated these Hermetic nuptials, undreamed of by
Christian Rosencreutz, from those which govern more ordinary proceedings
below the latitude of the Lenni-Lennaps. In the first place, goddess
succubus, Astarte provided the ring, which was of red gold enriched with
a diamond, and placed it on the finger of her lover; in the second
place, transcendental gestation, celestial or otherwise, fulfils the
mystery of generation with exceeding despatch, for Astarte was delivered
of an infant on the eleventh day independently of medical assistance,
whereupon she demanded the return of the nuptial ring, and vanished with
tent and sprites astride of the crescent couch. The fruit of their union
was left in the arms of Thomas, who was directed to trample on all
sentiments of paternal affection, and to deliver the child into the
charge of a tribe of fire-worshipping Indians. He does not appear to
have sued for the restitution of conjugal rights, and cheerfully
surrendered the human hybrid to a family of Lenni-Lennaps, together with
his medallion portrait drawn by an artist from devildom, so that the
daughter might recognise her father after the method which obtains among
novelists. Thomas Vaughan placed the broad ocean between himself and the
scene of his marriage, and he never re-visited his daughter, who, in
spite of her miraculous origin, does not appear to have distinguished
herself in any way, at least up to the point at present reached by the
history.
Miss Vaughan says that all the Elect Magi do not accept this legend of
the blood royal, and she admits her own doubts subsequent to her
conversion. As an article of intellectual faith I should prefer the
birth-story of Gargantua, but it satisfied Miss Vaughan till the age of
thirty years, and her father and grandfather before her, even supposing
that it was _fabriquée par mon bisaïeul James, de Boston_, as hazarded
by elect Magi whom a remnant of reason hinders.
The "Memoirs of an Ex-Palladist" have not at present proceeded further
than the translation of Thomas Vaughan into the paradise of Lucifer, but
from the "Free and Regenerated Palladium" and from other sources the
chief incidents of Miss Vaughan's early life may be collected and
summarised briefly. We learn that she is the daughter of an American
Protestant of Kentucky and of a French lady, also of that persuasion.
She was born in Paris, and a part of her education seems to have been
received in that city; her mother died in Kentucky when Diana was in her
fourteenth year, and I infer that subsequently to this event she must
have lived with her father, who had considerable property in the
immediate vicinity of Louisville. When the Sovereign Rite of Palladism
was created by Albert Pike, Vaughan became affiliated therewith, and was
one of the founders of the Louisville triangle 11 + 7; he presided at
the initiation of his daughter as apprentice, according to the Rite of
Adoption, in 1883. She was raised to the grade of Companion, and
subsequently to that of Mistress, and at the age of 20 years, says Dr
Bataille, she crossed the threshold of the Triangles, as the Palladian
lodges are termed.
Three issues were published of "The Free and Regenerated Palladium," but
since the conversion of Miss Vaughan, they have been withdrawn from
circulation, except among ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, and up to
the present I have failed to obtain copies. For the autobiographical
portions of this organ, I am indebted to the notices which have appeared
in the _Revue Mensuelle_. They contain an account of two apparitions on
the part of the demon Asmodeus, accompanied by phenomena of levitation
and fortified by arguments against the theory of hallucination. These
early experiences are, however, of minor importance, nor need I again
refer to the sensational incidents which accompanied her initiation as
Templar-Mistress at the Paris Triangle of Saint-Jacques; but it appears
from her memoirs that the intervention of Albert Pike was not in virtue
of the supremacy of his personal authority, and that the ordeal of
sacrilege was spared her by the clemency of Lucifer himself, who is
supposed to appear in person at the Sanctum Regnum of Charleston and to
instruct his chiefs, _Deo volente_ or otherwise, every Friday, the
supreme dogmatic director, who had made his home in Washington, having
the gift of "instantaneous transportation," whensoever he thought fit to
be present in the "divine" board-room.
On the 5th of April 1889, the "good God" assembled his Ancients and
Emerites for a friendly conversation upon the "case" of Diana Vaughan,
and ended by requesting an introduction in three days' time. After the
best manner of the grimoires, Miss Vaughan began her preparations by a
triduum, taking one meal daily of black bread, fritters of high-spiced
blood, a salad of milky herbs, and the drink of rare old Rabelais. The
preparations in detail are scarcely worth recording as they merely vary
the directions in the popular chap-books of magic which abound in
foolish France. At the appointed time she passed through the iron doors
of the Sanctum Regnum. "Fear not!" said Albert Pike, and she advanced
_remplie d'une ardente allegresse_, was greeted by the eleven prime
chiefs, who presently retired, possibly for prayer or refreshments,
possibly for operations in wire-pulling. Diana Vaughan remained alone,
in the presence of the Palladium, namely, our poor old friend Baphomet,
whom his admirers persist in representing with a goat's head, whereas he
is the archetype of the ass.
