Searchable Theosophical Texts
Theosophy House
A Modern Panarion
A Collection of Fugitive Fragments
From the Pen of
H P Blavatsky
First Published 1895
The
Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
The Eddy Manifestations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Dr. Beard Criticized . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Lack of Unity among
Spiritualists . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Holmes Controversy. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Holmes Controversy
(continued) . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Notice to Mediums. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .35
A Rebuke . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .36
Occultism or Magic. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 38
Spiritualistic Tricksters . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Search after Occultism . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Science of Magic . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .55
An Unsolved Mystery . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 63
Spiritualism in
Spiritualism and
Spiritualists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
What is Occultism? . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .78
A Warning to Mediums. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 82
(New)
Huxley and Shade. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .88
Can the Double Murder . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Fakirs and Tables . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .103
A Protest . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 107
The Fate of the Occultist . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Buddhism in
Russian Atrocities . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Washing the Disciples’ Feet. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Trickery or Magic ? . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .121
The Jews in
H. P. Blavatsky’s Masonic
Patent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Views of the Theosophists . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 132
A Society without a Dogma. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Elementaries . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 146
Kabalistic Views of ‘‘Spirits”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
The Knout. As Wielded by the
Great Russian Theosophist. Mr. Coleman’s
First Appearance. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 158
iv Contents
Page
Indian Metaphysics . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 163
“H. M.’’ and the Todas. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
The Todas . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 174
The Ahkoond of Swat. The
Founder of Many Mystical Societies . . . . . 179
The Ærya Samàj . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .184
Parting Words . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .188
‘Not a Christian”! . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The Retort Courteous . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
‘‘Scrutator Again’’ . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
A Republican Citizen . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
The Theosophists and their
Opponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Echoes from
Missionaries Militant . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
The History of a “Book” . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
A French View of Women’s
Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Occult Phenomena . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Hindu Widow-Marriage . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
“Oppressed Widowhood” in
‘‘Esoteric Buddhism’’ and its
Critic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Mr. A. Lillie’s Delusions . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
What is Theosophy? . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
What are the Theosophists? . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Antiquity of the Vedas . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Persian Zoroastrianism and
Russian Vandalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Cross and Fire . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
War in
A
Which First—the Egg or the
Bird?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
The Pralaya of Modern Science.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
The Yoga Philosophy . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
A Year of Theosophy . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .348
“A Word with Our Friends”. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353
Questions Answered about Yoga
Vidyâ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .357
The Missing Link . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Hypnotism . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
The Leaven of Theosophy. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Count St. Germain . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Lamas and Druses. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .375
A Reply to Our Critics. Our
Final Answer to Several Objections. . . . . . . . 387
‘‘The Claims of Occultism’’. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
A Note on Eliphas Levi. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398
The Six-Pointed and
Five-Pointed Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401
The Grand Inquisitor . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
The Bright Spot of Light . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
v contents
Page
“Is it Idle to Argue
Further?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Fragments of Occult Truth. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Notes on some Aryan-Arhat
Esoteric Tenets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
The Thoughts of the Dead . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Dreamland and Somnambulism . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Are Dreams but Idle Visions? .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Spiritualism and Occult Truth
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .490
Reincarnation in
PREFACE
THE title A Modern Panarion
has been taken from the controversial Panarion of the Church Father Epiphanius
in which he attacked the various sects and heresies of the first four centuries
of the Christian era. The Panarion was so called as being a “basket” of scraps
and fragments. We are told that this Panarion was “a kind of medicine chest, in
which he had collected means of healing against the poisonous bite of the
heretical serpent.”
A Modern Panarion is of a like
nature with the intent of the Christian Father; only in the nineteenth century,
heresy has in many instances become orthodoxy, and orthodoxy heresy, and the
Panarion of H. P. Blavatsky is intended as a means of healing against the
errors of ecclesiasticism, dogma and bigotry, and the blind negation of
materialism and pseudo-science.
EDITORS.
THE H. P. B. MEMORIAL FUND
In 1891 the following
resolutions were passed by all the Sections of the Theosophical Society :—
Resolved:
1. That the most fitting and
permanent memorial of H. P. B.’s life and work would be the production and
publication of such papers, books and translations as will tend to promote that
intimate union between the life and thought of the Orient and the Occident to
the bringing about of which her life was devoted.
2. That an “H. P. B. Memorial
Fund” be instituted for this purpose, to which all those who feel gratitude or
admiration towards H. P. B. for her work, both within and without the T. S.,
are earnestly invited to contribute as their means may allow.
3. That the President of the
Theosophical Society, together with the General Secretaries of all Sections of
the same, constitute the Committee of Management of this Fund.
4. That the Presidents of
Lodges in each Section be a Committee to collect and forward to the General
Secretary of their respective Sections the necessary funds for this purpose.
THE EDDY MANIFESTATIONS
—————
[ The following letter was
addressed to a contemporary journal by Mine. Blavatsky, and was handed to us
for publication in The Daily Graphic, as we have been taking the lead in the
discussion of the curious subject of Spiritualism.—EDIT0R “DAILY GRAPHIC.”]
AWARE in the past of your love
of justice and fair play, I most earnestly solicit the use of your columns to
reply to an article by Dr. G. M. Beard in relation to the Eddy family in
I do not know Dr. Beard
personally, nor do I care to know how far he is entitled to wear the laurels of
his profession as an M.D., but what I do know is that he may never hope to
equal, much less to surpass, such men and savants as Crookes, Wallace, or even
Flammarion, the French astronomer, all of whom have devoted years to the
investigation of Spiritualism. All of them came to the conclusion that, supposing
even the well-known phenomenon of the materialization of spirits did not prove
the identity of the persons whom they purported to represent, it was not, at
all events, the work of mortal hands; still less was it a fraud.
Now to the Eddys. Dozens of
visitors have remained there for weeks and even for months; not a single séance
has taken place with out some of them realizing the personal presence of a
friend, a relative, a mother, father, or dear departed child. But lo! here
comes Dr. Beard, stops less than two days, applies his powerful electrical
battery, under which the spirit does not even wink or flinch, closely examines
the
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cabinet (in which he finds
nothing), and then turns his back and declares most emphatically “that he
wishes it to be perfectly under-stood that if his scientific name ever appears
in connection with the Eddy family, it must be only to expose them as the
greatest frauds who cannot do even good trickery.” Consummatum est!
Spiritualism is defunct. Requiescat in Pace! Dr. Beard has killed it with one
word. Scatter ashes over your venerable but silly heads, 0 Crookes, Wallace and
Varley! Henceforth you must be considered as demented, psychologized lunatics,
and so must it be with the many thousands of Spiritualists who have seen and
talked with their friends and relatives departed, recognizing them at Moravia,
at the Eddys’, and elsewhere throughout the length and breadth of this continent.
But is there no escape from the horns of this dilemma? Yea verily, Dr. Beard
writes thus: “When your correspondent returns to
To this I reply, backed as I
am by the testimony of hundreds of reliable witnesses, that all the wardrobe of
Niblo’s Theatre would not suffice to attire the numbers of “spirits” that
emerge night after night from an empty little closet.
Let Dr. Beard rise and explain
the following fact if he can: I remained fourteen days at the Eddys’. In that
short period of time I saw and recognized fully, out of 119 apparitions, seven
“spirits.” I admit that I was the only one to recognize them, the rest of the audience
not having been with me in my numerous travels throughout the East, but their
various dresses and costumes were plainly seen and closely examined by all.
The first was a Georgian boy,
dressed in the historical Caucasian attire, the picture of whom will shortly
appear in The Daily Graphic. I recognized and questioned him in Georgian upon
circumstances known only to myself. I was understood and answered. Requested by
me in
3 ———————————————————THE EDDY MANIFESTATIONS.
his mother tongue (upon the
whispered suggestion of Colonel Olcott) to play the Lezguinka, a Circassian
dance, he did so immediately upon the guitar.
Second—A little old man
appears. He is dressed as Persian merchants generally are. His dress is perfect
as a national costume. Everything is in its right place, down to the
“babouches” that are off his feet, he stepping out in his stockings. He speaks
his name in a loud whisper. It is “Hassan Aga,” an old man whom I and my family
have known for twenty years at Tiflis. He says, half in Georgian and half in
Persian, that he has got a “big secret to tell me,” and comes at three
different times, vainly seeking to finish his sentence.
Third—A man of gigantic
stature comes forth, dressed in the picturesque attire of the warriors of
Fourth—A Circassian comes out.
I can imagine myself at
Fifth—Au old woman appears
with Russian headgear. She comes out and addresses me in Russian, calling me by
an endearing term that she used in my childhood. I recognize an old servant of
my family, a nurse of my sister.
Sixth—A large powerful negro
next appears on the platform. His head is ornamented with a wonderful coiffure
something like horns wound about with white and gold. His looks are familiar to
me, but I do not at first recollect where I have seen him. Very soon he begins
to make some vivacious gestures, and his mimicry helps me to recognize him at a
glance. It is a conjurer from
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Seventh and last—A large,
grey-haired gentleman comes out attired in the conventional suit of black. The
Russian decoration of
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
I2
DR. BEARD CRITICIZED
—————
As Dr. Beard has scorned (in
his scientific grandeur) to answer the challenge sent to him by your humble
servant in the number of The Daily Graphic for the 13th* of October last, and
has preferred instructing the public in general rather than one “credulous
fool” in particular, let her come from Circassia or Africa, I fully trust you
will permit me to use your paper once more in order that by pointing out some
very spicy peculiarities of this amazingly scientific exposure, the public
might better judge at whose door the aforesaid elegant epithet could be most
appropriately laid.
For a week or so an immense
excitement, a thrill of sacrilegious fear, if I may be allowed this expression,
ran through the psychologized frames of the Spiritualists of New York. It was
rumoured in ominous whispers that G. Beard, M.D., the Tyndall of America, was
coming out with his peremptory exposure of the Eddys’ ghosts and—the
Spiritualists trembled for their gods!
The dreaded day has come, the
number of The Daily Graphic for November the 9th is before us. We have read it
carefully, with respectful awe, for true science has always been an authority
for us (weak- minded fool though we may be), and so we handled the dangerous
exposure with a feeling somewhat akin to that of a fanatic Christian opening a
volume of Büchner. We perused it to the last: we turned the page over and over
again, vainly straining our eyes and brains to detect therein one word of
scientific proof or a solitary atom of over whelming evidence that would thrust
into our Spiritualistic bosom the venomous fangs of doubt. But no, not a
particle of reasonable explanation or of scientific evidence that what we have
all seen, heard and felt at the Eddys’ was but delusion. In our feminine
modesty, still allowing the said article the benefit of the doubt, we
disbelieved our
—————
* This appears to be a
misprint, unless the challenge had been made on the 13th, and was Only repeated
in the letter of Oct. 2 —Eds.
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own senses, and so devoted a
whole day to the picking up of sundry bits of criticism from judges that we
believe more competent than ourselves, and at last came collectively to the
following conclusion:
The Daily Graphic has allowed
Dr. Beard in its magnanimity nine columns of its precious pages to prove—what?
Why, the following:
First, that he, Dr. Beard,
according to his own modest assertions (see columns second and third) is more
entitled to occupy the position of an actor intrusted with characters of
simpletons (Molière’s “Tartuffe” might fit him perhaps as naturally) than to
undertake the difficult part of a Prof. Faraday vis-à-vis the Chittenden D. D.
Home.
Secondly, that although the
learned doctor was “overwhelmed already with professional labours” (a nice and
cheap reclame, by the way) and scientific researches, he gave the latter
another direction, and so went to the Eddys. That, arrived there, he played
with Horatio Eddy, for the glory of science and the benefit of humanity, the
difficult character of a “dishevelled simpleton,” and was rewarded in his
scientific research by finding on the said suspicious premises a professor of
bumps “a poor harmless fool”! Galileo, of famous memory, when he detected the sun
in its involuntary imposture chuckled certainly less over his triumph than does
Dr. Beard over the discovery of this “poor fool” No. 1. Here we modestly
suggest that perhaps the learned doctor had no need to go as far as Chittenden
for that.
Further, the doctor,
forgetting entirely the wise motto, Non bis in idem, discovers and asserts
throughout the length of his article that all the past, present and future
generations of pilgrims to the “Eddy homestead” are collectively fools, and
that every solitary member of this numerous body of Spiritualistic pilgrims is
likewise “a weak- minded, credulous fool”! Query—the proof of it, if you
please, Dr. Beard? Answer—Dr. Beard has said so, and Echo responds, Fool!
Truly miraculous are thy
doings, indeed, 0 Mother Nature! The cow is black and its milk is white! But
then, you see, those ill-bred, ignorant Eddy brothers have allowed their
credulous guests to eat up all the “trout” caught by Dr. Beard and paid for by
him seventy-five cents per pound as a penalty; and that fact alone might have
turned him a little—how shall we say—sour, prejudiced? No, erroneous in his
statement, will answer better.
For erroneous he is, not to
say more. When, assuming an air of scientific authority, he affirms that the
séance-room is generally so dark
7 ————————————————————DR. BEARD CRITICIZED.
that one cannot recognize at
three feet distance his own mother, he says what is not true. When he tells us
further that he saw through a hole in one of the shawls and the space between
them all the manœuvres of Horatio’s arm, he risks finding himself contradicted
by thousands who, weak-minded though they may be, are not blind for all that,
neither are they confederates of the Eddys, but far more reliable wit nesses in
their simple-minded honesty than Dr. Beard is in his would-be scientific and
unscrupulous testimony. The same when he says that no one is allowed to
approach the spirits nearer than twelve feet dis tance, still less to touch
them, except the “two simple-minded ignorant idiots” who generally sit on both
ends of the platform. To my knowledge many other persons have sat there besides
those two.
Dr. Beard ought to know this
better than anyone else, as he has sat there himself. A sad story is in
circulation, by the way, at the Eddys’. The records of the spiritual séances at
Chittenden have devoted a whole page to the account of a terrible danger that
threatened for a moment to deprive
It becomes evident that the
said neglected logic was keeping company at the time with old mother Truth at
the bottom of her well, neither of them being wanted by Dr. Beard. I myself
have sat upon the upper step of the platform for fourteen nights by the side of
Mrs. Cleveland. I got up every time “Honto” approached me to within an inch of
my face in order to see her the better. I have touched her
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hands repeatedly as other
spirits have been touched, and even embraced her nearly every night.
Therefore, when I read Dr.
Beard’s preposterous and cool assertion that “a very low order of genius is
required to obtain command of a few words in different languages and so to
mutter them to credulous Spiritualists,” I feel every right in the world to say
in my turn that such a scientific exposure as Dr. Beard has come out with in
his article does not require any genius at all; per contra, it requires a
ridiculous faith on the part of the writer in his own infallibility, as well as
a positive confidence in finding in all his readers what he elegantly terms
“weak- minded fools.” Every word of his statement, when it is not a most
evident untruth, is a wicked and malicious insinuation built on the very
equivocal authority of one witness against the evidence of thousands.
Says Dr Beard, “I have proved
that the life of the Eddys is one long lie, the details need no further
discussion.” The writer of the above lines forgets, by saying these imprudent
words, that some people might think that “like attracts like.” He went to
Chittenden with deceit in his heart and falsehood on his lips, and so judging
his neighbour by the character he assumed himself, he takes everyone for a
knave when he does not put him down as a fool. Declaring so positively that he
has proved it, the doctor forgets one trifling circumstance, namely, that he
has proved nothing whatever.
Where are his boasted proofs?
When we contradict him by saying that the séance-room is far from being as dark
as he pretends it to be, and that the spirits themselves have repeatedly called
out through Mrs. Eaton’s voice for more light, we only say what we can prove
before any jury. When Dr. Beard says that all the spirits are personated by W.
Eddy, he advances what would prove to be a greater conundrum for solution than
the apparition of spirits themselves. There he falls right away into the domain
of Cagliostro: for if Dr. B. has seen five or six spirits in all, other
persons, myself included, have seen one hundred and nineteen in less than a
fortnight, nearly all of whom were differently dressed. Besides, the accusation
of Dr. Beard implies the idea to the public that the artist of The Daily
Graphic who made the sketches of so many of those apparitions, and who is not a
“credulous Spiritualist” himself, is likewise a humbug, propagating to the
world what he did not see, and so spreading at large the most preposterous and
outrageous lie.
When the learned doctor will
have explained to us how any man in
9 ————————————————————DR. BEARD CRITICIZED.
his shirt-sleeves and a pair
of tight pants for an attire can possibly conceal on his person (the cabinet
having been previously found empty) a whole bundle of clothes, women’s robes,
hats, caps, head-gears, and entire stilts of evening dress, white waistcoats
and neckties included, then he will be entitled to more belief than he is at
present. That would be a proof indeed, for, with all due respect to his
scientific mind, Dr. Beard is not the first Œdipus that has thought of catching
the Sphinx by its tail and so unriddling the mystery. We have known more than
one “weak-minded fool,” ourselves included, that has lahoured under a similar
delusion for more than one night, but all of us were finally obliged to repeat
the words of the great Galileo, “E pur, se muove!” and give it up.
But Dr. Beard does not give it
up. Preferring to keep a scornful silence as to any reasonable explanation, he
hides the secret of the above mystery in the depths of his profoundly
scientific mind. “His life is given to scientific researches,” you see; “his
physiological knowledge and neuro-physiological learning are immense,” for he
says so, and skilled as he is in combating fraud by still greater fraud (see
column the eighth), spiritualistic humbug has no more mysteries for him. In
five minutes the scientist had done more towards science than all the rest of
the scientists put together have done in years of labour, and “would feel
ashamed if he had not.” (See same column.) In the overpowering modesty of his
learning he takes no credit to himself for having done so, though he has
discovered the astounding, novel fact of the “cold benumbing sensation.” How
Wallace, Crookes and Varley, the naturalist-anthropologist, the chemist and
electrician, will blush with envy in their old country!
A far wiser mind than Dr.
Beard (will he dispute the fact?) has suggested, centuries ago, that the tree
was to be judged according to its fruits. Spiritualism, notwithstanding the
desperate efforts of more scientific men than himself, has stood its ground
without flinching for more than a quarter of a century. Where are the fruits of
the tree of science that blossoms on the soil of Dr. Beard’s mind? If we are to
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judge of them by his article,
then verily the said tree needs more than usual care. As for the fruits, it
would appear that they are as yet in the realms of “sweet delusive hope.” But
then, perhaps the doctor was afraid to crush his readers under the weight’ of
his learning (true merit has been in all times modest and unassuming), and that
accounts for the learned doctor withholding from us any scientific proof of the
fraud that he pretends to be exposing, except the above-mentioned fact of the
“cold benumbing sensation.” But how Horatio can keep his hand and arm ice cold
under a warm shawl for half an hour at a time, in summer as well as in any
other season, and that without having some ice concealed about his person, or
how he can prevent it from thawing—all the above is a mystery that Dr. Beard doesn’t
reveal for the sent. Maybe he will tell us something of it in his book that he
advertises in the article. Well, we only hope that the former will be more
satisfactory than the latter.
I will add but a few words
before ending my debate with Dr. Beard for ever. All that he says about the
lamp concealed in a bandbox, the strong confederates, etc., exists only in his
imagination, for the mere sake of argument, we suppose. “False in one, false in
all,” says Dr. Beard in column the sixth. These words are a just verdict on his
own article.
Here I will briefly state what
I reluctantly withheld up to the present moment from the knowledge of all such
as Dr. Beard. The fact was too sacred in my eyes to allow it to be trifled with
in newspaper gossiping. But now, in order to settle the question at once, I
deem it my duty as a Spiritualist to surrender it to the opinion of the public.
On the last night that I spent
with the Eddys I was presented by Georgo Dix and Mayflower with a silver
decoration, the upper part of a medal with which I was but too familiar. I
quote the precise words of the spirit: “We bring you this decoration, for we
think you will value it more highly than anything else. You will recognize it,
for it is the badge of honour that was presented to your father by his
Government for the campaign of 1828, between
These words were spoken in the
presence of forty witnesses. Col. Olcott will describe the fact and give the
design of the decoration.
I have the said decoration in
my possession. I know it as having
11 ————————————————————DR. BEARD CRITICIZED.
belonged to my father. More, I
have identified it by a portion that, through carelessness, I broke myself many
years ago, and, to settle all doubt in relation to it, I possess the photograph
of my father (a picture that has never been at the Eddys’, and could never
possibly have been seen by any of them) on which this medal is plainly visible.
Query for Dr. Beard: How could
the Eddys know that my father was buried at Stavropol; that he was ever
presented with such a medal, or that he had been present and in actual service
at the time of the war of 1828?
Willing as we are to give
every one his due, we feel compelled to say on behalf of Dr. Beard that he has
not boasted of more than he can do, in advising the Eddys' to take a few
private lessons of him in the trickery of mediumship. The learned doctor must
be expert in such trickeries. We are likewise ready to admit that in saying as
he did that “his article would only confirm the more the Spiritualists in their
belief” (and he ought to have added, “convince no one else”), Dr. Beard has
proved himself to be a greater “prophetic medium” than any other in this
country!
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
23, Irving Place, New York
City,
November 10th, 1874
THE LACK OF UNITY AMONG
SPIRITUALISTS
—————
[ From a letter received from
Mme. Blavatsky last week we make the following extracts, want of space alone
preventing us from publishing it entire. It was written in her usual lively and
entertaining style, and her opinions expressed are worthy of careful study,
many of them being fully consistent with the true state of affairs.—EDIT0R
“SPIRITUAL SCIENTIST” (Dec. 3rd, 1874).]
As it is, I have only done my
duty; first, towards Spiritualism, that I have defended as well as I could from
the attacks of imposture under its too transparent mask of science; then
towards two helpless slandered “mediums”—the last word becoming fast in our
days the synonym of “martyr”; secondly, I have contributed my mite towards
opening the eyes of an indifferent public to the real, intrinsic value of such
a man as Dr. Beard. But I am obliged to confess that I really do not believe
that I have done any good—at least, any practical good—to Spiritualism itself;
and I never hope to perform such a feat as that were I to keep on for an
eternity bombarding all the newspapers of America with my challenges and
refutations of the lies told by the so-called “scientific exposers.”
It is with a profound sadness
in my heart that I acknowledge this fact, for I begin to think there is no help
for it. For over fifteen years have I fought my battle for the blessed truth; I
have travelled and preached it—though I never was born for a lecturer—from the
snow- covered tops of the Caucasian Mountains, as well as from the sandy
valleys of the Nile. I have proved the truth of it practically and by
persuasion. For the sake of Spiritualism I have left my home, an easy life
amongst a civilized society, and have become a wanderer upon the face of this
earth. I had already seen my hopes realized, beyond the most sanguine
expectations, when, in my restless desire for more knowledge, my unlucky star
brought me to America.
Knowing this country to be the
cradle of modern Spiritualism, I
13 ———————————————THE LACK OF UNITY AMONG SPIRITUALISTS.
came over here from France
with feelings not unlike those of a Mohammedan approaching the birthplace of
his prophet. I had for gotten that “no prophet is without honour save in his
own country.” In the less than fourteen months that I am here, sad experience
has but too well sustain the never-dying evidence of this immortal truth.
What little I have done
towards defending phenomena I am ever ready to do over and over again, as long
as I have a breath of life left in me. But what good will it ever do? We have a
popular and wise Russian saying that “one Cossack on the battle-field is no
warrior.” Such is my case, together with that of many other poor, struggling
wretches, everyone of whom, like a solitary scout, sent far ahead in advance of
the army, has to fight his own battle, and defend the post entrusted to him,
unaided by anyone but himself. There is no union between Spiritualists, no
entante cordiale, as the French say. Judge Edmonds said, some years ago, that
they numbered in their ranks over eleven millions in this country alone; and I
believe it to be true; in which case, it is but to be the more deplored. When
one man—as Dr. Beard did and will do yet—dares to defy such a formidable body
as that, there must be some cause for it. His insults, gross and vulgar as they
are, are too fearless to leave one particle of doubt that if he does it, it is
but because he knows too well that he can do so with impunity and perfect ease.
Year after year the American Spiritualists have allowed themselves to be
ridiculed and slighted by everyone who had a mind to do so, protesting so
feebly as to give their opponents the most erroneous idea of their weakness. Am
I wrong, then, in saying that our Spiritualists are more to be blamed than Dr.
Beard himself in all this ridiculous polemic? Moral cowardice breeds more contempt
than the “familiarity” of the old motto. How can we expect such a scientific
sleight-of-hand as he is to respect a body that does not respect itself?
My humble opinion is, that the
majority of our Spiritualists are too much afraid for their “respectability”
when called upon to confess and acknowledge their “belief.” Will you agree with
me, if I say that the dread of the social Areopagus is so deeply rooted in the
hearts of your American people, that to endeavour to tear it out of them would
be undertaking to shake the whole system of society from top to bottom?
“Respectability” and “fashion” have brought more than one utter materialist to
select (for mere show) the Episcopalian and other wealthy churches. But
Spiritualism is not “fashionable,” as yet, and that’s
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where the trouble is.
Notwithstanding its immense and daily increasing numbers, it has not won, till
now, the right of citizenship. Its chief leaders are not clothed in gold and
purple and fine raiment; for, not unlike Christianity in the beginning of its
era, Spiritualism numbers in its ranks more of the humble and afflicted ones,
than of the powerful and wealthy of this earth. Spiritualists belonging to the
latter class will seldom dare to step out in the arena of publicity and boldly
proclaim their belief in the face of the whole world; that hybrid monster,
called “public opinion,” is too much for them; and what does a Dr. Beard care
for the opinion of the poor and the humble ones? He knows but too well that his
insulting terms of “fools” and “weak minded idiots,” as his accusations of
credulousness, will never be applied to themselves by any of the proud castes
of modern “Pharisees”; Spiritualists as they know themselves to be, and have
perhaps been for years, if they deign to notice the insult at all, it will be
but to answer him as the cowardly apostle did before them, “Man, I tell thee, I
know him not!”
St. Peter was the only one of
the remaining eleven that denied his Christ thrice before the Pharisees; that
is just the reason why, of all the apostles, he is the most revered by the
Catholics, and has been selected to rule over the most wealthy as the most
proud, greedy and hypocritical of all the churches in Christendom. And so, half
Christians and half believers in the new dispensation, the majority of those
eleven millions of Spiritualists stand with one foot on the threshold of
Spiritualism, pressing firmly with the other one the steps leading to the
altars of their “fashionable” places of worship, ever ready to leap over under
the protection of the latter in hours of danger. They know that under the cover
of such immense “respectability” they are perfectly safe. Who would presume or
dare to accuse of “credulous stupidity’’ a member belonging to certain
‘‘fashionable congregations’’? Under the powerful and holy shade of any of
those “pillars of truth” every heinous crime is liable to become immediately
transformed into but a slight and petty deviation from strict Christian virtue.
Jupiter, for all his numberless “Don Juan” like frolics, was not the less on
that account considered by his worshippers as the “Father of Gods”!
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A MODERN PANARION
A FEW weeks ago, in a letter,
extracts from which have appeared in The Spiritual Scientist of December 3rd, I
alluded to the deplorable lack of accord between American Spiritualists, and
the consequences of the same. At that time I had just fought out my useless
battle with a foe who, though beneath my own personal notice, had insulted all
the Spiritualists of this country, as a body, in a caricature of a so-called
scientific exposé. In dealing with him I dealt with but one of the numerous
“bravos” enlisted in the army of the bitter opponents of belief; and my task
was, comparatively speaking, an easy one, if we take it for granted that
falsehood can hardly withstand truth, as the latter will ever speak for itself.
Since that day the scales have turned; prompted now, as then, by the same love
of justice and fair play, I feel compelled to throw down my glove once more in
our defence, seeing that so few of the adherents to the cause are bold enough
to accept that duty, and so many of them show the white feather of pusillanimity.
I indicated in my letter that
such a state of things, such a complete lack of harmony, and such cowardice, I
may add, among their ranks, subjected the Spiritualists and the cause to
constant attacks from a compact, aggressive public opinion, based upon
ignorance and wicked prejudice, intolerant, remorseless and thoroughly
dishonest in the employment of its methods. As a vast army, amply equipped, may
be cut to pieces by an inferior force well trained and handled, so
Spiritualism, numbering its hosts by millions, and able to vanquish every
reactionary theology by a little well-directed effort, is constantly harassed,
weakened, impeded, by the convergent attacks of pulpit and press, and by the
treachery and cowardice of its trusted leaders. It is one of these professed
leaders that I propose to question to-day, as closely as my rights, not only as
a widely known Kabalist but also as a resident of the United States, will allow
me. When I see the numbers of believers in this country, the broad basis of
their belief, the im-
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pregnability of their
position, and the talent that is embraced within their ranks, I am disgusted at
the spectacle that they manifest at this very moment, after the Katie King—how
shall we say—fraud? By no means, since the last word of this sensational comedy
is far from being spoken.
There is not a country on the
face of our planet, with a jury attached to its courts of justice, but gives
the benefit of the doubt to every criminal brought within the law, and affords
him a chance to be heard and tell his story.
Is such the case between the
pretended “spirit performer,” the alleged bogus Katie King, and the Holmes
mediums? I answer most decidedly no, and mean to prove it, if no one else does.
I deny the right of any man or
woman to wrench from our hands all possible means of finding out the truth. I
deny the right of any editor of a daily newspaper to accuse and publish
accusations, refusing at the same time to hear one word of justification from
the defendants, and so, instead of helping people to clear up the matter,
leaving them more than ever to grope their way in the dark.
The biography of “Katie King”
has come out at last; a sworn certificate, if you please, endorsed (under
oath?) by Dr. Child, who throughout the whole of this “burlesque” epilogue has
ever appeared in it, like some inevitable deus-ex-machinâ. The whole of this
made- up elegy (by whom? evidently not by Mrs. White) is redolent with the
perfume of erring innocence, of Magdalene-like tales of woe and sorrow, tardy
repentance and the like, giving us the abnormal idea of a pickpocket in the act
of robbing our soul of its most precious, thrilling sensations. The carefully-prepared
explanations on some points that appear now and then as so many
stumbling-blocks in the way of a seemingly fair exposé do not preclude,
nevertheless, through the whole of it, the possibility of doubt; for many
awkward semblances of truth, partly taken from the confessions of that fallen
angel, Mrs. White, and partly—most of them we should say—copied from the
private note-book of her “amanuensis,” give you a fair idea of the veracity of
this sworn certificate. For instance, according to her own statement and the
evidence furnished by the habitue’s of the Holmeses, Mrs. White having never
been present at any of the dark circles (her alleged acting as Katie King
excluding all possibility, on her part, of such a public exhibition of flesh
and bones), how comes she to know so well, in every particular, about the
tricks of the mediums, the pro-
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gramme of their performances,
etc.? Then, again, Mrs. White who remembers so well—by rote we may say—every
word exchanged between Katie King and Mr. Owen, the spirit and Dr. Child, has
evidently forgotten all that was ever said by her in her bogus personation to
Dr. Felger; she does not even remember a very important secret communicated by
her to the latter gentleman! What an extraordinary combination of, memory and
absence of mind at the same time. May not a certain memorandum-book, with its
carefully-noted contents, account for it, perhaps? The document is signed,
under oath, with the name of a non-existing spirit, Katie King. . . . Very
clever!
All protestations of innocence
or explanations sent in by Mr. or Mrs. Holmes, written or verbal, are
peremptorily refused publication by the press. No respectable paper dares takes
upon itself the responsibility of such an unpopular cause.
The public feel triumphant;
the clergy, forgetting in the excitement of their victory the Brooklyn scandal,
rub their hands and chuckle; a certain exposer of materialized spirits and
mind-reading, like some monstrous anti-spiritual mitrailleuse shoots forth a
volley of missiles, and sends a condoling letter to Mr. Owen; Spiritualists,
crestfallen, ridiculed and defeated, feel crushed for ever under the pretended
exposure and that overwhelming, pseudonymous evidence. . . . The day of
Waterloo has come for us, and sweeping away the last remnants of the defeated
army, it remains for us to ring our own death-knell.
Spirits, beware! henceforth,
if you lack prudence, your materialized forms will have to stop at the cabinet
doors, and in a perfect tremble melt away from sight, singing in chorus Edgar
Poe’s “Never more.” One would really suppose that the whole belief of the
Spiritualists hung at the girdles of the Holmeses, and that in case they should
be unmasked as tricksters, we might as well vote our phenomena an old woman’s
delusion.
Is the scraping off of a
barnacle the destruction of a ship? But, moreover, we are not sufficiently
furnished with any plausible proofs at all.
Colonel Olcott is here and has
begun investigations. His first tests with Mrs. Holmes alone, for Mr. Holmes is
lying sick at Vineland, have proved satisfactory enough, in his eyes, to induce
Mr. Owen to return to the spot of his first love, namely, the Holmeses’
cabinet. He began by tying Mrs. Holmes up in a bag, the string drawn tightly
round her neck, knotted and sealed in the presence of Mr. Owen, Col.
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A MODERN PANARION.
Olcott and a third gentleman.
After that the medium was placed in the empty cabinet, which was rolled away
into the middle of the room, and it was made a perfect impossibility for her to
use her hands. The door being closed, hands appeared in the aperture, then the
outlines of a face came, which gradually formed into the classical head of John
King, turban, beard and all. He kindly allowed the investigators to stroke his
beard, touch his warm face, and patted their hands with his. After the séance
was over, Mrs. Holmes, with many tears of gratitude in the presence of the
three gentlemen, assured Mr. Owen most solemnly that she had spoken many a time
to Dr. Child about “Katie” leaving her presents in the house and dropping them
about the place, and that she—Mrs. Holmes—wanted Mr. Owen to know it; but that
the doctor had given her most peremptory orders to the contrary, forbidding her
to let the former know it, his precise words being, “Don’t do it, it’s useless;
he must not know it I leave the question of Mrs. Holmes’ veracity as to this
fact for Dr. Child to settle with her.
On the other hand, we have
tile woman, Eliza White, exposer and accuser of the Holmeses, who remains up to
the present day a riddle and an Egyptian mystery to every man and woman of this
city, except to the clever and equally invisible party—a sort of protecting
deity— who took the team in hand, and drove the whole concern of “Katie’s”
materialization to destruction, in what he considered such a first-rate way.
She is not to be met, or seen, or interviewed, or even spoken to by anyone,
least of all by the ex-admirers of “Katie King” herself, so anxious to get a
peep at the modest, blushing beauty who deemed her self worthy of personating
the fair spirit. Maybe it’s rather dangerous to allow them the chance of
comparing for themselves the features of both? But the most perplexing fact of
this most perplexing imbroglio is that Mr. R. D. Owen, by his Own confession to
me, has never, not even on the day of the exposure, seen Mrs. White, or talked
to her, or had other wise the least chance to scan her features close enough
for him to identify her. He caught a glimpse of her general outline but once,
viz., at the mock séance of Dec. 5th referred to in her biography, when she
appeared to half a dozen of witnesses (invited to testify and identify the
fraud) emerging de nova from the cabinet, with her face closely covered with a
double veil (!) after which the sweet vision vanished and appeared no more. Mr.
Owen adds that he is not prepared to swear to the identity of Mrs. White and
Katie King.
May I he allowed to enquire as
to the necessity of such a profound
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mystery, after the promise of
a public exposure of all the fraud? It seems to me that the said exposure would
have been far more satisfactory if conducted otherwise. Why not give the
fairest chance to R. D. Owen, the party who has suffered the most on account of
this disgusting swindle—if swindle there is—to compare Mrs. White with his Katie?
May I suggest again that it is perhaps because the spirit’s features are but
too well impressed on his memory, poor, noble, confiding gentleman. Gauze
dresses and moonshine, coronets and stars can possibly be counterfeited in a
half-darkened room, while features, answering line for line to the “spirit
Katie’s” face, are not so easily made up; the latter require very clever
preparations. A lie may be easy enough for a smooth tongue, but no pug nose can
lie itself into a classical one.
A very honourable gentleman of
my acquaintance, a fervent admirer of the “spirit Katie’s” beauty, who has seen
and addressed her at two feet distance about fifty times, tells me that on a
certain evening, when Dr. Child begged the spirit to let him see her tongue
(did the honour-able doctor want to compare it with Mrs. White’s tongue—the
lady having been his patient?), she did so, and upon her opening her mouth, the
gentleman in question assures me that he plainly saw, what in his admiring
phraseology he terms “the most beautiful set of teeth—two rows of pearls.” He
remarked most particularly those teeth. Now there are some wicked, slandering
gossips, who happen to have cultivated most intimately Mrs. White’s
acquaintance in the happy days of her innocence, before her fall and subsequent
exposé and they tell us very bluntly (we beg the penitent angel’s pardon, we
repeat but a hear say) that this lady can hardly number among her other natural
charms the rare beauty of pearly teeth, or a perfect, most beautiful formed
hand and arm. Why not show her teeth at once to the said admirer, and so shame
the slanderers? Why shun “Katie’s” best friends? If we were so anxious as she
seems to be to prove “who is who,” we would surely submit with pleasure to the
operation of showing our teeth, yea, even in a court of justice. The above
fact, trifling as it may seem at first sight, would be considered as a very
important one by any intelligent juryman in a question of personal
identification.
Mr. Owen's statement to us,
corroborated by “Katie King” herself in her biography, a sworn document,
remember, is in the following words:
“She consented to have an
interview with some gentlemen who had seen her personating the spirit, on
condition that she would be allowed to
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A MODERN PANARION.
keep a veil over her face all
the time she was conversing with them.” (
Now pray why should these “too
credulous weak-minded gentle men,” as the immortal Dr. Beard would say, he
subjected again to such an extra strain on their blind faith? We should say
that that was just the proper time to come out and prove to them what was the
nature of the mental aberration they were labouring under for so many months.
Well, if they do swallow this new veiled proof they are welcome to it.
Vulgus vult decipi decipiatur!
But I expect something more substantial before submitting in guilty silence to
be laughed at. As it is, the case stands thus:
According to the same
biography (same column) the mock séance was prepared and carried out to
everyone’s heart’s content, through the endeavours of an amateur detective,
who, by the way, if any one wants to know, is a Mr. W. 0. Leslie. a contractor
or agent for the
On the evenings of Dec. 2nd
and 3rd at two séances held at the Holmeses’, I, myself, in the presence of
Robert Dale Owen and Dr. Child (chief manager of those performances, from whom
I got on the same morning an admission card), together with twenty more
witnesses, saw the spirit of Katie step out of the cabinet twice, in full form
and beauty, and I can swear in any court of justice that she did not bear the
least resemblance to Mrs. White’s portrait.
As I am unwilling to base my
argument upon any other testimony than my own, I will not dwell upon the
alleged apparition of Katie King at the Holmeses’ on Dec. 5th to Mr. Roberts
and fifteen others, among whom was Mr. W. H. Clarke, a reporter for The Daily
Graphic, for I happened to be out of town, though, if this fact is
demonstrated, it will go far against Mrs. White, for on that precise evening,
and at the same hour, she was exhibiting herself as the bogus Katie at the mock
séance. Something still more worthy of consideration is found in the
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most positive assertion of a
gentleman, a Mr. Wescott, who on that evening of the 5th on his way home from
the real séance, met in the car Mr. Owen, Dr. Child and his wife, all three
returning from the mock séance. Now it so happened that this gentleman
mentioned to them about having just seen the spirit Katie come out of the
cabinet, adding ‘‘he thought she never looked better” ; upon hearing which Mr.
Robert Dale Owen stared at him in amazement, and all the three looked greatly
perplexed.
And so I have but insisted on
the apparition of the spirit at the mediums’ house on the evenings Dec. 2nd and
3rd, when I witnessed the phenomenon, together with Robert Dale Owen and other
parties.
It would be worse than useless
to offer or accept the poor excuse that the confession of the woman White, her
exposure of the fraud, the delivery to Mr. Leslie of all her dresses and
presents received by her in the name of Katie King, the disclosure of the sad
news by this devoted gentleman to Mr. Owen, and the preparation of the mock
séance cabinet and other important matters, had all of them taken place on the
4th the more so, as we are furnished with most positive proofs that Dr. Child
at least, if not Mr. Owen. knew all about Mr. Leslie’s success with Mrs. White
several days beforehand. Knowing then of the fraud, how could Mr. Leslie allow
it to be still carried on, as the fact of Katie’s apparition at the Holmeses’
on Dec. 2nd and 3rd prove to have been the case? Any gentleman, even with a
very moderate degree of honour about him, would never allow the public to be
fooled and defrauded any longer, unless he had time firm resolution of catching
the bogus spirit on the spot and proving the imposition. But no such thing
occurred. Quite the contrary; for Dr. Child, who had constituted himself from
the first not only chief superintendent of the séances, cabinet and
materialization business, but also cashier and ticket-holder (paying the
mediums at first ten dollars per séance, as he did, and subsequently fifteen
dollars, and pocketing the rest of the proceeds), on that same evening of the
3rd took the admission money from every visitor as quietly as he ever did. I
will add, furthermore, that I, in propriâ personâ, handed him on that very
night a five—dollar bill, and that he (Dr. Child) kept the whole of it,
remarking that the balance could he made good to us by future séance.
Will Dr. Child presume to say
that getting ready, as he then was, in company with Mr. Leslie, to produce the
bogus Katie King on the 5th of December, he knew nothing, as yet, of the fraud
on the 3rd?
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Further; in the same biography
(chap. viii, column the 1st), it is stated that, immediately upon Mrs. White’s
return from Blissfield, Mich., she called on Dr. Child, and offered to expose
the whole humbug she had been engaged in, but that he would not listen to her.
Upon that occasion she was not veiled, as indeed there was no necessity for her
to be, since by Dr. Child’s own admission she had been a patient of his, and
under his medical treatment. In a letter from Holmes to Dr. Child, dated
Blissfield,
Mrs. White says you and the
friends were very rude, wanted to look into all our boxes and trunks and break
open locks. What were you looking for, or expecting to find?
All these several
circumstances show in the clearest possible manner that Dr. Child and Mrs.
White were on terms much more intimate then than that of casual acquaintance,
and it is the height of absurdity to assert that if Mrs. White and Katie King
were identical, the fraud was not perfectly well known to the “Father
Confessor” (see narrative of John and Katie King, p. 45). But a side light is
thrown upon this comedy from the pretended biography of John King and his
daughter Katie, written at their dictation in his own office by Dr. Child himself.
This book was given out to the world as an authentic revelation from these two
spirits. It tells us that they stepped in and stepped out of his office, day
after day, as any mortal being might, and after holding brief conversations,
followed by long narratives, they fully endorsed the genuineness of their own
apparition in the Holmeses’ cabinet. Moreover, the spirits appearing at the
public séances corroborated the statements which they made to their amanuensis
in his office; the two dovetailing together and making a consistent story. Now,
if the Holmeses’ Kings were Mrs. White, who were the spirits visiting the
doctor’s office? and if the spirits visiting him were genuine, who were those
that appeared at the public séances? In which particular has the “Father
Confessor” defrauded the public? In selling a book containing false biographies
or exposing bogus spirits at the Holmeses’? Which or both? Let the doctor
choose.
If his conscience is so tender
as to force him into print with his certificate and affidavits why does it not
sink deep enough to reach his pocket, and compel him to refund to us the money
obtained by him under false pretences? According to his own confession, the
Holmeses received from him, up to the time they left town, about $1,2OO, for
four months of daily séances. That he admitted every night as many visitors
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as he could possibly find room
for—sometimes as many as thirty-five— is a fact that will be corroborated by
every person who has seen the phenomena more than once. Furthermore, some six
or seven reliable witnesses have told us that the modest fee of $1 was only for
the habitués, too curious or over-anxious visitors having to pay sometimes as
much as $5, and in one instance $10. This last fact I give under all reserve,
not having had to pay so much as that myself.
Now let an impartial
investigator of this
Ladies and gentlemen of the
spiritual belief, methinks we are all of us between the horns of a very
wonderful dilemma. If you happen to find your position comfortable, I do not,
and so will try to extricate myself.
Let it be perfectly
understood, though, that I do not intend in the least to undertake at present
the defence of the Holmeses. They may be the greatest frauds for what I know or
care. My only purpose is to know for a certainty to whom I am indebted for my
share of ridicule— small as it may be, luckily for me. If we Spiritualists are
to be laughed and scoffed at and ridiculed and sneered at, we ought to know at
least the reason why. Either there was a fraud or there was none. If the fraud
is a sad reality, and Dr. Child by some mysterious combination of his personal
cruel fate has fallen the first victim to it, after having proved himself so
anxious for the sake of his honour and character to stop at once the further
progress of such a deceit on a public that had hitherto looked on him alone as
the party responsible for the perfect integrity and genuineness of a phenomenon
so fully endorsed by him in all particulars, why does not the doctor come out
the first and help us to the clue of all this mystery? Well aware of the fact
that the swindled and defrauded parties can at any day assert their rights to
the restitution of moneys laid out by them solely on the ground of their entire
faith in him they had trusted, why does he not sue the Holmeses and so prove
his own innocence? He cannot but admit that in the eyes of some initiated
parties, his cause looks far more ugly as it now stands than the accusation
under which the Holmeses vainly struggle. Or, if there was no fraud, or if it
is not fully proved, as it cannot well be on the shallow testimony of a
nameless woman signing documents
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with pseudonyms, why then all
this comedy on the part of the principal partner in the “Katie materialization”
business? Was not Dr. Child the institutor, the promulgator, and we may say the
creator of what proves to have been but a bogus phenomenon, after all? Was not
lie the advertising agent of this incarnated humbug—the Barnum of this
spiritual show? And now that he has helped to fool not only Spiritualists but
the world at large, whether as a confederate himself or one of the weak-minded
fools—no matter, so long as it is demonstrated that it was he that helped us to
this scrape—he imagines that by helping to accuse the mediums, and expose the
fraud, by fortifying with his endorsement all manner of bogus affidavits and
illegal certificates from non-existing parties, he hopes to find himself
henceforth perfectly clear of responsibility to the persons he has dragged
after him into this infamous swamp!
We must demand a legal
investigation. We have the right to insist upon it, for we Spiritualists have
bought this right at a dear price:
with the life-long reputation of Mr. Owen as an able and reliable writer and
trustworthy witness of the phenomena, who may henceforth be regarded as a
doubted and ever-ridiculed visionary by sceptical wise-acres. We have bought
this right with the prospect that all of us, whom Dr. Child has unwittingly or
otherwise (time will prove it) fooled into belief in his Katie King, will
become for a time the butts for end-less raillery, satires and jokes from the
press and ignorant masses. We regret to feel obliged to contradict on this
point such an authority in all matters as The Daily Graphic, but if orthodox
laymen rather decline to see this fraud thoroughly investigated in a court of
justice for fear of the Holmeses becoming entitled to the crown of martyrs, we
have no such fear as that, and repeat with Mr. Hudson Tuttle that “better
perish the cause with the impostors than live such a life of eternal ostracism,
with no chance for justice or redress.”
Why in the name of all that is
wonderful should Dr. Child have all the laurels of this unfought battle, in
which the attacked army seems for ever doomed to be defeated without so much as
a struggle? Why should he have all the material benefit of this materialized
humbug, and R. D. Owen, an honest Spiritualist, whose name is universally
respected, have all the kicks and thumps of the sceptical press? Is this fair
and just? How long shall we Spiritualists be turned over like so many scapegoats
to the unbelievers by cheating mediums and speculating prophets? Like some
modern shepherd Paris, Mr. Owen fell a
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A MODERN PANARION.
victim to the snares of this
pernicious, newly materialized Helen; and on him falls heaviest the present
reaction that threatens to produce a new Trojan war. But the Homer of the
Philadelphia Iliad, the one who has appeared in the past as the elegiac poet
and biographer of that same Helen, and who appears in the present kindling up
the spark of doubt against the Holmeses, till, if not speedily quenched, it
might become a roaring ocean of flames—he that plays at this present hour the
unparalleled part of a chief justice presiding at his own trial and deciding in
his own case-—Dr. Child, we say, turning back on the spirit daughter of his own
creation, and backing the mortal, illegitimate off spring furnished by
somebody, is left unmolested! Only fancy, while R. D. Owen is fairly crushed
under the ridicule of the exposure, Dr. Child, who has endorsed false spirits,
now turns state’s evidence and endorses as fervently spirit certificates,
swearing to the same in a court of justice
If ever I may hope to get a
chance of having my advice accepted by some one anxious to clear up all this
sickening story, I would insist that the whole matter be forced into a real
court of justice and unriddled before a jury. If Dr. Child is, after all, an
honest man whose trusting nature was imposed upon, lie must be the first to
offer us all the chances that he in his power of getting at the bottom of all
these endless “whys” and “bows.” If he does not, in such a case we will try for
ourselves to solve the following mysteries:
1st, Judge Allen, of Vineland,
now in Philadelphia, testifies to the fact that when the cabinet, made up under
the direct supervision and instructions of Dr. Child, was brought home to the
Holmeses, the doctor worked at it himself, unaided, one whole day, and with his
tools, Judge Allen being at the time at the mediums’, whom he was visiting. If
there was a trap-door or “two cut boards” connected with it, who did the work?
Who can doubt that such clever machinery, fitted in such a way as to baffle
frequent and close examinations on the part of the sceptics, requires an
experienced mechanic of more than ordinary ability? Further, unless well paid,
he could hardly be bound to secrecy. Who paid him? Is it Holmes out of his
ten-dollar nightly fee? We ought to ascertain it.
2nd, If it is true, as two
persons are ready to swear, that the party, calling herself Eliza White, alias
“Frank,” alias Katie King, and so forth, is no widow at all, having a well
materialized husband, who is living, and who keeps a drinking saloon in a
Connecticut town—then
26————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
in such case the fair widow
has perjured herself and Dr. Child has endorsed the perjury. We regret that he
should endorse the statements of the former as rashly as he accepted the fact
of her materialization.
3rd, Affidavits and witnesses
(five in all) are ready to prove that on a certain night, when Mrs. White was
visibly in her living body, refreshing her penitent stomach in company with
impenitent associates in a lager beer saloon, having no claims to patrician
“patronage,” Katie King, in her spirit form, was as visibly seen at the door of
her cabinet.
4th On one occasion, when Dr.
Child (in consequence of some prophetic vision, maybe) invited Mrs. White to
his own house, where he locked her up with the inmates, who entertained her the
whole of the evening, for the sole purpose of convincing (he always seems
anxious to convince somebody of something) some doubting sceptics of the
reality of the spirit-form, the latter appeared in the séance-room and talked
with R. D. Owen in the presence of all the company. The Spiritualists were
jubilant that night, and the doctor the most triumphant of them all. Many are
the witnesses ready to testify to the fact, but Dr. Child, when questioned,
seems to have entirely forgotten this important occurrence.
5th Who is the party whom she
claims to have engaged to personate General Rawlings? Let him come out and
swear to it, so that we will all see his great resemblance to the defunct
warrior.
6th, Let her name the friends
from whom she borrowed the costumes to personate “Sauntee” and “Richard.” They
must prove it under oath. Let them produce the dresses. Can she tell us where
she got the shining robes of the second and third spheres?
7th Only some portions of
Holmes’ letters to “Frank” are published in the biography: some of them for the
purpose of proving their co- partnership in the fraud at Blissfield. Can she
name the house and parties with whom she lodged and boarded at
When all the above questions
are answered and demonstrated to our satisfaction, then, and only then, shall
we believe that the Holmeses are the only guilty parties to a fraud, which, for
its consummate rascality and brazenness, is unprecedented in the annals of
Spiritualism.
I have read some of Mr.
Holmes’ letters, whether original or forged, no matter, and blessed as I am
with a good memory, I well remember certain sentences that have been, very
luckily for the poetic creature,
27 ——————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
suppressed by the blushing
editor as being too vile for publication. One of the most modest of the
paragraphs runs thus:
Now, my advice to you, Frank,
don’t crook your elbow too often; no use doubling up and squaring your fists
again.
Oh, Katie King!
Remember, the above is
addressed to the woman who pretends to have personated the spirit of whom R. D.
Owen wrote thus:
I particularly noticed this
evening the ease and harmony of her motions. In
And further:
A well-known artist of
Compare for one moment this
admiring description with the quotation from Holmes’ letter. Fancy an ideal of
classic beauty and grace crooking her elbow in a lager beer saloon, and—judge
for yourselves !
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
1111,
-------
A MODERN PANARION
(Continued.)
IN the last Religio-Philosophical
Journal (for February 2 in the Philadelphia department, edited by Dr. Child,
under the most poetical heading of “After the Storm comes the Sunshine,” we
read the following:
I have been waiting patiently
for the excitement in reference to the Holmes fraud to subside a little. I will
now make some further statements and answer some questions.
Further:
The stories of my acquaintance
with Mrs. White are all fabrications.
Further still:
I shall not notice the various
reports put forth about my pecuniary relations farther than to say there is a
balance due to me for money loaned to the Holmeses.
I claim the right to answer
the above three quotations, the more so that the second one consigns me most
unceremoniously to the ranks of the liars. Now if there is, in my humble
judgment, anything more contemptible than a cheat, it is certainly a liar.
The rest of this letter,
editorial, or whatever it may be, is unanswerable, for reasons that will be
easily understood by whoever reads it. ‘When petulant Mr. Pancks (in Littie
Dorrit) spanked the benevolent Christopher Casby, this venerable patriarch only
mildly lifted up his blue eyes heavenward, and smiled more benignly than ever.
Dr. Child, tossed about and as badly spanked by public opinion, smiles as
sweetly as Mr. Casby, talks of “sunshine,” and quiets his urgent accusers by
assuring them that ‘‘it is all fabrications.”
I don’t know whence Dr. Child
takes his “sunshine,” unless he draws it from the very bottom of his innocent
heart.
For my part, since I came to
29——————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
I would strongly advise Dr.
Child not to accuse me of “fabrication,” whatever else he may be inclined to
ornament me with. What I say I can prove, and am ever willing to do so at any
day. If he is innocent of all participation in this criminal fraud, let him
“rise and explain.”
If he succeeds in clearing his
record, I will be the first to rejoice, and promise to offer him publicly my
most sincere apology for the “erroneous suspicions” I labour under respecting
his part in the affair; but he must first prove that he is thoroughly innocent.
Hard words prove nothing, and he cannot hope to achieve such a victory by
simply accusing people of “fabrications.” If he does not abstain from applying
epithets unsupported by substantial proofs, he risks, as in the game of
shuttlecock and battledore, the chance of receiving the missile back, and maybe
that it will hurt him worse than he expects.
In the article in question he
says:
The stories of my acquaintance
with Mrs. White are all fabrications. I did let her in two or three times, but
the entry and hall were so dark that it was impossible to recognize her or any
one. I have seen her several times, and knew that she looked more like Katie
King than Mr. [?] or Mrs. Holmes.
Mirabile dietu! This beats our
learned friend, Dr. Beard. The latter denies, point-blank, not only
“materialization,” which is not yet actually proved to the world, but also
every spiritual phenomenon. But Dr. Child denies being acquainted with a woman
whom he confesses him self to have seen “several times,” received in his
office, where she was seen repeatedly by others, and yet at the same time
admits that he “knew she looked like Katie King,” etc. By the way, we have all
laboured under the impression that Dr. Child admitted in The Inquirer that he
saw Mrs. White for the first time and recognized her as Katie King only on that
morning when she made her affidavit at the office of the justice of the peace.
A “fabrication” most likely. In the R.-P. Journal for
Your report does not for a
moment shake my confidence in our Katie King, as she comes to me every day and
talks to me. On several occasions Katie had come to me and requested Mr. Owen
and myself to go there [ to the Holmeses’] and she would come and repeat what
she had told me above.
Did Dr. Child ascertain where
Mrs. White was at the time of the spirit’s visits to him?
As to Mrs. White, I know her
well. I have on many occasions let her into the house. I saw her at the time
the manifestations were going on in Blissfield. She has since gone to
30 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
And still the doctor assures
us he was not acquainted with Mrs. White. What signification does he give to
the word “acquaintance” in such a case? Did he not go, in the absence of the
Holmeses, to their house, and talk with her and even quarrel with the woman?
Another fabricated story, no doubt. I defy Dr. Child to print again, if he
dare, such a word as fabrication in relation to myself, after he has read a certain
statement that I reserve for the last.
In all this pitiful,
humbugging romance of an “exposure” by a too material she-spirit, there has not
been given us a single reasonable explanation of even so much as one solitary
fact. It began with a bogus biography, and threatens to end in a bogus fight,
since every single duel requires at least two participants, and Dr. Child
prefers extracting sunshine from the cucumbers of his soul and letting the
storm subside, to fighting like a man for his own fair name. He says that “he
shall not notice” what people say about his little speculative transactions
with the Holmeses. He assures us that they owe him money. Very likely, but it
does not alter the alleged fact of his having paid $10 for every séance and
pocketing the balance. Dare he say that he did not do it? The Holmeses' say
otherwise, and the statements in writing of various witnesses corroborate them.
The Holmeses may be scamps in
the eyes of certain persons, and the only ones in the eyes of the more prejudiced;
but as long as their statements have not been proven false, their word is as
good as the word of Dr. Child; aye, in a court of justice even, the “Mediums
Holmes” would stand just on the same level as any spiritual prophet or
clairvoyant who might have been visited by the same identical spirits that
visited the former. So long as Dr. Child does not legally prove them to be
cheats and himself innocent, why should not they be as well entitled to belief
as himself?
From the first hour of the
Katie King mystery, if people have accused them, no one so far as I know—not
even Dr. Child himself—has proved, or even undertaken to prove, the innocence
of their ex-cashier and recorder. The fact that every word of the ex-leader and
president of the Philadelphian Spiritualists would be published by every
spiritual paper (and here we must confess to our wonder that he does not hasten
much to avail himself of this opportunity) while any statement coming from the
Holmeses' would be pretty sure of rejection, would not necessarily imply the
fact that they alone are guilty; it would only go towards showing that,
notwithstanding the divine truth of our faith and the
31——————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
teachings of our invisible
guardians, some Spiritualists have not profited by them to learn impartiality
and justice.
These “mediums” are
persecuted; so far it is but justice, since they themselves admitted their
guilt about the photography fraud, and unless it can be shown that they were
thereunto controlled by lying spirits their own mouths condemn them; but what
is less just, is that they are slandered and abused on all points and made to
bear alone all the weight of a crime, where confederacy peeps out from every
page of the story. No one seems willing to befriend them—these two helpless
uninfluential creatures, who, if they sinned at all, perhaps sinned through
weakness and ignorance—to take their case in hand, and by doing justice to
them, do justice at the same time to the cause of truth. If their guilt should
be as evident as the daylight at
“Katie’s” picture has been,
let us say, proved a fraud, an imposition on the credulous world, and is Mrs.
White’s portrait. This counterfeit has been proved by the beauty of the
“crooking elbow,” in her bogus autobiography (the proof sheets of which Dr.
Child was seen correcting), by the written confession of the Holmeses', and,
lastly, by Dr. Child himself.
Out of the several bogus
portraits of the supposed spirit, the most spurious one has been
declared—mostly on the testimony endorsed by Dr. Child and “over his
signature”—to be the one where the pernicious and false Katie King is standing
behind the medium.
The operation of this delicate
piece of imposture proved so difficult as to oblige the Holmeses' to take into
the secret of the conspiracy the photographer.
Now Dr. Child denies having
had anything whatever to do with the sittings for those pictures. He denies it
most emphatically, and goes so far as to say (we have many witnesses and proofs
of this) that he
32 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
was out of town, four hundred
miles away, when the said pictures were taken. And so he was, bless his dear
prophetic soul! Meditating and chatting with the nymphs and goblins of
Unfortunately for the
veracious Dr. Child—”whose character and reputation for truthfulness and moral
integrity no one doubts,” here we quote the words of “Honesty” and “Truth,”
transparent pseudonyms of an “amateur” for detecting, exposing and writing
under the cover of secrecy, who tried to give a friendly push to the doctor in
two articles, but failed in both—unfortunately for H. T. Child, we say, he got
inspired in some evil hour to write a certain article, and for getting the wise
motto, Verba volant, scripta manent, to publish it in The Daily Graphic on Nov.
6th, together with the portraits of John and Katie King.
Now for tins bouquet of the
endorsement of a fact by a truthful man, ‘‘whose moral integrity no one can
doubt.’’
To The Editor of “The Daily
Graphic.”
On the evening of July 20th,
after a large and successful séance, in which Katie had walked out into the
room in the presence of thirty persons and had disappeared and reappeared in
full view, she remarked to Mr. Leslie and myself that if we, with four others
whom she named, would remain after the séance, she would like to try for her
photograph. We did so, and there were present six persons besides the
photographer. I had procured two dozen magnesian spirals, and, when all was
ready, she opened the door of the cabinet and stood in it, while Mr. Holmes on
one side, and I upon the other, burned these, making a brilliant light. We
tried two plates, but neither of them was satisfactory.
Another effort was made on
July 23rd, which was successful. We asked her if she would try to have it taken
by daylight. She said she would. We sat with shutters often at
Mr. Holmes proposed that she
should permit him to sit in front of the camera, and should come out and place
her hand upon his shoulder. To this she assented, and desired all present to
avoid looking into her eyes, as this disturbed the conditions very much.
The second picture was then
taken in which she stands behind Mr. Holmes. When the camera was closed she
showed great signs of weakness, and it was necessary to assist her back to the
cabinet, and when she got to the door she appeared ready to sink to the floor
and disappeared [?]. The cabinet door was opened, but she was not to be
33——————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
seen. In a few minutes she
appeared again and remarked that she had not been sufficiently materialized,
and said she would like to try again, if we could wait a little while. We
waited about fifteen minutes, when she rapped on the cabinet, signifying that
she was ready to come out. She did so, and we obtained the Third negative.
(Signed) DR. H. T. CHILD.
And so, Dr. Child, we have
obtained this, we did that, and we did many other things. Did you? Now, besides
Dr. Child’s truthful assertions about his being out of town, especially at the
time this third negative was obtained, we have the testimony of the
photographer, Dr. Selger, and other witnesses to corroborate the fact. At the
same time, I suppose that Dr. Child will not risk a denial of his own article.
I have it in my possession and keep it, together with many others as curious,
printed like it, and written in black and white. Who fabricates stories? Can
the doctor answer?
How will he creep out of this
dilemma? What rays of his spiritual “sunshine” will be able to de-materialize
such a contradictory fact as this one? Here we have an article taking up two
spacious columns of The Daily Graphic, in which he asserts as plainly as
possible, that he was present himself at the sittings of Katie King for her
portrait, that the spirit come out boldly, in full daylight, that she
disappeared on the threshold of the cabinet, and that he, Dr. Child, helping
her back to it on account of her great weakness, saw that there was no one in
the said cabinet, for the door remained opened. Who did he help? Whose
fluttering heart beat against his paternal arm and waistcoat? Was it the bonny
Eliza? Of course, backed by such reliable testimony of such a truly trustworthy
witness, the pictures sold like wild-fire. Who got the proceeds? Who kept them?
If Dr. Child was not in town when the pictures were taken, then this article is
an “evident fabrication.” On the other hand, if what he says in it is truth,
and he was present at all at the attempt of this bogus picture-taking, then he
certainly must have known “who was who, in 1874,” as the photographer knew it,
and as surely it did not require Argus-eyes to recognize in full daylight with
only one shutter partially closed, a materialized, ethereal spirit, from a
common, “elbow-crooking” mortal woman, whom, though not acquainted with her,
the doctor still “knew well.”
If our self-constituted
leaders, our prominent recorders of the phenomena, will humbug and delude the
public with such reliable statements as this one, how can we Spiritualists
wonder at the masses of incredulous scoffers that keep on politely taking us
for “lunatics” when they do
34 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
not very rudely call us “liars
and charlatans” to our faces? It is not the occasionally cheating “mediums”
that have or can impede the progress of our cause; it’s the exalted
exaggerations of some fanatics on one hand, and the deliberate, unscrupulous
statements of those who delight in dealing in “wholesale fabrications” and
“pious frauds” that have arrested the unusually rapid spreading of Spiritualism
in 1874 and brought it to a dead stop in 1875. For how many years to come yet,
who can tell?
In his “After the Storm comes
the Sunshine,” the Doctor makes the following melancholy reflection:
It has been suggested that
going into an atmosphere of fraud, such as surrounds these mediums [ Holmeses]
and being sensitive [ poor Yorick!] I was more liable to be deceived than
others.
We shudder indeed at the
thought of the exposure of so much sensitiveness to so much pollution. Alas!
soiled dove! how very sensitive must a person be who picks up such evil
influences that they actually force him into the grossest of fabrications and
make him invent stories and endorse facts that he has not and could not have
seen. If Dr. Child, victim to his too sensitive nature, is liable to fall so
easily as that under the control of wicked “Diakka,” our friendly advice to him
is to give up Spiritualism as soon as possible, and join a Young Men’s
Christian Association; for then, under the protecting wing of the true orthodox
Church, he can begin a regular fight, like a second St. Anthony, with the orthodox
devil. Such Diakka as he fell in with at the Holmeses’ must beat Old Nick by
long odds, and if he could not withstand them by the unaided strength of his
own pure soul, he may with “bell, book and candle” and the use of holy water be
more fortunate in a tug with Satan, crying as other “Father Confessors” have
heretofore, “Exorciso vos in nomine Lucis!” and signify ing his triumph with a
robust Laus Deo.
H. P. BLAVATSKY
NOTICE TO MEDIUMS
IN compliance with the request
of the Honourable Alexander Aksakoff, Counsellor of State in the Imperial
Chancellery at
To avoid disappointment, it
may be well to state that the undersigned will recommend no mediums whose
personal good character is not satisfactorily shown; nor any who will not
submit themselves to a thorough scientific test of their mediumistic powers, in
the city of New York, prior to sailing; nor any who cannot exhibit most of
their phenomena in a lighted room, to be designated by the undersigned, and
with such ordinary furniture as may be found therein.
Approved applications will be
immediately forwarded to
Address the undersigned, in
care of E. Gerry Brown, Editor of The Spiritual Scientist, 18,
HENRY S. OLCOTT.
HELEN P. BLAVATSKY.
A REBUKE
—————
I AM truly sorry that a
Spiritualist paper like The Religio-Philosophical Journal, which claims to
instruct and enlighten its readers, should suffer such trash as Mr. Jesse
Sheppard is contributing to its columns to appear without review. I will not
dwell upon the previous letter of this very gifted personage, although
everything he has said concerning Russia and life at St. Petersburg might be
picked to pieces by anyone having merely a superficial acquaintance with the
place and the people; nor will I stop to sniff at his nosegays of high-sounding
names—his Princess Boulkoffs and Princes This and That, which are as
preposterously fictitious as though, in speaking of Americans, some Russian
singing-medium were to mention his friends Prince Jones or Duke Smith, or Earl
Brown—for if he chooses to manufacture noble patrons from the oversloppings of
his poetic imagination, and it amuses him or his readers, no great harm is
done. But when it comes to his saying the things he does in the letter of July
3rd in that paper, it puts quite a different face upon the matter. Here he
pretends to give historical facts—which never existed. He tells of things he
saw clairvoyantly, and his story is such a tissue of ridiculous, gross
anachronisms that they not only show his utter ignorance of Russian history,
but are calculated to injure the cause of Spiritualism by throwing doubt upon
all clairvoyant descriptions. Secondarily in importance they destroy his own
reputation for veracity, stamp him as a trickster and a false writer, and bring
the gravest suspicion upon his claim to possess any mediumship whatever.
What faith can anyone,
acquainted with the rudiments of history, have in a medium who sees another
(Catherine II) giving orders to strangle her son (Paul I), when we all know
that the Emperor Paul ascended the throne upon the decease of the very mother
whom the inventive genius of this musical prodigy makes guilty of infanticide?
Permit me, 0 young seer and
Spiritualist, as a Russian somewhat
37 ———————————————————————A REBUKE.
read in the history of her
country, to refresh your memory. Spiritualism has been laughed at quite enough
recently in consequence of such pious frauds as yours, and as Russian savants
are about to investigate the subject, we may as well go to them with clean
hands. The journal which gives you its hospitality goes to my country, and its
interests will certainly suffer if you are allowed to go on with your
embroidery and spangle-work without rebuke. Remember, young poetico-historian,
that the Emperor Paul was the paternal grandfather of the present Czar, and
everyone who has been at St. Petersburg knows that the “old palace,” which to
your spiritual eye wears such “an appearance of dilapidation and decay, worthy
of a castle of the Middle Ages,” and the one where your Paul was strangled, is
an every-day, modern-looking, respectable building, the successor of one which
was pulled down early in the reign of the late Emperor Nicholas, and known from
the beginning until now as the Pawlowsky Military College for the “Cadets.” And
the two assassins, begotten in your clairvoyant loins—Petreski and Kofski!
Really now, Mr. Sheppard, gentlemanly assassins ought to be very much obliged
to you for these pretty aliases!
It is fortunate for you, dear
sir, that it did not occur to you to discuss these questions in St. Petersburg,
and that you evolved your history from the depths of your own consciousness,
for in our autocratical country one is not permitted to discuss the little
unpleasantnesses of the imperial family history, and the rule would not be
relaxed for a Spanish grandee, or even that more considerable personage, an
American singing-medium. An attempt on your part to do so would assuredly have
interfered with your grand concert, under imperial patronage, and might have
led to your journeying to the borders of
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
OCCULTISM OR MAGIC
—————
AMONG the numerous sciences
pursued by the well-disciplined army of earnest students of the present
century, none has had less honours or more scoffing than the oldest of them—the
science of sciences, the venerable mother-parent of all our modern pigmies.
Anxious in their petty vanity to throw the veil of oblivion over their
undoubted origin, the self-styled positive scientists, ever on the alert,
present to the courageous scholar who tries to deviate from the beaten highway
traced out for him by his dogmatic predecessors, a formidable range of serious
obstacles.
As a rule, Occultism is a
dangerous, double-edged weapon for one to handle who is unprepared to devote
his whole life to it. The theory of it, unaided by serious practice, will ever
remain in the eyes of those prejudiced against such an unpopular cause an idle,
crazy speculation, fit only to charm the ears of ignorant old women. When we
cast a look behind us and see how for the last thirty years modern Spiritualism
has been dealt with, notwithstanding the occurrence of daily, hourly proofs
which speak to all our senses, stare us in the eyes, and utter their voices
from “beyond the great gulf,” how can we hope, I say, that Occultism or
Magic—which stands in relation to Spiritualism as the infinite to the finite,
as the cause to the effect, or as unity to multifariousness—will easily gain
ground where Spiritualism is scoffed at? One who rejects priori or even doubts
the immortality of man’s soul can never believe in its Creator; and, blind to
what is heterogeneous in his eyes, will remain still more blind to the
proceeding of the latter from homogeneity. In relation to the Kabalah, or the
compound mystic text-book of the great secrets of Nature, we do not know of
anyone in the present century who could have commanded a sufficient dose of
that moral courage which fires the heart of the true Adept with the sacred
flame of propagandism, to force him into defying public opinion by displaying
familiarity with that sublime work. Ridicule is the dead-
39————————————————————OCCULTISM OR MAGIC.
liest weapon of the age, and
while we read in the records of history of thousands of martyrs who joyfully
braved flames and faggots in support of their mystic doctrines in the past
centuries, we would scarcely be likely to find one individual in the present
times who would be brave enough even to defy ridicule by seriously undertaking
to prove the great truths embraced in the traditions of the Past.
As an instance of the above, I
will mention the article on Rosicrucianism, signed “Hiraf.” This ably-written
essay—notwithstanding some fundamental errors, which, though they are such,
would be hardly noticed except by those who had devoted their lives to the
study of Occultism in its various branches of practical teaching—indicates with
certainty to the practical reader that, for theoretical knowledge, at least,
the author need fear few rivals, still less superiors. His modesty, which I
cannot too much appreciate in his case—though he is safe enough behind the mask
of his fancy pseudonym—need not give him any apprehensions. There are few
critics in this country of Positivism who would willingly risk themselves in an
encounter with such a powerful disputant, on his own ground. The weapons he
seems to hold in reserve, in the arsenal of his wonderful memory, his learning,
and his readiness to give any further information that enquirers may wish for,
will undoubtedly scare off every theorist, unless he is perfectly sure of
himself, which few are. But book-learning—and here I refer only to the subject
of Occultism—vast as it may be, will always
prove insufficient even to the analytical mind—the most accustomed to extract
the quintessence of truth, disseminated throughout thousands of
contradictory statements—unless supported by personal experience and practice.
Hence “Hiraf” can only expect an encounter with some one who may hope to find a
chance to refute some of his bold assertions on the plea of having just such a
slight practical experience. Still, it must not be understood that these
present lines are intended to criticize our too modest essayist. Far from poor,
ignorant me be such a presumptuous thought. My desire is simple: to help him in
his scientific, but, as I said before, rather hypothetical researches, by
telling a little of the little I picked up in my long travels throughout the length
and breadth of the East—that cradle of Occultism—in the hope of correcting
certain erroneous notions he seems to be labouring under, and which are
calculated to confuse uninitiated sincere enquirers, who might desire to drink
at his own source of knowledge.
In the first place, “Hiraf”
doubts whether there are in existence, in
40 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
“Hiraf” ought to add to the
word Rosicrucianism “that particular sect” at least, for it was but a sect
after all, one of many branches of the same tree.
By forgetting to specify that
particular denomination and by including under the name of Rosicrucians all
those who, devoting their lives to Occultism congregated together in Brotherhoods,
“Hiraf” commits an error by which he may unwittingly lead people to believe
that the Rosicrucians having disappeared, there are no more Kabalists
practising Occultism on the face of the earth. He also becomes thereby guilty
of an anachronism, attributing to the Rosicrucians the building of the pyramids
and other majestic monuments, which indelibly exhibit in their architecture the
symbols of the grand religions of the past. For it is not so. If the main
object in view was, and still is, alike, with all the great family of the
ancient and modern Kabalists, the dogmas and formulas of certain sects differ
greatly. Springing one after the other from the great Oriental mother-root,
they scattered broadcast all over the world, and each of them desiring to out-rival
the other by plunging deeper and deeper into the secrets jealously guarded by
Nature, some of them became guilty of the greatest heresies against the
primitive Oriental Kabalah.
While the first followers of
the secret sciences, taught to the Chaldæans by nations whose very name was
never breathed in history, remained stationary in their studies, having arrived
at the maximum, the Omega of the knowledge permitted to man, many of the subse-
41 ————————————————————OCCULTISM OR MAGIC.
quent sects separated from
them, and, in their uncontrollable thirst for more knowledge, trespassed beyond
the boundaries of truth and fell into fictions. In consequence of Pythagoras—so
says Jamblichus— having by sheer force of energy and daring penetrated into the
mysteries of the Temple of Thebes, obtained therein his initiation and
afterwards studied the sacred sciences in Egypt for twenty-two years, many
foreigners were subsequently admitted to share the knowledge of the wise men of
the East, who, as a consequence, had many of their secrets divulged. Later
still, unable to preserve them in their purity, these mysteries were so mixed
up with fictions and fables of the Grecian mythology that truth was wholly
distorted.
As the primitive Christian
religion divided, in course of time, into numerous sects, so the science of
Occultism gave birth to a variety of doctrines and various brotherhoods. So the
Egyptian Ophites became the Christian Gnostics, shooting forth the Basilideans
of the second century, and the original Rosicrucians created subsequently the
Paracelsists, or Fire Philosophers, the European Alchemists, and other physical
branches of their sect. (See Hargrave Jennings’ Rosicrucians.) To call
indifferently every Kabalist a Rosicrucian, is to commit the same error as if
we were to call every Christian a Baptist on the ground that the latter are
also Christians.
The Brotherhood of the Rosy
Cross was not founded until the middle of the thirteenth century. and
notwithstanding the assertions of the learned Mosheim, it derives its name
neither from the Latin word Ros (dew), nor from a cross, the symbol of Lux. The
origin of the Brotherhood can he ascertained by any earnest, genuine student of
Occultism, who happens to travel in Asia Minor, if he chooses to fall in with
some of the Brotherhood, and if he is willing to devote himself to the
head-tiring work of deciphering a Rosicrucian manuscript—the hardest thing in
the world-—for it is carefully preserved in the archives of the very Lodge
which was founded by the first Kabalist of that name, but which now goes by
another name. The founder of it, a German Ritter, of the name of Rosencranz,
was a man who, after acquiring a very suspicious reputation through the
practice of the Black Art in his native place, reformed in consequence of a
vision. Giving up his evil practices, he made a solemn vow, and went on foot to
42 ————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
virtuous descendants of the
botanical as well as astrological and magical Chald to Rosencranz, a Christian
would say, in a vision, but I would suggest, in the shape of a materialized
spirit. The purport of this visitation, as well as the subject of their
conversation, remained for ever a mystery to many of the Brethren; but
immediately after that, the ex-sorcerer and Ritter disappeared, and was heard
of no more till the mysterious sect of Rosicrucians was added to the family of
Kabalists, and their powers aroused popular attention, even among the Eastern
populations, indolent and accustomed as they are to live among wonders. The Rosicrucians
strove to combine together the most various branches of Occultism, and they
soon became renowned for the extreme purity of their lives and their
extraordinary powers, as well as for their thorough knowledge of the secret of
secrets.
As alchemists and conjurers
they became proverbial. Later (I need not inform “Hiraf” precisely when, as we
drink at two different sources of knowledge), they gave birth to the more
modern Theosophists, at whose head was Paracelsus, and to the Alchemists, one
of the most celebrated of whom was Thomas Vaughan (seventeenth century), who
wrote the most practical things on Occultism under the name of Eugenius
Philalethes. I know and can prove that
The Rosicrucian Kabalah is but
an epitome of the Jewish and the Oriental ones, combined, the latter being the
most secret of all. The Oriental Kabalah, the practical, full, and only
existing copy, is carefully preserved at the headquarters of this Brotherhood
in the East, and, I may safely vouch, will never come out of its possession.
Its very existence has been doubted by many of the European Rosicrucians. One
who wants “to become” has to hunt for his knowledge through thousands of
scattered volumes, and pick up facts and lessons, bit by bit. Unless he takes
the nearest way and consents “to be made,” he will never become a practical
Kabalist, and with all his learning will remain at the threshold of the
“mysterious gate.” The Kabalah may be used and its truths imparted on a smaller
scale now than it was in antiquity, and the existence of the mysterious Lodge,
on account of its secrecy, doubted, but it does exist and has lost none of the
primitive secret powers of the ancient Chaldæans The lodges, few in number, are
divided into sections and known but to the Adepts; no one would be likely to
find them out, unless the Sages themselves found the neophyte worthy of
initiation. Unlike the European Rosicrucians—who,
43 ————————————————————OCCULTISM OR MAGIC.
in order “to become and not to
be made,” have constantly put into practice the word of St. John, who says,
“Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force,” and who have
struggled alone, violently robbing Nature of her secrets—the Oriental
Rosicrucians (for such we will call them, being denied the right to pronounce
their true name), in the serene beatitude of their divine knowledge, are ever
ready to help the earnest student struggling “to become” with practical
knowledge, which dissipates, like a heavenly breeze, the blackest clouds of
sceptical doubt.
“Hiraf” is right again when he
says that
Knowing that their mysteries,
if divulged, in the present chaotic state of society, would produce mere
confusion and death,
they shut up that knowledge within themselves. Heirs to the early heavenly
wisdom of their first forefathers, they keep the keys which unlock the most
guarded of Nature’s secrets, and impart them only gradually and with the
greatest caution. But still they do impart sometimes.
Once all such a cercle
vicieux, “Hiraf” sins likewise in a certain comparison he makes between Christ,
Buddha, and Khoung-foo-tsee, or Confucius. A comparison can hardly be made
between the two former wise and spiritual Illuminati, and the Chinese
philosopher. The higher aspirations and views of the two Christs can have
nothing to do with the cold, practical philosophy of the latter, brilliant
anomaly as he was among a naturally dull and materialistic people, peaceful and
devoted to agriculture from the earliest ages of their history. Confucius can
never bear the slightest comparison with the two great Reformers. Whereas the
principles and doctrines of Christ and Buddha were calculated to embrace the
whole of humanity, Confucius confined his attention solely to his own country,
trying to apply his profound wisdom and philosophy to the wants of his
countrymen, and little troubling his head about the rest of mankind. Intensely
Chinese in patriotism and views, his philosophical doctrines are as much devoid
of the purely poetic element, which characterizes the teachings of Christ and
Buddha, the two divine types, as the religious tendencies of his people lack in
that spiritual exaltation which we find, for instance, in India.
Khoung-foo-tsee has not even the depth of feeling and the slight spiritual
striving of his contemporary, Lao-tsee. Says the learned Ennemoser:
44 ————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
The spirits of Christ and
Buddha have left indelible, eternal traces all over the face of the world. The
doctrines of Confucius can he mentioned only as the most brilliant proceedings
of cold human reasoning.
Their heavy, childish, cold,
sensual nature explains the peculiarities of their history.
Hence any comparison between
the first two Reformers and Confucius, in an essay on Rosicrucianism, in which
“Hiraf” treats of the Science of Sciences and invites the thirsty for knowledge
to drink at her inexhaustible source, seems inadmissible.
Further, when our learned
author asserts so dogmatically that the Rosicrucian learns, though he never
uses, the secret of immortality in earthly life, he asserts only what he
himself, in his practical inexperience, thinks impossible. The words “never”
and “impossible” ought to be erased from the dictionary of humanity, until the
time at least when the great Kabalah shall all be solved, and so rejected or
accepted. The Count St. Germain is, until this very time, a living mystery, and
the Rosicrucian Thomas Vaughan another one. The countless authorities we have
in literature, as well as in oral tradition (which sometimes is the more
trustworthy), about this wonderful Count’s having been met and recognized in
different centuries, is no myth. Anyone who admits one of the practical truths
of the occult sciences taught by the Kabalah tacitly admits them all. It must
be Hamlet’s “to be or not to be,” and if the Kabalah is true, then St. Germain
need be no myth.
But I am digressing from my
object, which is, firstly, to show the slight differences between the two
Kabalahs, that of the Rosicrucians and time Oriental one; and, secondly, to say
that the hope expressed by “Hiraf” to see the subject better appreciated at
some future day than it has been till now, may perhaps become more than a hope.
Time will show man things; till then, let us heartily thank “Hiraf” for this
first well-aimed shot at those stubborn scientific runaways, who, once before
the Truth, avoid looking her in the face, and dare not even throw a glance
behind them, lest they should be forced to see that which would greatly lessen
their self-sufficiency. As a practical follower of Eastern Spiritualism, I can
confidently wait for the time, when, with the timely help of those ‘‘who
know,’’ American Spiritualism, which even in its present shape has proved such
a sore in the side of the materialists, will become a science and a thing of
mathematical certi-
45 ———————————————————OCCULTISM OR MAGIC.
tude, instead of being
regarded only as the crazy delusion of epileptic monomaniacs.
The first Kabalah in which a
mortal man ever dared to explain the greatest mysteries of the universe, and
show the keys to
Those masked doors in the
ramparts of Nature through which no mortal can ever pass without rousing dread
sentries never seen upon this side her wall,
was compiled by a certain
Simeon Ben Iochai, who lived at the time of the second
In consequence of the personal
ambition of this great prophet medium, he succeeded in passing off his familiar
spirit, the wrathful “Jehovah,” for the spirit of God himself, and so won
undeserved laurels and honours. The same influence prompted him to alter some
of the principles of the great oral Kabalah in order to make them the more
secret. These principles were laid out in symbols by him in the first four
books of the Pentateuch, but for some mysterious reasons he with held them from
Deuteronomy. Having initiated his seventy Elders in his own way, the latter
could give but what they had received them selves, and so was prepared the
first opportunity for heresy, and the erroneous interpretation of the symbols.
While the Oriental Kabalah remained in its pure primitive shape, the Mosaic or
Jewish one was full of drawbacks, and the keys to many of the secrets—forbidden
by the Mosaic law—purposely misinterpreted. The powers conferred by it on the
Initiates were formidable still, and of all the most renowned
46 ————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
Kabalists, King Solomon and
his bigoted parent, David, not withstanding his penitential psalms, were the
most powerful. But still the doctrine remained secret and purely oral, until,
as I have said before, the days of the second
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
SPIRITUALISTIC TRICKSTERS
—————
A MOST outrageous swindle was
perpetrated upon the public last Sunday evening at the Boston Theatre. Some
persons with no higher aspirations in the world than a lust for a few dollars
to fill their pockets, depleted by unsuccessful cheap shows, advertised a
“séance,” and engaged as “mediums” some of the most impudent impostors with
which the world is cursed. They furthermore abused public confidence by causing
it to be understood that these people were to appear before the scientific
commission at
Is it not about time that some
Society in
The press of
As a proof of the sincerity of
the
—————
SIR,—The undersigned desire to
say that the persons who advertised a so-called spiritualistic exhibition at
the Boston Theatre last evening were guilty of false representations to the
public. We are alone empowered by the
48 ————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
who shall be invited by that
body to display their powers during the forthcoming scientific investigation of
Spiritualism, and Mr. H. Gerry Brown, editor . Scientist, of this city, is our
only authorized deputy.
Neither “F. Warren,” “Prof. J.
T. Bates,” “Miss I “Mrs. S. Gould,” nor “Miss Lillie Darling” has been
selected, or is at all likely to be selected for that honour.
As this swindle may be again
attempted, we desire to say, once for all, that no medium accepted by us will
be obliged to exhibit his powers to earn money to de fray his expenses, nor
will any such exhibition be tolerated. The Imperial University of St.
Petersburg makes its investigation in the interest of science—not to assist
charlatans to give juggling performances in theatres, upon the strength of our
certificates.
HENRY S. OLC0YT.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE SEARCH AFTER OCCULTISM
—————
[ The Spiritual Scientist.]
BEING daily in receipt of
numerous letters, written with the view of obtaining advice as to the best
method of receiving information respecting Occultism, and the direct relation
it bears to modern Spiritualism, and not having sufficient time at my disposal
to answer these requests, I now propose to facilitate the mutual labour of
myself and correspondents by naming herein a few of the principal works treating
upon Magism, and the mysteries of such modern Hermetists.
To this I feel bound to add,
respecting what I have stated before, to wit: that would-be aspirants must not
lure themselves with the idea of any possibility of their becoming practical
Occultists by mere book-knowledge. The works of the Hermetic philosophers were
never intended for the masses, as Mr. Charles Sotheran, a learned member of the
Society Rosæ Crucis, in a late essay observes;
Gabriel Rossetti in his
disquisitions on the anti-papal spirit which produced the Reformation shows
that the art of speaking and writing in a language which bears a double
interpretation is of very great antiquity, that it was in practice among the
priests of Egypt, brought thence by the Manichees, whence it passed to the
Ternplars and Albigenses, spread over Europe, and brought about the
Reformation.
The ablest book that was ever
written on Symbols and Mystic Orders, is most certainly Hargrave Jennings’ The
Rosicrucians, and yet it has been repeatedly called “obscure trash” in my
presence, and that too, by individuals who were most decidedly well-versed in
the rites and mysteries of modern Freemasonry. Persons who lack even the latter
knowledge, can easily infer from this what would be the amount of information they
might derive from still more obscure and mystical works; for if we compare
Hargrave Jennings’ book with some of the mediæval treatises and ancient works
of the most noted Alchemists and Magi, we might find the latter as much more
obscure than the former—as regards language—as a pupil in celestial philosophy
would
50 ————————————————————A M0DERN PANARION.
find the Book of the Heavens,
if he should examine a far distant star with the naked eye, rather than with
the help of a powerful telescope. Far from me, though, the idea of disparaging
in anyone the laudable impulse to search ardently after Truth, however arid and
ungrateful the task may appear at first sight; for my own principle has ever
been to make the Light of Truth the beacon of my life. The words uttered by
Christ eighteen centuries ago: “Believe and you will understand,” can be
applied in the present case, and repeating them with but a slight modification,
I may well say: “Study and you will believe.”
But to particularize one or
another book on Occultism, to those who are anxious to begin their studies in
the hidden mysteries of nature, is something the responsibility of which I am
not prepared to assume. What may be clear to one who is intuitional, if read in
the same book by another person might prove meaningless. Unless one is prepared
to devote to it his whole life, the superficial knowledge of Occult Sciences
will lead him surely to become the target for millions of ignorant scoffers to
aim their blunderbusses loaded with ridicule and chaff against. Besides this,
it is in more than one way dangerous to select this science as a mere pastime.
One must bear for ever in mind the impressive fable of Œdipus, and beware of
the same consequences. Œdipus unriddled but one-half of the enigma offered him
by the Sphinx and caused its death; the other half of the mystery avenged the
death of the symbolic monster, and forced the King of Thebes to prefer
blindness and exile in his despair rather than face what he did not feel him
self pure enough to encounter. He unriddled the man, the form, and had
forgotten God, the idea.
If a man would follow in the
steps of Hermetic philosophers he must prepare himself beforehand for
martyrdom. He must give up personal pride and all selfish purposes, and be
ready for everlasting encounters with friends and foes. He must part, once for
all, with every remembrance of his earlier ideas, on all and on everything.
Existing religions, knowledge, science, must rebecome a blank book for him, as
in the days of his babyhood, for if he wants to succeed he must learn a new
alphabet on the lap of Mother Nature, every letter of which will afford a new
insight to him, every syllable and word an Unexpected revelation. The two
hitherto irreconcilable foes, science and theology—the Montecchi and Capuletti
of the nineteenth century—will ally themselves with the ignorant masses against
the modern Occultist. If we have outgrown the age of stakes, we are in the
heyday, per
51 ——————————————————THE SEARCH AFTER OCCULTISM.
contra, of slander, the venom
of the press, and all these mephitic venticelli of calumny so vividly expressed
by the immortal Don Basilio. To science it will be the duty—arid and sterile as
a matter of course—of the Kabbalist to prove that from the beginning of time
there was but one positive science—Occultism; that it was the mysterious lever
of all intellectual forces, the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil of the
allegorical paradise, from whose gigantic trunk sprang in every direction
boughs, branches and twigs, the former shooting forth straight enough at first,
the latter deviating with every inch of growth, assuming more and more
fantastical appearances, till at last one after the other lost its vital juice,
got deformed, and, drying up, finally broke off, scattering the ground afar
with heaps of rubbish. To theology the Occultist of the future will have to
demonstrate that the Gods of the mythologies, the Elohims of Israel as well as
the religious and theological mysteries of Christianity, to begin with the
Trinity, sprang from the sanctuaries of Memphis and Thebes; that their mother
Eve is but the spiritualized Psyche of old, both of them paying a like penalty
for their curiosity, descending to Hades or hell, the latter to bring back to
earth the famous Pandora’s box, the former to search out and crush the head of
the serpent—symbol of time and evil, the crime of both expiated by the pagan
Prometheus and the Christian Lucifer; the first delivered by Hercules, the
second conquered by the Saviour.
Furthermore, the Occultist
will have to prove to Christian theology, publicly, what many of its priesthood
are well aware of in secret, namely, that their God on earth was a Kabbalist,
the meek representative of a tremendous Power, which, if misapplied, might
shake the world to its foundations; and that of all their evangelical symbols,
there is not one but can be traced up to its parent fount. For instance, their
incarnated Verbum or Logos was worshipped at his birth by the three Magi led on
by the star, and received from them the gold, the frankincense and myrrh—the
whole of which is simply an excerpt from the Kabalah our modern theologians
despise, and the representation of another and still more mysterious “Ternary”
embodying allegorically in its emblems the highest secrets of the Kabalah.
A clergy whose main object has
ever been to make of their Divine Cross the gallows of Truth and Freedom, could
not do otherwise than try and bury in oblivion the origin of that same cross,
which, in the most primitive symbols of the Egyptians’ magic, represents the
key to heaven. Their anathemas are powerless in our days—the multitude is
52 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
wiser; but the greatest danger
awaits us just in that latter direction, if we do not succeed in making the
masses remain at least neutral—till they come to know better—in this
forthcoming conflict between Truth, Superstition and Presumption, or to express
it in other terms, Occult Spiritualism, Theology and Science. We have to fear
neither the miniature thunderbolts of the clergy, nor the unwarranted negations
of science. But Public Opinion, this invisible, intangible, omnipresent,
despotic tyrant—this thousand-headed Hydra, the more dangerous for being
composed of individual mediocrities—is not an enemy to be scorned by any
would-be Occultist, courageous as he may be. Many of the far more innocent
Spiritualists have left their sheepskins in the clutches of this ever-hungry,
roaring lion, for he is the most dangerous of our three classes of enemies.
What will be the fate in such a case of an unfortunate Occultist, if he once
succeeds in demonstrating the close relationship existing between the two? The
masses of people, though they do not generally appreciate the science of truth
or have real knowledge, on the other hand are unerringly directed by mere
instinct; they have intuitionally—if I may be allowed to so express myself—an
idea of what is formidable in its genuine strength. People will never conspire
except against real Power. In their blind ignorance, the Mysteries and the
Unknown have been, and ever will be, objects of terror for them. Civilization
may progress; human nature will remain the same throughout all ages.
Occultists, beware!
Let it be understood then that
I address myself but to the truly courageous and persevering. Besides the
danger expressed above, the difficulties in becoming a practical Occultist in
this country are next to insurmountable. Barrier upon barrier, obstacles in
every form and shape, will present themselves to the student; for the keys of
the
53 ——————————————————THE SEARCH AFTER OCCULTISM.
the elements of the Kabalah
from whose mysterious bosom sprang all the religions of the past and present;
which endowed all the Free-masonic associations with their symbols and secrets,
which alone can reconcile human reason with God and Faith, Power with Freedom,
Science with Mystery, and which has alone the keys of present, past and future.
The first difficulty for the
aspirant lies in the utter impossibility of his comprehending, as I said
before, the meaning of the best books written by Hermetic philosophers. These,
who mainly lived in the mediæval ages, prompted on the one hand by their duty
towards their brethren, and by their desire to impart only to them and their
successors the glorious truths, and on the other very naturally desirous to
avoid the clutches of the bloodthirsty Christian Inquisition, enveloped
themselves more than ever in mystery. They invented new signs and hieroglyphs,
renovated the ancient symbolical language of the high priests of antiquity, who
had used it as a sacred barrier between their holy rites and the ignorance of
the profane, and created a veritable Kabalistic slang. This latter, which
continually blinded the false neophyte, attracted towards the science only by
his greediness for wealth and power which he would have surely misused were he
to succeed, is a living, eloquent, clear language, but it is and can become
such only to the true disciple of Hermes.
But were it even otherwise,
and could books on Occultism, written in a plain and precise language be
obtained in order to get initiated in the Kabalah, it would not be sufficient
to understand and meditate on certain authors. Galatinus and Pic de la
Mirandola, Paracelsus and Robertus de Fluctibus do not furnish one with the key
to the practical mysteries. They simply state what can be done and why it is
done; but they do not tell one how to do it. More than one philosopher who has
by heart the whole of the Hermetic literature, and who has devoted to the study
of it upwards of thirty or forty years of his life, fails when he believes he
is about reaching the final great result. One must understand the Hebrew
authors, such as Sepher Yelzirah, for instance, learn by heart the great book
of the Zohar in its original tongue, master the Kabalah Denudata from the
Collection of 1684 (Paris); follow up the Kabalistic pneumatics at first, and
then throw oneself headlong into the turbid waters of that mysterious * . . .
never tried to explain:
the Prophecy of Ezekiel and
the Apocalypse, two Kabalistic treatises,
—————
* The cutting is here imperfect—some paragraph or so wanting.
54 ————————————————————A M0DERN PANARION.
reserved without doubt for the
commentaries of the Magi kings, books closed with the seven seals to the
faithful Christian, but perfectly clear to the Infidel initiated in the Occult
Sciences.
Thus the works on Occultism,
were not, I repeat, written for the masses, but for those of the Brethren who
make the solution of the mysteries of the Kabalah the principal object of their
lives, and who are supposed to have conquered the first abstruse difficulties
of the Alpha of Hermetic philosophy.
To fervent and persevering
candidates for the above science, I have to offer but one word of advice, “try
and become.” One single journey to the Orient, made in the proper spirit, and
the possible emergencies arising from the meeting of what may seem no more than
the chance acquaintances and adventures of any traveller, may quite as likely
as not throw wide open to the zealous student the heretofore closed doors of
the final mysteries. I will go farther and say that such a journey, performed
with the omnipresent idea of the one object, and with the help of a fervent
will, is sure to produce more rapid, better, and far more practical results,
than the most diligent study of Occultism in books—even though one were to
devote to it dozens of years.
In the name of Truth, yours,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC
—————
HAPPENING to be on a visit to
Ithaca, where spiritual papers in general, and The Banner of Light in
particular, are very little read, but where, luckily, The Scientist has found
hospitality in several houses, I learned through your paper of the intensely
interesting and very erudite attack in an editorial of The Banner, on “Magic,”
or rather on those who had the absurdity to believe in Magic. As hints
concerning myself—at least in the fragment I see—are very decently veiled, and,
as it appears, Col. Olcott alone, just now, is offered by way of a pious
holocaust on the altar erected to the angel-world by some Spiritualists, who
seem to be terribly in earnest, I will—leaving the said gentleman to take care
of himself, provided he thinks it worth his trouble—proceed to say a few words
only, in reference to the alleged non-existence of Magic.
Were I to give anything on my
own authority and base my defence of Magic only on what I have seen myself and
know to he true in relation to that science, as a resident of many years’
standing in India and Africa, I might, perhaps, risk to be called by Mr.
Colby—with that unprejudiced, spiritualized politeness, which so distinguishes
the venerable editor of The Banner of Light—”an irresponsible woman”; and that
would not be for the first time either. Therefore, to his astonishing assertion
that no Magic whatever either exists or has existed in this world, I will try
to find as good authorities as himself, and maybe better ones, and thus
politely proceed to contradict him on that particular point.
Heterodox Spiritualists, like
myself, must be cautious in our days and proceed with prudence, if they do not
wish to be persecuted with all the untiring vengeance of that mighty army of”
Indian controls” and miscellaneous “guides” of our bright Summer-Land.
When the writer of the
editorial says that he—
Does not think it at all improbable that there are humbugging spirits who try
to fool certain aspirants to occult knowledge with the notion that there is
such a thing as magic, (?)
56 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
then, on the other hand, I can
answer him that I, for one, not only think it probable but I am perfectly sure
and can take my oath to the certainty, that more than once spirits who were
either very elementary or very unprogressed ones, calling themselves Theodore
Parker, have been most decidedly fooling and disrespectfully humbugging our
most esteemed editor of The Banner of Light into the notion that the Apennines
were in Spain, for instance.
Furthermore, supported in my
assertions by thousands of intelligent Spiritualists, generally known for their
integrity and truthfulness I could furnish numberless proofs and instances
where the Elementary Diakka, Esrito malims etfarfadeto and other such-like
unreliable and ignorant denizens of the spirit-world, arraying themselves in
pompous, world-known and famous names, suddenly gave the bewildered witnesses
such deplorable, unheard-of, slipslop trash, and betirnes some thing worse,
that more than one person who, previous to that, was an earnest believer in the
spiritual philosophy, has either silently taken to his heels, or if he happened
to have been formerly a Roman Catholic, has devoutly tried to recall to memory
with which hand he used to cross himself, and then cleared out with the most
fervent exclamation of “ Vade reyro, Satanas!” Such is the opinion of every
educated Spiritualist.
If that indomitable Attila.
the persecutor of modern Spiritualism and mediums, Dr. G. Beard, had offered
such a remark against Magic, I would not wonder, as a too profound devotion to
blue pill and black draught is generally considered the best antidote against
mystic and spiritual speculations; but for a firm Spiritualist—a believer in
invisible, mysterious worlds swarming with beings, the true nature of which is
still an unriddled mystery to everyone—to step in and then sarcastically reject
that which has been proved to exist and believed in for countless ages by
millions of persons, wiser than himself, is too audacious! And that sceptic is
the editor of a leading Spiritual paper!—a man whose first duty should be to
help his readers to seek, untiringly and perseveringly, for the truth in
whatever form it might present itself; but who takes the risk of dragging thousands
of people into error, by pinning them to his personal rose-water faith and
credulity. Every serious, earnest-minded Spiritualist must agree with me in
saying, that if modern Spiritualism remains, for a few years only, in its
present condition of chaotic anarchy, or still worse, if it is allowed to run
its mad course, shooting forth on all sides idle hypotheses based on
57 ———————————————————THE SCIENCE OP MAGIC.
superstitious, groundless
ideas, then will the Dr. Beards, Dr. Marvins and others, known as scientific
(?) sceptics, triumph indeed.
Really, it seems to be a waste
of time to answer such ridiculous, ignorant assertions as the one which forced
me to take up my pen. Any well-read Spiritualist who finds the statement “that
there ever was such a science as magic, has never been proved, nor ever will
be,” will need no answer from myself, nor anyone else, to cause him to shrug
his shoulders and smile, as he probably has smiled, at the wonderful attempt of
Mr. Colby’s spirits to reorganize geography by placing the Apennines in Spain.
Why, man alive, did you never
open a book in your life besides your own records of Tom, Dick and Harry
descending from upper spheres to remind their Uncle Sam that he had torn his
gaiters or broken his pipe in the far West?
Did you suppose that Magic is
confined to witches riding astride broomsticks and then turning themselves into
black cats? Even the latter superstitious trash, though it was never called
Magic but Sorcery, does not appear so great an absurdity for one to accept who
firmly believes in the transfiguration of Mrs. Compton into Katie Brinks. The
laws of nature are unchangeable. The conditions under which a medium can be
transformed, entirely absorbed in the process by the spirit, into the semblance
of another person, will hold good whenever that spirit, or rather force, should
have a fancy to take the form of a cat.
The exercise of magical power
is the exercise of powers natural but superior to the ordinary functions of
Nature. A miracle is not a violation of the laws of Nature, except for ignorant
people. Magic is but a science, a profound knowledge of the Occult forces in
Nature, and of the laws governing the visible or the invisible world.
Spiritualism in the hands of an Adept becomes Magic, for he is learned in the
art of blending together the laws of the universe, without breaking any of them
and thereby violating Nature. In the hands of an experienced medium,
Spiritualism becomes unconscious sorcery; for, by allowing himself to become
the helpless tool of a variety of spirits, of whom he knows nothing save what
the latter permit him to know, he opens, unknown to himself, a door of
communication between the two worlds, through which emerge the blind forces of
Nature lurking in the astral light, as well as good and bad spirits.
