HOW LUCIFER IS UNMASKED.
M. le Docteur Bataille is a mighty hunter before the face of the Lord in
the land of Masonry, and through the whole country of Hiram; great also
is Diana of the Palladians. After their monumental revelations and
confessions, those of all other seceders and penitents who have come out
of the mystery of iniquity, "are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as
water unto wine." My readers in the two previous chapters have drunk raw
spirit, and must now qualify it after the Scotch fashion. The aqueous
intellectuality and quiet stream of unpretending deposition peculiar to
M. Jean Kostka, will be well adapted to modify undue exaltations and
restore order to a universe which has been intoxicated by sorcerers. He
will show us how Lucifer is unmasked in an undemonstrative and
gentlemanly fashion by a late Gnostic and initiate of the 33rd degree.
He writes, as he frankly tells us, in a spirit of reparation and
gratitude, having commerced freely with devils during a long series of
unholy years. "Blessed be the omnipotent Lord, and blessed the loving
kindness which drew me out of the abyss.... To glorify these I unmask
the fallen angel." The delicacy of the motive and its setting of
chivalrous sentiment will be appreciated even by the victim, and the
tenderness of the treatment will prompt Lucifer to pardon his reviler,
who has been already pardoned by M. Papus for betraying the order of the
Martinists. And to do justice towards an amiable writer, who has
scarcely the requisite qualities for seriously damaging or advancing any
cause, it may be kind to add that he has considerably exaggerated his
own case. After a careful examination of his statement, which is
exceedingly naïve, I am tempted to conclude that he has never been near
an abyss; he is innocent of either height or depth, and so far from
having ever plunged into the infernal void, he has scarcely so much as
paddled in a purgatorial puddle. His guilty transcendental experiences
are in reality the most infantile afternoon occultism, and his
drawing-room diablerie might be appropriately symbolised by the paper
speaking-tube of our old friend John King; there is nothing in it when
the voice is not speaking, and there is nothing in it when it is.
Since his conversion, M. Jean Kostka has exhibited much harmless
devotion towards Joan of Arc, an enthusiasm which originated among
occultists, and he has pious memories of St Stanislaus Kostka, for which
dispositions I trust that all my readers will have the complaisance to
commend him. He writes, furthermore, "in the decline of maturity, on the
threshold of age, in the late autumn of life," which is his dropsical
method of saying that he is past sixty, and he veils a "futile name"
under the patronymic of his favourite saint. Jean Kostka is not Jean
Kostka, but it is without intent to deceive that he evades any possible
responsibility in connection with his concealed identity; it is a kind
of pious self-effacement, I hope everyone will believe what he says,
and give him all credit for having "turned towards the outraged Church."
In matters of evidence, pseudonymous statements are, however,
objectionable, and I therefore identify our witness as Jules Doinel, who
was chiefly concerned in the restoration of the Gnosis and the
establishment of a "Gnostic church" in Paris about the year 1890, and is
moreover not unknown as a Masonic orator, and in the world of
belles-lettres. M. Papus, with the generosity of a mystic, can only
speak well of the pious enthusiast who has betrayed his cause and
scandalised the school he represents; he explains that Jules Doinel is a
marvellous poet deficient in the scientific culture which might have
enabled him to explain in a peaceable fashion the phenomena squandered
upon him by the world invisible, so that there were only two courses
open for him--renunciation of the transcendental path, or madness. "Let
us bless heaven that the patriarch of the Gnosis has selected the
former." It is possibly showing gratitude for small mercies, because our
friend has saved his reason, but is blood-guilty in the matter of
common sense. Meanwhile, the widowed Gnosis illuminates its Ichabod in
the cryptic _quartiers_ of Paris, Lyons, and so forth.
Every one may agree with M. Papus that Jean Kostka is a very pretty
writer in a quiet and shallow way, but, with possibly one exception, he
must have withheld the flower of his phenomena in the order of the
spirit, for his book is full of sentimental and vapid experiences of the
school-miss order, while over the light and spongy soil he has now set
the ponderous paving-stones of his new explanation, and toils forward on
the road of unreason.