The Sanctum Regnum is described as triangular in shape; there was no
torch, no lamp, no fire; the floor and the ceiling were therefore not
unnaturally dark, but an inexplicable veil of strange phosphorescent
light was diffused over the three walls, the source of which proved on
examination to be innumerable particles of greenish flames each no
larger than a pin's head. Seated in front of the Baphomet, Miss Vaughan
apostrophised Lucifer sympathetically on the subject of the unpleasing
form in which he was represented by his worshippers, and as she did so
the little flames intensified, while floor and ceiling caught fire after
the same ghostly incandescent fashion; a great dry heat filled the vast
apartment, and, still spreading, the flames covered her chair, her
garments, her entire person. At this point the inevitable thunder began
to roll; three and one and two great thunders, after which came five
breathings upon her face, and after those breathings five radiant
spirits appeared, the first act closing impressively with a final salvo
of artillery.
The unhappy Baphomet, dismayed by these extreme proceedings, vanished
entirely, and, no expense being spared through the whole of the costly
tableaux, Lucifer manifested on a throne of diamonds, but whether the
gems were furnished from the treasury of Avernus or from the pockets of
bamboozled Freemasons through the wide world, _les renseignements_ do
not state. Need I say that Miss Vaughan's first impulse was to fall in
worship at his feet? But the sordid apparition, instead of accepting the
homage with the grace which is native to empire, had recourse to the
method of the novelist, and stayed her intention by a gesture. Even at
this late date, and with the millstone of her conversion placed in the
opposite scale, Miss Vaughan's description of her quondam deity would
tempt sentimental young women to forgive all his devildom to a being so
"superb" in "masculine beauty." I will refrain from spoiling the picture
by much of her own minuteness, or by the exclamatory parentheses of her
fury against the magnificent gentleman who deceived her. I should like
also to omit all reference to the conversation which ensued between
them, but for the sake of true art I am constrained to state that
Lucifer descended to commonplace. M. Renan tells us that since he left
Saint Sulpice he did nothing but degenerate, and the inference is
obvious, that he ought to have gone back to Saint Sulpice, despite the
literary splendours of the _Vie de Jésus_. Since he last broke a lance
with Michael, the devil has debilitated mentally, and the substance of
his _causerie_ with Diana reminds one of Robert Montgomery and even
worse exemplars. In the unexplored regions of penny periodical romance I
have met with many better specimens of supernatural dialogue. As to the
sum of his observations, it goes without saying that Diana was chosen
out of thousands, and this is what justifies my opinion that his
proceedings on this occasion were more fatuous than any of his
undertakings since he tried conclusions with divinity.
Very silently during the course of this interview the eleven prime
chiefs had returned like conspirators as they were, of course in the
nick of time, to hear that Miss Vaughan was appointed as the
grand-priestess of Lucifer, at which moment there was a fresh burst of
circumambient flame and the young lady was transported by her divinity
to take part in a grand spectacular drama, divided into two acts.--I.
Appearance of Asmodeus with fourteen legions. Exchange of endearing
expressions between this personage and Diana. Manifestation of the
signature of Baal-Zeboub, generalissimo of the armies of Lucifer,
written in fire upon the void. Spiritualisation of the sweetheart of
Asmodeus. Diana hungers for the fray. Great pitched battle between the
genii of Lucifer and the genii of Adonaï, termed Maleakhs, without the
gates of Eden. The Terrestrial Paradise carried by storm after severe
fighting. Grand panorama of Paradise. Explanatory dialogue between Diana
and her future husband. Appearance of a snow white gigantic eagle on
which Diana is to be transported to Oolis, "a solar world unknown to the
profane, wherein Lucifer reigns and is adored." II. Miss Vaughan having
been transported on another occasion to this mystic planet in the arms
of Lucifer himself, the episodes of the second act are held over. She
was, however, ultimately returned, safe and sound, to the Sanctum Regnum
at Charleston, on the back of the white eagle.
Such is Miss Vaughan's statement, and once more she proceeds to give
reasons why she could not have been hypnotised or hallucinated. As in
the case of Doctor Bataille I propose to postpone criticism until other
witnesses have filed their depositions. At the moment it is sufficient
to recognise that, apart from the supernatural element which admits of a
simple explanation, if Miss Vaughan be a credible witness, then the
central fact of the New and Reformed Palladium must be admitted with all
it involves.