A powerful mesmerizer,
profoundly learned in his science, such as
58 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Baron Dupotet, and Regazzoni
Pietro d’Amicis of
But to return to Magic. Such
men as Albertus Magnus, Raymond Lulli, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Robert
Fludd, Eugenius Philalethes, Kunrath, Roger Bacon and others of similar
character, in our sceptical century, are generally taken for visionaries; but
so, too, are modern Spiritualists and mediums—nay worse, for charlatans and
poltroons; but never were the Hermetic philosophers taken by anyone for fools
and idiots, as, unfortunately for ourselves and the cause, every unbeliever
takes all of us believers in Spiritualism to be. Those Hermetics and
philosophers may be disbelieved and doubted now, as everything else is doubted,
but very few doubted their knowledge and power during their lifetime, for they
could always prove what they claimed, having command over those forces which
now command helpless mediums. They had their science and demonstrated
philosophy to help them to throw down ridiculous negations, while we
sentimental Spiritualists, rocking ourselves to sleep with our “Sweet
Bye-and-Bye,” are now unable to recognize a spurious phenomenon from a genuine
one, and are daily deceived by vile charlatans. Even though doubted then, as
Spiritualism is in our day, still these philosophers were held in awe and
reverence, even by those who did not implicitly believe in their Occult
potency, for they were giants of intellect. Profound knowledge, as well as
cultured intellectual powers, will always be respected and revered; but our
mediums and their adherents are laughed at and scorned, and we are all made to
suffer, because the phenomena are left to the whims and pranks of self-willed
and other mischievous spirits, and we are utterly powerless in controlling
them.
To doubt Magic is to reject
History itself, as well as the testimony of ocular witnesses thereof, during a
period embracing over 4,000 years. Beginning with Homer, Moses, Hermes,
Herodotus, Cicero, Plutarch,
59 ————————————————————THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC.
Pythagoras, Apollonius of
Tyana, Simon the Magician, Plato, Pausanias, Iamblichus, and following this
endless string of great men— historians and philosophers, who all of them
either believed in Magic or were magicians themselves—and ending with our
modern authors, such as W. Howitt, Ennemoser, G. des Mousseaux, Marquis de
Mirville and the late Eliphas Lévi who was a magician himself—among all of
these great names and authors, we find but the solitary Mr. Colby, editor of
The Banner of Light, who ignores that there ever was such a science as Magic.
He innocently believes the whole of the sacred army of Bible prophets,
commencing with Father Abraham, including Christ, to be merely mediums; in the
eyes of Mr. Colby they were all of them acting under control! Fancy Christ,
Moses, or an Apollonius of Tyana, controlled by an Indian guide! The venerable
editor ignores, perhaps, that spiritual mediums were better known in those days
to the ancients, than they are now to us, and he seems to be equally unaware of
the fact that the inspired sibyls, pythonesses, and other mediums were entirely
guided by their high priest and those who were initiated into the esoteric
theurgy and mysteries of the temples. Theurgy was Magic; as in modern times,
the sibyls and pythonesses were mediums; but their high priests were magicians.
All the secrets of their theology, which included Magic, or the art of invoking
ministering spirits, were in their hands. They possessed the science of discerning
spirits; a science which Mr. Colby does not possess at all—to his great regret,
no doubt. By this power they controlled the spirits at will, allowing but the
good ones to absorb their mediums. Such is the explanation of Magic—the real,
existing, While or Sacred Magic, which ought to be in the hands of science now,
and would be, if science had profited by the lessons which Spiritualism has
inductively taught for these last twenty-seven years.
That is the reason why no
trash was allowed to be given by unprogressed spirits in the days of old. The
oracles of the sibyls and inspired priestesses could never have affirmed
If the sceptical writer of the
editorial had, moreover, devoted less time to little prattling Indian spirits
and more to profitable lectures, he might have learned perhaps at the same time
that the ancients had their illegal mediums—I mean those who belonged to no
special temple—and thus the spirits controlling them, unchecked by the expert
hand of the magician, were left to themselves, and had all the opportunity
60 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
possible to perform their
capers on their helpless tools. Such mediums were generally considered obsessed
and possessed, which they were in fact, in other words, according to the Bible
phraseology, “they had seven devils in them.” Furthermore, these mediums were
ordered to be put to death, for the intolerant Moses the magician, who was
learned in the wisdom of Egypt, had said, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
live.” Alone the Egyptians and Greeks, even more humane and just than Moses,
took such into their temples, and, when found unfit for the sacred duties of
prophecy cured them in the same way as Jesus Christ cured Mary of Magdala and
many others, by “casting out the seven devils.” Either Mr. Colby and Co. must
completely deny the miracles of Christ, the Apostles, Prophets, Thaumaturgists
and Magicians, and so deny point-blank every bit of the sacred and profane
histories, or he must confess that there is a Power in this world which can
command spirits—at least the bad and unprogressed ones, the elementary and
Diakka. The pure ones, the disembodied, will never descend to our sphere unless
attracted by a current of powerful sympathy and love, or on some useful
mission.
Far from me the thought of
casting odium and ridicule on all mediums. I am myself a Spiritualist, if, as
says Colonel Olcott, a firm belief in our spirit’s immortality and the
knowledge of a constant possibility for us to communicate with the spirits of
our departed and loved ones, either through honest, pure mediums, or by means
of the Secret Science, constitutes a Spiritualist. And I am not of those
fanatical Spiritualists, to be found in every country, who blindly accept the
claims of every “spirit,” for I have seen too much of various phenomena,
undreamed of in
61 ————————————————————THE SCIENCE OP MAGIC.
generally I am quick enough to
detect whenever a medium is cheating under control, or cheating consciously.
Thus Magic exists, and has
existed, ever since prehistoric ages. Beginning in history with the
Samothracian Mysteries, it followed its course uninterruptedly, and ended for a
time with the expiring theurgic rites and ceremonies of Christianized Greece;
then reappeared for a time again with the Neo-Platonic, Alexandrian school, and,
passing by initiation to sundry solitary students and philosophers, safely
crossed the mediæval ages, and notwithstanding the furious persecutions of the
Church, resumed its fame in the hands of such Adepts as Paracelsus and several
others, and finally died out in Europe with the Count St. Germain and
Cagliostro, to seek refuge from frozen-hearted scepticism in its native country
of the East.
In
Some time since a Mr.
Mendenhall devoted several columns, in The Religio-Philosophical Journal, to
questioning, cross-examining, and criticizing the mysterious Brotherhood of
Luxor. He made a fruitless attempt at forcing the said Brotherhood to answer
him, and thus unveil the sphinx.
I can satisfy Mr. Mendenhall.
The Brotherhood of Luxor is one of the sections of the Grand Lodge of which I
am a member. If this gentleman entertains any doubt as to my statement—which I
have no doubt he will—he can, if he chooses, write to
62 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
to be, the matter is more than
easy; they have but to enquire of other spirits, look into my thoughts, and so
on; for a disembodied entity, an immortal spirit, it is the easiest thing in
the world to do. Then, if the gentleman I challenge, though I am deprived of
the pleasure of his acquaintance, tells me the true name of the section—which
name three gentlemen in New York, who are accepted neophytes of our Lodge, know
well—I pledge myself to give to Mr. Mendenhall the true statement concerning
the Brotherhood, which is not composed of spirits, as he may think, but of
living mortals, and I will, moreover, if he desires it, put him in direct
communication with the Lodge as I have done for others. Methinks, Mr.
Mendenhall will answer that no such name can be given correctly by the spirits,
for no such Lodge or Section either, exists at all, and thus close the discussion.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
(From The Spiritual
Scientist.)
AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY
THE circumstances attending
the sudden death of M. Delessert, inspector of the Police de Surete seem to
have made such an impression upon the Parisian authorities that they were
recorded in unusual detail. Omitting all particulars except what are necessary
to explain matters, we produce here the undoubtedly strange history.
In the fall of 1861 there came
to Paris a man who called himself Vic de Lassa, and was so inscribed upon his
passports. He came from
They lodged in luxurious
apartments on the Rue Richelieu, frequented the best places, received good
company, entertained handsomely, and acted in every way as if possessed of
considerable wealth. Lassa had always a good balance chez Schneider, Rater et Cie,
the Austrian bankers in Rue Rivoli, and wore diamonds of conspicuous lustre.
How did it happen then, that
the Prefect of Police saw fit to suspect Monsieur and Madame de Lassa, and
detailed Paul Delessert, one of the most ruse inspectors of the force, to
“pipe” him? The fact is, the insignificant man with the splendid wife was a
very mysterious personage, and it is the habit of the police to imagine that
mystery always hides either the conspirator, the adventurer, or the charlatan.
The conclusion to which the Prefect had come in regard to M. de Lassa was
64 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
that he was an adventurer and
charlatan too. Certainly a successful one, then, for he was singularly unobtrusive
and had in no way trumpeted the wonders which it was his mission to perform,
yet in a few weeks after he had established himself in Paris the salon of M. de
Lassa was the rage, and the number of persons who paid the fee of 100 francs
for a single peep into his magic crystal, and a single message by his spiritual
telegraph, was really astonishing. The secret of this was that M. de Lassa was
a conjurer and deceiver, whose pretensions were omniscient and whose
predictions always came true.
Delessert did not find it very
difficult to get an introduction and admission to De Lassa’s salon. The
receptions occurred every other day— two hours in the forenoon, three hours in
the evening. It was evening when Inspector Delessert called in his assumed
character of M. Flabry, virtuoso in jewels and a convert to Spiritualism. He
found the handsome parlours brilliantly lighted, and a charming assemblage
gathered of well-pleased guests, who did not at all seem to have come to learn
their fortunes or fates, while contributing to the income of their host, but
rather to be there out of complaisance to his virtues and gifts.
Mme. de Lassa performed upon
the piano or conversed from group to group in a way that seemed to be
delightful, while M. de Lassa walked about or sat in his insignificant,
unconcerned way, saying a word now and then, but seeming to shun everything
that was conspicuous. Servants handed about refreshments, ices, cordials,
wines, etc. and Delessert could have fancied himself to have dropped in upon a
quite modest evening entertainment, altogether en regle, but for one or two
noticeable circumstances which his observant eyes quickly took in.
Except when their host or
hostess was within hearing the guests conversed together in low tones, rather
mysteriously, and with not quite so much laughter as is usual on such
occasions. At intervals a very tall and dignified footman would come to a
guest, and, with a profound bow, present him a card on a silver salver. The
guest would then go out, preceded by the solemn servant, but when he or she
returned to the salon—some did not return at all—they invariably wore a dazed
or puzzled look, were confused, astonished, frightened, or amused. All this was
so unmistakably genuine, and De Lassa and his wife seemed so unconcerned amidst
it all, not to say distinct from it all, that Delessert could not avoid being
forcibly struck and considerably puzzled.
Two or three little incidents,
which came under Delessert’s own
65 ————————————————————AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY.
immediate observation, will
suffice to make plain the character of the impressions made upon those present.
A couple of gentlemen, both young, both of good social condition, and evidently
very intimate friends, were conversing together and tutoying one another at a
great rate, when the dignified footman summoned Alphonse. He laughed gaily,
“Tarry a moment, cher Auguste,” said he, “and thou shalt know all the
particulars of this wonderful fortune!” “En bien!” A minute had scarcely
elapsed when Alphonse returned to the salon. His face was white and bore an
appearance of concentrated rage that was frightful to witness. He came straight
to Auguste, his eyes flashing, and bending his face toward his friend, who
changed colour and recoiled, he hissed out: “Monsieur Lefèbure, vous êles Un
láche ! ” Very well, Monsieur Meuner,” responded Auguste, in the same low tone,
“tomorrow morning at
A diplomatist of distinction,
representative at
“I am exceedingly sorry,” said
General Von , “to have to absent myself so soon from your interesting salon, M.
de Lassa, but the result of my séance convinces me that my dispatches have been
tampered with.” “I am sorry,” responded M. de Lassa, with an air of languid but
courteous interest; “I hope you may be able to discover which of your servants
has been unfaithful.” “I am going to do that now,” said the General, adding, in
significant tones, “I shall see that both he and his accomplices do not escape
severe punishment.” “That is the only course to pursue, Monsieur le Comte.” The
ambassador stared, bowed, and took his leave with a bewilderment in his face
that was beyond the power of his tact to control.
In the course of the evening
M. de Lassa went carelessly to the piano, and, after some indifferent vague
preluding, played a remarkably effective piece of music, in which the turbulent
life and buoyancy of bacchanalian strains melted gently, almost imperceptibly
away, into a
66 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
sobbing wail of regret, and
languor, and weariness, and despair. It was beautifully rendered, and made a
great impression upon the guests, one of whom, a lady, cried, “How lovely, how
sad! Did you compose that yourself, M. de Lassa?” He looked towards her
absently for an instant, Then replied: “I? Oh, no! That is merely a
reminiscence, madame.” “Do you know who did compose it, M. de Lassa?” enquired
a virtuoso present. “I believe it was originally written by Ptolemy Auletes,
the father of Cleopatra,” said M. de Lassa, in his indifferent musing way; “but
not in its present form. It has been twice re-written to my knowledge; still,
the air is substantially the same.” “From whom did you get it, M. de Lassa, if
I may ask?” persisted the gentleman. “Certainly, certainly! The last time I
heard it played was by Sebastian Bach; but that was Palestrina’s—the
present—version. I think I prefer that of Guido of Arezzo—it is ruder, but has
more force. I got the air from Guido himself.” “You—from— Guido!” cried the
astonished gentleman. “Yes, monsieur,” answered De Lassa, rising from the piano
with his usual indifferent air. “Mon Dieu!” cried the virtuoso, putting his
hand to his head after the manner of Mr. Twemlow, “Mon Dieu! that was in Anno
Domni 1022.” “A little later than that—July, 1031. if I remember rightly,”
courteously corrected M. de Lassa.
At this moment the tall
footman bowed before M. Delessert, and presented the salver containing the
card. Delessert took it and read:
“On vous accorde trente-cinq
secondes, M. Flabry, tout au plus I” Delessert followed; the footman opened the
door of another room and bowed again, signifying that Delessert was to enter.
“Ask no questions,” he said briefly; “Sidi is mute.” Delessert entered the room
and the door closed behind him. It was a small room, with a strong smell of
frankincense pervading it; the walls were covered completely with red hangings
that concealed the windows, and the floor was felted with a thick carpet.
Opposite the door, at the upper end of the room near the ceiling was the face
of a large clock, under it, each lighted by tall wax candles, were two small
tables, containing, the one an apparatus very like the common registering telegraph
instrument, the other a crystal globe about twenty inches in diameter, set upon
an exquisitely wrought tripod of gold and bronze intermingled. By the side of
the door stood a man jet black in colour, wearing a white turban and burnous,
and having a sort of wand of silver in one hand. With the other he took
Delessert by the right arm above the elbow, and led him quickly up the
67 ————————————————————AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY.
room. He pointed to the clock,
and it struck an alarum; he pointed to the crystal. Delessert bent over, looked
into it, and saw—a facsimile of his own sleeping-room, everything photographed
exactly. Sidi did not give him time to exclaim, but still holding him by the
arm, took him to the other table. The telegraph-like instrument began to click
click. Sidi opened the drawer, drew out a slip of paper, crammed it into
Delessert’s hand, and pointed to the clock, which struck again. The thirty-five
seconds were expired. Sidi, still retaining hold of Delessert’s arm, pointed to
the door and led him towards it. The door opened, Sidi pushed him out, the door
closed, the tall footman stood there bowing—the interview with the oracle is
over. Delessert glanced at the piece of paper in his hand. It was a printed
scrap, capital letters, and read simply: “To M. Paul Delessert: The policeman
is always welcome, the spy is always in danger!”
Delessert was dumbfounded a
moment to find his disguise detected, but the words of the tall footman, “This
way if you please, M. Flabry,” brought him to his senses. Setting his lips, he
returned to the salon, and without delay sought M. de Lassa. “Do you know the
contents of this?” asked he, showing the message. “I know everything, M.
Delessert,” answered De Lassa, in his careless way. “Then perhaps you are aware
that I mean to expose a charlatan, and unmask a hypocrite, or perish in the
attempt?” said Delessert. “Cela rn’est egal, monsieur,” replied De Lassa. “You
accept my challenge then?” “Oh! it is a defiance, then?” replied De Lassa,
letting his eye rest a moment upon Delessert, “mais oui, je l’accepte!” And
thereupon Delessert departed.
Delessert now set to work,
aided by all the forces the Prefect of Police could bring to bear, to detect
and expose this consummate sorcerer, whom the ruder processes of our ancestors
would easily have disposed of—by combustion. Persistent enquiry satisfied
Delessert that the man was neither a Hungarian nor was named De Lassa; that no
matter how far back his power of “reminiscence” might extend, in his present
and immediate form he had been born in this unregenerate world in the
toy-making city of Nuremburg; that he was noted in boyhood for his great turn
for ingenious manufactures, but was very wild, and a mauvais sujet. In his
sixteenth year he escaped to
68 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
his own workshops, as well as
for an assistant in the public performances of his amusing and curious
diablerie. After staying with Houdin some years, Pflock Haslich (which was De
Lassa’s right name) had gone East in the suite of a Turkish Pasha, and after
many years’ roving, in lands where he could not be traced under a cloud of
pseudonyms, had finally turned up in Venice, and come thence to Paris.
Delessert next turned his
attention to Mme. de Lassa. It was more difficult to get a clue by means of
which to know her past life; but it was necessary in order to understand enough
about Haslich. At last, through an accident, it became probable that Mme. Aimee
was identical with a certain Mme. Schlaff, who had been rather conspicuous
among the demi-monde of Buda. Delessert posted off to that ancient city, and
thence went into the wilds of
It happened that on the day of
Delessert’s return to
“What you have seen will be,
Delessert, in three days. Prepare!” The detective, unspeakably shocked, retired
from the house at once and sought his own lodgings.
In the morning he came to the
office in a state of extreme dejection. He was completely unnerved. In relating
to a brother inspector what had occurred, he said: “That man can do what he
promises, I am doomed!”
He said that he thought he
could make a complete case out against Haslich alias De Lassa, but could not do
so without seeing the Prefect and getting instructions. He would tell nothing
in regard to his discoveries in Buda and in
69 ————————————————————AN
UNSOLVED MYSTERY.
He was told to go to the
Prefect at
On the morning of the third
day, Delessert, who had been staying chiefly indoors, avowed his determination
to go at once and telegraph to M. le Prefet to return immediately. With this
intention he and his brother officer started out. Just as they got to the
corner of the Rue de Lanery and the Boulevard, Delessert stopped suddenly and
put his hand to his forehead.
“My God!” he cried, “the
crystal! the picture!” and fell prone upon his face, insensible. He was taken
at once to a hospital, but only lingered a few hours, never regaining his
consciousness. Under express instruction from the authorities, a most careful,
minute, and thorough autopsy was made of Delessert’s body by several
distinguished surgeons, whose unanimous opinion was, that the cause of his
death was apoplexy, due to fatigue and nervous excitement.
As soon as Delessert was sent
to the hospital, his brother inspector hurried to the Central Office, and De
Lassa, together with his wife and everyone connected with the establishment,
were at once arrested. D Lassa smiled contemptuously as they took him away. “I
knew you were coming; I prepared for it; you will be glad to release me again.”
It was quite true that De
Lassa had prepared for them. When the house was searched it was found that
every paper had been burned, the crystal globe was destroyed, and in the room
of the seances was a great heap of delicate machinery broken into
indistinguishable bits. “That cost me 200,000 francs,” said De Lassa, pointing
to the pile, “but it has been a good investment.” The walls and floors were
ripped out in several places, and the damage to the property was considerable.
In prison neither De Lassa nor his associates made any revelations. The notion
that they had something to do with Delessert’s death was quickly dispelled, in
a legal point of view, and all the party but De Lassa were released. He was
still detained in prison, upon one pretext
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A MODERN PANARION.
or another, when one morning
he was found hanging by a silk sash to the cornice of the room where he was
confined—dead. The night before, it was afterwards discovered, Madame de Lassa
had eloped with a tall footman, taking the Nubian Sidi with them. De Lassa’s
secrets died with him.
—————
“It is an interesting story,
that article of yours in to-day’s Scientist. But is it a record of facts, or a
tissue of the imagination? If true, why not state the source of it, in other
words, specify your authority for it.”
The above is not signed, but
we would take the opportunity to say that the story, “An Unsolved Mystery,” was
published because we considered the main points of the narrative—the
prophecies, and the singular death of the officer—to be psychic phenomena, that
have been, and can be, again produced. Why quote “authorities”? The Scriptures
tell us of the death of Ananias, under the stern rebuke from Peter; here we
have a phenomenon of a similar nature. Ananias is supposed to have suffered
instant death from fear. Few can realize this power governed by spiritual laws,
but those who have trod the boundary line and know some few of the things that
can he done, will see no great mystery in this, nor in the story published last
week. We are not speaking in mystical tones. Ask the powerful mesmerist if
there is danger that the subject may pass out of his control?—if he could will
the spirit out, never to return? It is capable of demonstration that the
mesmerist can act on a subject at a distance of many miles; and it is no less
certain that the majority of mesmerists know little or nothing of the laws that
govern their powers.
It may be a pleasant dream to
attempt to conceive of the beauties of the spirit-world; but the time can be
spent more profitably in a study of the spirit itself, and it is not necessary
that the subject for study should be in the spirit-world.
SPIRITUALISM IN
—————
To the Editor of “ The
Spiritual Scientist.”
DEAR SIR,—In advices just
received from St. Petersburg I am requested to translate and forward to The
Scientist for publication the protest of the Hon. Alexander Aksakoff, Imperial
Counsellor of State, against the course of the professors of the University
respecting the Spiritualistic investigation. The document appears, in Russian,
in the Vedomostji, the official journal of
This generous, high-minded,
courageous gentleman has done the possible, and even the impossible, in order
to open the spiritual eyes of those incurable moles who fear the daylight of
truth as the burglar fears the policeman’s bull’s-eye.
The heartfelt thanks and
gratitude of every Spiritualist ought to be forwarded to this noble defender of
the cause, who regretted neither his time, trouble nor money to help the
propagation of the truth.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
—————
* See Appendix, “A. Aksakoff’s
Protest.”
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A MODERN PANARION
—————
[From The Spiritual Scientist,
DEAR SIR,—For the last three
months one has hardly been able to open a number of The Banner or the other
papers, without finding one or more proofs of the fecundity of the human
imagination in the condition of hallucination. The Spiritualist camp is in an
uproar, and the clans are gathering to fight imaginary foes. The tocsin is
sounded; danger signals shoot, like flaming rockets, across the hitherto serene
sky, and warning cries are uttered by vigilant sentries posted at the four
corners of the “angel-girt world.” The reverberations of this din resound even
in the daily press. One would think that the Day of Judgment had come for
American Spiritualism.
Why all this disturbance?
Simply because two humble individuals have spoken a few wholesome truths. If
the grand beast of the Apocalypse with its seven heads and the word “Blasphemy”
written upon each, had appeared in heaven, there would hardly have been seen so
much commotion there, as this; and there seems to be a concerted effort to cast
out Col. Olcott and myself (coupled like a pair of Hermetic Siamese twins) as
ominous to the superstitious as a comet with a fiery tail, and the precursor of
war, plagues and other calamities. They seem to think that if they do not crush
us, we will destroy Spiritualism.
I have no time to waste, and
what I now write is not intended for the benefit of such persons as these—whose
soap-bubbles, however pretty, are sure to burst of themselves—but to set myself
right with many most estimable Spiritualists for whom I feel a sincere regard.
If the spiritual press of
America were conducted upon a principle of doing even justice to all, I would
send your contemporaries copies of this letter, but their course in the past
has made me—whether rightly or not—feel as if no redress could be had outside
of your columns. I shall be only too glad if their treatment, in this case,
gives me cause to change my opinion that they, and their slandering theorists,
are inspired
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A MODERN PANARION.
by the biblical devils who
left Mary Magdalene and returned to the land of the “Sweet Bye-and-Bye.”
To begin, I wish to unhook my
name from that of Col. Olcott, if you please, and declare that, as he is not
responsible for my views or actions, neither am I for his. He is bold enough
and strong enough to defend himself under all circumstances, and has never
allowed his adversaries to strike without knocking out two teeth to their one.
If our views on Spiritualism are in some degree identical, and our work in the
Theosophical Society pursued in common, we are, notwithstanding, two very
distinct entities and mean to remain such. I highly esteem Col. Olcott, as
everyone does who knows him. He is a gentle man; but what is more in my eyes,
he is an honest and true man, and an unselfish Spiritualist, in the proper
sense of that word. If he now sees Spiritualism in another light than orthodox
Spiritualists would prefer, they themselves are only to blame. He strikes at
the rotten places of their philosophy, and they do all they can to cover up the
ulcers instead of trying to cure them. He is one of the truest and most
unselfish friends that the cause has to-day in
This is not Spiritualism; it
is, as I say, a New Lutheran Church, and really, though the late oracle of The
Banner of Light was evidently a pure and true woman—for the breath of calumny,
this raging demon of America, has never been able to soil her reputation—and
though certainly she was a wonderful medium, still I don’t see why a
Spiritualist should be ostracized, only because after having given up St. Paul,
he or she does not strictly adhere to the doctrines of St. Conant.
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The last number of The Banner
contained a letter from a Mr. Saxon, criticizing some expressions in a recent
letter of Col. Olcott to the New,
Surely some magician, with his
or her Kabalistic “Presto! Change!” has worked sudden and singular revolutions
in the mind of this disciple of Occultism, this gentleman who “is” and “is not”
a Spiritualist.
As I am the only Kabalist in
My experience shows that the
worst enemies of mediums are mediums. Not content with slandering each other,
they assail and. traduce their warmest and most unselfish friends.
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Whatever objection anyone may
have to me on account of country, religion, occult study, rudeness of speech,
cigarette-smoking, or any other peculiarity, my record in connection with
Spiritualism for long years does not show me as making money by it, or gaining
any other advantage, direct or indirect. On the contrary, those who have met me
in all parts of the world (which I have circumnavigated three times), will
testify that I have given thousands of dollars, imperilled my life, defied the
Catholic Church—where it required more courage to do so than the Spiritualists
seem to show about encountering elementaries—and in camp and court, on the sea,
in the desert, in civilized and savage countries, I have been from first to
last the friend and champion of mediums. I have done more. I have often taken
the last dollar out of my pocket, and even necessary clothes off my back, to
relieve their necessities.
And how do you think I have
been rewarded? By honours, emoluments, and social position? Have I charged a
fee for imparting to the public or individuals what little knowledge I have
gathered in my travels and studies? Let those who have patronized our principal
mediums answer.
I have been slandered in the
most shameful way, and the most unblushing lies circulated about my character
and antecedents by the very mediums whom I have been defending at the risk of
being taken for their confederate, when their tricks have been detected. What
has happened in American cities is no worse nor different from what has
befallen me in
Now, what do you suppose has
sustained me throughout? Do you imagine that I could not see the disgusting
frauds mixed up with the most divine genuine manifestations? Could I, having
nothing to gain in money, power or any other consideration, have been content
to pass through all these dangers, suffer all this abuse, and receive all these
injurious insults, if I saw nothing in Spiritualism but what these critics
76 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
of Col. Olcott and myself can
see? Would the prospect of an eternity, passed in the angel-girt world, in
company with unwashed Indian guides and military controls, with Aunt Sallies
and Prof. Websters, have been inducement enough? No; I would prefer
annihilation to such a prospect. It was because I knew that through the same
golden gates which swung open to admit the elementary and those unprogressed
human spirits who are worse, if anything, than they, have often passed the real
and purified forms of the departed and blessed ones. Because, knowing the
nature of these spirits and the laws of mediumistic control, I have never been
willing to hold my calumniators responsible for the great evil they did, when
they were often simply the unfortunate victims of obsession by unprogressed spirits.
Who can blame me for not wishing to associate with or receive instruction from
spirits who, if not far worse, were no better nor wiser than I? Is a man
entitled to respect and veneration simply because his body is rotting under
ground, like that of a dog? To me the grand object of my life was attained and
the immortality of our spirit demonstrated. Why should I turn necromancer and
evoke the dead, who could neither teach me nor make me better than I was? It is
a more dangerous thing to play with the mysteries of life and death than most
Spiritualists imagine.
Let them thank God for the
great proof of immortality afforded them in this century of unbelief and
materialism; and, if divine Providence has put them on the right path, let them
pursue it by all means, but not stop to pass their time in dangerous talk
indiscriminately with every one from the other side. The land of spirits, the
Summer Land, as they call it here, is a terra incognita; no believer will deny
it; it is vastly more unknown to every Spiritualist, as regards its various
inhabitants, than a trackless virgin forest of Central Africa. And who can
blame the pioneer settler if he hesitates to open his door to a knock, before
assuring himself whether the visitor be man or beast?
Thus, just because of all that
I have said above I proclaim myself a true Spiritualist, because my belief is
built upon a firm ground, and that no exposure of mediums, no social scandal
affecting them or others, no materialistic deductions of exact science, or
sneers and denunciations of scientists, can shake it. The truth is coming
slowly to light and I shall do my best to hasten its advent. I will breast the
current of popular prejudice and ignorance. I am prepared to endure
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slander, foul insinuations and
insult in the future as I have in the past. Already one spiritual editor, to
most effectually demonstrate his spirituality, has called me a witch. I have
survived, and hope to do so if two or two-score more should do the same; but
whether I ride the air to attend my Sabbath or not, one thing is certain: I
will not ruin myself to buy broomsticks upon which to chase after every lie set
afloat by editors or mediums.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
-------
A MODERN PANARION
—————
[From The Spiritual
Scientist.]
I BELIEVE Occultism to be
essentially a reincarnation of ancient paganism, a revivification of the
Pythagorean philosophy; not the senseless ceremonies and spiritless forms of
those ancient religions, but the Spirit of the Truth which animated those grand
old systems which held the world spell-bound in awe and reverence long after
the spirit had departed, and nothing was left but the dead, decaying body.
Occultism asserts the eternal
individuality of the soul, the imperishable force which is the cause and
sustaining power of all organization, that death is only the casting off of a
worn-out garment in order to procure a new and better one.
So death, so-called, can but the form deface,
The immortal soul flies out in empty space,
To seek her fortune in another place.
Occultism, in its efforts to
penetrate the arcana of dynamic forces and primordial power, sees in all things
a unity, an unbroken chain extending from the lowest organic form to the
highest, and concludes that this unity is based upon a uniformly ascending
scale of organic forms of being, the Jacob’s ladder of spiritual organic
experience, up which every soul must travel before it can again sing praises
before the face of its Father. It perceives a duality in all things, a physical
and spiritual nature, closely interwoven in each other’s embrace,
interdependent upon each other, and yet independent of each other. And as there
is in spirit-life a central individuality, the soul, so there is in the
physical, the atom, each eternal, unchangeable and self-existent. These
centres, physical and spiritual, are surrounded by their own respective
atmospheres, the intersphering of which results in aggregation and
organization. This idea is not limited to terrestrial life, but is extended to
worlds and systems of worlds.
Physical existence is
subservient to the spiritual, and all physical
79 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION
improvement and progress are
only the auxiliaries of spiritual progress, without which there could be no
physical progress. Physical organic progress is effected through hereditary
transmission; spiritual organic progress by transmigration.
Occultism has divided
spiritual progress into three divisions—the elementary, which corresponds with
the lower organizations; the astral, which relates to the human; and the
celestial, which is divine. “Elementary spirits,” whether they belong to
“earth, water, air or fire,” are spirits not yet human, but attracted to the
human by certain congenialities. As many physical diseases are due to the
presence of parasites, attracted or produced by uncleanness and other causes,
so parasitic spirits are attracted by immorality or spiritual uncleanness,
thereby inducing spiritual diseases and consequent physical ailments. They who
live on the animal plane must attract spirits of that plane, who seek for
borrowed embodiments where the most congeniality exists in the highest form.
Thus the ancient doctrine of
obsession challenges recognition, and the exorcism of devils is as legitimate
as the expelling of a tape-worm, or the curing of the itch. It was also
believed that these spiritual beings sustained their spiritual existence by
certain emanations from physical bodies, especially when newly slain; thus in
sacrificial offerings the priests received the physical part, and the Gods the
spiritual, they being content with a “sweet-smelling savour.” It was further
thought that wars were instigated by these demons, so that they might feast on
the slain.
But vegetable food also held a
place in spiritual estimation, for incense and fumigations were powerful
instruments in the hands of the expert magician.
Above the elementary spheres
were the seven planetary spheres, and as the elementary spheres were the means
of progress for the lower animals, so were the planetary spheres the means of
progress for spirits advanced from the elementary—for human spirits. The human
spirit at death went to its associative star, till ready for a new incarnation,
and its birth partook of the nature of the planet whence it came, and whose
rays illumined the ascendant—the central idea of astrology. When the lessons of
a planetary sphere were fully mastered, the spirit rose to the next sphere to
proceed as before. The character of these spheres corresponded to the “seven
ages of man.” But not always did the spirit return to the astral spheres.
Suicides; those from whom life had been
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A MODERN PANARION.
suddenly taken before fully
ripe; those whose affections were inordinately attached to earthly things,
etc., were held to the earth till certain conditions were fulfilled, and some
whose lives had fitted them for such disposal were remanded to the elementary
spheres, to be incarnated as lower animals, corresponding to the nature of
their lives. Such were the perturbed spirits who sometimes disturbed the peace
of sensitive mortals in the days gone by—perhaps now.
Transcending the planetary
spheres were the three divine spheres where the process of apotheosis took
place, where the spirit progressed till it reached the fulness of the Godhead
bodily. From these spheres were appointed the Guardians of the inferior
spheres, the Messengers of God, ministering spirits, sent to minister to them
who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.
Such is a brief outline of
spiritual Occult philosophy; it may seem to be inconsistent with the ideas of
modern Spiritualism, yet even Spiritualism has not altogether lost sight of the
seven spheres and other peculiarities of the ancient astro-spiritual faith; and
as knowledge is acquired and experience gained, a better understanding of both
ancient and modern mysticism will bring them nearer together and show a
consistency and mutual agreement which has never been disturbed—only
obscured—by human ignorance and presumption.
But Occultism has a physical
aspect which I cannot afford to pass by. Man is a fourfold being.
Four things of man there are:
spirit, soul, ghost, flesh;
Four places these four keep and do possess.
The earth covers flesh, the ghost hovers o’er the grave,
Orcus hath the soul, the stars the spirit crave.
When the spirit leaves the
body, and is properly prepared for the stellar spheres, these are retained in
the mortal remains; and the shade, which is no part of the spirit or the true
man or woman, may still counterfeit them, make revelations of the past, in fact
reveal more of its sensual history, and prove sensual identity better than the
spirit itself could do, seeing it knows only spiritual things. The sciomancy of
the past bears the same relation to modern psychometry that ancient Magic does
to modern Spiritualism. Thus in haunted houses, in graveyards and places where
deeds of violence have occurred, sensitives see the drama reacted which
transpired long ago, the spirit being no accessory thereto.
The spirit cannot even
communicate unless through the interblend-
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A MODERN PANARION
ing of physical and spiritual
auræ and only by coming en rapport with physical things can it know anything of
them; and thus mediums are as necessary on the other side as on this; through
which mediums, Guardian Spirits, we may gain a nearer apprehension of spiritual
truths, if we live for them.
BUDDHA 0F
—————
* We cannot say positively
that this is H. P. B. ‘s, but it is either written by her, or under her
inspiration.
A WARNING TO MEDIUMS
—————
[From The Banner of Light, May
13th1876.]
DEAR SIR,—I take the earliest
opportunity to warn mediums generally—but particularly American mediums—that a
plot against the cause has been hatched in
It is now commonly known that
Prof. Wagner, the geologist, has boldly come out as a champion for mediumistic
phenomena. Since he witnessed the wonderful manifestations of Bredif, the
French medium, he has issued several pamphlets, reviewed at great length in
Col. Olcott’s People from the Other World, and excited and defied the anger of
all the scientific pyschophobists of the
Chief among them is the
chairman of the scientific Commission which has just exploded with a report of
what they did not see at séances never held! Goaded to fury by the defence of
Spiritualism, which they had intended to quietly butcher, this individual
suddenly took the determination to come to
Let me give mediums a bit of
friendly caution. If this Russian Professor should turn up at a séance, keep a
sharp eye upon him, and let everyone do the same; give him no private séances
at which there is not present at least one truthful and impartial Spiritualist.
Some scientists are not to be trusted. My correspondent writes that the
Professor—
Goes to
83 ————————————————————A WARNING TO MEDIUMS.
The plot is very ingeniously
contrived: he is coming here under the pretext of the Centennial, and will
attract as little attention as possible among the mediums.
But, Mr. Editor, what if he
should meet the fate of Hare and become a Spiritualist! What wailing would
there not be in the Society of Physical Sciences! I shudder at the
mortification which would await my poor countrymen.
But another distinguished
Russian scientist is also coming, for whom I bespeak a very different
reception. Prof. Kittara, the greatest technologist of
The unfairness of the
University Commission has, it seems, produced a reaction. I translate the
following from a paper which Mr. Aksakoff has sent me, the St. Petersburg
Berjeveya viedomostji (Exchange Reports):
We hear that the Commission
for the investigation of mediumism, which was formed by the Society of Physical
Sciences attached to the University, is preparing to issue a report of its
labours [? !]. It will appear as an appendix to the monthly periodical of the
Chemical and Physical Societies. Meanwhile another Commission is being formed,
but this time its members will not be supplied from the Physical Science
Society, but from the Medical Society. Nevertheless, several members of the
former will be invited to join, as well as the friends of mediumism, and others
who would be able to offer important suggestions pro or con. We hear that the
formation of this new Commission is warmly advocated, its necessity having been
shown in the breach of faith by the Physical Science Society, its failure to
hold the promised forty seances, its premature adoption of unfair conclusions,
and the strong prejudices of the members.
Let us hope that this new
organization may prove more honourable than its predecessor (peace to its
ashes!).
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
(NEW)
A NEW WAR OF THE ROSES.
[From The Banner of Light,
DESPITE the constant
recurrence of new discoveries by modern men of science, an exaggerated respect
for authority and an established routine among the educated class retard the
progress of true knowledge. Facts which, if observed, tested, classified and
appreciated, would be of inestimable importance to science, are summarily cast
into the despised limbo of supernaturalism. To these conservatives the
experience of the past serves neither as an example nor a warning. The
overturning of a thousand cherished theories finds our modern philosopher as
unprepared for each new scientific revelation as though his predecessor had
been infallible from time immemorial.
The protoplasmist should, at
least, in modesty remember that his past is one vast cemetery of dead theories;
a desolate potter’s field wherein exploded hypotheses lie, in ignoble oblivion,
like so many executed malefactors, whose names cannot be pronounced by the next
of kin without a blush.
The nineteenth century is
essentially the age of demolition. True, science takes just pride in many
revolutionary discoveries and claims to have immortalized the epoch by forcing
from Dame Nature some of her most important secrets. But for every inch she
illumines of the narrow and circular path within whose limits she has hitherto
trodden, what unexplored boundless stretches have been left behind? The worst
is that science has not simply withheld her light from these regions that seem
dark (but are not), but her votaries try their best to quench the lights of
other people under the pretext that they are not authorities, and their friendly
beacons are but “will-o’-the-wisps.” Prejudice and preconceived ideas have
entered the public brain, and, cancer-like, are eating it to the core.
Spiritualism—or, if some for whom the word has become so unpopular prefer it,
the universe of
85 ———————————————————(NEW)
spirit—is left to fight out
its battle with the world of matter, and the crisis is at hand.
Half-thinkers, and aping,
would-be philosophers—in short, that class which is unable to penetrate events
any deeper than their crust, and which measures every clay’s occurrences by its
present aspect, unmindful of the past and careless of the future—heartily
rejoice over the latest rebuff given to phenomenalism in the Lankester-Donkin
offensive and defensive alliance, and the pretended exposure of Slade. In this
hour of would—be Lancastrian triumph, a change should be made in English
heraldic crests. The
Such persons as these bound
all spiritual phenomena in Nature by the fortunes and mishaps of mediums; each
new favourite, they think, must of necessity pull down in his fall an
unscientific hypothetical “Unseen Universe,” as the tumbling red dragon of the
Apocalypse drew with his tail the third part of the stars of heaven. Poor blind
moles! They perceive not that by inveighing against the “craze” of such
phenomenalists as Wallace, Crookes, Wagner and Thury, they only help the spread
of true Spiritualism. We millions of lunatics really ought to address a vote of
thanks to the “dishevelled” Beards who make supererogatory efforts to appear as
stupid clodpoles to deceive the Eddys, and to Lankesters simulating
“astonishment and intense interest,” the better to cheat Dr. Shade. More than
any advocates of phenomenalism, they bring its marvels into public notice by
their pyrotechnic exposures.
86 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
As one entrusted by the
Russian Committee with the delicate task of selecting a medium for the coming
St. Petersburg experiments, and as an officer of the Theosophical Society,
which put Dr. Slade’s powers to the test in a long series of seances, I
pronounce him not only a genuine medium, but one of the best and least
fraudulent mediums ever developed. From personal experience I can not only
testify to the genuineness of his slate-writing, but also to that of the
materializations which occur in his presence. A shawl thrown over a chair
(which I was invited to place wherever I chose) is all the cabinet he exacts,
and his apparitions immediately appear, and that in gas—light.
No one will charge me with a
superfluous confidence in the personality of material apparitions, or a
superabundance of love for them ; but honour and truth compel me to affirm that
those who appeared to me in Slade’s presence were real phantoms, and not “made
up” confederates or dolls. They were evanescent and filmy, and the only ones I
have seen in
Everyone knows that Dr. Slade
is not acquainted with foreign languages, and yet at our first séance, three
years ago, on the day after my arrival in
In reading the accounts in the
87 ——————————————————(NEW)
brace of scientific
detectives. Fraud, that neither the “psychic” Sergeant Cox, nor the
“unconsciously cerebrating” Carpenter, nor the wise Wallace, nor the
experienced M.A. (Oxon.), nor the cautious Lord Rayleigh—who, mistrusting his
own acuteness, employed a professional juggler to attend the séance with
him—nor Dr. Carter Blake, nor a host of other competent observers could detect,
was seen by the eagle eyes of the Lankester-Donkin Gemini at a single glance.
There has been nothing like it since Beard, of electro-hay fever and Eddy fame,
denounced the faculty of Yale for a set of asses, because they would not accept
his divinely-inspired revelation of the secret of mind-reading, and pitied the
imbecility of that “amiable idiot,” Col. Olcott, for trusting his own
two—months’ observation of the Eddy phenomena in preference to the electric
doctor’s single séance of an hour.
I am an American citizen in
embryo, Mr. Editor, and I cannot hope that the English magistrates of
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
Corresponding Secretary of the
Theosophical Society.
HUXLEY AND SLADE
[ From The banner of Light,
As I see the issue that has been
raised by Dr. Hallock with Mr. Huxley, it suggests to me the comparison of two
men looking at the same distant object through a telescope. The Doctor, having
taken the usual precautions, brings the object within close range where it can
he studied at one’s leisure; but the naturalist, having forgotten to remove the
cap, sees only the reflection of his own image.
Though the materialists may
find it hard to answer even the brief criticisms of the Doctor, yet it appears
that Mr. Huxley’s
Of him it may be said, as it
has been of other teachers before, that what he said that was new was not true;
and that which was true was not new.
Without going into details,
for the moment, it suffices to say that the materialistic theory of evolution
is far from being demonstrated, while the thought that Mr. Huxley does not
grasp—i.e., the double evolution of spirit and matter—is imparted under the
form of various legends in the oldest parts of the Rig Veda (the Aitareya
Brâhmana). Only these benighted Hindus, it seems, made the trifling improvement
over Modern
89 ————————————————————HUXLEY
AND SLADE.
Science, of hooking a First
Cause on to the further end of the chain of evolution.
In the Chaturhotri Mantra
(Book V of the Aitareya Brâhmana) the Goddess Eath (lyam), who is termed the
Queen of the Serpents (Sârpa), for she is the mother of everything that moves
(Sârpat), was in the beginning of time completely bald. She was nothing but one
round head, which was soft to the touch, i.e., “a gelatinous mass.” Being disstressed
at her baldness, she called for help to the great Vâyu, the Lord of the airy
regions; she prayed him to teach her the Mantra (invocation or sacrificial
prayer—a certain part of the Veda), which would confer on her the magical power
of creating things (generation). He complied, and then as soon as the Mantra
was pronounced by her “in the proper metre” she found herself covered with hair
(vegetation). She was now hard to the touch, for the Lord of the air had
breathed upon her—the globe had cooled. She had become of a variegated or
motley appearance, and suddenly acquired the power to produce out of herself
every animate and inanimate form, and to chance one form to another.
Therefore in like manner [ the
sacred book] the man who has such a knowledge [ the Mantras] obtains the
faculty of assuming any shape or form he likes.
It will scarcely be said that
this allegory is capable of more than one interpretation, viz., that the
ancient Hindus, many centuries before the Christian era, taught the doctrine of
evolution. Martin Haug, the Sanskrit scholar, asserts that the Vedas were
already in existence from 2,000 to 2,200 B.C.
Thus, while the theory of
evolution is nothing new, and may be considered a proven fact, the new ideas
forced upon the public by Mr. Huxley are only undemonstrated hypotheses, and as
such liable to be exploded the first fine day upon the discovery of some new
fact. We find no admission of his, however, in Mr. Huxley’s communications to
the public; but the unproved theories are enunciated with as much boldness as
though the were established scientific facts, corroborated by unerring laws of
Nature. Notwithstanding this the world is asked to revere the great
evolutionist, only because he stands under the shadow of a great name.
What is this but one of the
many false pretences of the sciolists? And yet Huxley and his admirers charge
the believers in the evolution of spirit with the same crime of false
pretences, because, forsooth, our theories are as yet undemonstrated. Those who
believe in Slade’s
90 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
spirits-are “lost.to reason,”
while those who can see embryonic man in Huxley’s “gelatinous mass” are
accepted as the progressive minds of the age. Slade is arraigned before the
magistrate for taking $5 from Lankester, while Huxley triumphantly walks away
with $5,0OO of American gold in his pockets, which was paid him for imparting
to us the mirific fact that man evolved from the hind toe of a pedactyl horse!
Now, arguing from the
standpoint of strict justice, in what respect is a materialistic theorist any
better than a spiritualistic one? And in what degree is the evolution of
man—independent of divine and spiritual interference—better proven by the toe-bone
of an extinct horse, than the evolution and survival of the human spirit by the
writing upon a screwed-up slate by some unseen power or powers? And yet again,
the soulless Huxley sails away laden with flowers like a fashionable corpse,
conquering and to conquer in fresh fields of glory, while the poor medium is
hauled before a police magistrate as a “vagrant and a swindler,” without proof
enough to sustain the charge before an unprejudiced tribunal.
There is good authority for
the statement that psychological science is a debatable land upon which the
modern physiologist hardly dares to venture. I deeply sympathize with the
embarrassed student of the physical side of Nature. We all can readily
understand how disagreeable it must be to a learned theorist, ever aspiring for
the elevation of his hobby to the dignity of an accepted scientific truth,
constantly to receive the lie direct from his remorseless and untiring
antagonist— psychology. To see his cherished materialistic theories become
every day more untenable, until they are reduced to the condition of mummies
swathed in shrouds, self-woven and inscribed with a farrago of pet sophistries,
is indeed hard. And in their self-satisfying logic, these sons of matter reject
every testimony but their own: the divine entity of the Socratic daimonion, the
ghost of Cæsar, and
And now, supposing the great
protoplasmist to have proved to the general satisfaction that the present horse
is an effect of a gradual development from the Orophippus, or four-toed horse
of the Eocene formation, which, passing further through Miocene and Pliocene
periods, has become the modern honest Equus, does Huxley thereby prove that man
has also developed from a one-toed human being? For nothing short of that could
demonstrate his theory. To be consistent he must
91 ————————————————————HUXLEY AND SLADE.
show that while the horse was
losing at each successive period a toe, man has in reversed order acquired an
additional one at each new formation; and unless we are shown the fossilized
remains of man in a series of one-, two-, three- and four-toed anthropoid
ape-like beings antecedent to the present perfected Homo, what does Huxley’s
theory amount to? Nobody doubts that everything has evolved out of some thing
prior to itself. But, as it is, he leaves us hopelessly in doubt whether it is
man who is a hipparionic or equine evolution, or the antediluvian Equus that
evolved from the primitive genus Homo!
Thus to apply the argument to
Slade’s case we may say that, whether the messages on his slate indicate an
authorship among the returning spirits of antediluvian monkeys, or the bravos
and Lankestrian ancestors of our day, he is no more guilty of false pretences
than the $5,000 evolutionist. Hypothesis, whether of scientist or medium, is no
false pretence; but unsupported assertion is, when people are charged money for
it.
If, satisfied with the osseous
fragments of a Hellenized or Latinized skeleton, we admit that there is a
physical evolution, by what logic can we refuse to credit the possibility of an
evolution of spirit? That there are two sides to the question, no one but an
utter psychophobist will deny. It may be argued that even if the Spiritualists
have demonstrated their bare facts, their philosophy is not complete, since it
has missing links. But no more have the evolutionists. They have fossil remains
which prove that once upon a time the ancestors of the modern horse were
blessed with three and even four toes and fingers, the fourth ‘‘answering to
the little finger of the human hand,” and that the Protohippus rejoiced in ‘‘a
fore-arm’’ ; Spiritualists in their turn exhibit entire hands, arms, and even bodies
in support of their theory that the dead still live and revisit us. For my part
I cannot see that the osteologists have the better of them. Both follow the
inductive or purely scientific method, proceeding from particulars to
universals; thus Cuvier, upon finding a small bone, traced around it imaginary
lines until he had built up from his prolific fancy a whole mammoth. The data
of scientists are no more certain than those of Spiritualists; and while the
former have but their modern discoveries upon which to build their theories,
Spiritualists may cite the evidence of a succession of ages, which began long
prior to the advent of Modern Science.
An inductive hypothesis, we
are told, is demonstrated when the facts are shown to be in entire accordance
with it. Thus, if Huxley possesses
92 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
conclusive evidence of the
evolution of man in the genealogy of the horse, Spiritualists can equally claim
that proof of the evolution of spirit out of the body is furnished in the
materialized, more or less substantial, limbs that float in the dark shadows of
the cabinet, and often in full light—a phenomenon which has been recognized and
attested by numberless generations of wise men of every country. As to the
pretended superiority of modern over ancient science, we have only the word of
the former for it. This is also an hypothesis; better evidence is required to
prove the fact. We have but to turn to Wendell Phillips’s lecture on the Lost
Arts to have a certain right to doubt the assurance of Modern Science.
Speaking of evidence, it is
strange what different and arbitrary values may be placed upon the testimony of
different men equally trustworthy and well-meaning. Says the parent of
protoplasm:
It is impossible that one’s
practical life should not be more or less influenced by the views which he may
hold as to what has been the past history of things. One of them is human
testimony in its various shapes—all testimony of eye-witnesses, traditional
testimony from the lips of those who have been eye-witnesses, and the testimony
of those who have put their impressions into writing or into print.
On just such testimony, amply
furnished in the Bible (evidence which Mr. Huxley rejects), and in many other
less problematical authors than Moses, among whom may be reckoned generations
of great philosophers, theurgists, and laymen, Spiritualists have a right to
base their fundamental doctrines. Speaking further of the broad distinction to
be drawn between the different kinds of evidence, some being less valuable than
others, because given upon grounds not clear, upon grounds illogically stated
and upon such as do not bear thorough and careful inspection, the same
gelatinist remarks:
For example, if I read in your
history of Tennessee [Ramsays] that one hundred years ago this country was
peopled by wandering savages, my belief in this statement rests upon the
conviction that Mr. Ramsay was actuated by the same sort of motives that men
are now,... that he himself was, like ourselves, not inclined to make false
statements. . . . If you read Cæsar’s Commentaries, wherever he gives an
account of his battles with the Gauls, you place a certain amount of confidence
in his statements. You take his testimony upon this, you feel that Cæsar would
not have made these statements unless he had believed them to be true.
Profound philosophy! precious
thoughts! gems of condensed, gelatinous truth! long may it stick to the
American mind! Mr. Huxley ought to devote the rest of his days to writing
primers for the feeble minded adults of the
93 ————————————————————HUXLEY AND SLADE.
of the trustworthy witness of
ancient times? And if we must implicitly credit his reports of battles, why not
his profession of faith in augurs, diviners and apparitions?—for in common with
his wife, Calpurnia, he believed in them as firmly as any modern Spiritualist
in his mediums and phenomena. We also feel that no more than Cæsar would such
men as
It has already been shown that
the doctrine of evolution, as a whole, was taught in the Rig Veda, and I may
also add that it can be found in the most ancient of the books of Hermes. This
is bad enough for the claim to originality set up by our modern scientists, but
what shall be said when we recall the fact that the very pedactyl horse, the
finding of whose footprints has so overjoyed Mr. Huxley, was mentioned by
ancient writers (Herodotus anti Pliny, if I mistake not), and was once
outrageously laughed at by the French Academicians? Let those who wish to
verify the fact read Salverti’s Philosophy of Occult Science, translated by
Todd Thompson.
Some day proofs as conclusive
will be discovered of the reliability of the ancient writers as to their
evidence on psychological matters. What Niebuhr, the German materialist, did
with Livy’s History, from which he eliminated every one of the multitude of
facts of phenomenal “Super naturalism,’’ scientists now seem to have tacitly
agreed to do with all the ancient, medæval and modern authors. What they
narrate, that can be used to bolster up the physical part of science,
scientists accept and sometimes coolly appropriate without credit; what
supports the Spiritualistic philosophy they incontinently reject as mythical
and contrary to the order of Nature. In such cases “evidence” and the
“testimony of eye-witnesses” count for nothing. They adopt the contrary course
to Lord Verulam, who, arguing on the properties of amulets and charms, remarks
that:
We should not reject all this
kind, because it is not known how far those contributing to superstition depend
on natural causes.
There can be no real
enfranchisement of human thought nor expansion of scientific discovery until
the existence of spirit is recognized, and the double evolution accepted as a
fact. Until then, false theories will always find favour with those who, having
forsaken “the God of their fathers,” vainly strive to find substitutes in
nucleated masses of matter. And of all the sad things to be seen in this era of
“shams,”
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A MODERN PANARION.
none is more deplorable—though
its futility is often ludicrous—than the conspiracy of certain scientists to
stamp out spirit by their one-sided theory of evolution, and destroy
Spiritualism by arraigning its mediums upon the charge of “false pretences.”
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
CAN THE DOUBLE MURDER?
—————
To the Editor of” The Sun.”
SIR,—One morning in 1867
In the Austrian dominions and
in those tinder the doubtful protectorate of
The writer of this truthful
narrative had passed a few days at
96 ———————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
and knew the Princess Katinka.
She was a kind, gentle, and lazy creature at home; abroad she seemed a
Parisienne in manners and education. As nearly all the personages who will
figure in this true story are still living, it is but decent that I should
withhold their names, and give only initials.
The old Serbian lady seldom
left her house, going but to see the Princess occasionally. Crouched on a pile
of pillows and carpeting, clad in the picturesque national dress, she looked
like the Cumæan sibyl in her days of calm repose. Strange stories were
whispered about her Occult knowledge, and thrilling accounts circulated some
times among the guests assembled round the fireside of the modest inn. Our fat
landlord’s maiden aunt’s cousin had been troubled for some time past by a
wandering vampire, and had been bled nearly to death by the nocturnal visitor,
and while the efforts and exorcisms of the parish pope had been of no avail,
the victim was luckily delivered by Gospoja P—, who had put to flight the
disturbing ghost by merely shaking her fist at him, and shaming him in his own
language. It was in
About eighteen months after
the news of the murder had reached
97 ——————————————————CAN THE DOUBLE MURDER?
mutual introduction being
needed. I had heard his name mentioned in circles interested in mesmerism, and
knew him to be a powerful adept of the
“I have found,” he remarked,
in the course of the conversation after I had made him share my seat of hay,
“one of the most wonderful subjects in this lovely Thebaide. I have an
appointment to-night with the family. They are seeking to unravel the mystery
of a murder by means of the clairvoyance of the girl . . . she is wonderful!”
“Who is she?” I asked.
“A Roumanian gipsy. She was
brought up, it appears, in the family of the Serbian reigning Prince, who
reigns no more, for he was very mysteriously mur— Halloo, take care! Diable,
you will upset us over the precipice!” he hurriedly exclaimed, unceremoniously
snatching from me the reins, and giving the horse a violent pull.
“You do not mean Prince Obrenovitch?”
I asked aghast.
“Yes, I do; and him precisely.
To-night I have to be there, hoping to close a series of seances by finally
developing a most marvellous manifestation of the hidden power of the human
spirit; and you may come with me. I will introduce you; and besides, you can
help me as an interpreter, for they do not speak French.”
As I was pretty sure that if
the somnambule was Frosya, the rest of the family must be Gospoja P—, I readily
accepted. At sunset we were at the foot of the mountain, leading to the old
castle, as the Frenchman called the place. It fully deserved the poetical name
given it. There was a rough bench in the depths of one of the shadowy retreats,
and as we stopped at the entrance of this poetical place, and the Frenchman was
gallantly busying himself with my horse on the suspicious-looking bridge which
led across the water to the entrance gate, I saw a tall figure slowly rise from
the bench and come towards us.
It was my old friend Gospoja
P—, looking more pale and more mysterious than ever. She exhibited no surprise
at seeing me, but simply greeting me after the Serbian fashion, with a triple
kiss on both cheeks, she took hold of my hand and led me straight to the nest
of ivy. Half reclining on a small carpet spread on the tall grass, with her
back leaning against the wall, I recognized our Frosya.
She was dressed in the
national costume of the Wallachian women, a sort of gauze turban intermingled
with various gilt medals and bands on her head, white shirt with opened sleeves,
and petticoats of varie-
98 ————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
gated colours. Her face looked
deadly pale, her eyes were closed, and her countenance presented that stony,
sphinx-like look which characterizes in such a peculiar way the entranced
clairvoyant somnambule. If it were not for the heaving motion of her chest and
bosom, ornamented by rows of medals and head necklaces which feebly tinkled at
ever breath, one might have thought her dead, so lifeless and corpse-like was
her face. The Frenchman informed me that he had sent her to sleep just as we
were approaching the house, and that she now was as he had left her the
previous night; he then began busying himself with the sujet, as he called
Frosva. Paying no further attention to us, he shook her by the hand, and then
making a few rapid passes stretched out her arm and stiffened it. The arm, as
rigid as iron, remained in that position. He then closed all her fingers but
one—the middle finger—which he caused to point at the evening star, which
twinkled in the deep blue sky. Then he turned round and went over from right to
left, throwing on some of his fluids here, again discharging them at another
place; busying himself with his invisible but potent fluids, like a painter
with his brush when giving the last touches to a picture.
The old lady, who had silently
watched him, with her chin in her hand the while, put her thin,
skeleton—looking hands on his arm and arrested it, as he was preparing himself
to begin the regular mesmeric passes.
‘‘Wait,” she whispered, ‘‘till
the star is set and the ninth hour completed. The Vourdalaki are hovering
round; they may spoil the influence.’’
“What does she say?” enquired
time mesmerizer, annoyed at her interference.
I explained to him that the
old lady feared the pernicious influences of the Vourdalaki.
“Vourdalaki! What’s that—the
Vourdalaki?” exclaimed the French man. “Let us be satisfied with Christian
spirits, if the honour us to-night with a visit, and lose no time for the
Vourdalaki.”
I glanced at the Gospoja. She
had become deathly pale and her brow was sternly knitted over her flashing
black eyes.
“Tell him not to jest at this
hour of the night!” she cried. “He does not know the country. Even this holy church
may fail to protect us once the Vourdalaki are roused. What’s this ?“ pushing
with her foot a bundle of herbs the botanizing mesmerizer had laid near on the
99 ———————————————————CAN THE DOUBI,E MURDER?
grass. She bent over the
collection and anxiously examined the contents of the bundle, after which she
flung the whole into the water.
‘‘It must not be left here,’’
she firmly added; ‘‘these are the
Meanwhile the night had come,
and the moon illuminated the land scape with a pale, ghostly light. The nights
in the Banat are nearly as beautiful as in the East, and the Frenchman had to
go on with his experiments in the open air, as the priest of the church had
prohibited such in the tower, which was used as the parsonage, for fear of
filling the holy precincts with the heretical devils of the mesmerizer, which,
the priest remarked, he would be unable to exorcise on account of their being
foreigners.
The old gentleman had thrown
off his travelling blouse, rolled tip his shirt sleeves, and now, striking a
theatrical attitude, began a regular process of mesmerization.
Under his quivering fingers
the odile fluid actually seemed to flash in the twilight. Frosya was placed
with her figure facing the moon, and every motion of the entranced girl was
discernible as in daylight. In a few minutes large drops of perspiration
appeared on her brow, and slowly rolled down her pale face, glittering in the
moonbeams. Then she moved uneasily about and began chanting a low melody, to
the words of which the Gospoja, anxiously bent over the unconscious girl, was
listening with avidity and trying to catch every syllable. With her thin finger
on her lips, her eyes nearly starting from their sockets, her frame motionless,
the old lady seemed herself transfixed into a statue of attention. The group
was a remarkable one, and I regretted that I was not a painter. What followed
was a scene worthy to figure in Macbeth. At one side she, the slender girl,
pale and corpse- like, writhing tinder the invisible fluid of him who for the
hour was her omnipotent master; at the other the old matron, who, burning with
her unquenched fire of revenge, stood waiting for the long-expected name of the
Prince’s murderer to be at last pronounced. The Frenchman himself seemed
transfigured, his grey hair standing on end; his bulky clumsy form seemed to
have grown in a few minutes. All theatrical pretence was now gone; there
remained but the mesmerizer, aware of his responsibility, unconscious himself
of the possible results, studying and anxiously expecting. Suddenly Frosya, as
if lifted by some super natural force, rose from her reclining posture and
stood erect before us,
100————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
again motionless and still,
waiting for the magnetic fluid to direct her. The Frenchman, silently taking
the old lady’s hand, placed it in that of the somnambulist, and ordered her to
put herself en rapport with the Gospoja.
“What seest thou, my
daughter?” softly murmured the Serbian lady. “Can your spirit seek out the
murderers?”
“Search and behold!” sternly
commanded the mesmerizer, fixing his gaze upon the face of the subject.
“I am on my way—I go,” faintly
whispered Frosya, her voice seeming not to come from herself, but from the
surrounding atmosphere.
At this moment something so
strange took place that I doubt my ability to describe it. A luminous vapour
appeared, closely surround ing the girl’s body. At first about an inch in thickness,
it gradually expanded, and, gathering itself, suddenly seemed to break off from
the body altogether and condense itself into a kind of semi-solid vapour, which
very soon assumed the likeness of the somnambule herself. Flickering about the
surface of the earth the form vacillated for two or three seconds, then glided
noiselessly toward the river. It disappeared like a mist, dissolved in the
moonbeams, which seemed to absorb it altogether.
I had followed the scene with
an intense attention. The mysterious operation, known in the East as the
evocation of the scin-lecca, was taking place before my own eyes. To doubt was
impossible, and Dupotet was right in saying that mesmerism is the conscious
Magic of the ancients, and Spiritualism the unconscious effect of the same
Magic upon certain organisms.
As soon as the vaporous double
had smoked itself through the pores of the girl, Gospoja had, by a rapid motion
of the hand which was left free, drawn from under her pelisse something which
looked to us suspiciously like a small stiletto, and placed it as rapidly in
the girl’s bosom. The action was so quick that the mesmerizer, absorbed in his
work, had not remarked it, as he afterwards told me. A few minutes elapsed in a
dead silence. We seemed a group of petrified persons. Suddenly a thrilling and
transpiercing cry burst from the entranced girl’s lips, she bent forward, and
snatching the stiletto from her bosom, plunged it furiously round her, in the
air, as if pursuing imaginary foes. Her mouth foamed, and incoherent, wild
exclamations broke from her lips, among which discordant sounds I discerned
several times two familiar Christian names of men. The mesmerizer was so
terrified
101———————————————————CAN THE DOUBLE MURDER?
that he lost all control over
himself, and instead of withdrawing the fluid he loaded the girl with it still
more.
“Take care,” exclaimed
But the Frenchman had
unwittingly raised subtle potencies of Nature over which he had no control.
Furiously turning round, the girl struck at him a blow which would have killed
him had he not avoided it by jumping aside, receiving but a severe scratch on
the right arm. The poor man was panic-stricken; climbing with an extraordinary
agility, for a man of his bulky form, on the wall over her, he fixed himself on
it astride, and gathering the remnants of his will power, sent in her direction
a series of passes. At the second, the girl dropped the weapon and remained
motionless.
“What are you about?” hoarsely
shouted the mesmerizer in French, seated like some monstrous night-goblin on
the wall. “Answer me, I command you!’’
“I did ... but what she...whom
you ordered me to obey commanded me to do,” answered the girl in French, to my
amazement.
“What did the old witch
command you?” irreverently asked he.
‘‘To find them how murdered ..
kill them. . . I did so . . . and they are no more . . . Avenged! . . .
Avenged! They are An exclamation of triumph, a loud shout of infernal joy, rang
loud in the air, and awakening the dogs of the neighbouring villages a
responsive howl of barking began from that moment, like a ceaseless echo of the
Gospoja’s cry:
“I am avenged! I feel it; I
know it. My warning heart tells me that the fiends are no more.” She fell
panting on the ground, dragging down, in her fall, the girl, who allowed
herself to be pulled down as if she were a bag of wool.
‘‘I hope my subject did no
further mischief to—night. She is a dangerous as well as a very wonderful
subject,” said the Frenchman.
We parted. Three days after
that I was at T—, and as I was sitting in the dining-room of a restaurant,
waiting for my lunch, I happened to pick up a newspaper, and the first lines I
read ran thus:
Last evening, at 9.45, as was
about to retire, two of the gentlemen-in-wait ing suddenly exhibited great
terror, as though they had seen a dreadful apparition.
102————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
They screamed, staggered, and
ran about the room, holding up their hands as if toward off the blows of an
unseen weapon. They paid no attention to the eager questions of the prince and
suite, but presently fell writhing upon the floor, and expired in great agony.
Their bodies exhibited no appearance of apoplexy, nor any external marks of
wounds, hot, wonderful to relate, there were numerous dark spots and long marks
upon the skin, as though they were stabs and slashes made without puncturing
the cuticle. The autopsy revealed the fact that beneath each of these
mysterious discolourations there was a deposit of coagulated blood. The
greatest excitement prevails, and the faculty are unable to solve the mystery.
HADJI MORA.
(H. P. BLAVATSKY.)
FAKIRS AND TABLES
—————
[ From the
HOWEVER ignorant I may be of
the laws of the solar system, I am at all events so firm a believer in
heliocentric journalism that I sub scribe some remarks for The Sun upon my
“iconoclasm.”
No doubt it is a great honour
for an unpretending foreigner to be thus crucified between the two greatest
celebrities of your chivalrous country—the truly good Deacon Richard Smith, of
the blue gauze trousers, and the nightingale of the willow and the cypress, G.
Washington Childs, A.M. But I am not a Hindu Fakir, and therefore can not say
that I enjoy crucifixion, especially when unmerited. I do not even fancy being
swung round the “tall tower” with the steel hooks of your satire metaphorically
thrust through my back. I have not invited the reporters to a show. I have not
sought notoriety. I have only taken up a quiet corner in your free country,
and, as a woman who has travelled much, shall try to tell a Western public the
strange things I have seen among Eastern peoples. If I could have enjoyed this
privilege at home I should not be here. Being here, I shall, as your old
English proverb expresses it, “Tell the truth and shame the devil.’’
The World reporter who visited
me wrote an article which mingled his souvenirs of my stuffed apes and my
canaries, my tiger-heads and palms, with aerial music and the flitting
doppelgangers of Adepts. It was a very interesting article and was certainly
intended to be very impartial. If I appear in it to deny the immutability of
natural law, and inferentially to affirm the possibility of miracle, it is
either due to my faulty English or to the carelessness of the reader.
There are no such
uncompromising believers in the immutability and universality of the laws of
Nature as students of Occultism. Let us then, with your permission, leave the
shade of the great
104———————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
sity of a central force acting
toward the sun, that is denied, but the assumption that, behind the law which
draws bodies toward the earth’s centre, and which is our most familiar example
of gravitation, there is no other law, equally immutable, that under certain
conditions appears to counteract the former.
If but once in a hundred years
a table or a Fakir is seen to rise in the air, without a visible mechanical
cause, then that rising is a manifestation of a natural law of which our
scientists are as yet ignorant. Christians believe in miracles; Occultists
credit them even less than pious scientists, Sir David Brewster, for instance.
Show an Occultist an Unfamiliar phenomenon, and he will never affirm a priori
that it is either a trick or a miracle. he will search for the cause in the
reason of causes.
There was an anecdote about
Babinet, the astronomer, current in
I suppose nine men out of ten,
including editors, would maintain that the undulatory theory of light is one of
the most firmly establislied. And yet if you will turn to page 22 of The New
Chemistry, by Prof. Josiah P. Cooke, Jr., of
I cannot agree with those who
regard the wave-theory of light as an established principle of science. . . .
It requires a combination of qualities in the ether of space which I find it
difficult to believe are actually realized.
What is this that iconoclasm?
Let us bear in mind that
105————————————————————FAKIRS AND TABLES.
Boyle, Horrocks and Hooke,
Halley and Wren, all had ideas of a central force acting toward the sun, and of
the true principle of diminution of action of the force in the ratio of the
inverse square of the distance. The last word has not yet been spoken with
respect to gravitation; its limitations can never be known until the nature of
the sun is better understood.
They are just beginning to
recognize—see Prof. Balfour Stewart’s lecture at Manchester, entitled, The Sun
and the Earth, and Prof. A. M. Mayer’s lecture, The Earth a Great Magnet—the
intimate connection between the sun’s spots and the position of the heavenly
bodies. The interplanetary magnetic attractions are but just being
demonstrated. Until gravitation is understood to be simply magnetic attraction
and repulsion, and the part played by magnetism itself in the endless
correlations of forces in the ether of space—that “hypothetical medium,” as
Webster terms it—is better grasped, I maintain that it is neither fair nor wise
to deny the levitation of either Fakir or table. Bodies oppositely electrified
attract each other; similarly electrified they repulse each other. Admit,
therefore, that any body having weight, whether man or inanimate object, can by
any cause whatever, external or internal, be given the same polarity as the
spot on which it stands, and what is to prevent its rising?
Before charging me with
falsehood when I affirm that I have seen both men and objects levitated, you
must first dispose of the abundant testimony of persons far better known than
my humble self. Mr. Crookes, Prof. Thury of
I am surprised to find how
little even the editors of your erudite contemporary, The World, are acquainted
with Oriental metaphysics in general, and the trousers of the Hindu Fakirs in
particular. It was bad enough to make those holy mendicants of the religion of
Brahmâ graduate from the Buddhist Lamaseries of Tibet; but it is unpardonable
to make them wear baggy breeches in the exercise of their religious functions.
This is as bad as if a Hindu
journalist had represented the Rev. Mr. Beecher entering his pulpit in the
scant costume of the Fakir—the dhoti, a cloth about the loins, “only that and
nothing more.” To account, therefore, for the oft-witnessed, open-air
levitations of tile Swamis and Gurus upon the theory of an iron frame concealed
beneath
106————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
the clothing, is as reasonable
as Monsieur Babinet’s explanation of the table-tipping and tapping as
unconscious ventriloquism.
You may object to the act of
disembowelling, which I am compelled to affirm I have seen performed. It is as
you say, “remarkable,” but still not miraculous. Your suggestion that Dr.
Hammond should go and see it is a good one. Science would be the gainer, and
your humble correspondent be justified. Are you, however, in a position to
guarantee that he would furnish the world of sceptics with an example of
“veracious reporting,” if his observation should tend to overthrow the pet
theories of what we loosely call science?
Yours very respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
A PROTEST
[From the
THERE was a time when the
geocentric theory was universally accepted by Christian nations, and if you and
I had then been carrying on our little philological and psychological
controversy, I should have bowed in humility to the dictum of an authority so
particularly at home in “the Mysticism of the Orient” But despite all
modifications of our astronomical system, I am no heliolater, though I do
subscribe for The Sun as well as The World. I feel no more bound to “cajole” or
conciliate the one than to suffer my feeble taper to be extinguished by the
draught made by the other in its diurnal rush through journalistic space.
As near as I can judge from
your writing there is this difference between us, that I write from personal
experience, and you upon information and belief My authorities are my eyes and
ears; yours, obsolete works of reference and the pernicious advice of a
spontaneously generated Lampsakano who learned his Mysticism from the detached
head of one Dummkopf. (See The Sun of March 25th My assertions may be corroborated
by any traveller, as they have been by the first authorities. Elphinstone’s
108————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
I am charged with such
ignorance that I imagine the Fakirs to be holy mendicants of the religion of
Brahma,” while you say they are not of the religion of Brahma at all, but
Mohammedans.
Does this precious piece of
information also come from Elphinstone? Then I give you a Roland for your
Oliver. I refer you to James Mill’s History of British India, vol. . i-283 (
Those seeking ready-made
information can find our statements corroborated in any encyclopædia.
Perhaps you refer to
Was the first complete work on
the subject. It was without a rival as a source of information, and the justice
of its views appeared in the subsequent measures for the government of that
country.
Now, Mill says that the
Fakirs are a sect of
Brâhmanism; and that their penances are prescribed by the Laws of Manu.
Will your Lamp-sickener, or
whatever the English of that Greek may be, say that Manu was a Mohammedan? And
yet this would be no worse than your clothing the Fakirs, who belong, as a
rule, to the Brâhman pagodas, in yellow—the colour exclusively worn by Buddhist
lamas—and breeches—which form part of the costume of the Mohammedan dervishes.
Perhaps it is a natural mistake for your Lampsakanoi, who rely upon Elphinstone
for their facts and have not visited
You charge me with saying that
a Fakir is a “worshipper of God.” I say I did not, as the expression I used,
“Fakir is a loose word,” well proves. It was a natural mistake of the reporter,
who did not employ stenography at our interview. I said, “A Svamis one who
devotes himself entirely to the service of God.”
All Svamis of the Nir-Narrain
sects are Fakirs, but all Fakirs are not necessarily Svamis. I refer you to
Coleman’s Mythology of the Hindus (p. 244.), and to The Asiatic Journal.
Coleman says precisely what Louis Jacolliot says, and both corroborate me. You
very oblig-
109——————————————————————A PROTEST.
ingly give me a lesson in
Hindustâni and Devanâgari, and teach me the etymology of “Guru,” “Fakir,”
“Gossain,” etc. For answer I refer you to John Shakespear’s large Hindustani-English
Dictionary. I may know less English than your Lampsakanoi, but I do know of
Hindustâni and Sanskrit more than can be learned on Park Row.
As I have said in another
communication, I did not invite the visits of reporters, nor seek the notoriety
which has suddenly been thrust upon me. If I reply to your
criticisms—rhetorically brilliant, but wholly unwarranted by the facts—it is
because I value your good opinion (without caring to cajole you), and at the
same time cannot sit quiet and be made to appear alike devoid of experience,
knowledge and truthfulness.
Respectfully, but still
rebelliously, yours,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE FATE OF THE OCCULTIST
[From the
FROM the first month of my
arrival in
I am an old woman, and I feel
the need of fresh air as much as any one, but my disgust for the lying,
slanderous world that one finds out side of “heathen” uncivilized countries has
been such that in seven months I believe I have been out but three times. But
no retreat is secure against the anonymous slanderer, who uses the
111———————————————————THE FATE OF’ THE OCCULTIST.
Since the arrival of Wong Chin
Foo the game has recomrnenced with double activity. We have received anonymous
letters and others, and newspaper slips, telling infamous stories about him. On
his part, he has received communications about us, one of which I beg you to
insert.
May 4th..
Does the disciple of Buddha
know the character of the people with whom he is at present residing? The
surroundings of a teacher of morality and religion should be moral. Are his so?
On the contrary, they are people of very doubtful reputation, as he can
ascertain by applying at the nearest police-station.
A FRIEND.
Of Wong Chin Foo’s merits or
shortcomings I know nothing, except that since his arrival his conversation and
behaviour have impressed me very favourably. He appears to be a very earnest
and enthusiastic student. However, he is a man, and is able to take care of
himself, although, like me, a foreigner. But I wish to say for myself just
this:
that I defy any person in
Respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
BUDDHISM IN
[From the
As, in your leading article of
May 6th, I am at one moment given credit for knowing something about the
religion of the Brâhmans and Buddhists, and, anon, of being a pretender of the
class of Jacolliot, and even his plagiarist, you will not wonder at my again
knocking at your doors for hospitality. This time I write over my own
signature, and am responsible, as I am not under other circumstances.
No wonder that the “learned
friend” at your elbow was reminded “of the utterances of one Louis Jacolliot.”
The paragraphs in the very
able account of your representative’s interview, which relate to “Adhima and
Heva” and “Jezeus Christna,” were translated bodily, in his presence, from the
French edition of the Bible in
For instance, Prof. Whitney,
your greatest American Orientalist, and one of the most eminent living, spells
it Bagavata; while his equally great opponent, Max Muller, prefers Bagavadgitâ,
and half a dozen others spell it in as many different ways. Naturally each
scholar, in rendering the Indian words into his own vernacular, follows the
national rule of pronunciation; and so, you will see, that Prof. Muller in
writing the syllable ad with an a does precisely what Jacolliot does in
spelling it ed, the French e having the same sound as the
113————————————————————BUDDHISM IN
English a before a consonant.
The same holds good with the name of the Hindu Saviour, which by different
authorities is spelt Krishna, Crisna, Khristna and Krisna; everything, in
short, but the right way, Christna, Perhaps you may say that this is there
hypothesis. But since every Indianist follows his own fancy in his phonetic transcriptions,
I do not know why I may not exercise my best judgment, especially as I can give
good reasons to support it.
You affirm that there “never
was a Hindu reformer named Jezeus Christna”; and, although I confined my
affirmation of his existence to the authority of Jacolliot at the interview in
question, I now assert on my own responsibility that there was, and is, a
personage of that name recognized and worshipped in India, and that he is not
Jesus Christ. Christna is a Brâhmanical deity, and, besides by the Brâhmans, is
recognized by several sects of the Jains. When Jacolliot says “Jezeus
Christna,” he only shows a little clumsiness in phonetic rendering, and is
nearer right than many of his critics. I have been at the festivals of
Janmotsar, in commemoration of the birth of Christna (which is their Christmas)
and have heard thousands of voices shouting: “Jas-i Christna!
Jasas-wi-Christna!” Translated they are: Jas-i, renowned, famous, and Jasas-wi,
celebrated, or divinely-renowned, powerful; and Christna, sacred. To avoid
being again contradicted, I refer the reader to any Hindustâni dictionary. All
the Brâhmans with whom I have talked on the subject spoke of Christna either as
Jas-i-Christna, or Jadar Christna, or again used the term, Yadur-pati, Lord of
Yâdavas, descendant of Yadu, one of the many titles of Christna in
That Christna is preferable to
M. Taxtor de Ravisi, a French
Catholic Orientalist, and for ten years Governor of Karikal (
114———————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
conclusions, fully appreciates
the situation. He would have the name spelt
When the 84,000 volumes of the
Dharma Khanda, or sacred books of the Buddhists, and the thousands upon thousands
of ollæ of Vaidic and Brâhmanical literature, now known by their titles only to
European scholars, or even a tithe of those actually in their possession are
translated, and comprehended, and agreed upon, I will be happy to measure
swords again with the solar pandit who has prompted your severe reflections
upon your humble subscriber
Though, in common with various
authorities, you stigmatize Jacolliot as a “French fraud,” I must really do him
the justice to say that his Catholic opponent, De Ravisi, said of his Bible in
India, in a report made at the request of the Sociéte Académique de St.
Quentin, that it is written
With good faith, of absorbing
interest, a learned work on known facts and with familiar arguments.
Ten years’ residence and
studies in
Respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
RUSSIAN ATROCITIES
[From the
THE Sublime Porte has had the
sublime effrontery to ask the American people to execrate Russian barbarity. It
appeals for sympathy on behalf of helpless Turkish subjects at the seat of war.
With the memories of
Let me say, then, that during
this campaign the Turkish troops have been guilty of such fiendish acts as to
make me pray that my relatives may be killed rather than fall into their hands.
In a letter from the
On June 20th we entered
Kozlovetz, a Bulgarian town of about two hundred houses, which lies three or
four hours distant from Sistova. The sight which met our eyes made the blood of
every Russian soldier run cold, hardened though he is to such scenes. On the
principal street of the deserted town were placed in rows 140 beheaded bodies
of men, women, and children. The heads of these unfortu-
116————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
nates were tastefully piled in
a pyramid in the middle of the street. Among the smoking ruins of every house
we found half-burned corpses, fearfully mutilated. We caught a Turkish soldier,
and to our questions he reluctantly confessed that their chiefs had given
orders not to leave a Christian place, however small, before burning it and
putting to death every man, woman, and child.
On the first day that the
Danube was crossed some foreign correspondents, among them that of the Cologne
Gazette, saw several bodies of Russian soldiers whose noses, ears, hands, etc.,
had been cut off, while the genital organs had been stuffed into the mouths of
the corpses. Later, three bodies of Christian women were found—a mother and two
daughters—whose condition makes one almost drop the pen in horror at the
thought. Entirely nude, split open from below to the navel, their heads cut
off; the wrists of each corpse were tied together with strips of skin and flesh
flayed from the shoulder down; and the corpses of the three martyrs were
similarly bound to each other by long ribbons of flesh dissected from their
thighs.
A correspondent writes from
Sistova:
The Emperor continues his
daily visits to the hospitals and passes whole hours with the wounded. A few
(lays ago His Majesty, accompanied by Colonel Wellesley, the British military
attache, visited two unfortunate Bulgarians who died on the night following.
The skull of one of them was split open both laterally and vertically, by two
sword-cuts, an eye was torn out, and he was otherwise mutilated. He explained,
as well as he could, that several Turks seeing him, demanded his money. As he
had none, four of the party held him fast while the fifth, brandishing his
sword, and repeating all the time, “There, you Christian dog, there’s your
cross for you!” first split his skull from the forehead to the back of the
head, and then crosswise from ear to ear. While the Emperor was listening to
these details the greatest agony was depicted upon his face. Taking Colonel
Wellesley by the arm, and pointing to the Bulgarian, he said to him in French:
“See the work of your prolégés’” The British officer blushed and was much
confused.
The special correspondent of
the London Standard, describing his audience with the Grand Duke Nicholas,
Commander-in-Chief, on July 7th, says that the Grand Duke communicated to him
the most horrifying details about the cruelties committed at Dobroudga. A
Christian whose hands were tied with strips of his own skin cut from the length
of both his arms, and his tongue cut down from the root, was laid at the feet
of the Emperor and died there before the eyes of the Czar and the British
agent, the same Colonel Wellesley, who was in attendance. Turning to the
latter, His Majesty, with a stern expression, asked him to inform his
Government of what he had just seen for himself. Says the correspondent:
117————————————————————RUSSIAN ATROCITIES.
From the beginning of the war
I have heard of quite a number of such cases, but never witnessed one myself:
After the personal assurances given to me by the Grand Duke, it is no longer
possible to doubt that the Turkish officers are unable to control their
irregular troops.
The correspondent of The
Northern Messenger had gone the rounds of the hospitals to question the wounded
soldiers. Four of them, belonging to the Second Battalion of Minsk Rifles,
testified with the most solemn asseverations that they had seen the Turks
approach the wounded, rob them, mutilate their bodies in the most cruel way,
finish them with the bayonet. They themselves had avoided this fate only by
feigning death. It is a common thing for wounded Turks to allure Russian
soldiers and members of the sanitary corps to their assistance, and, as they
bend over them, to kill with a revolver or dagger those who would relieve them.
A case like this occurred under the eye of one of my correspondents in Turkish
Armenia, and was in all the Russian papers. A sergeant’s assistant (a sanitar)
was despatched under such circumstances; thereupon a soldier standing by killed
the assassin.
My cousin, Major Alexander U.
White—of the Sixteenth Nijegorodsk Dragoons, one of the most gallant soldiers
in the army of Loris Melikof and who has just been decorated by the Grand Duke,
under the authority of the Emperor, with a golden sword inscribed, “For
Bravery”—says that it is becoming positively dangerous to relieve a wounded
Turk. The people who robbed and killed the wounded in the hospital at Ardahan
upon the entry of the Russian troops were the Karapapahs, Mussulmans and the
supposed allies of the Turks. During the siege they prudently awaited the issue
from a safe distance. As soon as the Russians conquered, the Karapapahs flew
like so many tigers into the town, slaying the wounded Turks, robbing the dead,
pillaging houses, bringing the horses and mules of the fleeing enemy into the
Russian camp, and swearing allegiance to the Commander-in-Chief. The Cossacks
had all the trouble in the world to prevent their new allies from continuing
the greatest excesses. To charge, therefore, upon the Russians the atrocities
of these cowardly jackals (a nomadic tribe of brigands) is an impudent lie of
Mukhtar Pasha, whose falsifications have become so notorious that some Parisian
papers have nicknamed him “Blaguer Pasha.” His despatches are only matched in
mendacity by those of the Spanish commanders in
118————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
The stupidity of charging such
excesses upon the Russian army becomes apparent when we remember that the
policy of the Government from the first has been to pay liberally for supplies,
and win the goodwill of the people of the invaded provinces by kindness. So
marked and successful has this policy proved in General Loris Melikof’s field
of operations, that the anti-Russian papers of England, Austria and other
countries have denounced it as Russian “craft.” With the Danubian forces is the
Emperor in person, liberator of millions of serfs, and the mildest and justest
sovereign who has ever occupied the throne of any country. As he won the love
of his whole people and the adoration of his army by his sense of justice and
benevolent regard, I ask you if he is likely to countenance any cruel excesses?
While the cowardly Abdul-Hamid hides in the alcoves of his harem, and of the
imperial princes none have taken the field, the Czar follows his army, step by
step, submits to comparatively severe and unaccustomed hardships, and exposes
his health and life against all the rernonstrances and prayers of Prince
Gortschakof. His four sons are all in active service, and the son of the Grand
Duke Nicholas was decorated at the crossing of the
I only ask the American people
to do justice to their long-tried and unfaltering friends, the Russians.
However politicians may have planned, the Russian people have entered this war
as a holy crusade to rescue millions of helpless Slavonians—their brothers—of
the
119————————————————————RUSSIAN ATROCITIES.
Schwartzenberg, and the papal
discourse against the Russian Emperor and army, singing the while Slavonian
national songs, and shouting, “Down with the Pope! Death to the Ultramontanes!
Hurrah for the Czar-Liberator! “—all of which shows that there are good
Catholics among the Slavonians, at least, who rightly hold in higher estimation
the principles of national solidarity than foolish dogmas of the Vatican, even
though backed by pretended infallibility.
Respectfully,
August 9th H. P. BLAVATSKY.
WASHING THE DISCIPLES’ FEET
[From the
AT the ceremony of
“feet-washing” which occurred at Limwood Camp-ground, August 8th, and is described
in The Sun of to-day, Elder Jones, of
He claimed that its origin did
not date anterior to the coming of Christ; neither was the matter of
cleanliness to be thought of in this connection. Its observance was due
exclusively to the fact that it was a scriptural injunction; it originated in
Christ’s example, and it devolved upon his hearers to follow this example.
Numerous scriptural passages were quoted in support of this argument.
The reverend gentleman is in
error. The ceremony was first performed by the Hindu Christna (or
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
TRICKERY OR MAGIC?
—————
[From The
Religio-Philosophical Journal,
A wise saying is that which
affirms that he who seeks to prove too much, in the end proves nothing. Prof.
W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S. (and otherwise alphabetically adorned), furnishes a
conspicuous example in his strife with men better than himself. His assaults accumulate
bitterness with every new periodical he makes his organ, and in proportion with
the increase of his abuse his arguments lose force and cogency. And, forsooth,
he nevertheless lectures his antagonists for their lack of “calm discussion,”
as though he were not the very type of controversial nitro-glycerine! Rushing
at them with his proofs, which are “incontrovertible” only in his own
estimation, he commits himself more than once. By one of such committals I mean
to profit to-day, by citing some-curious experiences of my own.
My object in writing the
present is far from that of taking any part in this onslaught upon reputations.
Messrs. Wallace and Crookes are well able to take care of themselves. Each has
contributed in his own specialty towards real progress in useful knowledge more
than Dr. Carpenter in his. Both have been honoured for valuable original
researches and discoveries, while their accuser has been often charged with
being no better than a very clever compiler of other men’s ideas. After reading
the able rejoinders of the “defendants” and the scathing review of the
mace-swinging Prof. Buchanan, every one, except his friends, the
psychophobists, can see that Dr. Carpenter is completely floored. He is as dead
as the traditional door nail.
In the December supplement of
The Popular Science Monthly, I find, (p.116) the interesting admission that a
poor Hindu juggler can perform a feat that quite takes the great Professor’
breath away! In comparison, the mediumistic phenomena of Miss Nichol (Mrs. Guppy)
are of no account. Says Dr. Carpenter:
The celebrated “tree-trick,”
which most people who have been long in
122————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
officers, is simply the
greatest marvel I ever heard of. That a mango-tree should first shoot up to a
height of six inches, from a grass-plot to which the conjurers had no previous
access, beneath an inverted cylindrical basket, whose emptiness has been
previously demonstrated, and that this tree should appear to grow in the course
of half an hour from six inches to six feet, under a succession of taller and
yet taller baskets, beats Miss Nichol.
Well, I should think it did.
At any rate, it beats anything that any F.R.S. can show by daylight or dark, in
the Royal Institution or else where. Would not one think that such a phenomenon
so attested, and occurring under circumstances that preclude trickery, would provoke
scientific investigation? If not, what would? But observe the knot hole through
which an F.R.S. can creep out. “Does Mr. Wallace,” ironically asks the
Professor,
Attribute this to a spiritual
agency? or, like the world in general [of course meaning the world that science
created and Carpenter energizes] and the performers of the tree-trick in
particular, does he regard it as a piece of clever jugglery?
Leaving Mr. Wallace, if he
survives this Jovian thunder-bolt, to answer for himself, I have to say for the
“performers” that they would respond with an emphatic “No” to both
interrogatories. The Hindu jugglers neither claim for their performance a
“spiritual agency,” nor admit it to be a “trick of clever jugglery.” The ground
they take is that the tricks are produced by certain powers inherent in man him
self, which may he used for a good or bad purpose. And the ground that I,
humbly following after those whose opinion is based on really exact
psychological experiments and knowledge, take, is, that neither Dr. Carpenter
nor his body-guard of scientists, though their titles stream after their names
like the tail after a kite, have as yet the slightest conception of these
powers. To acquire even a superficial knowledge of them, they must change their
scientific and philosophical methods. Following after Wallace and Crookes, they
must begin with the A B C of Spiritualism, which—meaning to be very
scornful—Dr. Carpenter terms “the centre of enlightenment and progress.” They
must take their lessons not alone from the true but as well from spurious
phenomena, from what his (Carpenter’s) chief authority, the “arch-priest of the
new religion,” properly classifies as “Delusions, Absurdities and Trickeries.”
After wading through all this, as every intelligent investigator has had to do,
he may get some glimpses of truth. It is as useful to learn what the phenomena
are not, as to find out what they are.
123————————————————————TRICKERY OR MAGIC?
Dr. Carpenter has two patent
keys warranted to unlock every secret door of the mediumistic cabinet. They are
labelled “expectancy” and “prepossession.” Most scientists have some pick-lock
like this. But to the “tree-trick” they scarcely apply; for neither his
“distinguished civilians” nor “scientific officers” could have expected to see
a stark- naked Hindu on a strange glass-plot, in full daylight, make a
mango-tree grow six feet from the seed in half an hour, their “prepossessions”
would be all against it. It cannot be a “spiritual agency”; it must be
“jugglery.” Now Maskelyne and Cooke, two clever English jugglers, have been
keeping the mouths and eyes of all
It is not to be denied that in
124————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
While at Cawnpur, en route to
Our experiment was made on
that verandah in the presence of the family of the landlord—a half-caste
Portuguese from the south—my friend and myself and two freshly-imported
Frenchmen, who laughed outrageously at our superstition. Time,
125————————————————————TRICKERY OR MAGIC?
same direction, as though
plunged in a cataleptic trance. This lasted for over an hour, which in that
suffocating atmosphere was to us one long torture. Suddenly the landlord sprang
from his seat to the balustrade, and began intently looking towards the river,
in which direction our eyes also turned. Coming from whence, or how, we could
not tell, but out there, over the water, and near its surface, was a dark
object approaching. What it was we could not make out; but the mass seemed
impelled by some interior force to revolve, at first slowly, but then faster
and faster as it drew near. It was as though supported on an invisible
pavement, and its course was in a direct line as the bee flies. It reached the
bank, disappeared again among the high vegetation, and anon, rebounding with
force as it leaped over the low garden wall, flew rather than rolled on to the
verandah and dropped with a heavy thud under the extended palms of the gossain.
A violent, convulsive tremor shook the frame of the old man, as with a deep
sigh he opened his half-closed eyes. All were astonished, but the French men
stared at the bundle with an expression of idiotic terror in their eyes. Rising
from the ground the holy man opened the tarred canvas envelope, and within were
found all the stolen articles down to the least thing. Without a word or
waiting for thanks, he salaamed low to the company and disappeared through the
doorway, before we recovered from our surprise. We had to run after him a long
way before we could press upon him a dozen rupees, which blessings he received
in his wooden bowl.
This may appear a very
surprising and incredible story to Europeans and Americans who have never been
in
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE JEWS IN
[From the
IT is to be regretted that
your incandescent contemporary, The Sun, should have no better sources of
information. It stated on Saturday last that
In
This is the reverse of
correct, as is also the further statement that
They have been robbed and
oppressed in
The murdering and plundering
at the seat of war, it is now pretty well settled, has been done by the Turks
exclusively, and, notwithstanding that the English and other Turkophile organs
have diligently cast the blame upon the Russians, the plot f the Ottoman
Government, thanks to the honest old German Emperor, is now discovered. The
Turks are convicted of systematic lying, and nearly every country, including
If your neighbour would take
the trouble to ask any traveller or Russian Israelite now in
127————————————————————THE JEWS IN
nently burnt at the rakka
(shrines) of the 700 orthodox saints whose beatified mummies fill up the
catacombs of Kief, and the wax for the candles on all the altars. It is again
the Jews who keep the dram-shops, or Kabak, where the faithful congregate after
service to give a last fillip to their devotional ardour. It is barely four
months since the chief Rabbi of Moscow published in the official Viedomosty an
earnest address to his co-religionists throughout the empire to remind them
that they were Russians by nativity, and called upon them to display their
patriotism in subscriptions for the wounded, prayers in the synagogues for the
success of the Russian arms, and in all other practical ways. In 1870, during
the emeut in Odessa, which was caused by some Jewish children throwing dirt
into the church on Easter night, and which lasted more than a week, the Russian
soldiers shot and bayoneted twelve Christian Russians and not a single Jew;
while—and I speak as an eye-witness—over two hundred rioters were publicly
whipped by order of the Governor-General, Kotzebue, of whom none were
Israelites. That there is a hatred between them and the more fanatical
Christians is true, but the Russian Government can be no more blamed for this
than the British and American Governments because Orangemen and Catholics
mutually hate, beat, and occasionally kill each other.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
H. P. BLAVATSKY’S MASONIC
PATENT
[From The Franklin Register,
[ EDITORIAL.— are gratified to
be able to present to the readers of The Register this week, the following
highly-characteristic letter, prepared expressly for our paper by Madame Helen
P. Blavatsky, the authoress of Isis Unveiled. In this letter the lady defends
the validity of her diploma as a Mason, reference to which was had in our issue
of January 8th. The immediate cause of the letter from Madame B. was the
multiplication of attacks upon her claim to that distinguished honour both
before and since the publication mentioned.
The field is open for a
rejoinder; and we trust that a champion will appear, to defend that which she
so vigorously and bravely assails.
That the subject-matter in
controversy may be seen at a glance by those who may not be regular readers of
our paper, we again print the text of her diploma.
To the Glory of the Sublime
Architect of the Universe.
Ancient and Primitive Rite of
Masonry, derived through the Charter of the
Sovereign Sanctuary of
Grand Lodge of
Salutation on all points of
the Triangle.
Respect to the Order.
Peace, Tolerance, Truth.
To all Illustrious and
Enlightened Masons throughout the world—union, prosperity,
friendship, fraternity.
We, the The Sovereign Grand
Master General, and we, the Sovereign Grand Conservators, thirty-third and last
degree of the Sovereign Sanctuary for England, Wales, etc., decorated with the
Grand Star of Sirius, etc., Grand Commanders of the Three Legions of the
Knights of Masonry, by virtue of the high authority with which we are invested,
have declared and proclaimed, and by these presents do declare and proclaim our
illustrious and enlightened Brother, H. P. Blavatsky, to be an Apprentice,
Companion, Perfect Mistress, Sublime Elect
129———————————————H. P. BLAVATSKY’S MASONIC PATENT.
Scotch Lady, Grand Elect,
Chevaliere de Rose Croix, Adonaite Mistress, Perfect Venerable Mistress, and a
crowned Princess of Rite of Adoption.
Given under our hands and the
seals of the Sovereign Sanctuary for
JOHN YARKER, thirty-third
degree, Sovereign Grand Master.
M. CASPARI, thirty-third
degree, Grand chancellor.
A. D. LOEWENSRARK,
thirty-third degree, Grand Secretary.]
—————
To the Editor of “ The Frankin
Register.”
I am obliged to correct
Certain errors in your highly complimentary editorial in The Register of
January 18th. You say that I have taken “the regular degrees in Masonic Lodges”
and attained high dignity in the order, and further add:
Upon Madame B. has recently
been conferred the diploma of the thirty-third Masonic Degree, from the oldest
Masonic body in the world.
If you will kindly refer to my
Isis Unveiled (vol. ii. p. 394), YOU will find me saying:
We are neither under promise,
obligation, nor oath, and therefore violate no confidence,—reference being made
to Western Masonry, to the criticism of which the chapter is devoted; and full
assurance is given that I have never taken “the regular degrees” in any Western
Masonic Lodge. Of course, therefore, having taken no such degrees, I am not a
thirty-third degree Mason. In a private note, also in your most recent
editorial, you state that you find yourself taken to task by various Masons,
among them one who has taken thirty-three degrees—which include the
“Ineffable”—for what you said about me. My Masonic experience—if you will so
term membership in several Eastern Masonic Fraternities and Esoteric
Brotherhoods—is confined to the Orient. But, nevertheless, this neither
prevents my knowing, in common with all Eastern “Masons,” everything connected
with Western Masonry (including the numberless humbugs that have been imposed
upon the Craft during the last half century) nor, since the receipt of the
diploma from the “Sovereign Grand Master,” of which you publish the text, my
being entitled to call myself a Mason. Claiming nothing, therefore, in Western
Masonry but what is expressed in the above diploma, you will perceive that your
Masonic mentors must transfer their quarrel to John Yarker, jun., P.M., P.Mk.,
M.Pz., P.G.C., and M.W.S.K.T. and R.C., K.T., P.K.H., and K.A.R.S., P.M.W.,
P.S.G.C. and P.S.,
130———————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
Dai AD., A. and P. Rite, to
the man, in short, who is recognized in England and Wales and the whole world,
as a member of the Masonic Archæological Institute; as Honorary Fellow of the
London Literary Union; of Lodge No. 227, Dublin; of the Bristol College of
Rosicrucians; who is Past Grand Mareschal of the Temple; member of the Royal
Grand Council of the Antient Rites time immemorial; keeper of the Ancient Royal
Secrets, Grand Commander of Mizraim, Ark Mariners, Red Cross Constantine,
Babylon and Palestine, R. Grand Superintendent for Lancashire, Sovereign Grand
Conservator of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, thirty-third and last
degree, etc., from whom the Patent issued.
Your “Ineffable” friend must
have cultivated his spiritual perceptions to small purpose in the investigation
and contemplation of the “Ineffable Name,” from the fourth to the fourteenth
degrees of that gilded humbug, the A. and A. Rite, if he could say that there
is,
No authority for a derivation
through the charter of the Sovereign Sanctuary of America, to issue this
patent.
He lives in a veritable
Crystal Palace of Masonic glass, and must look out for falling stones. Brother
Yarker says, in his Notes on the
Modern Rosicrucianism and the
various Rites and Degrees (p. 149), that the Grand Orient, derived from the
Craft Grand Lodge of England, in 1725, works and recognizes the following
Rites, appointing representatives with chapters in America and elsewhere: 1.
French Rite; 2. Rite of Heredom; 3. A. and A. Rite; 4. Rite of Kilwinning; 5.
Philosophical Rite; 6. Rite du Régime rectif; 7. Rite of Memphis; 8. Rite of
Mizraim. All under a grand
The A. and P. Rite was originally
chartered in America, November 9th 1856, with David McChellan as G. M. [
Kenneth Mackenzie’s Royal Masonic Cyclopædia p. 43], and in 1862 submitted
entirely to the Grand Orient of France. In 1862, the Grand Orient vised and
sealed the American Patent of Seymour as G. M., and mutual representatives were
appointed, down to 1866, when the relations of the G. 0. with America were
ruptured, and the American Sovereign Sanctuary took up its position, “in the
bosom” of the Ancient Cernear Council, of the “Scottish Rite” of thirty-three
degrees, as John Yarker says, in the above quoted work. In 1872 a Sovereign
Sanctuary of the Rite was established in
131——————————————————H. P. BLAVATSKY’S MASONIC PATENT.
It sounds very grand, no
doubt, to be a thirty-second degreeist, and an “Ineffable” one into the
bargain; but read what Robert B. Folger, M.D., Past Master thirty-third, says
himself in his Ancient’ and Accepted Scottish Rite in Thirty-three Degrees:
With reference to the other
degrees, . . . (with the exception of the thirty third, which was manufactured
in
And further: he asks:
Who were the persons that
formed this Supreme Council of the thirty-third degree? And where did they get
that degree, or the power to confer it?
Their patents have never been
produced, nor has any evidence ever yet been given that they came in possession
of the thirty-third degree in a regular and lawful manner (pp. 92, 95, 96).
That an American Rite, thus
spuriously organized, declines to acknowledge the Patent of an English
Sovereign Sanctuary, duly recognized by the Grand Orient of France, does not at
all invalidate my claim to Masonic honours. As well might Protestants refuse to
call the Dominicans Christians, because they—the Protestants—broke away from
the Catholic Church and set up for themselves, as for A. and A. Masons of
America to deny the validity of a Patent from an English A. and P. Rite body.