This apart, Jean Kostka, was evidently for many years familiar with the
centres and workings of all the cross lights of esoteric thought which
meet and interlace in the night of French common thought. He has dwelt
among Gnostics, Martinists, Modern Albigenses, and Spiritualists; he
appears to have been identified with all, and though he does not accuse
himself of the capital offence of conscious Satanism, he has been quite
well acquainted with Satanism, and, next best to seeing the devil one's
self, he has known many who have. In those days, he tells us, that
Lucifer could be visited _chez lui_ in an earthly tabernacle, situated
in an unfrequented street, from whence the _lointain bruissement du
Paris nocturne_ might be heard by the pensive traveller if he were not
too intent on diabolising. Now, he has found out that Lucifer was _chez
lui_ everywhere. _Je vise Satan et ses dogmes._ All his psychic
faculties have concentrated into a transcendental apparatus for scenting
devildom, and he mournfully comes forward to tell us, with a variation
of Fludd's utterance; _Diabolus, in quam, diabolus ubique repertus est,
et omnia diabolus et diabolus._ "Let it suffice to say that the
demonologists have invented nothing and have exaggerated nothing." To
the spiritualists Lucifer is John King and Allan Kardec; to the
Gnostics, he is the Gnosis, Simon Magus, Helen Ennoia, and anything that
comes handy from the Nile valley in the fourth century; to the
Martinists, he is the _philosophe inconnu_; to the Albigenses, if there
are Parisian Albigenses, he is whatever Albigenses invoke, if they
invoke anything; to Madame X., he is Mary Stuart; to his own adepts,
within sound of the _lointain bruissement_, he is a _jeune homme blond
aux yeux bleus_, whom I understand to have worn a dalmatic, and to have
been curiously indebted to the author of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_; for
the Theosophists, he is that "illustrious demoniac," Madame
Blawatsky--his innate delicacy leads him to the permutation of the
Typhon V.; and then Freemasonry--it goes without saying that the little
horn of Lucifer has displaced all other horns in all the grades and
lodges, that the fraternity is his throne and his footstool, and the
city of the great king.
If we button-hole Jean Kostka, and ask him to tell us confidentially and
upon honour what it is that has changed his views, making him discover
the leer of Baal-Zeboub where he once saw the smile of the spiritual
Eos, he turns Trappist at once, and goes into retreat with M. Huysman;
there is not a syllable of information in all his _beau volume_ as to
any intellectual process through which he passed on the way, and I
suspect that his conversion partook of the nature of a "penetration," to
speak his own language, and was not an intellectual operation, but a
sudden _volte face_. Jean Kostka has changed his _pinces-nez_, and that
is the whole secret:--
"The reason why I cannot tell,
But now I hold it comes from hell."
Here is the proof positive; he has nothing in the shape of an
accusation; he gets his Lucifer-interpretation out of everything with
which he has cut off correspondence by a very simple and civil process
of instillation. "I sense it"; _je vise Lucifer._ Thus, the Order of the
Knights of Perfect Silence invite their initiates to become architects
of the Holy City. Jean Kostka, in possession of the latest tip, says,
"read Hell." The Martinists are concerned with the creation of Adam
Kadmon, the ideal humanity. Jean Kostka tells you that they are
concerned with nothing of the sort, and that Satan is the only person
who can really put us up to the secret, which is curious because he
immediately advises us himself that the exercise of the three cardinal
virtues to the profit of Lucifer is the sum of the whole mystery and the
real _sous-entendu_ of Martinism. The Masonic grades from Apprentice,
Companion, Master, through Knight Rose-Cross to Knight Kadosch, and so
forward, are exploited after the same manner by the baldest of
processes, that of inverting everything. For example, the sacred word of
the 33rd degree in the French Rite, namely, Sovereign Grand Inspector
General, is _Deus meumque Jus_. That signifies, says Jean Kostka, that
"Lucifer is the sole God and that the material, like the spiritual,
world of right belongs to him." If you inquire the process of extraction
by which he gets that result, he answers: "I must admit that I have had
only a general intuition, but I assure you that it is immense," and he
will immediately cite you a password, invite you to take every letter
individually, and fit to it just that word which, by another intuition,
he perceives belongs to it, when you will see for yourself. Thus, the
Kadosch term _Nekam_, which signifies vengeance, having been duly
anatomised, will come out as follows:--N (ex) E (xterminatio) K (risti)
A (dversarii) M (agni), to wit: "Death, Extermination of Christ, the
Great Enemy." Wicked and wily Jean Kostka to outrage the decencies of
orthography and against all reason write the name of the Liberator with
a K, thereby concealing the true meaning, which revealed for the first
time is as follows:--N (equaquam) E (ritis) K (ostka) A (rtium)
M (agister), which being interpreted still further, signifies that
there was never such a clumsy device!