Though I have nothing to do with American modern Masonry, and do not expect to
have, yet, feeling highly honoured by the distinction conferred upon me by
Brother Yarker, I mean to stand for my chartered rights, and to recognize no
other authority than that of the high Masons of England, who have been pleased
to send me this unsolicited and unexpected testimonial of their approval of my
humble labours.
Of a piece with the above is
the ignorant rudeness of certain critics who pronounce Cagliostro an “impostor”
and his desire of engrafting Eastern Philosophy upon Western Masonry
“charlatanism.” Without such a union Western Masonry is a corpse without a
soul. As Yarker observes, in his Notes on the Mysteries of Antiquity:
As the Masonic fraternity is
now governed, the Craft is becoming a storehouse of paltry Masonic emperors and
other charlatans, who swindle their brothers, and feather their nests out of
the aristocratic pretensions which they have tacked on to our institutions—ad
captanduin vulgus.
Respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
VIEWS OF THE THEOSOPHISTS
[From the
PERMIT a humble Theosophist to
appear for the first time in your columns, to say a few words in defence of our
beliefs. I see in your issue of December 21St ultimo, one of your
correspondents, Mr. J. Croucher, makes the following very bold assertions:
Had the Theosophists
thoroughly comprehended the nature of the soul and spirit, and its relation to
the body, they would have known that if the soul once leaves, it leaves for
ever.
This is so ambiguous that,
unless he uses the term “soul” to designate only the vital principle, I can
only suppose that he falls into the common error of calling the astral body,
spirit, and the immortal essence, “soul.” We Theosophists, as Col. Olcott has
told you, do vice versa.
Besides the unwarranted
imputation on us of ignorance, Mr. Croucher has an idea (peculiar to himself)
that the problem which has heretofore taxed the powers of the metaphysicians in
all ages has been solved in our own. It is hardly to be supposed that
Theosophists or any others “thoroughly” comprehend the nature of the soul and
spirit, and their relation to the body. Such an achievement is for Omniscience,
and we Theosophists treading the path worn by the footsteps of the old Sages in
the moving sands of exoteric philosophy, can only hope to approximate to the
absolute truth. It is really more than doubtful whether Mr. Croucher can do
better, even though an “inspirational medium,’’ and experienced ‘‘through
constant sittings with one of the best trance mediums” in your country. I may
well leave to time and Spiritual Philosophy to entirely vindicate us in the far
here after. When any Œdipus of this or the next century shall have solved this
eternal enigma of the Sphinx—man, every modern dogma, not excepting some pets
of the Spiritualists, will be swept away, as the Theban monster, according to
the legend, leaped from his promontory into the sea, and was seen no more.
133———————————————————VIEWS OF THE THEOSOPHISTS.
As early as February 8th,
1876, your learned correspondent, “M.A. Oxon.,” took occasion, in an article
entitled “Soul and Spirit,” to point out the frequent confusion of the terms by
other writers. As things are no better now, I will take the opportunity to show
how surely Mr. Croucher, and many other Spiritualists of whom he may be taken
as the spokesman, misapprehend Col. Olcott’s meaning and the views of the New
York Theosophists. Col. Olcott neither affirmed nor dreamed of implying that
the immortal spirit leaves the body to produce the medial displays. And yet Mr.
Croucher evidently thinks he did, for the word “spirit” to him means the inner,
astral man, or double. Here is what Col. Olcott did say, double commas and all:
That mediumistic physical
phenomena are not produced by pure spirits, but by “souls” embodied or
disembodied, and usually with the help of Elementals.
Any intelligent reader must
perceive that, in placing the word “souls” in quotation marks, the writer
indicated that he was using it in a sense not his own. As a Theosophist, he
would more properly and philosophically have said for himself “astral spirits”
or “astral men,” or doubles. Hence, the criticism is wholly without even a
foundation of plausibility. I wonder that a man could be found who, on so frail
a basis, would have attempted so sweeping a denunciation. As it is, our
President only propounded the trine of man, like the ancient and Oriental
Philosophers and their worthy imitator Paul, who held that the physical
corporeity, the flesh and blood, was permeated and so kept alive by the Psuche,
the soul or astral body. This doctrine, that man is trine—spirit or Nous, soul
and body—was taught by the Apostle of the Gentiles more broadly and clearly
than it has been by any of his Christian successors (see i Thess., V. 23). But
having evidently forgotten or neglected to “thoroughly” study the
transcendental opinions of the ancient Philosophers and the Christian Apostle
upon the subject, Mr. Croucher views the soul (Psuche) as spirit (Nous) and
vice versa.
The Buddhists, who separate
the three entities in man (though viewing them as one when on the path to
Nirvana), yet divide the soul into several parts, and have names for each of
these and their functions. Thus confusion is unknown among them. The old Greeks
did likewise, holding that Psuche was bios, or physical life, and it was
thumos, or passional nature, the animals being accorded but the lower faculty
of the soul instinct. The soul or Psuche is itself a combination, consensus or
unity of the bios, or physical vitality, the epithumia or concupiscible nature,
and the phrén, mens or mind. Perhaps the animus
134———————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
ought to be included. It is
constituted of ethereal substance, which pervades the whole universe, and is
derived wholly from the soul of the world—Anima Mundi or the Buddhist
Svabhâvat—which is not spirit; though intangible and impalpable, it is yet, by
comparison with spirit or pure abstraction, objective matter. By its complex
nature, the soul may descend and ally itself so closely to the corporeal nature
as to exclude a higher life from exerting any moral influence upon it. On the
other hand, it can so closely attach itself to the Nous or spirit, as to share
its potency, in which case its vehicle, physical man, will appear as a God even
during his terrestrial life. Unless such union of soul and spirit does occur,
either during this life or after physical death, the individual man is not
immortal as an entity. The Psuche is sooner or later disintegrated. Though the
man may have gained “the whole world,” he has lost his “soul.” Paul, when
teaching the anastasis, or continuation of individual spiritual life after
death, set forth that there was a physical body which was raised in
incorruptible substance.
The spiritual body is most
assuredly not one of the bodies, or visible or tangible larvre, which form in
circle-rooms, and are so improperly termed “materialized spirits.” When once
the metanoia,, the full developing of spiritual life, has lifted the spiritual
body out of the psychical (the disembodied, corruptible, astral man, what Col.
Olcott calls “soul”), it becomes, in strict ratio with its progress, more and
more an abstraction for the corporeal senses. It can influence, inspire, and
even communicate with men subjectively; it can make itself felt, and even, in
those rare instances when the clairvoyant is perfectly pure and perfectly
lucid, be seen by the inner eye (which is the eye of the purified Psuche—soul).
But how can it ever manifest objectively?
It will be seen, then, that to
apply the term “spirit” to the materialized eldola of your
“form-manifestations” is grossly improper, and something ought to be done to
change the practice, since scholars have begun to discuss the subject. At best,
when not what the Greeks termed phantasma, they are but phasma or apparitions.
In scholars, speculators, and
especially in our modern savants, the psychical principle is more or less
pervaded by the corporeal, and “the things of the spirit are foolishness and
impossible to be known” (i Cor., ii. 14). Plato was then right, in his way, in
despising land measuring, geometry and arithmetic, for all these overlooked all
high ideas. Plutarch taught that at death Proserpine separated the body
135———————————————————VIEWS OF THE THEOSOPHISTS.
and the soul entirely, after
which the latter became a free and independent demon (daimon). Afterward the
good underwent a second dissolution: Demeter divided the Psuche from the Nous
or Pneuma. The former was dissolved after a time into ethereal particles—hence
the inevitable dissolution and subsequent annihilation of the man who at death
is purely psychical; the latter, the Nous, ascended to its higher divine power
and became gradually a pure, divine spirit. Kapila, in common with all Eastern
Philosophers, despised the purely psychical nature. It is this agglomeration of
the grosser particles of the soul, the mesmeric exhalations of human nature
imbued with all its terrestrial desires and propensities, its vices,
imperfections and weakness, forming the astral body, which can become objective
under certain circumstances, which the Buddhists call the Skandhas (the
groups), and Col. Olcott has for convenience termed the “soul.” The Buddhists
and Brâhmans teach that the man’s individuality is not secured until he has
passed through and become disembarrassed of the last of these groups, the final
vestige of earthly taint. Hence their doctrine of metempsychosis, so ridiculed
and so utterly misunderstood by our greatest Orientalists.
Even the physicists teach us
that the particles composing physical man are, by evolution, reworked by nature
into every variety of inferior physical form. Why, then, are the Buddhists
unphilosophical or even unscientific, in affirming that the semi-material
Skandhas of the astral man (his very ego, up to the point of final
purification) are appropriated to the evolution of minor astral forms (which,
of course, enter into the purely physical bodies of animals) as fast as he
throws them off in his progress toward Nirvana? Therefore, we may correctly
say, that so long as the disembodied man is throwing off a single particle of
these Skandhas, a portion of him is being reincarnated in the bodies of plants
and animals. And if he, the disembodied astral man, be so material that
“Demeter” cannot find even one spark of the Pneuma to carry up to the “divine
power,” then the individual, so to speak, is dissolved, piece by piece, into
the crucible of evolution, or, as the Hindus allegorically illustrate it, he
passes thousands of years in the bodies of impure animals. Here we see how
completely the ancient Greek and Hindu Philosophers, the modern Oriental
schools, and the Theosophists, are ranged on one side, in perfect accord, and
the bright array of “inspirational mediums” and “spirit guides” stand in
perfect discord on the other. Though no two of the latter, unfortunately,
136———————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
agree as to what is and what
is not truth, yet they do agree with unanimitv to antagonize whatever of the
teachings of the Philosophers we may repeat.
Let it not be inferred,
though, from this, that I, or any other real Theosophist, undervalue true
spiritual phenomena or philosophy, or that we do not believe in the communication
between mortals and pure Spirits, any less than we do in communication between
bad men and bad Spirits, or even of good men with bad Spirits under bad
conditions. Occultism is the essence of Spiritualism, while modern or popular
Spiritualism I cannot better characterize than as adulterated unconscious
Magic. We go so far as to say that all the great and noble characters, all the
grand geniuses, the poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, all who have worked
at any time for the realization of their highest ideal, irrespective of selfish
ends—have been spiritually inspired; not mediums, as many Spiritualists call
them—passive tools in the hands of controlling guides—but incarnate,
illuminated souls, working consciously in collaboration with the pure disembodied
human and new-embodied high Planetary Spirits, for the elevation and
spiri-tualization of mankind. We believe that everything in material life is
most intimately associated with spiritual agencies. As regards physical
phenomena and mediumship, we believe that it is only when the passive medium
has given place, or rather grown into, the conscious mediator, that he discerns
between Spirits good and bad. And we do believe, and know also, that while the
incarnate man (though the highest Adept) cannot vie in potency with the pure
disembodied Spirits, who, freed of all their Skandhas, have become subjective
to the physical senses, yet he can perfectly equal, and can far surpass in the
way of phenomena, mental or physical, the average “Spirit” of modern
mediumship. Believing this, you will perceive that we are better Spiritualists,
in the true acceptation of the word, than so-called Spiritualists, who, instead
of showing the reverence we do to true Spirits—Gods—debase the name of Spirit
by applying it to the impure, or at best, imperfect beings who produce the
majority of the phenomena.
The two objections urged by
Mr. Croucher against the claim of the Theosophists, that a child is but a
duality at birth, “and perhaps until the sixth or seventh year,” and that some
depraved persons are annihilated at some time after death, are (1) the mediums
have described to him his three children “who passed away at the respective
ages of two,
137———————————————————VIEWS OF THE THEOSOPHISTS.
four, and six years”; and (2)
that he has known persons who were “very depraved” on earth come back. He says:
These statements have been
afterwards confirmed by glorious beings who came after, and who have proved by
their mastery of the laws which are governing the universe, that they are
worthy of being believed.
I am really happy to hear that
Mr. Croucher is competent to sit in judgment upon these “glorious beings,” and
give them the palm over Kapila, Manu, Plato, and even Paul. It is worth
something, after all, to be an “inspirational medium.” We have no such
“glorious beings” in the Theosophical Society to learn from; but it is evident
that while Mr. Croucher sees and judges things through his emotional nature,
the Philosophers whom we study took nothing from any “glorious being” that did
not perfectly accord with the universal harmony, justice, and equilibrium of
the manifested plan of the Universe. The Hermetic axiom, “as below, so above,”
is the only rule of evidence accepted by the Theosophists. Believing in a
spiritual and invisible Universe, we cannot conceive of it in any other way
than as completely dovetailing and corresponding with the material, objective
Universe; for logic and observation alike teach us that the latter is the
outcome and visible manifestation of the former, and that the laws governing
both are immutable.
In this letter of Dec. 7th
Colonel Olcott very appropriately illustrates his subject of potential
immortality by citing the admitted physical law of the survival of the fittest.
The rule applies to the greatest as to the smallest things, to the planet
equally with the plant. It applies to man. And the imperfectly developed
man-child can no more exist under the conditions prepared for the perfected
types of its species, than can an imperfect plant or animal. In infantile life
the higher faculties are not developed, but, as everyone knows, are only in the
germ, or rudimentary. The babe is an animal, however “angelic” he may, and
naturally enough ought to, appear to his parents. Be it ever so beautifully
modelled, the infant body is but the jewel-casket preparing for the jewel. It
is bestial, selfish, and, as a babe, nothing more. Little of even the soul,
Psuche, can be perceived except so far as vitality is concerned; hunger,
terror, pain and pleasure appear to be the principal of its conceptions. A
kitten is its superior in everything but possibilities. The grey neurine of the
brain is equally unformed. After a time mental qualities begin to appear, but
they relate chiefly to external matters. The cultivation of the mind of the
child by teachers
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A MODERN PANARION.
can only affect this part of
the nature—what Paul calls natural or physical, and James and Jude sensual or
psychical. Hence the words of Jude, “psychical, having not the spirit,” and of
Paul:
The psychical man receiveth
not the things of the spirit, for to him they are foolishness; the spiritual
man discerneth.
It is only the man of full
age, with his faculties disciplined to discern good and evil, whom we can
denominate spiritual, noetic, intuitive. Children developed in such respects
would be precocious, abnormal abortions.
Why, then, should a child who
has never lived other than an animal life; who never discerned right from
wrong; who never cared whether he lived or died—since he could not understand
either of life or death—become individually immortal? Man’s cycle is not
complete until he has passed through the earth-life. No one stage of probation
and experience can be skipped over. He must he a man before he can become a
Spirit. A dead child is a failure of nature—he must live again; and the same
Psuche reenters the physical plane through another birth. Such cases, together
with those of congenital idiots, are, as stated in Isis Unveiled, the only
instances of human reincarnation. If every child-duality were to be immortal,
why deny a like individual immortality to the duality of the animal? Those who
believe in the trinity of man know the babe to be but a duality—body and
soul—and the individuality which resides only in the psychical is, as we have
seen proved by the Philosophers, perishable. The completed trinity only
survives. Trinity, I say, for at death the astral form becomes the outward
body, and inside a still finer one evolves, which takes the place of the Psuche
on earth, and the whole is more or less overshadowed by the Nous. Space
prevented Col. Olcott from developing the doctrine more fully, or he would have
added that not even all of the Elementaries (human) are annihilated. There is
still a chance for some. By a supreme struggle these may retain their third and
higher principle, and so, though slowly and painfully, yet ascend sphere after
sphere, casting off at each transition the previous heavier garment, and clothing
themselves in more radiant spiritual envelopes, until, rid of every finite
particle, the trinity merges into the final Nirvana, and becomes a unity—a God.
A volume would scarce suffice
to enumerate all the varieties of Ele-
—————
* [Note that ‘reincarnation” is here used as a term applying only to the
Psuche. This does not reincarnate, it has always been taught, except in the
instances given.—Ens.]
139———————————————————VIEWS OF THE THEOSOPHISTS.
mentaries and Elementals; the
former being so called by some Kabalists (Henry Kunrath, for instance) to
indicate their entanglement in the terrestrial elements which hold them
captive, and the latter designated by that name to avoid confusion, and equally
applying to those which go to form the astral body of the infant and to the
stationary Nature Spirits proper. Eliphas Levi, however, indifferently calls
them all “Elementary” and “souls.” I repeat again, it is but the wholly
psychical disembodied astral man which ultimately disappears as an individual
entity. As to the component parts of his Psuche, they are as indestructible as
the atoms of any other body composed of matter.
The man must indeed be a true
animal who has not, after death, a spark of the divine Ruach or Nous left in
him to allow him a chance of self-salvation. Yet there are such lamentable
exceptions, not alone among the depraved, but also among those who, during
life, by stifling every idea of an after existence, have killed in themselves
the last desire to achieve immortality. It is the will of man, his all-potent
will, that weaves his destiny, and if a man is determined in the notion that
death means annihilation, he will find it so. It is among our commonest
experiences that the determination of physical life or death depends upon the
will. Some people snatch themselves by force of determination from the very
jaws of death, while others succumb to insignificant maladies. What man does
with his body he can do with his disembodied Psuche.
Nothing in this militates
against the images of Mr. Croucher’s children being seen in the Astral Light by
the medium, either as actually left by the children themselves, or as imagined
by the father to look when grown. The impression in the latter case would be
but a phasma, while in the former it is a phantasma, or the apparition of the
indestructible impress of what once really was.
In days of old the “mediators”
of humanity were men like Christna, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Apollonius of
Tyana, Plotinus, Porphyry, and the like of them. They were Adepts, Philosophers—men
who, by struggling their whole lives in purity, study, and self-sacrifice,
through trials, privations and self-discipline, attained divine illumination
and seemingly superhuman powers. They could not only produce all the phenomena
seen in our times, but regarded it as a sacred duty to cast out “evil spirits,”
or demons, from the unfortunates who were obsessed—in other words, to rid the
medium of their days of the “Elementaries.”
140————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
But in our time of improved
psychology every hysterical sensitive looms into a seer, and behold! there are
mediums by the thousand! Without any previous study, self-denial, or the least
limitation of their physical nature, they assume, in the capacity of
mouthpieces of unidentified and unidentifiable intelligences, to outrival
Socrates in wisdom, Paul in eloquence, and Tertullian himself in fiery and
authoritative dogmatism. The Theosophists are the last to assume infallibility
for themselves, or recognize it in others; as they judge others, so they are
willing to be judged.
In the name, then, of logic
and common sense, before bandying epithets, let us submit our difference to the
arbitrament of reason. Let us compare all things, and, putting aside
emotionalism and prejudice as unworthy of the logician and the experimentalist,
hold fast only to that which passes the ordeal of ultimate analysis.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
A SOCIETY WITHOUT A DOGMA
—————
[From the
TIMES have greatly changed
since the winter of 1875-6, when the establishment of the Theosophical Society
caused the grand army of American Spiritualists to wave banners, clang steel,
and set up a great shouting. How well we all remember the putting forth of
“Danger Signals,” the oracular warnings and denunciations of numberless
mediums! How fresh in memory the threats of “angel-friends” to Dr. Gardiner, of
Boston that they would kill Colonel Olcott if he dared call them “Elementaries”
in the lectures he was about delivering! The worst of the storm has passed. The
hail of imprecations no longer batters around our devoted heads; it is raining
now, and we can almost see the rainbow of promised peace spanning the sky.
Beyond doubt, much of this
subsidence of the disturbed elements is due to our armed neutrality. But still
I judge that the gradual spread of a desire to learn something more as to the
cause of the phenomena must be taken into account. And yet the time has not
quite come when the lion (Spiritualism) and the lamb (Theosophy) are ready to
lie down together—unless the lamb is willing to lie inside the lion. While we
held our tongues we were asked to speak, and when we spoke—or rather our
President spoke—the hue and cry was raised once more. Though the pop-gun
fusillade and the dropping shots of musketry have mostly ceased, the defiles of
your spiritual Balkans are defended by your heaviest Krupp guns. If the fire
were directed only against Colonel Olcott there would be no occasion for me to
bring up the reserves. But fragments from both of the bombs which your able
gunner, and our mutual friend, ‘‘M.A. Oxon.’’ has exploded, in his two letters
‘of January 4th and 11th have given me contusions. Under the velvet paw of his
rhetoric I have felt the scratch of challenge.
At the very beginning of what
must be a long struggle, it is imperatively demanded that the Theosophical
position shall be unequivo-
142
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A MODERN PANARION.
cally defined. In the last of
the above two communications, it is stated that Colonel Olcott transmits “the
teaching of the learned author of Isis Unveiled”—the “master key to all
problems.” (?)
Who has ever claimed that the
book was that, or anything like it? Not the author, certainly. The title? A
misnomer for which the publisher is unpremeditatedly responsible, and, if I am
not mistaken, “MA. Oxon.” knows it. My title was The Veil of Isis, and that
head line runs through the entire first volume. Not until that volume was
stereotyped did anyone recollect that a book of the same name was before the
public. Then, as a derniere ressource, the publisher selected the present
title.
“If he [Olcott] be not the
rose, at any rate he has lived near it,” says your learned correspondent. Had I
seen this sentence apart from the context, I would never have imagined that the
unattractive old party, superficially known as H. P. Blavatsky, was designated
under this poetical Persian simile. If he had compared me to a bramble- bush, I
might have complimented him upon his artistic realism. He says:
Colonel Olcott of himself
would command attention; he commands it still more on account of the store of
knowledge to which he has had access.
True, he has had such access,
but by no means is it confined to my humble self. Though I may have taught him
a few of the things that I had learned in other countries (and corroborated the
theory in every case by practical illustration), yet a far abler teacher than I
could not in three brief years have given him more than the alphabet of what
there is to learn, before a man can become wise in spiritual and psycho
physiological things. The very limitations of modern languages prevent any
rapid communication of ideas about Eastern Philosophy. I defy the great Max
Muller himself to translate Kapila’s Sutras so as to give their real meaning.
We have seen what the best European authorities can do with the Hindu
metaphysics; and what a mess they have made of it, to be sure! The Colonel
corresponds directly with Hindu scholars, and has from them a good deal more
than he can get from so clumsy a preceptor as myself.
Our friend, “M.A. Oxon.,” says
that Colonel Olcott “comes forward to enlighten us’’—than which scarce anything
could be more inaccurate. He neither comes forward, nor pretends to enlighten
anyone. The public wanted to know the views of the Theosophists, and our
President attempted to give, as succinctly as possible in the limits of a
143———————————————————A
SOCIETY WITHOUT A DOGMA.
single article, some little
glimpse of so much of the truth as he had learned. That the result would not be
wholly satisfactory was inevitable. Volumes would not suffice to answer all the
questions naturally presenting themselves to an enquiring mind; a library of
quartos would barely obliterate the prejudices of those who ride at the anchor
of centuries of metaphysical and theological misconceptions—perhaps even
errors. But, though our President is not guilty of the conceit of “pretending
to enlighten” Spiritualists, I think he has certainly thrown out some hints
worthy of the thoughtful consideration of the unprejudiced.
I am sorry that “M.A. Oxon.”
is not content with mere suggestions. Nothing but the whole naked truth will
satisfy him. We must “square” our theories with his facts, we must lay our
theory down “on exact lines of demonstration.” We are asked:
Where are the seers? What are
their records? And, far more important, how do they verify them to Us?
I answer: Seers are where
“Schools of the Prophets” are still extant, and they have their records with
them. Though Spiritualists are not able to go in search of them, yet the
Philosophy they teach commends itself to logic, and, its principles are
mathematically demonstrable. If this be not so, let it be shown.
But, in their turn,
Theosophists may ask, and do ask.: Where are the proofs that the medial
phenomena are exclusively attributable to the agency of departed “Spirits”? Who
are the “Seers” among mediums blessed with an infallible lucidity? What “tests”
are given that admit of no alternative explanation? Though Swedenborg was one
of the greatest of Seers, and churches are erected in his name, yet except to
his adherents what proof is there that the “Spirits” objective to his
vision—including Paul—promenading in hats, were anything but the creatures of
his imagination? Are the spiritual potentialities of the living man so well
comprehended that mediums can tell when their own agency ceases, and that of
outside influence begins? No; but for all answer to our suggestions that the
subject is open to debate, “M.A. Oxon.” shudderingly charges us with attempting
to upset what he designates as “a cardinal dogma of our faith,” i.e., the faith
of the Spiritualists. Dogma? Faith? These are the right and left pillars of every
soul crushing Theology. Theosophists have no dogmas, exact no blind faith.
Theosophists are ever ready to abandon every idea that is
144————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
proved erroneous upon strictly
logical deductions; let Spiritualists do the same. Dogmas are the toys that
amuse, and can satisfy but, unreasoning children. They are the offspring of
human speculation and prejudiced fancy. In the eye of true Philosophy it seems
an insult to common sense, that we should break loose from the idols and dogmas
of either Christian or heathen exoteric faith to catch up those of a
Realizing, as they do, the
boundlessness of the absolute truth, Theosophists repudiate all claim to
infallibility. The most cherished preconceptions, the most “pious hope,” the
strongest “ master passion,” they sweep aside like dust from their path, when
their error is pointed out. Their highest hope is to approximate to the truth;
that they have succeeded in going a few steps beyond the Spiritualists, they
think proved in their conviction that they know nothing in comparison with what
is to be learned; in their sacrifice of every pet theory and prompting of
emotionalism at the shrine of fact; and in their absolute and unqualified
repudiation of everything that smacks of “dogma.”
With great rhetorical
elaboration “M.A. Oxon.” paints the result of the supersedure of spiritualistic
by Theosophic ideas. In brief, he shows Spiritualism a lifeless corpse:
A body from which the soul has
been wrenched, and for which most men will care nothing.
We submit that the reverse is
true. Spiritualists wrench the soul from true Spiritualism by their degradation
of Spirit. Of the in they make the finite; of the divine subjective they make
the human and limited objective. Are Theosophists Materialists? Do not their
hearts warm with the same “pure and holy love” for their “loved ones” as those
of Spiritualists? Have not many of us sought long years “through the gate of
mediumship to have access to the world of Spirit”—and vainly sought? The
comfort and assurance modern Spiritualism could not give us we found in
Theosophy. As a result we believe far more firmly than many Spiritualists—for
our belief is based on knowledge—in the communion of our beloved ones with us;
but not as materialized Spirits with beating hearts and sweating brows.
Holding such views as we do as
to logic and fact, you perceive that when a Spiritualist pronounces to us the
words dogma and fact, debate
145———————————————————A SOCIETY WITHOUT A DOGMA.
is impossible, for there is no
common ground upon which we can meet. We decline to break our heads against
shadows. If fact and logic were given the consideration they should have, there
would be no more temples in this world for exoteric worship, whether Christian or
heathen, and the method of the Theosophists would be welcomed as the only one
insuring action and progress—a progress that cannot be arrested, since each
advance shows yet greater advances to be made.
As to our producing our
“Seers” and “their records”—one word. In The Spiritulist of Jan. 11th, I find
Dr. Peebles saying that in due time he
Will publish such facts about
the Dravida Brâhmans as I am [he is] permitted. I say permitted, because some
of these occurred under the promise and seal of secrecy.
If even the casual wayfarer is
put under an obligation of secrecy before he is shown some of the less
important psycho-physiological phenomena, is it not barely possible that the
Brotherhood to which some Theosophists belong has also doctrines, records, and phenomena,
that cannot be revealed to the profane and the indifferent, without any
imputation lying against their reality and authoritativeness? This, at least, I
believe, “M.A. Oxon.” knows. As we do not offensively obtrude ourselves upon an
unwilling public, but only answer under compulsion, we can hardly be denounced
as contumacious if we produce to a promiscuous public neither our “Seers” nor
“their records.” When Mohammed is ready to go to the mountain, it will be found
standing in its place.
And that no one that makes
this search may suppose that we Theosophists send him to a place where there
are no pitfalls for the unwary, I quote from the famous commentary on the
Bhagavad Gita of our brother Hurrychund Chintamon, the unqualified admission
that,
In Hindustau, as in
Like the Philosophy taught by
this author in the work in question, the object of the Theosophical Society “is
the cleansing of spiritual truth.”
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
ELEMENTARIES
—————
[From The
Religio-Philosophical Journal,
I PERCEIVE that of late the
ostracized subject of the Kabalistic “Elementaries” is beginning to appear in
the orthodox spiritualistic papers pretty often. No wonder; Spiritualism and
its Philosophy are progressing, and they will progress despite the opposition
of some very learned ignoramuses, who imagine the Cosmos rotates within the
academic brain. But if a new term is once admitted for discussion, the least we
can do is to first clearly ascertain what that term means. We students of the
Oriental Philosophy count it a clear gain that spiritualistic journals on both
sides of the Atlantic are beginning to discuss the subject of sub-human and
earth-bound beings, even though they ridicule the idea. But do those who
ridicule know what they are talking about, having never studied the Kabalistic
writers? It is evident to me that they are confounding the
“Elementaries”—disembodied, vicious, and earth-bound, yet human Spirits—with
the “Elementals,” or Nature Spirits.
With your permission, then, I
will answer an article by Dr. Woldrich which appeared in your Journal of the
2th inst., and to which the author gives the title of “Elementaries.” I freely
admit that, owing to my imperfect knowledge of English at the time I first
wrote upon the Elementaries, I may have myself contributed to the present
confusion, and thus brought upon my doomed head the wrath of Spiritualists,
mediums, and their “guides” into the bargain. But now I will attempt to make my
meaning clear. Eliphas Levi applies the term “Elementary” equally to
earth-bound human Spirits and to the creatures of the elements. This
carelessness on his part is due to the fact that as the human Elementaries are
considered by the Kabalists as having irretrievably lost every chance of
immortality, they therefore, after a certain period of time, become no better
than the “Elementals,” who never had any souls at all. To disentangle the
subject, I have, in my
147———————————————————————ELEMENTARIES.
Dr. Woldrich, in imitation of
Herbert Spencer, attempts to explain the existence of a popular belief in
Nature Spirits, demons and mythological deities, as the effect of an
imagination untutored by Science, and wrought upon by misunderstood natural
phenomena. He attributes the legendary Sylphs, Undines, Salamanders and
Gnomes—four great families, which include numberless sub-divisions—to mere
fancy; going however to the extreme of affirming that by long practice one can
acquire
That power which disembodied
spirits have of materializing apparitions by the will.
Granted that “disembodied
Spirits” have sometimes that power; but if disembodied why not embodied Spirits
also, i.e., a yet living person who has become an Adept in Occultism through
study? According to Dr. Woldrich’s theory, an embodied Spirit or Magician can
create only subjectively, or to quote his words:
He is in the habit of summoning,
that is, bringing up to his imagination, his familiar spirits, which, having
responded to his will, he considers as real existences.
I will not stop to enquire for
the proofs of this assertion, for it would only lead to an endless discussion.
If many thousands of Spiritualists in Europe and America have seen materialized
objective forms which assure them they were the Spirits of once living persons,
millions of Eastern people throughout the past ages have seen the Hierophants
of the Temples, and even now see them in India, without being in the least
mediums, also evoking objective and tangible forms, which display no
pretensions to being the souls of disembodied men. But I will only remark that,
though subjective and invisible to others, as Dr. Woldrich tells us, these
forms are palpable, hence objective to the clairvoyant; no scientist has yet
mastered the mysteries of even the physical sciences sufficiently to enable him
to contradict, with anything like plausible or incontrovertible proofs, the assumption
that because the clairvoyant sees a form remaining subjective to others, this
form is nevertheless neither a “hallucination” nor a fiction of the
imagination. Were the persons present endowed with the same clairvoyant
faculty, they would every one of them see this creature of “hallucination” as
well; hence there would be sufficient proof that it had an objective existence.
And this is how the experiments are conducted in certain psychological training
schools, as I call such establishments in the East. One clair-
148————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
voyant is never trusted. The
person may be honest, truthful, and have the greatest desire to learn only that
which is real, and yet mix the truth unconsciously and accept an Elemental for
a disembodied Spirit, and vice versa. For instance, what guarantee can Dr.
Woldrich give us that “Hoki” and “Thalla,” the guides of Miss May Shaw, were
not simply creatures produced by the power of the imagination? This gentleman
may have the word of his clairvoyant for this; he may implicitly and very
deservedly trust her honesty when in her normal state; but the fact alone that
a medium is a passive and docile instrument in the hands of some invisible and
mysterious powers, ought to make her irresponsible in the eves of every serious
investigator. It is the Spirit, or these invisible powers, he has to test, not
the clairvoyant; and what proof has he of their trustworthiness that he should
think himself warranted in coming out as the opponent of a Philosophy based on
thousands of years of practical experience, the iconoclast of experiments
performed by whole generations of learned Egyptians, Hierophants, Gurus,
Brâhmans, Adepts of the Sanctuaries, and a whole host of more or less learned
Kabalists, who were all trained Seers? Such an accusation, moreover, is
dangerous ground for the Spiritualists them selves. Admit once that a Magician
creates his forms only in fancy, and as a result of hallucination, and what becomes
of all the guides, spirit friends and the tutti quanti from the sweet “
From the standpoint of certain
Buddhist Schools, your correspondent may be right. Their Philosophy teaches
that even our visible Universe assumed an objective form as a result of the
fancy followed by the volition or the will of the Unknown and Supreme Adept,
differing, however, from Christian theology, inasmuch as they teach that
instead of calling out our Universe from nothingness, He had to exercise His
will upon preexisting Matter, eternal and indestructible as to invisible
Substance, though temporary and ever-changing as to forms. Some higher and
still more subtle metaphysical Schools of Nepaul even go so far as to affirm—on
very reasonable grounds, too—that this preexisting and self-existent Substance
or Matter (Svabhâvat) is itself without any other creator or ruler; when in the
state of activity it is Pravritti, a universal creating principle; when latent
and passive they
149———————————————————————ELEMENTARIES.
call this force Nirvritti. As
for something eternal and infinite, for that which had neither beginning nor
end there can be neither past nor future, but everything that was and will be,
Is; therefore there never was an action or even thought, however simple, that
is not impressed in imperishable records on this Substance, called by the
Buddhists Svabhâvat, by the Kabalists Astral Light. As in a faithful mirror,
this Light reflects every image, and no human imagination could see any thing outside
that which exists impressed somewhere on the eternal Substance. To imagine that
a human brain can conceive of anything that was never conceived of before by
the “universal brain,” is a fallacy and a conceited presumption. At best, the
former can catch now and then stray glimpses of the “Eternal Thought” after
this has assumed some objective form, either in the world of the invisible, or
visible, Universe. Hence the unanimous testimony of trained Seers goes to prove
that there are such creatures as the Elementals; and that though the
Elementaries have been at some time human Spirits, they, having lost every
connection with the purer immortal world, must be recognized by some special
term which would draw a distinct line of demarcation between them and the true
and genuine disembodied souls, winch have henceforth to remain immortal. To the
Kabalists and the Adepts, especially in
Spiritualists have never
accepted the suggestion and sound advice of certain of their seers and mediums.
They have regarded Dr. Peebles’ “Gadarenes” with indifference; they have
shrugged their shoulders at the “Rosicrucian” fantasies of P. B. Randolph, and
his Ravalette has made none of them the wiser; they have frowned and grumbled
at A. Jackson Davis’ “Diakka”; and finally, lifting high the banner, have
declared a murderous war of extermination against the Theosophists and
Kabalists. What are now the results?
A series of exposures of
fraudulent mediums that have brought mortification to their endorsers and
dishonour upon the cause; identification by genuine seers and mediums of
pretended Spirit-forms that were afterwards found to be mere personations by
lying cheats, go to prove that in such instances at least, outside of clear
cases of confederacy, the identifications were due to illusion on the part of
the said seers; spirit-babes discovered to be battered masks and bundles of
rags; obsessed mediums driven by their guides to drunkenness and immor-
150————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
ality of conduct; the
practices of free-love endorsed and even prompted by alleged immortal Spirits;
sensitive believers forced to the commission of murder, suicide, forgery,
embezzlement and other crimes; the over-credulous led to waste their substance
in foolish investments and the search after hidden treasures; mediums fostering
ruinous speculations in stocks; free-loveites parted from their wives in search
of other female affinities; two continents flooded with the vilest slanders,
spoken and sometimes printed by mediums against other mediums; incubi and
succubi entertained as returning angel-husbands or wives; mountebanks and
jugglers protected by scientists and the clergy, and gathering large audiences
to witness imitations of the phenomena of cabinets, the reality of which
genuine mediums themselves and Spirits are powerless to vindicate by giving the
necessary test conditions; seances still held in Stygian darkness, where even
genuine phenomena can readily be mistaken for the false, and false for the
real; mediums left helpless by their angel guides, tried, convicted, and sent
to prison, and no attempt made to save them from their fate by those who, if
they are Spirits having the power of controlling mortal affairs, ought to have
enlisted the sympathy of the heavenly hosts on behalf of their mediums in the
face of such crying injustice; other faithful spiritualistic lecturers and
mediums broken down in health and left unsupported by those calling themselves
their patrons and protectors—such are some of the features of the present
situation; the black spots of what ought to become the grandest and noblest of
all religious Philosophies freely thrown by the unbelievers and Materialists
into the teeth of every Spiritualist. No intelligent person of the latter class
need go outside of his own personal experience to find examples like the above.
Spiritualism has not progressed and is not progressing and will not progress,
until its facts are viewed in the light of the Oriental Philosophy.
Thus, Mr. Editor, your
esteemed correspondent, Dr. Woldrich, may be found guilty of an erroneous
proposition. In the concluding sentence of his article he says:
I know not whether I have
succeeded in proving the Elementary a myth, but at least I hope that I have
thrown some more light upon the subject to some of the readers of the journal.
To this I would answer: (1) He
has not proved at all the “Elementary a myth,” since the Elementaries are, with
a few exceptions, the earth-bound guides and Spirits in which he believes,
together with every other Spiritualist. (2) Instead of throwing light upon the
subject,
151——————————————————————ELEMENTARIES.
the Doctor has but darkened it
the more. (3) Such explanations and careless exposures do the greatest harm to
the future of Spiritualism, and greatly serve to retard its progress by
teaching its adherents that they have nothing more to learn.
Sincerely hoping that I have
not trespassed too much on the columns of your esteemed journal, allow me to
sign myself, dear sir,
Yours respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
Corresponding Secretary of the
Theosophical Society.
KABALISTIC VIEWS OF “SPIRITS”
[From The
Religio-Philosophical Journal,
I MUST beg you to again allow
me a little space for the further elucidation of a very important question—that
of the “Elementals” and the “Elementaries.” It is a misfortune that our
European languages do not contain a nomenclature expressive of the various
grades and conditions of spiritual beings. But surely I cannot be blamed for
either the above linguistic deficiency, or because some people do not choose,
or are unable, to understand my meaning! I cannot too often repeat that in this
matter I claim no originality. My teachings are but the substance of what many
Kabalists have said before me, which to-day I mean to prove, with your kind
permission.
I am accused (1) of “turning
somersaults” and jumping from one idea to another. The defendant pleads—not
guilty. (2) Of coining not only words but Philosophies out of the depths of my
consciousness. Defendant enters the same plea. (3) Of having repeatedly
asserted that “intelligent Spirits other than those who have passed through an
earth experience in a human body were concerned in the manifestations known as
the phenomena of Spiritualism.” True, and defendant repeats the assertion. (4)
Of having advanced, in my bold and unwarranted theories, “beyond the great
Eliphas Levi himself.” Indeed? Were I to go even as far as he (see his Science
des Esprits), I would deny that a single so-called spiritual manifestation is
more than hallucination, produced by soulless Elementals, whom he calls
“Elementaries” (see Ritual de la Haute Magic).
I am asked: “What proof is
there of the existence of the Elementals?” In my turn I will enquire: “‘What
proof is there of ‘diakkas,’ ‘guides,’ ‘bands’ and ‘controls’ ?“ And yet these
terms are all current among Spiritualists. The unanimous testimony of
innumerable observers and competent experimenters furnishes the proof. If
Spiritualists cannot, or will not, go to those countries where they are living
153———————————————————KABALISTIC VIEWS OF “SPIRITS.”
and these proofs are
accessible, they, at least, have no right to give the lie direct to those who
have seen both the Adepts and the proofs. My witnesses are living men teaching
and exemplifying the Philosophy of hoary ages; theirs, these very “guides” and
“controls,” who up to the present time are at best hypothetical, and whose
assertions have been repeatedly found, by Spiritualists themselves,
contradictory and false.
If my present critics insist
that since the discussion of this matter began, a disembodied soul has never
been described as an “Elementary,” I merely point to the number of the London
Spiritualist for
Is it not probable that some
of the elementary spirits of an evil type are those spirit-bodies, which, only
recently disembodied, are on the eve of an eternal dissolution, and which
continue their temporary existence only by vampirizing those still in the
flesh? They had existence; they never attained to being.
Note two things: that human
Elementaries are recognized as existing, apart from the Gnomes, Sylphs, Undines
and Salamanders beings purely elemental; and that annihilation of the soul is regarded
as potential.
Says Paracelsns, in his
Philosophia Sagax:
The current of Astral Light
with its peculiar inhabitants, Gnomes, Svlphs, etc., is transformed into human
light at the moment of the conception. and it becomes the first envelope of the
soul—its grosser portion; combined with the most subtle fluids, it forms the
sidereal [astral, or ethereal] phantom—the inner man.
And Eliphas Levi :
The Astral Light is saturated
with elementary souls which it discharges in the incessant generation of beings
...At the birth of a child they influence the four temperaments of the latter:
the element of the Gnomes predominates in melanchol persons; of the Salamanders
in the sanguine; of the Undines in the phlegmatic; of the Sylphs in the giddy
and bilious.... These are the spirits which we designate under the tern of
occult elements (Rituel de la Haute Magic, vol. ii. chapter on the
‘‘Conjnration of the Four Classes of Elementary”).
‘‘Yes, yes,’’ he remarks (op.
cit., vol. i. p. 164):
These spirits of the elements
do exist. Same wandering in their spheres, others trying to incarnate
themselves, others, again, already incarnated, and living on earth. These are
vicious and imperfect men.
Note that we have here
described to us more or less “intelligent Spirits, other than those who have
passed through an earth experience in a human body.’’ If not intelligent, they
would not know how to make the attempt to incarnate themselves. Vicious
Elementals, or
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A MODERN PANARION.
Elementaries, are attracted to
vicious parents; they bask in their atmosphere, and are thus afforded the
chance, by the vices of the parents, to perpetuate in the child the paternal
wickedness. The unintellectual “Elementals” are drawn in unconsciously to
themselves, and, in the order of Nature, as component parts of the grosser
astral body or soul, determine the temperament. They can as little resist as
the animalcules can avoid entering into our bodies in the water we swallow. Of
a third class, out of hundreds that the Eastern Philosophers and Kabalists are
acquainted with, Eliphas I discussing spiritistic phenomena, says:
They are neither the souls of
the damned nor guilty; the elementary spirits are like children, curious and harmless,
and torment people in proportion as attention is paid to them.
These he regards as the sole
agents in all the meaningless and useless physical phenomena at seances. Such
phenomena will be produced unless they be dominated “by wills more powerful than
their own.” Such a will may be that of a living Adept, or, as there are none
such at Western spiritual seances, these ready agents are at the disposal of
every strong, vicious, earth-bound, human Elementary who has been attracted to
the place. By such they can be used in combination with the astral emanations
of the circle and medium, as stuff out of which to make materialized Spirits.
So little does Levi concede
the possibility of Spirit-return in objective form that he says:
The good deceased come back in
our dreams; the state of mediumism is an extension of dream, it is somnambulism
in all its variety and ecstasies. Fathom the phenomenon of sleep and you will
understand the phenomena of the spirits.
And again
According to one of the great
dogmas of the Kabalah, the soul despoils itself in order to ascend, and thus
would have to re-clothe itself in matter to descend. There is but one way for a
spirit already liberated to manifest himself objectively on earth; he must get
back into his body and resurrect. This is quite another thing from hiding under
a table or a hat. Necromancy, or the evocation of materialized spirits, is
horrible. It constitutes a crime against Nature. We have admitted in our former
works the possibility of vampirism, and even undertaken to explain it. The
phenomena now actually occurring in
155———————————————————KABALISTIC VIEWS OF “SPIRITS.”
Henry Kunrath was a most
learned Kabalist, and the greatest anthority among mediæval Occultists. He
gives, in one of the clavicles of his Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ,
illustrative engravings of the four great classes of elementary Spirits, as
they presented them selves during an evocation of ceremonial Magic, before the
eyes of the Magus, when, after passing the threshold, he lifted the “Veil of
Isis.” In describing them, Kunrath corroborates Eliphas Levi. He tells us they
are disembodied, vicious men, who have parted with their divine Spirits and
become Elementaries. They are so termed, because attracted by the earthly
atmosphere and surrounded by the earth’s elements. Here Kunrath applies the
term “Elementary” to doomed human souls, While Levi uses it, as we have seen,
to designate another class of the same great family—Gnomes, Sylphs, Undines,
etc.—sub-human entities.
I have before me a manuscript,
intended originally for publication, but withheld for various reasons. The
author signs himself “Zeus,” and is a Kabalist of more than twenty-five years’
standing. This experienced Occultist, a zealous devotee of Kunrath, expounding
the doctrine of the latter, also says that the Kabalists divided the Spirits of
the elements into four classes, corresponding to the four temperaments in man.
It is charged against me as a
heinous offence that I aver that some men lose their souls and are annihilated.
But this last-named authority, “Zeus,” is equally culpable, for he says:
They [ the Kabalists] taught
that mail’s spirit descended from the great ocean of spirit, and is, therefore,
per se, pure and divine, but its soul or capsule, through the [allegorical]
fall of Adam, became contaminated with the world of darkness, or the world of
Satan [evil] of which it must be purified, before it could ascend again to
celestial happiness. Suppose a drop of water enclosed within a capsule remains
whole, the drop of water remains isolated; break the envelope, and the drop
becomes a part of the ocean, its individual existence has ceased. So it is with
the spirit. So long as its ray is enclosed in its plastic mediator or soul, it
has an individual existence. Destroy this capsule, the astral man then becomes
an Elementary; this destruction may occur from the consequences of sin, in the
most depraved and vicious, and the spirit returns back to its original
abode—the individualization of man has ceased. . . . This militates with the
idea of progression that Spiritualists generally entertain. If they understood
the Law of harmony, they would see their error. It is only by this Law that
individual life can be sustained; and the farther we deviate from harmony the
more difficult it is to regain it.
To return to Levi, he remarks
(La Haute Magie, vol. i. p. 319):
156————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
When we die, our interior
light [the soul] ascends agreeably to the attraction of its star [the spirit],
but it must first of all get rid of the coils of the serpent [earthly evil—sin],
that is to say, of the unpurified Astral Light which surrounds and holds it
captive, unless, by the force of Will, it frees and elevates itself. This
immersion of the living soul in the dead light [the emanations of everything
that is evil, which pollute the earth’s magnetic atmosphere, as the exhalation
of a swamp does the air] is a dreadful torture; the soul freezes and burns
therein at the same time.
The Kabalists represent Adam
as the Tree of Life, of which the trunk is Humanity; the various races, the
branches; and individual men, the leaves. Every leaf has its individual life,
and is fed by the one sap; but it can live only through the branch, as the
branch itself draws its life through the trunk. Says the Kabalah:
The wicked are the dead leaves
and the dead bark of the tree. They fall, die, are corrupted and changed into
manure, which returns to the tree through the root.
My friend, Miss Emily
Kislingbury, of
Friend, you are right. Keep
our Spiritualism pure and high, for there are those who would abase its uses.
But it is because they know not the power of Spiritualism. It is true, in a
sense, that the spirit can overcome the flesh, but there are those to whom the
fleshly life is dearer than the life of the spirit; they tread on dangerous
ground. For the flesh may so outgrow the spirit, as to withdraw from it all
spirituality, and man becomes as a beast of the field, with no saving power
left. These are they whom the church has termed “reprobate,” eternally lost,
but they suffer not, as the church has taught, in conscious hells. They merely
die, and are not; their light goes out, and has no conscious being. [Question]:
But is this not annihilation? [Answer]: It amounts to annihilation; they lose
their individual entities, and return to the great reservoir of
spirit—unconscious spirit.
Finally, I am asked: “Who are
the trained Seers?” They are those, I answer, who have been trained from their
childhood, in the Pagodas, to use their spiritual sight; those whose
accumulated testimony has not varied for thousands of years as to the
fundamental facts of Eastern Philosophy; the testimony of each generation
corroborating that of each preceding one. Are these to be trusted more, or
less, than the communications of “bands”—each of whom contradicts the other as
completely as the various religious sects, which are ready to cut each other’s
throats—and of mediums, even the best of whom are
157———————————————————KABALISTIC VIEWS OF “SPIRITS.”
ignorant of their own nature,
and unsubjected to the wise direction and restraint of an Adept in
Psychological Science?
No comprehensive idea of
Nature can be obtained except by apply ing the Law of Harmony and analogy in
the spiritual as well as in the physical world. “As above, so below,” is the
old Hermetic axiom. If Spiritualists would apply this to the subject of their
own researches they would see the philosophical necessity of there being in the
world of Spirit, as was the world of Matter, a law of the survival of the
fittest.
Respectfully,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE KNOUT
AS WIELDED BY THE GREAT
RUSSIAN THEOSOPHIST.
MR. COLEMAN’S FIRST
APPEARANCE.
[From The
Religio-Philosophical Journal,
I HAVE read some of the assaults
upon Colonel Olcott and myself that have appeared in the Journal. Some have
amused me, others I have passed by unread; but I was quite unprepared for the
good fortune that lay in store for me in embryo in the paper of Feb. 6th. The
“Protest” of Mr.W. Emmette Coleman, entitled “Sclavonic Theosophy v. American
Spiritualism” is the musky rose in an odoriferous bouquet. Its pungent
fragrance would make the nose of a sensitive bleed, whose olfactory nerves
would withstand the perfume of a garden full of the Malayan flower-queen—the
tuberose; and yet, my tough, pug, Mongolian nose, which has smelt carrion in
all parts of the world, proved itself equal even to this emergency.
“From the sublime to the
ridiculous,” says the French proverb, “there is but a single step.” From
sparkling wit to dull absurdity there is no more. An attack, to be effective,
must have an antagonist to strike, for to kick against something that exists
only in one’s imagination, wrenches man or beast. Don Quixote fighting the “air
drawn” foes in his windmill, stands for ever the laughing-stock of all
generations, and the type of a certain class of disputants, whom, for the
moment, Mr. Coleman represents.
The pretext for two columns of
abuse—suggesting, I am sorry to say, parallel sewers—is that Miss Emily
Kislingbury, in an address before the B.N.A. of Spiritualists, mentioned
Colonel Olcott’s name in connection with a leadership of Spiritualism. I have
the report of her remarks before me, and find that she neither proposed Colonel
Olcott to American Spiritualists as a leader, nor said that he had wanted
“leadership,” desired it now, or could ever be persuaded to take it. Says Mr.
Coleman:
159——————————————————————THE KNOUT.
It is seriously proposed by
your transatlantic sister, Miss Kislingburv . . . that American Spiritualists
should select as their guardian guide . Col. H. S. Olcott!!
If anyone is entitled to this
wealth of exclamation points it is Miss Kislingbury, for the charge against her
from beginning to end is simply an unmitigated falsehood. Miss Kislingbury
merely expressed the personal opinion that a certain gentleman, for whom she
had a deserved friendship, would have been capable, at one time, of acting as a
leader. This was her private opinion, to which she had as good a right as
either of her defamers—who in a cowardly way try to use Col. Olcott and myself
as sticks with which to break her head—have to their opinions. It may or may
not have been warranted by the facts— that is immaterial. The main point is,
that Miss Kislingbury has not said one word that gives the slightest pretext
for Mr. Coleman’s attacking her on this question of leadership. And yet, I am
not surprised at his course, for this brave, noble-hearted, truthful and
spotless lady occupies too impregnable a position to be assailed, except
indirectly. Someone had to pay for her plain speaking about American
Spiritualism. What better scapegoat than Olcott and Blavatsky, the twin
“theosophical Gorgons”!
What a hullabaloo is raised,
to be sure, about Spiritualists declining to follow our “leadership.” In my
“Buddhistico-Tartaric” ignorance I have always supposed that something must be
offered before it can either be indignantly spurned or even respectfully
declined. Have we offered to lead Spiritualists by the nose or by other
portions of their anatomy? Have we ever proclaimed ourselves as “teachers,” or
set ourselves up as infallible “guides”? Let the hundreds of unanswered letters
that we have received from Spiritualists be our witness. Let us even include
two letters from Mr. W. Emmette Coleman, from Leaven worth, Kansas, calling
attention to his published articles of Jan. 13th, 20th, 27th, and Feb. 3rd
(four papers), inviting controversy. He says in his communication of
This address [the one he wants
us to read and express our opinion upon] was delivered some time since; if of
more recent date I [he] might modify somewhat.
Now Col. Olcott’s People from
The 0ther World was published Jan., 1875; Mr. Coleman’s letter to the Colonel
was written in Jan., 1877; and
160————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
his present “Protest” to the
Journal appeared Feb., 1878. It puzzles me to know how a man “in search of
Truth” could lower himself so far as to hunt for it in the coat-pockets of an
author whose work is
Clearly demonstrative of the
utterly unscientific character of his researches, full of exaggerations,
inaccuracies, marvellous statements recorded at second-hand without the
slightest confirmation, lackadaisical sentimentalities, egotistical
rhodomontades, and grammatical inelegancies and solecisms.
To go to a man for “Truth” who
is characterized by The most fervid imagination and brilliant powers of
invention,—according to Mr. Emmette Coleman—shows Mr. Coleman in a sorry light
indeed! His only excuse can be that in January, 1877, when he invited Col.
Olcott to discuss with him—despite the fact that the Theosophical Society had
been established in 1875, and all our “heresies” were already in print—his
estimation of Col. Olcott’s intellectual powers was different from what it is
now, and that Mr. Coleman’s “address” has been left two years unread and
unnoticed. Does this look like our offering ourselves as “leaders”? We address
the great body of intelligent American Spiritualists. They have as much a right
to their opinions as we to ours; they have no more right than we to falsely
state the positions of their antagonists. But their would-be champion, Mr.
Coleman, for the sake of having an excuse to abuse me, pretends to quote (see
column 2, paragraph 1) from something I have published, a whole sentence that I
defy him to prove I ever made use of. This is downright literary fraud and
dishonesty. A man who is in “search of Truth” does not usually employ a
falsehood as a weapon.
Good friends, whose enquiries
we have occasionally, but rarely, answered, bear us witness that we have always
disclaimed anything like “leadership”; that we have invariably referred you to
the same standard authors whom we have read, the same old Philosophers we have
studied. We call on you to testify that we have repudiated dogmas and
dogmatists, whether living men or disembodied Spirits. As opposed to
Materialists, Theosophists are Spiritualists, but it would be as absurd for us
to claim the leadership of Spiritualism as for a Protestant priest to speak for
the Romish Church, or a Romish Cardinal to lead the great body of Protestants,
though both claim to be Christians! Recrimination seems to be the life and soul
of American journalism, but I really thought that a spiritualistic organ had more
congenial matter for its columns than such materialistic abuse as the present “
161———————————————————————THE KNOUT.
One chief aim of the writer
seems to be to abuse Isis Unveiled. My publisher will doubtless feel under
great obligations for giving it such a notoriety just now, when the fourth
edition is ready to go to press. That the fossilized reviewers of The Tribune
and Popular Science Monthly—both admitted advocates of materialistic Science
and unsparingly contemptuous denouncers of Spiritualism—should, without either
of them having read my book, brand it as spiritualistic moon shine, was
perfectly natural. I should have thought that I had written my first volume,
holding up Modern Science to public contempt for its unfair treatment of
psychological phenomena, to small purpose, if they had complimented me. Nor was
I at all surprised that the critic of the
(1) the wisdom of the ancient
Sages; (2) the folly of the merely material Philosopher (the Emmette Colemans,
Huxleys and Tyndalls);
(3) the doctrine of Nirvana;
(4) archaic monotheism, etc.; and when the London Public Opinion calls it “one
of the most extraordinary works of the nineteenth century” in an elaborate
criticism; and when Alfred R. Wallace says:
I am amazed at the vast amount
of erudition displayed in the chapters, and the great interest of the topics on
which they treat; your book will open up to many Spiritualists a whole world of
new ideas, and cannot fail to be of the greatest value in the enquiry which is
now being so earnestly carried on,
—Mr. Coleman really appears in the sorry light of one who abuses for the mere
sake of abusing.
What a curious psychological
power I must have All the Journal writers, from the talented editor down to Mr.
Coleman, pretend to account for the blind devotion of Col. Olcott to Theosophy,
the over-partial panegyric of Miss Kislingbury, the friendly recantation of
162————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Dr. G. Bloede, and the
surprisingly vigorous defence of myself by Mr. C. Sotheran, and other recent
events, on the ground of my having psychologized them all into the passive
servitude of hoodwinked dupes! I can only say that such Psychology is next door
to miracle. That I could influence men and women of such acknowledged
independence of character and intellectual capacity, would be at least more
than any of your lecturing mesmerizers or “spirit-controls” have been able to
accomplish. Do you not see, my noble enemies, the logical consequences of such
a doctrine? Admit that I can do that, and you admit the reality of Magic, and
my powers as an Adept. I never claimed that Magic was anything but Psychology
practically applied. That one of your mesmerizers can make a cabbage appear a
rose is only a lower form of the power you all endow me with. You give an old
woman—whether forty, fifty, sixty or ninety years old (some swear I am the
latter, some the former), it matters not; an old woman whose
“Kalmuco-Buddhistico-Tartaric” features, even in youth, never made her appear
pretty; a woman whose ungainly garb, uncouth manners and masculine habits are
enough to frighten any bustled and corseted fine lady of fashionable society
out of her wits—you give her such powers of fascination as to draw fine ladies
and gentlemen, scholars and artists, doctors and clergymen, to her house by
scores, to not only talk Philosophy with her, not merely to stare at her as
though she were a monkey in red flannel breeches, as some of them do, but to
honour her in many cases with their fast and sincere friendship and grateful
kindness! Psychology! If that is the name you give it, then, although I have
never offered myself as a teacher, you had better come, my friends, and be
taught at once the “trick” (gratis—for, unlike other psychologizers, I never
yet took money for teaching any thing to anybody), so that hereafter you may
not be deceived into recognizing as—what Mr. Coleman so graphically calls—”the
sainted dead of earth,” those pimple-nosed and garlic-breathing beings who
climb ladders through trap-doors, and carry tow wigs and battered masks in the
penetralia of their underclothing.
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
—“the masculine-feminine
Sclavonic Theosoph from Crim-Tartary”—a title which does more credit to Mr.
Coleman’s vituperative ingenuity than to his literary accomplishments.
INDIAN METAPHYSICS
[From the
Two peas in the same pod are
the traditional symbol of mutual resemblance, and the time-honoured simile
forced itself upon me when I read the twin letters of our two masked assailants
in your paper of Feb. 22nd. In substance they are so identical that one would
suppose the same person had written them simultaneously with his two hands, as
Paul Morphy will play you two games of chess, or Kossuth dictate two letters at
once. The only difference between these two letters— lying beside each other on
the same page, like two babes in one crib—is, that “M.A. Cantab’s” is brief and
courteous, while “Scrutator’s” is prolix and uncivil.
By a strange coincidence both
these sharp-shooters fire from behind their secure ramparts a shot at a certain
“learned Occultist” over the head of Mr. C. C. Massey, who quoted some of that
personage’s views, in a letter published May 10th, 1876. Whether in irony or
otherwise, they hurl the views of this “learned Occultist” at the heads of Col.
Olcott and myself, as though they were missiles that would floor us completely.
Now the “learned Occultist” in question is not a whit more, or less, learned
than your humble servant, for the very simple reason that we are identical. The
extracts published by Mr. Massey, by permission, were contained in a letter
from myself to him. More over it is now before me, and, save one misprint of no
consequence, I do not find in it a word that I would wish changed. What is said
there I repeat now over my signature—the theories of 1876 do not contradict
those of 1878 in any respect, as I shall endeavour to prove, after pointing out
to the impartial reader the quaking ground upon which our two critics stand.
Their arguments against Theosophy— certainly “Scrutator’s”—are like a verdant
moss, which displays a velvety carpet of green without roots and with a deep
bog below.
When a person enters on a
controversy over a fictitious signature, he
164————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
should be doubly cautious, if
he would avoid the accusation of abusing the opportunity of the mask to insult
his opponents with impunity. Who or what is “Scrutator”? A clergyman, a medium,
a lawyer, a philosopher, a physician (certainly not a metaphysician), or what?
Quien sabe? He seems to partake of the flavour of all, and yet to grace none.
Though his arguments are all interwoven with sentences quoted from our letters,
yet in no case does he criticize merely what is written by us, but what he
thinks we may have meant, or what the sentences might imply. Drawing his
deductions, then, from what existed only in the depths of his own
consciousness, he invents phrases, and forces constructions, upon which he
proceeds to pour out his wrath. Without meaning to be in the least
personal—for, though propagating “absurdities with the “utmost effrontery,” I
should feel sorry and ashamed to be as impertinent with “Scrutator” as he is
with us—yet, hereafter, when I see a dog chasing the shadow of his own tail, I
will think of his letter.
In my doubts as to what this
assailant might be, I invoked the help of Webster to give me a possible clue in
the pseudonym. “Scrutator,” says the great lexicographer, is “one who
scrutinizes,” and “scrutiny” he derives from the Latin scrutari, “to search
even to the rags”; which scrutari itself he traces back to a Greek root, meaning
“trash, trumpery.” In this ultimate analysis, therefore, we must regard the nom
de plume, while very applicable to his letter of February 22nd, as very
unfortunate for himself; for, at best, it makes him a sort of literary
chiffonnier, probing in the dust-heap of the language for bits of hard
adjectives to fling at us. I repeat that, when an anonymous critic accuses two
persons of “slanderous imputations” (the mere reflex of his own imagination),
and of “unfathomable absurdities,” he ought, at least, to make sure (1) that he
has thoroughly grasped what he is pleased to call the “teachings” of his
adversaries; and (2) that his own philosophy is infallible. I may add,
furthermore, that when that critic permits himself to call the views of other
people—not yet half digested by himself—”unfathomable absurdities,” he ought to
be mighty careful about introducing as arguments into the discussion sectarian
absurdities far more “unfathomable” and which have nothing to do with either
Science or Philosophy.
I suppose [gravely argues
“Scrutator”] a babe’s brain is soft and a quite unfit tool for intelligence,
otherwise Jesus could not have lost His intelligence when He took upon Himself
the body and the brain of a babe [!!?]
165————————————————————INDIAN METAPHYSICS.
The very opposite of Oliver
Johnson evidently, this Jesus-babe of “Scrutator’s.”
Such an argument might come
with a certain force in a discussion between two conflicting dogmatic sects,
but if picked “even to rags” it seems but “utmost effrontery”—to use “Scrutator’s”
own complimentary expression—to employ it in a philosophical debate, as if it
were either a scientific or historically proved fact! If I refused, at the very
start, to argue with our friend “M.A. Oxon.,” a man whom I esteem and respect
as I do few in this world, only because he put forward a “cardinal dogma,” I
shall certainly lose no time in debating Theosophy with a tattering Christian,
whose scrutinizing faculties have not helped him beyond the acceptance of the
latest of the world’s Avatâras, in all its unphilosophical dead-letter meaning,
without even suspecting its symbolical significance. To parade in a would-be
philosophical debate the exploded dogmas of any Church, is most ineffectual,
and shows, at best, a great poverty of resource. Why does not “Scrutator”
address hiss refined abuse, ex cathedra, to the Royal Society, whose Fellows
doom to annihilation every human being, Theosophist or Spiritualist, pure or
impure?
With crushing irony he speaks
of us as “our teachers.” Now I remember having distinctly stated in a previous
letter that we have not offered ourselves as teachers, but, on the contrary,
decline any such office—whatever may be the superlative panegyric of my
esteemed friend, Mr. 0. Sullivan, who not only sees in me “a Buddhist priestess”
(!), but, without a shadow of warrant of fact, credits me with the foundation
of the Theosophical Society and its Branches! Had Colonel Olcott been half as
“psychologized” by me as a certain American Spiritualist paper will have it, he
would have followed my advice and refused to make public our “views,” even
though so much and so often importuned in different quarters. With
characteristic stubbornness, however, he had his own way, and now reaps the
consequence of having thrown his bomb into a hornet’s nest. Instead of being
afforded opportunity for a calm debate, we get but abuse, pure and simple—the
only weapon of partisans. Well, let us make the best of it, and join our
opponents in picking the question “to rags.” Mr. C. C. Massey comes in for his
share, too, and though fit to be a leader himself, is given by “Scrutator” a
chief!
Neither of our critics seems
to understand our views (or his own) so little as “Scrutator.” He misapprehends
the meaning of Elementary,
166————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
and makes a sad mess of Spirit
and Matter. Hear him say that Elementary
Is a new-fangled and
ill-defined term . . not yet two years old.
This sentence alone proves
that he forces himself into the discussion, without any comprehension of the
subject at issue. Evidently, he has neither read the mediæval nor modern
Kabalists. Henry Kunrath is as unfamiliar to him as the Abbe Constant. Let him
go to the
When a man has lived well, the
astral cadaver evaporates like a pure incense, as it mounts towards the higher
regions; but if a man has lived in crime, his astral cadaver, which holds him
prisoner, seeks again the objects of his passions and desires to resume its
earthly life. It torments the dreams of young girls, bathes in the vapour of
spilt blood, and wallows about the places where the pleasures of his life
flitted by; it watches without ceasing over the treasures which it possessed
and buried; it wastes itself in painful efforts to make for itself material
organs [materialize itself] and live again. But the astral elements attract and
absorb it; its memory is gradually lost, its intelligence weakens, all its
being dissolves.
The unhappy wretch loses thus
in succession all the organs which served its sinful appetites. Then it [this
astral body, this “soul,” this all that is left of the once living man] dies a
second time and for ever, for it then loses its personality and its memory.
Souls which are destined to live, but which are not yet entirely purified,
remain for a longer or shorter time captive in the astral cadaver, where they
are refined by the odic light, which seeks to assimilate them to itself and
dissolve. It is to rid themselves of this cadaver that suffering souls sometimes
enter the bodies of living persons, and remain there for a time in a state
which the Kabalists call embryonic [embryonnal]. These are the aerial
phantasmas evoked by necromancy [ I may add, the “materialized Spirits” evoked
by the unconscious necromancy of incautious mediums, in cases where the forms
are not transformations of their own doubles]; these are larvæ, substances dead
or dying with which one places himself en rapport.
167————————————————————INDIAN METAPHYSICS.
Further, Levi says (op. cit.,
p. 164):
The astral light is saturated
with elementary souls. . . Yes, yes, these spirits of the elements do exist.
Some wandering in their spheres, others trying to incarnate themselves, others,
again already incarnated and living on earth; these are vicious and imperfect
men.
And in the face of this
testimony—which he can find in the
In truth, we may say that the
idea is older than Christianity, for it is found in the ancient Kabalistic
books of the Jews. In the olden time they defined three kinds of “souls”—the
daughters of Adam, the daughters of the angels and those of sin; and in the
book of The Revolution of the Souls three kinds of “Spirits” (as distinct from
material bodies) are shown—the captive, the wandering and the free Spirits. If
“Scrutator” were acquainted with the literature of Kabalism, he would know that
the term Elementary applies not only to one principle or constituent part, to
an elementary primary substance, but also embodies the idea which we express by
the term elemental—that which pertains to the four elements of the material
world, the first principles or primary ingredients. The word “elemental” as
defined by Webster, was not current at the time of Kunrath, but the idea was
perfectly understood. The distinction has been made, and the term adopted by
Theosophists for the sake of avoiding confusion. The thanks we get are that we
are charged with propounding, in 1878, a different theory of the “Elementaries”
from that of 1876!
Does anything herein stated
either as from ourselves, or Kunrath, or Levi contradict the statement of the
‘‘learned Occultist’’ that:
Each atom, no matter where
found, is imbued with that vital principle called spirit each grain of sand,
equally with each minutest atom of the human body, has its inherent latent
spark of the divine light?
Italicizing some words of the
above, but omitting to emphasize the one important word of the sentence, i.e.,
“latent,” which contains the key to the whole mystery, our critic mars the
sense. In the grain of sand, and each atom of the human material body, the
Spirit is latent, not active; hence being but a correlation of the highest
light, some-
169————————————————————INDIAN METAPHYSICS.
defined a materialized Spirit
as “frozen whiskey,” was right in his way. A Copious vocabulary, indeed, that
has but one term for God and for alcohol! With all their libraries of
metaphysics, European nations have not even gone to the trouble of inventing
appropriate words to elucidate metaphysical ideas. If they had, perhaps one
book in every thousand would have sufficed to really instruct the public,
instead of there being the present confusion of words, obscuring intelligence,
and utterly hampering the Orientalist, who would expound his Philosophy in
English. Whereas, in the latter language, I find but one word to express,
perhaps, twenty different ideas, in the Eastern tongues, especially Sanskrit,
there are twenty words or more to render one idea in its various shades of
meaning.
We are accused of propagating
ideas that would surprise the “average” Buddhist. Granted, and I will liberally
add that the average Brâhmanist might be equally astonished. We never said that
we were either Buddhists or Brâhmanists in the sense of their popular exoteric
Theologies. Buddha, sitting on his Lotus, or Brahmâ, with any number of
teratological arms, appeals to us as little as the Catholic Madonna or the
Christian personal God, which stare at us from cathedral walls and ceilings.
But neither Buddha nor Brahmâ represents to His respective worshippers the same
ideas as these Catholic icons which we regard as blasphemous. In this
particular who dares say that Christendom with its civilization has outgrown
the fetichism of Fijians? When we see Christians and Spiritualists speaking so
flippantly and confidently about God and the “materialization of Spirit,” we
wish they might be made to share a little in the reverential ideas of the old
Aryas.
We do not write for “average”
Buddhists, or average people of any sort. But I am quite willing to match any
tolerably educated Buddhist or Brâhman against the best metaphysicians of
The ultimate abstract
definition of this—call it God, Force, Principle, as you will—will ever remain
a mystery to Humanity, though it attain to its highest intellectual
development. The anthropomorphic ideas of Spiritualists concerning Spirit are a
direct consequence of the anthropomorphic conceptions of Christians as to the
Deity. So directly is the one the outflow of the other, that “Scrutator’s”
handiest argument against the duality of a child and potential immortality is
to cite
Jesus who increased in wisdom
as His brain increased.
170————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
Christians call God an
Infinite Being, and then endow Him with every finite attribute, such as love,
anger, benevolence, mercy! They call Him all-merciful, and preach damnation for
three-fourths of Humanity in every church, all-just, and the sins of this brief
span of life may not be expiated by even an eternity of conscious agony. Now,
by some miracle of oversight, among thousands of mistranslations in the “Holy”
Writ, the word “destruction,” the synonym of annihilation, was rendered
correctly in King James’s version, and no dictionary can make it read either
damnation or eternal torment. Though the Church consistently put down the
“destructionists,” yet the impartial will scarcely deny that they come nearer
than their persecutors to believing what Jesus taught, and what is consistent
with justice, in teaching the final annihilation of the wicked.
To conclude, then, we believe
that there is but one undefinable Principle in the whole Universe, which being
utterly incomprehensible by our finite intellects, we prefer rather to leave
undebated than to blaspheme Its majesty with our anthropomorphic speculations.
We believe that all else which has being, whether material or spiritual, and
all that may have existence, actually, or potentially in our idealism, emanates
from this Principle. That everything is a correlation in one shape or another
of this Will and Force; and hence, judging of the unseen by the visible, we
base our speculations upon the teachings of the generations of Sages who
preceded Christianity, fortified by our own reason.
I have already illustrated the
incapacity of some of our critics to separate abstract ideas from complex
objects, by instancing the grain of sand and the nail-paring. They refuse to
comprehend that a philosophical doctrine can teach that an atom imbued with
divine light, or a portion of the great Spirit, in its latent stage of
correlation, may, not withstanding its reciprocal or corresponding similarity
and relations to the one indivisible whole, be yet utterly deficient in
self-consciousness. That it is only when this atom, magnetically drawn to its
fellow-atoms, which had served in a previous state to form with it some lower
complex object, is transformed at last, after endless cycles of evolution, into
man—the apex of perfected being, intellectually and physically, on our
planet—in conjunction with them it becomes, as a whole, a living soul, and
reaches the state of intellectual self-consciousness.
A stone becomes a plant, a
plant an animal, an animal a man, and man a Spirit, say the Kabalists. And here
again, is the wretched necessity of trans-
171————————————————————INDIAN METAPHYSICS.
lating by the word “Spirit” an
expression which means a celestial, or rather ethereal, transparent man. But if
man is the crown of evolution on earth, what is he in the initiatory stages of
the next existence, that man who, at his best—even when he is pretended to have
served as a habitation for the Christian God, Jesus—is said by Paul to have
been “made a little lower than the angels”? But now we have every astral spook
transformed into an “angel”! I cannot believe that the scholars who write for
your paper—and there are some of great intelligence and erudition who think for
themselves, and whom exact science has taught that ex nihilo nihil fit who know
that every atom of man’s body has been evolving by imperceptible gradations,
from lower into higher forms, through the cycles—accept the unscientific and
illogical doctrine that the simple unshelling of an astral man transforms him
into a celestial Spirit and “angel” guide.
In Theosophical opinion a
Spirit is a Ray, a fraction of the Whole; and the Whole being Omniscient and
Infinite, Its fraction must partake, in degree, of the same abstract
attributes. Man’s “Spirit” must become the drop of the Ocean, called
“Ishvara-Bhâva”—the “I am one body, together with the universe itself” (I am in
my Father, and my Father is in me), instead of remaining but the “Jiva-Bhâva
the body only. He must feel himself not only a part of the Creator, Preserver
and Destroyer, but of the Soul of the Three, the Parabrahman, Who is above
these and is the vitalizing, energizing and ever-presiding Spirit. He must
fully realize the sense of the word “Sahajanund,” that state of perfect bliss
in Nirvana, which can only exist for the It, which has become coexistent with
the “formless and actionless present time.” This is the state called
“Vartamâna,” or the “ever still present,” in which there is neither past nor
future, but one infinite eternity of present. Which of the controlling
“spirits,” materialized or invisible, have shown any signs that they belong to
the kind of real Spirits known as the “Sons of Eternity”? Has the highest of
them been able to tell even as much as our own Divine Nous can whisper to us in
moments when there comes the flash of sudden prevision? Honest communicating
“intelligences” often answer to many questions: “We do not know; this has not
been revealed to us.” This very admission proves that, while in many cases on
their way to knowledge and perfection, yet they are but embryonic, undeveloped
“Spirits”; they are inferior even to some living Yogis who, through abstract
meditation, have united themselves with their personal individual Brahman,
their Atman, and
172————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
hence have overcome the
“Agnyânam,” or lack of that knowledge as to the intrinsic value of one’s
“self,” the Ego or self-being, so recommended by Socrates and the Delphic
commandment.
—as Spirits. When not tainted
with Materialism, through demoralizing association with Europeans. and when
free from superstitious sectarianism, how would one of them, versed in the
Vedânta, regard these apparitions of the circle? The chances are that, after
going the rounds of the mediums, he would say: “Some of these may be survivals
of disembodied men’s intelligences, but they are no more spiritual than the
average man. They lack the knowledge of ‘Dryananta,’ and evidently find
themselves in a chronic state of ‘Mâyâ,’ i.e., possessed of the idea that ‘they
are that which they are not.’ The ‘Vartamâna’ has no significance for them, as
they are cognizant but of the ‘Vishania’ [that which, like the concrete numbers
in mixed mathematics, applies to that which can be numbered]. Like simple,
ignorant mortals, they regard the shadow of things as the reality, and vice
versa, mixing up the true light of the ‘Vyatireka’ with the false light or
deceitful appearance—the ‘Anvaya.’ . . . In what respect, then, are they higher
than the average mortal? No; they are not spirits, not ‘Devas,’ they are astral
‘Dasyoos.’
Of course all this will appear
to “Scrutator” “unfathomable absurdities,” for unfortunately, few
metaphysicians shower down from Western skies. Therefore, so long as our
English opponents will remain in their semi-Christian ideas, and not only
ignore the old Philosophy, but the very terms it employs to render abstract
ideas; so long as we are forced to transmit these ideas in a general
way—particularly as it is impracticable without the invention of special
words—it will be unprofitable to push discussion to any great lengths. We would
only make ourselves obnoxious to the general reader, and receive from other
anonymous writers such unconvincing compliments as “Scrutator” has favoured us
with.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
“H. M.” AND THE TODAS
—————
[From the
I HAVE read the communication
of “H. M.” in your paper of the 8th inst. I would not have mentioned the
“Todas” at all in my book, if I had not read a very elaborate octavo work in
271 pp., by William S. Marshall, Lieut.-Col. of Her Majesty’s Bengal Staff
Corps, entitled:
A Phrenologist among the
Todas, copiously illustrated with photographs of the squalid and filthy beings
to whom “H. M.” refers. Though written by a staff officer, assisted “by the
Rev. Friedrich Metz, of the Basle Missionary Society, who had spent upwards of
twenty years of labour” among them, “the only European able to speak the
obscure Toda tongue,” the book is so full of misrepresentations—though both
writers appear to be sincere— that I wrote what I did.
What I said I knew to be true,
and I do not retract a single word. If neither “H. M.” nor Lieut.-Col.
Marshall, nor the Rev. Mr. Metz have penetrated the secret that lies behind the
dirty huts of the aborigines they have seen, that is their misfortune, not my
fault.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE TODAS
—————
[From the
FOR my answer to the sneer of
your correspondent “H. M.” about my opinion of the Todas a few lines sufficed.
I only cared to say that what I have written in Isis Unveiled was written after
reading Col. Marshall’s A Phrenologist among the Todas, and in consequence of
what, whether justly or not, I believe to be the erroneous statements of that
author. Writing about Oriental psychology, its phenomena and practitioners, as
I did, I should have been ludicrously wanting in common sense if I had not
anticipated such denials and contradictions as those of “H. M.” from every
side. How would it profit the seeker after this Occult knowledge to face
danger, privations, and obstacles of every kind to gain it, if, after attaining
his end, he should not have facts to relate of which the profane were ignorant?
A pretty set of critics are the ordinary travellers or observers, even though
what Dr. Carpenter euphemistically calls a “scientific officer,” or
“distinguished civilian,” when, confessedly, every European unfurnished with
some mystical passport is debarred from entering any orthodox Brâhman’s house
or the inner precincts of a pagoda. How we poor Theosophists should tremble
before the scorn of those modern Daniels when the cleverest of them has never
been able to explain the commonest “tricks” of Hindu jugglers, to say nothing
of the phenomena of the Fakirs! These very savants answer the testimony of
Spiritualists with an equally lofty scorn, and resent as a personal affront the
invitation to even attend a seance.
I should therefore have let
the “Todas” question pass, but for the letter of “Late Madras C. S.” in your
paper of the 15thI feel bound to answer it, for the writer plainly makes me out
to be a liar. He threatens me, moreover, with the thunderbolts that a certain
other officer has concealed in his library closet.
It is quite remarkable how a
man who resorts to an alias sometimes forgets that he is a gentleman. Perhaps
such is the custom in your
175———————————————————————THE
TODAS.
civilized
It was, that I was not a
Russian, did not even speak that language, but was merely a French adventuress.
So much for the infallibility of some of the sweet “angels.” Surely, I will
neither go to the trouble of exhibiting to any of my masked detractors, of this
or the other world, my passports vise’s by the Russian embassies half a dozen
times on my way to
Such an accusation makes me
simply laugh, for my word is, surely, as good as that of anybody else. I will
only say that more’s the pity that an English officer, who was “fifteen years
in the district,” knows less of the Todas than I, who, he pretends, never was
in
176————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
he, or some other brilliant
authority in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, will favour us with the
etymology of the word? Does the first syllable, go or gu, relate to the
roundness of these “towers” as my critic calls them (for the word go does mean
something round) or to gop, a cowherd, which gave its name to a Hindu caste and
was one of the names of
Col. Marshall I find far less
dogmatic than his admirers. Such cautious phrases as “I believe,” “I could not
ascertain,” “I believe it to be true,” and the like, show his desire to find
out the truth, but scarcely prove conclusively that he has found it. At best it
only comes to this, that Col. Marshall believes one thing to be true, and I
look upon it differently. He credits his friend the missionary, and I believe
my friend the Brâhman, who told me what I have written. Besides, I explicitly
state in my book (see
As soon as their [the Todas’]
solitude was profaned by the avalanche of civilization . . the Todas began
moving away to other parts as unknown and more inaccessible than the Neilgherri
hills had formerly been.
The Todas, therefore, of whom
my Brâhman friend spoke, and whom Capt. W. L. D. O’Grady, late manager of the
Madras Branch Bank at Ootacamund, tells me he has seen specimens of, are not
the degenerate remnants of the tribe whose phrenological bumps were measured by
Col. Marshall. And yet, even what the latter writes of these, I from personal
knowledge affirm to be in many particulars inaccurate. I may be regarded by my
critics as over-credulous, but this is surely no
177———————————————————————THE TODAS.
reason why I should be treated
as a liar whether by late or living
The Todas are brown,
coffee-coloured, like most other natives.
But turning to
These people are of a light
complexion, have strongly-marked Jewish features, and have been supposed by
many to be one of the lost tribes.
“H. M.” assures us that the
places inhabited by the Todas are not infested by venomous serpents or tigers;
but the same Cyclopædia remarks that:
The mountains are swarming
with wild animals of all descriptions, among which elephants and tigers are
numerous.
But the “Late” (defunct?—is
your correspondent a disembodied angel?) “Madras C. S.” attains to the
sublimity of the ridiculous when, with biting irony in winding up, he says:
All good spirits, of whatever
degree, astral or elementary, . . . prevent his [Capt. R. F. Burton’s] ever
meeting with
Surely unless that military
Nemesis should tax the hospitality of some American newspaper, conducted by
politicians, he could never be rougher than this Madras Grandison. And then,
the idea of suggesting that, after having contradicted and made sport of the
greatest authorities of Europe and America, to begin with Max Muller and end
with the Positivists, in both my volumes, I should be appalled by Captain
Burton, or the whole lot of captains in Her Majesty’s service—though each
carried an Armstrong gun on his shoulder and a mitrailleuse in his pocket—is
positively superb! Let them reserve their threats and terrors for my Christian
countrymen.
Any moderately equipped
sciolist (and the more empty-headed, the easier) might tear
178————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
may in time discover; nor will
he ever find me skulking behind a nom de plume when I have insults to offer. I
always have had, as I now have, and trust ever to retain, the courage of my
opinions, however unpopular or erroneous they may be considered; and there are
not showers enough in
There is but one way to
account for the tempest which, for four months, has raged in The Spiritualist
against Col. Olcott and myself, and that is expressed in the familiar French
proverb—” Quand on veut tuer son chien, on dit qu’il est enrage".
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE AHKOOND OF SWAT
THE FOUNDER OF MANY MYSTICAL
SOCIETIES.
—————
[From the
OF the many remarkable
characters of this century, Ghafur was one of the most conspicuous.
If there be truth in the Eastern
doctrine that souls, powerful whether for good or bad, who had not time in one
existence to work out their plans, are reincarnated, the fierceness of their
yearnings to continue on earth thrusting them back into the current of their
attractions, then Ghafur was a rebirth of that Felice Peretti, who is known in
history as Pope Sixtus V., of crafty and odious memory. Both were born in the
lowest class of society, being ignorant peasant boys and beginning life as
herdsmen. Both reached the apex of power through craft and stealth and by
imposing upon the superstitions of the masses. Sixtus, author of mystical books
and himself a practitioner of the forbidden sciences to satisfy his lust for
power and ensure impunity, became Inquisitor-General. Made Pope, he hurled his
anathemas alike against Elizabeth of England, the King of Navarre, and other
important personages. Abdul Ghafur, endowed with an iron will, had educated
himself without colleges or professors except through association with the
“wise men” of Khuttuk. He was as well versed in the Arabic and Persian
literature of alchemy and astronomy as Sixtus was in Aristotle, and like him
knew how to fabricate mesmerized talismans and amulets containing either life
or death for those to whom they were presented. Each held millions of devotees
under the subjection of their psycho logical influence, though both were more
dreaded than beloved.
Ghafur had been a warrior and
an ambitious leader of fanatics, but becoming a dervish and finally a pope, so
to say, his blessing or curse made him as effectually the master of the Ameers
and other Mussulmans as Sixtus was of the Catholic potentates of
Only the salient features of
his career are known to Christendom.
180————————————————————A M0DERN PANARION.
Watched, as he may have been,
his private life, ambitions, aspirations for temporal as well as religious
power, are almost a sealed book. But the one certain thing is, that he was the
founder and chief of nearly every secret society worth speaking of among Mussulmans,
and the dominant spirit in all the rest. His apparent antagonism to the
Wahabees was but a mask, and the murderous hand that struck Lord Mayo was
certainly guided by the old Abdul. The Biktashee Dervishes* and the howling,
dancing, and other Moslem religious mendicants recognize his supremacy as far
above that of the Sheik-ul-Islam of the faithful. Hardly a political order of
any importance issued from
The title of Nasr-ed-Din
(defender of the faith) he impartially applied to both the Sultan and the Shah,
though one is a Sunnite and the other a Shiah. He sweetened the stronger religious
intolerance of the Osman dynasty by adding to the old title of Nasr-ed-Din
those of Saif-ed-Din (scimitar of faith) and Emir-el-Mumminiah (prince of the
faithful). Every Emir-el-Sourey, or leader of the sacred caravan of pilgrims to
Mekka, brought or sent messages to, and received advice and instructions from,
Abdul, the latter in the shape of mysterious oracles, for which was left the
full equivalent in money, presents and other offerings, as the Catholic
pilgrims have recently done at Rome.
In 1847-8 the Prince Mirza,
uncle of the young Shah and ex-governor of a great province in
—————
* To this day, no Biktashee
would be recognized as Such unless he could claim possession of a certain medal
with the seal of this high-pontiff” of all the Dervishes, whether they belong
to one sect or the other.
181———————————————————THE AHKOOND OF SWAT.
secret, though, perhaps,
indirect influence he exercised on the Begum of Bhopal, during the Sepoy
rebellion of 1857, was a mystery only to the English, whom the old schemer knew
so well how to hoodwink. During his long career of Macchiavellism, friendly
with the British, and yet striking them constantly in secret; venerated as a
new prophet by millions of orthodox, as well as heretic Mussulmans; managing to
preserve his influence over friend and foe, the old “Teacher” had one enemy
whom he feared, for he knew that no amount of craft would ever win it over to
his side. This enemy was the once mighty nation of the Sikhs, ex-sovereign
rulers of the
Since the days of the great
Nanak, of the Kshattriya caste, founder of the Sikh Brotherhood in the second
half of the fifteenth century, these brave and warlike tribes have ever been
the thorn in the side of the Mogul dynasty, the terror of the Moslems of India.
Originating, as we may say, in a religious Brotherhood, whose object was to
make away alike with Islamism, Brâhmanism, and other isms, including later
Christianity, this sect evolved a pure monotheism in the abstract idea of an
ever unknown Principle, and elaborated it into the doctrine of the “Brotherhood
of Man.” In their view, we have but one Father- Mother Principle, with “neither
form, shape, nor colour,” and we ought all to be, if we are not, brothers
irrespective of distinctions of race or colour. The sacerdotal Brâhman,
fanatical in his observance of dead-letter forms, thus became in the opinion of
the Sikh as much the enemy of truth as the Mussulman wallowing in a sensual
heaven with his houris, the joss-worshipping Buddhist grinding out prayers at
his wheel, or yet the Roman Catholic adoring his jewelled Madonnas, whose
complexion the priests change from white to brown and black to suit climates
and prejudices. Later on, Arjuna, son of Ramdas, the fourth in the succession
after Nanak, gathering together the doctrines
182————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
of the founder and his son
Angad, brought out a sacred volume, called Adi-garunth, and largely
supplemented it with selections from forty- five Sutras of the Jains. While
adopting equally the religious figures of the Vedas and Koran, after sifting
them and explaining their symbolism, the Adi-garuizlh yet presents a greater
similarity of ideas respecting the most elaborate metaphysical conceptions with
those of the Jain
One highly dramatic incident
in the life of the “Pope of Sydoo” is the following well-authenticated case,
which was much commented upon in his part of
—————
* This valuable work is now
being republished by Ookerdhabhoy Shewgee, and has been received by the
Theosophical Society from the Editor through the President of the
183———————————————————THE AHKOOND OF SWAT.
when the Ahkoond, squatting on
his carpet, was distributing amulets, blessings and prophecies among his pious
congregation of pilgrims, a tall Hindu who had silently approached and mingled in
the crowd without having been noticed, suddenly addressed him thus: “Tell me,
prophet, thou who prophesiest so well for others, whether thou knowest what
will be thine own fate, and that of the ‘Defender of the Faith,’ thy Sultan of
Stamboul, twenty years hence?”
The old Ghafur, overcome with
violent surprise, stared at his interlocutor, but no answer came. In
recognizing the Sikh he seemed to have lost all power of speech, and the crowd
was under a spell.
“If not,” continued the
intruder, “then I will tell thee. Twenty years more and your ‘Prince of the
Faithful’ will fall by the hand of an assassin of his own house. Two old men,
one the Dalai Lama of the Christians, the other the great prophet of the
Moslems—thyself— will be simultaneously crushed under the heel of death. Then,
the first hour will strike of the downfall of those twin foes of truth—
Christianity and Islam. The first, as the more powerful, will survive the
second, but both will soon crumble into fragmentary sects, which will mutually
exterminate each other’s faith. See, thy followers are powerless, and I might
kill thee now, but thou art in the hands of Destiny, and that knows its own
hour.”
Before a hand could be lifted
the speaker had disappeared. This incident of itself sufficiently proves that
the Sikhs might have assassinated Abdul Ghafur at any time had they chosen so
to do. And it may be that The Mayfair Gazette which in June, 1877,
prophetically observed that the rival pontiffs of
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE ARYA SAMAJ
CHRISTENDOM sends its
missionaries to Heathendom at an expense of millions drained from the pockets
of would-be pious folks, who court respectability. Thousands of homeless and
penniless old men, women and children are allowed to starve for lack of funds,
for the sake, perhaps, of one converted “heathen.” All the spare money of the
charitable is absorbed by these dead-head travelling agents of the Christian
Church. What is the result? Visit the prison cells of so-called Christian
lands, crammed with delinquents who have been led on to felony by the weary
path of starvation, and you will have the answer.
Read in the daily papers the
numerous accounts of executions, and you will find that modern Christianity
offers, perhaps unintentionally but none the less surely, a premium for murder
and other heinous crimes. Is anyone prepared to deny the assertion? Remember
that, while many a respectable unbeliever dies in his bed with the comfortable
assurance from his next of kin, and good friends in general, that he is going
to hell, the red-handed criminal has but to believe at his eleventh hour that
the blood of the Saviour can and will save him, to receive the guarantee of his
spiritual adviser that he will find himself when launched into eternity in the
bosom of Christ, in heaven, and playing upon the traditional harp. Why, then,
should any Christian deny himself the pleasure and profit of robbing, or even
murdering, his richer neighbour? And such a doctrine is being promulgated among
the heathen at the cost of an annual expenditure of millions.
But, in her eternal wisdom,
Nature provides antidotes against moral as well as against mineral and vegetable
poisons. There are people who do not content themselves with preaching
grandiloquent discourses; they act. If such books as Higgins’ Anacalypsis, and
that extraordinary work of an anonymous English author—a bishop, it is
whispered—entitled Supernatural Religion, cannot awaken responsive
185————————————————————THE
ARYA SAMAJ.
echoes among the ignorant
masses, other means can be, and are resorted to—means more effectual and which
will bring fruit in the future, if hitherto prevented by the crushing hand of ecclesiastical
and monarchical despotism. Those whom the written proofs of the fictitious
character of biblical authority cannot reach, may be saved by the spoken word.
And this work of disseminating the truth among the more ignorant classes is
being ardently prosecuted by an army of devoted scholars and teachers,
simultaneously in
The Theosophical Society has
been of late so much spoken about; such idle tales have been circulated about
it—its members being sworn to secrecy and hitherto unable, even if willing, to
proclaim the truth about it—that the public may be gratified to know, at least,
about one portion of its work. It is now in organized affiliation with the Arya
Samâj of
The purely Theistic movement
connected with the Brâhmo Samâj had its origin in the same idea. It began early
in the present century, but spasmodically and with interruption, and only took
concrete shape under the leadership of Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen in 1858. Rammo
bun
Since then the Brâhmo Samâj,
which he then joined, has flourished
186————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
and become more popular every
day. We now find it with Samâjes established in many provinces and cities. At
least, we learn that in May, 1877, fifty Samâjes have notified their adhesion
to the Society and eight of them have appointed their representatives. Native
missionaries of the Theistic religion oppose the Christian missionaries and the
orthodox Brâhmans, and the work is going on livelily. So much for the Brâhmo
movement.
And now, with regard to the
Arya Samâj, The Indian Tribune uses the following language in speaking of its
founder:
The first quarter of the
sixteenth century was no more an age of reformation in Europe than the one we
now live in is, at this moment, in India. from amongst its own “Benedictines,”
Swami Dyanand Saraswati has arisen, who, unlike other reformers, does not wish
to set up a new religion of his own, but asks his country men to go back to the
pristine purity and Theism of their Vedic religion. After preaching his views
in
It was in the land of the five
rivers, on the banks of the
The Svami is a most highly
honoured Fellow of the Theosophical Society, takes a deep interest in its
proceedings, and The Indian Spectator of Bombay,
While the members of the
Brâhmo Samaj may be designated as the Lutheran Protestants of orthodox
Brâhmanism, the disciples of the Svami Dyanand should be compared to those
learned mystics, the Gnostics, who had the key to those earlier writings which,
later, were worked over into the Christian gospels and various patristic
literature. As the above-named pre-Christian sects understood the true esoteric
meaning of the Chrestos allegory, which is now materialized into the Jesus of
flesh, so the disciples of the learned and holy Svami are taught to
discriminate between the written form and the spirit of the word preached in
the Vedas. And this is the principal point of difference between the Arya Samâj
and the Brâhmos who, as it would seem, believe
187———————————————————THE ARYA SAMAJ
in a personal God and
repudiate the Vedas, while the Aryas see an everlasting Principle, an
impersonal Cause in the great “Soul of the universe” rather than a personal
being, and accept the Vedas as supreme authority, though not of divine origin.
But we may better quote in elucidation of the subject what the President of the
Bombay Arya Samâj, also a Fellow of the Theosophical Society, Mr. Hurrychund
Chintamon, says in a recent letter to our Society:
Pundit Dyanand maintains that
as it is now universally acknowledged that the Vedas are the oldest books of
antiquity, if they contain the truth and nothing but the truth in all
unmutilated state, and nothing new can be found in other works of later date,
why should we not accept the Vedas as a guide for Humanity? . . A revealed book
or revelation is understood to mean one of two things, Viz.: (1) a book already
written by some invisible hand and thrown into the world; or (2) a work written
by one or more men while they were in their highest state of mental lucidity,
acquired by profound meditation upon the problems of who man is, whence he
came, whither he must go, and by what means he may emancipate himself from
worldly delusions and sufferings. The latter hypothesis may be regarded as the more
rational and correct.
Our Brother Hurrychund here
describes those superior men whom we know as Adepts. He adds:
The ancient inhabitants of a
place near Thibet, and adjoining a lake called Mansovara, were first called
Deveneggury (Devanâgari) or godlike people. Their written characters were also
called Deveneggury or Balbadha letters. A portion of them migrated to the North
and settled there, and afterwards spread towards the South, while others went
to the West. All these emigrants styled themselves Aryans, or noble, pure, and
good men, as they considered that a pure gift had been made to humanity from
the “Pure Alone.” These lofty souls were the authors of the Vedas.
What more reasonable than the
claim that such Scriptures, emanating from such authors, should contain, for
those who are able to penetrate the meaning that lies half concealed under the
dead letter, all the wisdom which it is allowed to men to acquire on earth? The
Chiefs of the Arya Samâj discredit “miracles,” discountenance superstition and
all violation of natural law, and teach the purest form of Vaidic Philosophy.
Such are the allies of the Theosophical Society. They have said to us: “Let us
work together for the good of mankind,” and we will.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
PARTING WORDS
—————
[From The
Religio-Philosophical Journal,
So far as I can at present
foresee, this will be the last time I shall ask you to print anything over my,
to many Spiritualists, loathed signature, as I intend to start for
189————————————————————PARTING WORDS.
were received—no need to
recall the old story again. The storm has already subsided; and the total of
“Billingsgate” poured upon our devoted heads is preserved in three gigantic
scrap-books whose contents I mean to immortalize some day. When through the
writing and noble efforts of the Journal and other spiritual papers the secret
of these varied and vexing phenomena, indiscriminately called spiritual, will
be snatched at last, when the faithful of the orthodox church of Spiritualism
will be forced to give up—partially at least—their many bigoted and
preconceived notions, then the time will have come again for Theosophists to
claim a hearing. Till then, its members retire from the arena of discussion and
devote their whole leisure to the fulfilment of other and more important
objects of the Society.
You perceive, then, that it is
only when experience showed the necessity for its work to be enlarged, and its
objects became various, that the T. S. thought fit to protect itself by
secrecy. Since then, none but perjured witnesses, and we know of none, can have
told about what we were doing, except as permitted by official sanction and
announced from time to time. One of such objects of our Society we are willing
to publicly announce.
It is universally known that
this most important object is to antagonize Christianity* and especially
Jesuitism. One of our most esteemed and valued members, once an ardent
Spiritualist, but who must for the present be nameless, has but recently fallen
a victim to the snares of this hateful body.
The nefarious designs of
Jesuitism are plotted in secret and carried out through secret agencies. What
more reasonable and lawful, there fore, than that those who wish to fight it
should keep their own secret, likewise, as to their agencies and plans? We have
among us persons in high position—political, military, financial and social—who
regard Christianity as the greatest evil to humanity, and are willing to help
pull it down. But for them to be able to do much and well, they must do it
anonymously. The Church—”triple-headed snake” as a well known writer calls
it—can no longer burn its enemies, but it can blast their social influence; can
no longer roast their bodies, but can ruin their fortunes. We have no right to
give our enemy, the Church, the names of our “Fellows,” who are not ripe for
martyrdom, and so we
—————
* [In later days H. P. B. took
great pains to explain that the ‘christianity’ which she so vigorously
attacked, was all ecclesiastical system of dogmas to which she subsequently
gave the name ‘‘churchianity,’’ and not the spiritual and moral teachings of
Jesus.—Ens.]
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A MODERN PANARION.
keep them secret. If we have
an agent to send to India or to Japan, or China, or any other heathen country,
to do something or confer with somebody in connection with the Society’s
general plans against missionaries, it would be foolish, nay, criminal, to
expose our agent to imprisonment under some malicious pretext, if not death,
and even the latter is possible in the far-away East, and our scheme is liable
to miscarry by announcing it to the dishonourable company of Jesus.
So, sir, to sum up in a word,
Dr. Bloede has made a great mistake in supposing the Theosophical Society a
“failure” in this or any other country. Where the Society counted three years
ago its members by the dozen, it now counts them by the hundred and thousand.
And so far from its threatening in any respect the stability of society or the
advancement of spiritual knowledge, the Theosophical institution which now
bears the name of the “Theosophical Society of the Arya Samâj of India” (being
regularly chartered by and affiliated with that great body in the land of the
Aryas) will be found some day, by the Spiritualists and all others who claim
the right of thinking for them selves, to have been the true friend of
intellectual and spiritual liberty—if not in America, at least in France and
other countries, where an infernal priesthood thrusts innocent Spiritualists
into prison by the help of a subservient judiciary and the use of perjured
testimony. Its name will be respected as a pioneer of free thought and an
uncompromising enemy of priestly and monkish fraud and despotism.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
“NOT A CHRISTIAN”
—————
[From the Indian Spectator.]
BEFORE entering upon the main
question that compels me to ask you kindly to accord me space in your esteemed
paper, will you inform me as to the nature of that newly-horn infant prodigy
which calls itself The Bombay Review? Is it a bigoted, sectarian organ of the
Christians, or an impartial journal, fair to all, and unprejudiced as every
respectable paper styling itself “Review” ought to be, especially in a place
like Bombay, where such a diversity of religious opinions is to be found? The
two paragraphs in the number of February 22nd, which so honour the Theosophical
Society by a double notice of its American members, would force me to incline
toward the former opinion. Both the editorial which attacks my esteemed friend,
Miss Bates, and the apocalyptic vision of the modern Ezekiel, alias
“Anthroposophist,” who shoots his rather blunt arrows at Col. Olcott, require
an answer, if it were but to show the advisability of using sharper darts
against Theosophists. Leaving the seer to his prophetic dream of langoutis and
cow-dung, I will simply review the editorial of this Review which tries to be
at the same time satirical and severe and succeeds only in being nonsensical.
Quoting from another paper a sentence relating to Miss Bates, which describes
her as “not a Christian,” it remarks in that bitter and selfish spirit of
arrogance and would-be superiority, which so characterizes Christian
sectarianism:
The public might have been
spared the sight of the italicized personal explanation.
What “public” may I ask? The
majority of the intelligent and reading public—especially of native papers—in
Bombay as throughout India is, we believe, composed of non-Christians—of
Parsis, Hindus, etc. And this public instead of resenting such “wanton
aggressiveness,” as the writer pleases to call it, call but rejoice to find at
least one European lady, who, at the same time that she is not a Christian,
194————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
is quite ready, as a
Theosophist, to call any respectable “heathen” her brother, and regard him with
at least as much sympathy as she does a Christian. But this unfortunate thrust
at Theosophy is explained by what follows:
In the young lady’s own
interest the insult ought not to have been flung into the teeth of the
Christian public.
Without taking into
consideration the old and wise axiom, that honesty is the best policy, we can
only regret for our Christian opponents that they should so soon “unveil” their
cunning policy. While in the eyes of every honest “heathen” Theosophist, there
can be no higher recommendation for a person than to have the reputation of
being truthful even at the expense of his or her “interest,” our Christian
Review unwittingly exposes the concealed rope of the mission machinery, by
admitting that it is in the interest of every person here, at least—to appear a
Christian or a possible convert, if he is not one de facto. We feel really
very, very grateful to the Review for such a timely and generous confession.
The writer’s defence of the “public” for which it speaks as one having
authority is no less vague and unsatisfactory, as we all know that among the
240,000,000 of native population in
Nor do we find the sentence, “
195————————————————————“NOT A CHRISTIAN”!