Now, it goes without saying that a writer with these methods is not to
be taken seriously, but it is worth while to appreciate the quality of
intelligence which is received with acclamation by the Catholic Church
in France as soon as it comes over from the enemy. "Lucifer Unmasked"
appeared originally in the pages of the newspaper _La Vérité_. It was
immediately reproduced in Spanish by the _Union Catolica_; the clerical
press boomed full-mouthed salvos in its honour, and his Eminence
Cardinal Parocchi has blessed book or author, or both, and believes that
it will make a great impression, "undoubtedly contributing to enlighten
minds and lead them back to God."
Jean Kostka, as already indicated, is a spiritual sentimentalist; he
has passed by a rapid transition common to such natures from the Gnostic
transcendental initiate to the pious Catholic devotee, and he will make
an excellent Lourdes pilgrim. As there will be no need to recur to him
again, it will be permissible to justify my criticism by some account of
his personal experiences. M. Papus speaks of him as the founder and
patriarch of the Gnostic Church. Of this same patriarch and primate Jean
Kostka also speaks as of another person, recites the facts of his
conversion, and hopes he will do better work for the Church of God than
he has done for Lucifer. Which is Dr Jekyll and which Mr Hyde in this
duadic personality is not of serious consequence, as they have both got
into a better way of thinking and acting. Now, since his demission from
these high functions, Jean Kostka has found that the chief piece of
Gnostic devilry is in denying that the lost angels are eternally damned.
On this point he has attained what is rare in him, a touch of personal
animosity. To supply the antipodes of heaven, let us say, with a lethal
chamber, as a meaner order than that of theological charity does here,
in the interests of homeless and snappy dogs, would, in his present
state of grace, seem a very wicked proposition. Well, in 1890 Jean
Kostka was invited, as I understand, by the chief of the Gnostic Church,
that is, by himself, to a chapel in the palace of a lady who figures
frequently in his pages under the name of Madame X.; the author takes
great credit for concealing her real titles, but he has failed to
conceal her identity, and there can be no harm in saying that the
reference is to Lady Caithness. He was present upon serious business, in
fact, nothing short of assisting at a séance. A medium had been secured,
the proceedings began, rappings became audible, an intelligence desired
to communicate, and, finally, there was a message, with a name given. It
was Luciabel, "whom you know as Lucifer." To this day Jean Kostka does
not seem conscious of any element of idiocy in the variation of the
old-fashioned name. In the revelation which followed, the intelligence,
who seemed amiably disposed despite his sinister connections, informed
the circle that, like Jesus, he was engendered eternally from God, that
he was exiled from the pleroma, and that he was the Sophia-Achamoth of
Valentine, the Helena-Ennoia of Simon Magus, the thought of God which
had become anathema, and that he was now in search of love and
consolation, both of which might take shape in a Gnostic church, and
would be highly acceptable. There is, so to speak, a commercial element
in the overtures which dries up the feeling of pity, or one might be
exceedingly sorry for this lost chord of eternal thought, hoping
charitably that we should still somehow hear it in heaven.
Since his conversion the unpretentious marvel of this séance has been a
dire trouble to Jean Kostka, partly on account of its eschatology, but
still more because the sitters were conscious at its close of a breath
passing over their faces, while he himself felt the presence of lips
against his own. Poor Jean Kostka! They were all abased on their knees,
which happens occasionally, even at séances, to pious people in Paris,
and he concludes that he was kissed by Helena-Ennoia, _alias_ Lucifer,
_alias_ Luciabel, who is also described on the charge-sheet of orthodox
theology by other and more objectionable titles. The shameful memory
causes him to exclaim fervently:--"May he who purged the lips of Isaiah
with a burning coal deign to purify mine by the sacred kiss of penitence
and pardon: _in osculo sancto_." There is a touch of sublimity in that,
and the _basia_ of Baal-Zeboub may well enough be more demoralising than
those of Secundus. At the time, however, he founded the Gnostic Church.