I have done; adding but one
more word of advice to the Review. In the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, when the latest international revision of the Bible—that infallible
and revealed Word of God !—reveals 64,000 mistranslations and other mistakes,
it is not the Theosophists—a large number of whose members are English patriots
and men of learning—but rather the Christians who ought to beware of “wanton
aggressiveness” against people of other creeds. Their boomerangs may fly back
from some unexpected parabola and hit the throwers.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE RETORT COURTEOUS
[From the Indian Spectator.]
THERE is a story current among
the Yankees of a small school boy, who, having been thrashed by a bigger fellow
and being unable to hit him back, consoled himself by making faces at his
enemy’s sister. Such is the position of my opponent of the world-famed Bombay
Review. Realizing the impossibility of injuring the Theosophical Society, he
“makes faces” at its Corresponding Secretary, flinging at her personal abuse.
Unfortunately for my masked
enemies and fortunately for myself, I have five years’ experience in fighting
American newspapers, any one of which, notwithstanding the grandiloquent style
of the “Anthroposophists,” “B.’s” and “Onesimuses” is any day more than a match
in humour, and especially in wit, for a swarm of such pseudonymous wasps as
work on the Review. If I go to the trouble of noticing their last Saturday’s
curry of weak arguments and impertinent personalities at all, it is simply with
the object of proving once more that it requires more wit than seems to be at
their command to compel my silence. Abuse is no argument; moreover, if applied
indiscriminately it may prove dangerous sometimes.
Hence, I intend noticing but
one particular point. As to their conceit, it is very delightful to behold!
What a benevolent tone of patronage combined with modesty is theirs! How refreshing
in hot weather to hear them saying of oneself:
We have been more charitable
to her than she seems subsequently to deserve [!!].
Could dictatorial magnanimity
be carried further? And this dithyrambic, which forces one’s recognition of the
worth of the mighty ones “of broad and catholic views,” who control the fates
of The Bombay Review, and have done in various ways so much “for the races of
197————————————————————THE
RETORT COURTEOUS.
Has it acquired its
reverberant diapason from the patronage of all the native princes whose favours
it so eagerly sought a while ago?
I have neither leisure nor
desire to banter penny-a-line wit with such gold-medal experts, especially when
I honestly write above my own signature and they hide themselves behind secure
pseudonyms. Therefore, I will leave their claptrap about “weeds and Madame
Sophy” to be digested by themselves, and notice but the insinuation about
“Russian spies.” I agree with the Review editor when he says that it is the
business of Sir Richard Temple and Sir Frank Souter to take care of such
“spies.” And I will further add that it is these two gentlemen alone who have
the right or the authority to denounce such people.
No other person, were he even
the noblest of the lords instead of an anonymous writer, can or will be allowed
to throw out such a malicious and mischievous hint about a woman and a citizen
of the United States. He who does it risks being brought to the bar of that
most just of all tribunals—a
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
“SCRUTATOR” AGAIN
[Probably from the
IF my memory has not
altogether evaporated under the combined influences of this blazing Indian sun
and the frequent misconstructions of your correspondents, there occurred, in
March, 1878, an epistolary skirmish between one who prudently conceals his face
behind the two masks of “Scrutator” and “M.A. Cantab.,” and your humble
servant. He again attacks me in the character of my London Nemesis. Again he
lets fly a Parthian shaft from behind the fence of one of his pseudonyms. Again
he has found a mare’s nest in my garden—a chronological, instead of a
metaphysical one this time. He is exercised about my age, as though the value
of my statements would be in the least affected by either rejuvenating me to
infancy, or ageing me into a double centenarian. He has read in the Revue
Spirite for October last a sentence in which, discussing this very point, I say
that I have not passed thirty years in
C’est justement mon
age—quoique fort respectable tel qu’il est—qui s’oppose violemmeet a cette
chronologie, etc.
I reproduce the sentence
exactly as it appears, with the sole exception of restoring the period after
“l’Inde” in the place of the comma, which is simply a typographical mistake.
The capital C which immediately follows would have conveyed to anyone except a
“Scrutator” my exact meaning, viz., that my age itself, however respectable, is
opposed to the idea that I had passed thirty years in
I do hope that my ever-masked
assailant will devote some leisure to the study of French as well as of
punctuation before he attacks again.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
MAGIC
—————
[From The
IN The Indian Tribune of March
15th appears a letter upon the relations of the Theosophical Society with the
Arya Samâj. The writer seems neither an enemy of our cause, nor hostile to the
Society; therefore I will try in a gentle spirit to correct certain
misapprehensions under which he labours.
As he signs himself “A
Member,” he must, therefore, be regarded by us as a Brother. And yet he seems
moved by an unwarranted fear to a hasty repudiation of too close a connection
between our Society and his Samâj, lest the fair name of the latter be
compromised before the public by some strange notions of ours. He says:
I have been surprised to hear
that the Society embraces people who believe in magic. Should this, however, be
the belief of the Theosophical Society, I could only assure your readers that
the Arya Samâj is not in common with them in this respect. Only as far as Vedic
learning and Vedic philosophy is concerned, their objects may be said to be
similar.
It is these very points I now
mean to answer.
The gist of the whole question
is as to the correct definition of the word “Magic,” and understanding of what
Vaidic “learning and philosophy” are. If by Magic is meant the popular
superstitious belief in sorcery, witchcraft and ghosts in general; if it
involves the admission that supernatural feats may be performed; if it requires
faith in miracles—that is to say, phenomena outside natural law; then, on
behalf of every Theosophist, whether a sceptic yet unconverted, a believer in
and student of phenomena pure and simple, or even a modern Spiritualist
so-called—i.e., one who believes mediumistic phenomena to be necessarily caused
by returning human Spirits—we emphatically repudiate the accusation.
We did not see The Civil and
Military Gazette, which seems so well acquainted with our doctrines; but if it
meant to accuse any Theo-
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A MODERN PANARION.
sophists of any such belief,
then, like many other Gazettes and Reviews, it talked of that which it knew
nothing about.
Our Society believes in no
miracle, diabolical or human, nor in any-thing which eludes the grasp of either
philosophical and logical induction, or the syllogistic method of deduction.
But if the corrupted and comparatively modern term of “Magic” is understood to
mean the higher study and knowledge of Nature and deep research into her hidden
powers—those Occult and mysterious laws which constitute the ultimate essence
of every element—whether with the ancients we recognize but four or five, or
with the moderns over sixty; or, again, if by Magic is meant that ancient study
within the sanctuaries, known as the “worship of the Light,” or divine and
spiritual wisdom—as distinct from the worship of darkness or ignorance—which
led the initiated High-priests of antiquity among the Aryans, Chaldæans, Medes
and Egyptians to be called Maha, Magi or Maginsi, and by the Zoroastrians
Meghistam (from the root Meh’ah, great, learned, wise)—then, we Theosophists
“plead guilty.”
We do study that “Science of
sciences,” extolled by the Eclectics and Platonists of the Alexandrian Schools,
and practised by the Theurgists and the Mystics of every age. If Magic
gradually fell into disrepute, it was not because of its intrinsic
worthlessness, but through misconception and ignorance of its primitive
meaning, and especially the cunning policy of Christian theologians, who feared
lest many of the phenomena produced by and through natural (though Occult) law
should give the direct lie to, and thus cheapen, ‘‘Divine biblical miracle,”
and so forced the people to attribute every manifestation that they could not
comprehend or explain to the direct agency of a personal devil. As well accuse
the renowned Magi of old of having had no better knowledge of divine truth and
the hidden powers and possibilities of physical law than their successors, the
uneducated Parsi Mobeds, or the Hindu Mahârâjahs of that shameless sect known
as the Vallabhâchâryas, both of whom yet derive their appellation from the
Persian word Mog or Mag, and the Sanskrit Mahâ. More than one glorious truth
has thus tumbled down through human ignorance from the sublime unto the
ridiculous.
Plato, and even the sceptical
Lucian, both recognized the high wisdom and profound learning of the Magi; and
201———————————————————————MAGIC.
these Magi or “magicians” were
not such as
But our friend “A Member,”
consenting to descend to our level in one point at least, admits himself that
in ‘‘Vedic learning and philosophy” the Arya Samâj and the Theosophical Society
are upon a common ground. Then, I have something to appeal to as an authority
which will be better still than the so-much-derided Magic, Theurgy and Alchemy.
It is the Vedas themselves, for “Magic” is brought into every line of the
sacred books of the Aryans. Magic is indispensable for the comprehension of
either of the six great schools of Aryan philosophy. And it is precisely to
understand them, and thus enable our selves to bring to light the hidden summum
bonum of that mother of all Eastern Philosophies known as the Vedas, and the
later Brâhmanical literature, that we study it. Neglect this study, and we, in
common with all
The Rishi nourished with knowledge by the God himself—
Patanjali, the great authority of the Yoga, Shankarâchârya of theurgic memory,
and even Zoroaster, who certainly learned his wisdom from the initiated
Brâhmans of Aryavarta. And we do not see why, for
202————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
that, we should be held up to
the world’s scorn, as either superstitious fools or hallucinated enthusiasts,
by our own brother of the Arya Samâj. I will say more. While the latter is,
perhaps, in common with other “members” of the same Samâj, unable and perfectly
Helpless to defend Svami Dyanand against the sophistry of such partial scoffers
as a certain Pandit Mahesa Chandra Nyayaratna, of Calcutta, who would have us
believe the Veda Bhashya a futile attempt at interpretation; we, Theosophists,
do not shrink from assuming the burden. When the Svami affirms that Agni and
Ishvara are identical, the Calcutta Pandit calls it “stuff.” To him Agni means
the coarse, visible fire, with which one melts his ghee and cooks his rice
cakes. Apparently he does not know, as he might, if he had studied “Magic”—
that is to say, had familiarized himself with the views about the divine Fire
or Light, “whose external body is Flame,” held by the mediæval Rosicrucians
(the Fire-Philosophers) and all their initiated predecessors and
successors—that the Vedic Agni is in fact and deed Ishvara and nothing else.
The Svami makes no mistake when he says:
For Agni is all the deities
and Vishnu is all the deities. For these two [divine] bodies, Agni and Vishnu,
are the two ends of the sacrifice.
At one end of the ladder which
stretches from heaven to earth is Ishvara—Spirit, Supreme Being, subjective,
invisible and incomprehensible; at the other his visible manifestation,
“sacrificial fire.”
So well has this been
comprehended by every religious Philosophy of antiquity that the enlightened
Parsi worships not gross flame, but the divine Spirit within, of which it is
the visible type; and even in the Jewish Bible there is the unapproachable
Jehovah and his down-rushing fire which consumes the wood upon the altar and
licks up the water in the trench about it ( I Kings, xviii. 38). There is also
the visible manifestation of God in the burning bush of Moses, and the Holy
Ghost, in the Gospels of the Christians, descending like tongues of flame upon
the heads of the assembled disciples on the day of Pentecost. There is not an
Esoteric Philosophy or rather Theosophy, which did not apprehend this deep
spiritual idea, and each and all are traceable to the Vaidic sacred books. Says
the author of The Rosicrucians in his chapter on “The Nature of Fire,” and
quoting R. Fludd, the mediæval Theosophist and Alchemist:
Wonder no longer then, if, in
the religions of the Aryans, Medes and Zoroastrians, rejected so long as an
idolatry, the ancient Persians and their masters, the Magi, concluding that
they saw ‘‘All” in this supernaturally magnificent Element
203————————————————————————MAGIC.
[fire] fell down and
worshipped it; making of it the visible representation of the truest, but yet,
in man’s speculations, in his philosophies, nay, in his commonest reason,
impossible God; God being everywhere and in us, and indeed us, in the
God-lighted man, and impossible to be contemplated or known outside, being All.
This is the teaching of the
mediæval Fire-Philosophers known as the Brothers of the Rosie-Cross, such as
Paracelsus, Kunrath, Van Helmont, and that of all the Illuminati and Alchemists
who succeeded these, and who claimed to have discovered the eternal Fire, or to
have “found out God in the Immortal Light”—that light whose radiance shone
through the Yogis. The same author remarks of them:
Already, in their determined
climbing unto the heights of thought, had these Titans of mind achieved, past
the cosmical through the shadowy borders of the Real and Unreal, into Magic.
For is Magic wholly false?
—he goes on to ask. No;
certainly not, when by Magic is understood the higher study of divine, and yet
not supernatural law, though the latter be, as yet, undiscovered by exact and
materialistic phenomena, such as those which are believed in by nearly twenty
millions of well- educated, often highly enlightened and learned persons in
Europe and America. These are as real, and as well authenticated by the
testimony of thousands of unimpeached witnesses, and as scientifically and
mathematically proved as the latest discoveries of our Brother T. A. Edison. If
the term “fool” is applicable to such men of Science and giants of intellect of
the two hemispheres, as W. Crookes, F.R.S., Alfred Russel Wallace, the greatest
Naturalist of Europe and a successful rival of Darwin, and as Flammarion, the
French Astronomer, Member of the Academy of Sciences of France, and Professor
Zöllner, the celebrated Leipzig Astronomer and Physicist, and Professor Hare,
the great Chemist of America, and many another no less eminent Scientist,
unquestioned authorities upon any other question but the so-called spiritual
phenomena, and all firm Spiritualists themselves, often converted only after
years of careful investigation—then, indeed, we Theosophists would not find
ourselves in bad company, and would deem it an honour to be called “fools” were
we even firm orthodox Spiritualists ourselves—i.e., believers in perambulating
ghosts and materialized bhuts—which we are not. But we are believers in the
phenomena of the Spiritualists (even if we do doubt their “spirits”), for we
happen to know them to be actual facts. It is one thing to reject unproved
theory, and quite another to battle against well-established facts. Everyone
has a right to doubt, until further and stronger
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A MODERN PANARION.
evidence, whether these modern
phenomena which are inundating the Western countries, are all produced by
disembodied “spirits”—for it happens to be hitherto a mere speculative doctrine
raised up by enthusiasts; but no one is authorized—unless he can bring to
contradict the fact, something better and weightier than the mere negations of
sceptics—to deny that such phenomena do occur. If we Theosophists (and a very
small minority of us), disclaim the agency of “spirits” in such manifestations,
it is because we can prove in most instances to the Spiritualists, that many of
their phenomena, whether of physical or psychological nature, can be reproduced
by some of our Adepts at will, and without any aid of “spirits” or resort to
either divine or diabolical miracle, but simply by developing the Occult powers
of the man’s Inner Self and studying the mysteries of Nature. That European and
American sceptics should deny such interference by Spirits, and, as a
consequence discredit the phenomena themselves, is no cause for wonder.
Scarcely liberated from the clutches of the Church, whose terrible policy,
barely a century ago, was to torture and put to death every person who either
doubted biblical “divine” miracle, or endorsed one which theology declared
diabolical, it is but the natural force of reaction which makes them revel in
their new-found liberty of thought and action. One who denies the Supreme and
the existence of his own Soul, is not likely to believe in either Spirits or
phenomena, without abundant proof. But that Eastern people, Hindus especially,
of any sect, should disbelieve, is indeed an anomaly, considering that they all
are taught the transmigration of Souls, and spiritual as well as physical
evolution. The sixteenth chapter of the Mahabhárata, Harivansha Parva, is full
of spiritual phenomena and the raising of Spirits. And if, ashamed of the now
termed “superstitions” of their forefathers, young India turns, sunflower-like,
but to the great luminaries of the West, this is what one of the most renowned
men of Science of England, A. R. Wallace—a Fellow of the Royal as well as a
member of the Theosophical Society—says of the phenomena in his Contributions
to the Theory of Natural Selection, and On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,
thus confirming the belief of old India:
Up to the time when I first
became acquainted with the facts of Spiritualism, I was a confirmed
philosophical sceptic. I was so thorough and confirmed a Materialist, that I
could not at that time find a place in my mind for the conception of spiritual
existence, or for any other genesis in the universe than matter and force.
Facts, however, “are stubborn things.”
205———————————————————————MAGIC.
Having explained how he came
to become a Spiritualist, he considers the spiritual theory and shows its
compatibility with natural selection. Having, he says:
Been led, by a strict
induction from facts, to a belief—firstly, in the existence of a number of
preter-human intelligences of various grades; and secondly, that some of these
intelligences, although usually invisible and intangible to us, can and do act
on matter, and do influence our minds—I am surely following a strictly logical
and scientific course, in seeing how far this doctrine will enable us to
account for some of those residual phenomena which Natural Selection alone will
not explain. In the tenth chapter of my Contributions to the Theory of Natural
Selection I have pointed out what I consider to be some of these residual
phenomena; and I have suggested that they may be due to the action of some of
the various intelligences above referred to. I maintained, and still maintain,
that this view is one which is logically tenable, and is in no way inconsistent
with a thorough acceptance of the grand doctrine of evolution through Natural
Selection.
Would not one think he hears
in the above the voices of Manu, Kapila and many other Philosophers of old
For four years we have been
fighting out our great battle against tremendous odds. We have been abused and
called traitors by the Spiritualists, for believing in other beings in the
invisible world besides their departed Spirits; we were cursed and sentenced to
eternal damnation, with free passports to hell, by the Christians and their
clergy; ridiculed by sceptics, looked upon as audacious lunatics by society,
and tabooed by the conservative press. We thought we had drunk to the dregs the
bitter cup of gall. We had hoped that at least in
206————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
philosophy” to the millions of
famished souls in the West, who are familiar with phenomena, but wrongly suffer
themselves to be misled through their mistaken notions about ghosts and bhuts.
But if we are to be repulsed at the outset by any considerable party of Arya
Samâjists, who share the views of “A Member,” then will the Theosophical
Society, with its 45,000 or so of Western Spiritualists, have to become again a
distinct and independent body, and do as well as it can without a single
“member” to enlighten it on the absurdity of Spiritualism and Magic.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
A REPUBLICAN CITIZEN
—————
[From The Banner of Light,
The
ON the very day of my return
from a month’s travel, I am shown by the American Consul two paragraphs, viz.,
one in your paper of the 10th inst., which mentions me as the “Russian
‘Baroness,’” and one in The Times of India of the 8th, whose author had tried
hard to be witty but only succeeded in being impertinent and calumnious. In
this last paragraph I am referred to as a woman who called herself a “Russian
Princess.”
With the original and selected
matter in your contemporary you, of course, have nothing to do. If the editor
can find “amusing” such slanderous tomfooleries as the extract in question from
The Colonial Gazette and Star of India, and risk a suit for libel for
circulating defamations of a respectable scientific Society, and vilifying its
honoured President by calling him a “secret detective”—an outrageous lie, by
the way—that is not your affair. My present business is to take the Gazette to
task for thrusting upon my unwilling Republican head the baronial coronet. Know,
please, once for all, that I am neither “Countess,” “Princess,” nor even a
modest “Baroness”—whatever I may have been before last July. At that time I
became a plain citizen of the
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A MODERN PANARION.
precincts. Permit me further
to state—if only for the edification of The Times of India and a brood of
snarling little papers searching around after the garbage of journalism—that I
have never styled myself aught but what I can prove myself to be, namely, an
honest woman, now a citizen of America, my adopted country, and the only land
of true freedom in the whole world.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE THEOSOPHISTS AND THEIR
OPPONENTS
—————
[From The Amrita Bazar
Patrika,
I PRAY you to give me, in your
The Theosophical Society has
merited the epithets employed about it by The Friend of India.
To my everlasting confusion be
it said, that I am guilty of the crime of not only never reading, but also of
never having so much as laid my eyes upon that last named veteran organ. Nor
can any of our Theosophists be charged with abusing the precious privilege of
reading the missionary journals, a considerable time having elapsed since each
of us was weaned, and relinquished milk-and-water pap. Not that we shirk the
somniferous task under the spur of necessity. Were not the proof of our present
writing itself sufficient, I need only cite the case of the
Confronted, as we all have so
often been, with the intolerant bigotry
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A MODERN PANARION.
—religious “zeal” they call
it—and puerile anathemas of the clerical “followers of the meek and lowly
Jesus,” no Theosophist is surprised to find the peas from the herald-shooter
rattling against his armour. It adds to the clatter, but no one is mortally
hurt. And, after all, how natural that the poor fellows who try to administer
spiritual food to the benighted heathen—much after the fashion of the Strasburg
goose-fatteners, who thrust balls of meal down the throats of the captive
birds, unmasticated, to swell their livers—should shake at the intrusion of
Europeans who are ready to analyze for the heathen these scripture-balls they
are asked to grease with blind faith and swallow without chewing! People like
us, who would have the effrontery to claim for the “heathen” the same right to
analyze the Bible as the Christian clergy claim to analyze and even to revile
the sacred Scriptures of other people, must of course be put down. And the very
Christian Herald tries his hand. It says:
Let us without any bias or
prejudice reflect ... about the Theosophical Society such a mortal degradation
of persons [ Buddhist, Aryan, Jain, Parsi Hebrew and Mussulman Theosophists,
included?] who can see nothing good in the Bible . . [and who] ought to
remember that the Bible! is not only a blessed book, but our book [!]
The latter piece of
presumptuous conceit cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed. Before I answer the
preceding invectives I mean to demand a clear definition of this last sentence,
“our Book.” Whose Book? The Herald’s? “Our” must mean that; for the seven thick
volumes of the Speaker’s Commentary on the Old Testament *show that the
possessive pronoun and the singular noun in question can no longer be used by
Christians when speaking of the Bible. So numerous and glaring have been the
mistakes and mistranslations detected by the forty divines of the Anglican
Church, during their seven years’ revision of the Old Testament, that the
London Quarterly Review (No. 294, April, 1879), the organ of the most extreme
orthodoxy, is driven in despair to say:
The time has certainly passed
when the whole Bible could be practically esteemed a single book, miraculously
communicated in successive portions from heaven, put into writing no doubt by
human hands, but at the dictation of the divine spirit.
So we see beyond question that
if it is anybody’s “Book” it must be The Indian Christian Herald’s; for, in
fact, its editors add:
—————
* The Bible, according to the
authorized version (AD.1611), with an explanatory and critical commentary and a
revision of the translation, by bishops and other clergy of the Anglican
Church. Edited by F.C. Cook, MA., Canon of Exeter, Preacher at Lincohn’s
211———————————————THE
THEOSOPHISTS AND THEIR OPPONENTS.
We feel it to be no more a
collection of books, but the book.
But here is another bitter
pill for your contemporary. It says in a pious gush:
The words which had come from
the prophets of the despised
But the inexorable quarterly
reviewer, after reluctantly abandoning to the analytical scalpels of Canon Cook
and Bishop Harold Browne the Mosaic miracles—whose supernatural character is no
longer affirmed, but they are allowed to be “natural phenomena”—turns to the
pretended Old Testament prophecies of Christ, and sadly says:
In the poetical [psalms and
songs] and the prophetical books especially the number of corrections is
enormous.
And he shows how the
commentators upon Isaiah and the other so-called prophets have reluctantly
admitted that the time-worn verses which have been made to serve as predictive
of Christ have in truth no such meaning. He says:
It requires an effort to break
the association, and to realize how much less they [the prophecies] must have
meant at first to the writers themselves. But it is just this that the critical
expositor is bound to do . . . for this some courage is required, for the
result is apt to seem like a disenchantment for the worse, a descent to an inferior
level, a profanation of the paradise in which ardent souls have found spiritual
sustenance and delight.
(Such “souls” as the Herald
editor’s?) What wonder, then, that the explosion of these seven theological
torpedoes—as the seven volumes of the Speaker’s Commentary may truly be
called—should force the reviewer into saying:
To us, we confess, every
attempt to place the older Scriptures on the same supreme pinnacle on which the
New Testament of later Revelation stands, is doomed to failure.
The Herald is welcome to what
is left of its “Book.”
How childishly absurd it was
then of the Herald to make a whole Society the scapegoat for the sins of one
individual! It is now universally known that the Society comprises fellows of
many nationalities and many different religious faiths, and that its Council is
made up of the representatives of these faiths; yet the Herald endorses the
false hood that the Society’s principles are “a strange compound of Paganism
and Atheism,” and its creed “a creed as comprehensive as it is
incomprehensible.” What other answer does this calumny require than the fact
that our President has publicly declared that it had “no
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A MODERN PANARION.
creed to offer for the world’s
acceptance,”* and that in art. viii of the Society’s Rules, appended to the
printed Address, in an enumeration of the plans of the Society, the first
paragraph says that it aims:
To keep alive in man his
belief that he has a soul, and the Universe a God.
If this is a ‘‘compound of
Paganism and Atheism,’’ then let the Heralad make the most of it.
But the Society is not the
real offender; the clerical stones are thrown into my garden. The Herald’s
quotation of an expression used by me, in commenting upon a passage of Sir John
Kay’s Sepoy War making The Friend of India and
—i.e., to missionaries. I may
have lost my “senses outright,” as The Indian Christian Herald politely
remarks, but I think have enough left to see through the inane sophistries
which they make do duty for arguments.
We have only to say to the
Herald the following: (1) It is just because we do live in ‘‘an age of
enlightenment and progress,’’ in which there is (or should be) room for every
form of belief, that such Augustinian trades as the Herald’s are out of place.
(2) We have not a Mortal hatred for Christianity and its Divine Founder,—for
the tendency of the Society is to emancipate its fellows from all hatred or
preference for any one exoteric form of religion—i.e., with more of the human
than divine element in it—over another (see rules) neither can we hate a
“Founder” whom the majority of us do not believe to have ever existed. (3) To
“retain” a “reverence for the Bible” one must at some time have had it, and if
our own investigations had not long since convinced us that the Bible was no
more the “Word of God” than half a dozen other holy hooks, the present
conclusions of the Anglican divines—at least as far as the Old Testament is
concerned—would have removed the last vestige of doubt upon that point. And
besides sundry American clergymen and bishops we have among our Fellows a vicar
of the Church of England, who is one of its most learned antiquarians. (4) The
assertion that the
Pure monotheism of the Vedas
is a pure myth
—————
* The Theosophical Society and
its Aim. Address delivered by Colonel H. S. Olcott, at the Framji Cowasji Hall,
213———————————————THE THEOSOPHISTS AND THEIR OPPONENTS.
is a pure falsehood, beside
being an insult to Max Muller and other Western Orientalists, who have proved
the fact; to say nothing of that great Aryan scholar, preacher and reformer,
Svami Dyanand Sarasvati.
“Degraded humanity” that we
are, there must he indeed “some thing radically wrong and corrupt” in our
“moral nature,” for, we confess to joy at seeing our Society constantly growing
from accessions of some of the most influential laymen of different countries.
And it moreover delights us to think that when we reach the bottom of the
ditch, we will have as bedfellows half the Christian clergy, if the Speaker’s
commentary makes as sad havoc with the divinity of the New Testament as it has
with that of the Old. Our Indian Christian Pecksniff in righteous indignation
exclaims:
How they managed to sink so
low in the scale of moral and spiritual being must be a sadly interesting study
for metaphysicians.
Sad, indeed; but sadder still
to reflect that unless the editors of The Indian Christian Herald are protected
by post-mortem fire-insurance policies, they are in danger themselves of
eternal torment.
Whosoever shall say to his
brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of Hell fire,
says Lord Jesus, “the Desire
of nations,” in Matthew, v. 22, unless—dreadful thought!—this verse should be
also found a mistranslation.
H. P. BLAVATSKY,
Corresponding Secretary of the
Theosophical Society.
[N.B.—We insert the above
letter with great reluctance. The subject matter of the letter is not fit for
our columns, and we have no sympathy with those who attack the religions creed
of other men. The matter of fact is, a
ECHOES FROM
WHAT IS HINDU SPIRITUALISM?
—————
[ From The Banner of Light,
PHENOMENA in India—beside the
undoubted interest they offer in themselves, and apart from their great variety
and in most instances utter dissimilarity from those we are accustomed to hear
of in Europe and America—possess another feature which makes them worthy of the
most serious attention of the investigator of Psychology.
Whether Eastern phenomena are
to be accounted for by the immediate interference and help of the spirits of
the departed, or attributed to some other and hitherto unknown cause, is a
question which, for the present, we will leave aside. It can he discussed, with
some degree of confidence, only after many instances have been carefully noted
and submitted, in all their truthful and unexaggerated details, to an impartial
and unprejudiced public. One thing I beg to reaffirm, and this is, that instead
of exacting the usual “conditions” of darkness, harmonious circles, and
nevertheless leaving the witnesses uncertain as to the expected results, Indian
phenomena, if we except the independent apparitions of bhuts (ghosts of the
dead), are never sporadic and spontaneous, but seem to depend entirely upon the
will of the operator, whether he be a holy Hindu Yogi, a Mussulman Sâdhu,
Fakir, or yet a juggling Jaddugar (sorcerer).
In this connection I mean to
present numerous examples of what I here say; for whether we read of the
seemingly supernatural feats produced by the Rishis, the Aryan patriarchs of
archaic antiquity, or by Achâryas of the Paurânic days, or hear of them from
popular traditions, or again see them repeated in our modern times, we always
find such phenomena to be of the most varied character. Besides covering the
whole range of those known to us through modern mediumistic agency, as well as
repeating the mediæval pranks of the nuns of London and other historical
possedees in cases of bhut obsession, we often recognize
215————————————————————ECHOES FROM
in them the exact
counterparts—as once upon a time they must have been the originals—of biblical
miracles. With the exception of two—those over which the world of piety goes
most into raptures while glorifying the Lord, and the world of scepticism grins
most sardonically—to wit, the anti-heliocentric crime performed by Joshua, and
Jonah’s unpleasant excursion into the slimy cavern of the whale’s belly—we have
to record as occasionally taking place in India, nearly every one of the feats
which are said to have so distinguished Moses and other “friends of God.”
But alas for those venerable
jugglers of Judæa! And alas for those pious souls who have hitherto exalted
these alleged prophets of the forthcoming Christ to such a towering eminence!
The idols have just been all but knocked off their pedestals by the parricidal
hands of the forty divines of the Anglican Church, who now are known to have
sorely disparaged the Jewish Scriptures. The despairing cry raised by the
reviewer of the just issued Commentary on the “Holy” Bible, in the most extreme
organ of orthodoxy (the London Quarterly Review for April, 1879), is only
matched by his meek submission to the inevitable. The fact I am alluding to is
one already known to you, for I speak of the decision and final conclusive
opinions upon the worth of the Bible by the conclave of learned bishops who
have been engaged for the last dozen years on a thorough revision of the Old
Testament. The results of this labour of love may he summarized thus:
1. The shrinkage of the Mosaic
and other “miracles” into mere natural phenomena. (See decisions of Canon Cook,
the Queen’s Chaplain, and Bishop Harold Browne.)
2. The rejection of most of
the alleged prophecies of Christ as such; the said prophecies now turning out
to have related simply to contemporaneous events in Jewish national history.
3. Resolutions to place no
more the Old Testament on the same eminence as the Gospels, as it would
inevitably lead to the disparagement of the new one.
4. The sad confession that the
Mosaic Books do not contain one word about a future life and the just complaint
that:
Moses under divine direction
[?] should have abstained from any recognition of man’s destiny beyond the
grave, while the belief was prominent in all the religions around
This is:
confessed to be one of those
enigmas which are the trial of our faith.
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A MODERN PANARION.
And it is the “trial” of our
American missionaries here also. Educated natives all read the English papers
and magazines, and it now becomes harder than ever to convince these “heathen”
matriculates of the ‘‘sublime truths” of Christianity. But this by way of a
small parenthesis; for I mention these newly evolved facts only as having an
important bearing upon Spiritualism in general, and its phenomena especially.
Spiritualists have always taken such pains to identify their manifestations
with the Bible miracles, that such a decision, coming from witnesses certainly
more prejudiced in favour of than opposed to “miracles” and divine supernal
phenomena, is rather a new and unexpected difficulty in our way. Let us hope
that in view of these new religious developments, our esteemed friend Dr.
Peebles, before committing himself too far to the establishment of “independent
Christian churches,” will wait for further ecclesiastical verdicts, and see how
the iconoclastic verdicts, and how the iconoclastic English divines will
overhaul the phenomena of the New Testament. Maybe, if their consistency does
not evaporate, they will have to attribute all the miracles worked by Jesus
also to “natural phenomena”! Very happily for Spiritualists, and for
Theosophists likewise, the phenomena of the nineteenth century cannot be as
easily disposed of as those of the Bible. We have had to take the latter for
nearly two thousand years on mere blind faith, though but too often they
transcended every possible law of nature; while quite the reverse is our own
case, and we can offer facts.
But to return. If
manifestations of an Occult nature of the most various character may be said to
abound in India, on the other hand, the frequent statements of Dr. Peebles to
the effect that this country is full of native Spiritualists, are—how shall I
say it?—a little too hasty and exaggerated. Disputing this point in the London
Spiritualist of
I have met not only Sinhalese
and Chinese Spiritualists, but hundreds of Hindu Spiritualists, gifted with the
powers of conscious mediumship. And yet Mr. W. L. D. O’Grady, of
And as an offset to this
assertion, Dr. Peebles quotes from the letter of an esteemed Hindu gentleman,
Mr. Peary Chand Mittra, of
217————————————————————ECHOES FROM
all know that Mr. Mittra is a
Spiritualist, but what does it prove? Would Dr. Peebles be justified in stating
that because H. P. Blavatsky and half a dozen other Russians have become
Buddhists and
Owing to the rapid spread of
spiritualistic doctrines the world over, and to my having left India several
years before, at the time I was in America I abstained from contradicting in
print the great spiritualistic “pilgrim” and philosopher, surprising as such
statements seemed to me, who thought myself pretty well acquainted with this
country.
Is Mr. Crookes a Spiritualist,
who, like my humble self, does not believe in spirits of the dead as agents in
the phenomena?
He then brings forward several
definitions, From the most latitudinarian to the most restricted definitions.
Let us see to which of these
‘‘definitions’’ the ‘‘Spiritualism’’ of the Hindus—I will not say of the mass,
but even of a majority—would answer. Since Mr. Peebles—during his two short
visits to India and while on his way from Madras, crossing the continent in its
diameter from Calcutta to Bombay—could meet ‘‘ hundreds of Spiritualists,”
218————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
then these must indeed form,
if not the majority, at least a considerable percentage of the 240,000,000 of
A—Everyone is a Spiritualist
who believes in the immortalitv of the soul.
I guess not; otherwise the
whole of Christian Europe and America would be Spiritualists ; nor does this
definition A answer to the religious views of the Hindus of any sect, for while
the ignorant masses believe in and aspire to Moksha, i.e., literal absorption
of the spirit of man in that of Brahman, or loss of individual immortality, as
means of avoiding the punishment and horrors of transmigration, the
Philosophers, Adepts, and learned Yogis, such as our venerated master, Svami
Dyanand Sarasvati, the great Hindu reformer, Sanskrit scholar, and supreme
chief of the Vaidic Section of the Eastern division of the Theosophical
Society, explain the future state of man’s Spirit, its progress and evolution,
in terms diametrically opposite to the views of the Spiritualists. These views,
if agreeable, I will give in some future letter.
B.—Anyone who believes that
the continued conscious existence of deceased persons has been demonstrated by
communication is a Spiritualist.
A Hindu whether an erudite
scholar and Philosopher or an ignorant idolater, does not believe in
‘‘continued conscious existence,’’ though the former assigns for the holy,
sinless soul, which has reached Svarga (heaven) and Moksha, a period of many
millions and quadrillions of years, extending from one Pralaya* to the next.
The Hindu believes in cyclic transmigration of the soul, during which there
must be periods when the soul loses its recollections as well as the
consciousness of its individuality; since, if it were otherwise, every person
would distinctly remember all his previous existences, which is not the case.
Hindu Philosophers are likewise consistent with logic. They at least will not
allow an endless eternity of either reward or punishment for a few dozens of
years of earthly life, whether this life be wholly blameless or yet wholly
sinful.
C.—Anyone is a Spiritualist
who believes in airy of the alleged objective phenomena, whatever theory he may
favour about them, or even if he have none at all.
—————
* For the meaning of the word
Pralaya see vol. ii. of
219————————————————————ECHOES FROM
Such are “phenomenalists,” not
Spiritualists, and in this sense the definition answers to Hindu beliefs. All
of them, even those who, aping the modern
D and E.—Does not allow of
Spiritualism without spirits, but the spirits need not be human.
At this rate Theosophists and
Occultists generally may also be called Spiritualists, though the latter regard
them as enemies; and in this sense only all Hindus are Spiritualists, though
their ideas about human Spirits are diametrically opposed to those of the
“Spiritualists.” They regard bhuts are the Spirits of those who died with
unsatisfied desires, and who on account of their sins and earthly attractions,
are earth-bound and kept back from Svarga (the “Elementaries” of the
Theosophists)—as having become wicked devils, liable to be annihilated any day
under the potent curses of much-sought-for and appreciated mediums.* The Hindu
regards as the greatest curse a person can be afflicted with, possession and
obsession by a bhut and the most loving couples often part if the wife is
attacked by the bhut of a relative, who, it seems, seldom or never attacks any
but women.
F.—Considers that no one has a
right to call himself a Spiritualist who has any new-fangled notions about
‘‘Elementaries,’’ spirit of the medium, and so forth; or does not believe that
departed human spirits, high and low, account for all the phenomena of every
description.
This one is the most proper
and correct of all the above given “definitions,” ‘from the standpoint of
orthodox Spiritualism, and settles our dispute with Dr. Peebles. No Hindu were
it even possible to bring him to regard bhuts as low, suffering Spirits on
their way to progress and final pardon (?), could, even if he would, account
for all the phenomena on this true spiritualistic theory. His religious and
philosophical traditions are all opposed to such a limited idea. A Hindu is,
first of all, a born metaphysician and logician. If he believes at all, and in
whatever he believes, he will admit of no special laws called into existence
for men of this planet alone, but will apply these laws throughout the
universe; for he is a Pantheist before being anything else, and notwithstanding
his possible adherence to some special sect. Thus Mr. Peebles has well defined
the situation himself, in the following happy paradox, in his Spiritualist
letter above quoted, and in which he says:
—————
[Evidently the word “medium”
is here used for “exorcist.’’—EDS.]
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A MODERN PANARION.
Some of the best mediums that
it has been my good fortune to know, I met in
Thus these “mediums” who were
not mediums, were no more Spiritualists than they were mediums, and—the house
(Dr. Peebles’ house) is divided against itself and must fall. So far we agree,
and I will now proceed further on with my proofs.
As I mentioned before, Colonel
Olcott and myself, accompanied by a Hindu gentleman, Mr. Mulji-Taker-Sing, a
member of our Council, started on our seven weeks’ journey early in April. Our
object was twofold: (1) to pay a visit to and remain for some time with our
ally and teacher, Svami Dyanand, with whom we had corresponded so long from
America, and thus consolidate the alliance of our Society with the Arya Samajes
of India (of which there are now over fifty); and (2) to see as much of the
phenomena as we possibly could; and, through the help of our Svami—a Yogi
himself and an Initiate into the mysteries of the Vidya (or Secret Science)—to
settle certain vexed questions as to the agencies and powers at work, at first
hand. Certainly no one could find a better opportunity to do so than we had.
There we were, on friendly relations of master and pupils with Pandit Dyanand,
the most learned man in India, a Brâhman of high caste, and one who had for
seven long years undergone the usual and dreary probations of Yogism in a
mountainous and wild region, in solitude, in a state of complete nudity and
constant battle with elements and wild beasts—the battle of the divine human
Spirit and the imperial will of man against gross blind matter in the shape of
tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses and bears, without noting venomous snakes and
scorpions. The inhabitants of the village nearest to that mountain are there to
certify that sometimes for weeks no one would venture to take a little food—a
handful of rice—to our Svami; and yet, whenever they came, they always found
him in the same posture and on the same spot—an open, sandy hillock, surrounded
by thick jungle full of beasts of prey—and apparently as well without food and
water for whole weeks, as if he were made of stone instead of human flesh and
bones.* He has explained to us this mysterious secret which enables man to
suffer and
—————
* Yogis and ascetics are not the only examples of such protracted fastings; for
if those call be doubted, and sometimes utterly rejected by sceptical Science
as void of any conclusive proof—for the phenomenon takes place in remote and
inaccessible places—we have many of the Jains, inhabitants of populated towns,
to bring forward as exemplars of the same. Many of them fast, abstaining even
from one drop of water, for forty days at a time—and survive always.
221————————————————————ECHOES FROM
conquer at last the most cruel
privations, which permits him to go without food or drink for days and weeks;
to become utterly insensible to the extremes of either heat or cold; and
finally, to live for days out side instead of within his body
During this voyage we visited
the very cradle of Indian Mysticism, the hot-bed of ascetics, where the
remembrance of the wondrous phenomena performed by the Rishis of old is now as
fresh as it ever was during those days when the School of Patanjali—the reputed
founder of Yogism—was filled, and where his Yog-Sânkhya is still studied with
as much fervour, if not with the same powers of comprehension. To
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A MODERN PANARION.
dence out of these “hereditary
dead beats,” as Col. Olcott graphically dubbed them, than out of the Sannyâsis
and exorcizers of evil spirits, as to the similarity of their views with those
of the Spiritualists. Neither have we ever failed, whenever coming across any
educated Hindu, to pump him as to the ideas and views of his countrymen about
phenomena in general, and Spiritualism especially. And to all our questions,
who it was in the case of holy Yogis, endowed “with miraculouns powers,” that
produced the manifestations, the astonished answer was invariably the same: “He
[ Yogi] himself having become one with Brahm, produces them,” and more than
once our interlocutors got thoroughly disgusted and extremely offended at Col.
Olcott’s irreverent question, whether the bhuts might not have been at work
helping the Thaumaturgist. For nearly two months uninterruptedly our premises
at Bombay—garden, verandahs and halls—were crammed from early morning till late
at night with native visitors of the most various sects, races and religious
opinions, averaging from twenty to a hundred and more a day, coming to see us
with the object of exchanging views upon metaphysical questions, and to discuss
the relative worth of Eastern and Western Philosophies—Occult Sciences and
Mysticism included. During our journey we had to receive our brothers of the
Arya Samâjes, which sent their deputations wherever we went to welcome us, and
wherever there was a Samâj established. Thus we became intimate with the
previous views of hundreds and thousands of the followers of Svami Dyanand,
every one of whom had been converted by him from one idolatrous sect or
another. Many of these were educated men, and as thoroughly versed in Vaidic
Philosophy as in the tenets of the sect from which they had separated. Our
chances, then, of getting acquainted with Hindu views, Philosophies and
traditions, were greater than those of any previous European traveller; nay,
greater even than those of any officials who had resided for years in India,
but who, neither belonging to the Hindu faith nor on such friendly terms with
them as ourselves, were neither trusted by the natives, nor regarded as and
called by them “brothers” as we are.
It is, then, after constant
researches and cross-questioning, extending over a period of several months,
that we have come to the following conclusions, which are those of Mr. O’Grady:
No Hindu is a Spiritualist; and, with the exception of extremely rare
instances, none of them have ever heard of Spiritualism or its movements in
Europe,
223————————————————————ECHOES FROM
least of all in America—with
which country many of them are as little acquainted as with the North Pole. It
is but now, when Svami Dvanand, in his learned researches, has found out that
America must have been known to the early Aryans—as Arjuna, one of the five
Pândavas, the friend and disciple of Christna, is shown in Paurânic history to
have gone to Pâtâl(a) in search of a wife, and married in that country Ulupi,
the widow daughter of Nâga, the king of Pâtâl(a), an antipodal country
answering perfectly in its description to America, and unknown in those early
days to any but the Aryans—that an interest for this country is being felt
among the members of the Samâjes. But, as we explained the origin, development
and doctrines of the Spiritual Philosophy to our friends, and especially the
modus operandi of the mediums—i.e., the communion of the Spirits of the
departed with living men and women, whose organisms the former use as modes of
communication—the horror of our listeners was unequalled and undisguised in
each case. ‘‘Communion with bhuts! ‘‘ they exclaimed. ‘‘Communion with souls
that have become wicked demons, to whom we are ready to offer sacrifices in
food and drink to pacify them and make them leave us quiet, but who never come
but to disturb the peace of families; whose presence is a pollution! What
pleasure or comfort can the Bellate [White foreigners find in communicating
with them?” Thus, I repeat most emphatically that not only are there, so to
say, no Spiritualists in India, as we understand the term, but I affirm and
declare that the very suggestion of our so-called ‘‘Spirit intercourse’’ is
obnoxious to most of them—that is to say, to the oldest people in the world,
people who have known all about the phenomena for thousands upon thousands of
years. Is this fact nothing to us, who have just begun to see the wonders of
medium-ship? Ought we to estimate our cleverness at so high a figure as to make
us refuse to take instruction from these Orientals, who have seen their holy
men—nay, even their Gods and demons and the Spirits of the elements—performing
‘‘miracles’’ since the remotest antiquity? Have we so perfected a Philosophy of
our own that we can compare it with that of
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A MODERN PANARION.
order of this world, and have
a first claim to scientific investigation. Let us first prove the existence of
the Sphinx to the profane, and after wards we may try to unriddle its
mysteries. Spiritualists will always have time enough to refute “antiquated
doctrines” of old. Truth is eternal, and however long trampled down will always
come out the brighter in the expiring twilight of superstition. But in one
sense we are perfectly warranted in applying the name of Spiritualists to the
Hindu Opposed as they are to physical phenomena as produced by the bhuts or
unsatisfied souls of the departed, and to the possession by them of mediumistic
persons, they still accept with joy those consoling evidences of the continued
interest in themselves of a departed father or mother. In the subjective
phenomena of dreams, in visions of clairvoyance or trance, brought on by the
powers of holy men, they welcome the Spirits of their beloved ones, and often
receive from them important directions and advice.
If agreeable to your readers I
will devote a series of letters to the phenomena taking place in
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
MISSIONARIES MILITANT
[Probably from the
WE have just read the two
dreary columns in The Pioneer of March 15th, “The Theosophists in Council,” by
Mr. T. G. Scott. The Council of the Society having nothing more to say to the
reverend polemic, who, in rejoinder to a brief card, treats the world to two
columns of what Coleridge would call “a juggle of sophistry,” I, myself, would
ask you to favour me with a brief space.
A few points of Mr. Scott’s
most glaring misconceptions (?) about our Society may be noticed. We are said
to have declared, at New York, that the Theosophical Society was hostile to the
“Christian Church”; while at Mayo Hall, Allahabad, our President affirmed that
his Society was not organized to fight “Christianity.” This is assumed to be a
contradiction and a “change of base.” Now if there were enough “Christianity”
in the “Christian Church” to be spoken of the gentleman’s point might be deemed
well taken. But, in my humble opinion, this is not at all the case.
Hence—though not at all hostile to “Christianity,” i.e., the ethics alleged to
have been preached by Jesus of Nazareth—I, in common with many Theosophists, am
very much so to the so-called “
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A MODERN PANARION.
swimming, and flying things.
Each of these, following its own instinct, attempted to draw the car after its
own fashion. Result: between the birds, animals, reptiles and fishes, the
unfortunate vehicle was torn into fragments.
The reverend missionaries are
hard to please in this country. When left unnoticed, they complain of the
Theosophists ignoring the brave “six hundred”; and when we do notice
them—which, indeed, happens only under compulsion—they begin abusing us in the
most un-Christian and often, I am sorry to say, ungentlemanly way.
Thus, for instance, we had to
call the strong hand of the law to our help in the case of The Dnyanodaya, a
diminutive and sorry but quite a fighting little missionary weekly of Bombay,
which called our Society names, and had to apologize in print for it. Now comes
The Bengal Magazine of January; its Editor—by the by, a Christian reverend, but
nevertheless very rude Bâbu—is advised to look out and consult the law, before
he charges Colonel Olcott or anyone else with “hocus-pocus tricks’’ again; as
the ‘‘gushing Colonel’’ may prove as little gushing and as active in his case
as he was in that of the abusive little Dnyânodaya. And now Mr. T. G. Scott
calls an article on “Missions in
Bold, but exceedingly ignorant
attempt at making it appear that missions are a failure in
Ignorant as we newcomers maybe
about Indian missionary questions, I must remind Mr. Scott that the person whom
he stigmatizes with ignorance is a lady who has passed many years in
227———————————————————MISSIONARIES MILITANT.
Lord Queensborough, of the
“Church” of Moncure Conway, in which is preached the great Religion of Humanity
from every “religion” and church?
Science is our guide, and
truth is the spirit that we worship, says the noble Lord Queensborough in his
letter recently published in The Statesman! Mr. Scott assures his readers that:
Never since the Apostles has it [Christanity] been so vigorous as now, the
tendency is anything else than to infidelity and atheism.
But Lord Queensborough, in his
letter to “E. C. H.” challenges the latter, and with him the whole world of
Christians in these remarkable words:
Call us atheists and infidels
if you will; . . . and I maintain, and will maintain, that the time has arrived
for us to proclaim ourselves and to claim to be respected, as other religious
bodies are; but as we never shall he, unless we stand forward and openly
declare what our religion is . . . I am only acting as the mouthpiece of
thousands, perhaps millions, with whom I have faith in common.
Churches of our religion
already exist. I will name one in
Moncure Conway, I will remind
Mr. Scott, instead of the Bible and Christianity preaches every Sunday from The
Sacred Anthology, extracts from the Vedas, the Buddhist Sutras, the Koran, and
so on. Many of his parishioners are fellows of the Theosophical Society. And
now it is my turn to ask, “How does this tally with the utterances of” Mr.
Scott, the missionary? Equally ill-timed was Mr. Scott’s quotation from the New
Testament of the passage:
Jesus said, Other sheep I
have, not of this fold.
For in the very mouth of Jesus
are put also the words:
He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark xvi.
16).
To this Mr. Scott may,
perhaps, repeat what he says in his two column letter:
The whole question of the
nature and extent of future punishment is a matter of interpretation.
Exactly. So we, Theosophists
and other heathen and “infidels,” who live in a century of free thought and in
a country of religious freedom, avail ourselves of it.
And now all his points being
answered, the reverend gentleman is
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A MODERN PANARION.
at liberty to ventilate his
ideas and pour his wrath upon the Theosophists wherever he likes. Yet, unless
he can get his satisfaction from following the good example of other
missionaries, and indulge in monologues of abuse, he can reckon but little upon
us to answer him. It takes two for a dialogue; and whether as a Society or as
individuals, we decline any further controversy on the subject with one who
gives so few facts and so many words.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
THE HISTORY OF A “BOOK”
—————
[From the Allahahad Pioneer,
As the indications in the
press all point towards a Russian reign of terror, either before or at the
death of the Czar—most probably the former—a bird’s-eye view of the
constitution of Russian society will enable us to better understand events as
they transpire.
Three distinct elements
compose what is now known as the Russian aristocracy. These may be broadly said
to represent the primitive Slavonian, the primitive Tartar, and composite
Russianized immigrants from other countries, and subjects of conquered states,
such as the Baltic provinces. The flower of the haute noblesse, those whose
hereditary descent places them beyond challenge in the very first rank, are the
Rurikovilch, or descendants of the Grand Duke Rurik and [the ruling families of
the aforetime separate principalities of Novgorod, Pskof, etc., which were
welded together into the Muscovite empire. Such are the Princes Bariatinskv,
Dolgorouki, Shonysky (now extinct, we believe), Tscherbatow, Ouroussov,
Viazemsky, etc.
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A MODERN PANARION.
Rurik, as is well known, was
not a Slav by birth, but a Varyago-Roos, though his nationality, as well as
that of his people who came with him to Russia, is very much questioned unto
this day, having been a matter of scientific dispute for several years between
the two well-known professors of St. Petersburg, Kostornarof and Pogodine— the
latter now dead. Implored by the Slays to come and reign over their country,
Rurik is reported to have been addressed by the delegates in these ominous
words: “Come with us, great prince for vast is our mother land; but there is
little order in it”—words which their descendants might well report with as
much, if not more, propriety now as then. Accepting the invitation, Rurik came
in A.D. 861 to
Alexander II must not forget
that it is little more than two centuries since the Romanoffs held the stirrups
of the Princes Dolgorouki.
And this, despite the marriage
of Mary, Princess Dolgorouki, with Michael Romanoff after he became Czar.
The Tartar princely families
descend from the Tartar Khans and Magnates of the “Zolotaya Orda” (Golden Orda)
of
231———————————————————THE HISTORY OF A “BOOK.”
foreign families invited into
the country by successive sovereigns, a Western element engrafted upon the
Russian stock. The names of the latter immigrés have been Russianized in some
cases beyond recognition; as, for instance, the English Hamiltons, who have now
become the “Khomoutoff!”
We have not the data which
would enable us to give the numerical strength of either of the above classes;
but an enumeration, made in the year 1842, showed a total of 551,970 noblemen
of hereditary, and 257,346 of personal rank. This comprised all in the empire
of different degrees of noble ranks, including the princely families and the
under-stratum of nobility. There is an untitled nobility, the descendants of
the old Boyars of Russia, often prouder of their family record than those who
are known as princes. The Demidoff family, for instance, and the Narishkine,
though frequently offered the ranks of prince and count, have always haughtily
rejected the honour, maintaining that the Czar could make a prince any day, but
never a Demidoff or a Narishkine.
Peter the Great, having
abolished the princely privileges of the Boyars, and made the offices of the
empire accessible to all, created the Tchin, or a caste of municipal employes
and government officials, divided into fourteen classes, the first eight of
which confer hereditary nobility upon the person holding one of them, and the
six latter give but a personal nobility to the incumbent, and do not transmit
gentility to the children. Office does not increase the nobility of incumbents
already noble, but does lift the ignoble into a higher social rank (Tchinovnik,
government employe was for years a term of scorn in the mouths of the nobles).
It is only since Alexander came to the throne that all old edict was done away
with, which deprived of noble rank and reduced to the peasantry any family
which, for three successive generations, had not taken service under the
government. Those were called Odnodvorizi, and among them some of the oldest
families found themselves included in 1845, when the Emperor Nicholas ordered
the examination of the titles of nobles. The nice distinctions among the above
fourteen classes are as puzzling to a foreigner as the relative precedence of
the various buttons of Chinese Mandarins, or the tails of the Pachas.
Besides these conflicting
elements of high and low nobility, the direct descendants of the Boyars of
old—the Slavonian peers in the palmy days of
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A MODERN PANARION.
themselves the prince they
wanted to serve and left him at will, who were vassals, not subjects, had their
own military retinue, and without whose approval no grand-ducal “ukasè” could
be of any avail—and the ennobled Tchinovniks, sons of priests and petty
traders, there are yet to be considered 79,000,000 of other people. These may
be divided into the millions of liberated serfs (22,000,000), of crown peasants
(16,000,000), who inhabit cities, preferring various trades and menial service
to agriculture. The rest comprises (1) the Meshichanis, or petty bourgeois, one
step higher than the peasant; (2) the enormous body of merchants and traders
divided into three guilds; (3). the hereditary citizens, who have nothing to do
with nobility; (4) the black clergy or the monks and nuns; and the secular
clergy, or married priests—a caste apart and hereditary; and (5) the military
class.
We will not include in our
classification the 3,000,000 of Mohammedans, the 2,000,000 of Jews, the 250,000
Buddhists, the pagan Izors, the Savakots, and the Karels, who seem perfectly
well satisfied with the Russian rule, thoroughly tolerant to their various
worships.* These, with the exception of the higher educated Jews and some
fanatical Mohammedans, care little as to the hand that rules them. But we will
remind the reader of the fact that there are over one hundred different nations
and tribes, who speak more than forty different languages, and are scattered
over an area of 8,331,884 English square miles;† that the population of all
Russia, European and Asiatic, is not above ten to the square mile; that the
railroads are very few and easily controlled, and other means of transport
scanty. How far it would be possible to effect a complete revolution throughout
the Russian Empire, may well be a subject of conjecture. With so little to bind
the many nationalities into one movement, it would seem to a foreigner an
undertaking so hopeless as to discourage even an Internationalist or a
Nihilist. Add to this the unquestionable devotion of the liberated serfs and
peasantry to the Czar, in whom they see alike the benefactor of the oppressed,
the vicegerent of God, and the head of their Church, and the case seems yet
more problematical. At the same time, we must not forget the lessons of
history, which has more than once shown us
—————
* By the last statistics, the
Mohammedans have 4,189 mosques and 7,940 mutfis and mulahs in the Empire of
Russia the Buddhists 389 places of worship and 4,400 priests; the Jews 445
synagogues and 4,935 rabbis, etc.
† According to the calculation
made in 1856 by G. Schweitzer, Director of the Observatory of Moscow.
233———————————————————THE HISTORY OF A “BOOK.”
how the very vastness of an
empire and the lack of a common unity among its subjects have proved at some
supreme crisis the most potent elements of its downfall.
Russian society slumbers, or
rather it feels heavy and somnolent. it lazily nods, only now and then opening
its lifeless eyes, as might one who, after a heavy dinner, forced to sit in an
unnatural position, cannot resist a lethargic drowsiness, and feels that he
must either unbutton his uniform and draw a full breath, or— suffocate. But the
dinner is an official one, and his body pinched in a state uniform too tight
for him. The man is overcome with an irresistible somnolence ; he feels the
blood rushing to his head, his legs tremble and his hand mechanically fumbles
the button of the uniform to get one gasp of breath that would interrupt the
unendurable torture. Such is the present condition of our society.
But while it is nodding under
its threatened apoplexy, from a surfeit of indigestible food, those carnivorous
jackals, who are always ready to eat and drink, and can digest whatever they
pick up, do not sleep. The violation of the seventh commandment, intellectually
as well as physically, having debased body, mind and soul is nestling in the
very heart of the public. Adulterers of body, and of thought, and of knowledge
and science, adulterers of labour—reign in our midst, are creeping out from
every side as the representatives of society and the public, boasting of their
brazen hardihood, successful wherever they go, having flung away’ all shame
cast aside every’ concern to at least conceal the nakedness of their deeds,
even from the eyes of those from whom they’ squeeze all that can be squeezed
only from such a fool as—man. Government and treasury’ pilferers’, embezzlers
of public and private properties; blacklegs and swindlers subsidized by
numberless bubble companies, by stock companies and fraudulent enterprises;
thimble-riggers and violators of women and children whom they’ debauch and
ruin; contractors, money-lenders, bribed judges and venal counsel, bucket-shop
keepers and sharpers of all nationalities, ever)’ religion, every social class.
This is our modern social force. Like beasts of prey, hunting in packs, this
force, gloating over its quarry, satiating itself, noisily crunching its
restless, tireless jaws, imposing itself upon everyone, dares to offer itself
as the patron of everything”—science ,literature, arts, and even thought
itself. There it is, the kingdom of this world, flesh of the flesh, blood of
the blood, made in the image of the animal from which the first germ of man
evolved.
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A MODERN PANARION.
Such are the social ethics of
our contemporary
From all this social
rottenness, the black fungus of Nihilism has sprung. Its hot-bed has been
preparing for years, by the gradual sapping of moral tone and self-respect and
the debauchery of the higher class, who always give the impulse to those below
them for good or evil. All that lacked was the occasion and the man. Under the
passport system of Nicholas, the chances for becoming polluted by
235———————————————————THE HISTORY OF A “BOOK.”
The former were preaching
Nihilism, the latter Women’s Rights and Free Love. The one let their hair grow
like moujiks, and donned the red national shirt and kaflan of the peasantry;
the other clipped their hair short and affected blue spectacles. Trades Unions,
infected with the notions of the International, sprang up like mushrooms; and
demagogues ranted to social clubs upon the conflict between labour and capital.
The cauldron began to seethe. At last the man came.
The history of Nihilism can be
summed up in two words. For their name they are indebted to the great novelist
Tourguenief, who created Bazarof, and stamped the type with the name of
Nihilist. Little did the famous author of Fathers and Sons imagine at that time
into what national degeneration his hero would lead the Russian people
twenty-five years later. Only “Bazarof”—in whom the novelist painted with
satirical fidelity the characteristics of certain “Bohemian” negationists, then
just glimmering on the horizon of student life—had little in common, except the
name and materialistic tendency, with the masked Revolutionists and Terrorists
of today. Shallow, bilious, and nervous, this studiosus medicine is simply an
unquiet spirit of sweeping negation; of that sad, yet scientific scepticism
reigning now supreme in the ranks of the highest intellect; a spirit of Materialism,
sincerely believed in, and as honestly preached; the outcome of long
reflections over the rotten remnants of man and frog in the dissecting room,
where the dead man suggested to his mind no more than the dead frog. Outside of
animal life everything to him is nihil; “a thistle,” growing out of a lump of
mud, is all that man can look forward to after death. And thus this
type—Bazarof—was caught up as their highest ideal by the university students.
The “Sons” began destroying what the “Fathers” had built. . . . And now
Tourguenief is forced to taste of the bitter fruits of the tree of his
planting. Like the creator of Frankenstein, who could not control the
mechanical monster that his ingenuity had constructed out of the putrefactions
of the churchyard, he now finds his “type”—which was from the first hateful and
terrible to him—grown into the ranting spectre of the Nihilist delirium, the
red-handed Socialist. The press, at the initiative of the Moshovskye
Vyedomosty—a centenarian paper—takes up the question and openly accuses the
most brilliant literary talent of Russia, one whose sympathies are, and always
have been, on the side of the “Fathers,” with having been the first to plant
the poisonous weed.
Owing to the peculiar
transitional state of Russian society between
236————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
1850 and 1860, the name was
hailed and adopted, and the Nihilists began springing up at every side. They
captured the national literature, and their new doctrines were fast
disseminated throughout the whole empire. And now Nihilism has grown into a
power—an imperium in imperio: It is no more with Nihilism with which
A FRENCH VIEW OF WOMEN’S
RIGHTS
[Probably from the
WITH a little book entitled
Les Femmes qui Tuent et Les Femmes qui Votent, Alexandre Dumas, fils, has just
entered the arena of social and political reform. The novelist, who began by
picking up his Beatrices and Lauras in the social gutter, the author of La Dame
aux Camelias and La Dame aux Perles, is regarded in France as the finest known
analyst of the female heart. He now comes out in a new light; as a defender of
Woman’s Rights in general, and of those women especially whom English people
generally talk about as little as possible. If this gifted son of a still more
gifted father never sank before to the miry depths of that modern French
realistic school now in such vogue, the school headed by the author of L’Assommoir
and Nana and so fitly nicknamed L’Ecole Ordurialiste it is because he is a born
poet, and follows the paths traced out for him by the Marquis de Sade, rather
than those of Zola. He is too refined to be the rival of writers like those who
call themselves auteurs-naturalisles and romanciers-experimentalistes, who use
their pen as the student in surgery his scalpel, plunging it into the depths of
all the social cancers they can find.
Until now he idealized and
beautified vice. In the work under review, he defends not only its right to
exist under certain conditions, but claims for it a recognized place in the
broad sunlight of social and political life.
His brochure of 216 pages,
which has lately been published in the shape of a letter to J. Claretie, is now
having an immense success. By the end of September, hardly a week after its
appearance, it had already reached its sixth edition. It treats of two great
social difficulties—the question of divorce, and the right of women to
participate in elections. Dumas begins by assuming the defence of the several
238————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
women who have recently played
an important part in murder cases, in which their victims were their husbands
and lovers.
All these women, he says, are
the embodiment of the idea which for some time past has been fermenting in the
world. It is that of the entire disenthralment of the woman from her old
condition of slavery, created for her by the Bible, and enforced by tyrannical
society. All these murders and this public vice, as we as the increasing mental
labour of women, M. Dumas takes to be so many signs of one and the same
aspiration—that of mastering man, getting the best of him, and competing with him
in everything. What men will not give them willingly, women of a certain class
endeavour to obtain by cunning. As a result of such a policy, he says, we see
“those young ladies” acquiring an enormous influence over men in all social
affairs and even in politics. Having amassed large fortunes, when older they
appear as lady-patronesses of girls’ schools and of charitable institutions,
and take a part in provincial administration. Their past is lost sight of; they
succeed in establishing, so to say, an imperium in imperio, where they enforce
their own laws, and manage to have them respected. This state of things is
attributed by Dumas directly to the restriction of Woman’s Rights, to the state
of legal slavery women have been subjected to for centuries, and especially to
the marriage and anti-divorce laws. Answering the favourite objection of those
who oppose divorce on the ground that its establishment would promote too much
freedom in love, the author of Le Demi-Monde bravely pushes forward his last
batteries and throws off the mask.
Why not promote such freedom?
What appears a danger to some, a dishonour and shame to others,
Will become an independent and
recognized profession in life—une carrière à part—a fact, a world of its own,
with which all the other corporations and classes of society will have to
reckon. It will not be long before everyone will have ceased to protest against
its right to an independent and legal existence. Very shortly it will form
itself into an integral, compact body; and the time will come when, between
this world and the others, relations will be established as friendly as between
two equally powerful and recognized empires.
With every year women free
themselves more and more from empty formalism, and M. Dumas hopes there will
never again be a reaction. If a woman is unable to give up the idea of love
altogether, let her prefer unions binding neither party to anything, and let
her be guided in this only by her own free will and honesty. Of course it is
rather to
239——————————————————A FRENCH VIEW OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS.
review an important current of
feeling in an important community than to discuss au fond the delicate
questions with which M. Dumas deals, that we are taking notice of his book. We
may thus leave the reader to his own reflections on this proposed reform, as
also in reference to most of the points raised.
A certain Hubertine Auclaire,
in France, has lately refused to pay her taxes on the plea that political
rights belonging to man are denied to her as a woman; and Dumas, with this
incident as a text, devotes the last part of this brochure to a defence of
Woman’s Rights, as eloquent, impressive and original as other portions which
will less bear discussion. He writes:
In 1847 political reformers
thought it necessary to lower the electoral franchise and distribute the right
of vote according to capacity.
That is, to limit it to
intelligent men. The government refused, and this led to the Revolution of
1848. Scared, it gave the people the right of universal suffrage, extending the
right to all, whether capable or incapable, provided the voters were only men.
At present this right holds good, and nothing can abolish it. But women come,
in their turn, and ask: “How about us? We claim the same privileges.”
What [asks Dumas] can be more
natural, reasonable and just? There is no reason why woman should not have
equal rights with man. What difference do you find between the two which
warrants your refusing her such a privilege? None at all. Sex? her sex has no
more to do with it than the sex of man. As to all other dissimilarities between
us, they go far more to her credit than to ours. If one argues that Woman is by
nature a weaker creature than man, and that it is his duty to take care of and
defend her, we will answer that hitherto we have, it seems, so badly defended
her that she had to pick up a revolver and take that defence into her own
hands; and to remain consequent with ourselves we have to enter the verdict of
“Not guilty” whenever she is caught in that act of self-defence.
To the plea that woman is
intellectually weaker than man, and is shown to be so by sacred writings, the
author sets off against the biblical Adam and Eve, Jacolliot’s translation of
the Hindu legend in his Bible dans l’Inde, and contends that it was man, not woman,
who became the first sinner and was turned out of
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A MODERN PANARION.
Dumas has an answer for every
objection. Are illustrious women exceptions? He cites a brilliant array of
great female names, and contends that the sex in which such exceptions are to
be met has acquired a legal right to take part in the nomination of the village
maires and municipal officers. The sex which claims a Blanche de Castille, an
Elizabeth of England, another of
If so many women were found
good enough to reign and govern nations, they surely must have been fit to
vote. To the remark that women can neither go to war nor defend their country,
the reader is reminded of such names as Joan of Arc, and the three other Joans,
of
She can do nothing of the
kind. In case of a suspicion of her faith, he can deprive her of her marriage
portion; and in case of guilt may even kill her. It is his right. Debarred from
the benefits of a divorce, she has to suffer all, and finds no redress. She is
fined, judged, sentenced, imprisoned, put to death, and suffers all the
penalties of law just as much and under the same circumstances as he does, but
no magistrate has ever thought of saying yet:
“Poor weak little creature Let
us forgive her, for she is irresponsible, and so much lower than man
The whole eloquent, if
sometimes rhapsodical plea in favour of women’s suffrage is concluded with the
following suggestions:
241——————————————————A FRENCH VIEW OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS.
First, the situation will
appear absurd; but gradually people will become accustomed to the idea, and
soon every protest will die out. No doubt at first the idea of woman in this
new role will have to become the subject of bitter criticism and satire. Ladies
will be accused of ordering their hats a
a l'urne, their bodices au suffrage universel, and their skirts au scrutin
secret. But what then ? After having served for a time as an object of
amazement, then become a fashion and habit, the new system will be finally
looked upon as a duty. At all events it has now become a claimed right. A few
grandes dames in cities, some wealthy female landowners in provincial districts,
and leaseholders in villages, will set the example, and it will be soon
followed by the rest of the female population.
The book winds up with this
question and answer:
I may, perhaps, be asked by
some pious and disciplined lady, some fervent believer in time idea that
humanity can only he rescued from perdition by codes and gospels, by the Roman
law and Roman Church: ‘‘Pray, tell me, sir, where are we driving to with all
these ideas ?“ “He, madame! ... we go where we were going to from the first, to
that which must be, that is, the inevitable. We move slowly onward, because we
call spare time, having some millions of years yet before us, and because we
have to leave some work to do for those who are following us. For the present
we are occupied in enfranchising women; when this is done we will try to
enfranchise God. And as soon as full harmony will have been established between
these three eternal principles—God, man and woman—our way will appear to us
less dark before us, and we will journey on the quicker.”
Certainly the advocates of
Woman’s Rights in
H. P. Blavatsky.
OCCULT PHENOMENA
—————
[From the
IN the issue of the 19th
instant of your worthy contemporary, I find over two columns devoted to the
doubtful glorification, but mostly to the abuse, of my humble individuality.
There is a long confidential letter from Colonel Olcott to an officer of our
Society, obtained surreptitiously by somebody, and marked “private”—a word
showing in itself that the document was never meant for the public eye—and an
editorial, principally filled with cheap abuse, and venomous, though
common-place, suggestions. The latter was to be expected, but I would like
information upon the following points: (1) How did the editor come into
possession of a document stolen from the desk of the President of the Bombay
Branch of the Theosophical Society? and (2) having got it, what right had he to
publish it at all, without first obtaining consent from the writer or
addressee—a consent which he could never have obtained? and (3) how is such an
action to be characterized? If the law affords no redress for a wrong like this
I am content, at least, to abide the verdict of every well-bred man or woman
who shall read the letter and comments thereon. This private letter having been
written about, but not by me, I abandon this special question to be settled
between the offended and the offender, and touch but upon the one which
concerns me directly.
I have lived long enough in
this world of incessant strife, in which the “survival of the fittest” seems to
mean the triumph of the most unprincipled, to have learned that when I have
once allowed my name to appear in the light of a benevolent genius, for the
production of “cups,” “saucers” and “brooches,” I must bear the penalty; especially
when the people are so foolish as to take the word “Magic” either in its
popular superstitious sense—that of the work of the devil—or in that of
jugglery. Therefore and precisely because I am an “elderly lady from
243———————————————————OCCULT PHENOMENA
—especially in newspaper
personal abuse—has toughened me to the extent of being indifferent as to the
sneering and jeering of news papers upon questions they do not understand at
all; provided they are witty and remain within the limits of propriety and do
no harm but to myself. Being neither a professional medium nor a professional
anything, and making my experiments in “Occult phenomena” only in the presence
of a few friends—rarely before anyone who is not a member of our Society—I have
a right to claim from the public a little more fairness and politeness than are
usually accorded to paid jugglers and even alleged Thaumaturgists. And if my
friends will insist upon publishing about “Occult phenomena” taking place in
their presence, they should at least preface their narratives with the
following warning: Pukka Theosophy believes in no miracle, whether divine or
devilish; recognizes nothing as supernatural; believes only in facts and
Science; studies the laws of Nature, both Occult and patent; and gives
attention particularly to the former, just because exact Science will have
nothing to do with them.
Such laws are those of
Magnetism in all its branches, Mesmerism, Psychology, etc. More than once in
the history of its past has Science been made the victim of its own delusions
as to its professed infallibility; and the time must come when the perfection
of Asiatic Psychology and its knowledge of the forces of the invisible world
will be recognized, as were the circulation of the blood, electricity, and so
forth, after the first sneers and lampoons died away. The “silly attempts to
hoodwink individuals” will then be viewed as honest attempts at proving to this
generation of Spiritualists and believers in past ‘‘miracle—mongers,” that
there is naught miraculous in this world of Matter and Spirit, of visible
results and invisible causes; naught—but the great wickedness of a world of
Christians and Pagans, alike ridiculously superstitious in one direction, that
of their respective religions, and malicious whenever a purely disinterested
and philanthropic effort is made to open their eyes to the truth. I beg leave
to further remark that personally I never bragged of anything I might have
done, nor do I offer any explanation of the phenomena, except to utterly
disclaim the possession of any miraculous or supernatural powers, or the
performing of anything by jugglery—i.e., with the usual help of confederates
and machinery. That’s all. And surely, if there is anything like a sense of
justice left in society, I am amenable to neither statutory nor social laws for
gratifying the interest of members
244————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
of our Society, and the wishes
of my personal friends, by exhibiting to them in privacy various phenomena, in
which I believe far more firmly than any of them, since I know the laws by
which they are produced, and am ready to stand any amount of personal newspaper
abuse when ever these results are told to the public. The “official circles at
Simla” was an incorrect and foolish phrase to use. I never produced anything in
the ‘‘official circles’’ ; but I certainly hope to have impressed a few persons
belonging to such “official circles” with the sense that I was neither an
impostor nor a “hood of official personages,” for whom, moreover, so long as I
live up to the law of the country, and respect it (especially considering my
natural democratic feelings, strengthened by my American naturalization), I am
not bound to have any more respect than each of them personally deserves in his
individual capacity. I must add, for the personal gratification of the Editor
of your contemporary, and in the hope that this will soothe his irate feelings,
that of the five eye-witnesses to the “cup” production, three (two of these of
the “official circle”) utterly disbelieve the genuineness of the phenomenon,
though I would be pleased to know how, with all their scepticism, they would be
able to account for it. I do not imitate the indiscretion of the Editor and
mention names, but leave the public to draw such inferences as they please.
I am a private individual, and
no one has a right to call upon me to rise and explain. Therefore, by causing
Colonel Olcott’s stolen letter to be followed by a paragraph entitled “The way
they treat ‘occult phenomena’ in England,” giving an account of the arrest of
Miss Houghton, a medium who obtained money under false pretences, the Editor,
by the implied innuendo which likens my case to hers, became guilty of one more
unprovoked and ungentlemanly insult towards me, who obtain neither money nor
favours of any sort for my ‘‘phenomena,” and lays himself open to very hard
reprisals. The only benefit I have ever derived from my experiments, when made
public, is newspaper abuse and more or less unfavourable comments upon my
unfortunate self all over the country. This, unless my convictions were strong
indeed, would amount to obtaining Billingsgate and martyrdom under false pretences,
and begging a reputation for insanity. The game would hardly be worth the
candle, I think.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
Amritzur,
HINDU WIDOW- MARRAGE
—————
[The following is a copy of a
letter received by Dewan Bahadar Ragunath Row from Madame Blavatsky.]
MY DEAR SIR,—I have not made a
study of Hindu law, but I do know something of the principles of Hindu
religions, or rather ethics, and of those of its glorious Founders. I regard
the former as almost the embodiment of justice, and the latter as ideals of
spiritual perfectibility. When then anyone points out to me in the existing
canon any text, line or word that violates one’s sense of perfect justice, I
instinctively know it must be a later perversion of the original Smriti. In my
judgment, the Hindus are now patiently enduring many outrageous wrongs that
were cunningly introduced into the canon, as opportunity offered, by selfish
and unscrupulous priests for their personal benefit, as occurred in the case of
Suttee, the burning of widows. The marriage laws are another example. To marry
a child, without her knowledge or consent to enter the married state, and then
to doom her to the awful, because unnatural, fate of enforced celibacy if the
boy-child to whom she was betrothed should die (and one half of the human race
do die before coming of age), is something actually brutal, devilish. It is the
quintessence of injustice and cruelty, and I would sooner doubt the stars of
heaven than believe that any one of those star-bright human souls called Rishis
had ever consented to such a base and idiotic cruelty. If a female has entered
the marital relation, she should, in my opinion, remain a chaste widow if her
husband should die. But if a betrothed boy—husband of a non-consenting and
irresponsible child-wife should die, or if, upon coming to age, either of them
should be averse from matrimony, and prefer to take tip the religious life, to
devote themselves to charitable occupations, to study, or for other good
reasons wish to remain celibate, then they ought to be allowed to do so. We
personally know of several cases where the males or females are so bent upon
becoming Chelâs that they prefer death
246————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
rather than to enter or
continue in—as the cases severally may be— the married state. My woman’s
instinct always told me that for such there was comfort and protection in the
Hindus law of the Rishis, which was based upon their spiritual perceptions,
hence upon the perfect law of harmony and justice which pervades all nature.
And now, upon reading your excellent pamphlet, I perceive that my instincts had
not deceived me.
Wishing every possible success
to your noble and highly philanthropical enterprise, believe me, dear sir, with
respect,
Yours fraternally,
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
Mylapore,
“OPPRESSED WIDOWHOOD” IN
—————
[From The Philosophic Enquirer
;
HAVING read an article signed
with the above pseudonym in The Philosophic Enquirer of July 1st, in which the
hapless condition of the Hindu widow is so sincerely bewailed, the idea struck
me that it may not be uninteresting to your readers, the opponents as well as
the supporters of child-marriage and widow-marriage, to learn that the sacerdotal
caste of India is not a solitary exception in the cruel treatment of those
unfortunates whom fate has deprived of their husbands. Those who look upon the
re-marriage of their bereaved females with horror, as well as those who may yet
be secretly sighing for Suttee, will find worthy sympathizers among the savage
and fierce tribe of the Talkotins of Oregon (
The ceremonies attending the
dead are very singular and quite peculiar to this tribe. During the nine days
the corpse is laid out the widow of the deceased is obliged to sleep alongside
it from sunset to sunrise; and from this custom there is on relaxation even
during the hottest days of summer [ the ceremony of cremation is being performed,
and the doctor (or ‘‘medicine man “) is trying for the last time his skill upon
the corpse, and using useless incantations to bring hint back to life,] the
widow must lie on the pile, add after the fire is applied to it she cannot stir
until the doctor orders her to be removed, which, however, is never done until
her body is completely covered with blisters.
After being placed on her legs
she is obliged to pass her hands gently through the flames and collect some of
the liquid fat which issues front the corpse, with which she is permitted [?]
to wet her face and body! When the friends of the deceased observe the sinews
of the legs and arms beginning to contract they compel the unfortunate widow to
go again on the pile, and by dint of hard pressing to straighten those members.
If during her husband’s
lifetime she has been known to have omitted administering to him savoury food,
or neglected his clothing, etc., she is now made to suffer severely for such
lapses of duty by his relations, who frequently fling her On
248————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
the funeral pile, from which
she is dragged by her friends, and thus between alternate scorching and cooling
she is dragged backwards and forwards until she falls into a state of
insensibility.
After which she is saved and
allowed to go.
But if the widow was faithful,
respectful and a good wife, then:
After the process of burning
the corpse has terminated, the widow collects the larger bones, which she rolls
up in an envelope of birch bark, and which she is obliged for some years
afterwards to carry on her back. She is now considered and treated as a slave
[as in
Her conduct as a faithful
widow is next highly eulogized, and the ceremony of her manumission is
completed by one man powdering on her head the down of birds and another
pouring on it the contents of a bladder of oil! She is then at liberty to marry
again or lead a life of single blessedness; but few of them, I believe, wish to
encounter the risk attending a second widowhood.
H. P. B.
“ESOTERIC BUDDHISM” AND ITS
CRITIC
—————
[From Light, 1883.]
Bottom.— me play the lion. . .
. I will roar, that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. . . . I will
make the Duke say,...” Let him roar, let him roar again.” ... Masters, you
ought to consider with yourselves; to bring in—God shield us!—a lion among
ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for, there is not a more fearful wild-fowl
than your lion living; and we ought to look to it.
Nay, you must name his name,
and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck; and he himself must
speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect:
“Ladies,” or “fair ladies [or
Theosophists] I would wish you,” or “I would request you,” or “I would entreat
you,” not to fear, not to tremble If you think I come hither as a lion, . . .
no, I am no such thing: I am a man . . . and there indeed let him name his
name.—Midsummer Night’s Dream.
IN Light of July 21st in the
“Correspondence,” appears a letter signed “G. W., M.D.” Most transparent
initials these, which “name the name” at once, and show the writer’s face
“through the lion’s neck.” The communication consists of just fifty-eight
paragraphs, containing an equal number of sneering, rancorous, vulgar, personal
flings, the whole distributed over three and a half columns. It pretends to
criticize, while only misquoting and misinterpreting Eastern Esotericism. Its
author would create a laugh at the expense of Mr. Sinnett’s book, and succeeds
in showing us what a harmless creature is the “lion,” “wild-fowl” though he may
be; and where he would make a show of wit, the letter is only—nasty.
I should not address your
public, even in my private capacity, but that the feelings of many hundreds of
my Asiatic brothers have been outraged by this, to them, ribald attack upon
what they hold sacred. For them, and at their instance, I protest. It might be
regarded as beneath contempt had it come from an outsider upon whom rested no
obligation to uphold the dignity of the Theosophical Society; in such case it
would have passed for a clumsy attempt to injure an unpalatable cause: that of
Esoteric Buddhism. But when it is a wide-open secret
250————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
that the letter came from a
member of about five years’ standing, and one who, upon the protogenesis of the
“British Theosophical Society” as the “London Lodge of the Theosophical
Society,” retained membership, the case has quite another aspect. The cutting
insult having been inflicted publicly and without antecedent warning, it
appears necessary to enquire as to the occult motive.
I shall not stop to remark
upon the wild resume which, professedly “a criticism from a European and
arithmetical standpoint,” passed muster with you. Nor shall I lose time over
the harmless flings at “incorrigible Buddhists and other lunatics,” beyond
remarking àpro of “moon” and “dust-bins” that the former seems to have found a
good symbol of herself as a “dust-bin” in the heads of those whose perceptive
faculties seem so dusty as to prevent the entrance of a single ray of Occult
light. Briefly then, since the year 1879 when we came to India, the author of
the letter in question has made attempts to put himself into communication with
the “Brothers.” Besides trying to enter into correspondence with Colonel
Olcott’s Guru, he sent twice, through myself letters addressed to the Mahâtmâs.
Being, as it appears, full of one-sided prejudiced questions, suggesting to
Buddhist Philosophers the immense superiority of his own “Esoteric”
Christianity over the system of the Lord Buddha, which is characterized as
fruitful of selfishness, human blindness, misanthropy and spiritual death, they
were returned by the addressees for our edification and to show us why they
would not notice them. Whoever has read a novelette contributed by this same
gentleman to The Psychological Review and entitled “The Man from the East” will
readily infer what must have been his attitude towards the “Himalayan” and
Tibetan Mystics. A Scotch doctor, the hero, meets at a place in Syria, in an
Occult Brother hood, a Christian convert from this “Himalayan heathen
Brotherhood,” who—a Hindu against his late Adept Masters the self-same libels
as are now repeated in the letter under notice.
—————
* The shot at Theosophy being
badly aimed, flew wide of the mark; but still, like Richard III, “G. W., M.D.”
resolved, as it appears, to keep up the gunnery— The mythical hero of the story
would seem to have met at Paris with a certain pseudo-Brâhman, a convert to
Roman Catholicism, who is giving himself out as an ex-Chela—his statements and
all corroborative ones to the contrary notwithstanding; he may have misled, if
not the mythical Scotch doctor, at least the actual “M.D.’’ of London. And, by
the way, our French Fellows may as well know, that unless this pretender ceases
his bogus revelations as to the phenomenal powers of our Mahatmas being “of the
devil” a certain native gentleman who has known this convert of the Jesuits
from childhood, will expose him most fully—H. P. B.
251—————————————————“ESOTERIC BUDDHISM” AND ITS CRITIC.
If not to fight with foreign
enemies,
Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.
The three indignant answers
called out by “G. W., M.D.,” having emanated from an English lady and two
genuine English gentlemen, are, in my humble opinion, too dignified and mild
for the present case. So brutal an attack demanded something stronger than
well-bred protests; and at the risk of being taken by “G. W., M.D.” as the
reverse of well-bred, I shall use plain words about this whilom friend, but now
traitor—I hope to show the term is not too harsh. As an ardent Theosophist, the
grateful loyal friend of the author denounced—who deserves and has the regard
of Mahâtmâ Koot-Hoomi—and as the humble pupil of Those to whom I owe my life
and the future of my soul, I shall speak. While I have breath, I shall never
allow to pass unnoticed such ugly manifestations of religious intolerance, nay,
bigotry, and personal rancour resulting from envy, in a member of our Society.
Before closing, I must notice
one specially glaring fact. Touched evidently to the quick by Mr. Sinnett’s
very proper refusal to let one so inimical see the “Divine Face” (yes, truly
Divine, though not so much so as the original) of the Mahâtmâ, “G. W., M.D.”
with a sneer of equivocal propriety, calls it a mistake. He says:
For just as some second-class
saints have been made by gazing on halfpenny prints of the Mother of God, so
who can say that if my good friend had permitted my sceptical eyes to look on
the Divine face of Koot-Hoomi I might not forthwith have been converted into an
Esoteric Buddhist?
Impossible; an Esoteric
Buddhist never broke his pledged word; and one who upon entering the Society
gave his solemn word of honour, in the presence of witnesses, that he would.
Defend the interests of the
Society and the honour of a brother Theosophist, when unjustly assailed, even
at the peril of my [his] own life,
and then could write such a
letter, would never be accepted in that capacity. One who unjustly assails the
honour of hundreds of his Asiatic brothers, slanders their religion and wounds
their most sacred feelings, may be a very esoteric Christian, but certainly is
a disloyal Theosophist. My perceptions of what constitutes a man of honour may
be very faulty, but I confess that I could not imagine such a one making public
caricatures upon confessedly “private instructions.” (See second column,
paragraph 14 of his letter.) Private instructions of this sort, given at
confidential private meetings of the Society in
252————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
advance of their publication,
are exactly what the entering member’s word of honour’’ pledges him not to
reveal.
The broken faith made thee
prey for worms;
What canst thou swear by now?
Your correspondent deprecates
At the outset this Oriental
practice of secrecy; [he knows] that secrecy and cunning are ever twin sisters,
[and it appears to him childish and effeminate [to pretend] by secret Words and
signs to enshrine great truths behind a veil, which is only useful as a
concealment of ignorance and nakedness.
Indeed: so he is not an
“Esoteric Christian” after all, else I have misread the Bible. For what I find
there in various passages, of which I cite but one, shows me that he is as
disloyal to his own Master and Ideal Christ, as he is to Theosophy:
And he said unto them [his own
disciples], Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but
unto them that are without [the ‘‘G.W., M.D.’s’’ of the day] all these things
are done in parables: that seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing
they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted,
and their sins should be forgiven them. ( iv. 11, 12.)
Shall we characterize this
also as “childish and effeminate,” say that the twins sisters ‘‘secrecy and
cunning” lurk behind this veil, and that in this instance, as usual, it was
“only useful as a concealment of ignorance and nakedness”? The grandeur of
Esoteric Buddhism is that it hides what it does from the vulgar, not “lest at
any time they should be converted, and their sins forgiven them,” or as they
would say, “cheat their Karma”—but lest by learning prematurely that which can
safely be trusted only to those who have proved their unselfishness and
self—abnegation, even the wicked, the sinners should be hurt.
And now, may the hope of
Bottom be realized, and some London Duke say to this harmless lion: “Let him
roar, let him roar again.”
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
Nilgherry Hills,
MR. A. LILLIE’S DELUSIONS
—————
[From Light, 1884.]
I WRITE to rectify the many mistakes—if
they are, indeed, only “mistakes”—in Mr. Lillie’s last letter that appeared in
Light of August 2nd, in answer to the Observations on his pamphlet by the
President of the London Lodge.
I. This letter, in which the
author of Buddha and Early Buddhism proposed to Consider briefly some of the
notable omissions made in the “Observations,’
begins with two most notable
assertions concerning myself, which are entirely false, and which the author
had not the slightest right to make. He says:
For fourteen years (1860 to
1874) Madame Blavatsky was all avowed Spiritualist, controlled by a spirit
called “John King” ... she attended many seances.
But this would hardly prove
anyone to be a Spiritualist, and, more over, all these assertions are entirely
false. I say the word and under line it, for the facts in them are distorted,
and made to fit a preconceived and very erroneous notion, started first by the
Spiritualists, whose interest it is to advocate “spirits” pure and simple, and
to kill, if they can, which is rather doubtful, belief in the wisdom, if not in
the very existence, of our revered Masters.
Though I do not at all feel
bound to unbosom my private life to Mr. Arthur Lillie, nor do I recognize in
him the right of demanding it, yet out of respect to a few Spiritualists whom I
esteem and honour, I would set them right once for all on the subject. As that
period of my life (1873-1879) in America, with all its spiritual transactions,
will be given very soon in a new book called Madame Blavatsky, published by
friends, and one which I trust will settle, once and for ever, the many wild
and unfounded stories told of me, I will briefly state only the following.
The unwarranted assumption
mentioned above is very loosely based
254————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
on one single document,
namely, Colonel Olcott’s People from the other World. As this book was written
partly before, and partly after, my first acquaintance with Colonel Olcott, and
as he was a Spiritualist, which he has never denied, I am not responsible for
his views of me and my “power” at that time. He wrote what he then thought the
whole truth, honestly and sincerely; and as I had a determined object in view,
I did not seek to disabuse him too rudely of his dreams. It was only after the
formation of the Theosophical Society in 1875, that he learned the whole truth.
I defy anyone, after that period, to find one word from his pen that would
corroborate his early views on the nature of my supposed “mediumship.” But even
then, when writing of me in his book, he states distinctly the following:
Her mediumship is totally
different from that of any other person I ever met, for instead of being
controlled by spirits to do their will, it is she who seems to control them to
do her bidding.
Strange “mediumship,” one that
resembled in no way any that even Colonel Olcott—a Spiritualist of thirty
years’ standing—had ever met with! But when Colonel Olcott says in his book (p.
453) that instead of being controlled by, it is I who control the so-called
spirits, he is yet made to say by Mr. Lillie, who refers the public to Colonel
Olcott’s book, that is I who was controlled! Is this a misstatement and a
misquotation, I ask, or is it not?
Again, it is stated by Mr.
Lillie that I conversed with this “spirit” (John King) during fourteen years,
“constantly in
255———————————————————MR. A. LILLIE’S DELUSIONS.
I was never yet “controlled”
by one! My rnedium-ship has been crushed out of me a quarter of a century or
more; and I defy loudly all the “spirits” of the Kâma Loka to approach—let
alone to control me—now. Surely it is Mr. Arthur Lillie who must be
“controlled” by some one to make untruthful statements which can be so easily
refuted as this one.
2. Mr. Lillie asks for
Information about the seven
years’ initiation of Madame Blavatsky.
The humble individual of this
name has never heard of such an initiation. With that accuracy in the
explanation of Esoteric terms that so preeminently characterizes the author of
Buddha and Early Buddhism, the word may be intended for ‘‘instruction”? If so,
then I should be quite justified in first asking Mr. Lillie what right he has
to cross-examine me. But since he chooses to take such liberties with my name,
I will tell him plainly that he himself knows nothing, not merely of
initiations and
Yet I have never stated either
verbally or over my signature that I had passed seven consecutive years in a
convent. What I have said, and repeat now, is that I have stopped in Lamaistic
convents; that I have visited Tzi-gadze, the Teshu Hlumpo territory anti its
neighbour hood, and that I have been further into, and have visited such places
of Tibet as have never been visited by other Europeans, and such as he can
never hope to visit.
Mr. Lillie had no right to
expect more “ample details” in Mr. Finch’s pamphlet. Mr. Finch is an honourable
man, who speaks of the private life of a person only so far as that person
permits him. My friends and those whom I respect and for whose opinion I care,
have ample
256————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
evidence—from my family for
instance—that I have been in
The names, perhaps, of three
or four ... English [ Anglo-Indian] officials, who would certify
to having seen me when I
passed, I am afraid their vigilance would not be found at the height of their
trustworthiness. Only two years back, as I can prove by numerous witnesses,
when journeying from Chandernagore to
Upon my return, five days
later, to
The Râjah of Sikkhim being
very averse to allow travellers on his territory, etc.
This I would call shutting the
stable-door when the steed is stolen. Nor had the very “trustworthy” official
even heard that a month before Mr. Sinnett had kindly procured for me
permission, since I went to Sikkhim but for a few days, and no farther than the
old Tibetan borderland. The question is not whether the Anglo-Indian Government
will or will not grant such permission, but whether the Tibetans will let one
cross their territory. Of the latter, I am sure any day. I invite Mr. Lillie to
try the same. He may at the same time study with profit geography, and
ascertain that there are other routes than those laid down into
I will surely never lose my
time in showing that his accusations against One, Whom no insult of his can
reach, are perfectly worthless. There are numbers of men quite as intelligent
as he believes himself to be, whose opinion of our Mahâtmâs’ letters is the
reverse of his. He can “suppose” that the authorities by him cited knew more
about
257———————————————————MR. A. LILLIE’S DELUSIONS
and one blunders of his Buddha
and Early Buddhism show us what these authorities are worth when trusted
literally. As to his trying to insinuate that there is no Mahâtmâ Kuthumi at
all, the idea alone is absurd. He will have to dispose, before he does anything
more, of a certain lady in Russia, whose truthfulness and impartiality no one
who knows her would ever presume to question, who received a letter from that
Master so far back as 1870. Perchance a forgery also? As to my having been in
Tibet, at Mahâtmâ Kuthumi's house, I have better proof in store—when I believe
it needed—than Mr. Lillie’s rancorous ingenuity will ever be able to make away
with.
If the teachings of Mr. Sinnett’s
Esoteric Buddhism are considered atheistic, then I am an atheist too. And yet I
would not deny what I wrote in
Lest Mr. Lillie should take my
omitting to answer a single one of his very indiscreet questions as a new
pretext for printing some impertinence, I say: I was at Mentana during the
battle in October, 1867, and left
Mr. Lillie’s other sarcasms
touch me very little, for I know their
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A MODERN PANARION.
value. I may let them pass
without any further notice. Some persons have an extraordinarily clever way of
avoiding an embarrassing position by trying to place their antagonists in the
same situation. For instance, Mr. Lillie could not answer the criticisms made
on his Buddha and Early Buddhism in The Theosophist, nor has he ever attempted
to do so. But he applied himself instead to collect every vile rumour and idle
gossip about me, its editor. Why does he not show, to begin with, that his
reviewer was wrong? Why does he not, by contradicting our statements, firmly
establish his own authority as an Orientalist, showing first of all that lie is
a genuine scholar, who knows the subject he is talking about, before he allows
himself to deny and contradict other people’s statements in matters which he
knows still less about? He does nothing of the kind, however—not a word, not a
mention of the scourging criticism that he is unable to relute. Instead of
that, one finds the offended author trying to throw ridicule on his reviewers,
probably so as to lessen the value of what they have to say of his own book.
This is clever, very clever strategy—whether it is equally honourable remains,
withal, an open question.
It might be difficult, after
the conclusions reached by qualified scholars in India concerning his first
book, to secure much attention in The Theosophist for his second, but if this
volume in turn were examined with the care almost undeservedly devoted to the
first, and if it were referred to the authority of such real Oriental scholars
and Sanskritists as Mr. R. T. H. Griffith, for instance, I think it would be
found that the aggregate blundering of the two books put together might excite
even as much amusement as the singular complacency with which the author
betrays himself to the public.
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
—————
[Vol. I. No. I, October,
1879.]
THIS question has been so
often asked, and misconception so widely prevails, that the editors of a
journal devoted to an exposition of the world’s Theosophy would be remiss, were
its first number issued with-out coming to a full understanding with their
readers. But our heading involves two further queries: what is the Theosophical
Society; and what are the Theosophists? To each an answer will be given.
According to lexicographers,
the term Theosophia is composed of two Greek words—Theos, “God,” and sophia,
“wisdom.” So far, correct. But the explanations that follow are far from giving
a clear idea of Theosophy. Webster defines it most originally as
A supposed intercourse with
God and superior spirits, and consequent attainment of superhuman knowledge, by
physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some ancient Platonists,
or by the chemical processes of the German fire-philosophers.
This, to say the least, is a
poor and flippant explanation. To attribute such ideas to men like Ammonius
Saccas, Plotinus, Jamblichus, Porphyry, Proclus, shows either intentional
misrepresentation, or Mr. Webster’s ignorance of the philosophy and motives of
the greatest geniuses of the later Alexandrian School. To impute to those whom
their contemporaries as well as posterity styled “Theodidaktoi,” God- taught, a
purpose to develop their psychological, spiritual perceptions by “physical
processes,” is to describe them as materialists. As to the concluding fling at
the fire-philosophers, it rebounds from them to fall home among our most
eminent modern men of science, those in whose mouths the Rev. James Martineau
places the following boast: “Matter is all we want; give us atoms alone and we
will explain the universe.”
A Theosophist is one who gives
you a theory of God or the works of God, which has not revelation, but an
inspiration of his own for its basis.
In this view every great
thinker and philosopher, especially every founder of a new religion, school of
philosophy, or sect is necessarily a Theosophist. Hence Theosophy and
Theosophists have existed ever
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A MODERN PANARION.
since the first glimmering of
nascent thought made man seek instinctively for the means of expressing his own
independent opinions.
There were Theosophists before
the Christian era, notwithstanding that the Christian writers ascribe the
development of the eclectic Theosophical system to the early part of the third
century of their era. Diogenes Laertius traces Theosophy to an epoch antedating
the dynasty of the Ptolemies; and names as its founder an Egyptian Hierophant
called Pot-Amun, the name being Coptic and signifying a priest consecrated to
Amun, the God of Wisdom. But history shows it revived by Ammonius Saccas, the
founder of the
263——————————————————WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
Theosophy is, then, the
archaic Wisdom the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having
claims to civilization. This “Wisdom” all the old writings show us as an
emanation of the divine Principle; and the clear comprehension of it is
typified in such names as the Indian Budh, the Babylonian Nebo, the Thoth of
Memphis, the Hermes of Greece; in the appellations, also, of some
goddesses—Metis, Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic Sophia finally the Vedas, from the
word “to know.” Under this designation, all the ancient philosophers of the
East and West, the Hierophants of old
The central idea of Eclectic
Theosophy was that of a single Supreme Essence, Unknown and Unknowable,
for—”How could one know the knower?” as enquires the Brihadáranyaka Upanishad
Their system was characterized by three distinct features: the theory of the
above named Essence; the doctrine of the human soul—an emanation from the
latter, hence of the same nature; and its theurgy. It is this last science
which has caused the Neo-Platonists to be so misrepresented in our era of
materialistic science. Theurgy being essentially the art of applying the divine
powers of man to the subordination of the blind forces of nature, its votaries
were first termed magicians—a corruption of the word “Magh,” signifying a wise,
or learned man—and then derided. Sceptics of a century ago would have been as
wide of the mark if they had laughed at the idea of a phonograph or telegraph. The
ridiculed and the “infidels” of one generation generally become the wise men
and saints of the next.
As regards the Divine Essence
and the nature of the soul and spirit, modern Theosophy believes now as ancient
Theosophy did. The popular Din of the Aryan nations was identical with the Iao
of the Chaldæans and even with the Jupiter of the less learned and
philosophical among the Romans; and it was just as identical with the Jahve of
the Samaritans, the Tiu or “Tiusco” of the Northmen, the Duw of the Britons,
and the Zeus of the Thracians. As to the Absolute
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A MODERN PANARION.
Essence, the One and
All—whether we accept the Greek Pythagorean, the Chaldæan Kabalistic, or the
Aryan philosophy in regard to it, it will all lead to one and the same result.
The Primeval Monad of the Pythagorean system, which retires into darkness and
is itself Darkness for human intellect) was made the basis of all things; and
we can find the idea in all its integrity in the philosophical systems of
Leibnitz and Spinoza. Therefore, whether a Theosophist agrees with the Kabalah
which, speaking of En-Soph propounds the query: “Who, then, can comprehend It,
since It is formless and Non-existent?”; or, remembering that magnificent hymn
from the Rig Veda (book x, hymn 129)—enquires:
Who knows from whence this
great creation sprang?
Whether his will created or was mute.
He knows it—or perchance even He knows it not;
or, again, accepts the
Vedântic conception of Brahma, who in the Upanishads is represented as “without
life, without mind, pure,” unconscious, for—Brahma is “Absolute Consciousness”;
or even, finally, whether, siding with the Svâbhâvikas of Nepaul, he maintains
that nothing exists but “Svabhâva” (substance or nature) which exists by itself
without any creator; any one of the above conceptions can lead but to pure and
absolute Theosophy—that Theosophy which prompted such men as Hegel, Fichte and
Spinoza to take up the labours of the old Grecian philosophers and speculate
upon the One Substance, the Deity, the Divine All proceeding from the Divine
Wisdom, incomprehensible, unknown and unnamed, by any ancient or modern
religious philosophy, with the exception of Christianity and Mohammedanism.
Every Theosophist, then, holding to a theory of the Deity “which has not
revelation, but an inspiration of his own for its basis,” may accept any of the
above definitions, or belong to any of these religions, and yet remain strictly
within the boundaries of Theosophy. For the latter is belief in the Deity as
the ALL, the source of all existence, the infinite that cannot be either
comprehended or known, the universe alone revealing It, or, as some prefer it,
Him, thus giving a sex to that, to anthropomorphize which is blasphemy True
Theosophy shrinks from brutal materialization; it prefers believing that, from
eternity retired within itself, the Spirit of the Deity neither wills nor
creates; but that, from the infinite effulgency everywhere going forth from the
Great Centre, that which produces all visible and invisible things is but a Ray
containing in itself the generative and conceptive power,
265———————————————————WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
which, in its turn, produces
that which the Greeks called Macrocosm, the Kabalists Tikkun or Adam Kadmon—the
archetypal man—and the Aryans Purusha, the manifested Brahmâ, or the Divine
Male. Theosophy believes also in the Anastasis or continued existence, and in
transmigration (evolution) or a series of changes in the soul * which can be defended
and explained on strict philosophical principles, and only by making a
distinction between Paramâtmâ (transcendental, supreme soul) and Jivâtmâ
(animal, or conscious soul) of the Vedântins.