We become acquainted with ghosts after various manners, according to
our psychic condition. There is the spontaneous and accidental ghost who
is seldom caught in the act; there is the able-bodied materialised ghost
whom we catch in the act occasionally, and preserve our mental balance
by clinging to his watch-chain and seals; they may be distinguished as
the timeless ghost and the ghost who occasionally does time. Over and
above these two generic specimens there is the ghost that throws, who is
separable from the ghost that _hurls_, as our French friends put it. To
hurl is to utter objectionable and unreasonable yells, preferably in the
dead of night and in lonely places. This ghost is much sought after by
specialists. It would be tedious to name all the varieties, but I can
guarantee the unequipped that all known specimens have been carefully
labelled, except possibly the odorous ghost, the ghost, that is to say,
who manifests exclusively to the olfactory organ. This is an exceedingly
withdrawn inappreciable kind, but it is familiar to Jean Kostka, who is
a connoisseur in the smell supernatural, and has a trained psychic nose.
He can distinguish between the spiritual perfume which characterises,
let us say, St Stanislaus and the _odorem suavitatis_ of Lucifer. He is
also an authority on conditions, and gives a ravishing description of
the voluptuous enervation diffused over all his limbs when he had a
private memorandum from Isis by means of raps during the reception of a
master in a blue lodge. On this occasion he tells us that he was
inspired to pronounce one of his most wicked and dangerous Masonic
discourses. Dear M. Kostka! Dynamite would lose its destroying power in
his harmless hands.
At another function--but this was in a red lodge--he was overwhelmed by
the presence of Lucifer, who elected and commissioned him to fight in
his cause. It was a moment of unwonted intelligence--these are his own
words--and he agreed, so incompetence chose its minister, and Frater
Diabolus again showed himself a short-sighted rogue, because has not his
emissary converted and passed over to the makers of pilgrimages? M.
Kostka also at this time was so wicked as to be guilty of a pact, but he
reserved two points, "the person of Christ and His mother." The
reservation of these sacraments is not specialised as to its kind, but,
_mon Dieu_, how distraught was Lucifer to be so palpably tricked by a
_trente-troisième_! Both these matters were, however, personal to the
seer, and the lodges, whether red or blue, seem to have been quite
unconscious that they had been entertaining divinity and demon unawares.
M. Kostka has, in fact, been distinguished from the common herd of
Masons by many favours of Lucifer, and he has naturally been ungrateful,
for which I admire M. Kostka.
In succeeding chapters he details at considerable length a variety of
hallucinations which he experienced on the subject of Helena-Ennoia, and
he has also had visions of Jansen, of a false Francis Xavier, a false
Christ, &c., but his most important experience was that which he terms
Penetration, commonly experienced in autumn seasons and during the mists
and mildness of October nights. On these occasions he was conscious of a
curious extension of personality by which he seemed to enter into all
Nature, and all Nature took voice and interpreted herself intelligibly
to him. After music came verbal communications, and then the apparition
of forms, chiefly of classical mythology. Most people would have termed
this poetic rapture passing into lucidity, but our friend avers that it
is the Enemy.
Such have been the experiences and adventures of Jean Kostka in the
psychic world, and they are of precisely the same calibre as his
critical method. I may say, in conclusion, that, if spared, he will do
better in his next book, for he promises another, which is to exhibit in
a convincing manner how Lucifer has been vanquished by Joan of Arc. In
the meantime we may part from him with due recognition of his absolute
good faith and extreme amiability; we may congratulate him on his
conversion, and still more upon the very pleasant reading he provides;
he does not appear to have unmasked Lucifer, but he has let us into the
secret of the best that can be done in that way.
Lastly, the point to be marked in connection with the memoirs and
revelations of Jean Kostka is this, that neither in Paris nor elsewhere,
neither in Masonry nor in other secret associations, concerning which he
has had every opportunity to judge, has he come personally into contact
with a cultus of Satan or Lucifer; that he chooses to term certain
mystical opinions and practices diabolical, because they are condemned
by the Latin Church, is a matter which is perfectly indifferent and
exhibits only the forlorn position of a case which resorts to the
expedient. But it is highly significant that a man who has mixed among
mystics of all grades for probably thirty years, who is affiliated to
innumerable orders, and in his present mood would be glad to expose
everything, has nothing to tell us of the Palladium, though he dwelt at
its gates, and the circles he frequented were at a stone's cast from the
alleged Mother-Lodge Lotus of Paris.