To fully define Theosophy we
must consider it under all its aspects. The interior world has not been hidden
from all by impenetrable darkness. By that higher intuition acquired by
Theosophia, or God-knowledge, which carried the mind from the world of form
into that of formless spirit, man has been sometimes enabled in every age and
every country to perceive things in the interior or invisible world. Hence the
“Samadhi,” or Dhyân Yog Samâdhi, of the Hindu ascetics; the ‘‘
Daimonion—photisma,’’ or spiritual illumination of the Neo—Platonists; the
“sidereal confabulation of soul,” of the Rosicrucians or fire-philosophers;
and, even the ecstatic trance of mystics and of the modern mesmerists and
spiritualists, are identical in nature, though various as to manifestation. The
search after man’s diviner “self,” so often and so erroneously interpreted as
individual communion with a personal God, was the object of every mystic, and
belief in its possibility seems to have been coëval with the genesis of
humanity, each people giving it another name. Thus Plato and Plotinus call
“Noëtic work” that which the Vogin and the Shrotriya term Vidyâ.
By reflection, self-knowledge
and intellectual discipline, the soul can be raised to the vision of eternal
truth, goodness and beauty—that is, to the Vision of God— thus is the epopteia,
said the Greeks, and Porphyry
adds:
To unite one’s soul to the
Universal Soul requires but a perfectly’ pure mind. Through self-contemplation,
perfect chastity, and purity of body, we may approach nearer to It, and
receive, in that state, true knowledge and wonderful insight.
And Svami Dayânand Sarasvati,
who has read neither Porphyry nor other Greek authors, but who is a thorough
Vedic scholar, says in his
Veda Bhashya:,
—————
* In a series of at-tides
entitled ‘‘The World’s Great Theosophists,’ ‘ we intend showing that from
Pythagoras, who got his wisdom in India, down to our best known modern
philosophers and Theosophists—David Hume, Shelley, and the Spiritists of France
included—many believed end yet believe in metempsychosis, or reincarnation of
the soul, however unelaborated the system of the Spiritists may be considered.
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A MODERN PANARION.
To obtain Dikshâ (highest
initiations) and Yoga, one has to practise according to the rules. The soul in
human body can perform the greatest wonders by knowing the Universal Spirit (or
God) and acquainting itself with the properties and qualities (occult) of all
the things in the universe. A human being (a Dikshita or initiate) can thus
acquire a power of seeing and hearing at great distances.
Finally, Alfred R. Wallace,
F.R.S., a spiritualist and yet a confessedly great naturalist, says, with brave
candour:
It is “spirit” that alone
feels, and perceives, and thinks—that acquires knowledge, and reasons and
aspires ... there not unfrequently occur individuals so constituted that the
spirit can perceive independently of the corporeal organs of sense, or can,
perhaps, wholly or partially, quit the body for a time and return to it again
... the spirit ... communicates with spirit easier than with matter.
We can now see how, after
thousands of years have intervened between the age of the Gymnosophists * and
our own highly civilized era, notwithstanding, or, perhaps, just because of
such an enlightenment which pours its radiant light upon the psychological as
well as upon the physical realms of nature, over twenty millions of people
to-day believe, under a different form, in those same spiritual powers, that
were believed in by the Yogins and the Pythagoreans, nearly 3,000 years ago.
Thus, while the Aryan mystic claimed for himself the power of solving all the
problems of life and death, when he had once obtained the power of acting
independently of his body, through the Atmâ—”self or “soul”; and the old Greeks
went in search of Atme—the Hidden One, or the God-Soul of man, with the
symbolical mirror of the Thesmopnorian mysteries; so the Spiritualists of
to-day believe in the faculty of the spirits, or the souls of the disembodied
persons, to communicate visibly and tangibly with those they loved on earth.
And all these, Aryan Yogins, Greek philosophers, and modern Spiritualists,
affirm that possibility on the ground that the embodied soul and its never
embodied spirit—the real self—are not separated from either the Universal Soul
or other spirits by space, but merely by the differentiation of their
qualities; as in the boundless expanse of the universe there can be no
limitation. And that when this difference is once removed—according to the
Greeks and Aryans by abstract contemplation, producing the temporary liberation
of the imprisoned soul ; and according to Spiritualists, through
mediumship—such a union between embodied and disembodied spirits becomes
possible. Thus was it that Patanjali’s Yogins, and, following in their steps,
—————
* The reality of the
Yoga-power was affirmed by many Greek and Roman writers, who call the Yogins
Indian Gymnosophists; by Strabo, Lucan, Plutarch,
267———————————————————WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
Plotinus, Porphyry and other
Neo-Platonists, maintained that in their hours of ecstasy they had been united
to, or rather become as one with, God, several times during the course of their
lives. This idea, erroneous as it may seem in its application to the Universal
Spirit, was, and is, claimed by too many great philosophers to be put aside as
entirely chimerical. In the case of the Theodidaktoi, the only controvertible
point, the dark spot on this philosophy of extreme mysticism, was its claim to
include that which is simply ecstatic illumination under the head of sensuous
perception. In the case of the Yogins, who maintained their ability to see
Ishvara “face to face,” this claim was successfully overthrown by the stern
logic of Kapila. As to the similar assumption made for their Greek followers,
for a long array of Christian ecstatics, and, finally, for the last two
claimants to “God seeing” within these last hundred years Böhme and
Swedenborg—this pretension would and should have been philosophically and
logically questioned, if a few of our great men of science who are
Spiritualists had had more interest in the philosophy than in the mere
phenomenalism of Spiritualism.
The Alexandrian Theosophists
were divided into neophytes, initiates and masters, or Hierophants; and their
rules were copied from the ancient Mysteries of Orpheus, who, according to
Herodotus, brought them from
The Gods exist, but they are
not what the hoi polloi, the uneducated multitude, suppose them to be. He is
not an atheist who denies the existence of the Gods whom the multitude worship,
but he is such who fastens on these gods the opinions of the multitude.
In his turn, Aristotle
declares that of the Divine Essence pervading the whole world of nature, what
are styled the Gods are simply the first principles.
Plotinus, the pupil of the
‘‘God-taught” Ammonius, tells us that the secret gnosis or the knowledge of
Theosophy, has three degrees— opinion, science and illumination.
The means or instrument of the
first is sense, or perception; of the second, dialectics; of the third,
intuition. To the last, reason is subordinate; it is absolute knowledge,
founded on the identification of the mind with the object known.
Theosophy is the exact science
of psychology, so to say; it stands in
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A MODERN PANARION.
relation to natural,
uncultivated mediumship, as the knowledge of a Tyndall stands to that of a
school-boy in physics. It develops in man a direct beholding; that which
Schelling denominates “a realization of the identity of subject and object in
the individual”; so that under the influence and knowledge of hyponoia man
thinks divine thoughts, views all things as they really are, and, finally,
“becomes recipient of the Soul of the World,” to use one of the finest
expressions of Emerson. “I, the imperfect, adore my own perfect”—he says in his
superb Essay on The Over Besides this psychological, or soul-state, Theosophy
cultivated every branch of sciences and arts. It was thoroughly familiar with
what is now commonly known as mesmerism. Practical theurgy or “ceremonial
magic,” so often resorted to in their exorcisms by the Roman Catholic clergy,
was discarded by the Theosophists. It is but Jamblichus alone who, transcending
the other eclectics, added to Theosophy the doctrine of Theurgy. When ignorant
of the true meaning of the esoteric divine symbols of nature, man is apt to
miscalculate the powers of his soul, and, instead of communing spiritually and
mentally with the higher, celestial beings, the good spirits (the gods of the
theurgists of the Platonic school), he will unconsciously call forth the evil,
dark powers which lurk around humanity—the undying, grim creations of human
crimes and vices—and thus fall from Theurgia (white magic) into goetia (or
black magic, sorcery). Yet, neither white nor black magic are what popular
superstition under stands by the terms. The possibility of “raising a spirit,”
according to the key of Solomon, is the height of superstition and ignorance.
Purity of deed and thought can alone raise us to an intercourse “with the
gods,” and attain for us the goal we desire. Alchemy, believed by so many to
have been a spiritual philosophy as well as a physical science, belonged to the
teachings of the Theosophical school.
It is a noticeable fact that
neither Zoroaster, Buddha, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Confucius, Socrates, nor
Ammonius Saccas, committed anything to writing. The reason for it is obvious.
Theosophy is a double-edged weapon and unfit for the ignorant or the selfish.
Like every ancient philosophy, it has its votaries among the moderns; but,
until late in our own days, its disciples were few in number, and of the most
various sects and opinions.
Entirely speculative, and
founding no schools, they have still exercised a silent influence upon
philosophy; and no doubt, when the time arrives, many ideas thus silently
propounded may yet give new directions to human thought,
269———————————————————WHAT IS THEOSOPHY?
remarks Mr. Kenneth R. H.
Mackenzie, IX° ... himself a mystic and a Theosophist, in his large and
valuable work, The Royal Masonic Cyclopædia ( articles “Theosophical Society of
New York” and “Theosophy,” p. 73I ).* ” Since the days of the fire-philosophers,
they had never formed themselves into societies, for, tracked like wild beasts
by the Christian clergy, to be known as a Theosophist often amounted, hardly a
century ago, to a death-warrant. The statistics show that, during a period of
150 years, no less than 90,000 men and women were burned in
————————————————————————————————————————
* The Royal Masonic Cyclopædia
of History, Rites, Symbolism and Biography. Edited bv Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie,
IXº (Cryptonymus), Hon. Member of the canongate Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2,
WHAT ARE THE THEOSOPHISTS?
—————
ARE they what they claim to
be—students of natural law, of ancient and modern philosophy, and even of exact
science? Are they Deists, Atheists, Socialists, Materialists, or Idealists; or
are they but a schism of modern Spiritualism—mere visionaries? Are they
entitled to any consideration, as capable of discussing philosophy and
promoting real science; or should they be treated with the compassionate
toleration which one gives to “harmless enthusiasts”? The Theosophical Society
has been variously charged with a belief in “miracles” and “miracle working”;
with a secret political object—like the Carbonari; with being spies of an
autocratic Czar; with preaching socialistic and nihilistic doctrines; and,
mirabile dietu, with having a covert understanding with the French Jesuits, to
disrupt modern Spiritualism for a pecuniary consideration! With equal violence
they have been denounced as dreamers, by the American Positivists; as
fetish-worshippers, by some of the New York press; as revivalists of “mouldy
superstitions,” by the Spiritualists ; as infidel emissaries of Satan, by the
Christian Church; as the very types of “gobe-mouche,” by Prof. W. B. Carpenter,
F.R.S.; and, finally, and most absurdly, some Hindu opponents, with a view to
lessening their influence, have flatly charged them with the employment of
demons to perform certain phenomena. Out of all this pother of opinions, one
fact stands conspicuous—the Society, its members, and their views, are deemed
of enough importance to be discussed and denounced: Men slander only those whom
they hate—or fear.
But, if the Society has had
its enemies and traducers, it has also had its friends and advocates. For every
word of censure, there has been a word of praise. Beginning with a party of
about a dozen earnest men and women, a month later its numbers had so increased
as to necessitate the hiring of a public hall for its meetings; within two
years it had working branches in European countries. Still later, it found
itself in alliance with the Indian Arya Samâj, headed by. the
271——————————————————WHAT ARE THE THEOSOPHISTS?
learned Pandit Dayânand
Sarasvati Svâmi, and the Ceylonese Buddhists, under the erudite H. Sumangala,
High Priest of Adam’s Peak and President of the
He who would seriously attempt
to fathom the psychological sciences, must come to the sacred land of ancient
Aryâvartta. None is older than she in esoteric wisdom and civilization, however
fallen may be her poor shadow—modern
272————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
and objects of our Society,
the editorial writer remarks that it is “the only direction in which, it seems
to us, the efforts of the Theosophists in
While, as observed, one of our
objects, it yet is but one of many; the most important of which is to revive
the work of Ammonius Saccas, and make various nations remember that they are
the children “of one mother.” As to the transcendental side of the ancient Theosophy,
it is also high time that the Theosophical Society should explain. With how
much, then, of this nature-searching, God-seeking science of the ancient Aryan
and Greek mystics, and of the powers of modern spiritual mediumship, does the
Society agree? Our answer is: With it all. But if asked what it believes in,
the reply will be: “As a body— nothing.” The Society, as a body, has no creed,
as creeds are but the shells around spiritual knowledge; and Theosophy in its
fruition is spiritual knowledge itself—the very essence of philosophical and
theistic enquiry. Visible representative of Universal Theosophy, it can be no
more sectarian than a Geographical Society, which represents universal
geographical exploration without caring whether the explorers be of one creed
or another. The religion of the Society is an algebraical equation, in which so
long as the sign of equality (=) is not omitted, each member is allowed to
substitute quantities of his own, which better accord with climatic and other
exigencies of his native land, with the idiosyncrasies of his people, or even
with his own. Having no accepted creed, our Society is very ready to give and
take, to learn and teach, by practical experimentation, as opposed to mere
passive and credulous acceptance of enforced dogma. It is willing to accept
every result claimed by any of the foregoing schools or systems, that can be
logically and experimentally demonstrated. Conversely, it can take nothing on
mere faith, no matter by whom the demand may be made.
But when we come to consider
ourselves individually, it is quite another thing. The Society’s members
represent the most varied nationalities and races, and were born and educated
in the most dissimilar creeds and social conditions. Some of them believe in
one thing, others in another. Some incline towards the ancient magic, or
273———————————————————WHAT ARE
THE THEOSOPHISTS?
secret wisdom that was taught
in the sanctuaries, which was the very opposite of supernaturalism or
diabolism; others in modern spiritual ism, or intercourse with the spirits of
the dead; still others in mesmerism or animal magnetism, or only an occult
dynamic force in nature. A certain number have scarcely yet acquired any
definite belief, but are in a state of attentive expectancy; and there are even
those who call themselves materialists, in a certain sense. Of atheists and
bigoted sectarians of any religion, there are none in the Society; for the very
fact of a man’s joining it proves that he is in search of the final truth as to
the ultimate essence of things. If there be such a thing as a speculative
atheist, which philosophers may deny, he would have to reject both cause and
effect, whether in this world of matter, or in that of spirit. There may be
members who, like the poet Shelley, have let their imagination soar from cause
to prior cause adinfinitum, as each in its turn became logically transformed
into a result necessitating a prior cause, until they have thinned the Eternal
into a mere mist. But even they are not atheist in the speculative sense,
whether they identify the material forces of the universe with the functions
with which the theists endow their God, or otherwise; for once that they cannot
free themselves from the conception of the abstract ideal of power, cause,
necessity, and effect, they can be considered as atheists only in respect to a
personal God, and not to the Universal Soul of the pantheist. On the other hand
the bigoted sectarian, fenced in, as he is, with a creed upon every paling of
which is written the warning ‘‘No Thorough fare,” can neither come out of ins
enclosure to join the Theosophical Society, nor, if he could, has it room for
one whose very religion for bids examination. The very root idea of the Society
is free and fearless investigation.
As a body, the Theosophical
Society holds that all original thinkers and investigators of the hidden side
of nature, whether materialists— those who find in matter “the promise and
potency of all terrestrial life,” or Spiritualists—that is. those who discover
in spirit the source of all energy and of matter as well—were and are,
properly, Theosophists. For to be one, one need not necessarily recognize the
existence of any special God or Deity. One need but worship the spirit of
living nature, and try to identify oneself with it. To revere that Presence,
the invisible Cause, which is yet ever manifesting itself in its incessant
results; the intangible, omnipotent, and omnipresent Proteus: indivisible in
its Essence, and eluding form, yet appearing under all and every
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A MODERN PANARION.
form; who is here and there,
and everywhere and nowhere; is ALL, and NOTHING; ubiquitous yet one; the
Essence filling, binding, bound ing, containing everything; contained in all.
It will, we think, be seen now, that whether classed as theists, pantheists or
atheists, such men are near kinsmen to the rest. Be lie what lie may, once that
a student abandons the old and trodden highway of routine, and enters upon the
solitary path of independent thought—Godward—he is a Theosophist; an original
thinker, a seeker after the eternal truth with “an inspiration of his own” to
solve the universal problems.
With every man that is
earnestly searching in his own way after a knowledge of the Divine Principle,
of man’s relations to it, and nature’s manifestations of it, Theosophy is
allied. It is likewise the ally of honest science, as distinguished from much
that passes for exact, physical science, so long as the latter does not poach
on the domains of psychology and metaphysics.
And it is also the ally of
every honest religion—to wit, a religion willing to be judged by the same tests
as it applies to the others. Those books, which contain the most self-evident
truth, are to it inspired (not revealed). But all books it regards, on account
of the human element contained in them, as inferior to the Book of Nature; to
read which and comprehend it correctly, the innate powers of the soul must be
highly developed. Ideal laws can be perceived by the intuitive faculty alone;
they are beyond the domain of argument and dialectics, and no one can
understand or rightly appreciate them through the explanations of another mind,
even though this mind be claiming a direct revelation. And as this Society,
which allows the widest sweep in the realms of the pure ideal, is no less firm
in the sphere of facts, its deference to modern science and its just
representatives is sincere. Despite all their lack of a higher spiritual
intuition, the world’s debt to the representatives of modern physical science
is immense; hence, the Society endorses heartily the noble and indignant
protest of that gifted and eloquent preacher, the Rev. 0. B. Frothingham,
against those who try to undervalue the services of our great naturalists.
“Talk of Science as being irreligious, atheistic,” he exclaimed in a recent
lecture, delivered at
275——————————————————WHAT ARE THE THEOSOPHISTS?
rass us, and putting us in the
way of knowing how to reason about the things we see....”
And it is also due to the
unremitting labours of such Orientalists as Sir W. Jones, Max Muller, Burnouf,
Colebrooke, Haug, St. Hilaire, and so many others, that the Society, as a body,
feels equal respect and veneration for Vedic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and other
old religions of the world; and a like brotherly feeling toward its Hindu
Sinhalese, Pârsi, Jain, Hebrew and Christian members as individual students of
“self,” of nature, and of the divine in nature.
Born in the
We have now, we think, made
clear why our members, as individuals, are free to stay outside or inside any
creed they please, provided they do not pretend that none hut themselves shall
enjoy the privilege of conscience, and try to force their opinions upon the
others. In this respect the rules of the Society are very strict. It tries to
act upon the wisdom of the old Buddhistic axiom, “Honour thine own faith, and
do not slander that of others”; echoed back in our present century, in the
“Declaration of Principles” of the Brahma Samâj, which so nobly states that “no
sect shall be vilified, ridiculed, or hated.” In Section VI of the Revised
Rules of the Theosophical Society, recently adopted in General Council, at
It is not lawful for any
officer of the Parent Society to express, by word or act, any hostility to, or
preference for, any one section (sectarian division, or group within the
Society) more than another. All must be regarded and treated as equally the
objects of the Society’s solicitude and exertions. All have an equal right to
have the essential features of their religious belief laid before the tribunal
of an impartial world.
In their individual capacity,
members may, when attacked, occasionally break this rule, but, nevertheless, as
officers, they are restrained, and the rule is strictly enforced during the
meetings. For above all human sects stands Theosophy in its abstract sense;
Theosophy, which is too wide for any of them to contain, but which easily
contains them.
In conclusion, we may state
that, broader and far more universal in its views than any existing mere
scientific Society, it has plus science
276————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
its belief in every
possibility, and determined will to penetrate into those unknown spiritual regions
which exact science pretends that its votaries have no business to explore.
And, it has one quality more than any religion, in that it makes no difference
between Gentile, Jew, or Christian. It is in this spirit that the Society has
been established upon the footing of a Universal Brotherhood.
Unconcerned about politics,
and all political organizations, the Society cares but little about the outward
human management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations are
directed towards the occult truths of the visible and invisible worlds. Whether
the physical man be under the rule of an empire or a republic, concerns only
the man of matter. His body may be enslaved; as to his soul, he has the right
to give to his rulers the proud answer of Socrates to his judges. They have no
sway over the inner man.
Such, then, is the
Theosophical Society, and such its principles, its multifarious aims, and its
objects. Need we wonder at the past misconceptions of the general public, and
the easy hold the enemy has been able to find to lower it in the public
estimation. The true student has ever been a recluse, a man of silence and
meditation. With the busy world his habits and tastes are so little in common
that, while he is studying, his enemies and slanderers have undisturbed
opportunities. But time cures all, and lies are but ephemera. Truth alone is
eternal.
About a few of the Fellows of
the Society who have made great scientific discoveries, and some others to whom
the psychologist and the biologist are indebted for the new light thrown upon
the darker problems of the inner man, we will speak later on. Our object now
was but to prove to the reader that Theosophy is neither “a new-fangled
doctrine,” a political cabal, nor one of those societies of enthusiasts which are
born to-day but to die to-morrow. That not all of its members can think alike,
is proved by the Society being organized in two great divisions—the Eastern and
the Western—and the latter being divided into numerous sections, according to
races and religious views. One man’s thought, infinitely various as are its
manifestations, is not all-embracing. Denied ubiquity, it must necessarily
speculate but in one direction; and once transcending the boundaries of exact
human knowledge, it has to err and wander, for the ramifications of the one
central and absolute Truth are infinite. Hence, we occasionally find even the
greater philosophers losing themselves in the labyrinths of speculation,
thereby provoking the criticism of posterity. But as
277——————————————————WHAT ARE THE THEOSOPHISTS?
all work for one and the same
object, namely the disenthralment of human thought, the elimination of
superstitions, and the discovery of truth, all are equally welcome. The
attainment of these objects, all agree, can best be secured by convincing the
reason and warming the enthusiasm of the generation of fresh young minds that
are just ripening into maturity, and making ready to take the place of their
prejudiced and conservative fathers. And, as each—the great ones as well as
small—have trodden the royal road to knowledge, we listen to all, and take both
small and great into our fellowship. For no honest searcher comes back
empty-handed, and even he who has enjoyed the least share of popular favour can
lay at least his mite upon the one altar of Truth.
ANTIQUITY OF THE VEDAS
—————
[Vol. I. No. 1, October,
1879.]
A JOURNAL interested like The
Thesophist in the explorations of arch and archaic religions, as well as the
study of the occult in nature, has to be doubly prudent and discreet. To bring
the two conflicting elements—exact science and metaphysics—into direct contact,
might create as great a disturbance as to throw a piece of potassium into a
basin of water. The very fact that we are predestined and pledged to prove that
some of the wisest of Western scholars have been misled by the dead letter of
appearances, and that they are unable to discover the hidden spirit in the
relics of old, places us under the ban from the first. With those sciolists who
are neither broad enough nor sufficiently modest to allow their decisions to be
reviewed, we are necessarily in antagonism. Therefore it is essential that our
position in relation to certain scientific hypotheses, perhaps tentative and
only sanctioned for want of better ones, should be clearly defined at the
outset.
An infinitude of study has
been bestowed by the arch and the Orientalists upon the question of chronology,
especially in regard to comparative theology. So far their affirmations as to
the relative antiquity of the great religions of the pre-Christian era are
little more than plausible hypotheses. How far back the national and religious
Vedic period, so-called, extends, “it is impossible to tell,” confesses Prof.
Max Muller; nevertheless he traces it “to a period anterior to 1000 B.C.,” and
brings us to “1100 or 1200 B.C., as the earliest time when we may suppose the
collection of the Vedic hymns to have been finished.” Nor do any other of our
leading scholars claim to have finally settled the vexed question, especially delicate
as it is in its bearing upon the chronology of the book of Genesis.
Christianity, the direct outflow of Judaism and in most cases the state
religion of their respective countries, has unfortunately stood in their way.
Hence scarcely two scholars agree; and each assigns a different date to the
279———————————————————ANTIQUITY OF THE VEDAS.
Vedas and the Mosaic books,
taking care in every case to give the latter the benefit of the doubt. Even
that leader of the leaders in philological and chronological questions, Prof.
Muller, hardly twenty years ago allowed himself a prudent margin by stating
that it will be difficult to settle “whether the Veda ‘is the oldest of books,’
and whether some of the portions of the Old Testament may not be traced back to
the same or even an earlier date than the oldest hymns of the Veda.” The
Theosophist is, therefore, quite warranted in either adopting or rejecting as
it pleases the so-called authoritative chronology of science. Do we err, then,
in confessing that we rather incline to accept the chronology of that renowned
Vedic scholar, Svâmi Dayânand Sarasvati, who unquestionably knows what he is
talking about, has the four Vedas by heart, is perfectly familiar with all
Sanskrit literature, has no such scruples as the Western Orientalists in regard
to public feelings, nor desire to humour the superstitious notions of the
majority, nor has any object to gain in suppressing facts. We are only too
conscious of the risk in withholding our adulation from scientific authorities.
Yet, with the common temerity of the heterodox, we must take our course, even
though, like the Tarpeia of old, we be smothered under a heap of shields, a
shower of learned quotations from those “authorities.” We are far from feeling
ready to adopt the absurd chronology of a Berosus or even Syncellus, though in
truth they appear absurd only in the light of our preconceptions. But between
the extreme claims of the Brâhmans and the ridiculously short periods conceded
by our Orientalists for the development and full growth of that gigantic
literature of the ante-Mahabharatan period, there ought to be a just mean.
While Svami Dayânand Sarasvati asserts that: “The Vedas have now ceased to be
objects of study for nearly 5,000 years,” and places the first appearance of
the four Vedas at an immense antiquity; Prof. Muller, assigning for the
composition of even the earliest among the Brâhmanas, the years from about 1000
to 800 B.C., hardly dares, as we have seen, to place the collection and the
original composition of the Sanhitâ, of Rig Vedic hymns, earlier than 1200 to
1500 before our era! * Whom ought we to believe, and which of the two is the
better informed? Cannot this gap of several thousand years be closed, or would
it be equally difficult for either of the two cited authorities to give data
which would be regarded by science as thoroughly convincing?
—————
* Chips from a German
Workshop, Lecture on the Vedas, p.II
280————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
It is as easy to reach a false
conclusion by the modern inductive method as to assume false premises from
which to make deductions. Doubtless Prof. Max Muller has good reasons for
arriving at his chronological conclusions. But so has Dayânand Sarasvati Pandit.
The gradual modifications, development, and growth of the Sanskrit language are
sure guides enough for an expert philologist. But that there is a possibility
of his having been led into error would seem to suggest itself upon considering
a certain argument brought forward by Svâmi Dayânand. Our respected friend and
teacher maintains that both Prof. Muller and Dr. Wilson have been solely guided
in their researches and conclusion by the inaccurate and untrustworthy
commentaries of Sâyana, Mahidara and Uvata; commentaries which differ
diametrically from those of a far earlier period as used by himself in
connection with his great work, the Veda Bháshya. A cry was raised at the
outset of this publication that Svâmi’s commentary is calculated to refute Sâyana
and the English interpreters. Pandit Dayânand very justly remarks:
For this I cannot be blamed;
if Sâyana has erred and the English interpreters have chosen to take him as
their guide, the delusion cannot be long maintained. Truth alone can stand, and
falsehood must fall.*
And if, as he claims, his Veda
Bháshya is entirely founded on the old commentaries of the ante-Mahâbhâratan
period to which the Western scholars have had no access, then, since his were
the surest guides of the two classes, we cannot hesitate to follow him rather
than the best of our European Orientalists.
But, apart from such primâ
facie evidence, we would respectfully request Prof. Max Muller to solve us a
riddle. Propounded by himself; it has puzzled us for over twenty years, and
pertains as much to simple logic as to the chronology in question. Clear and
undeviating, like the Rhône through the
In the hymns of the Veda, we
see man left to himself to solve the riddle of this world. . . . He is awakened
from darkness and slumber by the light of the sun, and him whom his eyes cannot
behold, and who seems to grant him the daily
—————
* Answer to the Objections to
the Veda Bhashya.
281——————————————————ANTIQUITY OF THE VEDAS.
pittance of his existence he
calls “his life, his breath, his brilliant Lord and Protector.” He gives names
to all the powers of nature, and after he has called the fire “Agni,’’ the
sunlight “Indra,” the storms ‘‘Maruts,” and the dawn “Ushas,” they all seem to
grow naturally into beings like himself, nay, greater than himself.*
This definition of the mental
state of primitive man, in the days of the very infancy of humanity, and when
hardly out of its cradle, is— perfect. The period to which he attributes these
effusions of an infantile mind is the Vedic period, and the time which
separates us from it is, as claimed above, 3,000 years. So much impressed seems
the great philologist with this idea of the mental feebleness of mankind at the
time when these hymns were composed by the most venerable Rishis, that in his
Introduction to the Science of Religion (p. 278) we find the Professor saying:
Do you still wonder at polytheism
or at mythology? Why, they are inevitable. They are, if you like, a parler
enfantin of religion. But the world has its child hood, and when it was a child
it spoke as a child [nota bane, 3,000 years ago], it understood as a child, it
thought as a child the fault rests with us if we insist on taking the language
of children for the language of men.......
The language of antiquity is the language of childhood . . . The parler
enfantin in religion is not extinct . . . as, for instance, the religion of
Having read thus far we pause
and think. At the very close of this able explanation we meet with a tremendous
difficulty, the idea of which must have never occurred to the able advocate of
the ancient faiths. To one familiar with the writings and ideas of this
Oriental scholar, it would seem the height of absurdity to suspect him of
accepting the biblical chronology of 6,ooo years since the appearance of the
first man upon earth as the basis of his calculations. And yet the recognition
of such chronology is inevitable if we have to accept Prof. Muller’s reasons at
all; for here we run against a purely arithmetical and mathematical obstacle, a
gigantic miscalculation of proportion.
No one can deny that the
growth and development of mankind— mental as well as physical—must be
analogically measured by the growth and development of man. An anthropologist,
if he cares to go beyond the simple consideration of the relations of man to
other members of the animal kingdom, has to be in a certain way a physiologist
as well as an anatomist; for, as much as ethnology, his is a progressive
science, which can be well treated but by those who are able to follow
—————
* Chips from a German
Workshop, vol. i. p. 68.
282————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
up retrospectively the regular
unfolding of human faculties and powers, assigning to each a certain period of
life. Thus no one would regard a skull in which the wisdom-tooth, so-called,
should be apparent, as the skull of an infant. Now, according to geology,
recent researches, Prof. W. Draper tells us:
Give good reasons to believe
that under low and base grades the existence of man can be traced back into the
tertiary times. In the old glacial drift of
Now, the best calculations, so
far, assign a period of 240,000 years since the beginning of the last glacial
period. Making a proportion between 240,000 years—the least age we can accord to
the human race—and the twenty-four years of a man’s life, we find that 3,000
years ago, or the period of the composition of the Vedic hymns, mankind would
be just twenty-one, the legal age of majority, and certainly a period at which
man ceases using, if he ever will, the “parler enfantin,” or childish lisping.
But, according to the views of the lecturer, it follows that man was, 3,000
years ago, at twenty-one, a foolish and undeveloped—though a very
promising—infant, and at twenty-four has become the brilliant, acute, learned,
highly analytical and philosophical man of the nineteenth century. Or, still
keeping our equation in view, in other words, the Professor might as well say
that an individual who was a nursing baby at 12 noon, on a certain day, would
at 12.20 p.m. on the same day have become an adult, speaking high wisdom
instead of his ‘‘ parler enfantin
It really seems the duty of
the eminent Sankritist and Lecturer on Comparative Theology to get out of this
dilemma. Either the Rig Veda. hymns were composed but 3,000 years ago, and,
therefore cannot be expressed in the “language of childhood”—man having lived
in the glacial period—but the generation which composed them must have been
composed of adults, presumably as philosophical and scientific in the knowledge
of their day as we are in our own; or we have to ascribe to them an immense
antiquity in order to carry them back to the days of man’s mental infancy. And
in this latter case, Prof. Max Muller will have to withdraw a previous remark,
expressing the doubt
Whether some of the portions
of the Old Testament may not be traced back to the same or even an earlier date
than the oldest hymns of the Vedas.
PERSIAN ZOROASTRIANISM AND
RUSSIAN VANDALISM
—————
[Vol. I. No. I, October,
1879.]
Few persons are capable of
appreciating the truly beautiful and æsthetic; fewer still of revering those
monumental relics of bygone ages, which prove that even in the remotest epochs
mankind worshipped a Supreme Power, and people were moved to express their
abstract conceptions in works which should defy the ravages of time. The
Vandals—whether Slavic Wends, or some barbarous nation of Germanic race—came at
all events from the North. A recent occurrence is calculated to make us regret
that Justinian did not destroy them all; for it appears that there are still
left in the North worthy scions of those terrible destroyers of monuments of
arts and sciences, in the persons of certain Russian merchants who have just
perpetrated an act of inexcusable Vandalism. According to the late Russian
papers, the Moscow arch-millionaire, Kokoref, with his Tiflis partner the
Armenian Crœsus Mirzoef is desecrating and about to totally destroy the oldest
relic in the world of Zoroastrianism—
the “Attesh-Gag” of Baku.
Few foreigners, and perhaps as
few Russians, know anything of this venerable sanctuary of the fire-worshippers
beside the
—————
* A bluish flame is seen to
arise there, but this fire does not consume, “and if a person finds him self in
the middle of it, he is not sensible of any warmth.”—See Kinneir’s
284————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
is carved out of one solid
rock. It is an enormous square enclosed by crenelated walls, and at the centre
of the square, a high tower, also rectangular, resting upon four gigantic
pillars. The latter were pierced vertically down to the bed-rock and the
cavities were continued up to the battlements where they opened out into the
atmosphere; thus forming continuous tubes through which the inflammable gas
stored up in the heart of the mother rock was conducted to the top of the
tower. This tower has been for centuries a shrine of the fire-worshippers, and
bears the symbolical representation of the trident—called tirsut. All around
the interior face of the external wall are excavated the cells, about twenty in
number, which served as habitations for past generations of Zoroastrian
recluses. Under the supervision of a High Mobed, here, in the silence of their
isolated cloisters, they studied the Ayesta, the Vendidad the Yashna—especially
the latter, it seems, as the rocky walls of the cells are inscribed with a
greater number of quotations from the sacred songs. Under the tower-altar three
huge bells were hung. A legend says that they were miraculously produced by a
holy traveller, in the tenth century, during the Mussulman persecution, to warn
the faithful of the approach of the enemy. But a few weeks ago the tall
tower-altar was yet ablaze with the same flame that local tradition affirms had
been kindled thirty centuries ago. At the horizontal orifices in the four hollow
pillars burned four perpetual fires, fed uninterruptedly from the inexhaustible
subterranean reservoir. From every merlon on the walls, as well as from every
embrasure, flashed forth a radiant light, like so many tongues of fire; and
even the large porch overhanging the main entrance was encircled by a garland
of fiery stars, the lambent lights shooting forth from smaller and narrower
orifices. It was amid these impressive surroundings that the Guebre recluses
used to send up their daily prayers, meeting under the open tower-altar; every
face reverentially turned toward the setting sun as they united their voices in
a parting evening hymn. And as the luminary—the “Eye of Ahura-mazda”—sank lower
and lower down the horizon, their voices grew lower and softer, until the chant
sounded like a plaintive and subdued murmur. . . . A last flash— and the sun is
gone; and as darkness follows daylight almost suddenly in these regions, the
departure of the Deity’s symbol was the signal for a general illumination, unrivalled
even by the greatest fireworks at regal festivals. The whole field seemed
nightly like one blazing prairie. .
285—————————————PERSIAN ZOROASTRIANISM AND RUSSIAN VANDALISM
Till about 1840, Attesh-Gag
was the chief rendezvous for all the fire-worshippers of
It must, apparently, since
Messrs. Kokoref and
286————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
A veil seems to be drawn over
the origin of Attesh-Gag. Historical data are scarce and contradictory. With
the exception of some old Armenian chronicles which mention it incidentally as
having existed before Christianity was brought into the country by St. Nina
during the third century * there is no mention of it anywhere else, so far as I
know.
Tradition informs us—how far
correctly is not for me to decide— that long before Zarathushtra, the people,
who now are called in contempt by the Mussulmans and Christians “Guebres,” and
who term themselves “Behedin” (followers of the true faith) recognized Mithra,
the Mediator, as their sole and highest God—who included within himself all the
good as well as the bad Gods. Mithra representing the two natures of Ormazd and
Ahriman combined, the people feared him, whereas they would have had no need of
fearing, but only of loving and reverencing him as Ahura-Mazda, were Mithra
without the Ahriman element.
—————
* Though St. Nina appeared in
287—————————————PERSIAN ZOROASTRIANISM AND RUSSIAN VANDALISM.
One day as the God, disguised
as a shepherd, was wandering about the earth, he came to
The other legend, which is but
a continuation of the above, runs thus: For countless ages time devotees of
Mithra worshipped at Ins shrines, until Zarathushtra, descending from heaven in
the shape of a “Golden Star,” transformed himself into a man, and began
teaching a new doctrine. He sung the praises of the One but Triple God—the
supreme Eternal, the in comprehensible essence “Zervana-Akarna,” which
emanating from itself ‘‘Primeval Light,’’ the latter in its turn produced
Ahura-Mazda. But this process required that the “Primeval One” should
previously absorb in itself all the light from the fiery Mithra, and thus left
the poor God despoiled of all his brightness. Losing his right of undivided
supremacy, Mithra, in despair, and instigated by his Ahrimanian nature,
annihilated himself for the time being, leaving Ahriman alone, to fight out his
quarrel with Ormazd, as best he could. Hence the prevailing duality in nature
since that time until Mithra returns; for he promised to his faithful devotees
to
288————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
come back some day. Only,
since then, a series of calamities fell upon the fire-worshippers. The last of
these was the invasion of their country by the Moslems in the seventh century,
when these fanatics began most cruel persecutions against the Behedin. Driven
away from every quarter, the Guebres found refuge but in the
as well as fire-worshippers. These are the Yezids. The whole religion of these
strange sectarians—with the exception of a few who have more weird rites, which
are a secret to all but to themselves—consists in the following. As soon as the
morning sun appears, they place their two thumbs crosswise one upon the other,
kiss the symbol, and touch their brows with them in reverential silence. Then
they salute the sun and turn back into their tents. They believe in the power
of the devil, dread it, and propitiate the “fallen angel” by every means;
getting very angry whenever they hear him spoken of disrespectfully by either a
Mussulman or a Christian. Murders have been committed by them on account of
such irreverent talk, but people have become more prudent of late.
With the exception of the
I cannot close without
expressing my astonishment at the utter ignorance as to their religion, which
seems to prevail in
289——————————————PERSIAN ZOROASTRIANISM AND RUSSIAN VANDALISM.
among the journalists. One of
them speaks of the Guebres, in the article of the St. Petersburg Viedomosti
above referred to, as of a sect of Hindu idolaters, in whose prayers the name
of Brahmâ is constantly invoked. To add to the importance of this historical
item, Alexandre Dumas (senior) is quoted, as mentioning in his work, Travels in
the
CROSS AND FIRE
—————
[Vol. I. No. 2, November,
1879.]
PERHAPS the most widespread
and universal symbols in the old astronomical systems which have passed down
the stream of time to our century, and have left traces everywhere in the
Christian religion as else where, are the Cross and the Fire, the latter the
symbol of the sun. The ancient Aryans used them both as the symbols of Agni.
Whenever the ancient devotee desired to worship Agni—says
The Scandinavians had the same
sign and called it Thor’s Hammer, as bearing a mysterious magneto-electric
relation to Thor, the God of Thunder, who, like Jupiter armed with his
thunderbolts, holds in his hand this ensign of power, not only over mortals but
also the mischievous spirits of the elements, over which he presides. In Masonry
it appears in the form of the grand master’s mallet; at Allahabad it may be
seen on the fort as the Jaina Cross, or the talisman of the Jaina kings; and
the gavel of the modern judge is no more than this crux dissimulata, as de
Rossi the arch calls it; for the gavel is the sign of power and strength, as
the hammer represented the might of Thor, who in the Norse legend splits a rock
with it. Dr. Schliemann found it in terra-cotta discs, on the site, as he
believes, of ancient
291————————————————————CROSS AND FIRE.
Shyena of the Vedic
hymns—daily devours his entrails.” Boldetti (Osservazioni, 15, p. 60) gives a
copy from the painting in the
It is, to say the least, a
strange coincidence, remarked even by some Christian clergymen, that Agnus Dei,
the Lamb of God, should have symbols identical with the Indian God Agni. While
Agnus Dei expiates and takes away the sins of the world, in one religion, the
God Agni in the other, likewise expiates sins against the Gods, man, the manes,
the soul and repeated sins, as shown in the six prayers accompanied by six
oblations (Colebrooke Essays, vol. i. p. 190).
If, then, we find these
two—the Cross and the Fire—so closely associated in the esoteric symbolism of
nearly every nation, it is because on the combined powers of the two rests the
whole plan of universal law. In astronomy, physics, chemistry, in the whole
range of natural philosophy, in short, they always come out as the invisible
cause and the visible result; and only metaphysics and alchemy —or shall we say
meta-chemistry, since we prefer coming a new word to shocking sceptical
ears—can fully and conclusively solve their mysterious meaning. An instance or
two will suffice for those who are willing to think over hints.
The central point, or the
great central Sun of the Kosmos, as the Kabalists call it, is the Deity. It is
the point of intersection between the two great conflicting powers—the
centripetal and the centrifugal forces—which drive the planets into their
elliptical orbits, making them trace a cross in their path through the Zodiac.
These two terrible, though as yet hypothetical and imaginary powers, preserve
harmony and keep the universe in steady, unceasing motion; and the four bent
points of the Svastika typify the revolution of the earth upon its axis. Plato
calls the universe a “blessed god,” made in a circle and decussated in the form
of the letter X. So much for astronomy.
In Masonry the Royal Arch
degree retains the Cross as the triple Egyptian Tau. It is the mundane circle
with the astronomical cross upon it rapidly revolving; the perfect square of
the Pythagorean mathematics in the scale of numbers, as its occult meaning is
interpreted by Cornelius Agrippa. Fire is heat—the central point; the
perpendicular ray represents the male element—spirit, and the hori-
292————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
zontal one the female
element—matter. Spirit vivifies and fructifies matter, and everything proceeds
from the central point, the focus of life, and light, and heat, represented by
the terrestrial fire. So much again for physics and chemistry; for the field of
analogies is boundless, and universal laws are immutable and identical in their
outward and inward applications. Without intending to he disrespectful to
anyone, or to wander far away from truth, we think we may say that there are
strong reasons to believe that in their original sense the Christian Cross as
the cause, and eternal torment by hell-fire as the direct effect of negation of
the former, have more to do with these two ancient symbols than our Western
theologians are prepared to admit.
If Fire is the Deity with some
heathens, so in the Bible God is like wise the Life and the Light of the world.
If the Holy Ghost and Fire
cleanse and purify the Christian, Lucifer is also Light, and the ‘‘Son of the
morning.’’
Turn where we will, we are
sure to find these conjoint relics of ancient worship among almost every nation
and people. From the Aryans, the Chaldæans, the Zoroastrians, Peruvians,
Mexicans, Scandinavians, Celts, and ancient Greeks and Latins, they have
descended in their completeness to the modern Pârsi. The Phœnician Cabiri and
the Greek Dioscuri are partially revived in every temple, cathedral, and
village church; while, as will now be shown, the Christian Bulgarians have even
preserved the sun-worship more than a thousand years since they were converted
to Christianity. And yet they appear none the less pagans than they were
before, for this is how they keep Christmas and New Year’s Day. To this time
they call this festival Sourjvaki, as it falls in with the festival in honour
of the ancient Slavonian God Sourja. In the Slavonian mythology this
Deity—Sourja or Sourva— evidently identical with the Aryan Surya—sun—is the God
of heat, fertility and abundance. The celebration of this festival is of
immense antiquity as, far before the clays of Christianity, the Bulgarians
worshipped Sourva, and consecrated New Year’s Day to this God, praying him to
bless their fields with fertility, and send them happiness and prosperity. This
custom has remained among them in all its primitive heathenism, and though it
varies according to localities, yet the rites and ceremonies are essentially
the same.
On the eve of New Year’s Day,
the Bulgarians do no work, and are obliged to fast. Young betrothed maidens are
busy preparing a large platiy (cake) in which they place roots and young shoots
of various
293————————————————————CROSS AND FIRE.
forms, to each of which a name
is given, according to the shape of the root. Thus one means the house, another
represents the garden; others again, the mill, the vineyard, the horse, a hen,
a cat, and so on, according to the landed property and worldly possessions of
the family. Even articles of value such as jewelry and bags of money are
represented in this emblem of the horn of abundance. Besides all these, a large
and ancient silver coin is placed inside the cake; it is called babkaand and is
tied two ways with a red thread, which forms a cross. This coin is regarded as
the symbol of fortune. After sunset and other ceremonies including prayers,
addressed in the direction of the departing luminary, the whole family assemble
about a large round table, called paralya, on which are placed the
above-mentioned cake, dry vegetables, corn, a wax taper, and finally a large
censer containing incense of the best quality, to perfume the God. The head of
the family, usually the oldest in the family—either the grandfather or the
father himself— taking up the censer with the greatest veneration in one hand,
and the wax taper in the other, begins walking about the premises, incensing
the four corners, beginning and ending with the east, and reads various
invocations, which close with the Christian “Our Father, which art in heaven,”
addressed to Sourja. The taper is then laid away to be preserved throughout the
whole year, till the next festival. It is thought to have acquired marvellous
healing properties, and is lighted only upon occasions of family sickness, in
which case it is expected to cure the patient.
After this ceremony, the old
man takes his knife and cuts the cake into as many slices as there are members
of the household present. Each person, on receiving his or her share, makes
haste to open and search the piece. The happiest for the ensuing year, is he or
she who gets the part containing the old coin crossed with the scarlet thread;
he is considered the elect of Sourja, and everyone envies the fortunate
possessor. Then in order of importance come the emblems of the house, the
vineyard, and so on; and according to his finding, the finder reads his
horoscope for the coming year. Most unlucky is he who gets the cat; he turns
pale and trembles. Woe to him and misery, for he is surrounded by enemies, and
has to prepare for great trials.
At the same time, a large log
which represents a flaming altar, is set up in the chimney-place, and fire is
applied to it. This log burns in honour of Sourja, and is intended as an oracle
for the whole house. If it burns the whole night through till morning, without
the flame
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A MODERN PANARION.
dying out, it is a good sign;
otherwise the family prepares to see death that year, and deep lamentations end
the festival. Neither the montzee (young bachelor), nor the mommee (the
maiden), sleep that night. At
Sourva, Sourva, Lord of the
season,
Happy New Year mayst thou
send:
Health and fortune on this
household,
Success and blessings till
next year.
With good crops and full ears,
With gold and silk, and grapes
and fruit,
With barrels full of wine, and
stomachs full,
You and your house be blessed
by the God . .
His blessing on you all. Amen!
Amen! Amen!
The singing Sourvakari,
recompensed for their good wishes with a present at every house, go home at
early dawn. And this is how the symbolical exoteric Cross and Fire-worship of
old Aryâvartta go hand in hand in Christian Bulgaria.
WAR IN
—————
[Vol. I. No. 2, November,
1879.]
DARK clouds are gathering over
the hitherto cold and serene horizon of exact science, which forebode a squall.
Already two camps are forming among the votaries of scientific research. One
wages war on the other, and hard words are occasionally exchanged. The apple of
discord in this case is—Spiritualism. Fresh and illustrious victims are yearly
decoyed away from the impregnable strongholds of materialistic negation, and
ensnared into examining and testing the alleged spiritual phenomena. And we all
know that when a true Scientist examines them without prejudice well, he
generally ends like Professor Hare, Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., the great
Alfred Russell Wallace, another F.R.S., and so many other eminent men of
science—he passes over to the enemy.
We are really curious to know
what will be the new theory advanced in the present crisis by the sceptics, and
how they will account for such apostasy of several of their luminaries, as has
just occurred. The venerable accusations of non compos mentis and “dotage” will
not bear another refurbishing. The eminent perverts are increasing numerically
so fast, that if mental incapacity is charged upon all of them who
experimentally satisfy themselves that tables can talk sense, and mediums float
through the air, it might augur ill for science; there might soon be none but
weakened brains in the learned societies. They may, possibly, for a time find
some consolation in accounting for the lodgment of the extraordinary “delusion”
in very scholarly heads, upon the theory of atavism—the mysterious law of
latent transmission, so much favoured by the modern schools of Darwinian
evolutionism— especially in Germany, as represented by that thorough-going
apostle of the modern “struggle for culture,” Ernst Hæckle professor at Jena.
They may attribute the belief of their colleagues in the phenomena to certain
molecular movements of the cell in the ganglia of their once
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A MODERN PANARION.
powerful brains, hereditarily
transmitted to them by their ignorant mediæval ancestors. Or, again, they may
split their ranks, and establishing an imperium in imperio “divide and conquer”
still. All this is possible; but time alone will show which of the parties will
come off best.
We have been led to these
reflections by a row now going On between German and Russian professors—all
eminent and illustrious savants. The Teutons and Slavs, in the case under
observation, are not fighting according to their nationality, but conformably
to their respective beliefs and unbeliefs. Having concluded, for the occasion,
an offensive as well as a defensive alliance, regardless of race—they have
broken up in two camps, one representing the Spiritualists, and the other the
sceptics. And now war to the knife is declared. Leading one party, are
Professors Zollner, Ulrizzi and Fichte, Butlerof and Wagner, of the
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Homer-like, we will follow the
combatants and condense this modern Iliad for the benefit of our friends.
After several years of
diligent research and investigation of the phenomena, Messrs Wagner and
Butlerof both distinguished savants and professors of
(1) a serious and profound
conviction that what they defend is true; (2) an unwavering courage in stating
at every hazard, before a prejudiced and inimical public that such is their
conviction; (3) clearness and consecutiveness in their statements; (4) the
serene calmness and impartiality with which they treat the opinions of their
opponents; (5) a full and profound acquaintance with the subject under
discussion. The combination of the qualities enumerated, adds their critic,
Leads us to regard the recent
article by Professor Butlerof, Empiricism and dogmatism in the Domain of
Mediumship as one of those essays whose commanding significance cannot be
denied and winch are sure to strongly impress the readers. Such articles are
positively rare in our periodicals; rare because of the originality of the
author’s conclusions; and because of the clear, precise, and serious
presentation of facts.
The article so eulogized may
be summed up in a few words. We will not stop to enumerate the marvels of
spiritual phenomena witnessed by Professor Zöllner with Dr. Slade and defended
by Professor Butlerof, since they are no more marvellous than the latter
gentleman’s personal experience in this direction with Mr. Williams, a medium
of
Mr. Williams, the medium, was
made to sit with his hands, feet, and even his body tightly bound with cords to
his chair, which was placed
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A MODERN PANARION.
in a dead-wall corner of the
room, behind Mr. Butlerof’s plaid hung across so as to form a screen. Williams
soon fell into a kind of lethargic stupor, known among Spiritualists as the
trance condition, and ‘spirits” began to appear before the eyes of the
investigators. Various voices were heard, and loud sentences pronounced by the “invisibles,”
from every part of the room; things—toilet appurtenances and so forth—began
flying in every direction through the air, and finally “John King”—a sort of
king of the spooks, who has been famous for years— made his appearance bodily.
But we must allow Professor Butlerof to tell his phenomenal story himself.
We first saw several bright
lights moving in the air, and inmediately after appeared the full figure of
“John King.” His apparition is generally preceded by a greenish phosphoric
light which, gradually becoming brighter, illuminates, more and more, the whole
bust of “John King.” Then it is that those present perceive that the light
emanates from some kind of luminous object held by the ‘‘spirit.’’ The face of
a man with a thick black beard becomes clearly distinguishable: the head is
enveloped in a white turban. The figure appeared outside the cabinet (that is
to say, the screened corner where the medium sat), and finally approached us.
We saw it each time for a few seconds; then rapidly waning, the light was
extinguished and the figure became invisible to reappear again in a moment or
two; then from the surrounding darkness “John’s” voice was heard proceeding
from the spot on which he had appeared mostly, though not always, when he had
already disappeared. “John” asked us: “What can I do for you?” and Mr. Aksakof
requested him to rise up to the ceiling and speak to us. In accordance with the
wish expressed, the figure suddenly appeared above the table and towered
majestically above our heads to the ceiling, which became all illuminated with
the luminous object held in the spirit’s hand, when ‘‘John’’ was quite under
the ceiling he shouted down to us: ‘‘Will that do?"
During another seance M.
Butlerof asked “John” to approach him quite near, which the ‘‘spirit” did, and
so gave him the opportunity of seeing clearly “the sparkling, clear eyes of
John.” Another spirit, ‘‘Peter,” though he never put in a visible appearance
during the seances, yet conversed with Messrs. Butlerof and Aksakof, wrote for them
on paper furnished by them, and so forth.
Though the learned Professor
minutely enumerates all the precautions he had taken against possible fraud,
the critic is not yet satisfied, and asks, pertinently enough:
Why did not the respectable
savant catch ‘‘John’’ in his arms, when the spirit was hut a foot distant from
him? Again, why did not both Messrs. Aksakof and Bntlerof try to get hold of
“John’s” legs, when he was mounting to the ceiling? Indeed they ought to have
done all tins, if they are really so anxious to learn the truth for their own
sake, as for that of science, when they struggle to lead on
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toward the domains of the
“other world.” And, had they complied with such a simple and, at the same time,
very little scientific test, there would be no more need for them, perhaps, to
. . . further explain the scientific importance of the spiritual
manifestations.
That this importance is not
exaggerated, and has as much significance for the world of science, as for that
of religious thought, is proved by so many philosophical minds speculating upon
the modern “delusion.” This is what Fichte, the learned German savant, says of
it.
Modern Spiritualism chiefly
proves the existence of that which, in common par. lance, is very vaguely and
inaptly termed “aftftarilion of spirits.” If we concede the reality of such
apparitions, then they become an undeniable, practical proof of the
continuation of our personal, conscious existence (beyond the portals of
death). And such a tangible, fully demonstrated fact cannot he otherwise but
beneficent in this epoch, which, having fallen into a dreary denial of
immortality, thinks, in the proud self-sufficiency of its vast intellect, that
it has already happily left behind it every superstition of the kind.
If such a tangible evidence
could be really found, and demonstrated to us, beyond any doubt or cavil,
reasons Fichte further on :
If the reality of the
continuation of our lives after death were furnished us upon positive proof, in
strict accordance with the logical elements of experimental natural sciences,
then it would be, indeed, a result with which, owing to its nature and peculiar
significance for humanity, no other result to be met with in all the history of
civilization could he compared. The old problem of man’s destination upon earth
would thus be solved, and consciousness in humanity would he elevated one step.
That which, hitherto, could be revealed to man but in the domain of blind
faith, presentiment and passionate hope, would become to him—positive
knowledge; he would have acquired the certainty that he was a member of an
eternal, a spiritual world, in which he would continue living, and that his
temporary existence upon this earth forms but a fractional portion of a future
eternal life, and that it is only there that he would be enabled to perceive,
and fully comprehend his real destiny. Having acquired this profound
conviction, mankind would be thoroughly impressed with a new and animating
comprehension of life, and its intellectual perceptions opened to an idealism
strong with incontrovertible facts. This would prove tantamount to a complete
reconstruction of man in relation to his existence as an entity and his mission
upon earth; it would be, so to say, a “new birth.” Whoever has lost all inner
convictions as to his eternal destiny’, his faith in eternal life, whether the
ease be that of an isolated individuality, a whole nation, or time
representative of a certain epoch, he or it may be regarded as having had
uprooted, and to the very core, all sense of that invigorating force which
alone lends itself to self-devotion and to progress. Such a man becomes what
was inevitable—an egotistical, selfish, sensual being, concerned wholly for his
self-preservation. His culture, his enlightenment and civilization, can serve
him but as a help and ornament toward that life of sensualism, or, at best, to
guard him from all that can harm it.
300————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Such is the enormous
importance attributed by Professor Fichte of
An influential American
scientific journal uses equally strong language when speaking of the value that
a scientific demonstration of the survival of the human soul would have for the
world. If Spiritualism prove true, it says,
It will become the one grand
event of the world’s history; it will give an unperishable lustre of glory to
the nineteenth century. Its discoverer will have no rival in renown, and his
name will be written high above any other. If the pretensions of Spiritualism
have a rational foundation, no more important work has been offered to men of
science then their verification. (Scientific American, 1874, as quoted in
Olcott’s People from The Other World, Preface, p. v.)
And now we will see what the
stubborn Russian critic (who seems to be but the mouth-piece of European
materialistic science), has to say in response to the unanswerable arguments
and logic of Messrs. Fichte and Butlerof. If scepticism has no stronger
arguments to oppose to Spiritualism but the following original paradox, then we
will have to declare it worsted in the dispute. Instead of the beneficial
results foretold by Fichte in the case of the final triumph of Spiritualism,
the critic forecasts quite a different state of things.
As soon as such scientific
methods shall have demonstrated, beyond doubt or cavil, to the general
satisfaction, that our world is-crammed with souls of men who have preceded us,
and whom we will all join in turn; as soon as it shall be proven that these
“souls of the deceased” call communicate with mortals, all the earthly physical
science of the eminent scholars will vanish like a soap-bubble, and will have
lost all its interest for us living men. Why should people care for their
proportionately short life upon earth, once that they have the positive
assurance and conviction of another life to come after bodily death; a death
which does not in the least preclude conscious relations with the world of the
living, or even their post mortem participation in all its interests? Once
that, with the help of science, based on mediumistic experiments and the
discoveries of Spiritualism, such relations shall have been firmly established,
they will naturally become every day more and more intimate; an extraordinary
friendship will ensue between this and the ‘‘other’’ world; that other world
will begin divulging to this one the most occult mysteries of life and death,
and the hitherto most inaccessible laws of time universe—those which now exact
the greatest efforts of man’s mental powers. Finally, nothing will remains for
us in this temporary world to either do or desire, but to pass away as soon as
possible into the world of eternity. No inventions, no observations, no
sciences will be any more needed! Why should people exercise their brains, for
instance, in perfecting the telegraphs, when nothing else will he required but
to
301————————————————————WAR IN
be on good terms with spirits
in order to avail of their services for the instantaneous transmission of
thoughts and objects, not only from
To which the ‘‘scholarly
phantasists’’ would be quite warranted in answering that one would have to
bring his own mind to the exact measure of microscopic capacity required to
elaborate such a theory as this, before he could take it into consideration at
all. Is the above meant to be offered as an objection for serious
consideration? Strange logic! We are asked to believe that, because these men
of science, who now believe in naught but matter, and thus try to fit every
phenomenon—even of a mental and spiritual character—to the Procrustean bed of
their own preconceived hobbies, would find themselves, by the mere strength of
circumstances, forced in their turn, to fit these cherished hobbies to truth,
however unwelcome, and to facts wherever found—that because of that, science
will lose all its charm for humanity. Nay—life itself will become a burden!
There are millions upon millions of people who, without believing in
Spiritualism at all, yet have faith in another and a better world. And were
that blind faith to become positive knowledge indeed, it could but better
humanity.
Before closing his scathing
criticism upon the “credulous men of science,” our reviewer sends one more bomb
in their direction, which unfortunately, like many other explosive shells,
misses the culprits and wounds the whole group of their learned colleagues. We
translate the missile verbatim, this time for the benefit of all the European
and American academicians.
Speaking of Butlerof and his
article, he adds:
The eminent professor, among
other things, makes the most of the strange fact that Spiritualism gains with
every day more and more converts within the corporation of our great
scientists. He enumerates a long list of English and German names among
illustrious men of science, who have more or less confessed themselves in
favour of the spiritual doctrines. Among these names we find such as are quite
authoritative, those of the greatest luminaries of science. Such a fact is, to
say the least, very striking, and, in any case, lends a great weight to
Spiritualism. But we have only to ponder coolly over it, to come very easily to
the conclusion that it is just among such great men of science that
Spiritualism is most likely to spread
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A MODERN PANARION.
and find ready converts. With
all their powerful intellects and gigantic knowledge, our great scholars are
firstly, men of sedentary habits, and, secondly, they are, with scarcely an
exception, men with diseased and shattered nerves, inclined toward an abnormal
development of an overstrained brain. Such sedentary men are the easiest to
hoodwink; a clever charlatan will make an easier prey of and bamboozle with far
more facility, a scholar than an unlearned but practical man. Hallucination
will far sooner get hold of persons inclined to nervous receptivity, especially
if they once concentrate themselves upon some peculiar ideas, or a favourite
hobby. This, I believe, will explain the fact that we see so many men of
science enrolling themselves in the army of Spiritualists.
We need not stop to enquire
how Messrs. Tyndall, Huxley, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Lewes, and other eminent
scientific and philosophical sceptics, will like such a prospect of rickety ganglionic
centres, collective softening of the brain, and the resulting “hallucinations.”
The argument is not only an impertinent naivete but a literary monstrosity.
We are far from agreeing
entirely with the views of Professor Butler, or even Mr. Wallace, as to the
agencies at work behind the modern phenomena; yet between the extremes of
spiritual negation and affirmation, there ought to be a middle ground; only
pure philosophy can establish truth upon firm principles; and no philosophy can
he complete unless it embraces both physics and metaphysics. Mr. Tyndall, who
declares in Science and Man that “metaphysics will be welcomed when it abandons
its pretensions to scientific discovery, and consents to be ranked as a kind of
poetry,” opens himself to the criticism of posterity. Meanwhile, he must not
regard it as an impertinence if his Spiritualistic opponents retort with the
answer that “physics will always be welcomed, when it abandons its pretension
to psychological discovery.” The physicists will have to consent to be regarded
in a near future as no more than supervisors and analysts of physical results,
who have to leave the spiritual causes to those who believe in them. Whatever
the issue of the present quarrel, we fear, though, that Spiritualism has made
its appearance a century too late. Our age is preeminently one of extremes. The
earnest philosophical, yet reverent, doubters are few, and the name for those
who rush to the opposite extreme is—Legion. We are the children of our century.
Thanks to that same law of atavism, it seems to have inherited from its
parent—the eighteenth—the century of both Voltaire and Jonathan Edwards—all its
extreme scepticism, and, at the same time, religious credulity and bigoted
intolerance. Spiritualism is an abnormal and premature outgrowth, standing
between the two; and, though it stands
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right on the highway to truth,
its ill-defined beliefs make it wander on through by-paths which lead to
anything but philosophy. Its future depends wholly upon the timely help it can
receive from honest science—that science which scorns no truth. It was,
perhaps, when thinking of the opponents of the latter, that Alfred de Musset
wrote the following magnificent apostrophe:
Sleep’st thou content, Voltaire?
And thy dread smile hovers it
still above
Thy fleshless bones. . . . ?
Thine age they call too young
to understand thee;
This one should suit thee
better—
Thy men are born!
And the huge edifice that, day
and night, thy great hands undermined,
Is fallen upon us. . . .
A
—————
[Vol. I. Nos. 6, 7, 9 and 11,
March, April, June and August, 1880.]
WHETHER one surveys the
imposing ruins of Memphis or Palmyra; stands at the foot of the great pyramid
of Ghizeh; wanders along the shores of the Nile; or ponders amid the desolate
fastnesses of the long-lost and mysterious Petra; however clouded and misty the
origin of these pre-historic relics may appear, one nevertheless finds at least
certain fragments of firm ground upon which to build conjecture. Thick as may
be the curtain behind which the history of these anti- quities is hidden, still
there are rents here and there through which one may catch glimpses of light.
We are acquainted with the descendants of the builders; and, however
superficially, we also know the story of the nations whose vestiges are
scattered around us. Not so with the antiquities of the
305————————————————————A
the idea of a feverish dream,
whose phantasmagoria suddenly crystallized into granite at the wave of some
mighty magician’s hand, to bewilder the coming generations for ever and ever.
So late as the beginning of the present century the very existence of such a
wealth of antiquities was unknown. The petty, suspicious jealousy of the
Spaniards had, from the first, created a Chinese wall between their American
possessions and the too curious traveller; and the ignorance and fanaticism of
the conquerors, and their carelessness as to all but the satisfaction of their
insatiable greed, had precluded scientific research. Even the enthusiastic
accounts of Cortez and his army of brigands and priests, and of Pizarro and his
robbers and monks, as to the splendour of the temples, palaces and cities of
Mere huts, built with turf or
mud, or the branches of trees, like those of the rudest Indians.*
And, upon the testimony of
some Spaniards, he even risked the assertion that there was not
In all the extent of that vast
empire a single monument or vestige of any building more ancient than the
Conquest.
It was reserved to the great
Alexander Humboldt to vindicate the truth. In 1803 a flood of new light was
poured into the world of arch by this eminent and learned traveller. In this he
luckily proved but the pioneer of future discoverers. He then described but
Mitla, or the Vale of the Dead, Xoxichalco, and the great pyramidal
—————
* See Stephens’
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-------
A MODERN PANARION.
miles in length, stretch in an
unbroken line, almost covering the land as with a net. On the coast they are
built of sun-dried bricks; in the mountains, of porphyritic lime, granite and
silicated sandstones. Of the long generations of peoples who built them,
history knows nothing, and even tradition is silent. As a matter of course,
most of these lithic remains are covered with a dense vegetation. Whole forests
have grown out of the cities’ broken hearts, and, with a few exceptions,
everything is in ruin. But one may judge of what once was by that which yet
remains.
With a most flippant
unconcern, the Spanish historians refer nearly every ruin to Incal times. No
greater mistake can be made. The hieroglyphics which sometimes cover whole
walls and monoliths from top to bottom are, as they were from the first, a dead
letter to modern science. But they were equally a dead letter to the Incas,
though the history of the latter can be traced to the eleventh century. They
had no clue to the meaning of these inscriptions, but attributed all such to
their unknown predecessors; thus barring the presumption of their own descent
from the first civilizers of their country. Briefly, the Incal history runs
thus:
Inca is the Quichua title for
chief or emperor, and the name of the ruling and most aristocratic race or
rather caste of the land which was governed by them for an unknown period,
prior to, and until, the Spanish Conquest. Some place their first appearance in
307————————————————————A
ance on a beautiful island in
308————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
old annals of Râjasthân, and
down to the but just abolished custom of Sati. Taking all this into
consideration, the arch cannot remain satisfied with the brief remark of
certain historians that:
In this tradition we trace
only another version of the story of the civilization Common to all primitive
nations, and that imposture of a celestial relationship whereby designing
rulers and cunning priests have sought to secure their ascendency among men.
No more is it an explanation
to say that:
Manco Capac is the almost exact
counterpart of the Chinese Foh, the Hindu Buddha, the terrestrial Osiris of
Egypt, the Quetzacoatl of Mexico, and Votan of Central America.
For all this is but too
evident. What we want to learn is, how came these nations, so antipodal to each
other as India, Egypt and America, to offer such extraordinary points of
resemblance, not only in their general religious, political and social views,
but sometimes in the minutest details. The task much-needed is to find out
which one of them preceded the other; to explain how these peoples came to
plant at the four corners of the earth nearly identical architecture and arts,
unless there was a time when, as asserted by Plato and believed in by more than
one modern archæologist, no ships were needed for such a transit, as the two
worlds formed but one continent.
According to the most recent
researches, there are five distinct styles of architecture in the
Long before Manco Capac the
Further on, this learned
traveller finds that the skulls taken from the burial-grounds, according to
craniologists, represent three distinct races: the Chinchas, who occupied the
western part of Peru from the Andes to the Pacific; the Aymaras, dwellers of
the elevated plains of Peru and Bolivia, on the southern shore of Lake
Titicaca; and the Huancas, who “occupied the plateau between the chains of the
Andes,
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north of
A mummy of a fœtus of seven or
eight months having the same conformation of skull, has placed a doubt as to
the certainty of this fact.
And besides hypothesis, we
have scientific and unimpeachable proof of a civilization that must have
existed in
The Peruvian guano (huano),
that precious fertilizer, composed of the excrement of sea-fowls, intermixed
with their decaying bodies, eggs, remains of seal, and so on, which has
accumulated upon the isles of the Pacific and the coast of South America, and
its formation, are now well known. It was Humboldt who first discovered and
drew the world’s attention to it in 1804. And, while describing the deposits as
covering the granite rocks of the Chincas and other islands to the depth of
fifty or sixty feet, he states that the accumulation of the preceding 300
years, since the conquest, had formed only a few lines in thick-ness. How many
thousands of years, then, it required to form this deposit sixty feet deep, is
a matter of simple calculation. In this connection we may now quote something
of a discovery spoken of in the ‘‘Peruvian Antiquities.” *
—————
* A paper published by Dr. F.
R. heath in the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, November, 1878.
310————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Buried sixty-two feet under
the ground, on the Chinca islands, stone-idols and water-pots were found, while
thirty-three and thirty-five feet below the surface were wooden idols. From
beneath the guano on the Guanapi islands, just south of Truxillo, and Macabi
just north, mummies, birds and birds’ eggs, gold and silver ornaments were
taken. On the Macabi the labourers found some large valuable golden vases,
which they broke up and divided among themselves, even though offered weight
for weight in gold coin, and thus relics of the greatest interest to the
scientist have been lost for ever. He who can determine the centuries necessary
to deposit thirty and sixty feet of guano on these islands, remembering that
since the Conquest three hundred years ago, no appreciable increase in depth
has been noted, can give you an idea of the antiquity of these relics.
If we confine ourselves to a
strictly arithmetical calculation, then allowing twelve lines to an inch, and
twelve inches to a foot, and allowing one line to every century, we are forced
to believe that the people who made these precious gold vases lived 864,000
years ago! Leave an ample margin for errors, and give twelve lines to a
century—say an inch to every 100 years—and we will yet have 72,000 years back a
civilization which—if we judge by its public works, the durability of its
constructions, and the grandeur of its buildings—equalled, and in some things
certainly surpassed, our own.
Having well-defined ideas as
to the periodicity of cycles, for the world as well as for nations, empires and
tribes, we are convinced that our present modern civilization is but the latest
dawn of that which already has been seen an innumerable number of times upon
this planet. It may not be exact science, but it is both inductive and
deductive logic, based upon theories far less hypothetical and more palpable
than many another theory, held as strictly scientific. To express it in the
words of Prof. T. E. Nipher, of
The errors of scientific men
are well-nigh countless, not because they are men of science, but because they
are men, says the same scientist; and further quotes the noble words of
Faraday:
Occasionally, and frequently
the exercise of the judgment ought to end in absolute reservation. It may be
very distasteful and a great fatigue to suspend a conclusion, but as we are not
infallible, so we ought to he cautions. (Experimental Researches, 24th Series.)
It is doubtful whether, with
the exception of a few of the most prominent ruins, a detailed account of the
so-called American anti-
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quities ever was attempted.
Yet, in order to bring out the more prominently a point of comparison, such a
work would be absolutely necessary. If the history of religion and of mythology
and—far more important—the origin, developing and final grouping of the human
species are ever to be unravelled, we have to trust to archæological research
rather than to the hypothetical deductions of philology. We must begin by
massing together the concrete imagery of the early thought, more eloquent in
its stationary form than the verbal expression of the same, the latter being
but too liable, in its manifold interpretations, to be distorted in a thousand
ways. This would afford us an easier and more trustworthy clue. Archæological
Societies ought to have a whole cyclopædia of the world’s remains, with a
collation of the most important of the speculations as to each locality. For,
however fantastic and wild some of these hypotheses may seem at first glance,
yet each has a chance of proving useful at some time. It is often more
beneficial to know what a thing is not than to know what it is, as Max Muller
truly tells us.
It is not within the limits of
an article in our paper that any such object could be achieved. Availing
ourselves, though, of the reports of the Government surveyors, trustworthy
travellers, men of science, and even our own limited experience, we will try in
future issues to give to our Hindu readers, who possibly may never have heard
of these antiquities, a general idea of them. Our information is drawn from
every reliable source; the survey of the Peruvian antiquities being mostly due
to Dr. Heath’s able paper, above mentioned.
II.
Evidently we Theosophists are
not the only iconoclasts in this world of mutual deception and hypocrisy. We
are not the only ones who believe in cycles, and, opposing the biblical chronology,
lean towards those opinions which are secretly shared by so many, but publicly
avowed by so few. We Europeans are just emerging from the very bottom of a new
cycle, and progressing upwards, while the Asiatics— Indians especially—are the
lingering remnants of the nations which filled the world in the previous and
now departed cycles. Whether the Aryans sprang from the archaic Americans, or
the latter from the prehistoric Aryans, is a question which no living man can
decide. But that there must have been an intimate connection at some time
between the old Aryans, the pre-historic inhabitants of
312————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
might have been their name—and
the ancient Egyptians, is a matter more easily proved than contradicted. And
probably, if there ever was such a connection, it must have taken place at a
time when the
In his Peruvian Antiquities,
Dr. Heath, of Kansas City—rara avis among scientific men, a fearless searcher,
who accepts truth wherever he finds it, and is not afraid to speak it out in
the very face of dogmatic opposition—sums up his impressions of the Peruvian
relics in the following words:
Three times the
Who knows, then, but that
Jules Verne’s fanciful idea* regarding the lost continent Atlantis may be near
the truth? Who can say that, where now the Atlantic Ocean is, a continent did
not formerly exist, with its dense population, advanced in the arts and
sciences, who, as they found their land sinking beneath the waters, retired part
east and part west, thus populating the two hemispheres? This would explain the
similarity of their arch structures and races, and their differ-ences, modified
by and adapted to the character of their respective climates and countries.
Thus would the llama and camel differ, although of the same species; thus the
algoraba and espino trees; thus the Iroquois Indians of North America and the
most ancient Arabs call the constellation of the “Great Bear” by the same name;
thus various nations, cut off from all intercourse or knowledge of each other,
divide the zodiac into twelve constellations, apply to them the same names, and
the Northern Hindus apply the name Andes to their Himalayan mountains, as did
the South Americans to their principal chain.† Must we fall in the old rut, and
suppose no other means of populating the Western Hemisphere except “by way of
Behring’s Strait”? Must we still locate a geographical Eden in the East, and
suppose a land, equally adapted to man and as old geologically, must wait the
aimless wanderings of the “lost tribes of Israel” to become populated?
Go where we may, to explore
the antiquities of America—whether of Northern, Central, or Southern America—we
are first of all impressed with the magnitude of these relics of ages and races
unknown, and then with the extraordinary similarity they present to the mounds
and
—————
* This "idea" is
plainly expressed and asserted as a fact by Plato in his Banquet; and was taken
up by Bacon in his New Atlantis.
† The name America,” said I,
in Isis Unveiled (vol. ii. p. 591(, three years ago, ‘may one day he found
closely related to Meru, the sacred mount in the centre of the seven
continents.” When first discovered,
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ancient structures of old
The embankment constituting
the effigy is upwards of five feet in height, by thirty feet at the centre of
the body, slightly diminishing towards the tail.*
The neck is stretched out and
its mouth wide open, holding within its jaws an oval figure.
Formed by an embankment four
feet in height, this oval is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and
conjugate diameters being 160 and eighty feet respectively, say the surveyors.
The whole represents the universal cosmological idea of the serpent and the
egg. This is easy to surmise. But how came this great symbol of the Hermetic
wisdom of old
—————
* Smithsonian contributions to
Knowledge, vol. i.
314————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
authors migrated, or
disappeared beneath victorious armies, or were swept out of existence by some
direful epidemic, or a universal famine, are questions, “probably beyond the
power of human investigation to answer,” they say. The earliest inhabitants of
Nearly all the mounds in
This
315————————————————————A
One hundred and sixty miles
long and from fifty to eighty broad, and discharges through the
As the level of its waters has
very much decreased in the historical period, it is believed on good grounds
that they once surrounded the elevated spot on which are found the remarkable
ruins of Tiahuanaco.
The latter are without any
doubt aboriginal monuments pertaining to an epoch which preceded the Incal
period, much as the Dravidian and other aboriginal peoples preceded the Aryans
in
The ruins afford every
evidence of the highest antiquity. Some are built on a pyramidal plan, as most
of the American mounds are, and cover several acres; while the monolithic
doorways, pillars and stone idols, so elaborately carved, are “sculptured in a
style wholly different from any other remains of art yet found in
These monuments consist of a
mound raised nearly 100 feet, surrounded with pillars—of temples from 600 to
1,200 feet in length, opening precisely towards the east, and adorned with
colossal angular columns—of porticoes of a single stone, covered with reliefs
of skilful execution, displaying symbolical representations of the Sun, and the
condor, his messenger—of basaltic statues loaded with bas-reliefs,
316————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
in which the design of the
carved head is half Egyptian—and lastly, of the interior of a palace formed of
enormous blocks of rock, completely hewn, whose dimensions are often twenty-one
feet in length, twelve in breadth, and six in thickness. In the temples and
palaces, the portals are not inclined, as among those of the Incas, but
perpendicular; and their vast dimensions, and the imposing masses of which they
are composed, surpass in beauty and grandeur all that were afterwards built by
the sovereigna of
Like the rest of his
fellow-explorers, M. D’Orbigny believes these ruins to have been the work of a
race far anterior to the Incas.
Two distinct styles of
architecture are found in these relics of
Three feet in width by
eighteen feet in length, and six feet in thickness;
while on some of the islands
of the
But of true Peruvian type,
believed to be the remains of temples destroyed by the Spaniards.
The famous sanctuary, with the
human figure in it, belongs to the former. Its doorway, ten feet high, thirteen
feet broad, with an opening six feet four inches by three feet two inches, is
cut from a single stone.
Its east front has a cornice,
in the centre of which is a human figure of strange form, crowned with rays,
interspersed with serpents with crested heads. On each side of this figure are
three rows of square compartments, filled with human and other figures, of
apparently symbolic design.
Were this temple in
The level of the lake now
being 135 feet lower, and its shores twelve miles distant, this fact, in
conjunction with others, warrants the belief that these remains antedate any
others known in America.*
Hence, all these relics are
unanimously ascribed to the same
Unknown and mysterious people
who preceded the Peruvians, as the Tulhuatecas or Toltecs did the Aztecs. It
seems to have been the seat of the highest and most
—————
* New .American Cyclopædia,
art. “
317————————————————————A
ancient civilization of
And these monuments are all
either Dracontias—temples sacred to the Snake—or temples dedicated to the Sun.
Of this same character are the
ruined pyramids of
It is interesting to hear what
the earliest writers—time historians who saw them during the first conquest—say
even of some of the most modern of these buildings, of the great
says one. Cortez shows that
500 houses might be easily placed within its enclosure. It was paved with
polished stones, so smooth, that ‘‘the horses of the Spaniards could not move
over them without slipping,’’ writes Bernal Diaz. In connection with this, we
must remember that it was not the Spaniards who conquered the Mexicans, but
their horses. As a horse was never seen before by this people in America, until
the Europeans landed it on the coast, the natives, though excessively Brave,
were so awestruck at the sight of horses and the roar of the artillery, that
they took the Spaniards to be of divine origin and sent them human beings as
sacrifices. This superstitious panic is sufficient to account for the fact that
a handful of men could so easily conquer incalculable thousands of warriors.
According to G6mara, the four
walls of the enclosure of the temple corresponded with the cardinal points. In
the centre of this gigantic area arose the great temple, an immense pyramidal
structure of eight stages, faced with stone, 300 feet square at the base and
120 feet in height, truncated, with a level summit, upon which were situated
two
318————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
towers, the shrines of the
divinities to whom it was consecrated—Tezcatlipoca and Huitzlipochtli. It was
here that the sacrifices were performed, and the eternal fire maintained.
Clavigero tells us that, besides this great pyramid, there were forty other
similar structures consecrated to various divinities. The one called
Tezcacalli,
The House of the Shining
Mirrors, sacred to Tezcatlipoca, the God of Light, the Soul of the World, the
Vivifier, the Spiritual Sun.
The dwellings of priests, who,
according to Zarate, amounted to 8,000, were near by, as well as the seminaries
and the schools. Ponds and fountains, groves and gardens, in which flowers and
sweet smelling herbs were cultivated for use in certain sacred rites and the
decoration of altars, were in abundance; and, so large was the inner yard,
that:
Eight thousand or 10,000
persons had sufficient room to dance in it upon their solemn festivities,
says Solis. Torquemada
estimates the number of such temples in the Mexican empire at 40,000, but
Clavigero, speaking of the majestic Teocalli (literally, houses of God) of
So wonderful are the features
of resemblance between the ancient shrines of the Old and the
What striking analogies exist
between the monuments of the old continents and those of the Toltecs who built
these colossal structure, truncated pyramids, divided by layers, like the
The eminent naturalist might
have also enquired whence the Mexicans got all their Christian virtues, being
but poor pagans. The code of the Aztecs, says
Evinces a profound respect for
the great principles of morality, and as clear a perception of these principles
as is to be found in the most cultivated nations.
Some of these are very curious
inasmuch as they show such a similaritv to some of the Gospel ethics. “He who
looks too curiously on a woman, commits adultery with his eyes,’’ says one of
them. ‘‘ Keep peace with all; hear injuries with humility; God, who sees, will
avenge you,” declares another. Recognizing but one Supreme Power in Nature,
they addressed it as the Deity
By whom see live, omnipresent,
that knoweth all thoughts and giveth all gifts, without whom man is as nothing;
invisible, incorporeal, of perfection and purity, under whose wings we find
repose and a sure defence.
319————————————————————A
And, in naming their children,
says Lord Kingsborough:
They used a ceremony strongly
resembling the Christian rite of baptism, the lips and bosom of the infant
being sprinkled with water, and the Lord implored to wash away the sin that was
given to it before the foundation of the world, so that the child might be born
anew. Their laws were perfect; justice, contentment and peace reigned in the
kingdom of these benighted heathens, when the brigands and the Jesuits of
Cortez landed at
III.
The ruins of
Constituting a pointed arch,
corresponding in type with the earliest monuments of the
Within several chambers at
320————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
To
says the New American
Cyclopædia. At the period of the Spanish conquest
No less extraordinary are the
remains of the different epochs in
Aqueducts opened within the
sacred enclosure; and within it were gardens and walks among shrubs and flowers
of gold and silver, made in imitation of the productions of nature. It was
attended by 4,000 priests. The ground for 200 paces around the temple was
considered holy, and no one was allowed to pass within this boundary but with
naked feet.*
Besides this great temple,
there were 300 other inferior temples at
At the base of the hill of
Cannar was formerly a famous shrine of the Sun, consisting of the universal
symbol of that luminary, formed by nature upon the face of a great rock.
Roman tells us
That the temples of
Other remains seen by
myself—especially mounds—are surrounded by two, three and four circles of
stones. Near the town of
—————
* La Vega.
† ‘‘On Ancient Sculpturing on
Rocks in
321————————————————————A
Near the village there are at
least one hundred cromlechs plainly to be seen. These cromlechs are surrounded
by circles of stones, some of them with concentric circles three and four deep.
One very remarkable in appearance has four circles of large stones around it,
and is called by the natives “Pandavara Gudi” or the temple of the Pandus. This
is supposed to be the first instance where the natives popularly imagine a
structure of this kind to have been the temple of a bygone, if not of a
mythical, race. Many of these structures have a triple circle, some a double,
and a few single circles of stone round them.
In the thirty-fifth degree of
latitude, the Arizona Indians in North America have their rude altars to this
day, surrounded by precisely such circles, and their sacred spring, discovered
by Major Alfred R. Calhoun, F.G.S., of the United States Army Survey
Commission, is surrounded with the same symbolical wall of stones as is found
in Stonehenge and elsewhere.
By far the most interesting
and full account we have read for a long time of the Peruvian antiquities is
that from the pen of Dr. Heath, of
In the Jeguatepegue valley in
Here many thousands of men
were buried, and beside the skeletons were found in abundance ornaments of
gold, silver, copper, coral beads, etc.
—————
* See
322————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
On the north side of the river
are the extensive ruins of a walled city, two miles wide by six long. . .
follow the river to the mountains. All along you pass ruin after ruin and huaca
after huaca (burial places).
At Tolon there is another
ruined city. Five miles further up the river
There is an isolated boulder
of granite, four and six feet in its diameters, covered with hieroglyphics;
fourteen miles further, a point of mountain at the junction of two ravines is
covered to a height of more than fifty feet with the same class of
hieroglyphics—birds, fishes, snakes, cats, monkeys, men, sun, moon, and many
odd and now unintelligible forms. The rock on which these are cut is a
silicated sand stone, and many of the lines are an eighth of an inch deep. In
one large stone there are three holes, twenty to thirty inches deep, six inches
in diameter at the orifice and two at the apex . . .At Anchi, on the Rimac
river, upon the face of a perpendicular wall 200 feet above the river-bed,
there are two hieroglyphics, representing an imperfect B and a perfect D. In a
crevice below them, near the river, were found buried 25,000 dollars’ worth of
gold and silver. When the Incas learned of the murder of their chief, what did
they do with the gold they were bringing for his ransom ? Rumour says they
buried it. . . May not these markings at Yonan tell something, since they are
on the road and near to the Incal city?
The above was published in
November, 1878; when in October, 1877, in Isis Unveiled (vol. i. p. 595), I
gave a legend which, from circumstances too long to explain, I hold to be
perfectly trustworthy, relating to these same buried treasures for the Inca’s
ransom, a journal more satirical than polite classed it with the tales of Baron
Münchausen. The secret was revealed to me by a Peruvian. At
323————————————————————A
as high as he could reach in
exchange for his liberty” in 1532; he did fill it with 17,500,000 dollars’
worth of gold, and so kept his promise. But Pizarro, the swineherd of
There is a wall of unknown
make, cemented; the cement is harder than stone itself. . . At Chepen there is
a mountain with a wall twenty feet high, the summit being almost entirely
artificial. Fifty miles south of Pacaomayo, between the seaport of Huanchaco
and Truxillo, are the ruins of Chan-Chan, the capital city of the Chimoa
kingdom. . . . The road from the port to the city crosses these ruins, entering
by a causeway about four feet from the ground, and leading from one great mass
of ruins to another; beneath tins is a tunnel.
Be they forts, castles,
palaces, or burial mounds called “huacas,” all bear the name “huaca.” Hours of
wandering on horseback among these ruins give only a confused idea of them, nor
can any explorers there point out what were palaces and what were not. . . .
The highest enclosures must have cost an immense amount of labour.
To give an idea of the wealth
found in the country by the Spaniards we copy the following, taken from the
records of the municipality in the city of
Firstly.—In
Secondly.—On December 12th he
presented himself with five bars of gold, 15 and 19 carats ley, weighing 8,918
dollars.
Thirdly.—On
Fourthly—On March 8th he
brought sixteen bars of gold, 14 to 21 carats ley, weighing 21,118 dollars.
Fifthly.—On April 5 he brought
different ornaments of gold, being little belts of gold and patterns of
corn-heads and other things, of 14 carats ley, weighing 6,272 dollars.
Sixthly.—On April 20th he
brought three small bars of gold, 20 carats ley, weighing 4,170 dollars.
Seventhly.—On July 12th he
came with forty.seven bars, 14 to 21 carats ley, weighing 77,312 dollars.
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A MODERN PANARION.
Eightly.—On the same day he
came back with another portion of gold and ornaments of corn-heads and pieces
of effigies of animals, weighing 4,704 dollars.
The sum of these eight
bringings amounted to 278,174 gold dollars or Spanish ounces. Multiplied by
sixteen gives 4,450,784 silver dollars. Deducting the royal fifth 985,953.75
dollars—left 3,464,830.25 dollars as
Not far from Ancon, on a
circuit of six to eight miles,
On every side you see skulls,
legs, arms and whole skeletons lying about in the sand. . . At Parmayo,
fourteen miles further down north,
and on the sea—shore is
another great burying-ground. Thousands of skeletons lie about, thrown out by
the treasure-seekers. It has more than half a mile of cutting through it. . . .
It extends up the face of the hill from the sea-shore to the height of about
8oo feet.
. . .Whence come these hundreds
and thousands of peoples who are buried at Ancon ? Time and time again the
archæologist finds himself face to face with such questions, to winch he can
only shrug his shoulder and say with the natives—’’Quien Sabe?’’—who knows?
Dr. Hutchinson writes, under
date of October 3oth, 1872, in the South Pacific Times :
I am come to the conclusion
that Chancay is a great city of the dead, or has been an immense ossuary of
Peru; for go where you will, on a mountain top or level plain, or by the
sea-side, you meet at every turn skulls and bones of all description.
In the Huatica valley, which
is an extensive ruin, there are seventeen mounds, called huacas,’’ although,
remarks the writer, they present more the form of fortresses or castles than
burying-grounds.” A triple wall surrounded the city. These walls are often
three yards
325————————————————————A
in thickness and from fifteen
to twenty feet high. To the east of these is the enormous mound called Huaca of
Pando . . and the great ruins of fortresses, which natives entitle Huaca of the
The square plateau first
mentioned, at the base consists of two divisions each measuring a perfect
square forty-seven to forty eight yards; the two joining form the square of
ninety-six yards. Besides this, is another square of forty-seven to forty-eight
yards. On the top, returning again, we find the same symmetry of measurement in
the multiples of twelve, nearly all the ruins in this valley being the same, which
is a fact for the curious. Was it by accident or design?
The mound is a truncated
pyramidal form, and is calculated to contain a mass of 14,641,820 cubit feet of
material. . . . The “Fortress” is a huge structure, eighty feet high and 150
yards in measurement. Many large square rooms show their outlines on the top,
but are filled with earth. Who brought this earth here, and with what object
was the filling-up accomplished? The work of obliterating all space in these
rooms with loose earth must have been almost as great as the construction of
the building itself. . . . Two miles south we find another similar structure,
more spacious and with a greater number of apartments. . . It is nearly 170
yards in length, and 168 in breadth, and ninety-eight feet high. The whole of
these ruins• • • were enclosed by high walls of adobes—large mud bricks— some
from one to two yards in thickness, length and breadth. The “huaca” of the “
Near “Mira Flores” is
Ocheran—the largest mound in the Huatica valley. It has ninety-five feet of
elevation and a width of fifty-five yards on the summit, and a total length of
428 yards, or 1,284 feet,
326————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
another multiple of twelve. It
is enclosed by a double wall, 8 yards in length by 700 across, thus enclosing
117 acres. Between Ocharas and the ocean are from fifteen to twenty masses of
ruins like those already described.
The Inca temple of the Sun,
like the
Dr. Heath observes:
The coast of
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faces it has its internal one,
and no one knows how many it has on its back that is hidden in the masonry. In
the wall in the centre of the
The ruins in the islands in
At
At “Chavin de Huanta.’’ a town
in the
At Corralones, twenty-fonr
miles front
328————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
At Huaytar, in the
At Nazca, in the
At Quelap, not far from
Chochapayas, there have lately been examined some extensive works; a wall of
dressed stone, 560 feet wide, 3,660 long, and 150 feet high. The lower part is
solid. Another wall above this has 600 feet length, 500 width, and the same
elevation of 150 feet. There are niches over both walls three feet long, one
and a half wide and thick, containing the remains of the ancient inhabitants,
some naked, others enveloped in shawls of cotton of distinct colours and well
embroidered.
Following the entrances of the
second and highest wall, there are other sepulchres like small ovens, six feet
high and twenty-four in circumference; in their base are flags, upon which some
cadavers reposed. On the north side there is on the perpendicular rocky side of
the mountain a brick wall, having small windows, 600 feet from the bottom. No
reason for this, nor means of approach, can now be found. The skilful
construction of utensils of gold and silver that were found here, the ingenuity
and solidity of this gigantic work of dressed stone, make it also probably of
pre-Incal date. . . Estimating 500 ravines in the 1,200 miles of Peru, and ten
miles of terraces of fifty tiers to each ravine, which would only be five miles
of twenty-five tiers to each side, we have 250,000 miles of stone wall, averaging
three to four feet high—enough to encircle this globe ten times. Surprising as
these estimates may seem, I am fully convinced that all actual measurement
would more than double them, for these ravines vary from thirty to 100 miiles
in length. While at San Mateo, a town in the valley of the river Rimac, where
the mountains rise to a height of 1,500 or 2,000 feet above the river bed, I
counted 200 tiers, none of which were less than four and many more than six
miles long.
Dr. Heath then very pertinently
enquires:
Who then were these people,
cutting through sixty miles of granite; transplanting blocks of hard porphyry,
of Baalbec dimensions, miles from the place where quarried, across valleys
thousands of feet deep, over mountains, along plains, leaving no trace of how
or where they carried them; people (said to be) ignorant of the use of wood,
with the feeble llama their only beast of burden; who after having brought
these stones fitted them into other stones with mosaic precision; terracing
thousands of miles of mountain side; building lulls of adobes and earth, and
huge cities; leaving works in clay, stone, copper, silver, gold and embroidery,
many of which cannot he duplicated at the present age; people apparently vying
with Dives in riches, Hercules in strength and energy, and the ant and bee
industry?
329————————————————————A
Puiro, founded by Pizarro in
1531, was entirely destroyed in 1855, while the old ruins near by suffered
little. Arequipo was thrown down in August, 1868, but the ruins near show no
change. In engineering, at least, the present may learn from the past. We hope
to show that it may in most things else.
IV.
To refer all these cyclopean
constructions, then, to the days of the Incas, is, as we have shown before, yet
more inconsistent, and seems even a greater fallacy than that too common one of
attributing every rock-temple of
It is granted that the temple
of the Sun, at
The hieroglyphics of
The mysterious science of the
quipus supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to
one another, and of transmitting them to future generations.
Each locality, however, had
its own method of interpreting these elaborate records, hence a quipus was only
intelligible in the place where it was kept. Dr. Heath writes:
Many quipus have been taken
from the graves, in an excellent state of preservation in colour and texture,
but the lips that alone could pronounce the verbal key have
330————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
for ever ceased their
function, and the relic-seeker has failed to note the exact spot where each was
found, so that the records, which could tell so much we want to know, will
remain sealed till all is revealed at the last day
—if anything at all is
revealed then. But what is certainly as good as a revelation now, while our
brains are in function, and our mind is acutely alive to some preeminently
suggestive facts, is the incessant discoveries of archæology, ethnology and
other sciences. It is the almost irrepressible conviction that man having
existed upon earth millions of years—for all we know—the theory of cycles is
the only plausible theory to solve the great problems of humanity, the rise and
fall of numberless nations and races, and the ethnological differences among
the latter. This difference—which, though as marked as the one between a
handsome and intellectual European and a Digger Indian, yet makes the ignorant
shudder and raise a great outcry at the thought of destroying the imaginary
“great gulf between man and brute creation ‘‘—might thus be well accounted for.
The Digger Indian, then, in company with many other savage, though to him
superior, nations, which are evidently dying out to afford room to men and
races of a superior kind, would have to be regarded in the same light as so
many dying-out species of animals—and no more. Who can tell but that the
forefathers of this flat-headed savage—forefathers who may have lived and
prospered amidst the highest civilization before the glacial period—were in
arts and sciences far beyond those of the present civilization, though, it may
be, in quite another direction? That man has lived in
Near
The irresistible cycle in the
course of time brought down the descendants of the contemporaries of the late
inhabitant of this skeleton, and intellectually as well as physically they have
degenerated, as the present elephant has degenerated from his proud and
monstrous forefather, the antediluvian Sivatherium, whose fossil remains are
still
331———————————————————A
found in the
Even as regards knowledge and
power, the advance, which some claim as a characteristic feature of humanity,
is effected by exceptional individuals who arise in certain races under
favourable circumstances only, and is quite compatible with long intervals of
immobility, and even of decline,*
says a modern man of science.
This point is corroborated by what we see in the modern degenerate descendants
of the great and powerful races of ancient
How changed! How fallen from
their greatness must have been the Incas, when a little band of 160 men could
penetrate, uninjured, to their mountain homes, murder their worshipped kings
and thousands of their warriors, and carry away their riches, and that, too, in
a country where a few men with stones could resist an army successfully! Who
could recognize in the present Inichua and Aymara Indians their noble ancestry?
Thus writes Dr. Heath, and his
conviction that
—————
* Journal of Science for
February, art. “The Alleged Distinction between Man and Brute.’’
332———————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
of Eten in 10° S. latitude of
With such facts before us to
puzzle exact science herself, and show our entire ignorance of the past,
verily, we recognize no right of any man on earth— in geography or ethnology,
in exact or abstract sciences—to tell his neighbour, “So far shalt thou go, and
no further!”
But recognizing our debt of
gratitude to Dr. Heath of
Thirteen thousand years ago,
Vega or a lyræ was the north polar star; since then how many changes has she
seen in our planet! How many nations and races spring into life, rise to their
zenith of splendour, and then decay; and when we shall have been gone thirteen
thousand years, and once more she resumes her post at the north, completing a
“Platonic or Great Year,” think you that those who shall fill our places on the
earth at that time will be more conversant with our history than we are of
those that have passed? Verily might we exclaim, in terms almost psalmistic,
“Great God, Creator and Director of the Universe, what is man that Thou art
mindful of him!’’
Amen! ought to be the response
of such as yet believe in a God who is “the Creator and Director of the
Universe.”
WHICH FIRST—THE EGG OR THE
BIRD?
I Beg to present my warmest
thanks to Mr. William Simpson, F.R.G.S., the distinguished artist and
antiquary, who last year extended his researches to Peshawur valley and
elsewhere, and thereby so enriched the Lahore Museum, for kindly presenting me
with a copy of his very valuable paper, “Buddhist Architecture: Jellalabad,”
enriched with seven illustrations. Our thanks are none the less due to Mr.
Simpson, that in one point, and a very important one too, it is impossible for
either our Society or myself, to agree with his conclusions. The feature of Mr.
Simpson’s interesting and learned paper is, to quote the words of Mr. James Fergusson,
F.R.G.S., Past Vice-President, that every “form of art was imported into India,
and nothing ever came out of it” (the italics are mine). Mr. Simpson builds his
hasty conclusions upon the fact that most of the capitals of the pillars and
pilasters in the ruins of the valley of the Kabul river, are Corinthian, and
“the bases and mouldings generally are such as are most unmistakably derived
from the far west,” and finally that a “number of bell-shaped capitals,
surmounted by double animals which look like a reminiscence of the pillars of
Persepolis,” are also found in the caves of Karli, and other caves of India, as
well as in the valley of Peshawur.
I will not limit my protest in
this case to merely pointing to the words of Mr. Fergusson, who cautiously
remarks that “the similarity is, however, so remote that it is hardly
sufficient to sustain Mr. Simpson’s assertion that every form of art was
imported into
334—————————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
before. Lack of space forbids
me to enter upon the discussion more elaborately. Therefore, I will permit
myself only to say that Mr. Simpson’s present “assertion” remains as
hypothetical as before. Otherwise, we would have to decide a priori, whether
THE PRALAYA OF MODERN
SCIENCE
[Vol. II. No. I, October,
1880.]
IF’ Science is right, then the
future of our Solar System—hence of what we call the universe—offers but little
of hope or consolation for our descendants. Two of her votaries, Messrs.
Thompson and Klausius, have simultaneously reached the conclusive opinion that
the universe is doomed at some future, and not very remote period, to
destruction. Such is also the theory of several other astronomers, one and all
describing the gradual cooling off and the final dissolution of our planet in
terms nearly identical with those used by the greatest Hindu and even some of
the Greek sages. One might almost think he were reading over again Manu,
Kanâda, Kapila and others. The following are some of the newest theories of our
Western pandits.
All the ponderable masses
which must have separated themselves at the evolution or first appearance upon
the earth from the primeval mass of matter, will reunite themselves again into
one gigantic and boundless heavenly body, every visible movement in this mass
will be arrested, and alone the molecular motion will remain, which will
equally spread throughout this ponderous body under the form of heat,
say our scientists. Kanâda,
the atomist, the old Hindu sage, said as much. He remarks:
In creation two atoms begin to
be agitated, till at length they become separated from their former union and
then unite, by which a new substance is formed, which possesses the qualities
of the things from which it arose.
Lohschmidt, the Austrian
professor of mathematics and astronomy and the English astronomer, Proctor,
treating of the same subject, have both arrived at another and different view
of the cause from which will come the future dissolution of the world. They
attribute it to the gradual and slow cooling of the sun, which must result in
the final extinction of this planet some day. All the planets will then,
following
336—————————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
the law of gravitation, tumble
in upon the inanimate cold luminary, and coalesce with it into one huge body.
If this thing should happen, says the German savant, and such a period begins,
then it is impossible that it should last for ever, for such a state would not
be one of absolute equilibrium. During a wonderful period of time, the sun,
gradually hardening, will go on absorbing the radiant heat from the universal
space, and concentrating it around itself.
But let us listen to Professor
Tay upon this question. According to his opinion, the total cooling off of our
planet will bring with it this unavoidable death. Animal and vegetable life
which will have, previous to that event, shifted its quarters from the northern
and already frozen regions to the equator, will then finally and for ever
disappear from the surface of the globe, without leaving behind any trace of
its existence. The earth will be wrapped in dense cold and darkness; the now
ceaseless atmospheric motion will have changed into complete rest and silence;
the last clouds will have poured upon the earth their last rain; the course of
the streams and rivers bereaved of their vivifier and motor—the sun—will be
arrested, and the seas frozen into a mass. Our globe will have no other light
than the occasional glimmering of the shooting stars, which will not yet have
ceased to penetrate into and become inflamed in our atmosphere. Perhaps, too,
the sun under the influence of the cataclysm of the solar mass, will yet
exhibit for a time some signs of vitality, and heat and light will reenter it
for a short space of time; but the reaction will not fail to reassert itself,
for the sun, powerless and dying, will again become extinct, and this time for
ever. Such a change was remarked and actually took place in the now extinct
constellations of the Swan, the Crown, and the Ophiucus in the first period of
their cooling And the same fate will reach all the other planets, which,
meanwhile, obeying the law of inertia, will go on revolving around the extinct
sun Further on the learned astronomer depicts the last year of the expiring
globe in the very words of a Hindu philosopher describing the Pralaya:
Cold and death blow from the
northern pole, and spread along the entire face of the earth, nine-tenths of
which have already expired. Life, hardly perceptible, is all concentrated at
her heart—the equator—in the few remaining regions which are yet inhabited, and
where reigns a complete confusion of tongues and nationalities. The surviving
representatives of the human race are soon joined by the largest specimens of
animals which are also driven there by the intense cold. One object, one
aspiration, huddles together all this varied mass of beings—the struggle for
life. Groups of animals without distinction of kinds crowd together
337——————————————————THE PRALAVA OF MODERN SCIENCE.
into one herd in the hope of
finding some heat in the rapidly freezing bodies; snakes threaten no more with
their poisonous fangs, nor lions and tigers with their sharp claws; all that
each of them begs for is life—nothing but life, life to the last minute! At
last comes that last day, and the pale and expiring rays of the sun illuminate
the following gloomy scene: the frozen bodies of the last of the human family,
dead from cold and lack of air, on the shores of a likewise rapidly freezing
motionless sea.
The words may not be precisely
those of the learned professor, for they are utilized from notes taken in a
foreign language, but the ideas are literally his. The picture is indeed
gloomy, but the ideas, based upon scientific mathematical deductions, are not
new, and we have read in a Hindu author of the pre-Christian era a description
of the same catastrophe as given by Manu in a language far superior to this
one. The general reader is invited to compare, and the Hindu reader to see in
this one more corroboration of the great wisdom and knowledge of his
forefathers, who anticipated the modern researches in almost every thing.
Strange noises are heard
proceeding from every point. . . . These are the precursors of the Night of
Brahmâ. Dusk rises at the horizon and the sun passes away. Gradually light
pales, heat diminishes, uninhabitable spots multiply on the earth, the air
becomes more and more rarefied, the springs of waters dry up, the great rivers
see their waves exhausted, the ocean shows its sandy bottom, and plants die. .
. . Life and motion lose their force; planets can hardly gravitate in space;
they are extinguished one by one. Surya flickers and goes out; matter falls
into dissolution, and Brahmâ (the creative force) merges back into Dyaus, the
unrevealed, and his task being accomphshed he falls asleep. . .
Night for the universe has
come! (By VAMADEVA.)
THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY*
—————
[ Vol. II. Nos. 2, 4 and 7,
November,1880, and January and April, 1881.]
[Yoga, or human hibernation,
being only prolonged sleep, it is interesting to notice that there are
instances on record of individuals sleeping for weeks, months, nay, even for
years.]
We have ourself known a
Russian lady—Mme. Kashereninoff—whose sister, then an unmarried lady about
twenty-seven, slept regularly for six weeks at a time. After that period she
would awake, weak but not very exhausted, and ask for some milk, her habitual
food. At the end of a fortnight, sometimes three weeks, she would begin to show
the mistakable signs of somnolence, and at the end of a month fall into her
trance again. Thus it lasted for seven years, she being considered by the
populace a great saint. It was in 1841. What became of her after that we are
unable to say.
[Yoga has been differently
defined by different authorities. Some have defined it as mental abstraction
some have defined it as silent prayer; some have defined it as the
Here the author falls into an
unmistakable error He confounds the Râja with the Hatha Yogins, whereas the
former have nothing to do with the physical training of the Hatha nor with any
other of the innumerable sects who have now adopted the name and emblems of
Yogins. Wilson, in his Essays on the Religions of the Hindus, falls into the
same confusion, and knows very little, if anything at all of the true Râja
Yogins, who have no more to do with Shiva than with Vishnu, or any other deity.
Alone, the most learned among the Shankara’s Dandins of Northern India,
especially those who are settled in Râjputâna, would be able—if they were
willing—to give some correct notions about the
—————
* The paragraphs in small type
within square brackets are summarized from an article in The Theosophist to
which H. P. B. attached notes. We insert them to render the comments
intelligible.
339—————————————————————THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
Râja Yogins; for these men,
who have adopted the philosophical tenets of Shankara’s Vedânta are, moreover,
profoundly versed in the doctrines of the Tantras—termed devilish by those who
either do not understand them or reject their tenets with some preconceived
object. If in speaking of the Dandins we have used above the phrase beginning
with the conjunction “if,” it is because we happen to know how carefully the
secrets of the real Yogins—nay even their existence itself—are denied within
this fraternity. It is comparatively but lately that the usual excuse adopted
by them, in support of which they bring their strongest authorities, who affirm
that the Yoga state is unattainable in the present or Kali age, has been set afloat
by them. “From the unsteadiness of the senses, the prevalence of sin in the
Kali, and the shortness of life, how can exaltation by Yoga be obtained?”
enquires Kâshikhanda. But this declaration can be refuted in two words and with
their own weapons. The duration of the present Kali Yuga is 432,000 years, of
which 4,979 have already expired. It is at the very beginning of Kali Yuga that
It is not that among the Hatha
Yogins—men who at times had reached through a physical and well-organized
system of training the highest powers as “wonder workers”—there has never been
a man worthy of being considered as a true Yogin. What we say is simply this:
the Râja Yogin trains but his mental and intellectual powers, leaving the
physical alone and making but little of the exercise of phenomena simply of a
physical character. Hence it is the rarest thing in the world to find a real
Yogin boasting of being one, or willing to exhibit such powers—though he does
acquire them as well as the one practising Hath Yoga, but through another and
far more intellectual system. Generally they deny these powers point-blank, for
reasons but too well grounded. The former need not even belong to any apparent
order of ascetics, and are oftener known as private individuals than members of
a religious fraternity, nor need they necessarily be Hindus. Kabir, who was one
of them, fulminates against most of the later sects
340—————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
of mendicants who occasionally
become warriors when not simply brigands, and sketches them with a masterly
hand:
I never beheld, such a Yogin ,
0 brother! who, forgetting his doctrine, roves about in negligence. He follows
professedly the faith of Mahadeva and calls himself an eminent teacher: the
scene of his abstraction is the fair or the market. Maya. is the mistress of
the false saint. When did Dattatraya demolish a dwelling When did Sukhadeva
collect an armed host? When did Nârada mount a matchlock? When did Vyâsadeva
blow a trumpet? etc.
Therefore, whenever the
author—Dr. Paul—speaks of Râja Yoga, the Hatha simply is to be understood.
[Minute directions then follow
for the practising of postures, the repetition of Mantras; and Yamyasana and
Pranayama, or the inspiration and suspension of the breath.]
All the above are, as we said
before, the practices of Hatha Yoga, and conducive but to the production of
physical phenomena affording very rarely flashes of real clairvoyance, unless
it be a kind of feverish state of artificial ecstasy. If we publish them, it is
merely for the great value we set upon this information as liable to afford a
glimpse of truth to sceptics, by showing them that even in the case of the
Hatha Yogins, the cause for the production of the phenomena as well as the results
obtained can be all explained scientifically; and that therefore there is no
need to either reject the phenomena a priori and without investigation or to
attribute them to any but natural, though occult powers, more or less latent in
every man and woman.
[Dr. Paul next describes the
eight varieties. Kumbhaka, which Yogins practise with a view to study the
nature of the Soul. Khechari Mudra. is the lengthening the tongue by splitting
and then “milking” it until it is long enough to be turned back into the
gullet, and, with its point, to press the epiglottis and so close the rima
glottidis, which confines the inspired air within the system, the lungs and
intestines being completely filled. By this practice he becomes insensible to
every thing that is external. ‘‘Without it,” says Dr. Paul, “He can never be
absorbed into God.”]
As the science and study of
Yoga Philosophy pertains to Buddhist, Lamaic and other religions supposed to be
atheistical, i.e., rejecting belief in a personal deity, and as a Vedântin
would by no means use such an expression, we must understand the term
“absorption into God” in the sense of union with the Universal Soul, or
Parama-Purusha—the primal or One Spirit.
[Directions are then given for
the practice of Mulabandha, a process by which youth is said to be restored to
an old man.]
341———————————————————THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
This posture will hardly have
the desired effect unless its philosophy is well understood and it is practised
from youth. The appearance of old age, when the skin has wrinkled and the
tissues have relaxed, can be restored but temporarily, and with the help of
Mâyâ. The Mulabandha is simply a process to throw oneself into sleep (thus
gaining the regular hours of sleep).
[Ujjayi Kumbhaka. Assume the
posture called Sukhasana, render the two nostrils free by the first Kumbhaka,
inspire through both nostrils, fill the stomach and throat with the inspired
air, and then expire slowly through the left nostril. He that practises this
Kumbhaka cures all diseases dependent upon deficient inhala tion of oxygen.
And if anyone feels inclined
to sneer at the novel remedy employed by the Yogins to cure “coryza,” “worms”
and other diseases—which is only a certain mode of inhalation—his attention is
invited to the fact that these illiterate and superstitious ascetics seem to
have only anticipated the discoveries of modern science. One of the latest is
reported in the last number of the New York Medical Record (Sept.,1888), under
the title of “A New and Curious Plan for Deadening Pain.” The experiments were
made by Dr Bonwill, a well-known physician of
In 1875 Dr. A. Hewson made a
favourable report of his experience with it to the International Medical
Congress, and at a recent meeting of the Philadelphia County Medical Society
several papers were read on the subject, and much discussion followed. In using
the method, the operator merely requests the patient to breathe rapidly, making
about one hundred respirations per minute, ending in rapid puffing expirations.
At the end of from two to five minutes an entire or partial absence of pain
results for half a minute or more, and during that time teeth may be drawn or incisions
made. The patient may be in any position, but that recommended is lying on the
side, and it is generally best to throw a handkerchief over the face to prevent
distraction of the patient’s attention. When the rapid breathing is first begun
the patient may feel some exhilaration , following this comes a sensation of
fulness in the head or dizziness. The face is at first flushed and afterwards
pale or even bluish, the heart beats rather feebly and fast, but the sense of
touch is not affected, nor is consciousness lost. The effect is produced more
readily in females than in males, and in middle—aged more easily than in the
old; children can hardly be made to breathe properly. It is denied that there
is any possible danger. Several minor operations, other than dental ones, have
been successfully made by this method, and it is claimed that in dentistry,
surgery and obstetrics it may supplant the common anæsthetics. Dr. Hewson’s
explanation is that rapid breathing diminishies the oxygenation of the blood, and
that the resultant excess of carbonic acid temporarily poisons the nerve
centres. Dr. Bonwill gives several explanations, one
342————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
being the specific effect of
carbonic acid, another the diversion of will-force produced by rapid voluntary
muscular action, and, third, the damming up of the blood in the brain, due to
the excessive amount of air passing into the lungs. The Record is not satisfied
with the theories, but considers it well proved that pain may be deadened by
the method, which it commends to the profession for the experimental
determination of its precise value.
And if it be well proved that
about one hundred respirations per minute ending in rapid puffing expirations
can successfully deaden pain, then why should not a varied mode of inhaling
oxygen be productive of other and still more extraordinary results, yet unknown
to Science, but awaiting her future discoveries?
[After speaking at some length
concerning Samâdhi and of the various branches of Raja Yoga, Dr. Paul’s remarks
call forth the following note.]
This system, evolved by long
ages of practice until it was brought to bear the above-described results, was
not practised in India alone in the days of antiquity The greatest philosophers
of all countries sought to acquire these powers, and, certainly, behind the
external ridiculous postures of the Yogins of to-day, lies concealed the
profound wisdom of the archaic ages, one that included among other things a
perfect knowledge of what are now termed physiology and psychology. Ammonius
Saccas, Porphyry, Proclus and others practised it in
Christian ascetics themselves through a mere life of contemplation and
self-torture acquire powers of levitation or æthrobacy, which, though
attributed to the miraculous intervention of a personal God, are nevertheless
real and time result of physiological changes in the human body Says Patanjali:
The Yogin will hear celestial
sounds, the songs and conversations of celestial choirs. He will have the
perception of their touch in their passage through the air,
which, translated into more
sober language, means that the ascetic is enabled to see with the spiritual eye
in the Astral Light, hear with the spiritual ear subjective sounds inaudible to
others, and live and feel, so to say, in the Unseen Universe.
The Yogin is able to enter a
dead or a living body by the path of the senses, and in this body to act as
though it were his own.
343—————————————————————THE
YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
The “path of the senses”; our
physical senses, supposed to originate in the astral body, the ethereal counterpart
of man, or the jivâtma, which dies with the body; the senses are here meant in
their spiritual sense—volition of the higher principle in man. The true Râja
Yogin is a stoic; and Kapila, who deals but with the latter—utterly rejecting
the claim of the Hatha Yogins to converse during Samâdhi with the Infinite
Ishvara—describes their state in the following words:
To a Yogin in whose mind all
things are identified as spirit, what is infatuation ? What is grief? He sees
all things as one; he is destitute of affections; he neither rejoices in good
nor is offended with evil. . . A wise man sees so many false things in those
which are called true, so much misery in what is called happiness, that he
turns away with disgust he who in the body has obtained liberation (from the
tyranny of the senses) is of no caste, of no sect, of no order, attends to no
duties, adheres to no shastras, to no formulas, to no works of merit; he is
beyond the reach of speech; he remains at a distance from all secular concerns;
he has renounced the love and the knowledge of all sensible objects; he
flatters none, he honours none, he is not worshipped, he worships none; whether
he practises and follows the customs of his fellow-men or not this is his
character.
And a selfish and a disgustingly
misanthropical one this character would be were it that for which the True
Adept was striving. But it must not be understood literally, and we shall have
something more to say upon the subject in the following article, which will
conclude Dr. Paul’s essay on yoga Philosophy.
[One of the practices followed
by the Hatha Yogin is called Dhauti. This is the act of swallowing a bandage of
linen moistened with water, measuring three inches in breadth and fifteen
cubits in length. This is rather a difficult process. But very few fakirs can
practise it.]
And a happy thing it is that
the process is so difficult, as we do not know of anything half so disgusting.
No true Râja Yogin will ever condescend to practise it. Besides, as every
physician can easily tell, the process, if repeated, becomes a very dangerous
one for the experimenter. There are other “processes” still more hideous, and
as use less for psychological purposes.
[Nor does his hair grow during
the time he remains buried.]
In reference to the arrest of
the growth of the hair, some adepts in the secret science claim to know more
than this. They prove their ability to completely suspend the functions of life
each night during the hours intended for sleep. Life then is, so to say, held
in total abeyance. The wear and tear of the inner as well as the outer organ-
344—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
ism being thus artificially
arrested, and there being no possibility of waste, these men accumulate as much
vital energy for use in their waking state as they would have lost in sleep,
during which state, if natural, the process of energy and expense of force is
still mechanically going on in the human body. In the induced state described,
as in that of a deep swoon, the brain no more dreams than if it were dead. One
century, if passed, would appear no longer than one second, for all perception
of time is lost for him who is subjected to it. Nor do the hairs or nails grow
under such circumstances, though they do for a certain time in a body actually
dead, which proves, if anything can, that the atoms and tissues of the physical
body are held under conditions quite different from those of the state we call
death. For, to use a physiological paradox, life in a dead animal organism is
even more intensely active than it ever is in a living one, which, as we see,
does not hold good in the case under notice. Though the average sceptic may
regard this statement as sheer nonsense those who have experienced this in
themselves know it as an undoubted fact.
Two certain fakirs from Nepaul
once agreed to try the experiment. One of them, previous to attempting the
hibernation, underwent all the ceremonies of preparation as described by Dr.
Paul, and took all the necessary precautions; the other simply threw himself by
a process known to himself and others into that temporary state of complete
paralysis which imposes no limits of time, may last months as well as hours,
and which is known in certain Tibetan lamaseries as .
The result was that while the
hair, beard and nails of the former had grown at the end of six weeks, though
feebly Yet perceptibly, the cells of the latter had remained as closed and
inactive as if he had been transformed for that lapse of time into a marble
statue. Not having personally seen either of these men, or the experiment, we
can vouch only in a general way for the possibility of the phenomenon, not for
the details of this peculiar case, though we would as soon doubt our existence
as the truthfulness of those from whom we have the story. We only hope that
among the sceptical and materialistic who may scoff, we may not find either
people who nevertheless accept with a firm and pious conviction the story of
the resurrection of the half decayed Lazarus amid other like miracles, or yet
those who while ready to crush a Theosophist for his beliefs, would never dare
to scoff at those of a Christian.
345—————————————————————THE
YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
[A Yogin acquires an increase
of specific gravity by swallowing great draughts of the air, and compressing
the same within the system.]
This is what, three years ago,
in describing the phenomenon in Isis Unveiled we called “interpolarization.”
(See vol. i. op. cit., pp.23 and 24.)
[On the powers resulting from
Prâpti, it is said . .]
As a deaf and dumb person
learns to understand the exact meaning of what is said simply from the motion
of the lips and face of the speaker, and without understanding any language
phonetically, other and extra senses can be developed in the soul as well as in
the physical mind of a mute, a sixth and equally phenomenal sense is developed
as the result of practice, which supplies for him the lack of the other two.
Magnetic and mesmeric aura, or
“fluid,” can he generated and intensified in every man to an almost miraculous
extent, unless he be by nature utterly passive.
We have known of such a
faculty (divining the thoughts of others) to exist in individuals who were far
from being adepts or Yogins, and had never heard of the latter It can be easily
developed by intense will, perseverance and practice, especially in persons who
are born with natural analytical powers, intuitive perception, and a certain
aptness for observation and penetration. These may, if they only preserve
perfect purity, develop the faculty of divining people’s thoughts to a degree
which seems almost supernatural. Some very clever but quite uneducated
detectives in
The dual soul is no fancy and
may be one day explained in scientific language, when the psycho-physiological
faculties of man shall be better studied, when the possibility of many a
now-doubted phenomenon is discovered, and when truth will no longer be
sacrificed to conceit, vanity and routine. Our physical senses have nothing to
do with the spiritual or psychological faculties. The latter begin their action
where the former stop, owing to that Chinese wall about the soul empire, called
matter.
[Concerning the power called
Vashitva, it is observed . .]
346—————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Perhaps the Hobilgans and the
Shaberons of Tibet might have something to tell us if they chose. The great
secret which enwraps the mystery of the reincarnations of their great
Dalay-Lamas, their supreme Hobilgans, and others who as well as the former are
supposed, a few days after their enlightened souls have laid aside their mortal
clothing, to reincarnate themselves in young, and, previously to that, very
weak bodies of children, has never yet been told. These children, who are
invariably on the point of death when designated to have their bodies become
the tabernacles of the souls of deceased Buddhas, recover immediately after the
ceremony, and, barring accident, live long years, exhibiting trait for trait
the same peculiarities of temper, characteristics and predilections as the dead
man’s. Vashitva is also said to be the power of taming living creatures and of
making them obedient to one’s own wishes and orders.
[Pythagoras who visited
These are mesmeric feats and
it is only by (in)exact scientists that mesmerism is denied in our days. It is
largely treated of in
[Ishatwa or divine power. When
the passions are restrained from their desires, the mind becomes tranquil and
the soul is awakened.]
In which case it means that
the soul, being liberated from the yoke of the body through certain practices,
discipline and purity of life, during the lifetime of the latter, acquires
powers identical with its primitive element, the universal soul. It has
overpowered its material custodian; the terrestrial gross appetites and
passions of the latter, from being its despotic masters, have become its
slaves, hence the soul has become free henceforth to exercise its
transcendental powers,
untrammelled by any fetters.
[ regard to restoring the dead
to life.]
Life once extinct can never be
recalled, but another life and another soul can sometimes reanimate the
abandoned frame, if we may believe learned men who were never known to utter an
untruth.
Wherever the word “soul” has
occurred in the course of the above comments, the reader must bear in mind that
we do not use it in the sense of an immortal principle in man, but in that of
the group of personal qualities which are but a congeries of material particles
whose term of survival beyond the physical, or material, personality is for a
347—————————————————————THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
longer or shorter period,
proportionately with the grossness or refinement of the individual. Various
correspondents have asked whether the Siddhis of Yoga call only be acquired by
the rude training of Hatha Yoga; and The Journal of Science (London) assuming
that they cannot, launched out in the violent expressions which were recently
quoted in these pages. But the fact is that there is another, an
unobjectionable and rational process, the particulars of which cannot be given
to tile idle enquirer, and which must not even be touched upon at the latter
end of a commentary like the present one. The subject may be reverted to at a
more favourable time.
A YEAR OF THEOSOPHY
————————————————————
[Vol. II. No. 4,
January,1881.]
THE dial of time marks off
another of the world’s hours......
And as the old year passes
into eternity, like a rain-drop falling into the ocean, its vacant place on the
calendar is occupied by a successor which, if one may credit the ancient
prophetic warnings of Mother Shipton and other seers, is to bring woe and
disaster to some portions of the world. Let it go with its joys and triumphs,
its badness and bitterness, if it but leave behind for our instruction the
memory of our experience and the lesson of our mistakes. Wise is he who lets
“the dead past bury its dead,” and turns with courage to meet the fresher duties
of the New Year; only the weak and foolish bemoan the irrevocable. It will be
well to take a brief retrospect of those incidents of the year 1880 (A.D.)
which possess an interest for members of the Theosophical Society. The more so
since, in consequence of the absence from
It will not be necessary to
enter minutely into those details of administration which, however important in
themselves as links, weak or strong, in the general chain of progress, and
however they may have taxed the patience, nerves, or other resources of the
chief officers, do not at all interest the public. It is not so much
explanation as results that are demanded, and these in our case abound. Even
our worst enemy would he forced to admit, were he to look closely into our
transactions, that the Society is immeasurably stronger morally, numerically,
and as regards a capacity for future usefulness, than it was a year ago. Its
name has become most widely known; its fellow ship has been enriched by the
accession of some very distinguished men; it has planted new branch societies
in India, Ceylon and else where; applications are now pending for the
organization of still other branches, in California, India, Australia and
elsewhere; its Magazine
349————————————————————A YEAR
OF THEOSOPHY
has successfully entered the
second volume; its local issues with the government of India have been finally
and creditably settled; a mischievous attempt by a handful of malcontents at
Bombay to disrupt it has miserably failed.* It has made official alliances with
the Sanskrit Samâj of Benares, that is to say, with the most distinguished body
of orthodox Sanskrit pandits in the world, with the other Sabhâ of which Pandit
Râma Misra Shâstri is manager, and with the Hindu Sabhâ, of Cochin State;
while, at the same time, strengthening its fraternal relations with the Arya
Samâjes of the Punjab and North-Western Provinces. Besides all this, we can
point with joy and pride to the results of the late mission to Ceylon, where,
within the space of fifty-seven days, seven branch societies of Buddhist
laymen, one Ecclesiastical Council of Buddhist priests, and one scientific
society were organized, and some hundreds of new fellows were added to our
list.
All this work could not be
accomplished without great labour, mental anxiety and physical discomfort. If
to this be added the burden of a correspondence with many different countries,
and the time required for making two journeys to Northern India and one to
Ceylon, our friends at a distance will see that whatever other blame may
properly attach to the founders, who have never claimed infallibility of any
sort, that of laziness is assuredly not to be cast in their teeth. Nor, when
they learn that the work done since leaving America, the travelling expenses
and the fitting and maintenance of the Head quarters’ establishment have cost
some Rs. 20,000, while the cash receipts of the treasurer (exclusive of those
from Ceylon, Rs. 2,440, which sum is set aside as a special fund to be used in
the interests of Buddhism) have been only one thousand two hundred and forty
rupees, all told, including one donation of Rs.200 from the universally
respected Mâhârani Svarnamayi, and another of Rs. 20 from a well-wisher in
Bengal, will those who direct the Society’s affairs be regarded by them as
making money out of their offices? And these figures. which may most readily be
verified, are our only answer to the calumnies which have maliciously been
circulated by some who did not and others who did know the truth.
The trip to
—————————————————————————
* Secret letters by former
members denouncing its founders, sent to Parisian and other Theosophists, and
pretending that the Bombay Society was virtually extinct (its best members
having resigned), were sent hack to us with new protestations of friendship and
loyalty and expressions Of scorn for the conspirators.—[Ed. Theos.]
350—————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
from Bombay on duty
twenty-nine weeks out of the fifty-two; their travels extending through twenty-five
degrees of latitude, from Lahore at the extreme north of India to Matara, the
southernmost point of ancient Lanka. Each of the Indian Presidencies has
contributed a quota of new members; and at the former capital of the late lion
hearted Runjeet Singh, a branch was recently organized by Sikhs and Punjabis
under the title of the “Punjab Theosophical Society.” During the twelvemonth,
President Olcott delivered seventy-nine lectures and addresses, a majority of
which were interpreted in the Hindi, Urdu, Guzerati and Singhalese languages.
Many misconceptions prevail as
to the nature and objects of the Theosophical Society. Some—Sir Richard Temple
in the number— fancy it is a religious sect; many believe it is composed of
atheists; a third party are convinced that its sole object is the study of
occult science and the initiation of green hands into the Sacred Mysteries. If
we have had one we certainly have had a hundred intimations from strangers that
they were ready to join at once if they could be sure that they would shortly
be endowed with Siddhis, or the power to work occult phenomena. The beginning
of a new year is a suitable time to make one more attempt—we wish it could be
the last—to set these errors right. So, then, let us again say: (1) The Theosophical
Society teaches no new religion, aims to destroy no old one, promulgates no
creed of its own, follows no religious leader, and distinctly and emphatically
is not a sect nor ever was one. It admits worthy people of any religion to
membership on condition of mutual tolerance and mutual help to discover truth.
The founders have never consented to be taken as religious leaders, they
repudiate any such idea, and they have not taken and will not take disciples.
(2) The Society is not composed of atheists, nor is it any more conducted in
the interest of atheism than in that of deism or polytheism. It has members of
almost every religion, and is on equally friendly terms with each and all. (
Not a majority, nor even a respectable minority numerically speaking, of its
fellows are students of occult science or ever expect to become adepts. All who
care for the information have been told what sacrifices are necessary in order
to gain the higher knowledge, and few are in a position to make one tenth of
them. He who joins our Society gains no Siddhis by that act, nor is there any
certainty that he will even see any phenomena, let alone meet with an adept.
Some have enjoyed both these opportunities, and so the possibility of the
phenomena and the
351—————————————————————A YEAR
OF THEOSOPHY.
existence of Siddhis do not
rest upon our unverified assertions. Those who have seen things have perhaps
been allowed to do so on account of some personal merit detected by those who
showed them the Siddhis, or for other reasons known to themselves and over
which we have no control.
For thousands of years these
things have, whether rightly or wrongly, been guarded as sacred mysteries, and
Asiatics at least need not be reminded that often even after months or years of
the most faithful and assiduous personal service, the disciples of a Yogi have
not been shown “miracles” or endowed with powers. What folly, therefore, to
imagine that by entering any society one might make a short cut to adeptship!
The weary traveller along a strange road is grateful even to find a guide-post
that shows him his way to his place of destination. Our Society, if it does
naught else, performs this kindly office for the searcher after truth. And it
is much.
Before closing, one word must
be said in correction of an unfortunate impression that has got abroad. Because
our pamphlet of rules mentions a relationship between our Society and certain
proficients in Occult Science, or “Mahâtmâs,” many persons fancy that these
great men are personally engaged in the practical direction of its affairs; and
that in such a case, being primarily responsible for the several mistakes that
have occurred in the admission of unworthy members and in other matters, they
can neither be so wise, so prudent, nor so far-seeing as is claimed for them.
It is also imagined that the President and Corresponding Secretary (especially
the latter) are, if not actually Yogis and Mahâtmâs themselves, at least
persons of ascetic habits, who assume superior moral excellence. Neither of
these suppositions is correct, and both are positively absurd. The
administration of the Society is, unless in exceptionally important crises,
left to the recognized officials, and they are wholly responsible for all the
errors that are made. Many may doubtless have been made, and our management may
be very faulty, but the wonder is that no more have occurred, if the
multiplicity of duties necessarily imposed upon the two chief officers and the
world-wide range of activity be taken into account. Colonel Olcott and Madame
Blavatsky do not pretend to asceticism, nor would it be possible for them to
practise it while in the thick of the struggle to win a permanent foothold for
the Society in the face of every possible obstacle that a selfish,
sensuality-loving world puts in the way. What either of them has heretofore
been, or either
352—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
or both may in the future
become, is quite a different affair. At present they only claim to be trying
honestly and earnestly, so far as their natural infirmities of character
permit, to enforce by example and precept the ideas which are embodied in’ the
purposes and rules of the Theosophical Society. Once or twice ill-wishers have
publicly taunted us with not having given practical proofs of our alleged
affection for
“A WORD WITH OUR FRIENDS”
————————
[ II. No. 4 (Supplement),
January, 1881.]
THAT cause must be weak and
desperate, indeed, that has to resort to the arts of the slanderer to prop it
up and injure its victims. And it is truly lamentable to see people adopting
these tactics against the Theosophical Society and its founders. Soon after we
reached
354—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
selves, too enthusiastic, too
unusual in foreigners to be readily believed in by natives without some more
substantial proof than our simple word—we have been surrounded by more enemies
and opponents than by friends and sympathizers; and that we two are strangers
to rulers as well as the ruled, we believe that no available proof should be
with held that will show that, at least, we are honest and peaceful people, if
not actually that which we know ourselves to be—most sincere friends of India
and her sons. Our personal honour, as well as the honour of the whole Society,
is at stake at the present moment. “Tell me what your friends are and I will
tell you what you are,” is a wise saying. A man at Colonel Olcott’s time of
life is not likely to so change in character as to abandon his country, where
he has such an honourable past and where his income was so large as it was, to
come to
The breaking out of the
fearful civil war in
355———————————————————“A WORD WITH OUR FRIENDS.”
from a severe illness
contracted in the field, was offered by the late Secretary of War the highly
honourable and responsible appointment of Special Commissioner of the War
Department; and two years later, was, at the request of the late Secretary of
the Navy, ordered on special duty in connection with that branch of the
service, additional to his regular duties in the War Department. His services
were most conspicuous, as his papers—which include a complimentary report to
the U.S. Senate, by the Secretary of the Navy—prove.
At the close of the war the
national army of one million men was quietly disbanded, and was reäbsorbed back
into the nation as though nothing had happened. Colonel Olcott resumed his profession,
and was shortly invited to take the secretaryship and practical direction of
the National Insurance Convention—a conference or league of the officials of
the various state governments for the purpose of codifying and simplifying the
laws affecting insurance companies. Accepting, he was thus for two years or
more in the closest contact with, and the trusted adviser of some of the
leading state public functionaries of the Union ; and a statute drafted by him,
in connection with another well-known legal gentleman (Mr. Abbott) was passed
by ten state legislatures and became law. What his public services were in this
connection, and how he was thanked and honoured for them, may readily be seen
by consulting the two large volumes of the
Convention’s ‘‘Transactions,’’ which are in the Library of the Theosophical
Society, at Bombay.
This brings us down to the
year 1872. In 1876 he was deputed by His Honour the Mayor of New York City to
collect a public subscription in aid of a charitable object. In 1877 he was one
of an International Committee chosen by the Italian residents of
—formed to secure a worthy
representation of American arts and industries at the Paris “Exposition
Universelle,” of 1878. In the following year he left New York for India, and
just before sailing received from the President and Secretary of State a
diplomatic pass port, such as is only issued to the most eminent American
citizens, and circular autograph letters recommending him to the particular
favour of all U.S. Ministers and Consuls, as a gentleman who had been requested
to promote in every practicable and proper way the
356—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
mutual commercial relations of
the
(Signed) H. P. BLAVATSKY.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED ABOUT
YOGA VIDYA
————
[Vol. II. No. 5, February,
1881.]
A HINDU gentleman of the
Madras Presidency propounds a number of questions about Occult Science which we
answer in these columns, as the information is often demanded of us and we can
reach all at once in this way.
Q.—Do you or Colonel Olcott
undertake to teach this wonderful Vidyâ to anyone who may be anxious to learn
it?
A.—No; the correspondent is
referred to our January number for remarks upon this point.
Q.—Would you like to give
proofs of the existence of occult powers in man to anyone who may be
sceptically inclined, or who may desire to have his faith strengthened, as you
have given to Mr. and Mrs. —— and the editor of The Amrita Bazar Patrika?
A—We would “like” that
everyone should have such proofs who needs them, but, as the world is rather
full of people—some twenty- four crores being in India alone—the thing is
impracticable. Still such proofs have always been found by those who sought
them in earnest, from the beginning of time until now. We found them—in
Q.—Can you give such proofs to
one like myself, who is at a great distance; or must I come to
A.—Answered above. We would
not undertake to do this thing, even if we could, for we would be run down with
thousands of curiosity-seekers, and our life become a burden.
Q.—Can a married man acquire
the Vidyâ?
A.—No, not while a Grihasta.
You know the invariable rule was that a boy was placed at a tender age under
his Guru for this training;
358—————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
he stopped with him until he
was twenty—five to thirty; then lived as a married man fifteen to twenty years;
finally retired to the forest to resume his spiritual studies. The use of
liquors, of beef, and certain other meats and certain vegetables, and the
relations of marriage, prevent spiritual development.
Q.—Does God reveal himself by
inspiration to a Yogi?
A.—Every man has his own ideas
about “God.” So far as we have learned, the Yogi discovers his God in his inner
self, his Atmâ. When he reaches that point he is inspired—by the union of
himself with the Universal, Divine Principle—Parabrahman. With a personal God—a
God who thinks, plots, rewards, punishes and repents are not acquainted. Nor do
we think any Yogi ever saw such a one—unless it be true, as a missionary
affirmed the other day, at the close of Colonel Olcott’s lecture at Lahore,
that Moses, who had murdered a man in Egypt, and the adulterous murderer
(David), were Yogis!
Q.—If any Adept has power to
do anytlnng he likes, as Colonel Olcott said in his lecture at Simla,* can he
make me, who am hungering and thirsting after the Vidyâ, a thorough Adept like
himself?
A.—Colonel Olcott is no Adept
and never boasted of being one. Does our friend suppose any Adept ever became
such without making himself one, without breaking through every impediment
through sheer force of will and soul-power? Such adeptship would be a mere
farce. “An Adept becomes, he is not made,” was the motto of the ancient Rosicrucians.
Q.—How is it that in the
presence of such clear proof the most civilized nations still continue to be
sceptical?
A.—The peoples referred to are
Christian, and although Jesus declared that all who believed in him should have
the power to do all manner of wonders (see Mark, xxvi. 17, 18), like a Hindu
Yogi’s, Christendom has been waiting in vain some eighteen centuries to see
them. And now, having become total disbelievers in the possibility of such
Siddhis, they must come to
Q.—Why does Colonel Olcott fix
the year 1848 as the time from which occult phenomena have occurred?
A .—Our friend should read
more carefully, and not put us to the trouble to answer questions that are
quite useless. What Colonel Olcott did say was that modern Spiritualism dates
from 1848.
—————————————————————————
* Colonel Olcott said nothing
of the kind.
359—————————————————QUESTIONS ANSWERED ABOUT YOGA VIDYA
Q.—Are there any such mediums
in
A.—We do not know, but suspect
there are. We heard of a case at
Q.—How do these mediums get
their powers; by a course of training, or as the result of an accident of their
constitution?
A.—Mediums are mainly so from
birth; theirs is a peculiar psycho physiological constitution. But some of the
most noted mediums of our times have been made so by sitting in circles. There
is in many persons a latent mediumistic faculty, which can be developed by
effort and the right conditions. The same remark applies to adeptship. We all
have the latent germs of adeptship in us, but in the case of some individuals
it is infinitely easier to bring them into activity than in others.
Q.—Colonel Olcott repudiates
the idea of spirit agency as necessary to account for the production of
phenomena, yet I have read that a certain scientist sent spirits to visit the
planets and report what they saw there.
A—Perhaps reference is made to
Professor William Denton, the American geologist, author of that interesting
work, The Soul of Things. His explorations were made through psychometry, his
wife—a very intellectual lady though a great sceptic as to spirits—being the
psychometer. Our correspondent should read the book.
Q.—What becomes of the spirits
of the departed?
A—There is but one
“Spirit”—Parabrahman, or by whatever other name one chooses to call the Eternal
Principle. The “souls” of the departed pass through many other stages of
existence after leaving this earth-body, just as they were in many others
anterior to their birth as men and women here. The exact truth about this
mystery is known only to the highest Adepts; but it may be said even by the
lowest of the neophytes that each of us controls his future rebirths, making
each next succeeding one better or worse according to his present efforts and
deserts.
360——————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
Q.—Is asceticism necessary for
Yoga?
A—Yoga exacts certain
conditions which will be found described at p. 47 of our December number. One
of these conditions is seclusion in a place where the Yogi is free from all
impurities—whether physical or moral. In short, he must get away from the
immoral atmosphere of the world. If anyone has by such study gained powers, he
cannot remain long in the world without losing the greater part of his powers—
and that the higher and nobler part. So that, if any such person is seen for
many consecutive years labouring in public, and neither for money nor fame, it
should be known that he is sacrificing himself for the good of his fellow-men.
Some day such men seem to suddenly die, and their supposed remains are disposed
of; but yet they may not be dead. “Appearances are deceitful,” the proverb
says.
THE MISSING LINK
———————
[Vol. II. No. 5, February,
1881.]
A GOOD many of the Western
papers are terribly excited over a bit of news just arrived in
This original little sample of
humanity—unique, we believe, of his kind—is now made out by the disciples of
Darwin and Hæckel to be the bona (bony?) fide missing link. Let us suppose, for
argument’s sake, that the evolutionists (whose colours we certainly wear) are
right in their hypothesis, and that the cherished theory of having baboons for
our ancestors turns out true. Will every difficulty in our way be then removed?
By no means: for then more than ever shall we have to try to solve the hitherto
insoluble problem, which comes first, the man or the ape? It will be the
Aristotelean egg and chicken problem of creation over again. We can never know
the truth until some streak of good chance shall enable science to witness at
different periods and under various climates either women giving birth to apes,
graced with a caudal appendage, or female orang-outangs becoming mothers of
tail less, and, moreover, semi-human children, endowed with a capacity for
speech at least as great as that of a moderately clever parrot or mina.
Science is but a broken reed
for us in this respect, for science is just as perplexed, if not more so, than
the rest of us common mortals. So little is it able to enlighten us upon the
mystery, that the men of most
362—————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
learning are those who confuse
us the most in some respects. As in regard to the heliocentric system, which,
after it had been left an undisputed fact for more than three centuries, found
in the later part of our own a most serious opponent in Dr. Shroepfer,
Professor of Astronomy at the University of Berlin, so the Darwinian theory of
the evolution of man from an anthropoid, has among its learned opponents one,
who, though an evolutionist himself, is eager to oppose Darwin, and seeks to
establish a school of his own.
This new “perfectionist” is a
professor in the Hungarian town of
In time primitive days of the
first period of evolution there lived a huge, frog. like, mammalian animal,
inhabiting the seas, but which, being of the amphibious kind, lived likewise on
land, breathing in the air as easily as it did in water, its chief habitat,
though, was in the salt sea-water. This frog-like creature is now what we
call—man (!) and his marine origin is proved by the fact that. he cannot live without
salt.
There are other signs about
man, almost as impressive as the above, by which this origin can be
established, if we may believe this new prophet of science. For instance:
A well-defined remnant of
fins, to be seen between his thumbs and fingers, as also his insurmountable
tendency towards the element of water;
a tendency, we remark passim,
more noticeable in the Hindu than the Highlander!
No less does the Hungarian
scientist set himself against
It is not the anthropoid which
begot man, but the latter who is the progenitor of the monkey. The ape is
merely a man returned once more to its primitive, savage state.
Our Professor’s views as to
geology and the ultimate destruction of our globe, coupled with his notions
regarding the future state of man kind, are no less original, and are the very
sweetest fruit of his Tree of
363—————————————————————THE MISSING LINK.
Scientific Knowledge.
Provoking though they do general hilarity, they are nevertheless given out by
the “learned” lecturer in quite a serious spirit, and his works are placed
among the text-hooks for colleges. If we have to credit his statement, then we
must believe that “the moon is slowly but surely approaching the earth.” The
result of such an indiscretion on the part of our fair Diana is to be most
certainly the following:
The sea waves will some day
immerse our globe and gradually submerge all the continents. Then man, unable
to live any longer on dry land, will have but to return to his primitive form,
i.e., be will rebecome an aquatic animal—a man-frog.
And the life—insurance
companies will have to shut up shop and become bankrupts—he might have added.
Daring speculators are advised to take their precautions in advance.
Having permitted ourselves
this bit of irreverence about science—those, rather, who abuse their connection
with it—we may as well give here some of the more acceptable theories
respecting the missing link. These are by no means so scarce as bigots would
like to make us believe, Schweinfurth and other great African travellers
vouchsafe for the truth of these assertions and believe they have found races
which may, after all, be the missing links—between man and ape. Such are the
Akkas of Africa; those whom Herodotus calls the Pigmies (ii. 32) and the
account of whom—notwithstanding it came from the very pen of the father of
history—was until very recently believed to he erroneous and they themselves
myths of a fabled nation. But, since the public has had the most trustworthy
narratives of European travellers, we have learned to know better, and no one
any longer thinks that Herodotus has confounded in his account men and the
cynocephaloid apes of
We have but to read the
description of the orang-outang and of the chimpanzee to find that these
animals—all but the hairy surface—answer in nearly every respect to these
Akkas. They are said to have large cylindrical heads on a thin neck, and a body
about four feet high; very long arms, perfectly disproportionate, as they reach
far lower than their knees; a chest narrow at the shoulders and widening
tremendously toward the stomach, which is always enormous; knees thick, and
hands of an extraordinary beauty of design (a characteristic of monkeys’ hands,
which, with the exception of their short thumbs, have wonderfully neat and
slender fingers tapering to the ends, and always prettily shaped finger nails).
The Akkas’ walk is vacillating,
364————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
which is due to the abnormal
size of their stomach, as in the chimpanzee and the orang-outang. Their cranium
is large, profoundly depressed at the root of the nose, and surmounted by a
contracting forehead sloping directly backward; a projecting mouth with very
thin lips, and a beardless chin—or rather no chin at all. The hair on their
heads does not grow, and though less noisy than the orang-outang they are
enormously so when compared with other men. On account of the long grass which
often grows twice their own size in the regions they inhabit, they are said to
jump like so man grasshoppers, to make enormous strides, and to have all the
outward motions of big anthropoids.
Some scientists think—this
time with pretty good reason—that the Akkas, more even than the Matimbas, of
which d’Escayrac de Lauture gives such interesting accounts, the Kimosas and
the Bushmen, of austral Africa, are all remnants of the missing link.
HYPNOTISM
——————
[Vol. II. No.5 ,
February,1881.]
THE views of medical men in
regard to hypnotism or seif-mesmerization have been greatly strengthened of
late. This is evident from the report by Dr. Grishhorn, of
Last summer Dr. Grishhorn
made, with Professor Berger, a series of hypnotic experiments and observations
in the
366—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
experiment in order to
ascertain that the girl did not play a part. A lighted candle was closely
approached to her eyes, and it was found that the pupil did not contract; the
eyes remaining opened and glassy, as if the person had been dead. He then
passed a long needle through her lip and moved it in every direction; but the
two doctors remarked neither the slightest sign of pain, nor, what was most
strange, was there a single drop of blood. He called her by her name; there
came no answer. But when, taking her by the hand, he began to converse with
her, the young girl answered all his questions, though feebly at first and as
if compelled by an irresistible power.
The second experiment proved
more wonderful yet. It was made with a young soldier, who had just been brought
into the hospital, and who proved ‘‘what the Spiritualists call a medium’’—says
the official report. This last experiment finally convinced Drs. Grishhorn and
Berger of the reality of the doubted phenomena. The soldier, a German, ignorant
of a single word of Russian, spoke in his trance with the doctor in that
language, pronouncing the most difficult words most perfectly, without the
slightest foreign accent. Suffering from a paralysis of both legs, during his
hypnotic sleep he used them freely, walking with entire ease, and repeating
every movement and gesture made by Dr. Grishhorn with absolute precision. The
Russian sentences he pronounced very rapidly, while his own tongue he spoke
very slowly. He even went so far as to write, at the doctor’s dictation, a few
words in that language, quite unknown to him, and in the Russian characters.
The debates upon this most
important report by a veil-known physician were announced to take place at the
next meeting of the Society of the St. Petersburg Medical Practitioners. As
soon as the official report of the proceedings is published, we will give it to
our readers. It is really interesting to witness how the men of science are
gradually being led to acknowledge facts which they have hitherto so bitterly
denounced.
Hypnotism, we may add, is
nought but the Trâtaka of the Yogi, the act of concentrating his mind on the
tip of the nose, or on the spot between the eyebrows. It was known and
practised by the ascetics in order to produce the final Samâdhi, or temporary
deliverance of the soul from the body; a complete disenthralment of the
spiritual man from the slavery of the physical with its gross senses. It is
being practised unto the present day.
THE LEAVEN OF THEOSOPHY
——————
[Vol. II. No. 6, March, 1881.]
Those of us whose duty it is
to watch the Theosophical movement and and its progress can afford to be amused
at the ignorant conceit displayed by certain journals in their criticisms upon
our Society and its officers. Some seem to think that when they have flung
their handful of dirt we must certainly be overwhelmed. One or two have even
gone so far as, with mock sympathy, to pronounce us already hopelessly
disrupted. It is a pity we cannot oblige them, but so it is, and they must make
the best of the situation. Our Society as a body might certainly be wrecked by
mismanagement or the death of its founders, but the idea which it represents
and which has gained so wide a currency, will run on like a crested wave of
thought until it dashes upon the hard beach where materialism is picking and
sorting its pebbles. Of the thirteen persons who composed our first hoard of
officers, in 1875, nine were Spiritualists of greater or less experience. It
goes without saying, then, that the aim of the Society was not to destroy but
to better and purify Spiritualism. The phenomena we knew to be real, and we
believed them to be the most important of all current subjects for
investigation. For, whether they should finally prove to be traceable to the
agency of the departed, or but manifesta- tions of occult natural forces acting
in concert with latent psycho physiological human powers, they opened up a
great field of research, the outcome of which must be enlightenment upon the
master problem of life: Man and his Relations. We had seen phenomenalism
running riot and twenty millions of believers clutching at one drifting theory
after another in the hope to gain the truth. We had reason to know that the
whole truth could only be found in one quarter, the Asiatic schools of
philosophy, and we felt convinced that the truth could never be discovered
until men of all races and creeds should join like brothers in the search. So
taking our stand upon that ground, we began to point the way eastward.
368—————————————————————A M0DERN PANARION.
Our first step was to lay down
the proposition that, even admitting the phenomena to be real, they need not of
necessity be ascribed to departed souls We showed that there was ample
historical evidence that such phenomena had from remotest times been exhibited
by men who were not mediums, who repudiated the passivity exacted of mediums,
and who simply claimed to produce them by cultivating inherent powers in their
living selves. Hence the burden of proving that those wonders were and could
only be done by the dead with the agency of passive medial agents, lay with the
Spiritualists.
To deny our proposition
involved either the repudiation of the testimony of the most trustworthy
authorities in many countries and in different epochs, or the wholesale
ascription of mediumship to every wonder-worker mentioned in history. The
latter horn of the dilemma had been taken. Reference to the works of the most
noted Spiritualistic writers, as well as to the newspaper organs of the
movement, will show that the thaums, or ‘‘miracles’’ of every ‘‘magician,”
saint, religious leader, and ascetic, from the Chaldæan Magians, the ancient
Hindu saint, the Egyptian Jannes and Jambres, the Hebrew Moses and Jesus, and
the Mussulman prophet, down to the Benares sannyâsi of M. Jacolliot, and the
common fakir of to-day, who has made Anglo Indian mouths gape with wonder, have
each and all been spoken of as true mediumistic marvels. This was the best that
could be done with a difficult subject, but it could not prevent Spiritualists
from thinking. The more they have thought, read and compared notes, during the
past five years, with those who have travelled in Asia and studied
psychological science as a science, the more has the first acrid feeling
against our Society abated. We noticed this change in the first issue of this
magazine. After only five years of agitation, without abuse from us or any
aggressive propagandism on our part, the leaven of this great truth has begun
to work. It can be seen on every side. We are now kindly asked to show
369————————————————————THE LEAVEN OF THEOSOPHY.
splendid works of Professor
Zöllner, Mr. Crookes, Mr. Varley, and other able experimentalists, is tending
towards its proper limits of a problem of science. There is a thoughtful and
more and more earnest study of spiritual philosophy. We see this, not alone
among the Spiritualists of
It would be easy to fill many
pages with extracts from the journalism of to-day that sustain the above views,
but we forbear. Wherever these lines are read—and that will be by subscribers
in almost every quarter of the globe—their truth will not be denied by
impartial observers. Merely to show the tendency of things, let us take the following
excerpts from the Spiritual Notes and the Revue Spirite, organs respectively of
the spiritualist and the spiritist parties. The first says:
From Certain delicate yet
well-defined signs of the times we are led to believe that a great change is
gradually passing over the spirit of that system which, for the last thirty
years, has been called by the not altogether happy title of Modern
Spiritualism. This change is observable, not perhaps so much in the popular
aspect of the subject, which will doubtless always remain more or less one of
sign and wonder. It is probably necessary that such should be the case. It is
very likely a sine qua non that there should always be a fringe of the purely
marvellous to attract the criers of Lo here “ “Lo there!” from whose numbers
the higher and inner circle of initiates may be from time to time recruited. It
is here we discern the great value, with all their possible abuses, of physical
manifestations, materializations, and the like. These form the alphabet of the
neophyte. But the change which strikes us at the present moment is what we may
call the rapid growth of the initiate class as opposed to the neophytes; the
class of those who have quite grown out of the need of these sensible wonders
(a need through which, however, they have duly passed) and who are prepared to
pass to the sublimest heights of the spiritual philosophy. We cannot but regard
this as an eminently happy sign, because
it is the evidence of normal
growth. We have had first the blade, then the ear,
370————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
but now we have the full corn
in the ear. Among the many evidences of this change we note two especially,
each of which has been mentioned already in these columns in its single aspect.
One is the publication of Dr. Wyld’s book on Christian Theosophy, the other the
formation and development of the secret society called the Guild of the Holy
Spirit. We are not prepared to commit ourselves to all the doctrines of Dr. Wyld’s
book. The Guild would probably be too ecclesias tical in its structure for many
of our readers—it is founded, we may mention, by a clergyman of the Church of
England—but in each case we notice what is called a “levelling up.” We perceive
that the paramount idea is not to call spirits from the vasty deep—not to force
the hand of the spirit world, so to say, and to compel its denizens to come
“down” or “up” to us, but so to regulate life as to open up the dormant sense
on our side, and enable us to see those who are not in a land that is very far
off, from which they have come up or down to us. This, we happen to know, is
preëminently the case with the Guild, which, beginning by being regulative of
life and worship, includes a margin for any amount of thaumaturgical element.
We may not say more, but we may also point to every page of Dr. Wyld’s book as
an indication of a similar method; and we notice the supervention of that
method with much satisfaction. It will never be the popular method, but its presence,
however secret, in our midst, will work like leaven, and affect the whole mass
of “Modern Spiritualism.”
COUNT ST. GERMAIN
——————
[Vol. II. No. 8, May, 1881.]
AT long intervals have
appeared in
This famous adventurer [ Count
St. Germain] is supposed to have been a Hungarian by birth, but the early part
of his life was by himself carefully wrapped in mystery. His person and his
title alike stimulated curiosity. His age was unknown and his parentage equally
obscure. We catch the first glimpse of him in
372—————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
minuteness. He spoke of scenes
at the court of Francis I. as if he had seen them, describing exactly the
appearance of the king, imitating his voice, manner and language, affecting
throughout the character of an eye-witness. In like style he edified his
audience with pleasant stories of Louis XIV., and regaled them with vivid
descriptions of places and persons. Hardly saying in so many words that he was
actually present when the events happened, he yet contrived, by his great
graphic power, to convey that impression . . . intending to astonish, he
succeeded completely. Wild stories were current concerning him. He was reported
to be 300 years old, and to have prolonged his life by the use of a famous
elixir.
From time to time this strange
being appeared in various European capitals, under various names, as Marquis de
Montferrat, Count Bellamare, at Venice; Chevalier Schoening, at Pisa; Chevalier
Weldon, Milan; Count Soltikoff, at Genoa; Count Tzarogy at Schwalbach, and,
finally, as Count St. Germain at Paris; but, after his disaster at the Hague,
no longer seems so wealthy as before, and has at times the appearance of
seeking his fortune. At Tournay, he is “interviewed” by the renowned Chevalier
de Seingalt, who finds him in an Armenian robe and pointed cap, with a long
beard descending to his waist, and ivory wand in hand—the complete make-up of a
necromancer. St. Germain is surrounded by a legion of bottles, and is occupied
in developing the manufacture of hats upon chemical principles. Senigalt being
indisposed, the Count offers to physic him gratis and offers to dose him with
an elixir, which appears to have been æther; but the other refuses, with many
polite speeches. It is the scene of the two augurs. Not being allowed to act as
physician, St. Germain determines to show his power as an alchemist, takes a
twelve-sons piece from the other augur, puts it on red-hot charcoal, and works
with a blow-pipe, the piece of money is fused and allowed to cool. “Now,” says
St. Germain, “take your money again.” “But it is gold.” “Of the purest.” Augur
No. 2 does not believe in the transmutation and looks on the whole operation as
a trick; but he pockets the piece, nevertheless, and finally presents it to the
celebrated Marshal Keith, then governor of Neuchatel.
Again, in pursuit of dyeing
and other manufacturing schemes, St. Germain turned up at
373—————————————————————COUNT
pulled out a hundred thousand
crowns’ worth of jewels, paid on the spot, bullied the governor of the town
like a pickpocket, and was released with the most respectful excuses.
Very little doubt exists that
during one of his residences in
After all, who was he ?—the
son of a Portuguese king or of a Portuguese Jew? Or did he in his old age tell
the truth to his protector and enthusiastic admirer, Prince Charles of Hesse
Cassel? According to the story told by his last friend, he was the son of a
Prince Rakoczy of
And now we ask what shadow of
proof is herein afforded either that St. Germain was an “adventurer,” that he
meant to “play the part of a prodigy,” or that he sought to make money out of
dupes. Not one single sign is there of his being other than what he seemed,
viz., a possessor of ample means to support honestly his standing in society.
He claimed to know how to fuse small diamonds into large ones, and to transmute
metals, and backed his “assertions” by the possession of apparently boundless
wealth and a collection of jewels of rare size and beauty. Are “adventurers”
like this? Do charlatans enjoy the confidence and admiration of the cleverest
statesmen and nobles of
374 ————————————————————
-------
A MODERN PANARION.
this great man, this pupil of
Indian and Egyptian hierophants, this proficient in the secret wisdom of the
East, has had from Western writers, is a stigma upon human nature. And so has
the stupid world behaved towards every other person who, like St. Germain, has
revisited it after long seclusion devoted to study, with his stores of
accumulated esoteric wisdom, in the hope of bettering it, and making it wiser
and happier.
One other point should be
noticed. The above account gives no particulars of the last hours of the
mysterious Count or of his funeral. Is it not absurd to suppose that if he
really died at the time and place mentioned, he would have been laid in the
ground without the pomp and ceremony, the official supervision, the police
registration which attend the funerals of men of his rank and notoriety? Where
are these data? He passed out of public sight more than a century ago, yet no
memoir contains them. A man who so lived in the full blaze of publicity could
not have vanished, if he really died then and there, and left no trace behind.
Moreover, to this negative we have the alleged positive proof that he was
living several years after 1784. He is said to have had a most important
private conference with the Empress of Russia in 1785 or 1786, and to have
appeared to the Princess de Lamballe when she stood before the tribunal, a few
moments before she was struck down with a billet, and a butcher-boy cut off her
head; and to Jeanne Dubarry, the mistress of Louis XV. as she waited on her
scaffold at
A respected member of our
Society, residing in Russia, possesses some highly important documents about
Count St. Germain, and for the vindication of the memory of one of the grandest
characters of modern times, it is hoped that the long-needed but missing links
in the chain of his history may speedily be given to tile world through these
columns.
LAMAS AND DRUSES.
——————
[Vol. II. No. 9, June, 1881.]
Mr. L. OLIPHANT’S new work,
The Druse has a firm
conviction that the end of the world is at hand. Recent events have so far
tallied with the enigmatical prophecies of his sacred books, that he looks
forward to the speedy resurrection of El Hakim, the founder and divine
personage of the sect. In order to comprehend this, the connection between
Mr. Laurence Oliphant is in
our opinion one of
376——————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
hood. Their origin is next to
unknown. As to their external religion, or rather what has transpired of it,
that can be told in a few words. The Druses are believed to be a mixture of
Kurds, Mardi-Arabs, and other semi-civilized tribes. We humbly maintain that
they are the descendants of and a mixture of, mystics of all nations, mystics
who, in the face of cruel and unrelenting persecution by the orthodox Christian
Church and orthodox Islamism, have, ever since the first centuries of the Mohammedan
propaganda, been gathered together, and who gradually made a permanent
settlement in the fastnesses of Syria and Mount Lebanon, where they had from
the first found refuge. Since then they have preserved the strictest silence
upon their beliefs and truly occult rites. Later on their warlike character,
great bravery and unity of purpose, which made their foes, whether Mussulmans
or Christians, equally fear them, helped them toward forming an independent
community, or, as we may term it, an imperium in imperio They are the Sikhs of
Asia Minor, and their polity offers many points of similarity with the late
“commonwealth” of the followers of Guru Nânak, even extending to their
mysticism and indomitable bravery. But the two are even more closely related to
a third and far more mysterious community of religionists, of which nothing or
next to nothing is known by outsiders: we mean that fraternity of Tibetan
Lamaists, known as the Brotherhood of Khe-lang, who mix but little with the
rest. Even Csoma de Körös, who passed several years with the Lamas, learned
hardly more of the religion of these Chakravartins (wheel-turners) than what
they chose to let him know of their exoteric rites, and of the Khe-langs he
learned positively nothing.
The mystery that hangs over
the scriptures and religion of the Druses is far more impenetrable than that
connected with the
Many manuscripts have never
left the underground Holoweys (place
————————————————————————
* The work presented by
Nasr-Allah to the French king as a portion of the Druse scriptures, and
translated by Petis de la Croix in 1701 is pronounced a forgery. Not one of the
copies now in the possession of the Bodleian,
377—————————————————————LAMAS AND DRUSES.
of religious meeting),
invariably built under the meeting-room on the ground floor, and the public
Thursday assemblies of the Druses are simply blinds intended for over-curious
travellers and neighbours.
Verily a strange sect are the
disciples of H’amsa, as they call themselves. Their Okhal or spiritual
teachers, besides having, like the Sikh Akali, the duty of defending the
visible place of worship, which is merely a large unfurnished room, are also
the guardians of the
An English Orientalist
recently found that the religion of Nânak had a good deal of Buddhism in it
(art. ‘‘ Diwali,’’ in
————————————————————————
* Lama ‘‘ means path or road
in the vulgar Tibetan language, but in that figurative sense it conveys the
meaning of way ; as the ‘way to wisdom or salvation.” strangely enough it also
means ‘cross.” It is the Roman figure X or ten, the emblem of perfection or
perfect number, and stood for ten with the Egyptians, Chinese, Phœnicians,
Romans, etc. It is also found in the Mexican secular calendars. The Tartars
call it Lama from the Scytho-Turanian word lamh, hand (from the number of
fingers on both hands), and it is synonymuos with the fad of the Chaldees, “and
thus became the name of a cross, of the High Priest of time Tartars, and of the
Lamaic Messenger of God,” says the author of The Book of God, in the
“commentaries on the Apocalypse.” With the Irish, luam signifies the head of
the church, a spiritual chief.
378————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
the Lamaists—or as that of the
Sikhs, as it used to be. The mysterious representation of the Deity appears in
H’amsa, whose spirit is said to guide them, and periodically reincarnate itself
in the person of the chief Okhal of the Druses, as it does in the Guru-Kings of
the Sikhs, some of whom, like Guru Govind, claimed to be the reIncarna tions of
Nânak, while the Dalai Lamas of Tibet claim to be those of Buddha. The latter,
by the way, are loosely called Shaberons and Kuhilghans (both in various
degrees reincarnations not of Buddha, the man, but of his Buddh-like divine
spirit) by Abbe Huc and others, without any regard to the difference in the
appellation: El Hamma or H’amsa came from the “land of the Word of God.” Where was
that land? Swedenborg, the Northern Seer, advised his followers to search for
the LOST WORD among the hierophants of
Though separated by the
Karakorum range and Little Tibet, the Great Tibet is on the same Asiatic
plateau in which our biblical scholars designate the table-land of Pamir,† as
the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of the mythical Adam.
The religion of the Druses is
said to be a compound of Judaism, Mohammedanism and Christianity, strongly
tinged with Gnosticism
————————————————————————
* And a most unsatisfactory
term it is, as the Lamaists have no conception of the anthropomorphic deity
which the English word ‘God’’ represents. For Buddha (the latter name being
quite unknown to the common people) is their equivalent expression for that
All-embracing, Superior Good or Wisdom from which all proceeds as does the
light from the sun, the cause being nothing personal, but simply all abstract
principle. And it is this that in all our Theosophical writing, for the want of
a better word, we have to term ‘God-like” and “Divine.’’
† There are several Pamirs in
‡ The name in Hebrew for
sanctuary is te-bah, and ti-boutta and te-bet, also a cradle of the human race,
thebeth meaning a box,” the “ark” of Noah and the floating cradle of Moses.
379—————————————————————LAMAS AND DRUSES.
and the Magian system of
It has become popular and
fashionable to denounce “the old and mouldy superstitions of our forefathers,’’
verily even amongst the most natural allies of the students of theurgy or
occultism—the Spiritualists. Among the many creeds and faiths striving to
follow the cyclic tide, and helping it themselves to sweep away the knowledge
of old, strangely blind to the fact that the same powerful wave of materialism
and modern science also sweeps away their own foundations, the only religions
which have remained as alive as ever to these forgotten truths of old, are
those which from the first have kept strictly aloof from the rest. The Druses,
while outwardly mixing with Moslems and Christians, and alike ever ready to
read the Kurán as well as the Gospels in their Thursday public meetings, have
never allowed an uninitiated stranger to penetrate the mysteries of their own
doctrines. Intelligence alone, they say, communicates to the soul (which to
them is mortal, though it survives the body) the enlivening and divine spark of
the Supreme Wisdom, or Ti-meami, but it must be screened from all non-believers
in H’amsa. The work of the soul is to seek Wisdom, and the substance of earthly
wisdom is to know Universal Wisdom, or ‘‘God,” as other religionists call that
principle. This is the doctrine
380————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
of the Buddhists and Lamaists
who say “Buddha” where the Druses say ‘‘Wisdom”—one word being the translation
of the other. ‘‘In spite of their external adoption of the religious customs of
the Moslems, of their readiness to educate their children in Christian schools,
their use of the Arabic language, and their free intercourse with strangers,
the Druses remain even more than the Jews a peculiar people” says a writer.
They are very rarely, if ever,
converted; they marry within their own race, and adhere most tenaciously to
their traditions, baffling all efforts to discover their cherished secrets. Yet
neither are they fanatical nor do they covet proselytes.
In his Travels in Tartary,
Thibet and
No more than the Druses do the
Lamaists seek to make proselytes. Both people have their “schools of magic,”
those in
381—————————————————————LAMAS AND DRUSES.
inside the buildings. As the
Tibetan Hobilgans are the incarnations of Buddha’s spirit, so the Druse
Okhals—erroneously called “Spiritualists” by some writers—are the incarnations
of H’amsa. Both peoples have a regular system of pass-words and signs of
recognition among the neophytes, and we know them to be nearly identical.
In the mystical system of the
Druses there are five “Messengers” or interpreters of the “Word of the Supreme
Wisdom,” who occupy the same position as the five chief Bodhisattvas, or
Hobilgans of Tibet, each of whom is the bodily temple of the spirit of one of
the five Buddhas. Let us see what can be made known of both classes. The names
of the five principal Druse “Messengers,” or rather their titles—as these names
are generic, in both the Druse and Tibetan hierarchies, and the title passes at
the death of each to his successor—are:
(1) H’amsa,* or El Hamma
(Spiritual Wisdom), considered as the Messiah, through whom speaks Incarnate
Wisdom.
(2) Ismail-Ti-meami (the Universal
Soul). He prepares the Druses before their initiation to receive “Wisdom.”
(3) Mohammed (the Word). His
duty is to watch over the behaviour and necessities of the brethren; a kind of
bishop.
(4) Se-lama (the Preceding),
called the “Right Wing”
(5) Mokshatana, Boha-eddin
(the Following), named the “Left Wing.”
These last are both messengers
between H’amsa and the Brotherhood. Above these living mediators who remain
ever unknown to all but the chief 0khals, stand the ten incarnates of the
“Supreme Wisdom,” the last of whom is to return at the end of the cycle, which
is fast approaching, though no one but El Hamma knows the day last “Messenger,”
in accordance with the cyclic recurrences of events, being also the first who
came with H’amsa, hence Boha-eddin. The names of the Druse incarnations are Ali
A-llal, who appeared in
————————————————————————
* Very curiously the Druses
identify their H’amsa with Hemsa, the Prophet Mahomet’s uncle, who, they say,
tired of the world and its deceitful temptations, simulated death at the battle
of Dhod, A.D. 625, and retired to the fastnesses of a great mountain in central
382————————————————————
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A MODERN PANARION.
and Manssour, in
And now for the Lamaic
hierarchy. Of the living or incarnate Buddhas there are five also, the chief of
whom is Dalay, or rather Talay, Lama—from tale, “ocean” or “sea”; he being
called “Ocean of Wisdom.” Above him, as above H’amsa, there is but the “Supreme
Wisdom,” the abstract principle from which emanated the five
Buddhas—Maitrei-Buddha (the last Bodhisattva or Vishnu in the Kalki Avatar),
the tenth “Messenger” expected on earth, included. But this will be the One
Wisdom, and will incarnate itself in the whole humanity collectively, not in a
single individual. But of this mystery no more at present. These five Hobilgans
are distributed in the following order:
(i) Talay-Lama, of Lha-ssa,
the incarnation of the “spiritual, passive” wisdom, which proceeds from Gautama
or Siddhârtha Buddha, or Fo.
(2) Bande-cha-an Rem-boo-tchi,
at Djashi-Loombo. He is “the active earthly wisdom.”
(3) Sa-deha-fo, or the
“Mouthpiece of Buddha,” otherwise the ‘‘Word,” at Ssamboo.
(4) Khi-sson-Tamba, the
“Precursor” (of Buddha) at the Grand Kooren.
( 5)Tchang-Zya-Fo-Lang, in the
The Shaberons are one degree lower.
They, like the chief Okhals of the Druses, are the Initiates of the great
wisdom or Buddha, esoteric religion. This double list of the “five” shows great
similarity at least between the polity of the two systems. The reader must bear
in mind that they have sprung into their present visible conditions nearly at
the same time. It was from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries that
————————————————————————
* One of the names of Minerva,
Goddess of Wisdom, was Budea.
† In the Druse system there is
no room for a personal deity, unless a portion of the divine impersonal and
abstract wisdom incarnates itself in a mortal man. The deific principle with
them is the essence of Life, the All, and as impersonal as the Parabrahm of the
Vedântins or the Nirvana state of the Buddhists, ever invisible, all-pervading
and incomprehensible to be known but by occasional incarnations of the spirit
in human form. These ten incarnations or human avatârs, as above specified, are
called the ‘
383—————————————————————LAMAS AND DRUSES.
modern Lamaism evolved its
ritual and popular religion, which serves the Hobilgans and Shaberons as a
blind, even against the average Chinaman and Tibetan. It was in the eleventh
century that H’amsa founded the Brotherhood of Lebanon, and till now no one has
acquired its secrets!
It is supremely strange that
both the Lamas and the Druses should have the same mystical statistics. They
reckon the bulk of the human race at 1,332,000,000. When good and evil, they
say, will come to an equilibrium in the scales of human actions (now evil is
far the heavier), then the breath of “Wisdom” will annihilate in the wink of an
eye just 666,000,000 of men. The surviving 666,000,000 will have “Supreme
Wisdom” incarnated in them.* This may have and probably has an allegorical
meaning. But what relation might it possibly bear to the number of the “beast”
of
If more were known than really
is of the religions of
To conclude with the Druses.
As Se-lama and Boha-eddin—- names more than suggestive of the words “Lama” and
“Buddha”—are the only ones entrusted with the secret of H’amsa’s retreat, and
having the means of consulting with their Master, they from time to time bring
his directions and commands to the Brotherhood; so even to
————————————————————————
* The Hindus have the same
belief. In the Deva-Yuga they will all be Devs or Gods, see Lama-nim-tshen -po,
or “
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this day do the Okhals of that
name travel every seventh year through Bussora and
The “millions of Chinese
Unitarians” may mean Tibetan Lamas, Hindus and others of the East, as well as
Chinamen. It is true that the Druses believe in and expect their resurrection
day in Armageddon, which, however, they pronounce otherwise. As the phrase
occurs in the Apocalypse it may seem to some that they got the idea from St.
John’s Revelation. It is nothing of the kind. On that day, which, according to
the Druse teaching, will consummate the great spiritual plan, “the bodies of
the wise and faithful will be absorbed into the absolute essence, and
transformed from the many into the One.” This is preeminently the Buddhist idea
of Nirvana, and that of the Vedântin final absorption into Parabrahm. Their
“Persian Magianism and Gnos-
————————————————————————
* Buddha is son of and (according to the Brâhmanic notion) of vishnu; Maia is
mother of Mercury by Jupiter. Buddha means the wise,” and Mercury is God of
Wisdom (Hermes) and the planet sacred to Gautama Buddha is Mercury; Venus and
Isis presided over navigation, as Mary or Maria, the Madonna, presides now. Is
not the latter hymned to this day by the Church:
" Ave Maria, stella .
Dei mater alma”?
or
" Hail, Star of time Sea,
Mother of God”
—thus identified with Venus?
385—————————————————————LAMAS AND DRUSES.
ticism” makes them regard St.
John as Oannes, the Chaldæan man-fish, hence connects their belief at once with
the Indian Vishnu and the Lamaic symbology. Their “Armageddon” is simply
“Ramdagon," * and this is how it is explained.
The sentence in Revelation is
no better interpreted than so many other things by Christians, while even the
non-Kabalistic Jews know nothing of its real meaning. Armageddon is mistaken
for a geographical locality—the elevated table of Esdraelon or Ar-mageddon, the
mountain of Megiddo, where Gideon triumphed over the Midianites.† It is an
erroneous notion, for the name in the Revelation refers to a mythical place
mentioned in one of the most archaic traditions of the heathen east, especially
among the Turanian and Semitic races. It is simply a kind of purgatorial
Elysium, in which departed spirits are collected to await the day of final
judgment. That it is so is proved by the verses in Revelation: “And he gathered
them together into a place called . . . Armageddon. And the seventh angel
poured out his vial into the air” (xvi. 16, 17). The Druses pronounce the name
of that mystical locality “Ramdagon.” It is, then, highly probable that the
word is an anagram, as shown by the author of the “Commentary on the
Apocalypse.” It means “Rama-Dagon,”‡ the first signifying
————————————————————————
* Rama, of the solar race, is
an incarnation of Vishnu--a Sun-God. In the “Matsya,” or first Avatar, in order
to save humanity from final destruction (see Vishnu Purana) that God appears to
King Satyavrata and the seven saints who accompany him on the vessel to escape
universal deluge, as an enormous fish with one stupendous horn. To this horn
the king is commanded by Hari to tie the ship with a serpent (the emblem of
eternity( instead of a cable. The Dalay-Lania, besides his name of “Ocean,” is
also called Sarou, which in Tibetan means the “unicorn,” or one-horned. He
wears on his head-gear a prominent horn, set over a Yung-dang, or mystic cross,
which is the Jain and Hindu Svastika. The “fish” and the sea or water are the
most archaic emblems of the Messiahs, or incarnations of divine wisdom, among
all the ancient peoples. Fishes play a prominent figure on old christian
medals; and in the catacombs of Rome the “Mystic cross” or “Anchor” stands
between two fishes as supporters. Dagh.dae, the name of Zaratushtra’s mother,
means the “Divine Fish” or Holy Wisdom. The “Mover on the waters,” whether we
call him Narayana or Abatur (the Kabalistic Superior Father and “Ancient of the
World”( or “Holy spirit” is all one. According to Codex Nazaræus, Kabalah and
Genesis, the Holy Spirit when moving on the waters mirrored himself—and ‘‘Adani
Kadmon was born.’’ Mare in Latin is the sea, water is associated with every
creed. Mary and Venus are both patronesses of the sea and of sailors—and both
mothers of Gods of Love whether divine or earthly. The mother of Jesus is
called Mary or Mariah—the word meaning in Hebrew mirror, that in which we find
but the reflection instead of a reality, and 600 years before Christiatnty
there was Maya, Buddha’s mother, whose name means illusion-—identically the
same. Another curious “coincidence” is found in the selections of new
Dalay-Lamas in Tibet. The new incarnation of Buddha is ascertained by a curious
ichthyomancy with three gold fishes. Shutting themselves up in the Buddha-La
(temple), the Hobilgans place three gold fish in an urn, and on one of these
ancient emblems of Supreme Wisdom shortly appears the name of the child into
whom the soul of the late Dalay-Lama is supposed to have transmigrated.
† It is not the “Valley of
Megeddo,” for there is no such valley known, Dr. Robinson’s typo graphical and
biblical notions being no better than hypotheses.
‡ Rama is also womb and
valley, and in Tibetan “goat”; Dag is fish, from Dagon, the man-fish, or
perfect wisdom.
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Sun-God of that name, and the
second “Dagon,” or the Chaldæan Holy Wisdom incarnated in their “Messenger,”
Oannes, the Man-Fish, and descending on the “Sons of God” or the Initiates of
whatever country; those, in short, through whom Deific Wisdom occasionally
reveals itself to the world.
A REPLY TO OUR CRITICS
OUR FINAL ANSWER TO SEVERAL
OBJECTIONS.
—————
[Vol II. No.10, July, 1881.]
IN the ordinary run of daily
life speech may be silver, while “silence is gold.” With the editors of
periodicals devoted to some special object “silence” in certain cases amounts to
cowardice and false pretences. Such shall not be our case.
We are perfectly aware of the
fact that the simple presence of the word “Spiritualism” on the title-page of
our journal “causes it to lose in the eyes of materialist and sceptic fifty per
cent of its value”—for we are repeatedly told so by many of our best friends,
some of whom promise us more popularity, hence an increase of subscribers,
would we but take out the “contemptible” term and replace it by some other,
synonymous in meaning, but less obnoxious phonetically to the general public.
That would be acting tinder false pretences. The undisturbed presence of the
unpopular word will indicate our reply.
That we did not include
‘‘Spiritualism’’ among the other subjects to which our journal is devoted “in
the hopes that it should do us good service among the Spiritualists” is proved
by the following fact: From the first issue of our Prospectus to the present
day, subscribers from “spiritual” quarters have not amounted to four per cent
on our subscription list. Yet, to our merriment, we are repeatedly spoken of as
“Spiritualists” by the press and our opponents. Whether really ignorant of or
purposely ignoring our views, they tax us with belief in spirits. Not that we
would at all object to the appellation—too many far worthier and wiser persons
than we firmly believing in ‘‘Spirits’’—but that would he acting under “false
pretences” again. And so we are called a “Spiritualist” by persons who
foolishly regard the term as a ‘‘brand,” while the orthodox Spiritualists, who
are well aware that we attribute their phenomena to quite another agency than
spirits, resent our peculiar opinions as an insult to their belief, and in
their turn ridicule and oppose us.
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This fact alone ought to
prove, if anything ever will, that our journal pursues an honest policy. That,
established for the one and sole object, namely, for the elucidation of truth,
however unpopular, it has remained throughout true to its first principle—that
of absolute impartiality. And that as fully answers another charge, viz., that
of publishing views of our correspondents with which we often do not concur
ourselves. ‘‘Your journal teems with articles upholding ridiculous
superstitions and absurd ghost-stories,” is the complaint in one letter. “You
neglect laying a sufficient stress in your editorials upon the necessity of
discriminating between facts and error, and in the selection of the matter
furnished by your contributors,” says another. A third one accuses us of not
sufficiently rising “from supposed facts to principles, which would prove to
our readers in every case the former no better than fictions.” In other words,
as we understand it, we are accused of neglecting scientific induction. Our
critics may be right, but we also are not altogether wrong. In the face of the
many crucial and strictly scientific experiments made by our most eminent
savants, it would take a wiser sage than King Solomon himself to decide now
between fact and fiction. The query, “What is truth?” is more difficult to
answer in the nineteenth than in the first century of our era. The appearance
of his “evil genius” to Brutus in the shape of a monstrous human form, which,
entering his tent in the darkness and silence of the night, promised to meet
him in the plains of Philippi, was a fact to the Roman tyrannicide; it was but
a dream to his slaves, who neither saw nor heard anything on that night. The
existence of an antipodal continent and the heliocentric system were facts to
Columbus and Galileo years before they could actually demonstrate them; yet the
existence of America, as that of our present solar system, was as fiercely
denied several centuries back as the phenomena of Spiritualism are now. Facts
existed in the “pre-scientific past,” and errors are as thick as berries in our
scientific present. With whom then is the criterion of truth to be left? Are we
to abandon it to the mercy and judgment of a prejudiced society, constantly
caught trying to subvert that which it does not understand; ever seeking to
transform sham and hypocrisy into synonyms of “propriety” and “respectability”?
Or shall we blindly leave it to modern exact science, so-called? But science
has neither said her last word nor can her various branches of knowledge
rejoice in their qualification of exact but so long as the hypotheses of
yesterday are not upset by the dis-
389————————————————————A REPLY TO OUR CRITICS.
coveries of to-day. “Science
is atheistic, phantasmagorical, and always in labour with conjecture. It can
never become knowledge per se. Not to know is its climax,” says Prof. A.
Wilder, our New York Vice- President, certainly more of a man of science
himself than many a scientist better known than he is to the world. Moreover,
the learned representatives of the Royal Society have as many cherished
hobbies, and are as little free of prejudice and preconception as any other
mortals. It is perhaps to religion and her handmaid theology, with her “seventy-times
seven” sects, each claiming and none proving its right to the claim of truth,
that in our search for it we ought to humbly turn? One of our severe Christian
Areopagites actually expresses the fear that “even some of the absurd stories
of the Purãnas have found favour with The Theosophist.” But let him tell us,
Has the Bible any less “absurd ghost-stories” and “ridiculous miracles” in it
than the Hindu Puránas and Buddhist Maha Jataka, or even one of the most
“shamefully superstitious publications” of the Spiritualists? (We quote from
his letter.) We are afraid in one and all it is but
Faith, fanatic faith, once
wedded fast
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last
and—we decline accepting
anything on faith. In common with most of the periodicals we remind our readers
in every number of The Theosophist so that its “Editors disclaim responsibility
for opinions expressed by contributors,” with some of which they (we) do not
agree. And that is all we can do. We never started out in our paper as teachers,
but rather as humble and faithful recorders of the innumerable beliefs, creeds,
scientific hypotheses, and—even “superstitions” current in the past ages and
now more than lingering yet in our own. Never having been a sectarian—i.e., an
interested party—we maintain that in the face of the present situation, during
that incessant warfare, in which old creeds and new doctrines, conflicting
schools and authorities, revivals of blind faith and incessant scientific
discoveries, running a race as though for the survival of the fittest, swallow
up and mutually destroy and annihilate each other—daring indeed were that man
who would assume the task of deciding between them! Who, we ask, in the
presence of those most wonderful and most unexpected achieve ments of our great
physicists and chemists would risk to draw the line of demarcation between the
possible and the impossible? Where is the honest man who, conversant at all
with the latest conclusions of archæology, philology, palæography and
especially Assyriology, would
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A MODERN PANARION.
undertake to prove the
superiority of the religious “superstitions” of the civilized Europeans over
those of the “heathen,” and even of the fetish-worshipping savages?
Having said so much, we have
made clear, we hope, the reason why, believing no mortal man infallible, nor
claiming that privilege for ourselves, we open our columns to the discussion of
every view and opinion, provided it is not proved absolutely supernatural.
Besides, whenever we make room for “unscientific” contributions it is when
these treat upon subjects which lie entirely out of the province of physical
science—generally upon questions that the average and dogmatic scientist
rejects a priori and without examination, but which the real man of science
finds not only possible, but after investigation very often fearlessly
proclaims the disputed question as an undeniable fact. In respect to most
transcendental subjects the sceptic can no more disprove than the believer
prove his point. Fact is the only tribunal we submit to, and recognize it
without appeal. And before that tribunal a Tyndall and an ignoramus stand on a
perfect par. Alive to the truism that every path may eventually lead to the
highway as every river to the ocean, we never reject a contribution simply
because we do not believe in the subject it treats upon, or disagree with its
conclusions. Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at their right
value; and unless a judge compares notes and hears both sides he can hardly
come to a correct decision. Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria is our motto;
and we seek to walk prudently between the many ditches without rushing into
either. For one man to demand from another that he shall believe like himself,
whether in a question of religion or science, is supremely unjust and despotic.
Besides, it is absurd. For it amounts to exacting that the brains of the
convert, his organs of perception, his whole organization, in short, be
reconstructed precisely on the model of that of his teacher, and that he shall
have the same temperament and mental faculties as the other has. And why not
his nose and eyes, in such a case? Mental slavery is the worst of all
slaveries. It is a state over which brutal force having no real power, it
always denotes either an abject cowardice or a great intellectual weakness.
Among many other charges, we
are accused of not sufficiently exercising our editorial right of selection. We
beg to differ and contradict the imputation. As every other person blessed with
brains instead of calves’ feet jelly in his head we certainly have our opinions
upon things
391————————————————————A REPLY TO OUR CRITICS.
in general, and things occult
especially, to some of which we hold very firmly. But these being our personal
views, and though we have as good a right to them as any, we have none whatever
to force them for recognition upon others. We do not believe in the activity of
“departed spirits”—others, and among these many of the Fellows of the
Theosophical Society, do, and we are bound to respect their Opinions so long as
they respect ours. To follow every article from a contributor with an Editor’s
Note correcting “his erroneous ideas” would amount to turning our strictly impartial
journal into a sectarian organ. We decline such an office of
“Sir Oracle.”
The Theosophist is a journal
of our Society. Each of its Fellows being left absolutely untrammelled in his
opinions, and the body representing collectively nearly every creed,
nationality and school of philosophy, every member has a right to claim room in
the organ of his Society for the defence of his own particular creed and views.
Our Society being an absolute and an uncompromising Republic of conscience,
preconception and narrow-mindedness in science and philosophy have no room in
it. They are as hateful and as much denounced by us as dogmatism and bigotry in
theology; and this we have repeated usque ad nauseam.
Having explained our position,
we will close with the following parting words to our sectarian friends and
critics. The materialists and sceptics who upbraid us in the name of modern
science—the dame who always shakes her head and finger in scorn at everything
she has not yet fathomed—we would remind of the suggestive but too mild words
of the great Arago: “He is a rash man who outside of pure mathematics
pronounces the word ‘impossible.’” And to theology, which under her many
orthodox masks throws mud at us from behind every secure corner, we retort by
Victor Hugo’s celebrated paradox:
“In the name of Religion we
protest against all and every religion!”
“THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM”
————
[Vol. II. No. 12, September,
1881.]
THIS IS the heading of an
article I find in a London publication, a new weekly called Light, and described
as a “Journal Devoted to the Highest Interests of Humanity, both Here and
Hereafter.” It is a good and useful journal; and, if I may judge from the only
two numbers I have ever seen, one whose dignified tone will prove far more
persuasive with the public than the passionate and often rude remarks passed on
their opponents and sceptics by its “spiritual” contemporaries. The article to
which I wish to call attention is signed by a familiar name (nom de plume),
“M.A. Oxon.,” that of a profoundly sympathetic writer, of a personal and
esteemed friend—of one, in short, who, I trust, whether he remains friendly or
antagonistic to our views, would never confound the doctrine with its
adherents, or, putting it more plainly, visit the sins of the Occultists upon
Occultism and vice versa.
It is with considerable
interest and attention, then, that the present writer has read “The Claims of
Occultism.” As everything else coming from “M.A. Oxon.’s” pen, it bears a
peculiar stamp, not only of originality but of that intense individuality, that
quiet but determined resolution to bring every new phasis, every discovery in
Psychological sciences back to its (to him) first principles—Spiritualism. And
when writing the word, I do not mean by it the vulgar “seance-room” Spiritualism,
which “M.A. Oxon.” has from the very first out grown, but that primitive idea
which underlies all the subsequent theories, the old parent root from which
have sprung the modern weeds, namely, belief in a guardian angel or a tutelary
spirit, who, whether his charge is conscious of it or not—i.e., mediumistic or
non mediumistic—is placed by a still higher power over every (baptized?) mortal
to watch over his actions during life. And this, if not the correct outline of
“M.A. Oxon.’s” faith, is undoubtedly the main idea
393————————————————————“THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM.”
of all the Christian-born
Spiritualists, past, present, and future. The doctrine, Christian as it now may
be—and preeminently Roman Catholic it is—has not originated, as we all know,
with the Christian, but with the Pagan world. Besides being represented in the
tutelary daimon of Socrates—that ancient “guide” of whom our Spiritualists make
the most they can—it is the doctrine of the Alexandrian Greek theurgists, of
the Zoroastrians, and of the later Babylonian Jews, one, moreover, sadly
disfigured by the successors of all these—the Christians. It matters little
though, for we are now concerned but with the personal views of “MA. Oxon.,”
which he sets in opposition to those of some Theosophists.
His doctrine then seems to us
more than ever to centre in, and gyrate around, that main idea that the spirit
of the living man is incapable of acting outside of the body independently and
per se; but that it must needs be like a tottering baby guided by his mother or
nurse—be led on by some kind of spiritual strings by a disembodied spirit, an
individuality entirely distinct from, and at some time even foreign to him
self, as such a spirit can only be a human soul, having at some period or other
lived on this planet of ours. I trust that I have now correctly stated my
friend’s belief, which is that of most of the intellectual, progressive and
liberal Spiritualists of our day, one, moreover, shared by all those
Theosophists who have joined our movement by deserting the ranks of the hoi
polloi of Spiritualism. Nevertheless, and bound though we be to respect the
private opinions of those of our Brother-Fellows who have started out in the
research of truth by the same path as “M.A. Oxon.,” however widely they may
have diverged from the one we ourselves follow, yet we will always say that
such is not the belief of all the Theosophists—the writer included. For all
that, we shall not follow the nefarious example set to us by most of the
Spiritualists and their papers, which are as bitter against us as most of the
missionary sectarian papers are against each other and the infidel
Theosophists. We will not quarrel, but simply argue, for “Light! more light!”
is the rallying cry of both progressive Spiritualists and Theosophists. Having
thus far explained myself, “M.A. Oxon.” will take, I am sure, en bon seigneur
every remark that I may make on his article in Light which I here quote
verbatim. I will not break his flowing narrative, but limit my answers to modest
footnotes.
It is now some years since
Spiritualists were startled by the publication of two ponderous volumes by
Madame Blavatsky, under the title of Isis Unveiled. Those
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A MODERN PANARION.
who mastered the diversified
contents of those large and closely-printed pages, upwards of twelve hundred in
number, bore away a vague impression that Spiritualism had been freely handled
not altogether to its advantage, and that a portentous claim had been more or
less darkly set up for what was called Occultism. The book was full of
material—so full that I shall probably be right in saying that no one has
mastered its contents so as to folly grasp the author’s plan; but the material
sadly needed reducing to order, and many of the statements required
elucidation, and some, perhaps, limitation.* Moreover, the reader wanted a
guide to pilot him through the difficulties that he encountered on every hand;
and, above all, he sorely needed some more tangible hold on the his history and
pretensions of the mysterious Brotherhood for whom the author made such
tremendous claims.†
It seemed vain for any seeker
after truth to attempt to enter into relations, how ever remote, with any adept
of the order of which Madame Blavatsky is the visible representative. All
questions were met with polite or decisive refusal to submit to any examination
of the pretensions made. The Brothers would receive an enquirer only after he
had demonstrated his truth, honesty and courage by an indefinitely prolonged
probation. They sought no one; they promised to receive none.‡ Meantime, they
rejected no one who was persevering enough to go forward in the prescribed path
of training by which alone the divine powers of time human spirit can, they
allege, be developed.
The only palpable outcome of
all this elaborate effort at human enlightenment was the foundation in America
of the Theosophical Society, which has been the accepted, though not the
prescribed, organization of the Occult Brotherhood.§ They would utilize the
Society, but they would not advise as to the methods by which it should be
regulated, nor guarantee it any special aid, except in so far as to
————————————————————————
* It is not the first time
that the just reproach is unjustly laid at my door. It is but too true that
“the material sadly needed reducing to order,’’ but it never was my province to
do so, as I gave out one detached chapter after the other, and was quite
ignorant, as Mr. 5innett correctly states in The Occult World, whether I had
started upon a series of articles, one book or two books. Neither did I much
care. It was my duty to give out some hints, to point to the dangerous phases
of modern .Spiritualism, and to bring to bear upon that question all the
assertions and testimony of the ancient world and its sages that I could find,
as all evidence to corroborate my conclusions. I did the best could and knew
how. If the critics of Isis Unveiled but consider that (1) its author had never
studied the English language, and after learning it in her childhood
colloquially had not spoken it before coming to America half-a-dozen of times
during a period of many years; (2) that most of the doctrines (or shall we say
hypotheses?) given had to be translated from an Asiatic language; and (3) that
most, if not all of the quotations from, and references to, other works—some of
these out of print and many inaccessible but to the few—and which the author
personally had never read or seen, though the passages quoted were proved in
each instance minutely correct, then my friends would perhaps feel less
critically inclined. However, Isis Unveiled is but a natural entree en matiere
in the above article, and I must not lose time over its merits or demerits.
† Indeed, the claims made for
a ‘‘brother-hood’’ of living men were never half as pretentious as those which
are daily made by the Spiritualists on behalf of the disembodied souls of dead
people.
‡ No more do they now.
§ We beg to draw to this
sentence the attention of all those of our Fellows and friends in the West as
in India, who felt inclined to either disbelieve in, or accuse the ‘‘Brothers
of the First Section’’ on account of the administrative mistakes and
shortcomings of the Theosophical Society. From the first the Fellows were
notified that the First Section might issue occasionally orders to those who
knew them personally, yet had never promised to guide, or even protect, either
the body or its members.
395————————————————————THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM.”
give the very guarded promise
that whatever aid might at any time be vouchsafed by them to enquiring
humanity, would come, if at all, through that channel. It must be admitted that
this was a microscopically small crumb of comfort to fall from so richly laden
a table as Madame Blavatsky had depicted. But Theosophists had to be content,
or, at least, silent; and so they betook themselves, some of them, to
reflection.
What ground had they for
belief in the existence of these Brothers, adepts who had a mastery over the
secrets of nature which dwarfed the results of modern scientific research, who
had gained the profoundest knowledge—Know thyself”—and could demonstrate by
actual experiment the transcendent powers of the human spirit, spurning time
and space, and proving the existence of soul by the methods of exact
experimental science? What ground for such claims existed outside of that on
which the Theosophical Society rested?
For a long time the answer was
of the vaguest. But eventually evidence was gathered, and in this book* we have
Mr. Sinnett coming forward to give us the benefit of his own researches into
the matter, and especially to give us his correspondence with Koot Hoomi, an
adept and member of the Brotherhood, who had entered into closer relations,
still however of a secondary nature,†with him than had been vouchsafed to other
men. These letters are of an extremely striking nature, and their own intrinsic
value is high. This is greatly enhanced by the source from which they come, and
the light they throw upon the mental attitude of these Tibetan recluses to whom
the world and the things of the world are alike without interest, save in so
far as they call ameliorate man’s state, and teach him to develop and use his
powers.
Another fruitful subject of
questioning among those who leaned to theosophical study was as to the nature
of these occult powers. It was impossible to construct from Isis Unveiled any
exact scheme, supported by adequate testimony, or by sufficient evidence from
any proper source, of what was actually claimed for the adept. Madame Blavatsky
herself, though making no pretension to having attained the full development of
those whose representative she was, possessed certain occult powers that seemed
to the Spiritualist strangely like those of mediumship‡ This, however, she
disclaimed with much indignation. A medium, she explained, was but a poor
creature, a sort of conduit through which any foul stream might be conveyed, a
gas-pipe by means of which gas of a very low power of illumination reached this
earth And much pain was taken to show that the water was very foul, and that
time gas was derived from a source that, if at all spiritual, was such as we,
who craved true illumination, should by no means be content with. It is
————————————————————————
* The Occult World, by A. P.
Sinnett.
† With Mr. Sinnett, and only
so far. His relations with a few other Fellows have been as personal as they
could desire.
‡ Medium, in the sense of the
postman who brings a letter from one living person to another; in the sense of
an assistant electrician whose master tells him how to turn this screw and
arrange that wire in the battery; never in the sense of a Spiritual medium.
“Madame Blavatsky’’ neither needed nor did she ever make use of either dark
seance-rooms, cabinets, “ trance-state,” “harmony,” nor any of the hundreds of
conditions required by the passive mediums who know not what is going to occur.
She always knew beforehand, and could state what was going to happen save
infallibly answering each time for complete success.
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A MODERN PANARION.
impossible to deny that the
condition of public Spiritualism in America, at the time when these strictures
were passed upon it, was such as to warrant grave censure. It had become
sullied in the minds of observers, who viewed it from without, and who were not
acquainted with its redeeming features, by association with impurity and fraud.
The mistake was to assume that this was the complexion of Spiritualism in
itself, and not of Spiritualism as depraved by adventitious causes. This,
however, was assumed. If we desired true light, then we were told that we must
crush out medium-ship, close the doors through which the mere Spiritual loafers
come to perplex and ruin us, and seek for the true adepts who alone could
safely pilot us in our search. These, it was explained, had by no means given
up the right of entrance to their Spiritual house to any chance spirit that
might take a fancy to enter. They held the key and kept intruders out, while,
by unaided powers of their own, they performed wonders before which medial
phenomena paled. This was the only method of safety; and these powers, inherent
in all men, though susceptible of development only in the purest, and then with
difficulty, were the only means by which the adept worked.
Some Theosophists demonstrated
by practical experiment that there is a foundation of truth in these
pretensions. I am not aware whether anyone has found himself able to separate
quite conclusively between his own unaided efforts and those in which external
spirit has had a share. There is, however, one very note worthy fact which
gives a clue to the difference between the methods of the Spiritualist and the
Occultist. The medium is a passive recipient of spirit-influence. The adept is
an active, energizing, conscious creator of results which he knowingly
produces, and of which evidence exists and can be sifted. Spiritualists have
been slow to accept this account of what they are familiar with in another
shape. Theosophists have been equally slow to estimate the facts and theories
of Spiritualism with candour and patience. Mr. Sinnett records many remarkable
experiences of his own, which are well worthy of study, and which may lead those
who now approach these phenomena from opposite sides to ponder whether there
may not be a common ground on which they can meet. We do not know so much of
the working of spirit that we can afford to pass by contemptuously any traces
of its operation. Be we Spiritnalists or Theosophists—odd names to ticket our
selves with—we are all looking for evidence of the whence and whither of
humanity. We want to know somewhat of the great mystery of life, and to pry a
little into the no less sublime mystery of death. We are gathering day by day
more evidence that is becoming bewildering in its minute perplexities. We want
to get light from all sources; let us be patient, tolerant of divergent
opinion, quick to recognize the tiny hold that any one soul can have on truth,
and the multiform variety in which that which we call truth is presented to
mans view. Is it strange that we should see various sides of it? Can we not see
that it most needs be so? Can we not wait for the final moment of
reconciliation, when we shall see with clearer eye and understand as now we
cannot?
There is much in Mr. Sinnett’s
little book that may help those who are trying to assume this mental attitude.
The philosophy that it contains is clearly stated, and affords rich material
for thought. The facts recorded are set forth with scientific
397—————————————————————“THE CLAIMS OF OCCULTISM.”
accuracy, and must profoundly
impress the careful and candid reader. The glimpses revealed of this silent
Brotherhood, in its lonely home on one of the slopes of the mountains of Tibet,
working to solve the mighty problem, and to confer on humanity such benefits as
it can receive, are impressive enough even to the Philistine sceptic. If they
should indeed be flashes of a greater truth, now only dimly revealed, the
importance of such revelation is not to be measured in words.
Be this, however, as it
may—and there are many points on which light is necessary before a decisive
opinion may be pronounced—there is no doubt whatever that the philosophy
contained in Mr. Sinnett’s book is similar to that which the great students of
Theosophy in ages past have arrived at. It is a mere piece of
nineteenth-century arrogance to pooh-pooh it as unworthy of attention by those
on whom has flashed the dazzling light of the spirit circle. The facts recorded
are at least as scientifically conclusive as any recorded as having happened in
a dark seance, or under the ordinary conditions of Spiritualistic
investigation. The letters of Koot Hoomi are fruitful of suggestion, and will
repay careful study on their own merits. The whole book contains only 172
pages, and will not, therefore, unduly tax the reader’s patience. If any
instructed Spiritualist will read it, and can say that there is nothing in it
that adds to his knowledge, he will at least have the satisfaction of having
read both sides of the question, and that should present itself to all candid
thinkers as a paramount and imperative duty.
A NOTE ON ELIPHAS LEVI
[Vol. III. No. I, October,
1881]
[ To the Editor of “The
Theosophist.”
MADAM,—Since you have
published a posthumous letter of my master and beloved friend, the late Eliphas
Levi, I think it would be agreeable to you to publish, if judged suitable, a
few extracts of the many manuscripts in my possession, written expressly for,
and given to, me by my ever• regretted master.
To begin with, I send you
“Stray Thoughts on Death and Satan ‘‘ from his pen. I cannot close this letter
without expressing the deep indignation aroused in me by the base diatribes
published in the London Spiritualist against your society and its members.
Every honest heart is irritated at such unfair treatment, especially when
proceeding from a man of honour as Mr. Harrison (editor of The Spiritualist)
who admits in his journal anonymous contributions that are tantamount to
libels.
With the utmost respect, I
remain, Madam,
Yours devotedly.
(Baron) J. Spedalieri.
Marseilles, July 29th, 1881.]
It is with feelings of sincere
gratitude that we thank Baron Spedalieri for his most valuable contribution.
The late Eliphas Levi was the most learned Kabalist and Occultist of our age in
Europe, and every thing from his pen is precious to us, in so far as it helps
us to compare notes with the Eastern Occult doctrines and, by the light thrown
upon both, to prove to the world of Spiritualists and Mystics, that the two
systems—the Eastern Aryan, and the Western or the Chaldæo-Jewish Kabalah—are
one in their principal metaphysical tenets. Only, while the Eastern Occultists
have never lost the key to their esotericism, and are daily verifying and
elaborating their doctrines by personal experiments, and by the additional
light of modern science, the Western or Jewish Kabalists, besides having been
misled for centuries by the introduction of foreign elements in it such as
Christian dogmas, dead— letter interpretations of the Bible, etc., have most
undeniably lost the true key to the esoteric meaning of Simeon Ben Iochai’s
Kabalah, and are trying to make up for the loss by interpretations emanating
from
399—————————————————————A NOTE
ON ÉLIPHAS LÉVI.
the depths of their
imagination and inner consciousness. Such is evidently the case with J. K., the
self-styled London “adept,” whose anonymous and powerless vilifications of the
Theosophical Society and its members are pertinently regarded by Baron
Spedalieri as “tanta mount to libels.” But we have to be charitable. That poor
descendant of the biblical Levites—as we know him to be—in his pigmy efforts to
upset the Theosophists, has most evidently fractured his skull against one of
his own “occult” sentences. There is one especially in The Spiritualist (July
22nd), to which the attention of the mystically inclined is drawn further down,
as this paragraph is most probably the cause of the sad accident which befell
so handsome a head. Be it as it may, but it now disables the illustrious J. K.
from communicating ‘‘scientifically his knowledge’’ and forces him at the same
time to remain, as he expresses it, “in an incommunicable ecstatic state.” For
it is in no other “state” that our great modern adept—the literary man of such
a “calibre” that to suspect him of “ignorance” becomes equal, in audacity, to
throwing suspicion upon the virtue of Cæsar's wife—could possibly have written
the following lines, intended by him, we believe, as a lucid and clear
exposition of his own psycho-kabalistic lore as juxtaposed to the “hard words,”
“outlandish verbiage,” “moral and philosophical platitudes,” and “jaw-breakers”
of “the learned Theosophists.”
These are the “gems of occult
wisdom” of the illustrious Jewish Kabalist who, like a bashful violet, hides
his occult learning under two modest initials.
In every human creature there
lies latent in the involitional part of the being a sufficient quantity of the
omniscient, the absolute. To induce the latent absolute, which is the
involitional part of our volitional conscious being, to become manifest, it is
essential that the volitional part of our being should become latent. After the
preparatory purification from acquired depravities, a kind of introversion has
to take place; the involitional has to become volitional, by the volitional
————————————————————————
* "To accuse a literary
man, of my calibre of ignorance, is as amusing a mistake as it would have been
to charge Porson of ignorance of Greeks’’ he writes in The Spiritualist of July
8th .. " The occult is my special subject, and there is but little that I
do not know he adds. Now, the above sentence settles the question at once for
us. Not only no ‘‘ adept,’’ but no layman or profane of the most widely recognized
intellect and ability would ever have dared, under the penalty of being
henceforth and for ever regarded as the most ridiculously conceited of Æsop’s
heroes, to use such a sentence when speaking of himself! So stupidly arrogant
and cowardly impertinent behind the shield of his initials has he shown himself
in his transparent attacks upon far better and more worthy men than himself in
the above—named Spiritualist that it is the first and certainly the last time
that we do him the honour of noticing him in these columns. Our Journal has a
nobler task, we trust, than to be polemizing with those, whom in vulgar
parlance the world generally terms—bullies.
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A MODERN PANARION.
becoming involitional. When
the conscious becomes semi-unconscious, the, to us, formerly unconscious
becomes fully conscious. The particle of the omniscient that is within us, the
vital and growing, sleepless, involitional, occult or female principle being allowed
to express itself in the volitional, mental, manifest, or masculine part of the
human being, while the latter remains in a state of perfect passivity, the two
formerly dissevered parts become reunited as one holy (wholly) perfect being,
and then the divine manifestation is inevitable.
Very luckily, J. K. gives us
himself the key to this grandiloquent gush by adding:
Necessarily, this is only
safely practicable while living in uncompromisingly firm purity, for otherwise
there is danger of unbalancement—insanity, or a questionable form of
mediumship.
The italics are ours.
Evidently with our immaculate “adept” the “involitional, occult or female
principle” was not allowed to “express itself in the volitional, mental,
manifest, or masculine part” of his being, and—behold the results
For the edification of our
Hindu readers, who are unprogressive enough to refuse to read the lucubrations
of J. K., or follow the mental “grand trapeze” performed by this remarkable
“adept” on the columns of The Spiritualist, we may add that in the same article
he informs his English readers that it is “Hindu mystification, acting on
Western credulity” which “brought out the Theosophical Society.” “Hindu
philosophy,” according to that great light of the nineteenth century, is no ‘‘philosophy”
but rather ‘‘ mysticism.”
Following the track of the
mystifying and mystified Hindus they [ The Theosophists] consider the four
above faculties [Siddhis of Krishna], Anima, Mahima, Laghima and Garima to be
time power they [We] have to strive for.
Indeed, what a ludicrous
confusion of effect with cause! The injury to the brain must have been serious
indeed. Let us hope that timely and repeated lotions of “witch-hazel” or the
“universal magic balm” will have its good effects. Meanwhile, we turn the
attention of our Hindu readers and students of Occultism to the identity of the
doctrines taught by Éliphas Lèvi (who is also contemptuously sneered at, and
sent by the “adept” to keep company with “Brothers,” “Yogis,” and “Fakirs”) in
every essential and vital point with those of our Eastern initiates.
THE SIX=POINTED AND
FIVE=POINTED
STARS
———
[Vol. III. No. 2, November,
1881.]
OUR authorities for
representing the pentagram or the five-pointed star as the microcosm, and the
six-pointed double triangle as the macrocosm, are all the best known Western
Kabalists—mediæval and modern. Éliphas Lévi (Abbé Constant) and, we believe,
Kunrath, one of the greatest occultists of the past ages, give their reasons
for it. In Hargrave Jennings’ Rosicrucians the correct cut of the microcosm
with man in the centre of the pentagram is given. There is no objection
whatever to publish their speculations save one—the lack of space in our
journal, as it would necessitate an enormous amount of explanations to make
their esoteric meaning clear. But room will always be found to correct a few
natural misconceptions which may arise in the minds of some of our readers,
owing to the necessary brevity of our editorial notes. So long as the question
raised provokes no discussion to show the interest taken in the subject, these
notes touch but superficially upon every question. The excellence of the
above-published paper [ Six-pointed and Five-pointed Stars,” by Krishna Shankar
Lalshankar], and the many valuable remarks contained in it, afford us now an
opportunity for correcting such errors in the author’s mind.
As understood in the West by
the real Kabalists, Spirit and Matter have their chief symbolical meaning in
the respective colours of the two interlaced triangles, and relate in no way to
any of the lines which bind the figures themselves. To the Kabalist and
Hermetic philosopher, everything in nature appears under a triune aspect;
everything is a multiplicity and trinity in unity, and is so represented by him
symbolically in various geometrical figures. “God geometrizes,” says Plato. The
“Three Kabalistic Faces” are the “Three Lights” and the “Three Lives” of
Ain-Suph (the Parabrahman of the Westerns), which is also called the “Central
Invisible Sun.” “The Universe is
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A MODERN PANARION.
his Spirit, Soul and Body,”
his ‘‘Three Emanations.’’ This triune nature—the purely Spiritual, the purely
Material, and the Middle nature (or imponderable matter, of which man’s astral
soul is composed)—is represented by the equilateral triangle, whose three sides
are equal because these three principles are diffused throughout the universe
in equal proportions, and——the one law in nature being perfect equilibrium—are
eternal and coexistent. The Western symbology then, with a trifling variation,
is identically the same as that of the Aryans. Names may vary, and trifling
details may be added, but the fundamental ideas are the same. The double
triangle, representing symbolically the macrocosm, or great universe, contains
in itself the ideas of Unity, of Duality (as shown in the two colours, and two
triangles—the universe of Spirit and that of Matter), of Trinity, of the
Pythagoræan Tetraktys, the perfect Square, up to the Dodekagon and the
Dodekahedron. The ancient Chaldæan Kabalists—the masters and inspirers of the
Jewish Kabalah—were neither the Anthropomorphizers of the Old Testament, nor
those of the present day. Their Ain—Suph—the Endless and the Boundless—’’ has a
form and then has no form,’’ says the Zohar,* and forthwith explains the riddle
by adding: ‘‘The Invisible assumed a Form when he called the Universe into
existence.” That is to say, the Deity can only be seen and conceived of in
objective nature—pure pantheism. The three sides of the triangles represent to
the Occultists as they do to the Aryans—Spirit, Matter, and the Middle nature
(the latter identical in its meaning with ‘‘Space”); hence also the creative,
preservative and destructive energies, typified in the ‘‘Three Lights.” The
first Light infuses intelligent, conscious life throughout the universe, thus
answering to the creative energy. The second Light incessantly produces forms
out of preexistent cosmic matter within the cosmic circle, and hence is the preservative
energy. The third Light produces the whole universe of gross physical matter.
As the latter keeps gradually receding from the central spiritual Light, its
brightness vanes, and it becomes Darkness or Evil, leading to Death. Hence it
becomes the destructive energy, which we find ever at work on forms and
shapes—the temporary and the changing. The ‘‘Three Kabalistic Faces’’ of the
‘‘Ancient of the Ancient’’— ‘‘has no face”—are the Aryan deities called
respectively Brahmâ and Rudra or Shiva. The double triangle of the Kabalists is
enclosed
————————————————————————
* The Book of Splendour
written by Simeon Ben Iochai, in the first century B.C. according to others in
the year AD.80.
403————————————————THE SIX-POINTED AND FIVE-POINTED STARS.
within a circle represented by
a serpent swallowing its own tail (the Egyptian emblem of the eternity), and
sometimes by a simple circle (see the theosophical seal). The only difference
we can see between the Aryan and the Western symbology of the double
triangle—according to the author’s explanation—lies in his omission to notice
the profound and special meaning in that which, if we understand him rightly,
he terms “the zenith and the zero.” With the Western Kabalists, the apex of the
white triangle loses itself in the zenith, the world of pure immateriality or
unalloyed Spirit, while the lower angle of the black triangle pointing downward
towards the nadir shows—to use a very prosaic phrase of the mediæval
Hermetists—pure, or rather “impure matter,” as the “gross purgations of the
celestial fire” (Spirit) drawn into the vortex of annihilation, that lower
world, where forms and shapes and conscious life disappear to be dispersed and
return to the mother fount (Cosmic Matter). So with the central point and the
central cavity, which, according to the Paurânik teaching, “is considered to be
the seat of the Avyakta Brahma, or Unmanifested Deity.”
The Occultists, who generally
draw Simple central geometrical point (which, having neither length, breadth
nor thickness, represents the invisible
“Central Sun,’’ the Light of the ‘‘ Unmanifested Deity”), often place the Crux
Ansata (the “handled cross,” or the Egyptian Tau), at the zenith of which,
instead of a mere upright line, they substitute a circle, the symbol of
limitless, uncreated Space. Thus modified, this cross has nearly the same
significance as the “Mundane Cross” of the ancient Egyptian Hermetists, a cross
within a circle Å
Therefore, it is erroneous to
say that the editorial note stated that the double triangle represented “Spirit
and Matter only,” for it represents so many emblems that a volume would not
suffice to explain them. Says our critic:
————————————————————————
* The meaning is the same in
the Egyptian pyramid. A French archæologist of some renown, Dr. Rebold, shows
the great culture of the Egyptians, 5,000 B.C., by stating upon various
authorities that there were at that time no less than ‘‘ thirty or forty
colleges of the initiated priests who studied occult sciences and practical
magic.”
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A MODERN PANARION.
If, as you say, the double
triangle is made to represent universal spirit and matter only, the objection
that two sides—or any two things—cannot form a triangle, or that a triangle
cannot be made to represent one—spirit alone, or matter alone—-as you appear to
have done by the distinction of white and black—remains unexplained.
Believing that we have now
sufficiently explained some of the difficulties, and shown that the Western
Kabalists always had regard to the ‘‘trinity in unity’’ and vice versa, we may
add that the Pythagoræans explained away the “objection” especially insisted
upon by the writer of the above words about 2,500 years ago. The sacred numbers
of that school—whose cardinal idea was that there existed a permanent principle
of Unity beneath all the forces and phenomenal changes of the universe—did not
include the number two or the Duad among the others. The Pythagoræans refused
to recognize that number, even as an abstract idea, precisely on the ground
that in geometry it was impossible to construct a figure with only two straight
lines. It is obvious that for symbolical the number cannot be identified with
any circumscribed figure, whether a plane or a solid, geometric figure; and
thus, as it could not he made to represent a unity in a multiplicity as any
other polygonal figure can, it could not be regarded as a sacred number. The
number two, represented in geometry by a double horizontal line =, and in the
Roman numerals by a double perpendicular line | | , and, a line having length,
but not breadth or thickness, another numeral had to be added to it before it
could be accepted. It is only in conjunction with number one, thus becoming the
equilateral triangle, that it can be called a figure. It thus becomes evident
why, in symbolizing Spirit and Matter (the Alpha and Omega in the Kosmos), the
Hermetists had to use two triangles interlaced (both a ‘‘trinity in unity’’),
making the one typifying Spirit white with chalk, and the other typifying
Matter black with charcoal.
To the question, what do the
two other angles of the white triangle signify, if the one ‘‘white point
ascending heavenward symbolizes Spirit”—we answer that, according to the
Kabalists. the two lower points signify ‘‘Spirit falling into generation,’’
i.e., the pure divine Spark already mixed with the Matter of the phenomenal
world. The same explanation holds good for the two base angles of time black
triangle; the third points showing respectively the progressive purification of
Spirit, and the progressive grossness of Matter. Again, to say that ‘‘any
thought of upward or downward’’ in ‘‘the sublime idea of the Kosmos” seems “not
only revolting but unreal,” is to object to
405—————————————————THE SIX-POINTED AND FIVE-POINTED STARS.
anything abstract being
symbolized in a concrete image. Then why not make away with all the signs
altogether, including that of Vishnu and with all the learned Paurânik
explanations thereof given by the writer? And why should the Kabalistic idea be
more revolting than that of “Death, Devourer, Time,” the latter word being a
synonym of Endless Eternity—represented by a circle surrounding the double
triangle? Strange inconsistency, and one, moreover, which clashes entirely with
the rest of the article! If the writer has not met “any where with the idea of
one triangle being white and the other black,” it is simply because he has
never studied, nor probably even seen the writings and illustrations of Western
Kabalists.
The above explanations contain
the key to the Pythagoræan general formula of unity in multiplicity, the One
evolving the man, and pervading the many and the whole. Their mystic Dekad (1 +
2 + 3 + 4 = 10), expresses the entire idea; it is not only far from being
‘‘revolting’’ but it is positively sublime. The One is the Deity; the Two
Matter—the figure so despised by them as Matter per se can never be a conscious
unity.* The Three (or Triangle), combining Monad and Duad, partaking of the
nature of both, becomes the Triad or the phenomenal world. The Tetrad or sacred
Tetraktys, the form of perfection with the Pythagoræans expresses at the same
time the emptiness of all— Mayâ. While the Dekad, or sum of all, involves the
entire Kosmos. ‘‘The universe is the combination of a thousand elements, and
yet the expression of a single element—absolute harmony or spirit—a chaos to
the sense, a perfect kosmos to reason,” we say in Isis Unveiled.
Pythagoras learned his
philosophy in India. Hence, the similarity in the fundamental ideas of the
ancient Brâhmanical Initiates and the Pythagorists. And when in defining the
Shatkon, the writer says it “represents the great universe (Brahmânda)—the
whole endless Mahâ kâsha—with all the planetary and stellar worlds contained in
it,’’ he only repeats in other words the explanation given by Pythagoras and
the Hermetic philosophers of the hexagonal star or the “double triangle,” as
shown above.
Nor do we find it very
difficult to fill up the gap left in our brief note in the August number as to
the ‘‘remaining three points of the two triangles,’’ and the three sides of
each element of the ‘‘double triangle’’ or of the circle surrounding the
figure. As the Hermetists symbolized
————————————————————————
* Compare in Kapila sânkhya— Purusha and Prakriti only the two combined when
forming a unity can manifest themselves in this world of the senses.
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A MODERN PANARION.
everything visible and
invisible they could not fail to symbolize the macrocosm in its completeness.
The Pythagoreans who included
in their Dekad the entire Kosmos, held the number twelve in still higher
reverence as it represented the sacred Tetraktys multiplied by three, which
gave a trinity of perfect squares called tetrads. The Hermetic philosophers or
Occultists following in their steps
represented this number twelve in the double triangle’’—the great universe or
the macrocosm as shown in this figure—and included in it the pentagram, or the
microcosm, called by them the little universe.
Dividing the twelve letters of the outer angles into four groups of triads, or
three groups of tetrads, they obtained the Dodekagon, a regular geometric
polygon, bounded by twelve equal sides and containing twelve equal angles, which
symbolized with the ancient Chaldæans the twelve “great gods,”* and with the
Hebrew Kabalists the ten Sephiroth, or creative powers of nature, emanated from
Sephira (Divine Light), herself the chief Sephiroth and emanation from Hakoma,
the Supreme (or Unmanifested) Wisdom, and Ain-Suph the Endless; viz., three
groups of triads of the Sephiroth and a fourth triad, composed of Sephira,
Ain-Suph and Hakoma, the Supreme Wisdom which ‘‘cannot he understood by
reflection,’’ and which ‘‘lies concealed within and without the cranium of Long
Face,’’† the uppermost head of the upper triangle forming the ‘‘Three
Kabalistic Faces,” making up the twelve. Moreover, the twelve figures give two
squares or the double Tetraktys, representing in the Pythagoræan symbology the
two worlds—the spiritual and the physical. The eighteen inner and six central
angles yield, besides twenty-four, twice the sacred macrocosmic number, also
the twenty-four ‘‘divine unmanifested
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* According to Haug's Aitareya
Brahmana , the Hindu Manas or[ Mind] or Bhagavan creates no more than the
Pythagoræan Monas. He enters the Egg of the World and emanates from it as
Brahmâ as itself (Bhagavan) has no first cause (Apârva). Brahma, as Prajapati,
manifests himself as the androgyne Sephira and the ten Sephiroth) as twelve
bodies or attributes which are represented by the twelve Gods symbolizing (1)
Fire, (2) the Sun, (3) Soma, (4) all living Beings, (5)( Vâyu, (6) Death—Shiva,
(7) Earth, (8) Heaven, (9) Agni, (10) Aditya, (11) Mind,( 12) the great
Infinite cycle which is not to be stopped. This, with a few variations, is
purely the Kabalistic idea of the Sephroth.
† Idra Rabba, vi. 58.
407—————————————————THE SIX-POINTED AND FIVE-POINTED STARS.
powers.” These it would be
impossible to enumerate in so short a space. Besides, it is far more reasonable
in our days of scepticism to follow the hint of Iamblichus, who says, that “the
divine powers always felt indignant with those who rendered manifest the
composition of the Icosahedron,” viz., those who delivered the method of
inscribing in a sphere the Dodekahedron, one of the five solid figures in
geometry, contained by twelve equal and regular pentagons—the secret Kabalistic
meaning of which our opponents would do well to study.
In addition to all this, as
shown in the “double triangle” above, the pentagram in the centre gives the key
to the meaning of the Hermetic philosophers and Kabalists. So well known and
widespread is this double sign that it may be found over the entrance door of the
Lha khang (temples containing Buddhist images and statues), in every Gong-pa
(lamasery), and often over the relic-cupboard, called in Tibet Doong-ting.
The mediæval Kabalists give us
in their writings the key to its meaning. “Man is a little world inside the
great universe”—Paracelsus teaches. And again: “A microcosm, within the
macrocosm, like a fœtus he is suspended by his three principal spirits in the
matrix of the universe.” These three spirits are described as double: (1) the
spirit of the elements (terrestrial body and vital principle); (2) the spirit
of the stars (sidereal or astral body and the will governing it); (3) the
spirits of the spiritual world (the animal and the spiritual souls); the
seventh principle being an almost immaterial spirit or the divine Augoeides,
Atmâ, represented by the central point, which corresponds to the human navel.
This seventh principle is the personal God of every man, say the old Western
and Eastern Occultists.
Therefore it is that the
explanations given by our critic of the Shatkon and Panchkon rather corroborate
than destroy our theory. Speaking of the five triangles composed of “five times
five” or twenty-five points, he remarks of the pentagram that it is a “number
otherwise corresponding with the twenty-five elements making a living human
creature.” Now we suppose that by “elements” the writer means just what the
Kabalists say when they teach that the emanations of the twenty-four divine
“unmanifested powers “—the “unexisting” or “central point” being the twenty-fifth—make
a perfect human being. But without disputing upon the relative value of the
words “element” and “emanation,” and strengthened moreover as we find the above
sentence by the author’s additional remark that “the entire figure” of the
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microcosm, “the inner world of
individual living being,” is “a figure which is the sign of Brahmâ, the deified
creative energy”—in what respect, we ask, does the above sentence so much clash
with our statement that some proficients in Hermetic philosophy and Kabalists
regard the five points of the pentagram as representing the five cardinal limbs
of the human body? We are no ardent disciple or follower of the Western Kabalists,
yet we maintain that in this they are right. If the twenty-five elements
represented by the five-pointed star make up a “living human creature” then
these elements are all vital, whether mental or physical, and the figure
symbolizing “creative energy” gives the more force to the Kabalistic idea.
Every one of the five gross elements—earth, water, fire, air (or “wind”) and
ether— enters into the composition of man, and whether we say “five organs of
action” or the “five limbs” or even the “five senses,” it means all one and the
same thing, if we would refrain from hair-splitting.
Most undoubtedly the
“proficients” could explain their claim at least as satisfactorily as the
writer who controverts and denies it, in explaining his own. In the Codex
Nazaræus most Kabalistic of books—the Supreme King of Light and the chief Æon,
Mano, emanates the five Æons—he himself with the Lord Ferho (the “Unknown
Formless Life” of which he is an emanation) making up the seven, which typify
again the seven principles in man; the five being purely material and
semi-material, and the higher two almost immaterial and spiritual. Five
refulgent rays of light proceed from each of the seven Æons, five of these
shooting through the head, the two extended hands, and the two feet of man
represented in the five-pointed star, one enveloping him as with a mist and the
seventh settling like a bright star over his head. The illustration may be seen
in several old books upon the codex Nazaræus and the Kabalah. What wonder,
then, that since electricity or animal magnetism streams most powerfully from
the five cardinal limbs of man, and since the phenomena of what is now called
“mesmeric” force had been studied in the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece,
and mastered as it may never hope to be mastered in our age of idiotic and à
priori denial, the old Kabalists and philosophers who symbolized every power in
nature, should, for reasons perfectly evident for those who know anything of
the arcane sciences and the mysterious relations which exist between numbers,
figures and ideas, have chosen to represent “the five cardinal limbs of
man”—the head, the two arms and the two legs—in the five points of the
pentagram?
409—————————————————THE SIX-POINTED AND FIVE-POINTED STARS.
Eliphas Lévi the modern
Kabalist, goes as far, if not farther, than his ancient and mediæval brethren,
for, he says in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (p. 175):
The Kabalistic use of the
pentagram can determine the countenance of unborn infants, and an initiated
woman might give to her son the features of Nereus or Achilles, or those of
Louis XIV or Napoleon.
The Astral Light of the
Western Occultists is the Akâsha of the Hindus. Many of the latter will not
study its mysterious correlations, either under the guidance of initiated
Kabalists or that of their own initiated Brâhmans, preferring to Prajnâ
Pârarnitâ—their own conceit. And yet both exist and are identical.
THE GRAND INQUISITOR
————
[Vol. III. Nos. 2 and 3,
November and December, 1881.]
[Dedicated by the Translator to
those sceptics who clamour so loudy’, both in print and private letters—” Show
us the wonder-working ‘Brothers,’ let them come out publicly and—we will
believe in them !‘‘]
[The following is an extract
from M. Dostoevsky’s celebrated novel, The Brothers Karamazof the last
publication from the pen of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months
ago, just as the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is beginning
to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest among Russian writers. His
characters are invariably typical portraits drawn from various classes of
Russian society, strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The
following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology generally and the
Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea is that Christ revisits earth,
coming to Spain at the period of the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a
heretic by the Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan,
a rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to throw this
conception into the form of a poem, which he describes to Alyosha—the youngest
of the brothers a young Christian mystic brought up by a ‘‘saint’’ in a
monastery—as follows : ]
‘‘Quite impossible, as you
see, to start without an introduction,” laughed Ivan. “Well, then, I mean to
place the event described in the poem in the sixteenth century, an age—as you
must have been told at school—when it was the great fashion among poets to make
the denizens and powers of higher worlds descend on earth and mix freely with
mortals. . . . In France all the notaries’ clerks, and the monks in their
cloisters as well, used to give grand performances, dramatic plays in which
long scenes were enacted by the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ, and
even by God Himself. In those days, everything was very artless and primitive.
An instance of it may be found in Victor
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Hugo’s drama, Notre Dame de
Paris, where, at the Municipal Hall, a play called Le Bon Jugement de la
Très-sainte et Gracieuse Vierge Marie, is enacted in honour of Louis XI, in
which the Virgin appears personally to pronounce her ‘good judgement.’ In
Moscow, during the prepetrean period, performances of nearly the same
character, chosen especially from the Old Testament, were also in great favour.
Apart from such plays, the world was overflooded with mystical writings,
‘verses’—the heroes of which were always selected from the ranks of angels,
saints and other heavenly citizens answering to the devotional purposes of the
age. The recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman Catholic monks, passed
their time in translating, copying, and even producing original compositions
upon such subjects, and that, remember, during the Tartar period! . In this
connection, I am re- minded of a poem compiled in a convent—a translation from
the Greek, of course—called ‘The Travels of the Mother of God among the
Damned,’ with fitting illustrations and a boldness of conception inferior
nowise to that of Dante. The ‘Mother of God’ visits hell, in company with the
Archangel Michael as her cicerone to guide her through the legions of the
‘damned.’ She sees them all, and is witness to their multifarious tortures.
Among the many other exceedingly remarkable varieties of torments—every
category of sinners having its own—there is one especially worthy of notice,
namely, a class of the ‘damned’ sentenced to gradually sink in a burning lake
of brimstone and fire. Those whose sins cause them to sink so low that they no
longer can rise to the surface are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., they fade
out from the omniscient memory, says the poem—an expression, by the way, of an
extraordinary profundity of thought, when closely analyzed. The Virgin is
terribly shocked, and falling down upon her knees in tears before the throne of
God, begs that all she has seen in hell—all, all without exception, should have
their sentences remitted to them. Her dialogue with God is colossally
interesting. She supplicates, she will not leave Him. And when God, pointing to
the pierced hands and feet of her Son, cries, ‘How can I forgive His
executioners?’ she then commands that all the saints, martyrs, angels and
archangels, should prostrate themselves with her before the Immutable and the
Changeless One and implore Him to change His wrath into mercy and—forgive them
all. The poem closes upon her obtaining from God a compromise, a kind of yearly
respite of tortures between Good Friday and Trinity, a chorus of the ‘dawned’
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singing loud praises to God
from their ‘bottomless pit,’ thanking and telling Him :
Thou art right, 0 Lord, very
right,
Thou hast condemned us justly.
“My poem is of the same
character.
“In it, it is Christ who
appears on the scene. True, He says nothing, but only appears and passes out of
sight. Fifteen centuries have elapsed since He left the world with the distinct
promise to return ‘with power and great glory’; fifteen long centuries since
His prophet cried, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’ since He Himself had
foretold, while yet on earth, ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels of heaven but my Father only.’ But Christendom expects Him still.
‘‘It waits for Him with the
same old faith and the same emotion; aye, with a far greater faith, for fifteen
centuries have rolled away since the last sign from heaven was sent to man,
And blind faith remained alone
To lull the trusting heart,
As heav’n would send a sign no more.
“True, again, we have all
heard of miracles being wrought ever since the ‘age of miracles’ passed away to
return no more. We had, and still have, our saints credited with performing the
most miraculous cures; and, if we can believe their biographers, there have
been those among them who have been personally visited by the Queen of Heaven.
But Satan sleepeth not, and the first germs of doubt, an ever-increasing
unbelief in such wonders, already had begun to sprout in Christendom as early
as the sixteenth century. It was just at that time that a new and terrible
heresy first made its appearance in the north of Germany.* A great star
‘shining as it were a lamp . . . fell upon the fountains of waters’ . . and
‘they were made bitter.’ This ‘heresy’ blasphemously denied ‘miracles.’ But
those who had remained faithful believed all the more ardently. The tears of
mankind ascended to Him as heretofore, and the Christian world was expecting
Him as confidently as ever; they loved Him and hoped in Him, thirsted and hungered
to suffer and die for Him just as many of them had done before. So many
centuries had weak, trusting humanity implored Him, crying with ardent faith
and fervour: ‘How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!’ So many
long centuries hath it
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* Luther’s reform.
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vainly appealed to Him, that
at last, in His inexhaustible compassion, He consenteth to answer the prayer. .
He decideth that once more, if it were but for one short hour, the people—His
long-suffering, tortured, fatally sinful, yet loving and child-like, trusting
people—shall behold Him again. The scene of action is placed by me in Spain, at
Seville, during that terrible period of the Inquisition, when, for the greater
glory of God, stakes were flaming all over the country,
Burning wicked heretics,
In grand auto-da-fes.
‘‘This particular visit has,
of course, nothing to do with the promised Advent, when, according to the
programme, ‘after the tribulation of those days,’ He will appear ‘coming in the
clouds of heaven.’ For, that ‘coming of the Son of Man,’ as we are informed,
will take place as suddenly ‘as the lightning cometh out of the east and
shineth even unto the west.’ No; this once, He desired to come unknown, and
appear among His children, just when the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be
burnt alive, had commenced crackling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His
limitless mercy, He mixes once more with mortals and in the same form in which
He was wont to appear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, just at the very
moment when before king, courtiers, knights, cardinals, and the fairest dames
of court, before the whole population of Seville, upwards of a hundred wicked
heretics are being roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fé ad majorem Dei gloriam,
by the order of the powerful Cardinal Grand Inquisitor.
• • • He comes silently and
unannounced; et all—how strange—yea, all recognize Him, at once! The population
rushes towards Him as if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds,
throngs, and presses around, it follows Him Silently, and with a smile of
boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense crowd, and moves
softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, and warm rays of Light, Wisdom
and Power beam forth from His eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming
multitudes of the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with
returning love. He extends His hands over their heads, blesses them, and from
mere contact with Him, aye, even with His garments, a healing power goes forth.
An old man, blind from his birth, cries, ‘Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!’
and the scales falling off the closed eyes, the blind man beholds Him. . . .
The crowd weeps for joy, and kisses the ground upon which He treads. Children
strew flowers along His path and sing to
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Him, ‘Hosanna! ‘ It is He, it
is Himself, they say to each other, it must be He, it can be none other but He!
He pauses at the portal of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is
carried in, with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the
coffin lies the body of a fair girl-child, seven years old, the only child of
an eminent citizen of the city. The little corpse lies buried in flowers. ‘He
will raise thy child to life! ‘ confidently shouts the crowd to the weeping
mother. The officiating priest who had come to meet the funeral procession,
looks perplexed, and frowns. A loud cry is suddenly heard, and the bereaved
mother prostrates herself at His feet. ‘If it be Thou, then bring back my child
to life!’ she cries beseechingly. The procession halts, and the little coffin
is gently lowered at His feet. Divine compassion beams forth from His eyes, and
as He looks at the child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, ‘Talitha
Cumi’—and ‘straightway the damsel arose.’ The child rises in her coffin. Her
little hands still hold the nosegay of white roses which after death was placed
in them, and, looking round with large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly. . .
. The crowd is violently excited. A terrible commotion rages among them, the
populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the cathedral door,
appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself is a tall, gaunt—looking old man
of nearly fourscore years and ten, with a stern, withered face, and deeply
sunken eyes, from the cavity of which glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid
aside his gorgeous cardinal’s robes in which he had appeared before the people
at time auto-da-fé of the enemies of the Romish Church, and is now clad in his
old, rough, monkish cassock. His sullen assistants and slaves of the ‘holy
guard’ are following at a distance. He pauses before the crowd and observes. He
has seen all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His feet,
the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has grown still darker;
his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his sunken eye flashes with sinister
light. Slowly raising his finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him.
“Such is his power over the
well-disciplined, submissive and now trembling people, that the thick crowds
immediately give way, and scattering before the guard, amid dead silence and
without one breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands upon
the stranger and lead Him away. . . . That same populace, like one man, now
bows its head to the ground before the old Inquisitor, who blesses it
415T————————————————————THE GRAND INQUISITOR.
and slowly moves onwards The
guards conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of the Holy Tribunal;
pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy, vaulted prison-cell, they lock Him in and
retire.
“The day wanes, and night—a
dark, hot, breathless Spanish night— creeps on and settles upon the city of
Seville. The air smells of laurels and orange blossoms. In the Cimmerian
darkness of the old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell is suddenly thrown
open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a dark lantern, slowly stalks into the
dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavy door closes behind him, he pauses at
the threshold, and, for a minute or two, silently and gloomily scrutinizes the
Face before him. At last, approaching with measured steps, he sets his lantern
down upon the table and addresses Him in these words:
“‘It is Thou! Thou!’ . .
Receiving no reply, he rapidly
continues: ‘Nay, answer not;
be silent!.. And what couldst
Thou say? . . I know but too
well Thy answer Besides,
Thou hast no right to add one
syllable to that which was already uttered by Thee before. . . Why shouldst
Thou now return, to impede us in our work? For Thou hast come but for that
only, and Thou knowest it well. But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee
in the morning? I do not know, nor do I care to know who Thou mayest be: be it
Thou or only Thine image, tomorrow I will condemn and burn Thee on the stake,
as the most wicked of all the heretics; and that same people, who to-day were
kissing Thy feet, tomorrow at one bend of my finger, will rush to add fuel to
Thy funeral pile. . . Wert Thou aware of this?’ he adds, speaking as if in
solemn thought, and never for one instant taking his piercing glance off the
meek Face before him.”
‘‘I can hardly realize the
situation described—what is all this, Ivan?” suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who
had remained silently listening to his brother. “Is this an extravagant fancy,
or some mistake of the old man, an impossible quid pro quo?”
“Let it be the latter, if you
like,’’ laughed Ivan, ‘‘since modern realism has so perverted your taste that
you feel unable to realize any thing from the world of fancy. . . . Let it be a
quid pro quo. if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor is ninety years old,
and he might have easily gone mad with his one idée fixe of power; or, it might
have as well been a delirious vision, called forth by dying fancy, overheated
by the auto-da-fé of the hundred heretics in that forenoon. . . . But
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what matters for the poem,
whether it was a quid ptro quo or an uncontrollable fancy? The question is,
that the old man has to open his heart; that he must give out his thought at
last; and that the hour has come when he does speak it out, and says loudly
that which for ninety years he has kept secret within his own breast.”
“And his prisoner, does He
never reply? Does He keep silent, looking at him, without saying a word?”
“Of course; and it could not
well be otherwise,” again retorted Ivan. “The Grand Inquisitor begins from his
very first words by telling Him that He has no right to add one syllable to
that which He had said before. To make the situation clear at once, the above
preliminary monologue is intended to convey to the reader the very fundamental
idea which underlies Roman Catholicism—as well as I can convey it, his words
mean, in short: ‘Everything was given over by Thee to the Pope, and everything
now rests with him alone; Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in
our work.’ In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise.
“‘Hast thou the right to
divulge to us a single one of the mysteries of that world whence Thou comest?’
enquires of Him my old Inquisitor, and forthwith answers for Him, ‘Nay, Thou
hast no such right. For, that would be adding to that which was already said by
Thee before; hence depriving people of that freedom for which Thou hast so
stoutly stood up while yet on earth. . Anything new that Thou wouldst now
proclaim would have to be regarded as an attempt to interfere with that freedom
of choice, as it would come as a new and a miraculous revelation superseding
the old revelation of fifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst so repeatedly
tell the people: “The truth shall make you free.” Behold then, Thy “free”
people now adds the old man with sombre irony. ‘Yea it has cost us dearly,’ he
continues, sternly looking at his victim. ‘But we have at last accomplished our
task, and—in Thy name For fifteen long centuries we had to toil and suffer
owing to that “freedom”; but now we have prevailed and our work is done, and
well and strongly it is done. . . . Believest not Thou it is so very strong? .
. . And why shouldst Thou look at me so meekly as if I were not worthy even of
Thy indignation?
Know then, that now, and only
now, Thy people feel fully sure and satisfied of their freedom; and that only
since they have them selves and of their own free will delivered that freedom
unto our hands by placing it submissively at our feet. But then, that is what we
have
417——————————————————————THE GRAND INQUISITOR.
done. Is it that which Thou
hast striven for? Is this the kind of ‘‘freedom” Thou hast promised them?’’’
“Now again, I do not
understand,” interrupted Alyosha. “Does the old man mock and laugh?”
“Not in the least. He
seriously regards it as a great service done by himself, his brother monks and
Jesuits, to humanity, to have conquered and subjected unto their authority that
freedom, and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world. ‘For only
now,’ he says (speaking of the Inquisition) ‘has it become possible to us, for
the first time, to give a serious thought to human happiness. Man is born a
rebel, and can rebels be ever happy? . . . Thou hast been fairly warned of it,
but evidently to no use, since Thou hast rejected the only means which could
make mankind happy; fortunately at Thy departure Thou hast delivered the task
to us. . . . Thou hast promised, ratifying the pledge by Thy own words, in
words giving us the right to bind and unbind . . . and surely, Thou couldst not
think of depriving us of it now!’”
“But what can he mean by the
words, ‘Thou hast been fairly warned’?” asked Alexis.
“These words give the key to
what the old man has to say for his justification. But listen—
‘The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of self-annihilation and nonbeing,’
goes on the Inquisitor, ‘the great spirit of negation conversed with Thee in
the wilderness, and we are told that he “tempted” Thee.
Was it so? And if it were so,
then it is impossible to utter anything more truthful that what is contained in
his three offers, which Thou didst reject, and which are usually called
“temptations.” Yea; if ever there was on earth a genuine, striking wonder
produced, it was on that day of Thy three temptations, and it is precisely in
these three short sentences that the marvellous miracle is contained. If it
were possible that they should vanish and disappear for ever, without leaving
any trace, from the record and from the memory of man, and that it should
become necessary again to devise, invent, and make them reappear in Thy history
once more, thinkest Thou that all the world’s sages, all the legislators,
initiates, philosophers and thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions
which should, like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event, express
in three short sentences the whole future history of this our world and of
mankind—dost Thou believe, I ask Thee, that all their combined efforts could
ever create
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anything equal in power and
depth of thought to the three propositions offered Thee by the powerful and
all-wise spirit in the wilderness? Judging of them by their marvellous aptness
alone, one can at once perceive that they emanated not from a finite,
terrestrial intellect, but indeed, from the Eternal and the Absolute. In these
three offers we find, blended into one and foretold to us, the complete
subsequent history of man; we are shown three images, so to say, uniting in
them all the future axiomatic, insoluble problems and contradictions of human
nature, the world over. In those days, the wondrous wisdom contained in them
was not made so apparent as it is now, for futurity remained still veiled; but
now, when fifteen centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in these three
questions is so marvellously fore seen and foretold, that to add to, or to take
away from, the prophecy one jot, would be absolutely impossible!
“‘Decide then Thyself,’
sternly proceeded the Inquisitor, ‘which of ye twain was right: Thou who didst
reject, or he who offered? Remember the subtle meaning of question the first,
which runs thus: Wouldst Thou go into the world empty-handed? Wouldst Thou
venture thither with Thy vague and undefined promise of freedom, which men,
dull and unruly as they are by nature, are unable so much as to understand,
which they avoid and fear ?—for never was there anything more unbearable to the
human race than personal freedom! Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate
and glaring wilderness? Command that these stones be made bread—and mankind
will run after Thee, obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. But even then
it will be ever diffident and trembling, lest Thou shouldst take away Thy hand,
and they lose thereby their bread! Thou didst refuse to accept the offer for
fear of depriving men of their free choice; for where is there freedom of
choice where men are bribed with bread? Man shall not live by bread alone—was
Thine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, that it was precisely in the name of
that earthly bread that the terrestrial spirit would one day rise against,
struggle with, and finally conquer Thee, followed by the hungry multitudes
shouting: ‘‘Who is like unto that Beast, who maketh fire come down from heaven
upon the earth!” Knowest Thou not that, but a few centuries hence, and the
whole of mankind will have proclaimed in its wisdom and through its mouth
piece, Science, that there is no more crime, hence no more sin on earth, but
only hungry people? “Feed us first and then command us to be virtuous!” will be
the words written upon the banner lifted against
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Thee—a banner which shall
destroy Thy Church to its very foundations, and in the place of Thy Temple
shall raise once more the terrible Tower of Babel; and though its building be
left unfinished, as was that of the first one, yet the fact will remain
recorded that Thou couldst, but wouldst not, prevent the attempt to build that
new tower by accepting the offer, and thus saving mankind a millennium of
useless suffering on earth. And it is to us that the people will return again.
They will search for us everywhere; and they will find us under ground in the
catacombs, as we shall once more be persecuted and martyred—and they will begin
crying unto us: “Feed us, for they who promised us the fire from heaven have
deceived us!” It is then that we will finish building their tower for them. For
they alone who feed them shall finish it, and we shall feed them in Thy name,
and lying to them that it is in that name. Oh, never, never, will they learn to
feed themselves without our help! No science will ever give them bread so long
as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay that freedom at our feet, and
say. “Enslave, but feed us!” That day must come when men will understand that
freedom and daily bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be
had together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two among
themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be free, for they are
weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born wicked and rebellious. Thou hast
promised to them the bread of life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again,
can that bread ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the
ever-ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth? And even supposing that
thousands and tens of thousands follow Thee in the name of, and for the sake
of, Thy heavenly bread, what will become of the millions and hundreds of millions
of human beings too weak to scorn the earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly
bread? Or is it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great and the
mighty, that are so dear to Thee, while the remaining millions, innumerable as
the grains of sand in the seas, the weak and the loving, have to be used as
material for the former? No, no! In our sight and for our purpose the weak and
the lowly are the more dear to us. True, they are vicious and rebellions, but
we will force them into obedience, and it is they who will admire us the most.
They will regard us as gods, and feel grateful to those who have consented to
lead the masses and bear their burden of freedom by ruling over them—so
terrible will that freedom at last appear to men! Then we will tell them that
it is
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in obedience to Thy will and
in Thy name that we rule over them. We will deceive them once more and lie to
them once again—for never, never more will we allow Thee to Come among us. In
this deception we will find our suffering, for we must needs lie eternally, and
never cease to lie!
“‘Such is the secret meaning
of “temptation” the first, and that is what Thou didst reject in the wilderness
for the sake of that freedom which Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thy
tempter’s offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the
“bread,” Thou wouldst have satisfied and answered a universal craving, a
ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every individual human being, lurking
in the breast of collective mankind, that most perplexing problem—”whom or what
shall we worship?” There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a man
who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he shall soonest find a
new object or idea to worship. But man seeks to bow before that only which is
recognized by the greater majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a
right to be worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree
unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these miserable
creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their own choice, but to
discover that which all others will believe in, and consent to bow down to in a
mass. It is that instinctive need of having a worship in common that is the
chief suffering of every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning
of times. It is for that universality of religious worship that people
destroyed each other by sword. Creating gods unto themselves, they forthwith
began appealing to each other: “Abandon your deities, come and bow down to
ours, or death to ye and your idols “ And so will they do till the end of this
world; they will do so even then, when all the gods themselves have
disappeared, for then men will prostrate themselves before and worship some idea.
Thou didst know, Thou couldst not be ignorant of, that mysterious fundamental
principle in human nature, and still Thou hast rejected the only absolute
banner offered Thee, to which all the nations would remain true, and before
which all would have bowed—the banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of
freedom and of ‘‘ bread in the kingdom of God’’ ! Behold, then, what Thou hast
done furthermore for that ‘‘ freedom’s” sake! I repeat to Thee, man has no
greater anxiety in life than to find some one to whom he can make over that
gift of freedom with which the unfortunate creature is born. But he
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alone will prove capable of
silencing and quieting their consciences, that shall succeed in possessing
himself of the freedom of men. With “daily bread” an irresistible power was
offered Thee, show a man “bread” and he will follow Thee, for what can he
resist less than the attraction of bread? but if, at the same time, another
succeed in possessing himself of his conscience—oh! then even Thy bread will be
forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced his conscience. So far Thou wert
right. For the mystery of human being does not solely rest in the desire to
live, but in the problem—for what should one live at all? Without a clear
perception of his reasons for living, man will never consent to live, and will
rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with bread.
This is the truth. But what has happened? Instead of getting hold of man’s freedom,
Thou hast enlarged it still more! Hast Thou again forgotten that to man rest
and even death are preferable to a free choice between the knowledge of Good
and Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in his eyes than freedom of conscience,
and nothing proves more painful. And behold! instead of laying a firm
foundation whereon to rest once for all man’s conscience, Thou hast chosen to
stir up in him all that is abnormal, mysterious, and indefinite, all that is
beyond human strength, and hast acted as if Thou never hadst any love for him,
and yet Thou wert He who came to “lay down His life for His friends”! Thou hast
burdened man’s soul with anxieties hitherto unknown to him. Thirsting for human
love freely given, seeking to enable man, seduced and charmed by Thee, to
follow Thy path of his own free-will, instead of the old and wise law which
held him in subjection, Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose and
freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided but by Thine image in his
heart. But hast Thou never dreamt of the probability, nay, of the certainty, of
that same man one day rejecting finally, and controverting even Thine image and
Thy truth, once he would find himself laden with such a terrible burden as
freedom of choice? That a time would surely come when men would exclaim that
Truth and Light cannot be in Thee, for no one could have left them in a greater
perplexity and mental suffering than Thou hast done, lading them with so many
cares and insoluble problems. Thus, it is Thyself who hast laid the foundation
for the destruction of Thine own kingdom and no one but Thou is to be blamed
for it.
“‘ Meantime, every chance of
success was offered Thee. There are three Powers, three unique Forces upon
earth, capable of conquering
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for ever by charming the
conscience of these weak rebels—men—for their own good; and these Forces are:
Miracle, Mystery and Authority. Thou hast rejected all the three, and thus wert
the first to set them an example. When the terrible and all-wise spirit placed
Thee on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto Thee, “If Thou be the son of
God, cast Thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge
concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time
Thou dash Thy foot against a stone! “—for thus Thy faith in Thy father should
have been made evident, Thou didst refuse to accept his suggestion and didst
not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thou didst act in this with all the magnificent
pride of a god, but then men—that weak and rebel race—are they also gods, to
understand Thy refusal? Of course, Thou didst well know that by taking one
single step forward, by making the slightest motion to throw Thyself down, Thou
wouldst have tempted ‘‘the Lord Thy God,’’ lost suddenly all faith in Him, and
dashed Thyself to atoms against that same earth which Thou camest to save, and
thus wouldst have allowed the wise spirit which tempted Thee to triumph and
rejoice. But then, how many such as Thee are to be found on this globe, I ask
Thee? Couldst Thou ever for a moment imagine that men would have the same
strength to resist such a temptation? Is human nature calculated to reject
miracle, and trust, during the most terrible moments in life, when the most
momentous, painful and perplexing problems struggle within man’s soul, to the
free decisions of his heart for the true solution? Oh, Thou knewest well that
that action of Thine would remain recorded in books for ages to come, reaching
to the confines of the globe, and Thy hope was, that following Thy example, man
would remain true to his God, without needing any miracle to keep his faith
alive! But Thou knewest not, it seems, that no sooner would man reject miracle than
he would reject God likewise, for he seeketh less God than ‘‘a sign’’ from Him.
And thus, as it is beyond the power of man to remain without miracles, so,
rather than live without, he will create for himself new wonders of his own
making; and he will bow to and worship the soothsayer’s miracles, the old
witch’s sorcery, were he a rebel, a heretic, and an atheist a hundred times
over. Thy refusal to come down from the cross when people, mocking and wagging
their heads were saying to Thee—”Save Thyself if Thou he the son of God, and we
will believe in Thee,” was due to the same determination—not to enslave man
through miracle, but to obtain faith in Thee freely and
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apart from any miraculous
influence. Thou thirstest for free and uninfluenced love, and refusest the
passionate adoration of the slave before a Potency which would have subjected
his will once for ever. Thou judgest of men too highly here, again, for, though
rebels they be, they are born slaves and nothing. more. Behold, and judge of
them once more, now that fifteen centuries have elapsed since that moment. Look
at them, whom Thou didst try to elevate unto Thee! I swear man is weaker and
lower than Thou hast ever imagined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thou
art said to have accomplished? By valuing him so highly Thou hast acted as if
there were no love for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast demanded of him more
than he could ever give—Thou, who lovest him more than Thyself! Hadst Thou
esteemed him less, less wouldst Thou have demanded of him, and that would have
been more like love, for his burden would have been made thereby lighter. Man
is weak and cowardly. What matters it, if he now riots and rebels throughout
the world against our will and power, and prides himself upon that rebellion?
It is but the petty pride and vanity of a school-boy. It is the rioting of
little children, getting up a mutiny in the class—room and driving their
schoolmaster out of it. But it will not last long, and when the day of their
triumph is over, they will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy the
temples and raze them to the ground, flooding the earth with blood. But the
foolish children will have to learn some day that, rebels though they be and
riotous from nature, they are too weak to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any
length of time. Suffused with idiotic tears, they will confess that He who
created them rebellious undoubtedly did so but to mock them. They will
pronounce these words in despair, and such blasphemous utterances will but add
to their misery—for human nature cannot endure blasphemy, and takes her own
revenge in the end.
“‘And thus, after all Thou
hast suffered for mankind and its freedom, the present fate of men may be
summed up in three words:
Unrest, Confusion, Misery! Thy
great prophet John records in his vision, that he saw, during the first
resurrection of the chosen servants of God—”the number of them which were
sealed” in their foreheads, “twelve thousand” of every tribe. But were they, indeed,
as many? Then they must have been gods, not men. They had shared Thy Cross for
long years, suffered scores of years’ hunger and thirst in dreary wildernesses
and deserts, feeding upon locusts and roots—and of these children of free love
for Thee, and self-sacrifice in Thy name,
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Thou mayest well feel proud.
But remember that these are but a few thousands—of gods, not men; and how about
all others? And why should the weakest be held guilty for not being able to
endure what the strongest have endured? Why should a soul incapable of
containing such terrible gifts be punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really
come to, and for, the “elect” alone? If so, then the mystery will remain for
ever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery, then were we right to
proclaim it as one, and preach it, teaching them that neither their freely
given love to Thee nor freedom of conscience were essential, but only that
incomprehensible mystery which they must blindly obey even against the dictates
of their conscience. Thus did we. We corrected and improved Thy teaching and
based it upon “Miracle, Mystery, and Authority.” And men rejoiced at finding
themselves led once more like a herd of cattle, and at finding their hearts at
last delivered of the terrible burden laid upon them by Thee, which caused them
so much suffering. Tell me, were we right in doing as we did? Did not we show
our great love for humanity, by realizing in such a humble spirit its
helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its great burden, and by permitting
and remitting for its weak nature every sin, provided it be committed with our
authoriza- tion? For what, then, hast Thou come again to trouble us in our
work? And why lookest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thy meek eyes, and in
such a silence? Rather shouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not Thy love, I
reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Why should I conceal the truth from Thee?
I know but too well with whom I am now talking! What I had to say was known to
Thee before, I read it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from Thee our secret?
If per chance Thou wouldst hear it from my own lips, then listen: We are not
with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For centuries have we
abandoned Thee to follow him, yes—eight centuries. Eight hundred years now
since we accepted from him the gift rejected by Thee with indignation; that
last gift which he offered Thee from the high mountain, when, showing all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith unto Thee: “All these
things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me!” We took Rome
from him and the glaive of Cæsar and declared ourselves alone the kings of this
earth, its sole kings, though our work is not yet fully accomplished. But who
is to blame for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage, but it is
nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until its culmina-
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tion, and mankind have to
suffer much, but we shall reach the goal some day, and become sole Cæsars, and
then will be the time to think of universal happiness for men.
“‘Thou couldst accept the
glaive of Cæsar Thyself; why didst Thou reject the offer? By accepting from the
powerful spirit his third offer Thou wouldst have realized every aspiration man
seeketh for himself on earth; man would have found a constant object for
worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should unite all
together into one common and harmonious ant-hill; for an innate necessity for
universal union constitutes the third and final affliction of mankind. Humanity
as a whole has ever aspired to unite itself universally. Many were the great
nations with great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy they
felt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a universal union among men. Great
conquerors, like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, passed like a cyclone upon the face
of the earth in their efforts to conquer the universe, but even they, albeit
unconsciously, expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common
union. In accepting the kingdom of the world and Cæsar's purple, one would
found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind eternal peace. And who can rule
mankind better than those who have possessed themselves of man’s conscience,
and hold in their hand man’s daily bread? Having accepted Cæsar's glaive and
purple, we had, of course, but to deny Thee, to henceforth follow him alone.
Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious free-thought are yet before
us, and their science will end by anthropophagy, for having begun to build
their Babylonian tower without our help they will have to end by anthropophagy.
But it is precisely at that time that the Beast will crawl up to us in full
submission, and lick the soles of our feet, and sprinkle them with tears of
blood. And we shall sit upon the scarlet-coloured Beast, and lifting up high
the golden cup “full of abomination and filthiness,” shall show written upon it
the word ‘‘Mystery” ! But it is only then that men will see the beginning of a
kingdom of peace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine own elect, but Thou
hast none other but these elect, and we will give rest to all. But that is not
the end. Many are those among Thine elect and the labourers of Thy vineyard,
who, tired of waiting for Thy coming, already have carried and will yet carry,
the great fervour of their hearts and their spiritual strength into another
field, and will end by lifting up against Thee Thine own banner of freedom. But
it is Thyself Thou hast to thank. Under our
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rule and sway all will be
happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy each other as they did while under
Thy free banner. Oh, we will take good care to prove to them that they will
become absolutely free only when they have abjured their freedom in our favour
and submit to us absolutely. Thinkest Thou we shall be right or still lying? They
will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see what a depth of
degrading slavery and strife that liberty of Thine has led them into. Liberty,
Freedom of Thought and Conscience, and Science will lead them into such
impassable chasms, place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble
mysteries, that some of them—more rebellious and ferocious than the rest—will
destroy themselves; others—rebellious but weak—will destroy each other; while
the remainder, weak, helpless and miserable, will crawl back to our feet and
cry: “Yes; right were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alone are in possession of
His mystery, and we return to you, praying that ye save us from ourselves!”
Receiving their bread from us, they will clearly see that we take the bread
from them, the bread made by their own, hands, but to give it back to them in
equal shares and that without any miracle; and having ascertained that, though
we have not changed stones into bread, yet bread they have, while every other
bread turned verily in their own hands into stones, they will be only too glad
to have it so Until that day, they will never be happy. And who is it that
helped the most to blind them, tell me? Who separated the flock and scattered
it over ways unknown if it be not Thee? But we will gather the sheep once more
and subject them to our will for ever. We will prove to them their own weakness
and make them humble again, whilst with Thee they have learnt but pride, for
Thou hast made more of them than they ever were worth. We will give them that
quiet, humble happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as
they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they will become
timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens around their hen. They
will wonder at and feel a superstitious admiration for us, and feel proud to be
led by men so powerful and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a
thousand millions strong. Gradually men will begin to fear us. They will
nervously dread our slightest anger, their intellects will weaken, their eyes
become as easily accessible to tears as those of children and women ; but we
will teach them an easy transition from grief and tears to laughter, childish
joy and mirthful song. Yes; we will make them work like slaves, but during
their recreation hours they shall have an
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innocent child-like life, full
of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them sin, for, weak and
helpless, they will feel the more love for us for permitting them to indulge in
it. We will tell them that every kind of sin will be remitted to them, so long
as it is done with our permission; that we take all these sins upon ourselves,
for we so love the world, that we are even willing to sacrifice our souls for
its satisfaction. And, appearing before them in the light of their scapegoats
and redeemers, we shall be adored the more for it. They will have no secrets
from its. It will rest with us to permit them to live with their wives and
concubines, or to forbid them, to have children or remain childless, either way
depending on the degree of their obedience to us; and they will submit most
joyfully to us. The most agonizing secrets of their souls—all, all will they
lay down at our feet, and we will authorize and remit them all in Thy name, and
they will believe us and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver
them from their greatest anxiety and torture—that of having to decide freely
for themselves. And all will be happy, all except the one or two hundred
thousands of their rulers. For it is but we, we the keepers of the great
Mystery who will be miserable. There will be thousands of millions of happy
infants, and one hundred thousand martyrs who have taken upon themselves the
curse of knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and
peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals of the
grave—but death. But we will keep the secret in violate, and deceive them for
their own good with the mirage of life eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there
really anything like life beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the
lot of such as they! People tell us and prophesy of Thy coming and triumphing
once more on earth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy elect, with Thy proud
and mighty ones; but we will answer Thee that they have saved but themselves
while we have saved all. We are also threatened with the great disgrace which
awaits the whore, “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots’’—who sits upon the
Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the word written upon her forehead ;
and we are told that the weak ones, the lambs shall rebel against her and shall
make her desolate and naked. But then will I arise, and point out to Thee the
thousands of millions of happy infants free from any sin. And we who have taken
their sins upon us, for their own good, shall stand before Thee and say:
‘‘Judge us if Thou canst and darest! ‘‘ Know then that I fear Thee not. Know
that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness,
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where I fed upon locusts and
roots, that I too have blessed the freedom with which Thou hast blessed men,
and that I too have once prepared to join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and
the mighty. But I awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve
insanity. I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy mistakes. I
left the proud and returned to the really humble, and for their own happiness.
What I now tell Thee will come to pass, and our kingdom shall be built, I tell
Thee, not later than tomorrow. Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at one
simple motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on which
I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in our work. For, if
there ever was one who deserved more than any of the others our inquisitorial
fires—it is Thee! Tomorrow I will burn Thee. Dixi.’”
Ivan paused. He had entered
into the situation and had spoken with great animation, but now he suddenly
burst out laughing.
“But all that is absurd!”
suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had hitherto listened perplexed and agitated
but in profound silence. “Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an
accusation, as you, perhaps, meant it to be. And who will believe you when you
speak of ‘freedom’? Is it thus that we Christians must understand it? It is
Rome (not all Rome, for that would be unjust), but the worst of the Roman
Catholics, the Inquisitors and the Jesuits, that you have been exposing! Your
Inquisitor is an impossible character. What are these sins they are taking upon
themselves? Who are those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse
for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We all know the Jesuits, and no one
has a good word to say in their favour; but when were they as you depict them?
Never, never! The Jesuits are merely a Romish army making ready for their
future temporal kingdom, with a mitred emperor—a Roman high priest at their
head. That is their ideal and object, without any mystery or elevated
suffering. The most prosaic thirsting for power, for the sake of the mean and
earthly pleasures of life, a desire to enslave their fellow-men, something like
our late system of serfs, with themselves at the head as landed
proprietors—that is all that they can be accused of. They may not believe in
God, that is also possible, but your suffering Inquisitor is simply—a fancy!”
“Hold, hold!” interrupted
Ivan, smiling. “Do not be so excited. A fancy, you say; be it so! Of course, it
is a fancy. But stop. Do you really imagine that all this Catholic movement
during the last centuries
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is naught but a desire for
power for the mere purpose of ‘mean pleasures’? Is this what your Father
Paissiy taught you?”
“No, no, quite the reverse,
for Father Paissiy once told me some thing very similar to what you yourself
say, though, of course, not that. Something quite different,” suddenly added
Alexis, blushing.
“A precious piece of
information, notwithstanding your ‘not that.’ I ask you, why should the
Inquisitors and the Jesuits of your imagination live but for the attainment of
‘mean material pleasures’? Why should there not be found among them one single
genuine martyr, suffering under a great and holy idea and loving humanity with
all his heart? Now let us suppose that among all these Jesuits thirsting and
hungering but after ‘mean material pleasures’ there may be one, just one like
my old Inquisitor, who had himself fed upon roots in the wilderness, suffered
the tortures of damnation while trying to conquer flesh, in order to become
free and perfect, but who had never ceased to love humanity, and who one day
prophetically beheld the truth; who saw as plain as he could see that the bulk
of humanity could never be happy under the old system, that it was not for them
that the great Idealist had come and died and dreamt of His Universal Harmony.
Having realized that truth, he returned into the world and joined— intelligent
and practical people. Is this so impossible?”
“Joined whom? What intelligent
and practical people?” exclaimed Alyosha quite excited. “Why should they be
more intelligent than other men, and what secrets and mysteries can they have?
They have neither. Atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have. Your
Inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all the Mystery there is in
it!”
“It may be so. You have
guessed rightly there. And it is so, and that is his whole secret; but is this
not the acutest of sufferings for such a man as he, who killed all his young
life in asceticism in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of his love
toward his fellow-men? Toward the end of his life he becomes convinced that it
is only by following the advice of the great and terrible spirit that the fate
of these millions of weak rebels, these ‘half-finished samples of humanity
created in mockery’ can be made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as
clearly that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance of
the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, hence accept a
system of lies and deception and lead humanity consciously this time toward
death and destruction,
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and moreover, be deceiving
them all the while in order to prevent them from realizing where they are being
led, and so force the miserable blind men to feel happy, at least while here on
earth. And note this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal
the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during nearly his whole
life! Is this no suffering? And were such a solitary exception found amidst,
and at the head of; that army ‘that thirsts for power but for the sake of the
mean pleasures of life,’ think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a
tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a principal leader,
would prove sufficient to discover the real guiding idea of the Romish system
with all its armies of Jesuits, the greatest and chiefest agents of that
system. And I tell you that it is my firm conviction that the solitary type
described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among the chief
leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible old man, loving humanity
so stubbornly and in such an original way, exists even in our days in the shape
of a whole host of such solitary exceptions, whose existence is not due to mere
chance, but to a well-defined association born of mutual consent, to a secret
league, organized several centuries back, in order to guard the Mystery from
the indiscreet eyes of the miserable and weak people, and only in view of their
own happiness? And so it is; it cannot be otherwise. I suspect that even Masons
have some such Mystery underlying the basis of their organization, and that it
is just the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, dreading to find
in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment of the unity of the idea, for
the realization of which one flock and one Shepherd are needed. However, in
defending my idea, I look like an author whose production is unable to stand
criticism. Enough of this.”
“You are, perhaps, a Mason
yourself!” exclaimed Alyosha. “YOU do not believe in God,” he added, with a
note of profound sadness in his voice. But suddenly remarking that his brother
was looking at him with mockery, “How do on mean then to bring your poem to a
close?” he unexpectedly enquired, casting his eyes downward, “or does it break
off here?”
“My intention is to end it
with the following scene: Having disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits
for some time to hear his prisoner speak in His turn. His silence weighs upon
him. He has seen that his captive has been attentively listening to him all the
time, with His eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the face of his jailer,
and evi-
431——————————————————————THE GRAND INQUISITOR.
dently bent upon not replying
to him. The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better words of
bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He rises; slowly and silently
approaching the Inquisitor, He bends towards him and softly kisses the
bloodless, four-score-and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand
Inquisitor shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the corner of his mouth.
He goes to the door, opens it, and addressing Him, ‘Go,’ he says, ‘go, and
return no more . . do not come again . never, never!’ and—lets Him out into the
dark night. The prisoner vanishes.’’
“And the old man?”
“The kiss burns his heart, but
the old man remains firm in his own ideas and unbelief.”
“And you, together with him?
You too!” despairingly exclaimed Alyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder
fit of laughter.
THE BRIGHT SPOT OF LIGHT
————
[Vol. III. No. 2, November,
1881.]
[ MADAME,— In the last issue
of your valuable journal a member of the New York Theosophical Society seeks to
be enlightened as to the cause of a bright spot of light which he has often
seen. I also am equally curious to have an explanation. I attribute it to the
highest concentration of the soul. As soon as I place myself in that prescribed
attitude, suddenly a bright spot appears before me which fills my heart with
delight, this being regarded as a special sign by the Indian devotee that he is
in the right path, leading to ultimate success in the Yoga practice, that he is
blessed by the special grace of the Almighty.
One evening, sitting on the
ground cross-legged, in that state of concentration when the soul soars into
high regions, I was blessed with a shower of flowers—a most brilliant sight,
which I long to see again. I tried to catch at flowers so rare, but they eluded
my grasp and suddenly disappeared, leaving me much disappointed. Finally two
flowers fell on me, one touching my head and the other my right shoulder, but
this time also the attempt to seize them was unsuccessful. What can it be, if
not a response that God has been pleased with his worshipper, meditation being,
I believe, the unique way of spiritual worship.
September 18th, 1881.]
It depends. Those of our
orthodox native contributors who worship some particular God—or, if they so
prefer, the one Îshvara under some particular name—are too apt to attribute
every psychological effect, induced by mental concentration during the hours of
religious meditation, to their special deity, whereas, in ninety-nine cases out
of one hundred, such effects are due simply to purely psycho-physiological
effects. We know a number of mystically-inclined people who see such “lights”
as that described above as soon as they concentrate their thoughts.
Spiritualists attribute them to the agency of their departed friends; Buddhists
(who have no personal God) to a pre-nirvânic state; Pantheists and Vedântins to
Mâyá—or the illusion of the senses; and Christians—to a foresight of the
glories of Paradise. The modern Occultists say that, when not directly due to
cerebral action, the normal functions of which are certainly impeded by such
433———————————————————THE BRIGHT SPOT OF LIGHT.
an artificial mode of deep
concentration—these lights are glimpses of the Astral Light, or, to use a more
“scientific” expression, of the “Universal Ether,” firmly believed in by more
than one man of science, as proved by Stewart and Tait’s Unseen Universe. Like
the pure blue sky closely shrouded by thick vapours on a misty day, so is the
Astral Light concealed from our physical senses during the hours of our normal
daily life. But when, concentrating all our spiritual faculties we succeed, for
the time being, in paralyzing their enemy (the physical senses), and the inner
man becomes, so to say, distinct from the man of matter—then the action of the
ever-living spirit, like a breeze that clears the sky from its obstructing
clouds, sweeps away the mist which lies between our normal vision and the
Astral Light, and we obtain glimpses into, and of that Light.
The days of “smoking furnaces”
and “burning lamps” which form part of the biblical visions are long gone by—to
return no more. But whoever, refusing natural explanations, prefers
supernatural ones, is, of course, at liberty to imagine that an “Almighty God”
amuses us with visions of flowers, and sends burning lights’ before making
“covenants” with his worshippers.
“IS IT IDLE TO ARGUE FURTHER?”
————
[Vol. III. No. 4, January,
1882.]
SAYS Light in its “Notes by
the Way,” edited by “M.A. Oxon.”:
The current number of The
Theosophist contains an important manifesto, which establishes and defines the
ground finally taken up by that body. Shortly put, it is one of complete
antagonism to Spiritualism. The Spiritualist believes that it is possible for
spirits of the departed to communicate with this earth. Whatever divergence of
opinion there may be among us in respect of other matters, we are agreed on
this, the cardinal article of our faith. Our daily experience affirms its
truth. The consentient testimony of the most experienced among us agrees that,
whether there be, or whether there be not, other agencies at work, the spirits
we know of are human spirits who have once lived on this earth. To this the
Theosophist returns the simple answer that we are mistaken. No spirits
communicate with earth for the sufficient reason that they cannot. It is idle
to argue further. We can but go on our way with the assured conviction that,
whatever may be the case in the east, we find that the departed spirits of
mankind are both able and willing to communicate with us in the west. And no
metaphysical theorizing as to what cannot be disposes in any degree of what is.
The Theosophist is forced to
take exception to the form of statement of “facts” above used. As it now
stands, it is but a short series of speculative deductions from the very
superficially defined doctrines in our “Fragments of Occult Truth,” which give
a by no means complete idea of what is really taught in the doctrine, scraps of
which were explained in the article now most incorrectly styled a “manifesto.”
We regret the necessity to contradict once more our esteemed opponent, who
seems to be giving up the Theosophists in despair. But were we also to conclude
it “idle to argue further,” then the position taken up by us would, indeed,
give rise again to endless misinterpretations. The question of man’s state
after death, the future progress of his soul, spirit and other principles—whatever
anyone may call them—was hardly touched upon in the short article under our
critic’s notice. In itself the subject embraces a field of boundless extent and
of the most
435————————————————————“IS IT IDLE TO ARGUE FURTHER?”
metaphysical intricacy, one
which would demand volumes of commentaries and explanations to be thoroughly
sifted and understood. Yet superficially sketched as our ideas may have been in
the “Fragments”—which was but an answer to the direct questions, not to say
reproaches, of an esteemed brother, resident in Australia—we nevertheless fail
to detect in it such passages or ideas as justify “M.A. Oxon.” in saying that
our doctrine is “one of complete antagonism to Spiritualism.” It is not half so
antagonistic as he believes it to be, as we will try to prove.
“The Spiritualist believes
that it is possible for spirits of the de parted to communicate with this
earth,” says the writer . . . “and to this the Theosophist returns the simple
answer that we are mistaken.” In this sentence alone, as a kernel in a
nut-shell, lies hidden the reason of that partial antagonism. Had “M.A. Oxon.,”
slightly modifying the construction of the above-quoted sentence—written
instead that “it is possible for spirits yet embodied on this earth to
communicate with the spirits of the departed”—then would there have been hardly
any antagonism at all to deplore. What we hold and do maintain is that all of
the so-called “physical phenomena,” and “materializations” especially, are
produced by something, to which we refuse the name of “spirit.” In the words of
the President of our Berhampore Branch (Babu Nobin Krishna Banerjee, President
of the Adhi Bhautic Bhratru Theosophical Society): “We, Hindus [and along with
them the European disciples of Eastern philosophy] are trying to spiritualize
our grosser material selves, while the American and European Spiritualists are
endeavouring in their se’ance-roorns to materialize spirits.” These words of
wisdom well show the opposite tendencies of the Eastern and the Western
minds—namely, that while the former are trying to purify matter, the latter do
their best to degrade spirit. Therefore what we say is, that ninety-nine times
out of one hundred, “materializations” so-called, when genuine, and whether
they be partial or’ complete, are produced by what we call “shells,” and
occasionally, perhaps, by the living medium’s astral body—but certainly never
in our humble opinion, by “disembodied” spirits them selves.
While we sincerely regret this
divergence of opinions with Light, we feel inclined to smile at the naivete’ of
some other Spiritualist opponents; as, for instance, at that of the editor of
the London Spiritualist, who, in his leading editorial of Nov. 18th, entitled
“Speculation-
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A MODERN PANARION.
Spinning,” calls the scraps of
occult doctrine given in our “Fragments” “unscientific,” reproaching the writer
(than whom there is no abler metaphysician, nor closer or more acute and clever
logician among Anglo-Indian writers) with a want of “scientific method” in the
presentation of his facts! At the same time, the editorial informs us that by
“facts” it does not “necessarily mean physical facts, for there are
demonstrable truths outside the realms of physics.” Precisely. And it is upon
just such “facts,” the existence of which is based for us upon evidence which
we “have weighed and examined” for ourselves, that we maintain the
demonstrability of the deductions and final conclusions at which we have
arrived. These we preach but to those who really want to know them. As none,
they say, are so blind as they who will not see, we abstain from offering our
doctrines to such as find them offensive—among whom are some Spiritualists. But
to the masses of impartial readers whose minds are not yet wedded to this or
that theory, we present our facts and tell them to see, hear and judge for
themselves; and there have been some who have not found our theories merely
“speculation-spinning,” based upon hypotheses and the crass sentimentalism of a
faith—welcome, because of its implied promises of a life hereafter—but theories
resting upon the logical and stern deduction from facts, which constitute in
themselves a knowledge. Now, what are these facts, and what do they show and teach
us?
First of all, and as a
rule—the rare exceptions to which but confirm it the more—we find that the
so-called “disembodied spirits,” instead of becoming the wiser for being rid of
the physiological impediments and the restraints of their gross material
senses, would seem to have become far more stupid, far less perspicacious and,
in every respect, worse than they were during their earthly life. Secondly, we
have to take note of the frequent contradictions and absurd blunders; of the
false information offered, and the remarkable vulgarity and common place
exhibited during their interviews with mortals; in materializing seances their
oral utterances being invariably vulgar common-place, and their inspirational
speeches or second-hand communication through trance and other mediums
frequently so. Adding to this the undeniable fact which shows their teachings
reflecting most faithfully the special creed, views, and thoughts of the
sensitive or medium used by them, or of a sitter or sitters, we have already
sufficient proof to show that our theory, that they are “shells” and not
disembodied spirits at
437————————————————————“IS IT IDLE TO ARGUE FURTHER?”
all, is far more logical and
“scientific” than that of the Spiritualists.* Speaking here in general, we need
not take into consideration exceptional cases, instances of undeniable
spiritual identity with which we are sure to find our arguments met by our
spiritual opponents. No one ever thought of calling “Imperator” a “shell”; but
then the latter, whether a living or a disembodied spirit, neither materializes
himself objectively, nor is it yet proved to the satisfaction of anyone except
“MA. Oxon.” himself that “he” descends to the medium, instead of the spirit of
the latter ascending to meet his instructor.
Thus, we maintain that
“spirits” are no more what they claim to be, than the chrysalis shell is the
butterfly which left it. That their personations of various individuals, whom
they sometimes represent, are mostly due to the accidental contact of an “elementary”
or “eidôlon” (attracted by the medium and the intense magnetic desire of the
circle present) with the personal “aura” of this or that individual. The
thoughts of the latter, the various acts and scenes in his past life, the
familiar and beloved faces of his departed ones, are then all drawn out of the
all-containing depths of the Astral Light and utilized. At times this is done
successfully, but frequently the thing proves a total failure. Only while the
former are, as a rule, recorded, the mention of the latter is tacitly avoided;
no spiritualistic journal having ever been edited with that special view. So
much for materialization and physical phenomena. As for the rest, we are at one
with the Spiritualists with but slight variances, more of form than of
substance.
——————————————————————
* We will not go to the
trouble of showing how much, or rather how little, of ‘‘ scientific method’’ is
to be generally found in The Spiritualist. But while speaking of science and
its methods, we may simply remark that though both our theories (theosophical
and spiritualistic) are sure to be viewed by the men of science as
“speculation-spinning ‘‘ and metaphysical windmills, yet the hypotheses of
spiritualists—as broadly accepted and whether “scientifically” or unscientifically
stated—are certain, to be pronounced by the majority of men of real science,
not merely unscientific, but very unphilosophical and illogical as well.
FRAGMENTS OF OCCULT TRUTH
———
[Vol. III. Nos. 1, 6 and 12,
October,1881, March and September, 1882.]
I.
WE have received from a
brother Theosophist an interesting and temperate note on some supposed errors
of occultists when dealing with the phenomena of spiritualism. The subject is
one of universal interest, and we shall therefore require no apology for
publishing some fragments of the lessons taught us on the subject in the occult
schools, which may possibly both help to remove some difficulties and tend to
convey to spiritualists generally a clearer conception of the causes of many of
the phenomena of which they have had experience.
“Those Theosophists who deny
to departed spirits a legitimate share in the marvellous phenomena” are few
indeed, for the great majority of Theosophists concern themselves with
spiritualism very little, if at all. Indeed our members may be divided into
five principal classes and described as follows:
(1) Men profoundly concerned
in the revival of their respective religious philosophies in all their pristine
purity—Buddhist devotees outnumbering all others They neither know of nor do
they care for spiritualism.
(2) Students of various
philosophies, searchers after truth whence so ever it may come. They neither
believe nor disbelieve in spirits. They are open to conviction, but will accept
nothing on second-hand testimony.
(3) Materialists,
freethinkers, agnostics, who care as little for occultism as they do for
spiritualism. Their only concern is to free the masses from the fetters of
ignorance and superstition and educate them. Many, indeed most of them, are
philanthropists who hold it more expedient to devote their energies to the
assistance of the living than to occupy their time in conversations with the
dead.
(4) Spiritualists and
spiritists who could not well be accused of such “heresy.” And finally,
(5) Occultists who do not
number a half per cent in the Theosophical Society.
439————————————————————FRAGMENTS OF OCCULT TRUTH.
These latter are the only
“Theosophists” who are really open to the above accusation, and even these, if
we look beyond the veil of words, which more or less conceals the ideas of both
spiritualists and occultists, will prove to differ less widely on these points
from the views of philosophical spiritualists than is at first apparent. For,
in this as in so many other cases, it is in a great measure to the different
significations attached to the same terms by the two parties that their
apparent irreconcilable divergence is due. “Words,” as Bacon, we think, says,
“mightily perplex the wisdom of the wisest, and like a Tartar’s bow, shoot
backward into the minds of those that follow them”; and so here the conflict of
opinions between spiritualists and occultists is solely due to the fact that
the former, overrating the quality and character of the communicating entities,
dignify with the name of “spirits” certain reliquiæ of deceased human beings,
while the occultists reserve the name of Spirit for the highest principle of
human nature, and treat these reliquiæ as mere eidôlons, or astral simulacra,
of the real Spirit.
In order to understand clearly
the view of the occultists, it is necessary to glance at the constitution of
the living human being. Even the spiritualistic theory teaches that man is a
trinity, composed of (1) a higher spirit or the “spiritual soul” as ancient
philosophers designated it; (2) its envelope—the ethereal form or shadow of the
body— called by the Neo-platonists the “animal soul”; and (3) the physical
body.
Although from one point of
view this is broadly correct, yet, accord ing to occultists, to render our
conceptions of this truth clearer and follow out successfully the course of man
after death, it is necessary to further subdivide these three entities and
resolve them into their constituent principles. This analysis being almost
wholly unknown to western nations, it is difficult in some cases to find any
English words by which to represent the occult subdivisions, but we give them
in the least obscure phraseology that we can command.
DIVISIONS OF THE
SPIRITUALISTS.
1. The Body.SUBDIVISIONS OF
THE OCCULTISTS.
1. The Physical Body composed
wholly of matter in its grossest and most tangible form.
2. The Vital Principle (or
Jivatman) a form of force, indestructible. When it is disconnected with one set
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A MODERN PANARION.
2. The Animal Soul or
Perisprit.3. The Astral Body (Linga Sharira)— composed of highly etherealized
matter. In its habitual passive state the perfect but very shadowy duplicate of
the body; its activity, consolidation, and form depend entirely on the Kama
Rupa.
4. The Astral Shape (Kama
Rupa) or body of desire—a principle defining the configuration of
5. The Animal or Physical
Intelligence or Consciousness or Ego—analogous to, though proportionally higher
in degree than the reason, instinct, memory, imagination, etc., existing in the
higher animals.3.The Spiritual Soul or Spirit,6. The Higher or Spiritual
Intelligence
or Consciousness, or Spiritual Ego—in
which mainly resides the state of consciousness of the perfect man, though the
lower dimmer animal consciousness coexists in No. 5.
7. The Spirit—an emanation
from the Absolute; uncreate, eternal; a state rather than a being.Now the
change that we call death only immediately affects the first three
constituents; the body decomposes to enter into new combinations, and the vital
force is dissipated to help to animate new organisms, and the astral human form
(Linga Sharira) dies with the body.
There remain four principles.
As a rule (we except the cases of the higher adepts), one of two things occurs
in accordance with the universal law of affinity. If the spiritual Ego has been
in life material in its tendencies, placing its main enjoyment in, and
centering its desires on, material objects and the gratification of earthly
desires, then, at death, it
——————————————————————
* Western science, of course,
as a rule, holds that animals have no conscious ego, but this we know to be
erroneous; they possess no spiritual, but they do possess an animal consciousness,
Could men communicate with them they would discover not only this, but also
that many of the anthropoid apes possess an intelligence, consciousness, etc.,
little inferior to that of lunatics, madmen, and some desperately wicked and
depraved men who have, in fact, become animals, through the loss, temporary or
permanent, of their sixth and seventh principles, even while the combination of
the other five principles is still intact, i.e., even during life. Was it some
hazy tradition of the truth handed down through the Romish church, which has
ever possessed some secret knowledge of the teachings of the ancient mysteries,
or was it the great poet’s soul’s own glimpses into the Astral Light, that made
Dante represent the souls of several of his enemies as already in the “Inferno”
though the men themselves still lived upon earth? Of course this fragment of
truth was utterly distorted by the malign influence of the then prevalent
material hell superstition, but it was quite possible, as the modern west has
still to realize, that the souls of some of these evil men might have already
passed away (though not to the fabled Inferno), whilst the men themselves still
lived.
441————————————————————FRAGMENTS
OF OCCULT TRUTH.
continues to cling blindly to
the lower elements of its late combination, and the true spirit severs itself
from these and passes away elsewhere. To follow its course is beside the
question at present, since the remaining principles in which personal or animal
consciousness remains have parted with it for ever, and it would require a
complete exposition of the entire philosophy of occultism to fully explain its
course; suffice it to say now, that it passes away—taking with it no fragment
of the individual consciousness of the man with which it was temporarily
associated—to fulfill its mission, still guided and governed, by the
irresistible cyclic impulse which first projected it through the veil of
primitive cosmic matter.
But if, on the other hand, the
tendencies of the Ego have been towards things spiritual, if its aspirations
have been heavenwards—we use a conventional term—if it has, when weighed, as it
were, in the balance, a greater affinity for the spiritual than for the earthly
constituents, with their accompanying desires, of the combination in which it
recently took part, then will it cling to the spirit, and with this pass into
the adjoining so-called world of effects, in reality a state, and not a place,
and there, purified of much of its still remaining material taints, evolve out
of itself by the spirit’s aid a new Ego, to be reborn, after a brief period of
freedom and enjoyment, in the next higher world of causes, an objective world
similar to this present globe of ours, but higher in the spiritual scale, where
matter and material tendencies and desires play a far less important part than
here.
In either case, it is not a
matter of judgment, of salvation and damnation, of heaven and hell, but solely
the operation of the universal law of affinity or attraction, which makes the
Ego cling in one case to the more material, in the other to the spiritual
components of the late aggregation now separated by death. Now neither during
gestation in the subjective world of effects, nor during the temporary period
of enjoyment, in its newly evolved Ego-hood, of the fruits of good deeds, its
karma on earth, nor after its entry into the higher objective world of causes,
can the Ego reenter this present world. During the first period it is, so to
speak, dormant, and can no more issue from the state in which it is developing
than a child can come out of its mother’s womb to pay a visit before the period
of pregnancy concludes. During the second period, however ethereal and purified
of gross matter the regenerated Ego may be, it is still subject to the physical
and universal laws of matter. It cannot, even if it would, span the abyss that
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A MODERN PANARION.
separates its state from ours.
It can be visited in spirit by men, but it cannot descend into our grosser
atmosphere and reach us. It attracts, it cannot be attracted; its spiritual
polarity presenting an insuperable obstacle. Once reborn into the higher world,
and apart from the physical impossibility of any communication between its
world and ours, to all but the very highest adepts, the new Ego has become a
new person; it has lost its old consciousness linked with earthly experiences,
and has acquired a new consciousness, which, as time rolls on, will be
interpenetrated by its experiences in that higher sphere. The time will come,
no doubt, but many steps higher on the ladder, when the Ego will regain its
consciousness of all its past stages of existence; but in the next higher world
of causes, or activity, to our own, the new Ego has no more remembrance of its
earthly career than we here have of the life that preceded this present one.
Therefore it is that the
occultists maintain that no “spirits” of the departed can appear or take part
in the phenomena of séance-rooms. To what can appear and take part in these,
the occultists refuse the name of “spirits.”
But it may be asked what is it
that can appear?
We reply—merely the animal
souls or perisprits of the deceased. It might appear from what we have said
that, while this, according to our previous exposition, would be true in the
case of the spiritually-minded, in that of the materially-minded we should have
these and the spiritual Ego or consciousness. But such is not the case.
Immediately on the severance of the spirit, whether at death, or, as we have
already hinted is sometimes the case, before death, the spiritual Ego is
dissipated and ceases to exist. It is the result of the action of spirit on
matter, and it might, to render the matter more clear, be described as a combination
of spirit and matter, just as flame is the result of the combination of oxygen
with the substance being oxygenized, and might loosely be described as the
combination of the two. Withdraw the oxygen and the flame ceases; withdraw the
spirit, and the spiritual Ego disappears. The sense of individuality in spirit
cannot exist without combination with matter. Thus the pure planetary spirits,
when first propelled into the circle of necessity, have no individual
consciousness, only the absolute consciousness which they share with all
fragments of the spirit hitherto entirely uncombined with matter. As they,
entering into generation, descend the ladder and grow gradually more and more
hemmed in by matter and isolated from the universal spirit, so the
443————————————————————FRAGMENTS OF OCCULT TRUTH.
sense of individuality, the
spiritual Ego-ship, grows. How finally, on reäscending the circle, step by
step, they regain, on reunion with the universal, the absolute consciousness,
and simultaneously all the individual consciousnesses which they have developed
at each stage of their descending and ascending progress, is one of the highest
mysteries.
But to return to the spiritual
Ego-ship developed on this earth; if too tainted to follow the spirit in its
upward course, it is, as it were, forth with torn asunder from it. Left in the
terrestrial atmosphere without the sustaining spirit that gave it existence, it
has to disappear as the flame does when the oxygen is exhausted. All the
material elements which, in combination with the spirit, gave it consistency,
fly by the law of affinity to join the three other principles that constitute
the perisprit or natural soul, and the spiritual Ego ceases to exist.
Thus alike in all cases that
remain, all that can appear are the shells of the deceased, the two principles
which we call the animal or surviving astral souls or animal Ego.
But there is this to be noted.
As the clay, as Saadi says, long retains traces of the perfume of the roses
which once honoured it with their companionship, so the etherealized matter
which has been in combination with spirit, long retains a power of resisting
disintegration. The more pure the spiritual Ego, the less of the matter, which
in combination with the spirit went to form it, does it leave behind clinging
to the two principles; the more impure, the greater the mass of such
spirit-vitalized matter which remains to invigorate the reliquiæ.
Thus it follows that, in the
case of the pure and good, the shells rapidly disintegrate; and the animal
soul, having ever been kept in subjection, is feeble and will-less; and it can
very rarely, if ever, happen that such should involuntarily appear or manifest
themselves, for their vitality, desires and aspirations existed almost
exclusively in what has passed away. No doubt a power exists which can compel
even these to appear, a power taught by the evil science of necromancy, rightly
denounced by all good men of old. But why evil, it may be asked? Because until
these shells have dissipated, a certain sympathy exists between them and the
departed spiritual Ego which is gestating in the fathomless womb of the
adjoining world of effects; and to disturb the shells by necromantic sorcery is
at the same time to disturb the foetal spiritual Ego.
We have said that these shells
in such cases rapidly decay, the
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A MODERN PANARION.
rapidity being exactly
proportional to the purity of the departed spiritual Ego; and we may add that
similarly the rapidity of gestation of the new Ego is proportional to the
purity of the old Ego out of which it is evolved. Happily necromancy is unknown
to modern spiritualists, so that it is next to impossible that the reliquiæ of
the good and pure should ever appear in the se’ance-room. No doubt, the
simulacra of some spiritual Egos whose fate trembled in the balance, whose
affinities, earthwards and heavenwards, to use the popular phraseology, were
nearly equal, who have left behind too much of the matter that was combined to
form them, who will lie long in fœtal bonds before being able to develop the
new Ego-hood; no doubt, we say, such simulacra may survive longer and may
occasionally appear under exceptional conditions in se’ance-rooms, with a dim,
dazed consciousness of their past lives. But even this, owing to the conditions
of the case, will be rare, and they will never be active or intelligent, as the
stronger portions of their wills, the higher portions of their intelligence,
have gone elsewhere.
Nature draws no hard and fast
lines, though in the balance of forces very slight differences in opposing
energies may produce the most divergent results. All entities shade off from
one end to the other of the chain by imperceptible degrees, and it is
impossible for man to gauge the exact degree of purity of the deceased at which
the voluntary reappearance of his reliquiæ through the agency of mediumship
becomes impossible; but it is absolutely true that, broadly speaking, as a law,
it is only the reliquiæ of non-spiritually-minded men, whose spiritual Egos
have perished, that appear in séance-rooms, and are dignified by spiritualists
with the title of “spirits of the departed.”
These shells, these animal
souls, in whom still survive the major portions of the intelligence, will-power
and knowledge that they possessed when incorporated in the human combination,
invigorated too by the reässimilation of the spirit-vitalized matter that once
combined with the spirit to compose their spiritual Ego, are often powerful and
highly intelligent, and continue to survive for lengthened periods, their
intense desire for earthly life enabling them to seize from the decaying
simulacra of the good and feeble the material for prolonged existence.
To these eidola occultists are
used to give the name of elementaries, and these, by the aid of the
half-intelligent forces of nature which are attracted to them, perform most of
the wonders of the seance-rooms.
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If to these shells, these
eidola which have lost their immortality, and whence the divine essence has for
ever departed, the spiritualists insist on applying the title of “spirits of
the dead,” well and good; they are not spirits at all, they are of the earth
earthy, all that remains of the dead when their spirits have flown, but if this
be understood, and it be nevertheless considered desirable to call them that to
which thee are the precise antithesis, it is after all merely a case of
misnomer.
But let there be no mistake as
to what they are; hundreds and thousands of lost and ruined men and women all
over the globe attest the degradation to which constant subjection to their
influence in mediumship too generally leads, and we who know the truth should
ill discharge our duty if we did not warn all spiritualists, in the strongest
terms possible, against allowing the misuse of terms to mislead them as to the
real nature and character of the disembodied entities with which they so
constantly and confidingly deal.
Now probably spiritualists will
admit that our views would explain the vast mass of trash, frivolous nonsense
and falsehood communicated through mediums, as also the manner in which so many
of these, good and honest to begin with, gradually grow into immoral impostors.
But many objections will be raised. One man will say: “I have repeatedly
conversed with my late father; a better, kinder-hearted, more spiritual- minded
man never lived; and on one occasion he told me a fact, unknown to me, and, I
believe to everyone living, which I subsequently verified.”
Nothing is simpler; the
father’s image was in the son’s mind; thus put en rapport the disembodied
elementary which, if of one of the more intelligent classes, has glimpses of
things in the astral light, and can here and there dimly distinguish the
pictures which record every deed, word and thought—pictures which we are all
unconsciously incessantly evolving, pictures which survive long after those who
originated them have passed away—the elementary, we say, scanning these, easily
picks up sufficient facts for its purpose, and by its will materializes itself
partly out of matter drawn from the medium’s body, partly out of inert cosmic
matter drawn to it by the help of the elementals or half-blind forces of nature
which it and probably the medium also, has attracted, and stands forth the
counterpart of the dead father and talks of things known only to that dead
father. Of course, if the matter talked of were known to any present, both
elementary and medium, if in a trance, could equally know it, but we have
purposely supposed one of
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those rare cases which are
considered to be the strongest proofs of “spirit identity,” as it is called. Of
course, too, everything that has once passed before that son’s mind, intonation
of voice, tricks of manner, infirmities of temper, though apparently forgotten
at the moment, are really indelibly recorded in his memory, as is proved by
their immediate recognition when reproduced by the elementary who has gathered
them out of those dormant records.
And it must be remembered that
these apparently strong and perfect cases are very rare, and that the
elernentaries, if they personate people of any note, usually make gross
blunders, and almost without exception betray their falsehood in one way or
another—Shakespeare and Milton dictating trash, Newton grossly ignorant of his
own Principia, and Plato teaching a washed-out Neo-platonic or sentimental
Christian philosophy, and so on. At the same time undoubtedly in rare cases the
ghostly relics of very clever, very bad and very determined, men constitute
disembodied entities of high intelligence, which survive for a lengthened
period, and the more wicked and more material they are in all their tendencies,
the longer do they escape disintegration.
The Orthodox Church is much
nearer the truth when it calls the entities that are mostly dealt with in s
“devils” than are the spiritualists who call them “spirits.” We do not mean that
they are generally actively malevolent, but their magnetic attractions are
evil, and they incline and lead those with whom they have much to do to the
same evil material passions which have been their own ruin.
Naturally spiritualists will
object that this cannot be true, since despite the mass of folly and gibberish
or worse often heard in se’ance rooms, the purest sentiments and really lofty
ideas and teachings are not rarely expressed through mediums.
Several points have, however,
to be borne in mind. In the first place, though proved unfit for further
development, and, therefore, doomed in most cases by the eternal law of the
survival of the fittest to be disintegrated and, losing personal consciousness,
to be worked up again in the lower worlds into new combinations, all
elementaries are by no means actively wicked all round. When weighed in the
balance, their whole natures have proved to have a greater affinity to matter
than to spirit, and they are, therefore, incapable of further progress, but when
dealing with a pure circle and speaking through a still pure medium—very few
mediums, indeed, continue thus after a long course of mediumship—the better and
less degraded side of their nature comes out, and
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it is quite possible for
elementaries to have a perfect intellectual knowledge and appreciation of
virtue and purity and enlightened conceptions of truth, and yet be innately
vicious in their tendencies. We meet plenty of men who have a sentimental love for
virtue, and yet whose lives are one unbroken course of lust and
self-indulgence; and as the men were, so are the elementaries, their reliquiæ.
If we at times speak bitterly of popular modern Christianity, it is because we
know that, with all its other ennobling and saving tendencies, on this
all-important point it leads to the destruction of myriads of souls. For it
leads to the belief that it signifies little what a man does, if he only
believes that his sins are forgiven him, and that by relying on the merits of
Jesus Christ he may escape the vengeance of the Lord. But there is no
anthropomorphic Lord, no vengeance, no forgiveness; there is simply the action
of a natural law impressed on the universe by the Absolute, simply a question
of balance of affinities; and they, whose deeds and general tendencies are
earthly, go down in the scale, rarely, very rarely, to rise again in their own
identities; while those in whom these tendencies are spiritual pass upwards.
It is not, however, possible
to enter here into the great questions thus glanced at, and we return to the
subject of high, or comparatively high, teachings through mediums.
Now it must not for a moment
be supposed that all we hear from these latter comes from elementaries. In the
first place, a great many well-known mediums are clever impostors. There are
notorious trance mediums, especially women, who steadily work up for their
so-called trance orations, and these being really clever, and working at good
books, deliver essays of a respectable, and at times almost first-class,
character. There is no spiritual influence at work here; the only apparently
abnormal feature in these cases is that persons possessing such fair abilities
should be willing thus to prostitute them; and that people who can talk so well
and touchingly of truth and purity, should yet live such lives of falsehood and
immorality. Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor has ever found a response
in too many human hearts, and has in all ages rung the annihilation-knell of
too many personalities.
In the second place, in the
case of pure and genuine mediums, who, in trance, pass entirely under the
influence of their own seventh principle, the Augoeidês of the Greeks, the
whole teachings come from the medium’s own soul, and it is very rare to obtain
thus anything higher
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than what the medium’s own
intellect, when in a state of spiritual excitement, could produce.
It may be said that, in many such
cases, the medium says himself or herself, that it is Judge Edmonds, or the
late Bishop of , who is teaching him or her, but this is merely due to the
intervention of mischievous elementaries who are always crowding about every
medium, and who, if he is too pure to enable them to get command over him, yet,
ever anxious to get a finger in every pie, confuse and deceive him. Only an
adept can clearly and consciously place the spiritual Ego wholly under the
domination of the spirit. Mediums who, in trance, unconsciously succeed in
doing this, are unaware of the source whence they derive their perceptions, and
can be made, by any elementary exerting any influence over them, through any
weak point in their character, to believe that these are derived from it. The
same, though in a minor degree, is the case with those rare, high, because
specially pure, mediums, whose Ego and Spirit can soar together when the rest
of the combination is in a trance, into the astral light, and there can read
all the highest thoughts that man has ever thought. True, the Ego of the
highest and best mediums can reproduce in this material world only in a
fragmentary and confused manner what it reads in the astral light; but still
even this reproduction is sometimes of a character far transcending the
capacities alike of the medium and all those present. How it comes that the
thoughts thus fished up like pearls out of the astral light come often to be
attributed by the medium to spirits, we have already explained.
But an even more common source
of inspiration of mediums is the mind of one or more of those present. When in
a trance, the spiritual soul—the sixth and seventh principles—can read all that
is recorded in the mind or memory of those towards whom it is in any way
attracted; and the medium’s utterances will in such cases be quite up to the
highest standard of those with whom it is thus en rapport; and if these are
pure, highly cultivated persons, the teachings thus received will be equally
pure and intellectual. But here again the unconscious medium as a whole does
not know whence these perceptions are being derived. In its spiritual soul it
knows no doubt, but in its combination with the other principles—a combination
necessary for the writing or speaking of those perceptions—it is quite in the
dark, and can be impressed by any elementary at hand of sufficient force, with
any conception in regard to the point that it chooses to convey.
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In truth, rnediumship is a
dangerous, too often a fatal, capacity; and if we oppose spiritualism, as we
have ever consistently done, it is not because we question the reality of the
phenomena which, we know, can and do occur, despite the multitudes of
fraudulent imitations, and which our adepts can reproduce at will without
danger to themselves, but because of the irreparable spiritual injury—we say
nothing of the mere physical sufferings—which the pursuit of spiritualism
inevitably entails on nine-tenths of the mediums employed. We have seen scores,
nay, rather hundreds, of ordinarily good, pure, honest men and women, who, but
for the cultivation of this evil capacity for the reception of impressions by
elernentaries, might, and would in all probability, have lived lives leading to
higher things; but who, through the gradual pernicious influence of these low,
earth-bound natures, have sunk from bad to worse, ending, often prematurely,
lives that could lead but to spiritual ruin.
These are no speculations—we
speak that we do know—and if one in five mediums, who habitually exercise their
capacity, escapes the doom that overtakes so many, these exceptions cannot
justify the spiritualists in aiding and abetting the crowd of professional
mediums who gamble away their immortality with the lower material influences.
The practice of rnediumship for good purposes, at rare intervals, by virtuous
mediums, intermediately ever careful to strengthen their moral and spiritual
natures by pure lives and holy aspirations, is one thing; and the habitual
practice, in a worldly, careless, undevout spirit, for gain, is another; and
this latter cannot be too strongly denounced, alike in the highest interests of
the mediums and of the sitters who employ them.
“Evil communications corrupt
good manners,” is an eternal truth, trite and hackneyed though it be, and no
evil communications are so evil as those subtle influences that radiate from
the low, bestial elementaries who crowd the séance of immoral, or more or less
demoralized mediums, too weak and low to make themselves heard or seen, but
strong enough in their intensely material tendencies, to diffuse a moral poison
into the mental atmosphere of all present.
That men, bewildered amidst
the crumbling ruins of effete religions, should madly grasp at every clue by
which there seems some faint hope of penetrating the cloud-covered labyrinth of
the mystery of the universe, is neither wonderful nor reprehensible; but it is
not through mediums, the prey of every idle spook and elementary, that the
great
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truth is to be reached, but by
that rigorous course of study, self-discipline and self-purification which is
taught in the temple of occultism to which theosophy is in the present day the
high road.
II.
What constitutes real
knowledge? The question lies at the very threshold of occult study. It is, in
actual practice, the first put before a regular student of occultism who is
taken in hand by the teachers of the occult world. And the student is taught—or
is led to see—that there are two kinds of knowledge, the real and the unreal;
the real concerned with eternal verities and primal causes, the unreal with
illusory effects. So far the statement seems to deal with abstractions too
vague to challenge denial. Each school of thinkers will admit as much,
reserving to itself the assumption that the illusory effects are those
considerations which have fascinated its rivals; the eternal verities its own
conclusions. But we no sooner come to a clear under standing as to what mental
presentiments must be classed as illusory effects, than we find the first
proposition of occult philosophy at war with the whole current practice of the
world at large, as regards all classes of scientific investigation. All physical
science and a good deal of what the western world is pleased to call
metaphysical speculation, rests on the crude and superficial belief that the
only way in which ideas can enter the mind, is through the channels of the
senses. The physicist devotes all his efforts to the careful elimination from
the mass of materials on which he builds up his conclusions, of everything
except that which he conceives to be real fact—and it is exactly that which he
conceives to be real fact, anything clearly appealing to the senses—which the
profound philosophy of eastern occultism deliberately condemns at starting, as,
in its nature, illusory effect, transitory secondary consequence of the real
underlying fact. And in acting thus, does occult philosophy make an arbitrary
choice between rival methods, as a chemist might select one or other of two
different methods of analysis? Not at all. Real philosophy cannot make any
choice arbitrarily; there is but one eternal verity, and, in pursuit of that,
thought is forced to travel along one road. The knowledge which appeals to the
senses cannot but deal with illusory effects, for all the forms of thus world
and its material combinations are but pictures in the great dissolving view of
evolution; there is no eternity in any of them. By mere inference from physical
facts, science, proceeding on
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its own methods, will
recognize that there was a time before any of the life germs on this earth,
whatever they may be, had settled into the forms in which they manifest
themselves now. Assuredly there will come a time when all these forms will
disappear in the progress of cosmic change. What preceded them, provoking their
evolution from fiery nebulæ what traces will they leave behind? From nothing
they came, into nothing they will return—according to the doubly irrational
reply which is the only logical inference from the physical philosophy which
makes them the real facts, the only basis of real knowledge.
It must be remembered of
course that the unreal knowledge proceeding from the observation of illusory,
because transitory and secondary effects, hangs together satisfactorily as
regards the short chain it is able to construct. This it is which leads so
many, in many respects powerful, minds, to blind contentment with it. Some of
the laws of matter can be detected, if not understood, by mere observation of
matter. But it is obvious that the something out of which matter proceeded, the
something into which it will return, cannot be observed by material senses. In
what other way can observation be extended beyond the range of material senses?
Only if it can be so extended, is any knowledge attainable by man which has to
do with eternal verities and primal causes; which is real, as distinguished
from the transitory and the unreal. Promptly, in ignorance of the methods by
which observation can be extended beyond the range of the senses, the physicist
declares: Concerning the hypothetical eternal verities you can only dream and
indulge in illusory conjecture—all mere brain-spun fancy. Thus the world at
large, not content with hugging illusions and calling them realities, spurns
the reality and denounces it as illusion.
But can the eternal verity be
reached? Even if hard facts be acknowledged as illusion so far as they are
transitory, is not that which is exempt from change removed from observation?
Must we not follow up the theoretical admission of the possibility of real
knowledge, by the practical admission that no human being can ever have anything
to do with it? Now the consistent materialist who honestly believes that a man
is simply a structure of gas, phosphates, and chemical elements, functioning
entirely within itself, would have to be answered by reference to facts, which
it is unnecessary to rehearse, in dealing with controversialists who recognize
at all events that the living body includes a spiritual principle, and that the
spiritual principle is capable
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of a life apart from the body
when the body itself is dead. There can be no difficulty for a spiritualist in
the way of the conception that, if the spirit of a man lives, observes, thinks,
and communicates its impressions, after the body is burned or buried, so, under
peculiar conditions, that same spirit may separate itself from the body
temporarily during life, and may thus come into such relation with the world of
spirit as to take direct cognizance of its phenomena. Now it is quite clear that,
relatively to our own at all events, such a world is a world of eternal
verities. We know that this world is fleeting and transitory. It is readily
conceivable, and all analogies suggest the conclusion, which every sort of
spiritual statement confirms, that the world of Spirit is more durable. That
knowledge is real which lasts, and that is unreal which passes away—as in the
case of an initiated adept who brings back upon earth with him the clear and
distinct recollection, correct to a detail, of facts gathered, and the
information obtained in the invisible sphere of realities; the spirit of man,
which comes into direct and conscious relations with the world of spirit,
acquires real knowledge; while the spirit of man which lives imprisoned in the
body and is merely fed through the senses with crumbs of knowledge, possesses
the unreal only.
But when the imprisoned spirit
does not itself rise into direct relations with the world of spirit, but is
visited by an emanation from the world of spirit—or by a spirit, to work with
the spiritualistic hypothesis for a moment—is it entitled to assume that it is
coming into possession of real knowledge? Surely not; for though discussing
spiritual things it is acquiring its knowledge in no way which essentially
differs from the method by which mere knowledge of the purely physical sort,
knowledge of illusory effects, is acquired. The spiritualist, even when himself
a medium receiving communications, is taking in knowledge just as unreal, just
as untrustworthy, and liable to be distorted by an erroneous observation as
that which is dealt with by the wholly unspiritual observer of matter.
Who possesses the real
knowledge as contradistinguished from the unreal? the student of occultism is
asked, and he is taught to reply— that which we have shown to be the only
possible reply adepts alone possess the real knowledge, their minds alone being
en rapport with the universal mind.” Now, according to the teaching of the
adepts, spiritualists, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are mistaken when
they think themselves in contact with the spirits of departed
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friends, or with benevolent
beings of another sphere; and to those who know something of who and what the
adepts are, that is conclusive as to the fact. But the fact being so, every
conception of spiritualism which conflicts with it must be explainable—every
incident of spiritualism must be susceptible of transfer to some group of
phenomena which can be shown to be something different from what spiritualists
imagine it. While the phenomena of spiritualism are thrown off in all
directions so freely, it is nearly impossible to follow them up in every case,
and, as regards the general subject, it is best to try and explain why the phenomena
of spiritualism cannot be what spiritualists think them, rather than why each
in turn is actually something else. First then as regards automatic writing; we
need not go further than personal experience to show that the production
through a medium’s arm, of handwriting, the facsimile of that produced in life
by an alleged spirit, is no proof of the alleged spirit’s identity at all, or
even of its individuality. A certain Russian lady who was afflicted or gifted,
whichever way the reader likes to put it, with medium-ship in her youth, was
“controlled” for about six years by a “spirit” who came evening after evening
and wrote reams through the child’s arm in the usual automatic way. The spirit
professed to be that of an old lady who had lived in a part of Russia far away
from that in which she was then manifesting herself. She gave many details of
her life and family and told how her son had committed suicide. Sometimes the
son came himself, “in spirit,” and controlled the little medium’s arm and gave
long accounts of his remorse and sufferings consequent on the crime of
self-murder. The old lady was eloquent on the subject of heaven and its
inhabitants, including the Virgin Mary. Needless to say that she was garrulous
concerning the circumstances of her own death and the interesting ceremony of
the last sacrament. But she also wrote of worldly matters. She gave a detailed
account of a petition she had presented to the Emperor Nicholas, and the text
of it, word for word. She wrote partly in Russian, partly in German, which the
child-medium knew very slightly at the time. Eventually one of the young lady’s
relatives went to the place where the spirit had lived. Yes; she was well
remembered; she had been troubled by a dissolute son who committed suicide; she
had gone away to Norway where it was believed she had died, and so on. All the
automatic communications were verified, in short, and the petition was turned
up in the archives of the Home
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Office at St. Petersburg. The
handwriting was perfectly reproduced. Now what better identification could a
spirit have? Would not a spiritualist say of such an experience, “I know that
the spirits of dead persons can communicate and prove their continued
individuality”? A year after the identification of the deceased person at the
place where she had lived, and of the petition, there came to—,where the young
medium and her relations were living, an officer who proved to be the nephew of
the “spirit.” He chanced to show the child a miniature. She recognized it as
that of the spirit. Explanations ensued, and it turned out that the officer’s
aunt was not dead at all, nor was her son. In all other respects the
mediumistic communications were perfectly well substantiated. The son had
attempted to commit suicide, but the bullet with which he had shot himself had
been extracted and his life had been saved.
Now, without going further,
this story as a mere statement of facts is enough to answer the spiritualists’
contention as to automatic writing. It shows that, without the instrumentality
of any deceased person’s “spirit” at all, automatic writing attributed by
spiritualists to the agency of such spirits may take place; therefore, that no
weight can be attached to the experiences on which the spiritualist relies. But
we may go somewhat further and endeavour to account for the Russian story at
any rate by the occult “hypothesis” as some of our readers will no doubt regard
it. Who or what was the intelligence writing through the hand of the Russian
child-medium? The devil? as the priests of the Greek Church contended; some
lying spirit? as the spiritualists might suggest; the elementaries? as some
readers of occult literature might conceive. No; it was the fifth principle of
the medium herself, her animal or physical soul, the portion of the universal
Proteus, and it acted as the soul of the clairvoyant acts during the sleep of
the body. The officer who ultimately showed the miniature had been acquainted
with the family several years previously. The medium had seen the picture when
quite a young child, but had for gotten it utterly. She had also played with
various things that had belonged to the “spirit,” and had been in her nephew’s
possession.
Preserving faithfully the
memory of all it saw and heard in the “astral light,” or in the “soul of
things”—many readers will, no doubt, comprehend the allusion here to Denton’s
book of that name—while playing with the miniature and other trifles, the young
medium’s inner self years afterwards, owing to some associations of memory,
began
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OF OCCULT TRUTH.
unconsciously reproducing
these pictures. Little by little the inner self, or fifth principle, was drawn
into the current of those personal or individual associations and emanations,
and once the mediumistic impulse given, nothing would arrest its progress. The
facts accurately observed by the “flying soul” were inextricably mixed up with
pure fancy, derived from the teaching to which the medium had been subjected,
and hence the account of heaven and the Virgin Mary.
Mutatis mutandis, a similar
explanation would, in all probability, meet the case not merely of automatic
writing, but also of the guiding or protecting spirit who mentally impresses
the medium, and has been seen by seers and seeresses. That the teaching of this
intelligence generally confirms the spiritualistic doctrine of progression from
place to place and so forth, is a strong indication that it is really an
emanation from the medium’s own mind; and the fact that the supposed spirit has
been seen by clairvoyant mediums cannot be taken as proof of its objective
existence. The pictures in the astral light present all the appearance of
reality to those who can discern them, and the appearance of the “spirit” we
have spoken of was as real to our child-medium as that of any spirit ever
materialized in the wonderful se’ance-room of the Eddy brothers in America,
though the good lady herself was all the while quietly attending to her
knitting, with the breadth of Europe between her and the family circle which
she had unconsciously entered as a spectral guest.
The difficulty of
distinguishing between the creations of the seer’s brain and spectral or
spiritual phenomena really external to himself appears to be the cause of the
confusion into which untrained, uninitiated observers fall when natural
mediumistic gifts enable them to cross the threshold of the astral world and
awake to a perception of the wonders hanging like an aura around the physical
planet. From Socrates to Swedenborg, from Swedenborg to the latest clairvoyant,
no uninitiated seer has ever seen quite correctly. But whatever confusing
influences have been brought to bear on natural seers of past times, none have
been beset with the artificial bewilderments that cloud the faculties of the
modern spiritualistic medium. A mass of prepossessions occupy his mind at
starting; every observation he makes is twisted into the mould of an elaborate,
predetermined theory; and every picture presented to his finer senses is
distorted to suit the expectations of his fancy and coloured to the complexion
of a previously formulated creed. The spiritualist may honestly believe himself
a seeker after truth, but
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the spiritualist who is
himself in any degree a medium is fascinated by the creations of his faith and
borne away on an induced current into a phantasmagorial world peopled with his
own imaginings. Their apparent reality confirms the conjectures from which they
spring, and all suggestions which claim a reconsideration of their character
seem almost a blasphemy to their eager devotee, But to the student of occult
philosophy there is a grander beauty in the consistent teaching of adeptship
than in the startling excitement of mediumistic revelation, while over it all
there shines for him the solemn light of absolute truthfulness. Mediumship may
give sudden glimpses of unsuspected wonder, as bits of a strange landscape may
be momentarily revealed by lightning, but the science of adeptship casts the
steady light of day upon the whole scene. Surely the spiritualists, who have at
least shot leagues ahead in intelligence of the mere materialistic moles of
their purblind generation in so far as they recognize that there is a landscape
to be seen if it can only be lighted up, will not deliberately prefer to guess
at its features by the help of occasional flashes from the fitful planes of
mediumship, but will accept the aid of that nobler illumination which the
elevated genius and untiring exertion of occult sages of the east have provided
for those whose spiritual intuitions enable them to appreciate its sublimity
and confide their aspirations to its guidance.
III
What reply could we give to
one who is in no way satisfied with our explanations of spiritualistic
phenomena, who still clings to the theories of spiritualists and rejects the
facts of the occultists?
But one may, naturally enough,
say that this is begging the question, and that he sees no reason why the
doctrines propounded by the latter should be any more accepted as facts than
those espoused by the former.
Let us see how the case
stands. Suppose a number of people go to see a conjurer’s performance; all
manner of wonderful tricks are exhibited; the more intelligent of the
spectators begin evolving hypotheses to explain how these are performed; night
after night the performances, though often a good deal varied in details, are repeated.
The most intelligent of the spectators also return, night after night, more and
more intent on discovering time rationale of the wonders they witness. They
gradually work out what appears to be a fairly consistent theory of all that so
astonishes them, and, getting into conver-
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sation with some of the
performers, find that these to a great extent confirm their conclusions.
Thereupon they feel convinced that their views are correct, and accept their
theories as facts But for all that they are still before the footlights; they
have never been behind the curtain; they have never actually seen how the
surprising results they witness are really brought about, and these so-called
facts of theirs are still merely theories.
But now some of the spectators
become acquainted with people who do habitually go behind the scenes, who have
examined the whole apparatus, who can make the performers play whatever tricks
they like, and who can, with their apparatus perform precisely the same, and
other even more astonishing feats, and these men tell the ingenious spectators
that their theories are quite wrong, and that the facts of the case are so and
so.
Now, surely it will be
admitted that it is neither begging the question nor presumption on the part of
those who have the entree behind the scenes, but the simple truth, when they
assert that their knowledge represents facts while the conclusions of the
ordinary spectators are only theories.
Such precisely are the relative
positions of the spiritualists and the occultists; meaning, of course, by these
latter, not the humble lay disciples who indite these papers, but their
pastors, masters and living spiritual guides.
“But how am I to know,” a
spiritualist may enquire, “that these Masters of yours can really go behind the
scenes? You say so; but what proof is there of this?”
Now, in the first place, it is
a fact, and this everyone may prove for himself, that each and all who will
lead the life can satisfy themselves that the Masters really can do this, and
thus become entirely independent alike of our and all other persons’ testimony.
The fact is that, as we know,
the Masters possess the power of controlling absolutely all the elementals and
elementaries to whom, with some exceptions, are due the objective phenomena,
not the work, unconscious or conscious, of the medium himself, of the
séance-room. And it is the possession and exhibition of this power which makes
us consider their assertion that they have been behind the scenes and do know
all about it, proved, and that induces us to accept their statements of what
takes place and is done as fact.
It will be borne in mind that
we have never denied that communica-
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tion in a certain sense can be
established between men and real spirits of deceased persons. What we have
maintained is that, except in certain cases, of which hereafter, only shells,
not true spirits, can appear or operate in the séance-room.
We said of the spirit in our
first “Fragment”: “It can be visited in spirit by men; it cannot descend into
our grosser atmosphere and reach us. It attracts; it cannot be attracted.”
Nor have we ever disputed that
there was a state, out of which the spiritualist’s conceptions of the Summer
Land have no doubt arisen, in which the spirits of those who have passed away
receive the reward of their deserts. To this state, known to Tibetan occultists
as the Devachan, we especially alluded in that first paper when we said, “nor
during the temporary period of its enjoyment in its newly-evolved Ego-hood of
the fruits of its good deeds.”
Therefore, we are far from
desiring to contest a correspondent’s assertion that by magnetic action he has
succeeded in placing some of the incorporeal principles of certain sensitives
en rapport, if not, as he says, with the world of spirit—a very large world
indeed—at any rate with certain spiritual entities.
It is quite certain that in
the case of pure sensitives this can be accomplished, but what we contend is
that the information thus obtained will never be reliable. For this there are
several reasons. In the first place the principles that cognize in such a case
are different from those that give outward expression to the matters cognized,
and in the case of no untrained seer can the transfer of the impressions from
the spiritual faculties which record, to the more physical faculties which
publish, be perfectly effected. Even supposing both sensitive and magnetizer to
be absolutely free from all preconceived ideas about, or expectations in regard
to, the subjects investigated, still in the mere transfer of the observations
from one to the other class of faculties, mistakes and misconceptions must
occur.
But further, it is not too
much to say that it is quite impossible for the spiritual faculties of any
untrained seer even to record correctly in the first instance. Even our
physical powers of observation require careful training before they will serve
us faithfully. See how utterly unable young children are, as a rule, to judge
distances; and just as the physical faculties are untrained in the child, so
are the spiritual faculties untrained in the magnetic sensitive. No doubt in
the course of years, if their health and circumstances permit their constantly
explor-
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ing the unseen world, even
such untrained sensitives may acquire for themselves a certain amount of
experience and training, and become capable of comparatively accurate
observation; but such sensitives have been few, and even the very best have
fallen far short of accuracy. So that under the most exceptionally favourable
conditions you have first an imperfect record; and, second, a more or less
erroneous presentation of that imperfect record.
But in ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred, either or both sensitive and magnetizer have well-defined
preconceptions of what they think ought to be the case, and then, however
honest and conscientious both may be, these preconceptions will more or less
colour the evidence given. Indeed, so certainly is this the case that, broadly
speaking, there is twice the probability of error in the case of a magnetized
sensitive to what there is in the case of a seer who, without the intervention
of a magnetizer, can by “hypnotism” of one kind or another, unaided, place
himself en rapport with spiritual entities. Thus a Swedenborg would be much
less likely to err than the best sensitive requiring the intervention of a
magnetizer to awaken the super-sensuous faculties.
But there is yet another
source of error. Even the best and purest sensitive can only be placed en
rapport with a particular spiritual entity, and can only know, see and feel
what that particular entity knows, sees and feels. Now no spiritual entity in
Devachan, or while hibernating prior to passing out of this earth’s attraction,
is in a position to generalize; and it is, broadly speaking, only with such
that a sensitive can be placed en rapport. It lives in a paradise or dream of
its own creating, and it is utterly unable to give any idea of how others are
faring. Each individual spirit in Devachan dreams its own dream, lives in its
own Summer Land (but it is a state, not a land), surrounded by all the people
and things it loves and longs for. But these are ideal, and the very people by
whom it believes itself surrounded may be each dreaming his own dream in his
own ideal paradise; or some of them may be still on earth or even passing
through the remorseless wheels of annihilation. And through the veils that
surround each spirit’s dream of felicity there is no peeping down to earth, a
glimpse of which would necessarily mingle some bitterness with the cup of
happiness; nor is there any conscious communication with the flying souls that
come, as it were, to learn where the spirits are, what they are doing, and what
they think, feel and see.
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What, then, is being en
rapport? It is simply an identity of molecular vibration between the astral
part of the incarnated sensitive and the astral part of the disincarnate
personality. The spirit of the sensitive gets “odylized,” so to speak, by the
aura of the spirit, whether the latter be hibernating in the earthly region or
dreaming in the Devachan; identity of molecular vibration is established, and
for a brief space the sensitive becomes the departed personality and writes in
its handwriting, uses its language and thinks its thoughts. At such times
sensitives may believe that those with whom they are for the moment en rapport
descend to earth and communicate with them, whereas, in reality, it is merely
their own spirits, which, being correctly attuned to those others, are for the
time blended with them.
Many of the subjective
spiritual communications are genuine, where the sensitive is pure-minded; but
they only reflect in each case the ideas of a single spirit, unable to see
beyond the limits of its own mental chrysalis or ideal paradise; further, it is
impossible for the un initiated sensitive to observe and record altogether
correctly what it does see and hear during its amalgamation; it is equally
impossible for the sensitive to transfer intact the impressions recorded by the
super-sensuous faculties to the senses through which alone they can be
communicated to the world, and such communications will be still further
vitiated by any preexisting conceptions or beliefs inhering in the minds of
either sensitive or magnetizer or both.
But our critic says that,
having compared the descriptions of things spiritual given to him by different
sensitives when in trance, he found a general harmony, “each and all describing
worlds or spheres more beautiful than this, peopled by forms in human shape, exhibiting
a higher average intelligence.” But what else could he expect, lie a
pure-minded, educated European of the present day, dealing also with pure, more
or less educated sensitives? If he had tried a native Australian sensitive and
had studiously kept his own mind passive, he would have heard a very different
story. Nay, though a certain skeleton of truth—but partial truth—runs through
all genuine communications, he will find the widest discrepancies in details
between the so-called facts elicited by himself and those elicited by equally
good observers with equally pure mediums in France, Germany and America.
It is unnecessary, however, to
press this point further now; all we desire for the moment to make clear is
that while we in no way dispute the genuineness of this class of
communications, for the above reasons
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we know them to be necessarily
unreliable, necessarily more or less incorrect and inaccurate.
And now as to automatic
handwriting of a high class, we would remark that it may possibly be that there
is really a distinct spiritual entity impressing the writer’s mind. In other
words, there may, for all we know, be some spirit with whom his spiritual
nature becomes habitually, for the time, thoroughly harmonized, and whose
thoughts, language, etc., become his for the time, the result being that this
spirit seems to communicate with him. All we said before was that a similar
explanation to that we had offered of the facts of a certain case would in all
probability meet a certain correspondent’s case. But if he feels confident that
this explanation does not fit his case, then it is possible, though by no means
probable, that he habitually passes into a state of rapper! with a genuine
spirit, and, for the time, is assimilated therewith, thinking, to a great
extent, if not entirely, the thoughts that spirit would think, and writing in
its handwriting.
But even so, it should not be
thought that such a spirit is consciously communicating with the medium, or
knows in any way, anything of him or any other person or thing on earth. It is
simply that, the rapport established, he becomes for the nonce assimilated with
that other personality, and thinks, speaks and writes as it would have done on
earth.
As for the figure of the fine,
intelligent and benevolent-looking man, seen repeatedly by the seers and
seeresses, this may well be a real astral picture of the earth-life form of
that very spirit, drawn into the aura of our correspondent by the synchronism
of his and that spirit’s nature.
Many other explanations are
possible; the variety of the causes of phenomena is great, and one need be an
adept and actually look into and examine what transpires in order to be able to
explain in each case what really underlies it; but this much is certain, that
no good benevolent person who passed away upwards of a century ago can possibly
be visiting here on earth and advising and comforting a medium. The molecules
of his astral nature may from time to time vibrate in perfect unison with those
of the spirit of some such a person now in Devachan, and the result may be that
he appears to be in communication with that spirit and to be advised by him,
and clairvoyants may see in the astral light a picture of the earth-life form
of that spirit, but, so far as we have as yet been instructed, this is the
nearest approach to the ordinary spiritualistic hypothesis that is possible.
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No doubt had a “guide,” to
which a certain correspondent refers, not departed from this earth so very long
ago, another explanation, to which we will refer later, more in consonance with
spiritualistic views, would have been possible, though extremely improbable.
To take up again another
point, even despite their unobjectionable character, teachings may come from
mere reliquiæ of men or personalities not sufficiently spiritual for further
progress. In our first “Fragment” we distinctly said, “All elementaries are by no
means actively wicked all round . . . when, speaking through a still pure
medium the better and less degraded side of their nature comes out, and it is
quite possible for elementaries to have a perfect intellectual knowledge and
appreciation of virtue and purity, and enlightened conceptions of truth, and
yet be innately vicious in their tendencies.”
It is perfectly possible that
the admirable teachings referred to by a critic may have come from a high
class, though still lost personality, too intellectual to show in its true
colours before him and his friend, and yet capable of playing a very different
part in a less pure circle.
But it is far more likely that
the medium’s spirit really came en rapport with some spiritual entity in
Devachan, the thoughts, knowledge and sentiments of which formed the substance,
while the medium’s own personality and preexisting ideas more or less governed
the form of the communication. We attach no special importance to the
particular form of words in which the message was given. This may be the
medium’s share of the communication, when for the moment he identifies his
spiritual nature with that of the spiritual entity.
But, as a broad rule, such
appearances only take place within a few minutes after, or shortly before, the physical
death. Of course we mean the real death; the last portion of the frame that
dies is the brain—which is often alive and thronged with images long after, or,
at any rate, for many hours and days after life has been pronounced to be
extinct. It is true that the period intervening between death and the entry
into the gestation state, varies in the case of persons dying a natural death,
from a few hours to a few years, but it is quite abnormal for the spirit to
appear during this period, except within a very short period after death.
Putting aside the case of adepts and those trained by them to that end, the Ego
within a few moments after death, sinks into a state of unconsciousness from
which it does not recover until the struggle between the higher and lower
nature has been fought out; and there remains inside the sphere of the earth’s
attraction—Kâma Loka,
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the Region of Desire—only the
shell, either (in the rarer case of personalities doomed to annihilation) a two
and a half principle shell, or (in the case in which the higher principles have
triumphed, and have passed on, taking with them the better portions of the
fifth principle) a one and a half principle shell, soon to disintegrate.
Even when a “spirit” appears
“a few days after death,” it is really an unconscious appearance. The spirit
sunk in its post-mortem trance (of course, for all its comparative ethereality
and non-corporeality, a space-occupying and material entity) is borne about by
magnetic currents, swayed here and there like dead leaves whirling in the bosom
of a stream. Thus carried, it may pass within the range of vision of some seer,
or its reflection in the astral light may be caught by the inner eye of a
clairvoyant. The spirit itself will have no more consciousness of such an
appearance than a person passing through a room in which, unknown to him, there
happens to be a mirror, is of having cast a reflection therein. Usually the
position and aspect of the forms indicate unmistakably the unconsciousness of
the spirit, but this is not invariable; the mental activity of the spirit may
revive in a succession of dreams, restoring a subjective consciousness, while
objective unconsciousness still prevails, and in such cases the form may assume
a conscious and animated, or even transfigured appearance; all depends on the
character and intensity of the dreams, and these again depend upon the degree
of the spirituality and purity of the deceased.
It is not at all necessary
(nor indeed, is it possible under our present hypothesis) that any real
conscious communication should pass between the dormant spirit and the seer. It
is sufficient for the latter to come into direct rapport with the spirit or its
astral image, to think precisely what the spirit, if still conscious and in
earth-life, would have thought.
In the case of communication
through magnetic sensitives, the magnetizer, tenderly attached to the deceased,
by the exertion of his magnetic power unconsciously places the sensitive en
rapport with the spirit of the deceased with which for the time the spirit of
the sensitive is more or less perfectly identified, leading to an idea of
seeing the deceased, as he was wont to appear when on earth, and receiving from
him messages or indications, of which the sensitive really became cognizant
when the two spirits were for the moment blended.
Transfigurations, under the
same conditions, are less doubtful in character, and there are three ways of
explaining them:
Firstly: the mesmeric action
of the magnetizer places the sensitive’s
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spirit en rapport with that of
his dearly-loved deceased friend. Then, what! for the time the identity of the
two is established, the nature of the deceased taken on by the sensitive, being
much more spiritual and powerful than the sensitive’s own, and his physical
constitution being of such a nature as to admit such changes, the body of the
subject begins at once to exhibit an analogous change, corresponding to the
change undergone by his spiritual nature in consequence of the amalgamation.
Secondly: the transfiguration
may be due to the intensity and clearness of the deceased friend’s face in the
operator’s thought. That face being so strongly impressed on his memory, it is
but natural that his memory, owing to its intensified activity during such
séances, should be throwing off an unusual amount of energy, and solidifying,
so to say, the familiar image on the etheric waves of his aura. Thus, unknown
to himself, he may rouse it up into sympathetic action which, transforming the
image from a subjective into an objective picture, finally causes it to move
on, guided by the current of attraction, until it settles upon, and so is found
reflected in the medium’s face. The images we find in the endless galleries of
space, nailed on to the indestructible walls of Akâsha, are but lifeless and
empty masks after all, the pictorial records of our thoughts, words, and deeds.
In a case recently referred to by a correspondent, the invisible reality in the
magnetizer’s aura threw an objective adumbration on the plastic features of his
sensitive, and the phenomenon was produced.
Thirdly: thought, memory and
will are the energies of the brain, and, like all other forces of nature—to use
the language of modern science—have two general forms, the potential and the
kinetic form of energy. Potential thought clairvoyantly discerns and chooses
its subject in the astral light; the will becomes the motor power that causes
it to move, that directs and guides it whithersoever it likes, and it is thus
that the adept produces his occult phenomena, whether of a physical or
spiritual character. But the latter can also occur without any intervention of
an intelligent will. The passive condition of the medium leaves him an easy
prey to the pranks of the elementaries, as well as to those semi-intelligent
elemental beings ever basking and masquerading in the sidereal light, and such
a phenomenon may as easily occur of itself, simply owing to surrounding
favourable conditions. The sidereal image of a person we think of will remain
pale and quiescent in its indelible impression on the ether, until its atoms
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are propelled into action by
the strong magnetic attraction which emanates from the molecular tissues of the
medium, saturated as they are with the mesmerizer’s thought full of the image.
Hence the phenomenon of transfiguration.
These transfigurations are
rare, but we have known of a good many instances, and some very remarkable ones
will be found recorded in Colonel Olcott’s work, entitled People from the Other
World.
The above probably explains
all the features of the particular case referred to; but to enable us to assert
positively in any case that the occurrence was brought about in this or that
way, it is essential that we should be acquainted with every single detail. So
long as we only have the barest outlines to deal with, all we can pretend to
offer are more or less probable solutions.
A critic tells us that even if
we explain one or two cases, he still finds an unbroken line of stubborn facts
opposing our explanations, behind which he is unable to penetrate. We can only
promise that if he will furnish us with accurate details of all cases within
his personal knowledge which, in his opinion, are not explicable by the occult
doctrines, we will show him that they are so explicable or abandon the field.
But we must lay down two
conditions. First, we will only accept cases of which he has a complete
personal knowledge; we will not accept cases picked up out of books and papers.
Our critic is a reliable, philosophical observer, from whom we are sure to get
facts carefully observed and accurately recorded. With these we can have no
difficulty in dealing. But as for cases recorded here there and every where,
many are, to our knowledge, pure inventions, while many more, although recorded
in good faith, have been so transformed in the process of observation and
record that it would be hopeless to discuss them.
Secondly, he must not be
surprised if, in the course of our explanations, all kinds of new facts not
hitherto touched on are brought to notice. The subject is a vast one. There are
wheels within wheels, laws within laws, exceptions to all these. Hitherto we
have purposely only endeavoured to convey a general conception of the more
important features of the truth. If exact accuracy of detail is required, every
one of our general laws will require certain provisoes and limitations, To
detail only what we know in regard to these spiritual phenomena would occupy
several complete numbers of The Theosophist, and if our
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explanation had to include the
whole system of elementals—future men during a coming cycle—and other obscure
powers and forces which cannot even be mentioned, several octavo volumes would
be needed to contain it.
The same critic says:
If the proof call only be
obtained by a practical renunciation of the world, a severance of all human
ties, affections and responsibilities, of what use is it to humanity? Only one
in a million may avail themselves of it, and how many of time remaining nine
hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, would have
faith in his testimony.
We are compelled to point out
that he is in error in his premisses, and that his conclusions, even were these
premisses correct, are untenable. For even admit that only one in a million would
consent to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded for obtaining proof,
would this be any reason for the remaining nine hundred and ninety-nine
thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine refusing to accept their evidence? Is
this so in practice? Certainly not! At the present time not more than one in a
million (if so many) are willing to avail themselves of the opportunity of
obtaining for themselves proof of the facts of astronomy. Yet the remainder
accept these facts, perfectly satisfied with the knowledge that anyone who
chooses to go through the necessary training and study can acquire that proof,
and that all who have gone through that training are agreed as to the
sufficiency of the proof.
Astronomy is a science with
the name and general bearing of which all fairly educated men are familiar.
Occultism is a science which has hitherto been veiled in the most profound
secrecy, and of which, so far, none but occultists have possessed any
knowledge. But once let mankind be familiarized with the idea, let it become
known that any one who chooses to make the necessary sacrifices can obtain the
proofs, and that those who have obtained the proofs consider them conclusive,
and the mass of mankind will be quite content to accept the facts, even on the
testimony of the one in a million who does undertake the verification of the
assertions of his predecessors.
But our correspondent’s
assumptions are erroneous; a practical renunciation of the world in the sense
in which the apostle exhorted all Christians to be in the world but not of the
world is doubtless essential, but it is by no means requisite to sever all
human ties and affections, nor can it ever be permitted, much less required, to
abjure human responsibilities. These latter may change in character, and
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may—indeed must—-with
increased knowledge and power, assume a wider reach, and the affections must
broaden and become more cosmopolitan, but it is self-abnegation, not
selfishness, and a devotion to the welfare of others, that smoothes the path to
adeptship.
Again, as regards the freedom
from error claimed for the teachings of occultism, it is needless to point out
the difference between empiricism and science, and the uninitiated are
empiricists, the occultists, scientists. This will be obvious at once when it
is borne in mind that, for thousands of years, hundreds of initiates have been
exploring the unseen world; that the results of their explorations have been
recorded and collected, and discrepancies eliminated by fresh verifications;
that the facts ascertained have been generalized, and the laws governing them
deduced therefrom, and the correctness of these deductions verified by
experiment. Occultism is, therefore, in every sense of the word an exact science,
while the teachings of the very ablest untrained seer who has worked
single-handed can only be empiric.
When in our first article we
said we know (an expression to which a critic, perhaps rightly, takes
objection) we only said this in the sense that, talking to people ignorant of
mathematics, we should say that we know that the curve described by the moon in
space is a form of an epicycloid represented by such and such an equation—not
meaning thereby that we had ourselves investigated this somewhat abstruse
problem, but that we were aware of the method by which this was solved, and
knew that numerous competent mathematicians had so solved it, and had all
arrived at the same solution. Surely those ignorant alike of mathematics and of
the work of mathematician could by no means as reasonably say in reply, that
they knew that the orbit of the moon was something wholly different it is not
our experiences, though these collectively are considerable, on which we rely,
as our critic seems to fancy. For all we know, his experiences may exceed ours,
and, be this as it may, we should certainly never have presumed to traverse
authoritatively his views on the strength of our own experiences or knowledge.
What we rely on are the generalized results of the experiences during a vast
period of time of a large body of trained psychists who have ever made the
attainment of truth, in matters spiritual, the foremost object of their desire,
and the promotion, though in secret, of the welfare of mankind their primary
duty.
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And now, having attempted to
answer certain objections to our previous ‘‘Fragments,’’ we think it might be
well to develop a little further one doctrine that we broached in our first
paper, and explain more in detail why we are so strongly opposed to habitual
mediumism.
Broadly speaking, the
objective phenomena of spiritualists (of subjective communications we have
already spoken) are the work of, or at any rate result from, the activities or
intervention of elementals, half intelligent nature forces, entities which in a
far distant cycle, after passing through all the lower objective kingdoms will
ultimately he born as men; and elementaries or shells. These shells are of two
kinds: first, those belonging to men whose sixth and seventh principles having
attracted to themselves the quintessence, as it were, of the fifth also, have
moved on to fresh developments. These shells consist of the fourth, and only a
portion of the fifth principles. Half or more of the personal memory is gone
and the more animal or material instincts only survive. This relic, this dross
left behind in the crucible when the refined gold was taken, is commonly the
‘‘angel guide’’ of the average medium. Such entities, of course, only survive
for a time; gradually all consciousness departs and they disintegrate. Only
highly mediumistic natures attract these, and only certain of these. The purer
the personality the less their vitality, the shorter their period of survival,
and time less the chance of their contributing to mediumistic displays. The
more full of blemishes, the more disfigured by sins and animal desires, the
personality, the greater the vitality of its reliquiæ the longer their survival,
and the greater the chance of their finding their way into the séance-room. The
man, as a whole, may have been a good man, good may have actively predominated
in him, and yet the worse portions of his nature, his lower and more animal
instincts standing now alone and unneutralized by all the better portions of
his character, may be evil enough.
It is impossible that any real
good can come of intercourse even with this class of shell; it will not be
actively wicked, it is too imperfect and weak for that, but yet its influence
in the long run cannot be elevating. But, besides this, it is wrong to
encourage such shells into activity or convey to them a fresh impulse such as
they often obtain through mediums, since a strong sympathy continues to subsist
between the departed personality and its reliquiæ, and any excitement of these
latter, any galvanization of them with a fictitious renewed life, such as
results from mediums dealing with them, distinctly disturbs
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the gestation of the
personality, hinders the evolution of its new Ego-hood, and delays thereby its
entry into the state of felicity (Devachan) in which, in its new Ego-hood, it
reaps the fruits of its good deeds, prior to reincarnation and rebirth here, if
it has not completed its appointed tale of earth-lives, or in the next superior
planet.
But the other kind of
elementary is far more dangerous as a rule to deal with. In this case the man
has been weighed in the balance and found wanting—his personality has to be
blotted out—the fourth and fifth principles are intact; and more than this, the
fifth will have assimilated all that there may he left of personal recollection
and perception of its personal individuality in the sixth. This second class of
shell is in every way more enduring, more active, and in the majority of cases,
distinctly wicked. No doubt it can stiffer no injury from its intercourse with
men, but these latter must inevitably deteriorate in consequence of association
with shells of this class. Fortunately these are not, comparatively speaking,
very numerous; of course, absolutely, there have been millions of millions of
such, but, to the credit of human nature be it said that the personalities that
have to be absolutely blotted out form but a fractional percentage of the
whole.
Moreover, shells of this
nature do not remain for any great length of time in the atmosphere of this
earth, but like straws floating near a whirlpool, get caught up by and dragged
down in that terrible maelstrom which hurries off the failures towards
disintegration, to the planet of matter and death—the mental as well as time
physical satellite of our earth!
As for the elementals,
rudimentary men no doubt, but more embryonic even than the spirit that sleeps
in the mineral, these, though capable of becoming powerful forces in
association with shells, under the spells of sorcerers and under the guidance
of adepts, are, as a rule, irresponsible, purblind, neutral entities, taking
moral and mental character and colour from the active and more developed
spiritual entity with or under whose control they work; but even these, though
themselves incapable of being injured, may become very dangerous to mediums
with any inherent evil tendencies.
Here then in elementals and
elementaries are to he found the majority probably of the performers of the
physical phenomena of spiritualists. Association with no one of these three
classes can possibly benefit mankind as a whole. The variety of natures is so
infinite that we do not assert that in no case has any human being benefited by
inter-
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course with any individual
specimen of either class. But we do say that, broadly speaking, nothing but
harm can be expected from association with such. Further, in the case of one of
the three classes, mediumistic intercourse inflicts a distinct injury upon
innocent beings.
But though elementaries and
elementals constitute a large proportion of the performers, there are other
classes of actors. We do not pretend—we are not permitted—to deal exhaustively
with the question at present, but we may refer to one of the most important
classes of entities who can participate in objective phenomena other than elementaries
and elementals.
This class comprises the
spirits of conscious sane suicides. They are spirits and not shells, because
there is not in their case, at any rate until later, a total and permanent
divorce between the fourth and fifth principles on the one hand and the sixth
and seventh on the other. The two are divided, they exist apart, but a line of
connection still unites them, they may yet reunite, and the sorely threatened
personality avert its doom; the fifth principle still holds in its hands the clue
by which, traversing the labyrinth of earthly sins and passions, it may regain
the sacred penetralia. But for the time, though really a spirit, and therefore
so designated, it is practically not far removed from a shell.
This class of spirit can undoubtedly
communicate with men, but as a rule its members have to pay dearly for
exercising the privilege, while it is scarcely possible for them to do
otherwise than lower and debase the moral nature of those with and through whom
they have much communication. It is merely, broadly speaking, a question of
degree; of much or little injury resulting from such communication the cases in
which real, permanent good can arise are too absolutely exceptional to require
consideration.
Understand how the case
stands. The unhappy being revolting against the trials of life—trials, the
results of it own former actions, trials, heaven’s merciful medicine for the
mentally and spiritually diseased—determines, instead of manfully taking arms
against a sea of troubles, to let the curtain drop, and, as it fancies, end
them.
It destroys the body, but
finds itself precisely as much alive mentally as before. It had an appointed
life-term determined by an intricate web of prior causes, which its own willful
sudden act cannot shorten. That term must run out its appointed sands. You may
smash the
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lower half of the hour-glass
so that the impalpable sand shooting from the upper bell is dissipated by the
passing aerial currents as it issues, but that stream will run on, unnoticed
though it remain, until the whole store in that upper receptacle is exhausted.
So you may destroy the body,
but not the appointed period of sentient existence, foredoomed, because simply
the effect of a plexus of causes, to intervene before the dissolution of the
personality; this must run on for its appointed period.
This is so in other cases; for
example, those of the victims of accident or violence—they, too, have to
complete their life-term, and of these, too, we may speak on another occasion;
but here it is sufficient to notice that, whether good or bad, their mental
attitude at the time of death alters wholly their subsequent position. They,
too, have to wait on within the Region of Desires until their wave of life runs
on to and reaches its appointed shore; but they wait on, wrapped in dreams
soothing and blissful or the reverse, according to their mental and moral state
at and prior to the fatal hour, but nearly exempt from further material
temptations, and, broadly speaking, incapable, except just at the moment of
real death, of communicating suo motu with mankind though not wholly beyond the
possibility of reach of the higher forms of the “accursed science,” necromancy.
The question is a profoundly abstruse one. It would be impossible to explain
within the brief space still remaining to us how the conditions immediately
after death in the case of the man who deliberately lays down (not merely
risks) his life from altruistic motives in the hope of saving those of others,
and of him who deliberately sacrifices his life from selfish motives in the
hopes of escaping trials and troubles which loom before him, differ so entirely
as they do. Nature or Providence, Fate or God being merely a self—adjusting
machine, it would at first sight seem as if the results must be identical in
both cases. But machine though it be, we must remember that it is a machine sui
geueris:
Out of himself he span
Th’ eternal web of right and
wrong,
And ever feels the subtlest thrill,
The slenderest thread along !
—a machine compared with whose
perfect sensitiveness and adjustment the highest human intellect is but a
coarse clumsy replica.
And we must remember that
thoughts and motives are material, and at times marvellously potent material
forces, and we may then begin
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to comprehend why the hero
sacrificing his life on pure altruistic grounds, sinks as his life-blood ebbs
away into a sweet dream, wherein
All that he wishes and all
that he loves
Come smiling around Ins sunny way,
only to wake into active or
objective consciousness when reborn in the Region of Happiness, while the poor,
unhappy and misguided mortal who, seeking to elude fate, selfishly loosens the
silver string and breaks the golden bowl, finds himself terribly alive and
awake, instinct with all the evil cravings and desires that embittered his
world-life, without a body in which to gratify them, and capable of only such
partial alleviation as is possible by more or less vicarious gratification, and
this only at the risk of the complete rupture with his sixth and seventh
principles, and consequent ultimate annihilation after prolonged periods of
suffering.
Let it not be supposed that there
is no hope for this class—the sane, deliberate suicide. If, bearing steadfastly
his cross, he suffers his punishment patiently, striving against carnal
appetites—still alive in him in all their intensity, though, of course, each in
proportion to the degree to which it had been indulged in earth-life—if, we
say, he bears this humbly, never allowing himself to be tempted here or there
into unlawful gratifications of unholy desires then, when his fated death—hour
strikes, his four higher principles reunite, and in the final separation that
then ensues all may be well with him, and he may pass on to the gestation
period and its subsequent developments.
Till the predestined
death-knell rings he has his chance; he may wipe out in suffering and
repentance many a sad black score from the page of Karma, but—and this is the
point we desire to impress upon spiritualists—he may add a hundred fouler ones
to the sad blots already damning the record.
It is not merely for the sake
of the mediums, not merely “for the sake of those that sit at meat with these,”
but, above all, for the sake of these miserable half-lost brothers and sisters
that we appeal.
Suddenly cut short in careers
always more or less deeply befouled in all sane suicides—and we speak only of
these, for insane suicides are but victims—by one of the deadliest sins, rage,
hatred, lust or greed, they awake to find themselves haunted by their besetting
sin in all its intensity. Around them are mediums, many of them throwing
themselves open to what they idly dream to be angel guides. They have but to
obsess these only too willing partners, to share in their evil
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gratifications, or collecting
out of their aura and loosely coherent physical organizations, and from even
fouler sources, the tombs and shambles, materials to form a fragile physical
organization of their own, revel with their mediums in all imaginable iniquity.
These are the incubi and succubæ of rnediæval times, these are the “spirit
wives” and “husbands” of modern days, and these, when merely obsessing and not
assuming a separate objective form, are the demons of drunkenness, gluttony,
hatred and malice, the memorials of whose fiendish excesses crowd the sad
records alike of the present and the past.
Evil to begin with, and
separated (though not as yet irrevocably) from their sixth and seventh
principles, and such restraining influence as these may have insensibly
exercised, these spirits too often pass from bad to worse, develop into true
psychic vampires, driving victim after victim to destruction, inciting to and
glorying in, the foulest, the most incredible crimes, to be swept at last, when
the appointed death-hour strikes, on the flood-tide of their own enormities,
far out of the earth’s aura into regions where annihilation alone drops the
curtain on æons of unimaginable misery.
And many of these, veritable
fiends as they become, were not so very, very had in this life—’’shady lots,”
perhaps, in modern phraseology, with some rebellious, bitter, angry taint in
the character which led them to suicide, but, after all, very far removed from
the demons which they eventually become; and this awful and incredible
development devil-wards which they underwent, though indirectly facilitated by
the separation of their highest principles, was primarily and almost
exclusively due to the temptations, the facilities for the gratification of
their worst desires, held out to them by mediums, recognized as such or not, of
the low physical-manifestation type.
Alas! for the great hulk of
such mediums. Alas! for too many of their spiritualistic admirers and
associates. Little do they dream that two-thirds of all the most monstrous
crimes in the world have their origin in this low physical mediumistic
capacity. Unrecognized as such, hundreds of miserable mediums perish on the
scaffold, declaring, and declaring truly, that they were egged on to the crimes
for which they suffer by a devil, in reality an obsessing spirit, mostly of
this class. In thousands and thousands of cases the gross sins, drunkenness,
gluttony, lewdness, bestiality in all its forms, which spread desolation to
innumerable happy hearths and plunge in misery and
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disgrace countless happy
households, are all really traceable to this same class of spirit, deriving
alike the intensity of its evil desires and the power to do harm, from that
fatal capacity for mediumship of the low class favourable to physical manifestations.
And this mediuinship is a
plant that, like a noxious weed, under encouraging influences, spreads as time
runs on. Do the spiritualists who deal so complacently with, nay, who so
greedily run after, these physical-manifestation mediums, reflect on, or at all
realize, what they are doing? It is not merely that both they themselves and
the mediums are running a fearful risk of moral shipwreck through this
intercourse—this can to a certain extent be guarded against, though it too
seldom is, by perfect purity of word thought and deed; and again the medium
may, though this, too, is rare, be naturally so well-disposed that the
obsessing spirit, if not already rabidly evil, may do little harm; but what is
alike beyond control of medium and his or her supporters is diffusion, as the
mediumship is developed, of mediumistic germs through the âkâshic atmosphere,
which, finding here and there appropriate soils in the weakest and most sensual
natures, will produce later a crop of more degraded mediums, destined certainly
to include many of the vilest sinners, if not several of the deepest-dyed
criminals of the age.
This form of mediumship is a
deadly weed, and so far from being encouraged into reproduction—and that is
what the spiritualists as a body do—it should be starved out by disuse whenever
and wherever it is recognized. Unfortunately, it will always exist, springing
up sporadically here and there; and, though dwarfed in habit, contributing
largely to the loathsome annals of sin and crime; but it is truly monstrous to
aid the propagation of this curse in all intensified form, by aiding and
abetting the development and function of prominent specimens.
Let none who do this dream
that they can escape the consequences. All who share in transactions by which
sin and misery are multiplied for others must share the recoil. They may act in
ignorance, in good faith, and so escape the moral taint—the most grievous of
the Consequences of evil—but they can by no means escape the other
consequences, and they will have to brave in coming lives the angry buffets of
a retributive justice, which, though sleeping during the present, never sleeps
during a second life.
NOTES ON SOME ARYAN-ARHAT
ESOTERIC TENETS*
———
[Vol. III. No. 4, January,
1882.]
NOTES
THE Tibetan esoteric Buddhist
doctrine teaches that Prakriti is cosmic matter, out of which all visible forms
are produced; Akâsha is also cosmic matter, but still more imponderable, its
spirit, as it were; Prakriti being the body or substance, and Akâsha-Shakti its
soul or energy.
Prakriti, Svabhâvat or Akâsha
is Space, as the Tibetans have it; Space filled with whatsoever substance or no
substance at all, i.e., with substance so imponderable as to be only
metaphysically conceivable. Brahman, then, would be the germ thrown into the soil
of that field, and Shakti, that mysterious energy or force which develops it,
and which is called by the Buddhist Arahats of Tibet, Fohat.
“That which we call Form
(Rupa) is not different from that which we call Space (Shûnyatâ) . . . Space is
not different from Form. Form is the same as Space; Space is the same as Form.
And so with the other Skandhas, whether Vedanâ, or Sanjua, or Sanskâra or
Vijnana they are each the same as their opposite.” (Book of Sin-king or the
“Heart Sûtra.” Chinese translation of the Maha-Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra;
chapter on the “Avalokiteshvara,” or Manifested Buddha.)
So that, the Aryan and Tibetan
or Arhat doctrines agree perfectly in substance, differing but in names given
and the way of putting it, a distinction resulting from the fact that the
Vedântin Brâhmans believe in Parabrahman, a deific power, impersonal though it
may be, while the Buddhists entirely reject it.
APPENDICES.
I.
The country called Si-dzang by
the Chinese, and Tibet by Western geographers, is mentioned in the oldest books
preserved in the province
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* The following area
collection of notes and appendices on an article, entitled ‘The Aryan-Arhat
Esoteric Tenets on the sevenfold Principle in Man,”
by T. Suhba Row, BA., B.L.—EDS.
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of Fo-kien (the chief
headquarters of the aborigines of China) as the great seat of occult learning
in the archaic ages. According to these records, it was inhabited by the
‘‘Teachers of Light,’’ the ‘‘Sons of Wisdom” and the “Brothers of the Sun.” The
Emperor Vu, the “Great” (2207 B.C.), a pious mystic, is credited with having
obtained his occult wisdom and the system of theocracy established by him—for
he was the first one to unite in China ecclesiastical power with temporal
authority—from Si-dzang. That system was the same as with the old Egyptians and
the Chaldees—that which we know to have existed in the Brâhmanical period in
India, and to exist now in Tibet—namely, all the learning, power, the temporal
as well as the secret wisdom were concentrated within the hierarchy of the
priests and limited to their caste. Who were the aborigines of Tibet is a
question which no ethno- grapher is able to answer correctly at present. They
practise the Bhon religion, their sect was pre-buddhistic and anti-buddhistic,
and they are to he found mostly in the province of Kam—that is all that is
known of them. But even that would justify the supposition that they are the
greatly degenerated descendants of mighty and wise fore-fathers. Their ethnical
type shows that they are not pure Turanians, and their rites—now those of
sorcery, incantations, and nature—worship—remind one far more of the popular
rites of the Babylonians, as found in the records preserved on the excavated
cylinders, than, as alleged by some, of the religious practices of the Chinese
sect of Tao-sse—a religion based upon pure reason and spirituality. Generally,
little or no difference is made even by the Kyelang missionaries who mix
greatly with these people on the borders of British Lahoul— and ought to know
better—between the Bhons and the two rival Buddhist sects, the Yellow Caps and
the Red Caps. The latter of these have opposed the reform of Tzong-ka-pa from
the first, and have always adhered to old Buddhism, so greatly mixed up now
with the practices of the Bhons. Were our Orientalists to know more of them,
and compare the ancient Babylonian Bel or Baal worship with the rites of the
Bhons, they would find an undeniable connection between the two. It is out of
the question to begin an argument here to prove the origin of the aborigines of
Tibet as connected with one of the three great races which superseded each
other in Babylonia, whether we call them the Akkadians (invented by F.
Lenormant), or the primitive Turanians, Chaldees and Assyrians. Be it as it
may, there is reason to call the Trans-Himalayan esoteric doctrine
Chaldæo-Tibetan And,
477————————————————NOTES ON SOME ARYAN-ARHAT ESOTERIC TENETS.
when we remember that the
Vedas came—agreeably to all traditions— from the Mansarova Lake in Tibet, and
the Brâhmans themselves from the far north, we are justified in looking on the
esoteric doctrines of every people who once had or still have them, as having proceeded
from one and the same source, and to thus call it the “Aryan-Chaldæo-Tibetan”
doctrine, or Universal Wisdom Religion. “Seek for the Lost Word among the
hierophants of Tartary, China and Tibet,” was the advice of Swedenborg, the
seer.
II.
The Vedas, Brâhmanism, and
along with these Sanskrit, were importations into what we now regard as India.
They were never indigenous to its soil. There was a time when the ancient
nations of the West included under the generic name of India many of the
countries of Asia now classified under other names. There was an Upper, a
Lower, and a Western India, even during the comparatively late period of
Alexander; and Persia, Iran, is called Western India in some ancient classics,
and the countries now named Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary were considered
as forming part of India. When we say, therefore, that India has civilized the
world and was the Alma Mater of the civilizations, arts and sciences of all
other nations (Baby- lonia, and perhaps even Egypt, included), we mean archaic,
prehistoric India, India of the time when the great Gobi was a sea, and the
lost Atlantis formed part of an unbroken continent which began at the Himalayas
and ran down over Southern India, Ceylon, Java, to far-away Tasmania.
III.
To ascertain such disputed
questions [as to whether or not the Tibetan adepts are acquainted with the
“esoteric doctrine taught by the residents of the sacred Island”), we have to
look into and study well the Chinese sacred and historical records—a people
whose era begins nearly 4,600 years back (2697 B.C.). A people so accurate—by
whom some of the most important “inventions” of modern Europe and its so much
boasted modern science (such as the compass, gun powder, porcelain, paper,
printing, etc.), were anticipated, known, and practised thousands of years
before these were rediscovered by the Europeans—ought to receive some trust for
their records.
From Lao-tze down to
Hiouen-Thsang their literature is filled with allusions and references to that
Island and the wisdom of the Himâ-
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layan adepts. In the Catena of
Buddhist Scriptures from the chinese, by the Rev. Samuel Beal, there is a
chapter “On the Tian-Ta’i School of Buddhism” (pp. 244-258), which our
opponents ought to read. Translating the rules of that most celebrated and holy
school and sect in China founded by Chin-che-chay, called the wise one, in the
year of our era, on coming to the sentence, “That which relates to the one
garment (seamless) worn by the Great Teachers of the Snowy Mountains, the
school of the Haimavatas” (p. 256), the European translator places after it a
sign of interrogation, as well he may. The statistics of the school of the
Haimavatas or of our Himâlayan Brother-hood, are not to be found in the General
Census Records of India. Further, Mr. Beal translates a rule relating to “the
great professors of the higher order who live in mountain depths remote from
men,’’ the Aranyakas, or hermits.
So, with respect to the
traditions concerning this Island, and apart from the (to them) historical
records of it preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan Sacred Books, the legend is
alive to this day among the people of Tibet. The fair Island is no more, but the
country where it once bloomed remains there still, and the spot is well known
to some of the “Great Teachers of the Snowy Mountains,” however much convulsed
and changed its topography may have been by the awful cataclysm. Every seventh
year these teachers are believed to assemble in Schambha-la, the “happy land.”
According to the general belief it is situated in the north-west of Tibet. Some
place it within the unexplored central regions, inaccessible even to the
fearless nomadic tribes; others hem it in between the range of the Gangdisri
Mountains and the northern edge of the Gobi Desert, south and north, and the
more populated regions of Khoondooz and Kashmir, of the Gya-Pheling (British
India) and China, west and east, which affords to the curious mind a pretty
large latitude to locate it in. Others still place it between Namur Nur and the
Kuen-Lun Mountains—but one and all firmly believe in Scham-bha-la, and speak of
it as a fertile, fairy-like land, once an island, now an oasis of incomparable
beauty, the place of meeting of the inheritors of the esoteric wisdom of the
god-like inhabitants of the legendary Island.
In connection with the archaic
legend of the Asian Sea and the Atlantic Continent, is it not profitable to
note a fact known to all modern geologists—that the Himalayan slopes afford
geological proof that the substance of those lofty peaks was once a part of an
ocean floor?
479—————————————NOTES ON SOME ARYAN-ARHAT ESOTERIC TENETS.
IV.
We have already pointed out
that, in our opinion, the whole difference between the Buddhistic and Vedântic
philosophies was that the former was a kind of rationalistic Vedântism, while
the latter might be regarded as transcendental Buddhism. If the Aryan
esotericism applies the term Jivâtma to the seventh principle, the pure, and
per se unconscious, spirit—it is because the Vedânta postulating three kinds of
existence—(1) the Paramârthika, the true, the only real one; (2) the
Vyavahârika, the practical; and (3) the Pratibhâshika, the apparent or illusory
life—makes the first Life or Jiva, the only truly existent one. Brahma or the
One Self is its only representative in the universe, as it is the universal
Life, while the other two are but its ‘‘phenomenal appearances,” imagined and
created by ignorance, and complete illusions suggested to us by our blind
senses. The Buddhists, on the other hand, deny either subjective or objective
reality even to that one Self-Existence. Buddha declares that there is neither
Creator nor an Absolute Being. Buddhist rationalism was ever too alive to the
insuperable difficulty of admitting one absolute consciousness, as in the words
of Flint—”wherever there is consciousness there is relation, and wherever there
is relation there is dualism.” The One Life is either absolute and unconditioned
(Mukta) and can have no relation to anything nor to anyone; or it is bound and
conditioned (Baddha), and then it cannot be called the Absolute; the
limitation, moreover, necessitating another deity as powerful as the first to
account for all the evil in this world. Hence, the Arahat secret doctrine on
cosmogony admits but of one absolute, indestructible, eternal and uncreated
Unconsciousness (so to translate), of an element (the word being used for want
of a better term) absolutely independent of everything else in the universe; a
something ever present or ubiquitous, a Presence which ever was, is, and will
be, whether there is a God, gods, or none; whether there is a universe or no
universe; existing during the eternal cycles of Mahâ Yugas, during Pralayas and
during the periods of Manvantara; and this is Space, the field for the
operation of the eternal Forces and natural Law, the basis (as our
correspondent rightly calls it) upon which take place the eternal
intercorrelations of Akâsha-Prakriti, guided by the unconscious regular
pulsations of Shakti—the breath or power of a conscious Deity, the theists
would say—the eternal energy of an eternal, unconscious Law, say the Buddhists.
Space then, or Fan Bar-nang (Mahâ Shûnyatâ) or, as it is called by Lao-tze, the
“Emptiness,” is the nature
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of the Buddhist Absolute. (See
Confucius’ Praise of the Abyss.) The word Jiva, then, could never be applied by
the Arahats to the seventh principle, since it is only through its correlation
or contact with matter that Fohat (the Buddhist active energy) can develop
active conscious life; and since to the question “How can unconsciousness
generate consciousness?”—the answer would be: “Was the seed which generated a
Bacon or a Newton
self-conscious?”
THE THOUGHTS OF THE DEAD*
————
[Vol. III. No. 4, January,
1882.]
A MAN dies of a contagious
disease; months after his death, aye, years—a bit of clothing, an object
touched by him during his sickness, may communicate the disease to a person
more physiologically sensitive than the persons around him, while having no
effect upon the latter. And why should not an idea, a thought exercise the same
influence? Thought is no less material nor objective than the imponderable and
mysterious germs of various infectious diseases, the causes of which are such a
puzzle for science. Since the mind of a living person can so influence another
mind that the former can force the latter to think and believe whatever it
will—in short, can psychologize that other mind, so can the thought of a person
already dead. Once generated and sent out, that thought will live upon its own
energy. It has become independent of the brain and mind which gave it birth. So
long as its concentrated energy remains undissipated, it can act as a potential
influence when brought into contact with the living brain and nervous system of
a person susceptibly predisposed. The unhealthy action thus provoked may lead
the sensitive into a temporary insanity of self-delusion, that quite clouds the
sense of his own individuality. The morbid action thus once set up, the whole
floating group of the dead man’s thoughts rushes into the sensitive’s brain,
and he can give what seems test after test of the presence of the deceased and
convince the predisposed investigator that the individuality of the “control,”
“guide,” or communicating intelligence is thoroughly established.
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* The above is a Note appended
to an article, entitled “Lakshmibai the Authentic Story of a Bhût by Piarai
Lall Chachondia.
DREAMLAND AND SOMNAMBULISM
———
[Vol. III. No. 4, January,
1882.]
[To the Editor.
(1) ARE dreams always real? If
so, what produces them? If not real, may they not nevertheless have in
themselves some deep significance?
(2) Can you tell me something
about antenatal states of existence and the transmigration of the soul?
(3) Can you give me anything
that is worth knowing about psychology as suggested by this article?*
Yours most fraternally and
obediently,
JEHANGIR CURSETJI TARACHAND.
Bombay, Nov. 10th, 1882.]
To put our correspondent’s
request more exactly, he desires The Theosophist to cull into the limits of a
column or two the facts embraced within the whole range of all the sublunar mysteries
with “full explanations.” These would embrace:
(1) The complete philosophy of
dreams, as deduced from their physiological, biological, psychological and
occult aspects.
(2) The Buddhist Jâtakas
(rebirths and migrations of our Lord Shâkya Muni), with a philosophical essay
upon the transmigrations of the 387,000 Buddhas who ‘‘turned the wheel of
faith,’’ during the successive revelations to the world of the 125,000 other
Buddhas, the saints who can “overlook and unravel the thousand-fold knotted threads
of the moral chain of causation,” throwing in a treatise upon the Nidânas the
chain of twelve causes with a complete list of their two millions of results,
and copious appendices by some Arhats, “who have attained the stream which
flows into Nirvana.”
(3) The compounded reveries of
the world-famous psychologists; from the Egyptian Hermes and his Book of the
Dead; Plato’s definition of the Soul, in Timæus; and so on, down to
Drawing-Room Nocturnal chats with a Disembodied Soul, by the Rev. Adramelech Romeo
Tiberius Toughskin from Cincinnati. Such is the modest task proposed.
——————————————————————
* A dream-story from Chambers’
Journal.
483———————————————————DREAMLAND AND SOMNAMBULISM.
Our physical senses are the
agents by means of which the astral spirit, or “conscious something” within, is
brought, by contact with the external world, to a knowledge of actual
existence; while the spiritual senses of the astral man are the media, the
telegraphic wires by means of which he communicates with his higher principles,
and obtains therefrom the faculties of clear perception of, and vision into,
the realms of the invisible world. The Buddhist philosopher holds that by the
practice of the Dhyânas one may reach “the enlightened condition of mind, which
exhibits itself by immediate recognition of sacred truth, so that on opening
the Scriptures [or any books whatsoever?] their true meaning at once flashes
into the heart.” (Beal’s Catena,
p. 255.)
In dreaming, or in
somnambulism, the brain is asleep only in parts, and is called into action
through the agency of the external senses, owing to some peculiar cause; a word
pronounced, a thought, or picture lingering dormant in one of the cells of
memory, and awakened by a sudden noise, the fall of a stone, suggesting instantaneously
to this half-dreamy fancy of the sleeper walls of masonry, and so on. When one
is suddenly startled in his sleep without becoming fully awake, he does not
begin and terminate his dream with the simple noise which partially awoke him,
but often experiences in his dream a long train of events concentrated within
the brief space of time the sound occupies, and to be attributed solely to that
sound. Generally dreams are induced by the waking associations which precede
them. Some of them produce such an impression that the slightest idea in the
direction of any subject associated with a particular dream may bring its
recurrence years after.
Tartini, the famous Italian
violinist, composed his “Devil’s Sonata” under the inspiration of a dream.
During his sleep he thought the devil appeared to him and challenged him to a
trial of skill upon his own private violin, brought straight from the infernal
regions; which challenge Tartini accepted. When he awoke, the melody of the
‘‘Devil’s Sonata’’ was so vividly impressed upon his mind that he there and
then noted it down; but on getting as far as the finale all further
recollection of it was suddenly obliterated, and he had to lay aside the
incomplete piece of music. Two years later he dreamt the very same thing, and
in his dream tried to make himself recollect the finale upon awaking. The dream
was repeated owing to a blind street- musician fiddling on his instrument under
the artist’s window.
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A MODERN PANARION.
Coleridge in a like manner
composed his poem, ‘‘ Kublai—Khan,” in a dream. On awaking, he found the
now—famous lines so vividly impressed upon his mind that he wrote them down.
‘rise dream was due to the poet falling asleep in Ins chair while reading the
following words in Purchas’ Pilgrimage: “Here the Khan Kublai commanded a
palace to he built ..... enclosed within a wall.”
The popular belief, that among
the vast number of meaningless dreams there are some in which presages are
frequently given of coming events, is shared by many Well—informed persons, but
not at all by science. Yet there are numberless instances of well-attested
dreams which were verified by subsequent events, and which, therefore, may be
termed prophetic. The Greek and Latin classics teens with records of remarkable
dreams, some of which have become historical. Faith in the spiritual nature of
dreaming was as widely disseminated among the Pagan philosophers as among the
Christian fathers of the church, nor is belief in soothsaying and
interpretations of dreams (oneiromancy limited to the heathen nations of Asia,
since the Bible is full of them. This is what Eliphas Levi, the great modern
Kabalist, says of such divinations, visions and prophetic dreams, in his Dogme
et Rituel de la Haute Magie (i. 356, 357):
Somnambulism, premonitions and
second sight are but a disposition, whether accidental or habitual, to dream,
awake, or during a voluntary, self-induced, or yet natural sleep; i.e., to
perceive [and guess by intuition] the analogical reflections of the astral
light .....The paraphernalia and instruments of divinations are simply means
for [magnetic] communications between the divinator and him who consults him
they serve to fix and concentrate two wills [ in the same direction] upon the
same sign or object ; the queer, complicated, moving figures helping to collect
the reflections of the astral fluid. Thus one is enabled at times to see in the
grounds of a coffee cup, or in the clouds, in the white of an egg, etc.,
fantastic forms having their existence only in the translucid [or the seer’s
imagination]. Vision-seeing in the water is produced by the fatigue of the
dazzled optic nerve, which ends by ceding its functions to the translucid, and
calling forth a cerebral illusion, which makes the simple reflections of the
astral light appear as real images. Thus the fittest persons for thus kind of
divination are those of a nervous temperament whose sight is weak and
imagination vivid, children being the best of all adapted for it. But let no
one misinterpret the nature of the function attributed by us to imagination in
the art of divination. We see through our imagination doubtless, and that is
the natural aspect of the miracle; but we see actual and true things, and it is
in this that lies the marvel of the natural phenomenon. We appeal for
corroboration of what we say to the testimony of all the adepts.
ARE DREAMS BUT IDLE VISIONS?
————
[Vol. III. No. 4, January,
1882.]
“DREAMS are interludes which
fancy makes,” Dryden tells us—perhaps to show that even a poet will make
occasionally his muse sub-servient to sciolistic prejudice.
The instance of prevision in
dream given above [in a letter addressed to The Theosophist] is one of a series
of what may be regarded as exceptional cases in dream-life, the generality of
dreams being, indeed, but “interludes which fancy makes.” It is the policy of
materialistic, matter-of-fact science to superbly ignore such exceptions, on
the ground, perchance, that the exception confirms the rule—or, we rather
think, to avoid the embarrassing task of explaining such exceptions. Indeed, if
one single instance stubbornly refuses classification, with “strange
coincidences”—so much in favour with sceptics—then prophetic, or verified,
dreams would demand an entire remodeling of physiology; as in regard to
phrenology, the recognition and acceptance by science of prophetic dreams
(hence the recognition of the claims of theosophy and spiritualism) would, it
is contended, “carry with it a new educational, social, political, and
theological science.” Result: Science will never recognize either dreams,
spiritualism, or occultism.
Human nature is an abyss,
which physiology (and indeed modern science in general) has sounded less deeply
than some who have never heard the word physiology pronounced. Never are the
high censors of the Royal Society more perplexed than when brought face to face
with that insolvable mystery—man’s inner nature. The key to it is—man’s dual
being. It is that key that they refuse to use, well aware that if once the door
of the adytum be flung open they will be forced to drop one by one their
cherished theories and final conclusions—more than once proved to have been no
better than hobbies, starting from false or incomplete premisses. If we must
remain satisfied with the half explanations of physiology as regards
meaningless dreams, how account in such case for the numerous facts of verified
dreams?
486——————————————————————A M0DERN PANARION.
To say that man is a dual
being, that in man (to use the words of Paul) “there is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body”; and that, therefore, he must of necessity have a
double set of senses—is tantamount in the opinion of the educated sceptic to
uttering an unpardonable and most unscientific fallacy. Yet it has to be
uttered, science notwithstanding.
Man is undeniably endowed with
a double set of senses; with natural or physical senses (these to be safely
left to physiology to deal with); and with sub-natural or spiritual senses
(belonging entirely to the province of psychological science). The word “sub,”
let it be well understood, is used here in a sense diametrically opposite to
that given to it—in chemistry, for example. In our case it is a prefix, as in
“sub-tonic” or “sub-bass” in music. Indeed, as the aggregate sound of nature is
shown to be a single definite tone, a key-note vibrating from and through
eternity; having an undeniable existence per se, yet possessing an appreciable
pitch only for “the acutely fine ear”* so the definite harmony or disharmony of
man’s external nature is seen by the observant to depend wholly on the
character of the key-note struck for the outer by the inner man. It is the
spiritual Ego or Self that serves as the fundamental base, determining the tone
of the whole life of man—that most capricious, uncertain and variable of all
instruments, which more than any other needs constant tuning; it is its voice
alone, which like the sub-bass of an organ, underlies the melody of his whole
life, whether its tones are sweet or harsh, harmonious or wild, legato or
pizzicato.
Therefore, we say, man, in
addition to the physical, has also a spiritual brain. if the former is wholly
dependent for the degree of its receptivity on its own physical structure and
development, it is, on the other hand, entirely subordinate to the latter,
inasmuch as it is the spiritual Ego alone (according as it leans more towards
its two highest principles,† or towards its physical shell) that can impress
more or less vividly the outer brain with the perception of things purely
spiritual or immaterial. Hence it depends on the acuteness of the mental
feelings of the inner Ego, on the degree of spirituality of its faculties, to
transfer the impression of the scenes its semi-spiritual brain perceives, the
words it hears, and what it feels, to the sleeping physical
——————————————————————
* This tone is held by the
specialists to be the middle F of the piano.
† The sixth principle, or
spiritual soul, and the seventh—the purely spiritual principle, the Spirit or
Parabrahman, the emanation from the unconscious Absolute.
(See “Fragments of Occult Truth,” Theosophist, October, 1881.)
487————————————————————ARE
DREAMS BUT IDLE VISIONS?
brain of the outer man. The
stronger the spirituality of the faculties of the latter, the easier it will be
for the Ego to awake the sleeping hemispheres, rouse into activity the sensory
ganglia and the cerebellum, and impress the former (always in full inactivity
and rest during the deep sleep of man) with the vivid picture of the subject so
transferred. In a sensual, unspiritual man, in one whose mode of life and
animal proclivities and passions have entirely disconnected his fifth principle
or animal, astral Ego from its higher spiritual soul; as also in him whose
hard, physical labour has so worn out the material body as to render him
temporarily insensible to the voice and touch of his astral soul—in both cases
during sleep the brain remains in a com- plete state of an or full inactivity.
Such persons rarely, if ever, have any dreams at all, least of all “visions
that come to pass.” In the former, as the waking time approaches, and his sleep
becomes lighter, the mental changes as they begin to occur will constitute
dreams in which intelligence will play no part; his half-awakened brain
suggesting but pictures which are only the hazy grotesque reproductions of his
wild habits in life; while in the latter (unless strongly preoccupied with some
exceptional thought) his ever-present instinct of active habits will not permit
him to remain in that state of semi- sleep during which, as consciousness
begins to return, dreams of various kinds are seen, but will arouse him at once
without any interlude to full wakefulness. On the other hand, the more
spiritual a man, the more active his fancy, the greater is the probability of
his receiving in vision correctly the impressions conveyed to him by his
all-seeing, ever-wakeful Ego. The spiritual senses of the latter, unimpeded as
they are by the interference of the physical senses, are in direct intimacy
with his highest spiritual principle. This principle (though per se a
quasi-unconscious part of the utterly unconscious, because utterly immaterial,
Absolute*) having in itself the inherent capabilities of
——————————————————————
* To this teaching every kind
of exception will be taken by the theists and various objections raised by the
spiritualists. It is evident that we cannot be expected to give, within the
narrow limits of a short article, a full explanation of this highly abstruse
and esoteric doctrine. To say that the Absolute consciousness is “unconscious’’
of its consciousness (hence to the limited intellect of man most be ‘Absolute
Unconsciousness ‘‘) seems like speaking of a square triangle. We hope to
develop the proposition more fully in one of the forthcoming numbers of
“Fragments of Occult Truth,’’ of which we may publish a series. We will then
prove, perhaps, to the satisfaction of the non-prejudiced that the Absolute, or
thee Unconditioned, and (especially) the Unrelated, is a mere fanciful
abstraction, a fiction, unless we view it from the standpoint, and in the light
of, the more educated pantheist. To do so, we will have to regard the Absolute
merely as the aggregate of all intelligences, the totality of all existences,
incapable of manifesting itself except through the inter relationship of its
parts, as it is absolutely incognizable and non-existent outside its phenomena.
and depends entirely on its ever-correlating forces, dependent in their turn on
the One Great Law.
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A MODERN PANARION.
omniscience, omnipresence, and
omnipotence, as soon as its pure essence comes in contact with pure sublimated
and (to us) imponderable matter, imparts these attributes in a degree to the as
pure astral Ego. Hence highly spiritual persons will see visions and dreams
during sleep and even in their hours of wakefulness. These are the sensitives,
the natural-born seers, now loosely termed “spiritual mediums,” there being no
distinction made between a subjective seer, a “neurypnological” subject, and
even an adept—one who has made himself independent of his physiological
idiosyncracies and has entirely subjected the outer to the inner man. Those
less spiritually endowed will see such dreams only at rare intervals; the
accuracy of the dreams depending on the intensity of the dreamer’s feeling in
regard to the perceived object.
Thus, in this question of
verified dreams, as in so many others, modern science stands before an unsolved
problem, the insolvable nature of
which has been created by her own materialistic stubbornness, and her
time-cherished routine-policy. For, either man is a dual being, with an inner
Egos—* this Ego being the “real’’ man, distinct from, and independent of, the
outer man proportionally to the prevalency or weakness of the material body; an
Ego, the scope of whose senses stretches far beyond the limit granted to the
physical senses of man; an Ego which survives the decay of its external
covering, at least for a time, even when an evil course of life has made it
fail to achieve a perfect union with its spiritual higher Self, i.e., to blend
its individuality with it (the personality gradually fading out in each
case)—or the testimony of millions of men embracing several thousands of
years—the evidence furnished in our own century by hundreds of the most
educated men, often by the greatest lights of science—all this evidence, we
say, goes for naught. With the exception of a handful of scientific
authorities—surrounded by an eager crowd of sceptics and sciolists, who, having
never seen anything, claim, therefore, the right of denying everything—the
world stands condemned as a gigantic lunatic asylum! It has, however, a special
department in it. It is reserved for those who, having proved the soundness of
their minds, must of necessity be regarded a impostors and liars.
Has then the phenomenon of
dreams been so thoroughly studied by
——————————————————————
* Whether with one solitary
Ego, or Soul, as the spiritualists affirm, or with several—i.e., composed of
seven principles, as eastern esotericism teaches—is not the question at issue
for the present. Let us first prove by bringing our joint experience to bear,
that there is in man something beyond Büchner’s force and matter.
489———————————————————ARE DREAMS BUT IDLE VISIONS?
materialistic science, that
she has nothing more to learn, since she speaks in such authoritative tones
upon the subject? Not in the least. The phenomena of sensation and volition, of
intellect and instinct, are, of course, all manifested through the channels of
the nervous centres, the most important of which is the brain. The peculiar
substance through which these actions take place has two forms, the vesicular
and the fibrous, of which the latter is held to be simply the propagator of the
impressions sent to or from the vesicular matter. Yet while this physiological
office is distinguished, or divided by science into three kinds—the motor,
sensitive and connecting—the mysterious agency of intellect remains as
mysterious and as perplexing to the great modern physiologists as it was in the
days of Hippocrates. The scientific suggestion that there may be a fourth
series associated with the operations of thought has not helped towards solving
the problem; it has failed to shed even the slightest ray of light on the
unfathomable mystery. Nor will they ever fathom it unless our men of science
accept the hypothesis of Dual Man.
SPIRITUALISM AND OCCULT TRUTH
————
[Vol. II No. 5, February,
1882.]
The Spiritualist of Nov. 18th
takes notice of the article published in The Theosophist for October under the
heading “Fragments of Occult Truth,”
but it does not quite appreciate the objects with which that article was put
forward, and still less the importance of its contents. To make further
explanations intelligible to our own readers, however, we must first represent
The Spiritualist’s present remarks, which, under the heading of
“Speculation-Spinning,” are as follows:
The much-respected author of
the best standard text-book on Chemistry in the English language, the late
Prof. W. Allen Miller, in the course of a lecture at the Royal Institution, set
forth certain facts, but expressed an objection to make known a speculative
hypothesis which apparently explained the causes of the facts, he said that
tempting but inadequately proved hypotheses, when once implanted in the mind,
were most difficult to eradicate; they sometimes stood in the way of the
discovery of truth, they often promoted experiments in a wrong direction, and
were better out of the heads than in the heals of young students of science.
The man who prosecutes
original research must have some speculation in his head as he tries each new
experiment. Such experiments are questions put to Nature, and her replies
commonly dash to the ground one such speculation after another, but gradually
guide the investigator into the true path, and reveal the previously unknown
law, which can thenceforth be safely used in the service of man kind for all
time.
Very different is the method
of procedure among some classes of psychologists. With them a tempting and
plausible hypothesis enters the mind, but instead of considering it to be
mischievous to propagate it as possessing authority before it is verified, it
is thought clever to do so; the necessity for facts and proof is ignored, and
it may be that a church or school of thought is set up, which people-are
requested to join in order that they may fight for the new dogma. Thus unproved
speculations are forced upon the world with trumpet tongues by one class of
people, instead of being tested, and, in most eases, nipped in the bud,
according to the method of the man of science.*
The religious periodicals of
the day abound with articles consisting of nothing
——————————————————————
* We do not want to he cruel,
but where can one find ‘‘ unproved speculations ‘‘ more unproved, or that would
be nipped in the bud’’ by the man of science’’ with a more ready hand than
those that are weekly expressed in The Spiritualist?
491———————————————————SPIRITUALISM AND OCCULT TRUTH.
but speculations advanced by
the authors as truths and as things to be upheld and fought over. Rarely is the
modest statement made, “This may explain some points which are perplexing us,
but until the verity of the hypothesis has been firmly demonstrated by facts,
you must be careful not to let it rest in your mind as truth.” By “facts” we do
not necessarily mean physical facts, for there are demonstrable truths outside
the realm of physics.
The foregoing ideas have often
occurred to us while reading the pages of The Theosophist, and have been
revived by an interesting editorial article in the last number of that journal,
in which the nature of the body and spirit of man is definitely mapped out in
seven clauses.* There is not one word of attempt at proof; and the assertions
can only carry weight with those who derive their opinions from the
authoritative allegations of others, instead of upon evidence which they have
weighed and examined for themselves; and the remarkable point is that the
writer shows no signs of consciousness that any evidence is necessary. Had the
scientific method been adopted, certain facts or truths would have been made to
precede each of the seven clauses, coupled with the claim that those truths
demonstrated the assertions in the clauses, and negatived all hypotheses at
variance therewith.
Endless speculation-spinning
is a kind of mental dissipation, which does little good to the world or to the
individuals who indulge therein, and has sometimes had in Europe a slight
tendency to impart to the latter signs of Pharisaical self-consciousness of
their being advanced religionists and philosophers, living in a diviner air
than those who work to base their opinions on well-verified truths. If the speculators
recognized their responsibility and imitated the example set them by the great
and good Prof. Allen Miller, nine-tenths of their tune would be set at liberty
for doing good work in the world, the wasting of oceans of printing ink would
be avoided, and mental energy which might be devoted to high uses would no
longer run to waste. The minds of habitual dreamers and speculators may he
compared to windmills incessantly at work grinding nothing.†
Just at present there is far
too much mental speculation afloat, and far too few people putting good ideas
into practical form. Here in London, within the past year, grievous iniquities
which might have been prevented, and grievous wrongs which might have been
redressed, have abounded, and too few people have been at work ameliorating the
sorrows and the sins immediately around them.
Now we do not want to discuss
these questions with The Spiritualist in the way that rival religious sects
might debate their differences. There can be no sectarianism in truth-seeking,
and when we regard the spiritualists as seriously mistaken in many of the most
important of the conclusions to which they have come, they must certainly be
recognized as truth-seekers like ourselves. As a body, indeed, they are
entitled to all possible honour for having boldly pursued their
——————————————————————
* The Theosophist, pp. 18, 19,
October, 1881.
† Verily so. For over thirty
years have the dreamers and speculators upon the rationale of ‘‘ spiritual ‘‘
phenomena set their windmills to work night and day, and yet, hitherto, mortals
and helping Spirits have ground out for the world but—husks.
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A MODERN PANARION.
experiences to unpopular
conclusions, caring more for what presented itself to them as the truth than
for the good opinion of society at large. The world laughed at them for
thinking their communications some thing beyond fraudulent tricks of impostors,
for regarding the apparitions of their cabinets as visitors from another world.
They knew quite well that the communications in a multitude of cases were no
more frauds than they were baked potatoes, that people who called them such
were talking utter folly, and in the same way that whatever the materialized “spirits”
were, they were not in anything like all cases, even if they might be in some,
the pillows and nightgowns of a medium’s assistant. So they held on gallantly,
and reaped a reward which more than compensated them for the silly success of
ignorant outsiders, in the consciousness of being in contact with superhuman
phenomena, and in the excitement of original exploration. Nothing that has ever
been experienced in connection with such excitement by early navigators in
unknown seas, can even have been comparable to the solemn interest which
spiritual enquirers (of the cultivated kind) must have felt at first as they
pushed off in the frail canoe of medium-ship, out into the ocean of the unknown
world. And if they had realized all its perils one might almost applaud the
courage with which they set sail, as warmly as their indifference to ridicule.
But the heretics of one age sometimes become the orthodox of the next, and, so
apt is human nature to repeat its mistakes, that the heirs of the martyrs may
sometimes develop into the persecutors of a new generation. This is the
direction in which modern spiritualism is tending, and that tendency, of all
its characteristics, is the one we are chiefly concerned to protest against.
The conclusions of spiritualism, in accurate and premature as they are, are
settling into the shape of orthodox dogma; while the facts of the great
enquiry, numerous as they are, are still chaotic and confused, their collectors
insist on working them up into specific doctrines about the future state, and
they are often as intolerant of any dissent from these doctrines as the old
fashioned religionists were of them.
In fact, they have done the
very thing which The Spiritualist, with an inaptitude born of complete
misapprehension of what occult science really is, now accuses us of having
done—they have given themselves wholly over to “speculation-spinning.” It is
fairly ludicrous to find this indictment laid at our door on account of our
“Fragments.” The argument of that paper was to the effect that spiritualists
should not
493———————————————————SPIRITUALISM AND OCCULT TRUTH.
jump to conclusions, should
not weave hasty theories, on the strength of séance-room experiments. Such and
such appearances may present themselves; beware of misunderstanding them. You
may see an apparition standing before you which you know to be perfectly
genuine, that is to say, no trumpery imposture by a fraudulent medium, and it
may wear the outward semblance of a departed friend, but do not on that account
jump to the conclusion that it is the spirit of your departed friend, do not
spin speculations from the filmy threads of any such delusive fabric. Listen
first to the wisdom of the ancient philosophies in regard to such appearances,
and permit us to point out the grounds on which we deny what seems to be the
plain and natural inference from the facts. And then we proceeded to explain
what we have reason to know is the accepted theory of profound students of the
ancient philosophy. We were repeating doctrines as old as the pyramids, but The
Spiritualist not having hitherto paid attention to them, seems really to
imagine that we have thrown them off on the spur of the moment as a hypothesis,
as Figuier does with his conjectures in The Day after Death or Jules Verne with
his, in his Voyage Round the Moon. We cannot, it is true, quote any printed
edition of the ancient philosophies, and refer the reader to chapter and verse,
for an article on the seven principles; but assuredly all profound students of
mystic literature will recognize the exposition on which we ventured, as
supported, now in one way, now in another, by the cautiously obscure teaching
of occult writers. Of course, the conditions of occult study are so peculiar
that nothing is more difficult than to give one’s “authorities’’ for any
statement connected with it, but none the less is it really just as far from
being ‘‘up in a balloon’’ as any study can be. It has been explained repeatedly
that the continuity of occult knowledge amongst initiated adepts is the attribute
about it which commends their explanations—absolutely to the acceptance of
those who come to understand what initiation means, and what kind of people
adepts are. From Swedenborg onwards there have been many seers who profess to
gather their knowledge of other worlds from actual observation, but such
persons are isolated, and subject to the delusions of isolation. Any
intelligent man will have an intuitive perception of this, expressing itself in
a reluctance on his part to surrender himself entirely to the assurances of any
such clairvoyants. But in the case of regularly initiated seers it must be
remembered that we are dealing with a long—an extraordinarily long—series of
persons who, warned of the con-
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A MODERN PANARION.
fusing circumstances into
which they pass when their spiritual perceptions are trained to range beyond
material limits, are so enabled to penetrate to the actual realities of things,
and who constitute a vast organized body of seers, who check each other’s
conclusions, test each other’s discoveries and formulate their visions into a
science of spirit as precise and entirely trustworthy as, in their humble way,
are the conclusions, as far as they go, of any branch of physical science. Such
initiates are in the position, as regards spiritual knowledge, that the
regularly taught professor of a great university is in, as regards literary
knowledge, and anyone can appreciate the superior claims of instruction which
might be received from him, as compared with the crude and imperfect
instruction which might be offered by the merely self-taught man. The
initiate’s speculations, in fact, are not spun at all; they are laid out before
him by the accumulated wisdom of ages, and he has merely followed, verified and
assimilated them.
But, it may be argued, if our
statement about the teachings of this absolutely trustworthy occult science
claims to be something more than assertion and hypothesis, it is an assertion,
and, for the world at large, an hypothesis, that any such continuously—taught
body of initiates is anywhere in existence. Now, in reference to this
objection, there are two observations to be made. Firstly, that there is a
large mass of writings to be consulted on the subject and just as spiritualists
say to the outer world, “if you read the literature of spiritualism, you will
know how preposterous it is to continue denying or doubting the reality of
spiritual phenomena,” so we say to spiritualists, ‘‘if you will only read the
literature of occultism it will be very strange if you still doubt that the
continuity of initiation has been preserved.” Secondly, we may point out that
you may put the question about the existence of initiates altogether aside, and
yet find in the philosophy of occultism, as expounded by those who do labour
under the impression that they have received their teaching from competent
instructors, such inherent claims to intellectual adoption, that it will be
strange if you do not begin to respect it as an hypothesis. We do not say that
the “Fragments” given in our October number constitute a sufficiently complete
scheme of things to command conviction, in this way, on their own intrinsic
merits, but we do say that even taken by themselves they do not offend
intuitive criticism in the way that the alternative spiritual theory does. By
degrees, as we are enabled to bring out more ore from the mine which yielded
the “Fragments,” it will be found that every
495———————————————————SPIRITUALISM AND OCCULT TRUTH.
fresh idea presented for
consideration fits in with what has gone before, fortifies it, and is fortified
by it in turn. Thus, is it not worth notice that even some notes we published
in our December number in answer to enquiries about creation, help the mind to
realize the way in which, and the materials with which, the elementaries in the
one case, in the other the automatically acting Kâma Rûpa of the medium, may
fashion the materialized apparition which the spiritualist takes for the spirit
of his departed friend? It sometimes happens that a materialized spirit will
leave behind as a memento of his visit some little piece cut from his spiritual
(?) drapery. Does the spiritualist believe that the bit of muslin has come from
the region of pure spirit from which the disembodied soul descends? Certainly
no philosophically minded spiritualist would, but if as regards the drapery
such a person would admit that this is fashioned from the cosmic matter of the
universe by the will of the spirit which makes this manifest (accepting our
theory so far), does it not rationally follow that all the ‘‘material’’ of the
materialized visitor must probably be also so fashioned? And in that case, if
the will of a spirit without form can produce the particular form which the
sitter recognizes as his dead friend, does he not do this by copying the
features required from some records to which, as a spirit, he has access; and,
in that case again, is it not clear that some other spirit would equally have
that power? Mere reflection, in fact, on the principles of creation will lead
one straight to a comprehension of the utter worthlessness of resemblance in a
materialized spirit, as a proof of identity.
Again, the facts of spiritual
experience itself fortify the explanation we have given. Is it not the case
that most spiritualists of long experience—omitting the few circumstanced in
the very peculiar way that “M.A. Oxon.” is, who are not in pursuit of dead
friends at all— are always reduced sooner or later to a state of absolute
intellectual exasperation by the unprogressive character of their researches.
How is it that all these twenty years that spiritualists have been conversing
with their departed friends their knowledge of the conditions of life in the
next world is either as hazy still as the rambling imagination of a pulpit
orator, or, if precise at all, grotesquely materialistic in its so-called
spirituality? If the spirits were what the spiritualists think them, is it not
obvious that they must have made the whole situation more intelligible than it
is—for most people—whereas, if they are, what we affirm that they are really,
is it not obvious that all they could do is exactly what they have done?
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But, to conclude for the
present, surely there need be no hostility, as some spiritual writers seem to
have imagined, between the spiritualists and ourselves, merely because we bring
for their consideration a new stock of ideas—new, indeed, only as far as their
application to modern controversies is concerned, old enough as measured by the
ages that have passed over the earth since they were evolved. A gardener is not
hostile to roses because he prunes his bushes and proclaims the impropriety of
letting bad shoots spring up from below the graft. With the spiritualists,
students of occultism must always have bonds of sympathy which are unthought of
in the blatant world of earth-bound materialism and superstitious credulity.
Let them give us a hearing; let them recognize us as brother-worshippers of
truth, even though found in unexpected places. They cannot prove so oblivious
of their own traditions as to refuse audience to any new plea, because it may
disturb them in a faith they find comfortable. Surely it was not to be
comfortable that they first refused to swim with the stream in matters of
religious thought, and deserted the easy communion of respectable orthodoxy.
Will spiritualism conquer incredulity only to find itself already degraded into
a new church, sinking, so to speak, into arm chairs in its second childhood,
and no longer entitled to belief or vigorous enough for further progress? It is
not a promising sign about a religious philosophy when it looks too
comfortable, when it promises too indulgent an asylum for our speckled souls
with houris of the Mohammedan Elysium, or the all too homelike society of the
spiritualist’s “Summer-land.” We bring our friends and brethren in spiritualism
no mere feather-headed fancies, no light-spun speculation, when we offer them
some toil-won fragments of the mighty mountain of occult knowledge, at the base
of whose hardly accessible heights we have learned to estimate their
significance and appreciate their worth. Is it asked why we do not spread out
the whole scroll of this much-vaunted philosophy for their inspection at once,
and so exhibit clearly its all-sufficing coherence? That question at least will
hardly be asked by thoughtful men who realize what an all-sufficient philosophy
of the universe must be. As well might Columbus have been expected to bring
back America in his ships to Spain. “Good friends, America will not come,” he
might have said, “but it is there across the waters, and if you voyage as I
have done, and the waves do not smother you, mayhap you will find it too.”
REINCARNATION IN TIBET
—————
[Vol. III. No. 6, March,
1882.]
So little is known by
Europeans of what is going on in Tibet, and even in the more accessible Bhûtan,
that an Anglo-Indian paper—one of those which pretend to know, and certainly
discuss every imaginable subject, whether they really know anything of it or
not—has actually come out with the following scrap of valuable information:
It may not be generally known
that the Deb Râjâ of Bhütan, who died in June last, but whose decease has been
kept dark till the Present moment, probably to prevent disturbances, is our old
and successful opponent of 1864-5.
The Bhûtan Government consists
of a spiritual chief, called the Dharm Râjâ, an incarnation of Buddha [?!! ]
who never dies, and a civil ruler called the Deb Râjâ in whom is supposed to
centre all authority.
A more ignorant assertion
could hardly have been made. It may be argued that Christian writers believe
even less in Buddha’s reincarnations than the Buddhists of Ceylon, and,
therefore, trouble themselves very little whether or not they are accurate in
their statements. But in such a case, why touch the subject at all? Large sums
are annually spent by Governments to secure old Asiatic manuscripts and learn the
truth about old religions and peoples, and it is not showing respect for either
science or truth to mislead people interested in them by a flippant and
contemptuous treatment of facts.
On the authority of direct
information received at our Headquarters, we will try to give a more correct
view of the situation than has hitherto been had from books. Our informants are
firstly, some very learned Lamas; secondly, European gentleman and traveller,
who prefers not to give his name; and thirdly, a highly educated young
Chinaman, brought up in America, who has since preferred to the luxuries of
worldly life and the pleasures of western civilization, the comparative
privations of a religious and contemplative life in Tibet. Both of the
last-named gentlemen are Fellows of the Theosophical Society. A
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message from our “celestial”
brother, who never lose an opportunity of corresponding with us, has been just
received by Darjeeling.
In the present article, beyond
contradicting the queer notion of the Bhûtanese Dharma Râjâ being “a
incarnation of Buddha,” we will only point out a few absurdities, in which some
prejudiced writers have indulged.
It certainly has never been known—at
any rate in Tibet—that the spiritual chief of the Bhûtanese is “an incarnation
of Buddha, who never dies.” The Dug-pa,* or Red Caps, belong to the old
Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa
between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth
centuries. It was only after a lama came to them from Tibet in the tenth
century and converted them from the old Buddhist faith (so strongly mixed up
with the Bhon practices of the aborigines) into the Shammar sect, that the
Bhûtanese, in opposition to the reformed Gyelukpas, set up a regular system of
reincarnations. It is not Buddha, however, or Sang-gyas, as he is called by the
Tibetans, who incarnates himself in the Dharma Râjâ, but quite another
personage; one of whom we will speak about later on.
Now what do the Orientalists
know of Tibet, its civil administration, and especially its religion and its
rites? Only what they have learned from the contradictory, and in every case
imperfect, statements of a few Roman Catholic monks, and of two or three daring
lay travellers, who, ignorant of the language, could scarcely be expected to
give us even a bird’s-eye view of the country. The missionaries who introduced
themselves stealthily into Lhassa † in 1719, were suffered to remain there but
a short time and were finally forcibly expelled from Tibet. The letters of the
Jesuits Desideri, and Johann Grueber, and especially of Fra della Penna, teem
with the greatest absurdities.‡ Certainly as superstitious, and apparently far
more so than the ignorant Tibetans themselves, on whom they father every
iniquity, one has but to read these letters to recognize in them that spirit of
odium theologicum
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* The term Dug-pa in Tibet is
depreciatory. They themselves pronounce it Dog-pa, Irons from the root to
‘bind’’ (religious binders to the old faith); while the paramount sect (the
Gyeluk-pa, Yellow caps) and the people use the word in the sense of
mischief-makers, “sorcerers.” The Bhûtanese are generally called Dug-pa
throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern India.
† Out of twelve capuchin
friars who, under the leadership of Father della Penna, established a mission
at Lhassa, nine died shortly after, and only three returned home to tell the
tale. (See Tibet, by Clements R. Markham.)
‡ See Appendix to Narratives
of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet. By Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S.;
Trübner and co., London.
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IN TIBET.
felt by every Christian, and
especially Catholic missionaries for the “heathen” and their creeds; a spirit
which blinds one entirely to a sense of justice. And when could any better
opportunity have been found to ventilate their monkish ill-humour and
vindictiveness than in the matter of Tibet, the very land of mystery, mysticism
and seclusion? Beside these few prejudiced “historians,” but five other men of
Europe have ever stepped into Tibet. Of these five, Bogle, Hamilton, and Turner
penetrated no farther than its borderlands; Manning (the only European who is
known to have set his foot into Lha-ssa* died without revealing its secrets,
for reasons suspected, though never admitted, by his only surviving nephew, a
clergyman, and Csoma di Körös, never went beyond Zanskar and the lamasery of
Phäg-dal.†
The regular system of the
Lamaic incarnations of Sang-gyas, or Buddha, began with Tsong-kha-pa. This
reformer it not the incarnation of one of the five celestial Dhyâns, or
heavenly Buddhas, as is generally supposed, who are said to have been created
by Shâkya Muni after he had risen to Nirvana, but that of Amita, one of the
Chinese names for Buddha. The records preserved in the Gon-pa (lamasery) of
Tda-shi Hlum-po (pronounced in English Teshu Lumbo) show that Sang-gyas
incarnated himself in Tsong-kha-pa, in consequence of the great degradation his
doctrines had fallen into. Until then there had been no other incarnations than
those of the five celestial Buddhas and of their Bodhisattvas, each of the
former having created (read, over shadowed with his spiritual wisdom) five of
the last-named—there were, and now are in all, but thirty incarnations, five
Dhyâns and twenty-five Bodhisattvas. It was because, among many other reforms,
Tsong-kha-pa forbade necromancy (which is practised to this day with the most
disgusting rites by the Bhons, the aboigines of Tibet, with whom the Red Caps,
or Shammars, have always fraternized), that the latter resisted his authority.
This act was followed by a split between the two sects. Separating entirely
from the Gyalukpas, the Dugpas (Red Caps) from the first in a great minority,
settled in various parts
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* We speak of the present
century. It is very dubious whether the two missionaries, Huc and Gabet, ever
entered kha-ssa. The Lamas deny it.
† We are well aware that the
name is generally written Pugdal, but it is erroneous to do so. Pugdal means
nothing, and the Tibetans do not give meaningless names to their sacred
buildings. We do not know how Csoma di Koros spells it, but, as in the case of
Pho-ta-la of Lha-ssa loosely spelt Potala—the lamasery of Phag-dal derives its
name from Phag-pa (phag, eminent in holiness, buddha-like, spiritual; and pha,
man, father) the title of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva who incarnates
himself in the Dalai-Lamas of Lha-ssa. The valley of the Ganges, where Buddha
preached and lived, is also called Phag-yul, the holy, spiritual land ; the
word Phag coming from the one root; pha or pho being the corruption of Fo )or
Buddha) as the Tibetan alphabet contains no letter F.
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of Tibet, chiefly on its
borderlands, and principally in Nepaul and Bhûtan. But, while they retained a
sort of independence at the monastery of Sakya-Djong, the Tibetan residence of
their spiritual (?) chief, Gong-sso Rimbo-chay, the Bhûtanese have been from
their beginning the tributaries and vassals of the Dalai-Lamas. In his letter
to Warren Hastings in 1774, the Tda-shi Lama, who calls the Bhûtanese “a rude
and ignorant race,” whose “Deb Râjah is dependent upon the Dalai Lama,” omits
to say that they are also the tributaries of his own state, and have been so
for over three centuries and a half. The Tda-shi Lamas have always been more
powerful and more highly considered than the Dalai-Lamas. The latter are the
creation of the Tda-shi Lama, Nabang-Lob-Sang, the sixth incarnation of
Tsoug-kha-pa—himself an incarnation of Amitabha, or Buddha. This hierarchy was
regularly installed at Lha-ssa, but it originated only in the latter half of
the seventeenth century.*
In Mr. C. R. Markham’s highly
interesting work above noticed, the author has gathered every scrap of
information that had ever been brought to Europe about that terra incognita. It
contains one passage, which, to our mind, sums up in a few words the erroneous
views taken by the Orientalists of Lamaism in general, and of its system of
perpetual reincarnation especially. This passage runs as follows:
It was indeed at about the
period of Hiuen-Thsang’s journey that Buddhism first began to find its way into
Tibet, both from the direction of China and that of India; but it came in a
very different form from that in which it reached Ceylon several centuries
earlier. Traditions, metaphysical speculations, and new dogmas, had overlaid
the original Scriptures with an enormous collection of more recent revelation.
Thus Tibet received a vast body of truth, and could only assimulate a portion
for the establishment of popular belief. Since the original Scriptures had been
conveyed into Ceylon by the son of Asoka, it had been revealed to the devout
Buddhists of India that their Lord had created the five Dhyâni or celestial
Buddhas, and that each of these had created five Boddhisatwas, or beings in the
course of attaining Buddhahood. The Tibetans took firm hold of this phase of
the Buddh- istic creed, and their distinctive belief is that the Boddhisatwas
continue to remain in existence for the good of mankind by passing through a
succession of human beings from the cradle to the grave. This characteristic of
their faith was gradually
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* Says Mr. Markham in Tibet
(p. xvii. preface): “Gedun-tubpa. another great reformer, was contemporary with
Tsong-kha-pa, having been born in 1339, and dying in 1474 [having thus lived
135 years]. He built the monastery at Teshu Lumbo [Tda-shi Hium-po] in 1445,
and it was in the person of this perfect Lama, as he was called, that the
system of perpetual incarnation commenced. He was himself the incarnation of
Boddhisatwa Padma Pani, and on his death he relinqoished the attainment of
Buddhahood that he might be born again and again for the benefit of mankind.
When he died his successor was found as an infant by the possession of certain
divine marks.’’
501————————————————————REINCARNATION IN TIBET.
developed, and it was long
before it received its present form; * but the succession of incarnate
Boddhisatwas was the idea towards which the Tibetan mind tended from the first.
At the same time, as Max
Muller says:
The most important element of
the Buddhist reform has always been its social and moral code, not its
metaphysical theories. That moral code, taken by itself, is one of the most
perfect which the world has over known; and it was this blessing that the
introduction of Buddhism brought into Tibet. †
The “blessing” has remained
and spread all over the country, there being no kinder, purer-minded, more
simple or sin-fearing nation than the Tibetans, missionary-slanders
notwithstanding.‡ But yet, for all that, the popular Lamaism, when compared
with the real esoteric, or Arahat Buddhism of Tibet, offers a contrast as great
as the snow trodden along a road in the valley, to the pure and undefiled mass
which glitters on the top of a high mountain peak.§ A few of such mistaken
notions about the latter, we will now endeavour to correct as far as it is
compatible to do so.
Before it can be clearly shown
how the Bhûtanese were forcibly brought into subjection, and their Dharma Râjâ
made to accept the “incarnations” only after these had been examined into, and
recognized at Lha-ssa, we have to throw a retrospective glance at the state of
the Tibetan religion during the seven centuries which preceded the
——————————————————————
* Its “present” is its
earliest form, as we will try to show further on. A correct analysis of any
religion viewed from its popular aspect only becomes impossible—least of all
Lamaism, or esoteric Buddhism as disfigured by the untutored imaginative
fervour of the populace. There is a vaster difference between the Lamaism of
the learned classes of the clergy and the ignorant masses of their parishioners
than there is between the christianity of a Bishop Berkeley and that of a
modern Irish peasant. Hitherto Orientalists have made themselves superficially
acquainted only with the beliefs and rites of popular Buddhism in Tibet,
chiefly through the distorting glasses of missionaries, which throw out of
focus every religion but their own. The same course has been followed in
respect to sinhalese Buddhism, the missionaries having, as colonel Olcott
observes in the too brief preface to his Buddhist catechism, for many years
been taunting the sinhalese with the “puerility and absurdity of their
religion” when, in point of fact, what they talk of is not orthodox Buddhism at
all. Buddhist folklore and fairy stories are the accretions of twenty-six
centuries.
† Introduction to the Science
of Religion, p. xiv.
‡ The reader has not to
compare in Mr. Markham’s Tibet the warm, impartial and frank praises bestowed
by Bogle and Turner on the Tibetan character and moral standing and the
enthusiastic eulogies of Thomas Manning to the address of the Dalai-Lama and
his people, with the three letters of the three Jesuits in the “Appendix,” to
enable himself to form a decisive opinion, while the former three gentlemen,
impartial narrators, having no object to distort truth, hardly and sufficient
adjectives to express their satisfaction with the Tibetans, the three “men of
God” pick no better terms for the Dalai-Lamas and the Tibetans than “their
devilish God the Father,” “vindictive devils,’ “fiends who know how to
dissemble,’’ who are “cowardly, arrogant, and proud,” “dirty and immoral.”
etc., all in the same strain for the sake of truth and christian charity!
§ As Father Desideri has it in
one of his very few correct remarks about the Lamas of Tibet, “though many may
know how to read their mysterious books, not one can explain them “—an
observation by the by, which might be applied with as much justice to the
christian as to the Tibetan clergy. (see Tibet, p. 306.)
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reform. As said before, a Lama
had come to Bhûtan from Kam----that province which had always been the
stronghold and the hot-bed of the Shammar or Bhon rites*—between the ninth and
tenth centuries, and had converted them into what he called Buddhism. But in
those days, the pure religion of Shâkya Muni had already commenced degenerating
into that Lamaism, or rather fetichism, against which four centuries later
Tsong-kha-pa arose with all his might. Though three centuries had only passed
since Tibet had been converted (with the exception of a handful of Shammars and
Bhons), yet esoteric Buddhism had crept far earlier into the country. It had
begun superseding the ancient popular rites ever since the time when the
Brâhrnans of India, getting again the upper hand over Asoka’s Buddhism, were
silently preparing to oppose it, an opposition which culminated in their
finally and entirely driving the new faith out of the country. The brotherhood
or community of the ascetics known as the Byang-tsiub—the “Accom plished” and
the “Perfect”—existed before Buddhism spread in Tibet, and was known, and so
mentioned in the pre-buddhistic books of China as the fraternity of the “great
teachers of the snowy mountains.”
Buddhism was introduced into
Bod-yul in the beginning of the seventh century by a pious Chinese princess,
who had married a Tibetan king,† who was converted by her from the Bhon
religion into Buddhism, and had become since then a pillar of the faith in
Tibet, as Asoka had been nine centuries earlier in India. It was he who sent
his minister (according to European Orientalists), his own brother, the first
Lama in the country (according to Tibetan historical records) to India. This
brother minister returned ‘with the great body of truth contained in the
Buddhist canonical Scriptures; framed the Tibetan alphabet from the Devanâgari
of India, and commenced the translation of the canon from Sanskrit (which had
previously been translated from Pâli, the old language of Magadha) into the
language of the country.” (See Markham’s Tibet.) ‡
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* The Shammar sect is not, as
wrongly supposed, a kind of corrupted Buddhism, but an offshoot of the Bhon
religion, itself a degenerated remnant of the chaldæan mysteries of old, now a
religion entirely based upon necromancy, sorcery and soothsaying. The
introduction of Buddha’s name in it means nothing.
† A widely-spread tradition
tells us that after ten years of married life she renounced it, with her
husband’s consent, and in the garb of a nun (a Ghelung-ma, or Ani) she preached
Buddhism all over the country, as, several centuries earlier, the Princess
Sanghamitta, Asoka’s daughter, preached it in
‡ But what he does not say
(for none of the writers he derives his information from knew it) is that this
princess is the one who is believed to have reincarnated herself since then in
a succession of female Lamas or Rim ani— precious nuns. Durjiay Pan-mo of whom
Bogle speaks (his Tda-shi Lama’s half-sister), and the superior of the nunnery
on the Lake Yam-dog-ccho or Piate-Lake was one of such reincarnations.
503————————————————————REINCARNATION IN
Under the old rule and before
the reformation, the high Lamas were often permitted to marry, so as to
incarnate themselves in their own direct descendants—a custom which
Tsong-kha-pa abolished, strictly enjoining celibacy on the Lamas. The Lama
Enlightener of Bhûtan had a son whom he had brought with him. In this son’s
first male child born after his death, the Lama had promised the people to
reincarnate him self. About a year after the event—so goes the religious
legend—the son was blessed by his Bhûtanese wife with triplets, all the three
boys! Under this embarrassing circumstance, which would have floored any other
casuists, the Asiatic metaphysical acuteness was fully exhibited. The spirit of
the deceased Lama, the people were told, incarnated him self in all the three
boys. One had his
——————————————————————
* The builder and founder of
Tda-shi Hlum (Teshu-lumbo) called the Perfect Lama,’’ or Panchhen—the “Precious
Jewel ‘‘—from the words, Pan-chhen great teacher, and Rim_bochay priceless
jewel. While the Dalai-Lama is only Gyalba Rim-bochay, or “Gem of Kingly
Majesty,” the Tda-shi Lama of Tzi-gadze is Panchhen Rim-bochay or the Gem of
Wisdom and Learning.
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paid yearly for the
maintenance of a lamasery, with a school attached where the orphans of Red Caps
and the converted Shammars should be instructed in the “Good Doctrine” of the
Gyalukpas. That the latter must have had some secret power over the Bhûtanese,
who are among the most inimical and irreconcilable of their Red-capped enemies,
is proved by the fact that Lama Duk-pa Shab-tung was reborn at Lha-ssa, and
that to this day the reincarnated Dharma Râjâ are sent and installed at Bhûtan
by the Lha-ssa and Tzi-gadze authorities. The latter have no concern in the
administration save their spiritual authority, and leave the temporal
government entirely in the hands of the Deb-Râjâ and the four Pen-lobs, called
in Indian official papers Penlows, who in their turn are under the immediate
authority of the Lha-ssa officials.
From the above it will be
easily understood that no Dharma Râjâ was ever considered as an incarnation of
Buddha. The expression that the latter “never dies” applies but to the two
great incarnations of equal rank—the Dalai and the Tda-shi Lamas. Both are
incarnations of Buddha, though the former is generally designated as that of
Avalokiteshvara, the highest celestial Dhyân. For him who under stands the puzzling
mystery by having obtained a key to it, the Gordian knot of these successive
reincarnations is easy to untie. He knows that Avalokiteshvara and Buddha are
one as Amita-pho* (pronounced Fo) or Amita-Buddha is identical with the former.
What the mystic doctrine of the initiated Phag-pa or “saintly men” (adepts)
teaches upon this subject, is not to be revealed to the world at large.
——————————————————————
* In
THE END
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